Four Arkansas Scholarship Lottery employees will have their jobs eliminated, effective May 1, and their duties will be handled by other state employees, the state's accounting administrator said Tuesday.
Two others have taken employment elsewhere and their positions will be eliminated, said Paul Louthian, administrator for the Department of Finance and Administration's office of accounting.
The savings from the six positions will total about $400,000 -- $310,000 in salaries and $90,000 in benefits, Louthian said.
Annual salaries at the lottery total nearly $4.2 million, according to a fiscal 2015 budget submitted to the Arkansas Legislature in September.
Louthian said the aim is to "eliminate any duplicate services to make [the lottery] as efficient as possible."
Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration assumed control of the lottery on Feb. 26, after the Republican governor signed Act 218 into law. It abolished the nine-member Arkansas Lottery Commission and placed the lottery under the state Department of Finance and Administration's Management Services Division.
The lottery had 75 employees on Feb. 26 and will have 67 on May 1 after the departures of two additional employees, Louthian said. The lottery reported having 80 employees as of April 30, 2014.
A finance department report in January suggested that the state could save more than $400,000 a year by eliminating eight lottery positions.
Four of the employees mentioned in that report received notices on either Friday or Tuesday that their positions are being eliminated effective May 1, Louthian said. Eliminating their positions on that day allows them to receive their insurance coverage next month, he said.
Those laid off are the lottery's public and legislative affairs director, Patrick Ralston, whose salary is $89,847 a year; human resources director Valerie Basham, $67,834 a year; accountant Demetria King, $46,257 a year; and postal courier Rosalynn Bogard, $33,119 a year.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said Tuesday in a written statement that "it has been an absolute pleasure to work with these individuals over the past several years.
"I have personally thanked them for their role in the success of this agency and we wish them the best as they move on to a new chapter in their professional lives," said Woosley, a lottery official since mid-2009 and the lottery director since February 2012. He's paid $165,000 a year.
Basham, a lottery employee since August 2010, said Tuesday that she's "devastated" about the downsizing because "I don't have a job."
Louthian said the lottery's personnel files were transferred to the finance department a few weeks ago.
Ralston, who joined the lottery in July, said he's "grateful to Director Woosley and my colleagues at the Office of the Arkansas Lottery for my time and experiences with them, both before and after I joined the staff in 2014.
"I've worked many years with and for the General Assembly, including five years staffing the Lottery Oversight Committee, and I respect the intent of Act 218," he said in a written statement.
"I am confident that [Department of Finance and Administration] Director [Larry] Walther and Governor Hutchinson can build upon what has been accomplished since 2009. As a parent of three college-bound sons, I believe the lottery scholarships represent a public good for the state of Arkansas, and I am proud to have been part of something that has generated a half billion dollars to help finance higher education," Ralston said.
Louthian said Woosley, Walther and other finance department employees will handle Ralston's duties.
King said in an interview that "I knew it was coming," referring to her job being eliminated.
"It was something that happens," she said.
Bogard could not be reached for comment by telephone Tuesday afternoon.
Under the state's reduction-in-force policy, Louthian said Ralston, Bogard, King and Basham will go onto a list of state employees eligible to be hired by other state agencies for unadvertised jobs if the four have the skills required for the positions.
Louthian said the lottery's human resources generalist Gwen Armbrust and payroll clerk Ryan Hackley already have resigned their positions to take jobs elsewhere, and their positions will be eliminated. Armbrust was paid $46,840 a year. Hackley was paid $29,545 a year.
The jobs held by Ralston, Bogard, King, Basham, Armbrust and Hackley were mentioned in the finance department's report in January about positions that could be eliminated.
Armbrust said she started looking for a new job "immediately after that hit the paper," referring to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Jan. 31 story about that report. She now works as a benefits coordinator for the Central Arkansas Transit Authority.
"I feel like it's a better job. I feel like I have some stability at this point in time," said Armbrust, who started working for the lottery in the summer of 2009 and resigned effective March 20 of this year.
Hackley resigned effective March 30 in a letter dated March 13 to the lottery because "I have chosen to seek employment elsewhere due to the announcements and eventual merging of positions, including my own."
The finance department report in January also said the lottery accountant positions held by Undrea Ellis and Michelle Gladden "should be evaluated for possible elimination of one or both positions" because those duties could be performed by the department's office of administrative services.
Louthian said decisions about eliminating those jobs won't be made until July after the lottery's revenue and expenses are posted in the Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System. The lottery currently uses Peachtree accounting software.
In addition, information systems specialist Mary Ogden has resigned, effective May 1, and retail licensing manager Susan Chamberlain has retired, Louthian said. Ogden was paid $40,400 a year, and Chamberlain was paid $49,449 a year.
He said he doesn't know whether they will be replaced.
During each of the past two fiscal years, the lottery has sold fewer tickets and raised less money for scholarships.
Woosley has projected that the lottery will raise $78.2 million for scholarships this fiscal year. Fiscal 2015 ends on June 30. Lottery ticket sales and net proceeds for scholarships during the first nine months of this fiscal year are down from the same period last year.
Lottery games raised $94.2 million for scholarships during the first full fiscal year, which was 2011. Scholarship proceeds climbed to $97.5 million in fiscal 2012 but dropped to $90.3 million in fiscal 2013. In fiscal 2014, they fell to $81.4 million.
The lottery has helped finance more than 30,000 scholarships each of the past five fiscal years.
Three times in recent years, the Legislature has trimmed the sizes of Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships for some future recipients.