State elections board picks 4 finalists for director post
The state Board of Election Commissioners on Tuesday whittled to four the candidates who applied for its open staff director position.
The board commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. Aug. 25 to interview the finalists.
The four candidates are Melinda Allen, David John, Keith Rutledge and Derrick Newby. They were announced as the final four candidates after the board met in executive session to discuss the applications it had received.
The board, which works with county officials and monitors elections, is led by interim Director Heather McKim, a former Bryant city clerk. McKim served as deputy director of the board for a week before she was appointed interim director in July after the departure of Justin Clay.
Clay was earning $73,151 a year as director. McKim said the new director will be eligible for the minimum salary of $72,411 if hired from the private sector, though a current state employee will be eligible to keep his salary if it is higher.
A total of 50 people applied for the position, McKim said.
Allen, a project manager at the Department of Information Systems, is the only state employee among the four candidates. She currently earns $63,510.93 a year, according to the state transparency website. Allen is a former director of elections with the Pulaski County Election Commission and a former Boone County clerk.
Rutledge, the father of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, is an instructor at Remington College in Little Rock. Newby is a coordinator for Jefferson Comprehensive Care Systems Inc. in Pine Bluff, and John is a consultant for SFM Entertainment, which is based in New York.
McKim said she did not apply for the position and that she plans on returning to her role as deputy director after a new director is hired. Including the director position, the board has seven staff members and seven commissioners.
Before meeting in executive session, the board denied a request from Jim Hall of Monticello, a Republican candidate for District 9 in the state House of Representatives, to have a monitor for the Nov. 8 general election in Drew County.