Tom “Smitty” Smith Announces Retirement

Tom Smith – known universally as “Smitty” – will today announce his retirement as director of the Texas office of Public Citizen. Smith has held the office since 1985, and at 67, he says, “My spirit’s willing, but my body is worn out.” He will remain in the job until the advocacy organization finds a suitable replacement.

Tom "Smitty" Smith, Democracy Awakening rally, May 2016 (Photo by John Anderson)

Smitty has been a prominent advocate and activist in state and local environmental, ethics, and campaign finance battles for decades, and came to the directorship after years of working to develop state food banks – he was the first director of the Houston Food Bank – and, as the development coordinator for Second Harvest, helped develop food banks across 10 Southern states. From 1982-85, before joining Public Citizen (the Texas office opened in 1984), he was a legislative aide to state Rep. Al Price, D-Beaumont. It was then, he says, he became “addicted to politics.”

As an advocate with Public Citizen, Smitty considers among his proudest accomplishments major steps in state environmental progress: promoting the development of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources, the Texas Emissions Reduction Program, and directly reducing the state’s reliance on coal by organizing statewide opposition to new coal plants. In 2009, he won the $100,000 Heinz Award for his work in bringing about "a cleaner, greener and more sustainable planet."

In recent years, Smitty has been actively involved in local solar energy advocacy as well as the lengthy campaign to close Austin Energy’s coal-fired Fayette Power Project. Under AE’s recent settlement of a rate dispute with two dozen corporate and individual stakeholders, Public Citizen and the Sierra Club won commitments from AE to phase out Fayette, to address the transitional debt costs, and to better plan for and accommodate on-site commercial production of solar energy.

Tom "Smitty" Smith in 2009 (Photo by John Anderson)

Smitty said he had begun considering retirement about a year ago, and in July, responding to his growing health concerns – “Overall I’m okay,” he said, “but as I’ve gotten older there have been several health problems” – decided it was time to step down from the persistent demands of directing the organization. He intends to remain on the job during the search for a local or national candidate to follow in his footsteps. Afterward, “I will certainly not be idle, and expect to continue doing other environmental and energy work.” He said the strategy is to let people know of his decision and give the organization time to find “the best person for the job.”

“After 30 years of watching transitions,” Smitty said, “I’ve learned that the people who come next are often better and more talented than those already in place. I believe something better will happen as a result of my going on.”

Although Austin likes to congratulate itself for its environmental progress, Smitty said, “Oftentimes the challenges of leadership are not to get smug, but to look at how far we have yet to go to really become a sustainable city.” In particular, he continued, “Our next focus really has to be on transportation policy. The good news is that the technology is there to address the problems. The bad news is that the corporate transportation industry is even tougher in opposing progress than the corporate energy industry.”

For the immediate future, Smitty said, he will continue directing Public Citizen “until we find and train a new director. While we have a number of good potential [local] candidates, we need to go beyond those we already know and look everywhere. Whoever takes on the job will need vision, and courage, and a lot strategic sense going forward.”