Gov.-elect Charlie Baker. Mike Deehan/SHNS photo

Tasked with ensuring that a new governor gets started on the right foot, transition teams have it tough. Between Election Day and the inauguration, team members huddle regularly to help inform the staffing choices and policy goals for the incoming governor – all while maintaining a semblance of normalcy in their lives during the already-hectic holiday season.

“Our mission between November and January was to put in place the senior leadership of a $30 billion operation in 60 days. It is at once impossible and unavoidable,” said John Walsh, an architect of Gov. Deval Patrick’s 2007 transition into the corner office and executive director of Patrick’s TogetherPAC.

The transition team for Gov.-elect Charlie Baker comprises more than 170 people who have been appointed to six committees that are dealing with everything, from staffing to health care, jobs, education, and whatever else needs attention. Many are alums of former transitions, including Baker, who served on Mitt Romney’s and Paul Cellucci’s transition teams, as well as Bill Weld’s outgoing operation.

“What you really want to do is try to put together a manageable group with a manageable process that cuts across enough points of view that you can learn something that would be useful and helpful early in an administration, and also kick the tires on what some people think would the the hot button and key issues,” Baker told the Reporter on Tuesday. “The hard part is how big is that and how many times does it meet and how many people can you put in a room before it starts to get nuts.”

Baker said that many of the faces on his team are those he and incoming Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito encountered on the campaign trail, which suggests the reason behind the respectable Dorchester and Mattapan representation in the process. “A lot of the people who are part of the transition that we thought had something interesting to say to us when we were campaigning so it shouldn’t be that surprising that a lot of them are represented on the transition teams,” Baker said.

Of the five Dorchester and one Mattapan residents of the team, Baker said he met four on the trail: education committee members Mark Culliton of College Bound Dorchester and Barbara Fields, a former teacher; better government committee member Valerie Roberson of Roxbury Community College; and community committee member Justin “Bing” Broderick of Haley House. Kevin Mullen, a self-employed attorney, whom Baker knows from their days at the Tremont Credit Union, is also on the community committee. Bill Walczak, who has known Baker since he worked at the Department of Health and Human Services in the ‘90s, is on the health committee.

No members of the transition team have been authorized to comment on the inner workings of their negotiations, but Walczak spoke broadly about the concerns facing the state, as well as his experience as a member of Patrick’s transition team in 2006. “The issues are readily apparent” for the health team, he said. “There are issues around access to care, financing, substance abuse, and behavioral healthcare. These are all what’s been on the front page of the newspapers for years now.”

Walczak, a Democrat, is hopeful good will come out of the transition process. Baker has not been shy about appointing a number of Democrats to his transition team, a move he defends and others support. “I believe that Charlie certainly has the intent of making the health care system operate even more efficiently and better for the people that live here,” said Walczak. “Health care is a huge part of the economy and being able to get some control and make sense out of the system is going to be very beneficial.”

Despite a hard fight against Baker and Polito, Democrats are largely supportive of Baker’s post-Election Day actions, said John Walsh. “What’s important, I think and I believe and I hope is that everyone on Patrick’s team is bending over backward to make the transition as smooth and transparent as possible because we all have a stake in the new governor succeeding. Nothing about this short period of time is final,” he added. “But because of the nature of the budget requirements, people will read a lot into who is and who’s not. It’s the unfair pressures that the transition also has to deal with.”

Although Inauguration Day is still three weeks away, Walsh said there is one other thing that the Baker folks need to watch as Jan. 8 approaches: the weather forecast. “One thing that we were conscious of was, ‘When’s your first blizzard?’ When the salt trucks roll the first time, you start being held accountable for the things you can’t control.”