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July 25, 2001

   
   
Former Public Servant Lithgow Misses the People
   
Journal Staff Report
    Clarence V. Lithgow has served, in approximate order, as:
    Santa Fe city councilor, president of the New Mexico Municipal League, Public Service Commission member, chief fiscal officer of the state Health and Social Services Department, director of the Local Government Division of the state Finance and Administration Department, secretary of the General Services Department, general manager of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and chief administrative officer for Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz.
    "I miss it," says Lithgow, who retired from public service in 1990. "I enjoyed doing that. I miss especially the people."
    Lithgow, 63, says he's considering a return to public life. He might run for mayor of Santa Fe.
    Clarence "Porky" Lithgow was in the news for about 25 years, not always as an agency spokesman. There were public disputes with state and city auditors, and his breach of promise suit against developers whose project Lithgow supported while on the Santa Fe council.
    His relationship with the developers was not disclosed when the council voted against the developers' competitor, according to news reports at the time of the lawsuit.
    "I never did any work for them after I got on the City Council," Lithgow says now, adding that he won a default judgment against two of the men, and settled with the third.
    As for his nickname, that was explained in news accounts, too: As a toddler he got lost and when a police officer asked his name, all he could say was "pork and beans."
    Lithgow went back to Santa Fe in 1990 to take care of his mother. After she died, he says, he got "kind of bored with not doing anything," and looked for something in which age doesn't matter. He chose real estate, which worked out fine except that it was "interfering with my retirement," so now he works mostly with relatives and friends.
    Santa Fe city government has "changed drastically" since the 1970s, he says. "Any more it seems like whoever screams the loudest is the one who gets what they want. I don't feel there is any leadership there. I don't feel councilors are looking at the large scale, toward doing what's right for the city."
   
    PHOTO BY: MIKE STEWART/JOURNAL
    THE OTHER PORKY: Longtime government official Clarence "Porky" Lithgow gets his nickname from a childhood incident, not the cartoon character.