5 SBA Regional Administrators Forced to Resign

Five regional administrators of the Small Business Adminstration resigned Tuesday under pressure from the acting chief of the embattled agency, officials said.

Richard Utley, a spokesman for the agency, characterized the shake-up as a routine change in administration and denied reports that all political appointees at the agency would be forced to resign.

Charles Heatherly, the acting chief, instructed an agency official to call five of the agency’s regional administrators and ask for their resignations, Utley said. If they had not complied with the request, they would have been fired, he said.

Wants ‘His Own People’

“Mr. Heatherly would like his own people in those positions, people who would be more suited to his philosophy and political views,” Utley said.

Heatherly was appointed to the temporary post by President Reagan, who wants to dissolve the agency and transfer some of its functions to the Commerce Department while eliminating other functions--including lending programs for small enterprises.

Last year, Reagan called for elimination of the agency, but Congress rejected the proposal and the President again submitted the request in his budget for fiscal 1987.

The regional administrators who resigned were: James H. Angevine, Boston; Robert T. Lhulier, Philadelphia; Reynaldo H. Lopez, Dallas; Carlos Suarez, Denver, and acting regional administrator Janine Perrignon, San Francisco.