LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Agriculture Board moved quickly Wednesday to select Butch Calhoun, director of the state Department of Rural Services, to be the state’s second agriculture secretary, replacing retiring Agriculture Secretary Richard “Dick” Bell.
Meeting in Little Rock, the board voted unanimously to ask Gov. Mike Beebe to confirm Calhoun as the head of the state Department of Agriculture. The governor had putCalhoun’s name forward to the Agriculture Board.
“With all that’s going on with agriculture in Arkansas ... we don’t need any lag in leadership,” Charles Rodgers Jr. of Rison, chairman of the Agriculture Board, said after the meeting.
Rodgers said the person taking Bell’s place “has got a pretty good row to hoe,” as the Agriculture Department’s role in marketing Arkansas agricultural products has gone beyond the state and the nation and now operates on the world stage.
A week ago, the governor’s office announced that Bell, 78, would leave the post at the end of June. The board appointed Bell, a former chief executive officer of Riceland Foods in Stuttgart, to the position when the department was created through Act 1978 of 2005. Bell was confirmed to the post by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Beebe appointed Calhoun of Des Arc to the Department of Rural Services in 2007.
Calhoun also served five terms as county judge in Prairie County and four terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives. He’s been involved with farming for more than 30 years, with crops that include rice and soybeans, although he said his acreage is now “rented to some kinfolk.”
Calhoun, 61, told the boardthat while he’s always had a strong sense of public service, “agriculture has always been something that I love.”
He described the Rural Services Department as a clearinghouse that helps communities and counties around Arkansas connect with programs that provide services and grants, such as to the state’s rural fire departments.
He said that when he heard about Bell’s retirement, he approached the governor about the possibility of becoming the next agriculture secretary.
“One of my strongest points is being able to work with others,” Calhoun said after the vote.
Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach, a cotton and soybean farmer from Manila, commended the governor and the Agriculture Board for their “insight” by picking Calhoun to succeed Bell.
“Butch has a long historyof support for agriculture, and has demonstrated a keen understanding of rural Arkansas,” Veach said in a statement. “He knows how important agriculture is to our state, and the critical role agriculture plays in rural communities across Arkansas.”
Calhoun was one of two candidates considered by the board.
The board took brief statements from Calhoun and the other nominee, Neuman Coleman, a Holly Grove native who is currently the operating partner of a small futures brokerage firm and partner of a grain elevator operation.
Coleman told the board that he had spoken to Bell directly about his desire to serve as agriculture secretary.
Even though he was told the position was a “powerful political appointment,” Coleman said, he worked to avoidbecoming a politician.
“You’ll find I’m a nobody in the community of agriculture,” Coleman told the board. “I hope this appointment will be to serve agriculture in Arkansas.”
The board met in executive session for 21 minutes to consider the candidates before taking a public vote to name Calhoun to the position.
Asked after the vote about how politics can affect the secretary’s role, Rodgers noted that the Agriculture Department must work with political entities, and the board “wanted someone ready to work with others.”
How soon Beebe will act on the confirmation is unclear. He is traveling on a trade mission in France andwon’t return to the state until Friday.
Matt DeCample, the governor’s spokesman, said Calhoun’s experience - and work for the past five years asdirector of the Rural Services Department - made him a good successor for Bell.
“He has a strong and broad understanding of agriculture and a good understanding of state government, which you need for an agency like this,” DeCample said.
DeCample said Calhoun, who must resign from the Rural Development post to become agriculture secretary, could be in place by the time the state’s new fiscal year starts Sunday.
Bell, the outgoing secretary, made $104,840 annually. The maximum salary for the position is $113,433.
The Agriculture Department oversees the state Plant Board, the Forestry Commission, the Livestock and Poultry Commission, the Aquaculture Division and the land surveyor, as well as programs that benefit agriculture, such as dairy stabilization, farmers markets and other promotion and marketing programs.
Business, Pages 21 on 06/28/2012