State panel backs new post at ASU

$350,000 would be max salary for vet school dean

LITTLE ROCK — A legislative panel on Thursday endorsed Arkansas State University’s request to create a dean of veterinary medicine post with a maximum-authorized salary of $350,000 a year.

The Joint Budget Committee’s personnel subcommittee also endorsed the Department of Commerce’s request to create the state’s chief workforce officer position with a pay range of $149,862 to $181,500 a year, retroactive to Feb. 9.

The personnel panel recommended the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee approve these requests.

Arkansas State University Executive Vice Chancellor Len Frey said in a letter dated Feb. 15 to state Division of Higher Education Director Maria Markham that a dean of veterinary medicine is needed for ASU to implement a College of Veterinary Medicine.

The college is needed to meet the demand for veterinarians in Arkansas amid a national shortage, Frey said.

In Arkansas, more than 40 students leave the state each year for veterinary school, and they are less likely to return to help the state with the demands of both companion animal veterinary practice and in farm and large industry veterinarian needs, Frey said in his letter to Markham.

Lawmakers on the personnel subcommittee on Thursday had no questions about ASU’s request to create a dean of veterinary medicine post.

The state Department of Commerce requested the creation of a post for the state’s chief workforce officer to coordinate, manage and direct Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ workforce development policies and career education strategy for

the state in the governor’s workforce development executive order issued Feb. 9, Department of Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald said in a letter dated Feb. 9 to the state’s personnel administrator, Kay Barnhill.

“The position will be funded through existing budgets within the Department of Commerce,” McDonald said in his letter. “Approving this position is critical to the economic development of the state and to maximizing workforce opportunities.”

On Feb. 9, Sanders announced the creation of a new workforce cabinet that will advise her on how to best spend public dollars to train and educate Arkansans for their careers, and that Mike Rogers, senior director of maintenance and refrigeration at Tyson Foods, will serve as the governor’s chief workforce officer.

Rogers traveled the country training employees on how to maintain and service Tyson Foods’ large, industrial refrigerators. He also taught agriculture and industrial maintenance at Siloam Springs High School and was the energy manager for the School District, according to the governor’s office.

Lawmakers on the personnel subcommittee on Thursday had no questions about the Department of Commerce’s request to create a post for the state’s chief workforce officer.

Afterward, Department of Commerce Chief of Staff Jim Hudson said Rogers’ base salary will be $167,000 a year.

The Department of Commerce also requested creating a position to function as chief legal counsel with a pay range of $108,110 to $147,200 a year and surrendering a vacant chief legal counsel post with a salary range of $ 96,960 to $ 140,592 a year. The most recent occupant of the chief legal counsel post, Steven Porch, was appointed to a position in a different state agency, McDonald said in his letter to Barnhill.

Allison Hatfield has been identified as the recommended successor to Porch, but the salary range was not sufficient to retain this candidate or recruit any candidate with the years of experience and knowledge required for this position, according to McDonald.

He said Hatfield will be paid a salary of $ 139,087 a year, which is the same salary as Porch, and funds have been certified by the department’s chief financial officer.

“Approving this pool position is necessary to ensure that the department has the legal expertise necessary to comply with applicable laws and avoid potential audit findings,” McDonald wrote in his letter to Barnhill.

The personnel subcommittee on Thursday also endorsed the Department of Corrections’ request to create a chief of staff position with a salary range of $120,543 to $157,100 a year.

The department’s chief of staff, Lindsay Wallace, is currently in a deputy director post at the department. Her current salary is $ 112,215 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.

The panel also recommended approval of the Department of Corrections Division of Community Correction’s request to pay a special entry rate of $105,000 a year for an exceptionally well-qualified applicant for general counsel, Vincent France.

France is currently employed as an assistant attorney general in the attorney general’s office with an annual salary of $100,950 a year, Barnhill said in a letter dated Wednesday to the personnel subcommittee.

The personnel subcommittee also endorsed the state Department of Finance and Administration’s request to create a state infrastructure coordinator post with a salary range of $96,960 to $140,592 a year.

State Rep. Fran Cavenaugh, R-Walnut Ridge, questioned whether the post would be financed with federal funds or state general revenues.

Department of Finance and Administration Deputy Director and Chief of Staff Alan McVey said the person acting in this role is currently paid with state general revenues.

“One of the main reasons for this position is to approach the opportunity for competitive federal grants as we move through the [federal] infrastructure act,” he said. ‘There is going to be a tremendous amount of federal funds [available] … we have a goal of shifting this position to federal funds.”

McVey said there are going to be billions of competitive federal funds available to the states.

“Arkansas anticipates that we could approach hundreds of millions of dollars and be successful in transportation-related and broadband-related competitive grants, and we’ll have to work through and develop a match program to be able to competitively compete for those dollars,” he said. “We anticipate being successful and pulling in hundreds of millions, if not close to a billion dollars.”

McVey said the department already has hired the person to fill the post in an extra-help position and plans to convert that person into the new position.

Becky Keogh, the former secretary of the state Department of Energy and Environment, serves as the state’s infrastructure coordinator. Keogh’s salary is $140,591 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.