Governor’s appointee fills Shoffner’s place

Gov. Mike Beebe has appointed former Legislative Auditor Charles Robinson of North Little Rock as state treasurer until January 2015 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Martha Shoffner last week.

Robinson “was the perfect fit for somebody who has managerial experience, somebody who had the ability to immediately gather trust based on the previous work experience and a reputation for integrity,” Beebe said at a news conference Wednesday in the state Capitol.

“He is a call-it-like-it-is guy and has a reputation for that,” the governor said.

Robinson, 66, said he accepted the job offer from Beebe, a Democrat, last Thursday on his way to Riverside, Wyo., where he hunted prairie dogs.

The treasurer manages more than $3 billion in state investments and serves on the board of trustees for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System and the Arkansas Highway Employees Retirement System.

“He has no experience in the treasurer’s office,” Beebe said, “but he knows that there is a great staff over there that does have experience. He knows how to lead people and he knows how to listen to people that may [have] more expertise than he has in a given field, since he has done that for years.”

Robinson, who calls himself apolitical, worked 34 years in the Legislative Audit Division, serving as legislative auditor from 1979 until his retirement in 2007.

Beebe, who was a state senator from 1983-2003 and attorney general from 2003-2007, has been governor since 2007.

Shoffner resigned May 21 - a day after a criminal complaint was filed in federal court alleging that since 2009 she has accepted cash payments totaling at least $36,000 as well as $6,700 in cash campaign contributions from an unnamed bond broker in return for directing a large share of the treasurer’s bond business to him. Shoffner plans to plead innocent to the charges, according to her attorney.

Broker Steele Stephens, from whom the treasurer’s office purchased $1.69 billion in bonds during the past several years, resigned from his job with Russellville-based St. Bernard Financial Services on May 21 without giving a reason, according to the firm’s chief executive officer, Robert Keenan.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, made the last appointment of a constitutional officer in 2003, according to Alex Reed, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. Huckabee appointed attorney Leon Johnson as attorney general for 11 days after then-Attorney General Mark Pryor resigned to take his U.S. Senate seat.

Robinson said Beebe “convinced me to do something that I said I would never do, and that is to go back to work again.”

He said he had given away his work clothes and donated the rest to Goodwill Industries except for one suit after he retired, and now he’ll be shopping for suits and other work clothes.

“I would prefer to work for zero salary. I don’t know if that is going to be possible,” Robinson said. The treasurer’s salary is $54,305 a year.

Beebe said state Department of Financial and Administration officials are researching whether Robinson can legally turn down his salary or whether Robinson could write a check back to the state deducting what Robinson owes for taxes from his salary.

Robinson said he has enjoyed retirement but he missed the opportunity to work with people.

“What has happened [under Shoffner] has happened,” he said. “What I expect to do is to go from this point forward and work with people in the treasurer’s office and with officials at the state and local level and financial institutions, and I just want the treasurer’s office to be what everyone expects it to be.”

Robinson said he believes that “by us working together that in a relatively short period of time we will be able to assure all the people of Arkansas that their treasurer’s office is being run efficiently and effectively. I think that’s what all citizens of our great state really want, and I know it is definitely what they deserve.”

His top priorities include meeting each of the treasurer office’s employees during the next several days and establishing a good working relationship with them, Robinson said.

“I think once I have established that I’ll have a feel for the office, and together, if there are any changes that are necessary, we will work on those together as a unit,” he said.

Any changes in bond investments and bond dealers also are among his top priorities, he said.

It’s premature to say whether he’ll make any personnel changes in the office, Robinson said, or continue the office’s decision, imposed last week, to halt additional bond investments through St. Bernard Financial Services.

Arkansas Chief Justice Jim Hannah swore Robinson into office as treasurer Wednesday afternoon in the Arkansas Supreme Court chambers before more than 20 people, including Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Legislative Auditor Roger Norman.

Robinson’s wife, Barbara Robinson, stood by Robinson’s side as he was sworn in.

Before Robinson’s swearing-in, Norman told Robinson that he would probably visit him next week with Deputy Legislative Auditor Jon Moore.

The criminal complaint filed against Shoffner in federal court last week came more than five months after Shoffner told lawmakers she hadn’t received any compensation from a Russellville-based bond broker or other brokers that do business with her office.

Legislative auditors reported in December that they found eight bond transactions involving St. Bernard Financial Services that resulted in a net economic loss of $783,835 to the state.

Asked what it’s going to be like to be audited by auditors whom he previously supervised, Robinson replied, “I am going to be very nice to Roger [Norman] and his staff.”

He said auditors in the Legislative Audit Division “are willing to work in this process of getting a little uplift to the treasurer’s office, and I think visiting some of their staff would be very beneficial to me.”

Norman said Robinson will “do a great job” as treasurer.

“We have the utmost respect for one another,” he said. “We’ll do our job like we always have.”

Moore said the Legislative Audit Division is working on its audit of the treasurer’s office for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who is co-chairman of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, said he has “no reaction good or bad” to Beebe’s appointment of Robinson because he doesn’t know much about him. King has served in the Legislature since 2007.

Only 22 of the state’s 135 lawmakers served any time in the Legislature when Robinson was legislative auditor in this era of term limits. Robinson retired July 31, 2007.

Republican Sens. Johnny Key of Mountain Home and Michael Lamoureux of Russellville praised Robinson’s appointment.

Key, who has been in the Legislature since 2003, said Robinson is “a great choice.”

“It brings instant credibility where credibility is badly needed,” said Key.

Lamoureux, who has been in the Senate since December 2009 and was in the House from 2003-2009, said Robinson will do a good job and probably do it quietly.

“Hopefully, pretty soon, we won’t be talking about the treasurer’s office,” he said.