Some big news came out of the Governor’s office this week, so we’ll hold on continuing our string of “Things We Liked about the Fair” to speculate on the appointment of a new director. If you haven’t heard, Tom Ryan is departing, no reason announced.

The follow-up is the subsequent resignation of Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Darrel Aubertine. Thus the Fair’s two top administrators will be new entering the 2014 edition.

The Hound doesn’t find much reason to be alarmed by this development. Ryan wasn’t around long enough for us to get to know him and he went out of his way to be enigmatic ( See our Sep. 1 post, “The Phantom Director“) and Aubertine reminds us of a classic political appointee.

The Post-Standard reported that Cuomo expressed support for the idea of bringing in an experienced pro to direct. Good idea—what took him so long? Syracuse residents may view the search committee with some skepticism considering it’s being chaired by former mayor Matt Driscoll.

But in the interest of seeing growth and improvement at the Fair, we offer one suggestion. Give serious consideration to promoting from within as current assistant director Troy Waffner has demonstrated vision and leadership. Waffner has been around for a few years now and he knows the ropes.

He has been willing to listen to opinions and ideas from the public, something any director should do. This year he even did some of the media interviews one would expect of a director, while Ryan hid in his office. There will no doubt be other qualified candidates, but at least give Waffner a look, presuming he wants the job.

More on the director search later.