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TALLAHASSEE - The communications expert hired a year ago to oversee House Speaker Johnnie Byrd's public relations operation is leaving to take a lower-paying state job.
House communications director Todd Reid will be a project manager for a new accounting system being developed by Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.
Reid held various posts for Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, the Virginia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee before joining Byrd's staff last year at a salary of $92,000 a year.
Reid supervised a 13-member staff, the largest of any speaker in state history.
In an Oct. 15 resignation letter, Reid ticked off the communications office's work in 2003: 751 columns and messages, 528 sets of talking points and speeches, 591 television and radio clips, 984 press releases and more than 608,000 pieces of mail.
House Democrats and some Senate Republicans criticized Byrd's public relations office as a waste of money and a way to raise Byrd's profile as he runs for U.S. Senate.
Reid starts his new job Nov. 3 in the Department of Financial Services at a salary of $80,000, a Gallagher spokeswoman said. Reid did not respond to requests for comment.