Another Key Schwarzenegger Aide to Leave

SACRAMENTO —  After less than a year in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a reshuffling of his top staff, with the impending resignation of yet another influential aide and maybe others.

Marybel Batjer, his Cabinet secretary who bears much of the responsibility for running the government day to day, is expected to resign by year’s end. Today, state budget chief Donna Arduin departs.

“There will be other people who have signed on for a year, or they want to leave because they want to go back to their families and all this,” Schwarzenegger told reporters in San Diego on Thursday.

“So I appreciate everyone’s work, whatever they’ve done. Because, I mean, they’ve done an extraordinary job in helping me. Remember that I only can be as good as the people around me, as you know.”

What happens next could further define an administration that at times has seemed uncertain of its core convictions. How Schwarzenegger reshapes his team for the year to come could go a long way toward resolving or deepening partisan tensions in Sacramento and within an administration that has tacked left and right -- often without a consistent ideological focus.

Batjer, Schwarzenegger’s link to the vast state bureaucracy, has told administration officials she will step down, perhaps by the end of the year. Aides to Schwarzenegger would not confirm her departure, though various state officials privately say she is leaving.

Schwarzenegger aides are interviewing possible successors. Patricia Clarey, the governor’s chief of staff, said the departures are part of the natural rhythms of government.

“It’s not like one person’s [loss makes] the whole place fall apart,” Clarey said. “Donna Arduin has 500 employees at Finance....One person doesn’t make a budget.”

Batjer has a lengthy resume, having been recruited from Nevada, where she once served as chief of staff to Gov. Kenny Guinn. She also worked in the White House for Colin Powell when he was national security advisor.

Last month she joined the board of a Nevada bank, Bank Holdings, that does business in California. The governor’s legal staff concluded that she did not run afoul of state conflict-of-interest laws.

In Sacramento, Batjer has a wide portfolio. She helped usher in Schwarzenegger’s workers’ compensation overhaul and the examination of government called the California Performance Review. She is also the conduit between Schwarzenegger and the state’s network of agencies and departments.

Schwarzenegger aides praise her efforts. At lower levels of government, however, some officials privately voice frustration with her performance, complaining that Schwarzenegger’s policy directives are not being clearly conveyed to the Cabinet. Some officials said Schwarzenegger made known his displeasure and indicated that he wanted to make changes before year’s end.

Clarey defended Batjer. She pointed to the frequency of Cabinet meetings and Schwarzenegger’s habit of summoning Cabinet members to retreats or private dinners as testament to the open and direct communication.

“I find it so ludicrous,” she said of criticism of Batjer. Clarey suggested that any grumbling may be rooted in setbacks suffered by the people complaining. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose in this game.”

Clarey added, “She’s had an unprecedented number of Cabinet meetings, where this governor has met with his Cabinet at least once a month. [Former Republican Gov. Pete] Wilson met with his Cabinet once a year.”

With the departure of Batjer and Arduin, the attention turns to who will fill these posts. The choices are especially important because the administration’s identity is still evolving.

One constant is Schwarzenegger’s view that helping business will spark job creation and hasten recovery. But when it comes to budget cuts, aid to education, gambling policy and other issues, Schwarzenegger has wavered. He showed little appetite for some of the budget cuts that his own administration initially proposed, then dropped in the face of public pressure.

The oscillations may reflect partisan splits at the highest levels. Senior aide Bonnie Reiss is a liberal Democrat and close confidant of the governor who helped craft his veto messages. Yet the aide who shapes the governor’s legislative agenda is Richard Costigan, a former lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce.

Whatever Schwarzenegger decides, he can’t afford to wait long. After the election on Nov. 2, he will begin preparing his new budget. He faces a deficit of at least $6 billion, and tax increases may be under consideration -- a step that would require the governor to backtrack on a major campaign promise.

“The more he raises taxes, the less he’s doing to please that conservative constituency,” said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. “The more he cuts programs, the less he pleases the moderates and liberals. So he can only straddle that line for so long until he runs to the end of it.”

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Times staff writer Joe Mathews in San Diego contributed to this report.