January 24, 2012 06:37 PM UTC

Greener Pastures for Wil Alston

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• by: Colorado Pols

Wil Alston, who mounted an unsuccessful 2011 campaign for City Council in District 8, is stepping down from his role as communications director for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.

That’s the latest word from the Denver newspaper, at least. Alston will instead handle communications in a newly created position at the Denver Department of Finance under the leadership of Denver’s CFO Cary Kennedy.

Alston told the Denver paper that he wanted to “do something with a more strategic focus” – whatever that means.

We doubt that Alston will have half the strategic impact in the Department of Finance as he did in the Mayor’s office. But it’s because his new title will have fewer responsibilities that we suspect Alston is ultimately taking the cut in influence and pay.

Alston made several critical mistakes in shepherding the Mayor’s underlying communications strategy, ranging from rumored clashes with Evan Dreyer to the much maligned (and immediately reversed) decision to ban recording devices from background briefings. Not to mention the implementation of a communications strategy designed to garner Hancock a national profile.

These mistakes made it clear that Alston wasn’t prepared to handle communications for what is arguably the most high-profile elected position in Colorado. Whether Alston, Hancock, or Chief-of-Staff Janice Sinden came to that realization is immaterial – Alston was in over his head.

That Alston is instead landing in a newly-created (and still relatively well-paid) position somewhere else in city government is testament to the strong relationship he has with Hancock. If Alston wasn’t stepping down either on his own accord or on the best of terms, we doubt he’d have had a position created especially for him. That’s not to say friendship blurred Hancock’s vision: Alston’s a talented communicator and even if he lacked the leadership to run an entire communications shop on his own, he’ll likely still be incredibly valuable as an advisor.

A search for a new communications director is underway. It’ll be interesting to see whether Alston’s successor will also be Alston’s boss – all communications coming from the Department of Finance, we presume, will likely be crafted in part by the Mayor’s office.

Until then, hopefully Alston will work to make sure Hancock’s economic policy initiatives sound a little less like investor brochures.