The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has hired Conway Police Chief A.J. Gary as its new security director, lottery officials said Wednesday.
Gary will assume a job previously held by Daryl Backes, who resigned on Sept. 2, about 14 months after the now-defunct Arkansas Lottery Commission approved hiring him at a starting salary of $98,500 a year, according to lottery records. Backes, a former Missouri lottery security director, could not be reached for comment by telephone.
Gary is expected to start work for the lottery in late October for $100,479 a year -- the same salary paid to Backes before he tendered his resignation -- said Jake Bleed, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
The lottery has operated in the finance department since the Legislature and Gov. Asa Hutchinson enacted a law in late February eliminating the Lottery Commission.
The lottery didn't advertise the security director's job before it hired Gary, because the agency isn't required to advertise the opening under state law and when the position opened "we were already aware of a great candidate who would make a great fit," Bleed said.
"He came to us recommended from the governor's office. We're happy to have him," Bleed said.
Gary announced his retirement as Conway's police chief to the Conway City Council, effective Oct. 31, on Tuesday night, according to Conway Police Department's Facebook page. Gary could not be reached for comment by telephone at his office on Wednesday afternoon.
He has been Conway's police chief since 2007 and was chief security administrator for Air Transport International in Little Rock from 2002-07; worked stints as a patrol officer, supervisor and interim police chief for the Conway Police Department from 1982-2002; and was a sergeant and a corrosion control specialist for the U.S. Air National Guard from 1980-86, according to his resume.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said that "A.J. has a vast amount of experience in law enforcement."
"He served as the chief of police for a large agency in Arkansas and has a great deal of experience managing large numbers of people. That, coupled with his education and contacts within the state law enforcement community made him a great fit for the job," Woosley said in a written statement.
In June 2014, Woosley told the Lottery Commission that he interviewed 14 candidates for the security director's job and received more than 50 applications for the post before he decided to hire Backes, whom he called a national expert in lottery security and a "good fit" for the Arkansas lottery.
Backes took over as the lottery's security director in August 2014, after Lance Huey retired.
Huey, a former Grant County sheriff, had served in the job for five years at a salary of $115,644 a year. Before his retirement, he said he was "just ready to move on."
Huey retired nearly a year after a former lottery security director, Remmele Mazyck, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering after admitting he stole lottery tickets with a face value of $477,893. A federal judge sentenced Mazyck to serve 37 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $482,000 in restitution.
The lottery started selling tickets on Sept. 28, 2009.
It helped fund more than 30,000 Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships during each of the past five fiscal years.
The lottery has experienced dipping ticket sales and net proceeds for college scholarships during each of the past three fiscal years.
Metro on 09/24/2015