Capitol police get $454,000 to expand
The Legislative Council on Friday granted Secretary of State John Thurston nearly $454,000 in additional spending authority in the fiscal year that began July 1 to hire eight new state Capitol Police corporals and two new sergeants.
State Capitol Police corporals have a maximum budgeted salary of $58,493 a year and sergeants have a maximum of $65,265, Chief Deputy Secretary of State Bill Huffman said in a letter to Larry Walther, secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration.
"Our agency is hoping to start the new corporals at a salary of $45,000 each, and each of the sergeants at a salary of $55,000 each," Huffman wrote.
He said the secretary of state's office hopes to begin the hiring process no later than Sept. 1, and "with this timeline, we would be planning to start our officers on October 1, 2020."
The council last month approved Thurston's request to hire 10 officers to provide security at all times at the Capitol. The additional officers will be the first increase in the force in about 15 years, Thurston said.
Thurston sought these new positions more than a month and a half after a series of nightly protests at the Capitol after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis in May.
Workforce Services adding 51 staffers
The Legislative Council approved the state Division of Workforce Services' request for 51 new positions that the division director said are needed to manage the increased workload based on the volume of unemployment claims and new federal programs since the pandemic started.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
The positions include 34 workforce specialists, seven program operations managers, four legal support specialists, three attorneys, two attorney specialists and a managing attorney, Director Charisse Childers said in a July 28 letter to state Personnel Administrator Kay Barnhill.
Barnhill said in a letter to the council's personnel subcommittee co-chairmen that the pay range for the workforce specialists is $36,155 to $52,425 a year; for program operations managers, $45,010 to $65,265 a year; for legal support specialists, $29,046 to $42,117 a year; for attorneys, $56,039 to $81,257 a year; for attorney specialists, $62,531 to $90,670 a year; and for the managing attorney, $77,862 to $112,900 a year.
The positions will cost about $2.5 million per year and will be 100% federally funded, she said.
Pandemic demands registered nurses
The Legislative Council completed action on the Division of Developmental Disabilities' request for 25 new registered nurse positions in exchange for surrendering 24 teacher assistant and 21 licensed practical nurse positions.
The division has 34 registered nurse positions and all are filled, with 24 working in a human development center and 10 working for another developmental disabilities program, state Personnel Administrator Kay Barnhill said in a letter to the personnel subcommittee's co-chairmen. The division has 142 licensed practical nurse positions and 109 are filled, with all but one working in a human development center, she said.
"COVID and pre-pandemic day-to-day experience indicates that [human development center] clients are better served by an approximately 2:1 ratio of ... licensed practical nurse positions to ... registered nurse positions," Barnhill wrote. "There is approximately a 4:1 ratio currently.
"Experience with COVID has demonstrated the need for every [center] to have at least one dedicated infectious disease control nurse," she said.
The pay range for the registered nurse positions is $63,830 to $88,058 a year, Barnhill said. The cost of the 25 positions is about $1.6 million, with the federal government covering 70% and the state the rest, Barnhill said. The Department of Human Services believes there is sufficient funding to support the request.
Parks, Heritage adding 2 officials
The Legislative Council signed off on the state Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism's request for two positions in exchange for surrendering six others.
The new positions would be a managing attorney with a pay range of $77,862 to $112,899 a year and a human resources administrator with a pay range of $69,776 to $101,175 a year, state Personnel Administrator Kay Barnhill said in a letter to the personnel subcommittee's co-chairmen.
The former Department of Parks and Tourism did not have any legal staff before its consolidation with the Department of Arkansas Heritage, which had a general counsel, she said, and a second staff attorney is required to assist with the expanded legal work of the consolidated department.
Human resources responsibilities for the department have been consolidated and two vacancies won't be refilled, she said.