Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources Executive Director Bill Walker yesterday was fired by the agency's governing board.

The agency's spending under Walker's tenure is under state and federal investigation. Walker did not attend the meeting and did not comment on his firing. The commission suspended him Dec. 28.

"In this case, we trusted [Walker] and so we gave [him] free rein with everything," commission Chairman Vernon Asper said. "We saw lots of good things happen, and we never suspected some of the things that were being alleged were taking place. We're grieved about this" (Michael Newsom, Biloxi Sun Herald, Jan. 15).

The department has been subpoenaed by the state auditor's office as part of the grand jury investigation into Walker's activities. As a result, the department has been unable to release documents to local media.

"Accordingly, pursuant to the terms of the subpoena and upon advice received from the State Auditor's Office, the department's only course of action was to comply with the subpoena and deny the release of records to the [Biloxi] Sun Herald," attorney Sandy Chestnut said at yesterday's board meeting (Anita Lee, Biloxi Sun Herald, Jan. 15).

With Walker gone, the duties as acting agency director fall to Danny Guice, the former legislator who was handpicked for the deputy director job in November. He has served as acting director since Walker was placed on suspension.

Had he known then what he knows now, he might have turned down the job, he said.

"Maybe I'm here by providence," said Guice, who served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1984 to 2008. "Somebody's got to straighten this out" (Anita Lee, Biloxi Sun Herald, Jan. 15). -- JE