LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences can bring back two women who were terminated because of a law that requires approval from state officials before legislators’ spouses can be hired.
The Legislative Council on Friday approved plans by the Agriculture Department’s plan to rehire Deputy Agriculture Secretary Cynthia Edwards and Cynthia Wilkins, who is a mental health professional at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The council adopted its personnel subcommittee’s recommendation that Edwards be rehired at an annual salary of $95,000 and Wilkins at an annual salary of $60,199, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (http://bit.ly/L40alx) reported.
The department and the school terminated the women’s employment last month after the organizations’ officials learned that a state law enacted in 1999 requires state units to get the approval of the governor and either the Legislative Council or the Budget Committee of the Legislature before hiring legislators’ spouses under some circumstances. The approval hadn’t obtained.
Wilkins is the wife of Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, and Edwards’ husband is Rep. John Edwards, D-Little Rock.
Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, has signed off on rehiring them.
Cynthia Edwards, once an agricultural aide to former U.S. Sens. Dale Bumpers and Blanche Lincoln, had been on the job at the department since January 2011. Phyllis Wilkins had worked at UAMS since December and previously worked there from 2003 to 2010.
Kay Terry, the state’s personnel administrator, told lawmakers last week that she sees a need to re-educate state agencies to follow statutory procedures when they hire the spouses of state lawmakers. Approval isn’t needed if the spouse’s entry-level salary doesn’t exceed about $37,500 a year.
The law, proposed by Beebe in 1999 when he was a state senator, was enacted after some legislators took steps to land state jobs for themselves and their kin.
Recently, state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, resigned from her $80,000-a-year job as executive director of the Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette questioned whether her employment through the University of Arkansas at Little Rock conformed with provisions of that law.
University of Arkansas-Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson has said the university was unaware that hiring Elliott last September conflicted with state law. The university is the fiscal agent for the federal grant for the promise neighborhood project, a consortium of eight entities.
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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.arkansasonline.com
