Daniels plans aggressive legislative agenda with leaner administration

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels said Thursday that he will run a leaner administration and is searching for "all-stars" who are loyal and enthusiastic about his reform agenda to run state government.\nDaniels said his single largest task over the next several weeks would be formalizing a legislative agenda. He said it would include many of the proposals he touted during the campaign, including the entire state observing daylight-saving time.\nHe also will be assembling a new administration, and he said those involved in it will have to meet three criteria: total integrity, commitment to the public interest and commitment to change.\n"We don't want resume builders. We don't want people just passing through, sort of on the make," Daniels said in his first lengthy talk with reporters since defeating Gov. Joe Kernan in Tuesday's election.\n"We want people who will have the gumption to really sort of change things for the better ... the change that we're interested in, that we've outlined."\nDaniels has created a Web site -- www.mygovmitch.com -- where those interested in joining his administration can register their interest and credentials. People also can use the site to nominate others or provide thoughts about problems in Indiana and suggestions on fixing them.\nDaniels said he had no "fixed ideas" about who his team will be, but had "some people in mind who I think are really all-stars, people who may not be easy to get."\n"We are going to be interested in a lot of people who probably never thought about public service," he said. They likely would include some "stellar people from the world of business and commerce" to help Fort Wayne businesswoman Patricia Miller lead economic development efforts.\nThe stricter ethics guidelines Daniels plans to put in place might require some appointees to divest their financial holdings to avoid conflicts of interest.\nDaniels, who spent an hour fielding questions from the media, said he and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman planned to spend the weekend resting up from the campaign. Daniels will then spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on a "reunion tour" of the state.\n"We just look to have some fun and revisit some of the places and the folks who were so much a part of the last 16 months," Daniels said.\nBut Daniels said his transition will move at full speed. Talks with the outgoing Kernan administration already have begun, and the Daniels team will be sending inquiries to agencies and departments in the coming days.\nBill Oesterle, who managed Daniels' campaign, will spend the next several weeks examining the state's fiscal problems and recommending ways to reduce Indiana's $830 million budget deficit.\nDaniels also is concerned about the state owing more than $710 million in back payments to schools, universities and local governments, and being able to meet future state pension liabilities.\nThe state's fiscal problems will mean acting "on the spending side of government in a vigorous way," Daniels said, and that likely would include cutting some positions.\n"I have a strong suspicion that we'll be operating state government with fewer people, certainly at the upper level," he said.\nOn other matters, Daniels said:\n• He had talked to Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who served as governor from 1989 to 1997, about some of the duties and challenges of being governor.\n• He had not made any plans for an inaugural celebration, but suggested it would be fun and more informal than some in the past. "We will not be renting tuxedoes," he said.\n• He and his wife, Cheri, would spend at least part of the time living in the governor's residence. "We'll live there, but just as every other governor we'll have another residence and we'll divide our time somehow"