The first director of the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission will leave the agency at the end of June, and the former leader for the Arkansas Department of Labor will replace her, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday in a news release.
Carol Johnson, the founding director who has served under three governors, will leave the agency June 30. Leon Jones Jr., the first black man to run the state Labor Department, will replace her July 1. Johnson is leaving to take a state government position in Oregon.
The commission was created in 2001 and is a quasi-judicial regulatory agency that works with the federal government to enforce fair-housing and fair-lending laws.
"Leon's background in the housing sector, in addition to his experience as an attorney and small-business owner, will serve him and the people of Arkansas well in this new role," Hutchinson said in the news release.
"I also want to thank Carol Johnson for her nearly two decades of service to our state, including the last 14 years she's served as the executive director of the Fair Housing Commission," the news release continued. "I want congratulate her on her new opportunity, and I wish her the best in all future endeavors."
Hutchinson said at the end of May that he expected Jones to take a new role after the reorganization of the state government's executive branch.
The transformation, which reduced the number of Cabinet-level agencies from 42 to 15, moved Jones' department into the newly created Department of Labor and Licensing. Former Department of Workforce Services director Daryl Bassett leads the new department.
The Fair Housing Commission is a now a part of the Department of Inspector General, led by Elizabeth Smith.
In Jones' new role, he will make $134,068.48 annually, the same amount he made at the Department of Labor. Johnson made $93,485.81 as leader of the Fair Housing Commission, according to a publicly available database of state employees' salaries.
Jones said in an interview that he planned to spend 90 days in his new position getting to know the staff and the agency as a whole before he decides on any next steps. He has a meeting scheduled with Smith later in the week to discuss plans, he said.
"One of the things I'm looking forward to is really getting in there and working with the people who have been there," Jones said. "They have some great people who serve on the housing commission."
Jones' first experience in the housing sphere was as a commissioner at the Fayetteville Housing Authority. He served on the board for about seven years, until 2014. He also has been on the board of commissioners for the Fair Housing Commission since 2015, he said.
He was director of the Labor Department for more than four years, according to the news release. A legislative audit in 2016 questioned his travel expenses, which a spokesman for the governor's office said was being handled within the executive branch.
Jones said he and Johnson are friends and that he plans to stay in communication with her throughout the transition.
"I'm definitely going to need her advice and input as she transitions into her new position," he added.
Johnson said she thought Jones was a good choice for the spot.
"I think that now is a good time," she said. "We're looking at [it], and he has been on the commission. He is a commissioner, so he is familiar with it. I think it's a good choice."
Johnson is leaving to take a job with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries as an administrator of the bureau's civil rights division. The division enforces civil rights protections in employment, housing, career schools and public accommodations. It also protects whistleblowers and injured workers from retaliation.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity," Johnson said. "It's bittersweet as well."
As executive director of the Fair Housing Commission, Johnson established a memorandum of understanding with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration that required new developers and housing providers who wanted to get a federal tax credit in the state to get education on fair housing requirements, she said.
Johnson also has been a member of the Arkansas State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
"I think one of the biggest accomplishments is probably bringing to light some of the housing issues ... and making sure that people were aware of them [the laws] and that there's this resource available," she said.
She also established the annual Fair Housing/Fair Lending Conference. The most recent conference in April drew about 400 attendees, and the keynote speaker was U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
"I intend to remain involved and accessible and be able to help that transition as long as is needed," Johnson said.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 06/11/2019
CORRECTION: Carol Johnson is a member of the Arkansas State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Johnson’s role with the federal commission.