Last week, the Green Mountain Care Board voted 4 to 1 to reluctantly end its hunt for a PR professional just one week after it began. The decision came on the heels of intense criticism from Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who helped establish the board.

This isn’t the first time Shumlin has gotten in the way of a state agency hiring a public relations practitioner. Recently, the agencies of Natural Resources and Commerce were each seeking PR professionals and the governor nixed both postings.

Shumlin said:

“As governor I do have a responsibility to let people know when we're making a mistake with taxpayer dollars, whether it's money I control or money I don't. And I want to make very clear that we shouldn't use taxpayer dollars to hire public relations people.”

This story and that quote caused me to stop in my tracks.

As a 15-year career PR professional, I know all too well the pains of educating those around us about this industry. But for a politician—someone who’s in the public eye every day on a statewide level—to not understand the value of a trained communicator is laughable.

With government scrutiny at an all-time high, and voter turnout at an all-time low, it’s high time someone evaluated the issue, got to the core of what’s going on in the minds of Americans, and developed a plan for helping to reshape that perception.

It’s the perfect job for someone in, say, public relations.

Kim Allen is a managing partner at Dixon Schwabl in Rochester, New York. A version of this story first appeared on the company’s blog.

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