LITTLE ROCK — News of Lee Frazier's resignation as head of the Arkansas Department of Human Services underscores the need to split up the state's largest agency, some lawmakers said Wednesday.
"I think his departure is just more evidence of what some of us have felt for some time -- that is, that the agency is too large and it has too much responsibility for one person to manage," said Sen. Cliff Hoofman, D-North Little Rock.
After a little more than 11 months in the job, Frazier submitted his resignation Wednesday to Gov. Mike Huckabee, effective July 1. Huckabee named Department of Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss interim director. Weiss will take over July 6.
Hoofman said other legislators agree with his view that the department is too big. DHS has a budget of more than $2 billion and 7,700 employees. Some of the agency's 12 divisions could be spun off with independent commissions to oversee them, Hoofman said.
Hoofman said the extent of services the department is expected to provide has led to "deterioration of services over the years."
"The agency has been failing in its responsibility to provide services in most areas," he said.
Sen. Jay Bradford, D-Pine Bluff, said he wasn't surprised to hear of Frazier's resignation. He concurred with Hoofman that the agency needs to be parceled out.
"We haven't been able to keep a director there for any length of time, which is a further indication that we need to split it up," said Bradford, chairman of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee. "It's too many areas to try to administer."
Calls for breaking up the department are nothing new. Similar proposals with similar rationales were made when former director Terry Yamauchi was fired from the post in May 1992.
Hoofman said the Legislature needs to act on the issue before term limits eliminate the institutional memory left in the Senate.
But Rep. Sue Madison, D-Fayette ville, chairman of the House committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, cautioned against rash judgments so soon after Frazier's resignation.
"Arkansas is a big state, but we're not thinking of breaking it up," she said. "How do we decide what's too big?"
While legislators may have been critical of Frazier when he appeared before their committees, those contacted Wednesday all praised him for trying to do a difficult, complex job.
Hoofman credited Frazier with being a "capable individual."
"His departure was probably motivated by the fact that he doesn't need to do this," he said.
Department responsibilities range from promoting welfare-to-work and administering Medicaid to providing services for the blind and the mentally or developmentally handicapped.
DHS also oversees juvenile delinquents through its Division of Youth Services. That division has come under fire recently because of a year-long investigation by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of allegations of abuse against children in state custody.
Those revelations may have been the final cut that prompted Frazier to leave, said Rep. Pat Flanagin, D-Forrest City.
"It's got to be the toughest job in state government," said Flanagin, chairman of the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee.