Chief legal counsel pay raise endorsed
Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234291/
A legislative panel Thursday endorsed increasing the maximum-authorized annual salary for the governor’s chief legal counsel from $ 99, 723 to $ 119, 667.
If the Legislative Council approves its personnel subcommittee’s recommendation, attorney Tim Gauger will receive a salary increase from $ 95, 508 to $ 119, 667 this fiscal year, said Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample.
The council is set to consider the proposal this morning.
None of the 20 or so lawmakers at Thursday’s personnel subcommittee meeting asked why Gov. Mike Beebe requested the increase.
Afterward, DeCample explained in an interview that Gauger had another job offer that would pay him substantially more than the proposed increase in his salary at the governor’s office.
“We did not want to lose his extensive experience and expertise,” DeCample said. “We took the steps we took to keep him here. People can have their own opinions.”
Both DeCample and Gauger declined to disclose who is try- ing to hire Gauger.
Gauger worked in the attorney general’s office under Attorneys General Winston Bryant, Mark Pryor and Mike Beebe before joining Beebe in the governor’s office when Beebe became governor in January 2007.
He was the lead attorney for the state in the Lake View school-funding case, which led to a Supreme Court ruling.
Beebe chief of staff Morril Harriman is the highest-paid employee in the governor’s office with a salary of $ 112, 265 a year, and deputy chief of staff Lamar Davis is second at $ 101, 716, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Beebe’s salary in the current fiscal year is $ 84, 114.
Some state officials make much more. Education Commissioner Ken James, for example, is authorized a maximum annual salary of $ 217, 025.
Kay Barnhill-Terry, the state’s personnel administrator, said in a letter to the personnel panel that the governor’s office is requesting a 20 percent increase in the maximum authorized salary for Gauger’s position under Act 1241 of 2007, which is the appropriation for the governor’s office for the 2007-09 biennium.
Part of Act 1241 states, “In order that exceptionally wellqualified personnel may be recruited and retained, the office of the governor may exceed the maximum salary levels by no more than 20 percent... for no more than one-third... of the positions authorized in the biennial operation appropriation act after receiving approval from the Arkansas Legislative Council or Joint Budget Committee.”
In June, the council approved six increases in the maximum salary levels that varied by position, Andrew Bass of the Bureau of Legislative Research said.