Only several weeks since settling into the governor’s mansion, an initiative by Jim Doyle has encountered a roadblock.

Since replacing five University of Wisconsin System regents with his own appointments last Monday, two have refused to vacate their posts.

Previous sessions of the state Congress had not confirmed the five former regents, all appointed by former Republican governors Tommy Thompson or Scott McCallum, which allowed Doyle to withdraw the nominations. Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, held up the approval process of these regents.

“My belief is that if the process had proceeded the way it was designed to, there would be no appointments to be made,” said Gerald Randall, one of the regents being replaced by Doyle. “The Senate Education Committee had acted and unanimously recommended a Senate vote for confirmation.”

The new appointees to the board are Mark Bradley, a Wausau attorney; Peggy Rosenzweig, a former State Senator; Jesus Salas, a bilingual teacher taught at UW-Milwaukee, UW-Madison and Milwaukee Area Technical College; David Walsh, a partner at the Madison law firm of Foley and Lardner, and Danae Davis, the director of staffing and diversity at Miller Brewing Company. All five new appointees are products of the UW System.

“These are five highly-qualified and talented individuals who will bring a breadth of experience to the board,” Doyle said. “I didn’t find anything objectionable about anyone I’m replacing. But I think there are a lot of great people who can help the university, and I decided to make the change.”

After Doyle exercised his prerogative to appoint new regents, two of the old regents, Randall and Alfred De Simone, said they would not leave the board until their appointed replacements had been approved by the Congress.

These two do not have to resign until their replacements have been approved, because they had been confirmed previously and were waiting for confirmations of their second terms.

When discussing his decision to fight Doyle’s move, Randall said his record and passion as a member of the board spoke for themselves. He said he had not had any contact with De Simone or any member of the Republican leadership.

“At this point, to just walk away from the work I’ve dedicated myself to would be unreasonable,” Randall said.

The other deposed regents, James Klauser, Lolita Schneiders and Phyllis Krutsch, cannot protest in similar fashion because they were waiting confirmations that were not for second consecutive terms.

Current Senate Majority Leader Mary Panze, R-West Bend, has not yet commented on the timetable for approving Doyle’s replacements. Randall and De Simone could stay on the board indefinitely if Panzer decided to hold up the approval of Doyle’s appointees in the same fashion Chvala held up approval of appointments made by McCallum and Thompson.

Doyle asked current regent Jay Smith to continue to serve on the board until a replacement is announced. Smith played an important role in recent board actions, bringing experience to the board while it was trying to deal with budget cuts; however, Doyle said board membership should not be based upon seniority.

“The Board of Regents is not about seniority; it’s about doing what’s best for the university,” Doyle said.

Regent president Guy Gottschalk agreed the board is not about seniority but said at times it could be about experience.

“It’s the governor’s prerogative. I respect that. We will try to assimilate the new appointees,” Gottschalk said. “The only way to get experience is to get going.”

Gottschalk said working with new regents in the mist of such pressing issues would be difficult, but that it would not be an insurmountable experience.

Regent Schneiders agreed and said it took a long time to learn the intricacies of the system.

“It takes a couple of years to grasp how vast the system is,” she said.

Schneiders said a few years experience was especially important in regards to working with the budget issue and that she thinks Doyle might want to utilize Smith’s experience on the budget issues before finding a replacement.