Fired state finance commissioner hopes to stay in banking

Twenty-eight years of service at the Missouri Division of Finance ended abruptly for Eric McClure earlier this month when Gov. Jay Nixon sacked 150 state employees.

McClure, a Springfield-area resident who has been the state's finance commissioner for six years, said he was one of 600 employees asked to reapply for the post, but he never expected he'd lose his job.

"I was the epitome of fat, dumb and happy," said McClure, who was appointed to the commissioner post by Democratic Gov. Bob Holden in January 2003. "I didn't see it coming at all."

McClure said he received a form letter notifying him of his firing the Wednesday before Nixon's inauguration Jan. 12. The letter instructed him to have his office cleared about by noon on Inauguration Day, but gave no further explanation for his termination.

Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti has not returned Springfield Business Journal's calls seeking comment. For the time being, Deputy Finance Commissioner Rich Weaver is serving as acting commissioner.

"They're going to keep rolling just fine without me," McClure said. "I will totally support whoever gets my job."

McClure, who was planning on retiring this summer, said he's exploring employment opportunities in the local banking community or becoming a financial industry consultant.

"I don't want to jinx myself by saying who I've talked to, but I'd like to get a job with a bank," he said. "I very much want to stay involved with the banking industry. I very well want to support it and do anything I can to help out our community banks."

Prior to serving as finance commissioner, McClure was appointed acting commissioner by former Gov. Mel Carnahan in 1999. The Lebanon native started his career with the division as a bank examiner in the St. Louis area in 1980. After six years, he then transferred to the division's Springfield office, where he became district supervisor. McClure was named deputy finance commissioner in fall 1998, at which time he began working in Jefferson City.

McClure said division employees work diligently to maintain the financial health of state-chartered banks and trust companies, which now number 293.

"I'm most proud of having a safe and sound banking system," he said. "There's so much that goes on behind the scenes that nobody ever knows about. But banks do get into trouble at times, and we successfully worked so many banks out of problem-type situations."

McClure graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1980 with a degree in banking and finance. He and his family live east of Springfield.