Snyder: Split DNRE; group state depts.

LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) - Gov.-elect Rick Snyder plans to put similar state departments into roughly six groups as part of a government reorganization strategy that also calls for re-separating the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality.

Speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday, he said the move brings a more effective and efficient model of organization from the private sector.

"This is a method I've done before in terms of managing organizations, and it works well," Snyder told reporters.

The DNR and DEQ will be joined in the "Quality of Life" group by a new Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Snyder said it makes sense to focus on job creation in rural areas given many of the state's highest unemployment rates are outside of metro areas.

Montcalm County, for example, has a higher unemployment rate than the Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Holland, Kalamazoo or Muskegon areas, according to state figures released Tuesday.

"We need to take this approach throughout the entire state, whether it be an urban area or a rural area, and say, 'What can we do to create more and better jobs for our citizens?' " Snyder said.

Each of the six or so groups of state departments will be headed by an executive, he said, but the executives also will serve as the head of an individual department "so there won't be a new layer of overhead."

Dan Wyant will serve as DEQ director and the executive for the Quality of Life Group, Snyder announced. Keith Creagh will head the new agriculture and rural development department and Rodney Stokes will lead the DNR.

Other group executives will include new budget director John Nixon and Snyder's pick for treasurer, Andy Dillon. The governor-elect did not identify which departments would go into those groups -- or what the other three or so groups would be.

Snyder's move to separate the DNR and DEQ comes a year after Gov. Jennifer Granholm moved to link them.

Her budget director, Bob Emerson, said the two were consolidated to save money.

"It'll cost, I think, a little more to separate them, but if that's how he thinks he wants to run government, he was elected with a pretty solid mandate and I think he ought to be allowed to try it his way," Emerson said.

24 Hour News 8 asked Snyder directly whether the move to separate the current Department of Natural Resources Environment would come with an additional cost -- or bring in savings in the longer term.

"I don't just go to cost as the main driver," the governor-elected told 24 Hour News 8. "The main driver here is better service to our citizens at the most efficient and effective cost. And I think we're going to see that through this methodology."