The state budget administrator, the chief investment officer for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System and an actuary are among the 39 people who applied for the system's executive director's job, according to records.
The records also show that the three -- Budget Administrator Duncan Baird, investment officer Carlos Borromeo and actuary Jody Carreiro -- survived the system trustees' selection committee's whittling of the field of candidates to eight Wednesday.
The others making the first cut were B.G. Dickey, Bank OZK portfolio manager and executive vice president; Andrew Richards, former partner of BKD LLP accounting firm of Little Rock; Timothy Viezer, chief investment officer for the Employees Retirement System of the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans; James Wilbanks, executive director of the Mendocino County Employees Retirement System in Ukiah, Calif.; and Brian Lee, technical director of the Defense Information Systems Agency in Maryland, according to system records.
The Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System is state government's second-largest retirement agency. It has more than $8 billion in investments and more than 75,000 working and retired members. The salary range for the executive director job is between $149,862 and $181,500 per year.
On Dec. 5, then-Executive Director Gail Stone announced her plan to retire, effective Dec. 31. Her announcement came after trustees met in a closed executive session for 40 minutes on performance matters.
Then-board Chairman David Morris said he and board Vice Chairman Larry Walther gave Stone the option to retire but didn't threaten to fire her. Stone, who had worked for the agency since 1990 and was executive director since July 2001, has said she didn't think she had any option beyond retiring.
After Stone announced her departure, Senate Republican leader Bart Hester of Cave Springs said he thought "Duncan Baird would be considered the front-runner" for the executive director job. At that time, Baird said he didn't know whether he would apply for the job.
Baird previously applied for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System's executive director post before that system's trustees voted Oct. 31 to promote the associate director of operations, Clint Rhoden. Rhoden's predecessor, George Hopkins, announced in October his intention to retire after serving in the job since December 2008. Hopkins retired Nov. 16.
Baird is a former Republican state representative from Lowell who has worked for Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration since January 2015.
"With nearly a decade of legislative and executive branch experience in Arkansas, combined with private sector investment experience, I believe I have the skills needed to both maintain and strengthen the system for the next generation of Arkansas public employees," Baird wrote in a letter to the board of trustees. He worked as a broker dealer for Arvest Asset Management in Lowell from 2004-09, according to his application.
Hutchinson is among Baird's listed references.
Asked if that means the Republican governor wants Baird hired by the system, Hutchinson said in a written statement, "I am frequently a reference for more than one person. In this case, the reference means that I can vouch for Duncan's integrity and the impressive work he has done as my budget director."
The governor also was asked whether Baird, if he moves to the system, would be replaced by former Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville. Collins started work this week reporting to Baird at the Department of Finance and Administration.
Hutchinson said, "Charlie Collins was hired specifically as the budget and policy manager for DF&A. There is no other plan."
Borromeo has served as the chief investment officer for the retirement system since 2010. His previous experience includes stints at Stephens Inc.; Am South Capital Markets of Nashville, Tenn.; Yamaichia International America of New York; and the Federal Home Loan Bank System in Reston, Va., according to his application.
"My investment experience is probably different from the other applicants," he wrote. "I am one of the few public fund CIOs who have worked on Wall Street, and I have experience actually trading risk."
Carreiro, who has a contract with the state Legislature, has been an actuary at Osborn, Carreiro & Associates since 1988, according to his application.
The trustees on the selection committee -- Walther, Candace Franks and Darryl Bassett -- were unable to meet "due to the holidays," system interim director Jay Wills said Wednesday. Wills said the committee will decide which candidates will be interviewed by the full board before the board meets Tuesday.
Franks is the state bank commissioner; Walther is the director of the Department of Finance and Administration; and Bassett is the director of the Department of Workforce Services.
"Therefore, I suggested that each of the members [of the selection committee] review the applications individually and strike those which clearly did not meet minimum qualifications," Wills said Wednesday morning in an email to this newspaper.
"They are to have their list of strikes to me by noon today. Every application upon which unanimous agreement that MQ's were not met will be removed from consideration. All other applications will be considered by the committee, but I have not been advised when and where that meeting will be held. Naturally, given your FOI request, I will advise you of the time and place of that/those meeting(s) once I learn of them."
Wills said this procedure wouldn't violate the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
"I do agree that, if they were selecting specific candidates rather than rejecting the clearly non-compliant, there might be an FOI problem, but I don't think that's the case where they're simply reviewing all of the applications for the purposes of identifying those that, in fact, met the minimum qualifications set by the Office of Personnel Management at DF&A," he wrote in his email.
"I don't view this as a 'vote' for possible candidates. Any name that is not unanimously rejected by the selection committee, will be considered by them, so a 2 to 1 'vote' does not reject any applicant," he said.
John Tull, an attorney for the Arkansas Press Association, said Wednesday in an email to this newspaper that "if indeed all that was done was to review to determine who met the RFQ's minimum requirements I agree it is not a violation.
"If, however, they are individually ranking them and sharing their rankings with other members, then it would be a violation," Tull said.
Wills provided this newspaper with copies of three different papers on which Franks, Walther and Bassett each struck their own candidates from the list.
Franks said she didn't consult either Walther or Bassett before turning in her list of candidates that she wanted to strike from the pool. "I know better than that," she said.
Walther indicated that "he did not consult with either Ms. Franks or Mr. Bassett before filing out his individual rankings," said Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration. Bassett could not be reached for comment by telephone Wednesday afternoon.
Metro on 01/03/2019