John Turcotte

Erin Sydney Turcotte and Leigh-Anne Boland (2007)

Leigh-Anne and Todd Boland

Todd, Leigh-Anne, Terry, John, and Erin Sydney

I attended Millsaps College for two years then transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi where I received BA and MA degrees. Terry and I married in 1970. We were both high school teachers while I attended graduate school. Then I taught political science at Hinds Community College. I started work for the Mississippi Legislature in 1973 doing program evaluation and investigative work for the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) until retiring in 1996.

I worked for the Florida Legislature as the first Director of the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) from 1996 until 2003. Then I operated a small consulting firm, Turcotte Public Administration Consulting and Training (TPACT, LLC) from 2003 until 2007. One of my clients, the North Carolina General Assembly, contracted with TPACT to manage a one-year project to review selected administrative functions of state agencies. Near the conclusion of the project, the General Assembly created the Program Evaluation Division, a branch of the Legislative Services Agency. They offered me the Director position, which was an opportunity to settle down with less travel. I took the position in June 2007, hired the first staff members and started producing reports. I want to thank Mrs. Dollarhide, Mittie Kay Smith, and Carolyn Gordon for teaching me how to diagram sentences and the basics of composition because I just edited and signed my 900^th evaluation report.

I rant a lot about how our political system is driven too much by campaign contributions from de-regulated corporations pushing for more de-regulation and lower taxes, rich people that have never worked, media, bloggers, and lobbyists and not by the sciences, law, engineering (and insert any other real world profession that stands for and accomplishes something here______) .I am weary of working for legislators solving government messes and saying politely, “Sir/Mam, we told you that would happen in our 1999, 2010, 2013 reports and in our latest report—now what you need to do is...”, and have hopes of becoming a lecturer at a university about state government and public administration until I really, really retire.  I collect pistols, target shoot, read “how to” books, watch people make or do practical, useful things on You Tube, and fool around with gadgets.  I am studying how to use a 3D printer so I can do something physical and make things that people want or need.

Terry and I have two precious daughters who we tried to raise right. Our oldest, Leigh-Anne, is a graduate of MUW (BS) and the University of North Dakota (MS in aerospace studies). She served in the US Navy as a Lieutenant and aerospace physiologist. She married Captain Todd Boland, a Navy pilot in 2007 and left the Navy in 2008 and has since earned specialized certifications in international affairs and diplomatic hosting. She spends most of her time helping with event planning for Navy activities where Todd is in command. Todd served 9 months as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan; a Flight Squadron Commander (“The Skipper);as Pacific Command Naval Flight Reserve, and now as a Commodore (Flight Group Squadron Command). Our youngest, Erin Sydney, graduated FLorida State University in 2005 with a degree in risk management. She is an executive and insurance producer and lives near us in Raleigh.