MORE TOP STORIES IN TODAY'S DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
John Selig is departing as the director of state government's largest agency at the end of this year because "it just seemed a good time" to seek a private-sector job after serving in the post since July 2005, he said Thursday.
Selig, 55, has been the longest-serving director of the state Department of Human Services.
He has been a key player in the development of the private-option program that since 2013 has used federal Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance for more than 200,000 low-income Arkansans. He's drawn both praise and criticism in that role.
"The process is just beginning" for Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson to seek Selig's replacement, said Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis.
State Rep. Kelley Linck, a Republican from Flippin and chairman of the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, said the governor "may consider more of a national search" to fill the director post.
"That is such a huge job. It is going to take an incredibly wise person to do this," he said.
Selig makes $161,647 a year as director of a department with an $8.3 billion budget and about 7,400 employees.
The department includes aging and adult services, behavioral health services, child care and early childhood education, children and family services, community service and nonprofit support, county operations, developmental disabilities services, medical services, services for the blind and youth services.
Selig said he had been considering leaving in the past few weeks as he weighed the next step in his career. He said he informed Hutchinson's office of his plans Wednesday and he sent the governor a resignation letter Thursday.
"We really worked well together," Selig said in an interview, and no one in the governor's office sought his resignation.
Selig said he had only previously met Hutchinson once or twice before Hutchinson's November announcement that Selig would remain in the post, at least for the short-term.
Selig also directed the department under Govs. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, and Mike Beebe, a Democrat.
Hutchinson released a statement saying Selig had informed him that he "wished to leave government service in order to spend some time in the private sector."
But the governor asked the director to stay through the end of the year.
Hutchinson said that he's grateful that Selig "agreed to help us through Jan. 1, 2016.
"I am personally appreciative of his leadership, friendship and wise counsel during a time of great change in the health care industry and during the first year of my administration," Hutchinson said. Davis said that the governor didn't seek Selig's resignation.
Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, said that "the last I understood the governor was planning on keeping him for the duration," so he was surprised to hear about Selig's resignation.
"That is a lot of pressure and stress and a lot of moving parts in that department," he said.
It's a stressful job, "and after a while you are ready to move on," Meeks said.
Selig said in a written statement that "I have loved working at DHS because I truly feel it makes a real and positive difference in the lives of so many Arkansans.
"It's hard to leave, but I feel like the time is right. DHS may see some big changes next year and I think that would be a good time for new leadership."
House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said Selig has done a great job of keeping up with everything under his watch in the department.
Gillam declined to cite any mistakes by Selig.
"We'll let others make the critique," he said. "We just need to look at what we are going to do moving forward."
Selig announced his departure three weeks after the department's chief information officer, Dick Wyatt, announced his resignation. Wyatt's resignation came after months of legislative scrutiny of the department's implementation of a Medicaid enrollment and eligibility verification system.
Legislators have been asking how the cost of the enrollment system had more than doubled to $200 million since work began in April 2013. The federal government is expected to pay the bulk of the cost with Arkansas' share totaling about $25 million.
Slow progress in completing the system has been blamed for a backlog of Medicaid applications that weren't processed and a delay in completing federal mandated reviews of Medicaid recipients' eligibility.
Selig said the timing of his own resignation had nothing to do with issues involving the private option.
Nonetheless, private-option opponent Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, said he wanted Selig to resign months ago because of what he considers to be mismanagement of the program.
"I think he resigned because the facts came out just as I had said it would. The heat just got too much," he said.
Private-option supporter Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Family and Children, said Selig probably did as good a job with the private option as he could under the circumstances. "I'll leave it at that," he said.
With a new administration, "it was more of a question when [Selig would resign], not if, " Huddleston said.
Selig said it seems like leaving at the end of the year made sense because the Legislature's health care task force is expected to make its recommendations on changes to the state's Medicaid program, including the private option, by then, and that would allow his successor to begin work in advance of the fiscal session starting in April.
Selig said he doesn't "have anything in mind" for a new job, but he would prefer to remain in the Little Rock area.
His predecessor, Kurt Knickrehm, who led the department from January 1999 through June of 2005, departed the job to become a health care benefits consultant for Rebsamen Benefit Services of Little Rock.
Huckabee promoted Selig, who was then a deputy director, to lead the department in July 2005. He has worked in state government for 27 years and all but two of those years were with the department.
He was in the Peace Corps as a teacher in West Africa from 1982-1984 and worked on the Little Rock staff of Democratic U.S. Sen. David Pryor in 1984 and 1985.
Selig said he's most proud of his co-workers at the department.
"I really like the people. It's a big family," he said.
"We do some things really well and others we need to do better," Selig said.
He said he has no regrets about his tenure as the department's director.
He said he hopes the state continues health insurance coverage currently provided through the private option in some way.
Authorized under the federal 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and approved by the Legislature in 2013, the expansion of the state's Medicaid program extended eligibility to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four.
A legislative task force is considering creating a replacement program for the private option for the Legislature to consider.
It would take effect in 2017 -- the same year that Arkansas is required to begin paying 5 percent of the cost. The state's share of the cost will rise every year until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.
Metro on 10/09/2015