The lottery's advertising and marketing director for the past six years has departed for a position with J.B. Hunt Transport, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration said Tuesday.
Lottery officials "plan to fill the position in the future, but have not prepared a plan to do so," said finance department spokesman Jake Bleed. "I anticipate that will happen shortly."
They haven't decided whether to advertise the vacancy created with the resignation of Joanna Bunten, Bleed said.
Bunten, who had been in the position since July 31, 2009, resigned effective Nov. 12, according to her resignation letter. She was paid $82,285 annually.
Her departure is the latest change in the lottery's management ranks.
In her resignation letter to Director Bishop Woosley, Bunten said she received "a wonderful opportunity with another company.
"I'm tremendously proud to have been a part of the original team who started the lottery and successfully raised over half a billion dollars for scholarships for the students of this state," Bunten wrote.
"We've made some important headway this fiscal year in terms of sales and proceeds. I know that you will continue that momentum," Bunten wrote to Woosley, who has been lottery director since February 2012 and is paid $165,000 a year.
The lottery has helped finance more than 30,000 Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships each of the past six fiscal years. The Legislature has cut the amount of the scholarships for future recipients three times during the past several years, partly because the lottery's net proceeds have fallen short of initial projections.
The lottery's revenue and net proceeds dropped each of the past three fiscal years after peaking in fiscal 2012. But revenue in September and October this year have been the best for those months since 2011, which was in fiscal 2012. State fiscal years start July 1.
The lottery has operated under the Department of Finance and Administration since Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation on Feb. 26 to dissolve the independent nine-member Lottery Commission and move the operation under the jurisdiction of the finance department.
Since the Hutchinson administration took over control of the lottery, the jobs of four employees were eliminated, effective May 1, and their duties were shifted to other state employees.
These employees included the lottery's public and legislative affairs director, Patrick Ralston, whose salary was $89,847 a year, and human resources director Valerie Basham, whose salary was $67,834.
Woosley later fired the sales director of six years, Robert Stebbins, who was paid $98,187 a a year, on June 29 and hired a former spokesman for the state Department of Economic Development, Mitch Chandler, to fill the vacancy at a salary of $104,079, starting June 30. Woosley has said he didn't advertise the position filled by Chandler because there was an urgency to have the position filled.
In late September, Conway's police chief, A.J. Gary, was hired as security director at a salary of $100,479 a year to replace Daryl Backes, who resigned Sept. 2, about 14 months after the lottery commission approved hiring him from Missouri's lottery.
Gary started work for the lottery Nov. 2, Bleed said. The lottery didn't advertise the security director position before hiring Gary because the agency isn't required to advertise the opening under state law and, when the position opened, "we were already aware of a great candidate who would make a great fit," Bleed has said.
Metro on 11/25/2015