LITTLE ROCK — State lottery czar Ernie Passailaigue looks to be on his way out.
I don’t say that merely because Gov. Mike Beebe says he’s leaning toward the man’s ouster unless fiduciary and financial problems at the state Lottery Commission are resolved forthwith. Passailaigue hinted at an early departure-originally he’d planned to hang around for about five years-when he noted last week that his health isn’t what anyone would like it to be.
“I’ve got a heart murmur that will probably require a heart-valve replacement maybe next year,” he told our reporter. “My ticker is more of a concern than anything else in my life right now.”
Understandable, and I’m sure we all wish him the best. That doesn’t alter my opinion that he’s not the best person for the $324,000-a-year job of overseeing a multimillion-dollar public enterprise.
When he does leave, here’s hoping he takes his two top assistants with him, as he did when he left a similar post in South Carolina to come to Arkansas, because he didn’t make a muck of things on his own. David Barden, vice president of gaming, and Ernestine Middleton, vice president of administration, each of whom knocks down $225,000 a year, have given him plenty of help.
As have current and former members of the Lottery Commission, although we’ll probably be stuck with the current lot for awhile since they’re really not accountable to anyone.
The governor has no control over the lottery or the commission that does. He appoints only three of thenine Lottery Commission members. The speaker of the Arkansas House and the president pro tempore of the Arkansas Senate appoint three apiece.
I continue to be nonplused by state lottery officials’ insistence that some sort of “learning curve” has been responsible for the profligacy, the poor record-keeping, the general administrative sloppiness.
“This was a learning process, not so much the lottery process because we have some expertise in that, but the other part, in terms of what was required, what type of documents, what the rules and regulations and laws” are, Passailaigue said recently, reiterating a tired excuse.
It’s one thing to be a bit fuzzy on the particulars of a state law, which in this case is extensive, and quite another to ignore the generally accepted principles of basic accounting. And some infractions turned up by a state audit were just stupid, e.g., the failure to complete background checks before putting a number of people to work.
Like state Rep. Jane English of North Little Rock, I am bothered that the lottery has “hired a whole staff of folks who really don’t understand, supposedly, our state agency business and how to do it.”
It is, as she also observed, “kind of scary.” From Sept. 28, 2009, to Oct. 31, 2010, the lottery sold $525 million intickets, raising $113.2 million for college scholarships. We don’t need amateurs, however impressive their résumés, running an operation of this size.
That holds for lottery commissioners, too. The lottery czar and his henchmen serve at their pleasure. Obviously, the lottery as new to the commissioners as it is to the rest of us, scarcely a year old, but this is one area in which political patronage needs to be dished out with at least a modicum of common sense. If there’s a school for fledgling lottery commissioners, this group and all subsequent appointees need to attend it through graduation as a condition of serving. As commissioner Joe White of Conway recently noted, “The commission at some point has got to say it’s our responsibility and we’ve got to deal with it. I personally get along well with Ernie Passailaigue, but his administrative style leaves a lot to be desired. We have been assured on many occasions by senior lottery managers that we were following state law. Clearly, that’s not the case. He’s not had the regard for state policies and procedures that we should have.It’s insensitive. Very insensitive.”
White and fellow commissioner Ben Pickard of Searcy are to be commended for at least trying to do right by the lottery and the public trust. Back in September, when it was learned that Passailaigue had rewarded himself and his top assistants hundreds of hours in compensatory time off (in addition to their six-figure salaries), White and Pickard voted to fire him.
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Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
Editorial, Pages 85 on 11/28/2010