Staff Snapshots | Lonnie Edgar.

• Author: Edgar, Lonnie

Role: Deputy director, Mississippi Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, known as the PEER Committee. Edgar is also staff co-chair of NCSL's Standing Committees and serves on NCSL's Executive Committee and Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee.

Years of legislative service: 17

One thing he loves about his state: "Mississippi is genuinely a place where I feel like everyone knows everyone else, and that we are known as The Hospitality State' for a reason."

Why did you choose to work at the legislature?

I actually stumbled into public service by chance. I have always loved living in Mississippi, so when my previous employer informed me that my position with the company would require me to relocate to the Florida Panhandle, I knew immediately that I would need to look for other employment to continue living in my home state. I decided to look for jobs in the Jackson metro area and saw an ad in the paper (that probably dates me a bit or is a foreign concept to some) for an evaluator with the state PEER Committee. I inquired about the position and was told it required a lot of analytical skills, which I knew I possessed, but at the time I had no idea who or what the PEER Committee was or did. Roughly 17 years later, I am still here and absolutely loving my job and enjoy getting to work with the members and staff of the Mississippi Legislature to make the state a better place for everyone.

What skill or talent are you most proud of?

It's a toss-up between my analytical skills and my desire to constantly learn (if that's considered a skill or talent). The PEER Committee's mission is to "improve the economy, efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of state government through its reviews of state agency programs and issues." We are often referred to as the "legislative watchdog" by the media, and sometimes we aren't always the people that agencies are most excited to see show up (although I say this mostly in jest). Our purpose is really to see how we can make recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of state government so that we can make best use of the taxpayers' dollars. That said, it's critical to be able to go into an agency when reviewing a program (even when it's unfamiliar) and being able to analyze the information to understand how the program operates, what the program's goals and objectives are, and to ultimately make recommendations on improvements to make the program...