Lottery hires Conway police chief

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has hired Conway Police Chief A.J. Gary as its security director, lottery officials said Wednesday.

Gary will assume a job previously held by Daryl Backes, who resigned Sept. 2, about 14 months after the now-defunct Arkansas Lottery Commission hired. Backes, a former Missouri lottery security director, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Gary is expected to start work in late October for $100,479 a year — the same salary paid to Backes before he resigned, said Jake Bleed, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.

The lottery has operated in the Finance Department since the Legislature and enacted a law in February eliminating the Lottery Commission.

The lottery didn’t advertise the job before it hired Gary, because the agency isn’t required to advertise the opening under state law and when the position opened “we were already aware of a great candidate who would make a great fit,” Bleed said.

“He came to us recommended from the governor’s office. We’re happy to have him,” Bleed said.

Gary announced his retirement as police chief to the Conway City Council, effective Oct. 31, on Tuesday night, according to Police Department’s Facebook page. Gary couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

He has police chief since 2007 and was chief security administrator for Air Transport International in Little Rock from 2002-07; worked stints as a patrol officer, supervisor and interim police chief for the Conway from 1982-2002; and was a sergeant and a corrosion control specialist for the Air National Guard from 1980-86, according to his resume.

Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said “A.J. has a vast amount of experience in law enforcement.”

“He served as the chief of police for a large agency in Arkansas and has a great deal of experience managing large numbers of people. That, coupled with his education and contacts within the state law enforcement community made him a great fit for the job,” Woosley said.

In June 2014, Woosley told the Lottery Commission he interviewed 14 candidates for the security director’s job and received more than 50 applications before he decided to hire Backes, whom he called a national expert in lottery security and a “good fit” for the Arkansas lottery.

Backes took over as security director in August 2014, after Lance Huey retired.

Huey, a former Grant County sheriff, served in the job for five years. Before his retirement, he said he was “just ready to move on.”