State hires 2 lawmakers' spouses

Governor, panel sign off on Health Department jobs

The spouses of state Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Chairman Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, and state Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, will start work soon for the state Department of Health after the Legislative Council signed off on hiring them.

Under Arkansas law, the governor and the Legislative Council or Joint Budget Committee must sign off on the hires.

The department wants to employ Dr. James H. Bledsoe part time as a chief physician specialist to be the medical consultant for the Section of Emergency Medical Services, department Director Nathaniel Smith wrote in a letter dated Feb. 12 to Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Bledsoe will be paid $85,000 a year, according to state records.

He will start work for the department on on a half-time basis either May 26 or June 8, said Robert Brech, chief financial officer for the department. The position, which had been unfilled for several months, wasn't advertised because the department recruits doctors, he said.

The Governor's Trauma Advisory Council last fall proposed employing a medical consultant for the emergency program as "a strategic addition to the coordinated trauma system," Smith said.

During a meeting, Bledsoe expressed his interest in working with the Department of Health and particularly in working with the emergency program, Smith said, adding that he asked various members of the department and Trauma Advisory Council to meet with Bledsoe to answer any questions and discuss the program's needs.

Smith said trauma medical consultant Todd Maxson submitted a letter to him expressing "the enormous benefit to the program for Dr. Bledsoe to be the EMS medical consultant."

"I have received nothing but enthusiasm for Dr. Bledsoe joining the department," Smith said.

Sen. Bledsoe said Monday that her husband has been a surgeon for many years and he is extremely qualified for the job.

"But I had nothing to do with it," she added.

In December, Hutchinson chose the Bledsoe's son, Greg Bledsoe, to be the state's surgeon general.

In a letter dated March 16 to Hutchinson, Smith said the department wants to employ ShaRonda Love as the school health director supervising six employees in the School Health Section after the application solicitation and interview process.

Her salary will be $56,774 a year, according to state records.

Love will start work on June 8, taking a position that has been vacant since December, said Brech.

Smith said Love has been employed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and has a master's degree in public health.

Love "was selected for this position because she has over a decade of experience in managing grants, programs and budgets and she has over 18 years of supervisory experience," Smith wrote in his letter.

She worked on the school Body Mass Index data project at UAMS, and her familiarity "with school BMI data will be useful to the current collaborations around the BMI project and obesity prevention," Smith said.

Rep. Love, who serves on the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, said Monday that he didn't have anything to do with his wife getting the job.

"She applied and they interviewed her," he said, adding that his wife has worked in a similar job at UAMS for the past 11 years.

Brech said 19 applicants applied for the job that ShaRonda Love will be filling.

Sen. Bledsoe said she recently met ShaRonda Love, and was impressed with her and delighted that she wants to work for the department.

Love is a project director for health behavior and health education in the UAMS College of Public Health and her salary there was also $56,774 a year, said UAMS spokesman Leslie Taylor.

Metro on 05/19/2015

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