COLUMBIA -- The state Department of Transportation has hired Clemson University's former chief lobbyist as a special assistant to help in the agency's mass transit section.

James H. "Jim" Daniels, 61, who worked as Clemson's executive director of governmental affairs for almost 12 years, went to work for DOT in January as a temporary employee, he said, and is being paid $50 per hour.

Daniels, who served 26 years at Clemson, left in 2001 to become chancellor for the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, Ark. He left after two years to retire to his home in Oconee County, he said, then decided two year later to return to work.

His job duties, he said, include being one of the department's representatives on railway matters. He said he also has helped reorganize the mass transit office.

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"That department has been completely restructured, with new people and new responsibilities," he said.