Sandoval retains three state agency heads

CARSON CITY -- Three veteran state agency heads agreed Monday to remain in their current positions with the administration of Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval.

Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden, Transportation Director Susan Martinovich and Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Director Larry Mosley will remain with the Sandoval administration.

In addition, Sandoval's campaign communications director, Mary-Sarah Kinner, will be the press secretary for the administration.

And Ann Wilkinson, now senior assistant city attorney for the city of Henderson, will become Sandoval's deputy chief of staff. She served as assistant attorney general under then Attorney General Sandoval in 2002-05.

"These three departments will be critical to the future of our state, and I'm pleased to provide continuity by asking Susan, Larry and Mike to join my team," said Sandoval in a statement. "They share my vision for where Nevada needs to head."

He said Kinner shares his belief that "providing information to the public will help restore their confidence in state government." Before joining Sandoval, Kinner was deputy press secretary for Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., on the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

Last week Sandoval announced that Budget Director Andrew Clinger had agreed to stay on. Clinger has been a state employee since 1997 and budget director since 2005. Caleb Cage also will stay on as director of Veterans Services.

Traditionally, more than half of the state administrators have stayed on with the next administrations. Sandoval is interviewing all existing administrators. He has not yet announced his appointment for two key agencies, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Business and Industry.

Wilkinson has had a long career in the public and private sectors in both Northern and Southern Nevada and will "be an asset," Sandoval said.

Willden heads the largest state agency, outside of education, and has been health and human services director since 2001. His department runs social services agencies, including Medicaid, welfare and the food stamp program.

Before his appointment in 2001 by then Gov. Kenny Guinn, Willden had been state welfare administrator.

Martinovich has worked for the Transportation Department for more than 26 years. She is an engineer who was appointed director in 2007 by Gov. Jim Gibbons. She recently was elected president of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials. She is the first woman in that post.

Mosley was appointed by Gibbons in July 2007 as director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. Before then, he had been director of diversity for the College of Southern Nevada.