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December 20, 2004

The challenge of change | Dale McCormick steps down after eight years as state treasurer

By Michaela Cavallaro
When Dale McCormick first was elected as state treasurer in 1998, she was surprised to learn that Treasury staff had just two computers ˆ— one of which, she says, didn't work. Virtually all of the office's work, which includes managing the state's cash accounts (to the tune of 40,000 transactions each month), overseeing Maine's investments and managing Maine residents' unclaimed financial property, was done on paper. "People doing reconciliation had to make three different marks on each transaction in the ledger ˆ— one in pencil, one in red and one in green," she says. "People would literally come into my office and cry" over the immense backlog of work.

In an interview in her Augusta office as she prepared to step down from the treasurer's job after four consecutive two-year terms ˆ— the legal limit ˆ— McCormick, 57, selected as one of her largest accomplishments the transition of that outmoded system into a fully automated affair, complete with a custom-built, Web-based cash receipt program. "Now, transactions are reconciled like that," she says, snapping her fingers. "Now our time is spent on the harder ones."

In addition to other internal improvements ˆ— not least of which are the recent adoption of a formal investment strategy for the state and creation of the NextGen college savings program ˆ— McCormick has used her role as a trustee of the state retirement system, with assets of $8 billion, to pressure corporations to improve their governance practices following the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Late last year, she and a small group of fellow state treasurers and controllers founded the National Coalition on Corporate Reform; she's also lobbied the Securities and Exchange Commission on governance issues in general, as well as her latest passion: making corporations address the potential effects of climate change on shareholder value. "The argument against it is, why single out climate change risk ˆ— but it's been excluded," she says. "There's a list of other risks [corporations routinely address in SEC filings] that's as long as my arm."

McCormick, a Democrat who served in the state Senate from 1990 to 1996, will be replaced as treasurer by former state Rep. David Lemoine, a Democrat from Old Orchard Beach who was elected to the post early this month. Gov. John Baldacci has nominated McCormick to head the Maine State Housing Authority, which focuses largely on affordable housing. (McCormick has yet to be confirmed by the state Senate for the post, a formal approval that is likely to take place in January, after Lemoine takes over at Treasury.)

McCormick describes the MSHA job as a return to her roots. An Iowa native, she spent years working as a carpenter and teaching others ˆ— particularly women ˆ— how to build their own homes; in the late 1980s, she founded Women Unlimited, an Augusta nonprofit that trains women for highway construction jobs. "I like houses, and I know how important a house is to a family," she says. "And I think affordable housing is absolutely key to keeping Maine moving forward economically."

At the Treasury, McCormick relished the opportunity to combine what she describes as her "social conscience" with the policy issues she's come to love during her years in public life. It's something she looks forward to continuing at MSHA, where she plans to investigate the potential for using energy-efficient building methods, which previously have been considered too expensive for use in affordable housing. In addition, she plans to pull state labor, economic development and human services agencies into housing discussions. When asked about the challenge of implementing interdisciplinary thinking in a bureaucracy, McCormick responds, "They all know we have gotten to this place through silo thinking. Change is always a challenge."

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