8/3/2019 Simmons Letter

1/2

.JEREMIAH W. (JAY) NIXON STATE CAPITOL, ROOM I 25GOVERNOR P. 0. BOX 809KELVIN l . SIMMONS

COMMISSIONERSTATE OF MISSOURI

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIONJEFFERSON Cl l l '.JEFFERSON CllY, MO 65 I 02

PHONE: (573) 751-1 85 IFAX: (573) 751 -1212

Honorable Jeremiah NixonOffice of the GovernorCapitol BuildingRoom 216Jefferson City, MO 65102

Dear Gov. Nixon:

December 19, 2011

It is with great sadness, that I offer my letter of resignation as Commissioner of Administration to beeffective Feb. 1, 2012. I will be pursuing an opportunity outside of state government.It was truly a blessed opportunity to be nominated by you on Nov. 18, 2008, to become theCommissioner of Administration. I thank you fo r having the confidence in me to become an integralpart of your administration and again serve the people of Missouri.I have enjoyed the responsibility and I have enjoyed working for a hardworking group of stateemployees like those in the Office of Administration. When I was first introduced as your nominee,"I said we would hope to improve government operating efficiency and I pledged to do more withless in leading the agency." I am proud of our effort thus far and of the many accomplishments ofour employees.

Over the last three years, we have worked with you to maintain the state's AAA Bond rating and asyou are also aware, we are only one of eight states to have this important distinction.With your leadership, we assisted in playing an integral role in working with you and the Legislatureto pass the 2010 pension reform bill in special session which will save the state more than $300million over the next five years.

1

8/3/2019 Simmons Letter

2/2

Our OA employees assisted in implementing your important vision of ensuring the citizens ofMissouri will have access to broadband throughout 95 percent of the state over the next five yearsand particularly in our rural areas. Our employees' efforts also led to receiving more than $198million in federal grants and loans to our public/private MO BroadbandNow project. This will betransformative to our state.As a state, we have had our economic and budget challenges. We have worked with you and theLegislature to ensure a balanced budget every year that included many difficult but necessarydecisions on behalf of the citizens of this great state.The employees in the Office of Administration have led the way in reducing statewide governmentoperations and becoming more efficient in many major ways. As an example, we have reduced thestate fleet of vehicles by more than 500 cars and assisted in reducing business miles driven by stateemployees by millions of miles. By doing both, we have saved millions of dollars and we are moreefficient.Our OA employees were also instrumental in helping the state save millions of dollars in rent andlease reductions whi le ensuring our state facilities reduced energy consumption by more than 5percent compared to 2008 figures at your direction.The review of key vendor contracts eliminated many annual contract escalators that also saved thestate more than $15 million.I am also happy that we improved our overall diversity hiring throughout the agency to recordlevels.To date, our OA employees and other state employees have helped set the all- time record for statecharitable giving in 2009 of more than $1.25 million, which was a significant accomplishment. Wehave generated more than $1mill ion in charitable donations in each year fo r the last three years.There are many more accomplishments that I unfortunately may not have enough space tohighlight here. This has been a truly awesome experience.Again, thank you for allowing me to be your Commissioner and may God bless the great State ofMissouri.Sincerely,(d_ .

n L.Simmonm1ss1oner

C: John Watson

2