Jean Block, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery's chief legal counsel, is departing the post April 8.
Block will go to work at Little Rock Wastewater, where she will be chief legal officer, Jake Bleed, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration, said Friday.
Block, lottery attorney since October 2012, submitted her resignation in a letter dated March 18 to lottery Director Bishop Woosley.
"It has been a pleasure to work with you and the dedicated employees of this agency over the past three and a half years. I wish you all the best," Block wrote. She could not be reached by telephone or email for further comment Friday afternoon.
Block's lottery salary was $109,252 this fiscal year, according to the Transparency.Arkansas.gov website.
A spokesman at Little Rock Wastewater couldn't be reached for comment late Friday afternoon for Block's salary there.
In October 2012, the Arkansas Lottery Commission voted to hire Block at a starting annual salary of $105,000, after Woosley said he reviewed 66 applicants and interviewed several for the job. Block was hired to fill a vacancy created when the commission promoted Woosley to director in February 2012.
The lottery was moved under the Department of Finance and Administration and the independent nine-member commission that supervised the lottery was abolished in late February 2015.
Since the lottery was moved inside the finance department, it has filled the positions of sales director, security director and advertising and marketing director without advertising them. The commission required those jobs to be advertised, but the finance department's Office of Personnel Management doesn't require these type of jobs to be advertised, Bleed said last month.
Bleed said Friday that "we will be advertising for Jean's replacement.
"While the agency is not required to post the job, we don't currently have as deep a pool of potential candidates as we would prefer and believe advertising will help us find the right person for the position," Bleed said in a written statement.
Last month, state Sen. Terry Rice, R-Fort Smith, questioned the decision-making on not advertising the lottery's marketing job before the hiring of Donna Bragg -- who had worked since 2010 as the marketing and communication director for Sparks Health System in Fort Smith -- at a starting salary of $88,968 a year.
At that time, Woosley said he made that decision and he thought "it was a pretty widespread search" to fill the job.
Bragg started work last month, filling a vacancy created after Joanna Bunten, who was advertising and marketing director between July 31, 2009, and Nov. 12, resigned for a job with J.B. Hunt Transportation. Bunten was paid $82,285 a year at the lottery.
Lottery revenue and net proceeds have dipped each of the past three fiscal years. But they've rebounded so far this fiscal year, which started July 1.
Metro on 04/02/2016