Kit's Cleanup

When Christopher ("Kit") Bond, a lawyer from Mexico, Mo., took office last year as his state's first Republican Governor since 1940, leaders of both parties anticipated stormy sessions between him and the heavily Democratic legislature. Bond, now 35, is not only the youngest U.S. Governor but also among the most inexperienced, having won elective office only once before, as state auditor. The salvos came early and fast at the reform-minded Governor, primarily over an issue that is one of the hottest facing state governments. The issue: reorganization of the morass of committees, agencies, boards and departments that set state policy. Bond is streamlining Missouri's government --but not without a fight. As he puts it:

"We are coming out of the Dark Ages."

Missouri's sprawling state bureaucracy consists of 87 departments and commissions that have grown up, layer upon layer, under the long Democratic rule. Instead of ousting faithful bureaucrats held over from previous administrations, many Governors simply created new agencies for their supporters.

There is a board of barber examiners, a board of embalmers and funeral directors, a board of cosmetology, as well as both a savings and loan commission and a division of savings and loans supervision and seven often overlapping agencies that deal with clean water. When members of the redundant committees would go to Washington to plead for appropriations or testify on bills, they sometimes presented opposing testimony. "We had no clout in Washington because the Federal Government didn't know what the hell Missouri wanted," says Bond.

Incompetence persisted. As state auditor, Bond found that the books for the county encompassing the capital of Jefferson City had not been audited for 23 years. The department of revenue had failed to collect at least $6 million in unpaid taxes because it had not bothered to pursue tax dodgers. Of the 125 members of the state auditing staff, only ten had college degrees and only one was a certified public accountant. The legislative liaison officer at the department of community affairs was, curiously, a bartender.

By 1969, the abuses were so flagrant that Governor Warren Hearnes appointed a commission to draw up re-organizational proposals. Eventually, the legislature drafted a constitutional amendment, which was supported by Missouri voters in a referendum. In January of 1973, after Hearnes had concluded the two terms permitted by Missouri law, Bond urged the legislature to take the last step and enact a specific reorganization law. Almost a year later, after a series of struggles between Bond and the legislature, both houses passed a bill acceptable to the Governor. Beginning in July, the state's agencies will be consolidated into 13 departments.

Bond is combing the nation to recruit top aides. As budget director, he signed up an expert from the Office of Management and Budget in Washington. For the first time that anyone can remember, the head of the accounting division in the office of administration is a CPA. The new chief of the office of administration, Robert James, a former management consultant, is computerizing employee records and the previous year's expenditures--detailed accounts of which have never been kept. Bond has asked Missouri companies to "lend" executives for up to six months to study state administration and make recommendations; so far 41 executives have volunteered.

Many Missouri politicians are responding cautiously to the Governor.

Republicans, hungry from the lean years, criticize his appointments of Democrats to some key agencies. Democrats complain that he has isolated himself from the legislature. The Governor, however, remains unperturbed, banking on his ability to satisfy both parties in the tradition of Missouri Compromise.

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