Amanda Holland is acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Governor’s Office announced today. She fills the position vacated with the departure of former OMB Director Donna Arduin.
Holland is OMB’s management director and the press release from the Governor’s Office makes it clear this is a temporary post while Gov. Michael Dunleavy looks for a permanent replacement. Holland will be help lead the Administration launch the 2021 budget proposal, due to the Alaska Legislature on Dec. 15.
“While we look to fill this role on a permanent basis, I’m excited to have Amanda Holland step in as Acting OMB Director,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “Not only does she bring years of knowledge and management experience to the table, she is well-suited to lead OMB and our departments in building out the FY21 budget.”
Holland has served as division operations manager at the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. She was also acting deputy commissioner for the better part of a year and has over 25 years of State of Alaska service.
On Sept. 16, 2019 Donna Arduin transitioned from Director of the Office of Management and Budget to the position of advisor to assist in the development and implementation of performance-based budgeting processes and program prioritization methods for state departments.
Arduin was set to leave state employment on Oct. 1 during this transition, but her departure date has been extended while she and the Administration work through details of her contract to serve as budget advisor to the governor.
Hopefully, Amanda Holland will continue the great efforts by Donna Arduin in discovering waste and inefficiencies within the State of AK. AND, hopefully The Guv (with Holland and her Team within the OMB) continues to drive the worthwhile endeavor of ‘right-sizing’ the overall State of AK system as it’s vitally important.
Given the ‘snakes’ The Guv has to deal with, next year it would be wise to cut 25% across the board in all Departments (except for the DOT).
It is disappointing to see Ms. Arduin depart after just ten months on the job. She had some good ideas, specifically that reform of Alaska’s spending addiction cannot be accomplished with across-the-board incremental cuts. The proposed cuts to Medicaid, the UA, educational funding and ferry system focused on down-sizing the budget by taking on expensive programs that were and are vastly out of line with what other, “normal,” states do for citizens. I hope the Governor has tasked Ms. Holland to continue down the road of budgetary courage.
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