Saturday, August 31, 1996

Whitehead steps down...no more state treasurer

By PEGGY FIKAC
Associated Press

AUSTIN - Texas Treasurer Martha Whitehead, fulfilling her ultimate campaign promise, has joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Friday marked her last day on the job and the end of the 150-year-old state Treasury, which served as a springboard to higher office for former Texas Gov. Ann Richards and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

"It is my last day, and I am the last treasurer of the state of Texas," Whitehead said.

"This action marks the first time that a statewide elected official has eliminated her own office. ... I have kept my promise to the people of Texas," she said before praising the Treasury staff for dedication and scraping her name off the glass front of the building.

Wielding the metal scraper with both hands, Whitehead removed her last name and then her first, white paint dust flecking her red suit.

"We'll let the professionals maybe take care of the rest of it," she said - but then, prompted by a television camera operator, went on to scrape off the treasurer's title, too.

Treasury operations will remain in the same office building but become the state comptroller's responsibility.

Whitehead was the state's 24th treasurer, appointed in 1993 by then-Gov. Richards after Hutchison was elected to the Senate.

Texas has boasted treasurers named Jesse James - who served in 1941-77 - and Warren G. Harding, Richards' predecessor. Richards, who said she found shoe boxes of checks sitting in Treasury after her 1982 election to the post, modernized agency operations and increased earnings.
Whitehead touted fiscal responsibility she ran for election in 1994 on the promise of eliminating the Treasury.

Voters last year approved a state constitutional amendment to abolish the agency. Its functions, including being the state's banker and investing public funds, go to Comptroller John Sharp, who advocated the merger.

The Treasury, which had 255 positions when Whitehead took office, now has 169 employees. All but Whitehead and nine others will have jobs with the comptroller, said Treasury spokesman Steve Garven. Two of the nine are retiring.

Further cuts will occur over the next several years, as computer systems are merged and duplicated services eliminated. The savings are expected to total $20 million by the turn of the century.

Some agency employees thought Friday was "a sad day, because the Treasury is going away," Garven said. "But then, a lot of people have the attitude that change is for the better."

Some employees wore T-shirts commemorating the Treasury's ending with the motto, "150 years of faithful service." Few wanted to talk.

One who agreed to do so was Christopher Moore, 28, who was getting some help packing up his desk after nine years with the agency.

"I have mixed feelings. Some people are losing their jobs ... but also, it's an opportunity for me personally to grow and to move on," said Moore, who has a job lined up in financial consulting.

Whitehead, a former Longview mayor, said she is continuing to help those seeking jobs. As for her own future, she's not making any long-term announcements yet.

"I'm going to go see (the University of) Texas beat ... Missouri," she said. "That's my near-term plan."