Governor Douglas’s former spokesman and current commissioner of Forests, Parks and Recreation is leaving his post to run for Secretary of State. He’ll face Republican Chris Roy in the Republican primary and will face either Charles Merriman or Jim Condos on the Democratic side, depending on the results of that primary.

Following is the email that went to the department:

From: Gibbs, Jason

Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:19 PM

To: ANR – FPR

Subject: Moving on…

Importance: Low

Dear Colleague:

As the legislative session draws to a close, I write to notify you that I will be stepping down as commissioner effective May 14th to pursue other options.  

Above all else, I want to thank you for your extraordinary professionalism, hard work and resilience during a tumultuous time.  Working with, and learning from, each of you has been an amazing experience for which I will always be grateful.  My admiration for FPR and its important work will never fade and you can count on me to be an advocate for the department in the years ahead.

Together, we’ve overcome historic challenges.  We focused our entire organization on actions that would help generate economic activity, increase (and diversify) our revenue base and reduce our reliance on tax dollars.  We resolved to be agile and innovative-constantly evaluating changes in our environment-always adapting in ways that maximize our productivity and the value of every dollar that taxpayers invest in us.

To be sure, it hasn’t been all peaches and cream.

Continued below the fold.

 Our progress wasn’t easy, without difficult decisions or the need for each of us to shoulder more responsibility.  Nevertheless, you rose to the challenge and embraced the opportunity to prove that a government agency is capable of being nimble, innovative, less costly, more productive, and a true partner to private sector economic activity.  I could not be more proud of this organization.

Because of your hard work, both the legislative and executive branches regard FPR as a model for other areas of government and are poised to provide us with a level of operational flexibility-and budgetary stability- over the next two fiscal years that is truly unprecedented and does not, in any way, deviate from our core public service and natural resource functions.  In fact, this flexibility and stability is critical to preserving these important functions and our current staffing levels.

As FPR moves forward, our state continues to face serious challenges.  We need to rethink, revitalize and reform policies and systems at every level of government, until we are satisfied that they are the best, most efficient, most productive and most valuable policies we can put in place. But because of our efforts, FPR is among the best positioned, and the best prepared, to succeed in this era of change.  

Over the next few weeks, my focus will be on wrapping up our legislative priorities and tying up various loose ends.  And, when a replacement has been selected by the Governor and Secretary, I will work to ensure a seamless transition.

As always, please feel free to contact me for any reason.  My personal contact information is below.

I wish you all the very best for a bright and productive future-please do stay in touch!

Sincerely,

Jason