Teacher-pension chief to leave

The executive director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System plans to retire by the end of this year, he told the system’s board of trustees Monday.

George Hopkins, 60, who has been the system’s executive director since December 2008, said he and board Chairman Jeff Stubblefield of Charleston have been talking about his retirement for several months.

“The question was when should I leave,” he said. “As I contemplated that question, I did not want a new executive director to come in a period of crisis like I did,” amid the stock market downturn from the Great Recession.

“I wanted a new director to come in in a period of calm where they have the chance to learn the ropes in an easier way. I have just the utmost respect for this board with what we have accomplished together.

“But with a little bit of a family health issue going on and understanding where we are at, I think it’s time to pass this torch to a new director … in a period where there are not major challenges ahead,” said Hopkins, who is an attorney and a former Democratic state senator from Malvern. “I planned to tell the board later, but Mr. Stubblefield asked me to do it at this meeting.”

Hopkins said he has been eligible to retire for more than six years and is near the end of his participation in the seven-year deferred retirement program at the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System. He said he intends to retire no later than Dec. 31 to allow his successor to go into the regular session starting Jan. 14 with few legislative issues and “walk into a state of calm.”

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is state government’s largest retirement system with more than $17 billion in investments and more than 100,000 working and retired members.

“I really know it is time for me to go and to take that trip to Alaska that I could never make,” Hopkins said, and work on woodworking projects, read books and help homeless veterans.

Trustee Danny Knight of Sherwood said, “I wish you would rethink what you have confided in Jeff [Stubblefield].”

Hopkins countered, “Believe me, I was confident with what my decision was or I wouldn’t have announced it. I wouldn’t put a board through this.”

“You are top shelf in my book, not only as an executive director, but as a person. I respect your decision, but I don’t like it,” Trustee Richard Abernathy said. Abernathy is executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.

Hopkins’ salary is $180,108 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website. Stubblefield said the trustees plan to hold a teleconference Wednesday to consider approving a job description for the executive director’s post to advertise and then determine later in the month which candidates it will interview in November.