First Lady Denies Run-ins as Top Aide Quits After 24 Days

Nancy Reagan has decided on a replacement for her chief of staff who quit after 24 days on the job, her press secretary said today.

Elaine Crispen, the First Lady’s spokeswoman, said Mrs. Reagan has already made a decision on a replacement, with an announcement likely “today or tomorrow.”

She also denied a report in the Washington Post that chief of staff Lee Verstandig, a former top-level aide to the President, had quit because of run-ins with Mrs. Reagan.

The newspaper reported that the First Lady “hit the ceiling” when Verstandig rearranged his office to accommodate a deputy who had not been authorized and that the President’s chief of staff, Donald T. Regan, did not want the deputy in the White House.

The newspaper also reported that Verstandig’s actions and rumored plans to limit access to Mrs. Reagan “prompted a near-revolt among the staff.”

Verstandig, who got the job after he was recommended by former White House aide Michael Deaver, will join Deaver’s Washington lobbying firm as soon as a White House successor is named.

Verstandig previously served as assistant to the President for intergovernmental affairs, temporarily served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency after Anne McGill Burford was fired and was undersecretary of housing and urban development.