It's not odd. Running the department means running a business with massive budgets, HR demands and business requirements along with dealing with the public.
By your reasoning, the commissioner should also be a manager of lands, state parks, enforcement, saltwater marine resources and a biologist. Tall order for one person appointed to a "serve at the pleasure of the governor" position.
The last six commissioners have all been successful businessmen and not biologists.
Should the head of IBM be a computer programmer who writes code but doesn't know squat about dealing with money or management? Nope.
Does the head of IBM sign checks... NO.. The CFO does. The exact reason we need someone running this that can fix problems rather than complete legal issues for us. Every company and state has a finance dept, legal dept, accounting dept, IT dept, etc. who all report to the HEAD.
In that case, it sounds like you MUST be a lawyer to run any company or state program. Th exact reason we are discussing this now. Too many lawyers with their noses where they don't belong!
