.

JEREMIAH

W.
l.

(JAY) NIXON
STATE OF MISSOURI

GOVERNOR

STATE CAPITOL, ROOM I 25 P. 0. BOX 809 .JEFFERSON CllY, MO 65 I 02 PHONE: (573) 751-1 85 I FAX: (573) 751-1212

KELVIN

SIMMONS

COMMISSIONER

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION
JEFFERSON Clll'

December 19, 2011

Honorable Jeremiah Nixon Office of the Governor Capitol Building Room 216 Jefferson City, MO 65102

Dear Gov. Nixon: It is with great sadness, that I offer my letter of resignation as Commissioner of Administration to be effective 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 the Commissioner of Administration. I thank you for having the confidence in me to become an integral part 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 state employees 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 with less in leading the agency." I am proud of our effort thus far and of the many accomplishments of our employees. Over the last three years, we have worked with you to maintain the state's AAA Bond rating and as you 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 Legislature to pass the 2010 pension reform bill in special session which will save the state more than $300 million over the next five years.

Our OA employees assisted in implementing your important vision of ensuring the citizens of Missouri will have access to broadband throughout 95 percent of the state over the next five years and particularly in our rural areas. Our employees' efforts also led to receiving more than $198 million in federal grants and loans to our public/private MO BroadbandNow project. This will be transformative to our state. As a state, we have had our economic and budget challenges. We have worked with you and the Legislature to ensure a balanced budget every year that included many difficult but necessary decisions on behalf of the citizens of this great state. The employees in the Office of Administration have led the way in reducing statewide government operations and becoming more efficient in many major ways. As an example, we have reduced the state fleet of vehicles by more than 500 cars and assisted in reducing business miles driven by state employees by millions of miles. By doing both, we have saved millions of dollars and we are more efficient. Our OA employees were also instrumental in helping the state save millions of dollars in rent and lease reductions while ensuring our state facilities reduced energy consumption by more than 5 percent compared to 2008 figures at your direction. The review of key vendor contracts eliminated many annual contract escalators that also saved the state more than $15 million. I am also happy that we improved our overall diversity hiring throughout the agency to record levels. To date, our OA employees and other state employees have helped set the all- time record for state charitable giving in 2009 of more than $1.25 million, which was a significant accomplishment. We have generated more than $1million in charitable donations in each year for the last three years. There are many more accomplishments that I unfortunately may not have enough space to highlight 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 of Missouri. Sincerely,

(d_

n L.Simmon m1ss1oner C: John Watson

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