Panel OKs new parks exec post

A legislative panel on Tuesday approved the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism’s plan to create a deputy director post for the Parks Division, which department Director Kane Webb said would make more efficient the management of parks and War Memorial Stadium.

In a divided voice vote, the Legislative Council’s personnel subcommittee signed off on Webb’s proposal to create the deputy director position and to give up a vacant construction inspector position and a vacant food-preparation specialist position.

Webb told lawmakers that the food-preparation specialist post has been unfilled for about four years, and the construction inspector position has been unfilled for about two years.

Parks Division Director Grady Spann is paid a salary of $113,120 a year, according to the state’s transparency website. The proposed deputy director position would have an entry-level salary of $86,887 a year and a maximum authorized salary of $125,986 a year.

During the subcommittee meeting, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, said, “We find places we need people [and] I’m looking for a place to cut, because we continue to grow government.

“It’s not your agency’s isolated problem,” he told Webb. The number of full-time state employees at the state’s twoand four-year colleges has increased in recent years, while their ranks have declined at other state agencies.

Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, questioned Parks and Tourism officials about whether they could get by without the new position and pressed them to justify it.

“It has been difficult getting by without it,” Spann said.

“Communication internally at the state parks has been difficult over the years and we have got over 500 projects that we manage a year, and I just need somebody in the position that can help me coordinate those projects working efficiently together so that … they’re accomplished in a timely manner and also in the most efficient manner possible,” he said.

“In the past, we’ve just had a lot of different people doing a lot different things,” Spann said. “But I need somebody to really focus the effort internally in our offices.”

Webb said the addition of War Memorial Stadium to the department’s duties has caused it to restructure some operations.

“Through attrition and absorbing some administrative duties from War Memorial [Stadium] and the surrendering of these two positions, there will be an actual net savings for the taxpayers of about $10,000 [a year], even with this new position,” he said.

Webb said he calculated the savings by subtracting about $42,000 in administrative cost reductions related to War Memorial Stadium and about $55,000 in entry-level salaries for the two surrendered positions from the salary of the deputy director position.

“I think we will continue to see efficiencies on the administrative side as we take over War Memorial Stadium,” said Webb, who is paid $134,405 a year.

But Stubblefield said it doesn’t seem efficient to add a new deputy director position.

“The efficiency here is getting our 52 state parks and the stadium running more smoothly and getting projects done in a more timely manner,” Webb replied.

The stadium has been under control of the department since Feb. 22, when Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation immediately transferring the free-standing War Memorial Stadium Commission into the department and making the eight-member commission’s actions subject to Webb’s approval.

Hutchinson has proposed cutting the stadium’s general revenue funding roughly in half to $447,647 in fiscal 2019, which starts July 1, 2018, with the long-term aim of making the stadium self-sufficient. The Arkansas Legislature will consider that budget recommendation in the fiscal session starting in February.

The department has a $160,000 contract with Conventions, Sports & Leisure LLC of Frisco, Texas, for a feasibility study on the future of the stadium.

Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, pressed department officials to give examples of their problems managing more than than 500 projects in the state’s parks.

Spann said the new amphitheater at Mount Magazine State Park is one example.

“The project was completed successfully, but when we got up there we realized that part of the project had not gone through the program services department for the effective interpretation of the site, because it just gets lost in the shuffle,” he said. “And that’s a failure on our part because we want to make sure a message [of] that incredible amphitheater on Mount Magazine State Park [is done] correctly and that messaging may fail because it did not go through the proper channels.”

“With this position, this person can make sure that every single part of our department that needs to touch each project is able to have input and effective input on how to manage those things,” Spann said.

There also have been delayed projects, such as Devil’s Den State Park’s cafe renovation, he said.

“October is our busiest month and we aren’t open yet, and that’s because we just don’t have the right coordination internally a lot of times,” Spann said. “It’s all on me to coordinate with each of my section managers.

“Part of my job is getting out in the public and really promoting parks and tourism, what we do for the state, and I don’t find the time to do that on a consistent basis,” he said.

After the legislative panel’s meeting, Webb said he intends to advertise the deputy director position both in the department and externally.