LITTLE ROCK — The speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives has appointed a Little Rock doctor to a term on the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission.
Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr., D-Arkansas City, chose Dr. James Hazlewood. The commission has nine members. Hazlewood’s term will expire Sept. 30, 2015. He replaces Andrew Kumpuris of Little Rock, a cardiologist at Heart Clinic Arkansas. Kumpuris’ term expired in September.
According to a news release, Hazlewood earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1977. He has been in private practice for 31 years and works at Little Rock Diagnostic Clinic.
The commission was created by the 2000 Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act that was approved by voters. The commission is supposed to monitor and evaluate programs that spend Arkansas’ portion of the settlement of a federal lawsuit against four major U.S. tobacco companies.
Other commission members include citizens chosen by the governor and the attorney general, a health-care professional chosen by the Senate president pro tempore, and the directors of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority, the Department of Education, the Department of Higher Education, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health.
The commission’s executive director, Aaron Black, resigned Oct. 7. A state auditor has since found Black received inappropriate paid absences.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/25/2011