Stewart Named to Head Health, Welfare Unit

              Will Take Office May 1 4-11-74
Stewart Named to Head
Health, Welfare Unit
BATON ROUGE (AP)
— Dr. William H. Stewart, a
former U.S. surgeon general,
has been assigned the task of
heading Louisiana's massive
health and welfare agency.
Stewart, 53, was named
Wednesday by Gov. Edwin
Edwards to succeed Dr.
Charles Mary, 37, who is
resigning after a little over a
year on the job.
Mary was the first state
health czar under Edwards'
plan to consolidate various
health and welfare agencies
under one chief. He had said
all along that he did not intend
to hold the job long and said in
his resignation that he wanted
to return to private practice
and spend more time with his
family.
In a further effort to speed
up consolidation, Edwards
said Stewart will move the
headquarters of the umbrella
agency from New Orleans to
Baton Rouge when he takes
over May 1 "to provide for a
neater and more effective
administrative practice."
"This is an enormous under-taking
but I think it is possible
to bring together health and
social welfare agencies
because they both have these
common denominators of
serving people in need.
No Promises
"I recognize the difficulty of
taking organizations that have'
been there for a long time and
trying to put them together
into something which will
have vitality and accomplish
its mission," he added. "We'll
certainly give it a good try. I
won't make any promises."
Stewart's salary will be
$50,000 a year with a state car
furnished. Edwards noted that
Stewart is making $47,750 in
his current post as chancellor
of the Louisiana State
University School of Medicine
and also gets "a rather well
furnished home which he will
have to give up."
Edwards also announced at
the news conference that H.
K. Sweeney is being elevated
from finance director to
deputy director of the
umbrella agency and that Ben
J e f f e r s , an Edwards
executive assistant, will fill
Sweeney's post.
The governor said Jeffers,
who will make $30,000 a year
in his new post, will be the
highest ranking black in his
administration in terms of
salary and responsibility.
Mary had been embroiled in
a protracted battle with the
Family Health Foundation of
New Orleans before his resig-nation
and often appeared to
te at odds with Edwards over
how to treat the foundation.
The c o n t r o v e r s y
surrounding the private
family planning foundation
came to a head last month
when a federal grand jury
indicted the foundation and
several of its top officials in
connection with the alleged
mishandling of funds.
Family Health has been
providing family planning
services to the state's poor on
a contract basis but Mary has
refused to continue that
contract.
Edwards said he did not dis-cuss
the Family Health situ-ation
with Stewart before ap-pointing
him since he viewed
it as just one of the many
Dr. William Stewart, chancellor of the LSU School of
Medicine, was named Wednesday to head the State
Health and Social and Rehabilitation Services Ad-ministration
by Gov. Edwin Edwards, right. (AP
Wirephoto)
problems Stewart will have to
deal with.
Stewart said he has no pre-conceived
notions on whether
to continue the state's dealing
with Family Health but said
he and Edwards agreed that
the state should see that some
type family planning services
are continued.
On other topics at the news
conference Edwards:
— Reaffirmed his confidence
that voters will approve a new
state constitution at an April
20 election. He said criticism
of the property tax portion of.
the document by the Public
Affairs Research Council has
actually enhanced its chances
of passage.
— Said a misunderstanding
led to Legislative Auditor Joe
Burris being denied access to
Family Health Foundation
records to determine the
organization's assets and
liabilities. Edwards said he
had asked Burris to take
another look at the books but
neglected to inform founda-tion
officials. "He just showed
up and they didn't know what
was going on," he said. The
governor said the matter has
been straightened out with the
foundation agreeing to let
Burris inspect the books
again.
— Declared that "no one in
state government solicited
funds from wild life and fish-eries
agents" to support the
campaign for the new con-stitution.
Edwards said about
200 agents met voluntarily
last week and decided to
contribute $5 each because it
was in their interest to see the
new constitution passed.
— Vowed not to push forplac-ing
a sales tax on newspaper
advertising because "taxation
is not a suitable vehicle for
vindictiveness." Edwards has
been critical of several
newspapers for opposing
passage of the proposed
constitution in their editorials.