State Treasurer Dennis Milligan wants the Legislature to authorize his office to hire an attorney for an annual salary of up to $83,750, and to increase the maximum authorized salary from $97,400 in the current fiscal year to $109,106 for senior investment manager Ed Garner for the fiscal year starting July 1.
Milligan also proposed cutting the maximum authorized salaries for some other positions because he said he doesn't want to increase his office's total number of positions from 33 and their total maximum authorized salaries from $2.23 million in fiscal 2017. The office currently has 32 employees with one vacant position, Milligan spokesman Grant Wallace said Monday.
"We have no plans or intentions to decrease the set salary of any current employee of the treasurer's office," Milligan said in a letter to Joint Budget Committee Co-Chairmen Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, and Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia.
The Legislature will convene in a fiscal session starting April 13.
Milligan wants permission to hire an attorney on his staff because the state's other constitutional officers, with the exception of the lieutenant governor, have at least one attorney on their staffs, Wallace said. The state's other constitutional officers are the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and land commissioner.
"We just need to have one as we are working on everything from FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests to investments," Wallace said.
Wallace said Milligan's request to hire an attorney isn't in response to a defamation lawsuit filed by his office's former outreach manager, David Singer of White Hall, against Milligan and his chief of staff, Jim Harris.
In July, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's said a "conflict of interest" forced her staff to stop representing Milligan and Harris in the lawsuit. Milligan subsequently retained Byron Freeland of the Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard PLLC law firm to represent him and Harris.
Wallace said Monday that Milligan wants to increase the maximum authorized salary for Garner -- whose salary is $96,999 in the current fiscal year in a post with a current maximum authorized salary of $97,400 -- because Garner "has proven his ability and his panache for investing and being able to increase the investments" managed by the treasurer's office. Garner is a former Republican state representative from Maumelle.
The chief investment officer in the treasurer's office, Autumn Sanson, is paid $92,400 in the current fiscal year. Sanson's maximum authorized salary is $92,500 in fiscal 2016 and would increase to $97,400 in fiscal 2017 under Milligan's proposal, Wallace said. As chief investment officer in accordance with Act 1088 of 2013, Sanson reports to the state Board of Finance and Milligan, while Garner reports to Harris. Garner and Sanson work together to manage the state's investments, Wallace said.
In addition, Milligan wants lawmakers to increase his office's spending authority for professional fees by $50,000 to $82,125 and for conferences and travel by $5,000 to $42,260 and reduce his office's spending authority for capital outlay by $55,000 to $20,000 in fiscal 2017.
"These only reflect adjustments to better manage the appropriations in the office," he wrote in his letter.
Milligan's request for the $50,000 in increased spending authority for professional fees comes after the Legislative Council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee declined last month to take action on Milligan's request for authorization to spend $50,000 more on attorney fees to defend himself and Harris in the defamation lawsuit. Subcommittee Co-Chairman Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, said last month that taxpayers would have to hold off on authorizing any more taxpayer money for attorneys for Milligan because the use of public funds for that purpose has been questioned by an attorney for Singer.
Wallace said Monday that the request for the Legislature to increase the state treasurer's office spending authority for professional fees in fiscal 2017 is to cover the treasurer's office's legal fees in the lawsuit filed by Singer as well as for a legal adviser specializing in laws covering the state's investments.
Freeland has been paid $36,229.16 in legal fees by the treasurer's office and is owed $36,840.93, Wallace said.
Metro on 03/08/2016