The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on Friday voted to designate Arkansas Legislative Audit's staff auditor and assistant legal counsel, Kevin White, as successor to Legislative Auditor Roger Norman upon Norman's retirement.
Norman told lawmakers that White is an attorney and a certified public accountant. He said that White has worked for Arkansas Legislative Audit for several, worked on some of the most complicated audit reports, and has a diverse background.
Norman said a committee presented several candidates for legislative auditor to the legislative auditing committee's executive committee.
Afterward, Legislative Joint Auditing Committee Co-chairman Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne, said the executive committee interviewed two candidates, who were well-qualified and worked for legislative audit.
One difference between the candidates is White has a law degree in addition to being a certified public accountant, Caldwell said.
Norman has served as legislative auditor since 2007 and has worked for legislative audit for 45 years. He is paid $198,240 a year as legislative auditor, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.
White's current salary is $115,441 a year.
Afterward, Norman said he plans on working a couple more years, though he hasn't decided on when he'll retire.
"This is kind of like a succession plan for Kevin to start working closer with me," Norman said in an interview. "It's a transition-type of thing. But we felt like it would be better to go ahead and get that in place now."
Norman said he doesn't plan to go anywhere else in the near future.
"We've had a lot of people retire," he said, referring to Arkansas Legislative Audit. "We just felt it was good to go ahead and get this in place instead of just waiting until the last minute and appointing somebody and me walking out, because it gives him an opportunity to work with the Legislature in the upcoming session and get to know them better."
White has worked for Arkansas Legislative Audit since July 2013, according to his resume.
His resume shows he was an internal auditor at the state Department of Human Services from October 2012 through July 2013, a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama from August 2010 through July 2012, and a graduate assistant and then a business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center from June 2008 through June 2010. He also served in various positions at the Department of Transportation from May of 2005 through August of 2008.
White earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2008, a master's degree in taxation from UALR in 2009 and a law degree from the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law in 2016, according to his resume.