A legislative subcommittee Thursday endorsed the state Department of Human Services’ proposal to pay $110,000 a year to the department’s top choice to be the next director of the Behavioral Health Services Division.
Department officials want to hire Joy Figarsky, chief executive officer of Ascent Children’s Health Services in Jonesboro, to direct the division, and they consider her an exceptionally well-qualified applicant.
She’ll be giving up a nongovernmental job that pays $207,950 per year if she accepts the state post, officials said.
“It is rare that a candidate from the private sector would be interested in a position with government due to the huge salary difference in the private sector,” wrote Janie Huddleston, deputy director for the state Department of Human Services, in a letter to the state’s personnel administrator, Kay Terry.
She said she wants to pay Figarsky $110,000 a year because of Figarsky’s exceptional knowledge and experience. That salary level requires the approval of the Legislative Council’s Personnel Subcommittee because it’s above the pay-range midpoint of $104,080 for the job. The previous director was paid $104,080 a year.
Before the endorsement, subcommittee Co-Chairman Rep. Andrea Lea, R-Russellville, said a representative,whom she declined to identify, asked her to have the subcommittee delay action on the proposal for a month.
“Six thousand dollars would really push [Figarsky] over the edge to do public service?” Lea said.
Huddleston said Figarsky must give a month’s notice before leaving her current job, and delaying action on the proposal for a month would mean she couldn’t start work for the department for two months. She said she hopes the department doesn’t lose Figarsky, suggesting a month’s delay could derail the hiring.
“We do need her here now,” she said.
Huddleston said the proposed $110,000 salary for Figarsky would put her pay at a similar level to that of the department’s directors for similar-size divisions.
Figarsky has overseen Ascent Children’s Health Services’s statewide network of day treatment clinics for children since 2007. She also was responsible for client relations, reimbursement, contract renewal and new business development in 26 hospitals as regional vice president and director of operations for Horizon Health Corp. in Lewisville, Texas, from 2002-07, Huddleston wrote in her letter to Terry.
The legislative personnel panel backed a motion by Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, to recommend that the Legislative Council approve a $110,000 a year salary for Figarsky when it meets Tuesday.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 05/26/2013