House Hopes to Clean Up Image by Appointing Administrator

House leaders, seeking to improve the image of their institution following a year of scandals, on Friday named a professional administrator for all of the chamber’s non-legislative functions.

The new administrator, retired Lt. Gen. Leonard P. Wishart III, will oversee issuing lawmakers’ paychecks; replacing the House Bank, which produced the year’s biggest political imbroglio; and will control most postal operations, in place of the internal post office that became enmeshed in controversy.

Wishart also will control the House restaurant system and the network of office computers.

All House employees under Wishart’s jurisdiction will be hired “on the basis of competence, not political patronage,” House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) said in a joint statement.

The administrator will handle many functions previously performed by politically appointed House officers. The post was established by a bill that lawmakers passed this year following the scandals.

Foley and Michel had since been interviewing administrator candidates in an effort to find one they could agree on.

Wishart, 58, is a West Point graduate whose most recent military post was deputy commander of the Army’s training center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.

Foley, Michel and Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said Wishart’s 34 years of management experience “will bring to this new position the level of expertise required by the standards that were set by the House.”

Wishart served in Vietnam in 1966-67 and commanded the 1st Infantry Division in 1986-88. He has a master’s degree in nuclear physics from the University of Virginia.