A search committee at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has winnowed the field of 42 applicants for its vice chancellor for governmental relations job to three finalists - the Republican chairman of the state Senate Education Committee, the state director for Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, and a former aide to former Democratic U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home; Pryor staff member Randy Massanelli of North Little Rock; and former Lincoln staff member Mac Campbell of Washington, D.C, will meet separately with Chancellor G. David Gearhart as well as other officials during the next two weeks, a university spokesman said Wednesday.
It’ll be their second round of interviews. They were among the five candidates interviewed on campus by the search committee last month.
Richard Hudson, who currently holds the job, announced in November his plan to retire July 31. He’s paid $202,000 a year, according to UA records.
The pay scale for the job tops out at $177,226 a year, but the university is allowed under state law to pay up to 25 percent beyond that salary with public funds, said UA-Fayetteville spokesman Steve Voorhies.
Duties include “the development and management of strategies to inform and influence public policy at the county, state and federal levels on issues of interest to higher education and the university,” according to the job listing on UA’s website.
Search Committee Chairman Kathy Van Laningham said that “Richard’s are big shoes to fill, and we feel confident that we’ve identified three very solid candidates as potential successors.
“Our charge was to find someone who can not only foster good relations with elected officials at the local, state and federal level, but who will also be effective in making the case and building support for our institutional priorities,” Van Laningham said in a written statement.
The vice chancellor search comes after UA officials, including Gearhart, drew sharp criticism from some lawmakers over the Division of Legislative Audit’s findings about a multimillion-dollar deficit in the university’s Advancement Division.
Campbell will be on campus on Monday, while Key will visit Tuesday. Massanelli will appear on April 23, said Voorhies.
After last month’s interviews on campus, the search committee worked to “come up with two or three candidates to recommend bringing to campus for further interviews,” and “this is standard when we are searching for deans and most other higher administrative positions,” Voorhies said.
The two candidates who didn’t advance are Allison Rosenberg, a Seattle-area higher education consultant, and Denver Peacock, senior vice president for public affairs at the advertising and public relations firm Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods.
Campbell, who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2006, said Wednesday in an email that he departed his job as the deputy staff director for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee at the end of March after committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, was confirmed as ambassador to China.
If he was hired by UA, he said that he would be barred from lobbying the U.S. Senate as part of a year-long cooling-off period.
Neither Key nor Massanelli could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Key announced in late February that he wouldn’t seek re-election to his Senate seat this year because he said it would be unfair to file if it was possible he’d be withdrawing to take the Fayetteville job.
He’s said that he’s not been assured that he’ll be hired, adding that there is life beyond the General Assembly for him and his wife. He served in the state Senate since 2009 and in the state House of Representatives from 2003-2009.
Key has said that he expressed his interest in the UA job at the end of January by calling Gearhart, who referred him to Van Laningham.
If he’s hired by UA, Key has said he wouldn’t spend more than $400 on lobbying in a quarter, so he wouldn’t be required under state law to register as a lobbyist. Act 48 of 2011 requires a one-year cooling-off period between the end of a lawmaker’s term and when he can register as a lobbyist.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/10/2014