Agency taps Wooldridge for outreach

Former state Sen. Tim Wooldridge, D-Paragould, will start work later this month as the Arkansas Development Finance Authority’s outreach director, authority President Aaron Burkes said Monday.

Burkes told the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus that “we feel like ADFA has kind of flown under the radar for many, many years,” and “we did not have widespread knowledge among the mayors and the county judges and all the different folks that we need to.

“Sen. Wooldridge will be going out and making sure that the people are aware of the programs that we have and trying to form alliances and work with local municipalities and nonprofits … to try to see if there is ways to pull resources to try to have more impact in the area,” Burkes said.

For example, he said he wants more Arkansans to become aware of the federal mortgage credit certification program, under which firsttime homeowners can get up to a $2,000 tax credit each year.

After the caucus meeting, Burkes said Wooldridge will start as outreach director with the finance authority on Dec. 27 at a salary of $85,476 a year.

The finance authority has worked with Wooldridge on various housing projects because the former legislator has been executive director of Crowley’s Ridge Development Council since 2015.

Wooldridge served in the state House of Representatives from 1991-1999 and in the state Senate from 1999-2007. He lost bids for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 2006 and for the 1st Congressional District seat in 2010.

He was project manager for FMA Oil Biomass Arkansas from 2011-2015, executive director for the Arkansas Association of Public Universities from 2007-2010, vice president of institutional advancement for the Arkansas Methodist Medical Center from 2000-2007, and in three positions for various periods of time for Crowley’s Ridge College from 1983-2000, according to his resume.