The Arkansas Lottery Commission plans to review its performance evaluations with lottery Director Bishop Woosley and Internal Auditor Matt Brown next Wednesday, after Woosley and Brown raised questions about the commission's evaluations of them last week, lottery records show.
Commission Chairman John Campbell of Hot Springs had suggested that Woosley and Brown meet with each of the commissioners after he presented the commission's evaluations to the two employees May 21, but a few commissioners declined to meet alone with either man about the evaluations, lottery officials said.
Campbell declined to comment May 21 after the commission met for about an hour and a half in a private session to conduct evaluations of Woosley and Brown. He announced that the commission took no action during the private session. Campbell could not be reached for comment by telephone Wednesday.
Commissioner Julie Baldridge of Little Rock said Wednesday that the commissioners regret running out of time last week, so they were unable to meet with Woosley and Campbell about their performance evaluations at that time.
Asked Wednesday about his performance evaluation, Woosley, who has been the lottery's $165,000-a-year director since February 2012, said, "I don't think it is completed at this point."
Brown, who has worked for the lottery since July 2012 and is paid $112,200 a year, said it's not appropriate to comment until his performance review is completed.
Woosley and Brown report directly to the commission, and their performance evaluations came due as the lottery is in the middle of its second consecutive year of falling ticket sales and fewer dollars raised for college scholarships.
The lottery, which started selling tickets Sept. 28, 2009, has helped finance more than 30,000 scholarships during each of the past four years.
During the past two months, the commission has approved several proposals that Woosley presented to the commission as part of his 15-item "wish list" to increase ticket sales and net proceeds, add to the lottery's more than 1,800 participating retailers and boost efficiency.
Among other things, the commission has signed off on Woosley recommendations to:
• Implement the quick-draw monitor game that some people call keno, despite the opposition of some lawmakers.
• Ask lawmakers to change state law during their 2015 session to allow the purchase of lottery tickets with debit cards.
• Increase the lottery's $4.5 million annual advertising budget by $500,000.
• Lift a ban that the commission imposed in 2009 against advertising on college campuses, including at college sporting events.
Nonetheless, the commission last week approved a plan to decide in June whether to proceed with a performance audit of the state lottery by seeking bids. Woosley warned that the audit might cost more than the $50,000 budgeted for it.
Both Woosley and Brown "are doing a good job as far as I am concerned," Commissioner Raymond Frazier of Little Rock said Wednesday.
"You can always do better. They are doing what we've asked," she said.
Woosley, who has worked for the lottery since July 2009, told Campbell and Commissioner George Hammons of Pine Bluff in an email dated May 5 in advance of the May 21 evaluation that his main concern from last year's performance evaluation is that "by not seeing individual scores [by each commissioner it] ... left me in a situation where I am unable to improve or modify my performance with individual commissioners who may have graded me poorly on a particular evaluation standard.
"For instance, I believe I was graded poorly by one commissioner on communication last year, but I was not sure which and [was] unable to visit with them about their expectation or ways to improve how I communicate with them," Woosley wrote in his email, obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette under the state's Freedom of Information Act.
After Campbell gave Woosley the commission's performance evaluation May 21, the lottery director told the commissioners in an email that he needs to set up a time to meet individually with each of them about their evaluation scores of him.
Woosley told Commissioner Mark Scott of Bentonville in an email dated May 22 that he received "several 'unsatisfactory' scores" on his performance evaluation and that he would "like to visit with those who gave those to determine their reasoning and find out how to improve my performance."
Woosley told Baldridge in an email dated Friday that Campbell asked him to set up individual meetings with commissioners to see where "I ranked low and with which commissioner and ask for ways to improve.
"Based on my conversations with other commissioners and what they say they gave me in each category, there had to be at least 1 or 2 unsatisfactory scores on several of the categories," he wrote.
Both Baldridge and Scott have been proponents of a performance audit of the lottery. Woosley said he doesn't object to such an audit.
Scott told Woosley in an email dated May 22 that, "Perhaps it would be best to have a special meeting and we can discuss your scores as a group, since that's how they were tabulated. You can certainly hear all our viewpoints at that time."
The commissioner said he would like to discuss "setting up measurable goals for you which will make the process more transparent next year."
Baldridge told Woosley in an email dated Friday that she regrets and apologizes that the "time did not permit many of the commissioners to return to [the] executive session [last week to discuss his performance evaluation].
"It appears from your emails that you may have been given the misimpression all commissioners agreed to have individual meetings with staff," said Baldridge, who has been on the commission since July and worked with Woosley at the commission from July 2009 to April 2013, when she retired.
Baldridge said that while she believes any commissioner is always entitled to meet with Woosley or Brown, "I did not favor that option at the time it was mentioned."
"My position is that a second meeting with executive session should be called for that purpose, as soon as everyone involved is able to attend. I am unwilling to risk the possibility of a violation of the confidentiality of [last week's executive] session by speaking to you individually," Baldridge wrote to Woosley.
"I intend to urge Chairman Campbell to call us together as soon as possible for your and Matt's benefit, when everyone involved can be available for a thorough and helpful discussion," Baldridge wrote.
Baldridge told Woosley that she intends to be forthcoming with Woosley during the commission's next meeting, and the state's personnel director, Kay Terry, told her that the commission used an appropriate evaluation process.
Woosley replied Friday that, "I respectfully disagree with Kay."
Arkansas lottery and New Hampshire lottery records show that Baldridge has been periodically communicating with New Hampshire Lottery Director Charles McIntyre, who interviewed for the Arkansas lottery director job in February 2012 before Woosley was hired.
She explained in an interview that she's consulted McIntyre on lottery matters perhaps once a month or so since she met him at a lottery conference in Indianapolis in 2011 when she was the lottery's interim director because McIntyre is "a wonderful resource."
Brown said in an email to commissioners dated May 22 that Campbell encouraged him to talk to each commissioner if he had any questions about his performance evaluation.
"Given the overall results across the board this year compared to last year, this year's evaluation tells me the commission feels my performance has degraded and I wish to understand how to improve and exceed expectations," he wrote.
Commissioner Bruce Engstrom of North Little Rock replied in a Friday email that, "I think the commission as a whole needs to sit down with you and not a one-on-one, so let's put off the lunch until after that."
A Section on 05/29/2014