Lottery allows 80 comp hours

Only fair thing, panel decides

— The Arkansas lottery’s exempt employees, except for the top three administrators, each will be allowed to use up to 80 hours of compensatory time off for their long hours worked during the lottery’s startup last year, the Arkansas Lottery Commission decided Thursday in a 5-4 vote.

In a 7-2 vote, the commission decided that the exempt employees who have already used more than 80 hours of compensatory time won’t have to reimburse the lottery for that time.

Exempt employees are salaried employees and generally are not paid overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the state’s personnel administrator, Kay Terry, said after the commission meeting.

Four exempt employees have used more than 80 hours each, according to commission attorney Bishop Woosley. One employee used 112 hours, a second used 118, a third used 232 hours, and a fourth used 84 hours, he said.

After Thursday’s commission meeting, Chairman Dianne Lamberth of Batesville said she voted to allow the exempt employees to use up to 80 hours each because “it is the fairest thing for our employees.

“I just think they were given it in good faith and they took it in good faith, and I just think that’s what we need to be fair,” she said.

The commission’s director, Ernie Passailaigue, granted 25 exempt employees compensatory time ranging from 15 hours to 501 hours apiece.

But he drew criticism from some commissioners for doing so and survived a vote to oust him last month after the state’s personnel administrator said the commission’s award of compensatory time to exempt employees deviated from practice elsewhere in state government and could negate their exempt status.

A month ago, Passailaigue told the commission that the compensatory time taken by the lottery’s three highest paid administrators “will be restored in total” to the lottery “in some mutually agreed manner, as if it had never been used.”

Passailaigue is paid $324,000a year, and vice presidents Ernestine Middleton and David Barden are each paid $225,000 a year. Passailaigue used 16 hours, Middleton used 178.5and Barden 134.5, according to commission records.

Commissioner Joe White of Conway said he wants the commission to resolve how that compensatory time “will be restored in total” during its next meeting.

Terry said she is not aware of any other agencies granting compensatory time to exempt employees, but a few state agencies have paid overtime to exempt employees in emergency-disaster cases.

Terry said “it’s legally questionable” whether the lottery should have granted compensatory time to exempt employees, but “I don’t think what they are doing now would be considered illegal.

“They had to do something to address it,” she said. “This seems the least-offensive way to address it.”

Woosley told the commission that Passailaigue’s “granting of compensation time was arguably legal.”

Commissioners John C. “Smokey” Campbell of Hot Springs, Patty Shipp of Morrilton, Susan Ward-Jones of Marion and George J. Hammons of Pine Bluff joined Lamberth in voting to allow the exempt employees, other than the top three administrators, to use up to 80 hours of compensatory time.

“They did a bang-up job getting this thing set up and [raised] a lot of money,” Campbell said. “You are looking at two weeks [of compensatory time], and two weeks is not a long time. They were promised something, so how do you tell me then to do it and then tell them they can’t? I just think that is not a fair way to treat your employees.”

But White, who voted against the measure, said he disagreed with Passailaigue’s decision to grant compensatory time to exempt employees.

He questioned whether the commission would be the only state agency to grant compensatory time to exempt employees and allow them to use it.

“If no one [else] does this, obviously there has been a gross error committed,” White said.

But Shipp said it’s not the exempt employees’ fault.

“Eighty hours is a good compromise to put this to rest,” she said.

Commissioners Ben Pickard of Searcy, Mike Malone of Fayetteville and Derrick Smith of Little Rock joined White in voting against the measure. They said that before voting on the matter they wanted to know whether any other state agencies grant compensatory time to exempt employees.

Pickard and White dissented in the 7-2 vote to not ask exempt employees who have already used more than 80 hours to reimburse the lottery for those hours. They are former state employees.

Woosley told the commission that he has “some pretty serious concerns” about requiring exempt employees, who’ve used more than 80 hours of compensatory time, to “pay back” that time.

“I think in good faith and arguably legally they took it and exercised the right to take it, and I think going back at this time would give rise to potential liability,” he said.

Earlier in the meeting, Passailaigue told the commission that the lottery won’t be able to participate in a regional lottery game with three other states unless the Legislature changes the definition of unclaimed prizes for a multistate lottery in the state’s lottery law..

Last month, the commission authorized Passailaigue to continue working on an agreement for Arkansas’ lottery to join Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia lotteries in a regional numbers game called Decades of Dollars. The game is expected to begin Jan. 30, and the winner of the grand prize would have the option of receiving either a $250,000-per-year annuity for 30 years or a cash option of $4 million, he said.

Passailaigue said Thursday that he estimates that Arkansas’ participation in the regional lottery game would lead to $7 million to $8 million in ticket sales and raise more than $3 million for college scholarships.

On the basis of his discussions with lawmakers, he said, he believes that the Legislature’s lottery oversight committee is amenable to recommending changes in the law to open the door for the lottery to participate in the regional game.

Passailaigue assured the Lottery Commission several times that he believes that the lottery will meet its goal of raising $105 million for college scholarships in the fiscal year that started July 1. He has also projected $464 million in ticket sales the fiscal year.

During the first three months of this fiscal year, the lottery raised $21.4 million for college scholarships on the basis of $104.7 million in revenue, according to Passailaigue.

He said the lottery sold $31 million in tickets as of Oct. 26. He said lottery sales typically slow during the summer when people are on vacation and increase thereafter. He said he expects “a spike” in ticket sales in January, February and March.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/29/2010

Upcoming Events