State Capitol briefs
The Arkansas Senate unanimously approved legislation that would limit to two the number of retired members allowed to serve on the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System’s board of trustees.
House Bill 1258 by House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R- Judsonia, also would change the qualifications for six of the board’s nine trustees. The bill now goes back to the House to consider a Senate- approved amendment.
The board has six appointees from the governor. The state treasurer, the state auditor, and the director of the state Department of Finance and Administration also serve on the board.
The governor appoints three members who are state employees and three members who are local government employees. Each appointee must have 10 years of continuous service with a public employer, and be a working or retired member of the system.
HB1258 would reduce the 10- year service requirement to five years and require these appointees to be retirement system members.
Executive Director Gail Stone warned a House committee last month that the original version of the bill could affect the continued service of trustees and retired state employees on the board — Artee Williams, Ouida Wright and Bill Gaddy.
A Senate committee subsequently amended it to say, “No more than one of the three members who are nonstate employee trustees and no more than one of the three members who are state employee trustees may be a retired member of the system.”
If approved by the Legislature, the bill would become effective immediately after the governor signs it.
— Michael R. Wickline