Poultry, livestock plan: Let helm go

2 deputies would run commission

The state Department of Agriculture plans to eliminate the vacant Livestock and Poultry Commission director post and hire a new deputy director to handle those duties, Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward said Wednesday.

The department also plans to shift the commission's deputy director, Fred Wiedower, to a new position called deputy chief financial officer with financial and human resources responsibilities throughout the department, Ward said.

Wiedower's current salary is $89,000 a year and wouldn't change.

The Livestock and Poultry Commission's former director -- former Republican state Sen. Bruce Holland of Greenwood -- started work as director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission on Aug. 1 after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed him.

Ward said he and the state veterinarian, Brandon Doss, split the commission director's duties since Holland's departure. Besides the Livestock and Poultry Commission, the Agriculture Department includes the Forestry Commission, the Plant Board and the Aquaculture Division.

Holland made $101,448 leading the livestock commission; Ward's salary is $101,969.

The Legislative Council's personnel subcommittee on Wednesday signed off on Ward's proposal. The council also approved creation of a senior microbiologist position with duties that include initiating an in-state screening program for chronic wasting disease at the Arkansas Veterinarian Diagnostic Lab.

The 2017 Legislature will be asked to eliminate the commission director post from its appropriation, said Tony Robinson, personnel review administrator for the Bureau of Legislative research.

Council Co-chairman Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, said "it's a little rare" for a state agency to eliminate a director position.

The Agriculture Department has undergone a significant reorganization consolidating human resources and accounting operations to become more efficient, the state's personnel administrator, Kay Barnhill, said in a letter to the subcommittee.

"The director of the Livestock and Poultry Commission position ... is no longer necessary to the efficient operation of the Agriculture Department," Barnhill wrote.

During the subcommittee's meeting, state Rep. Nate Bell, an independent from Mena, told Ward "we appreciate the effort at administrative consolidation.

"You've had a lot of silos in that building, and we are very glad to see you continue to make an effort to streamline things," he said.

The number of employees in the Agriculture Department dropped by 11 to 516 last fiscal year, according to a report from the state Department of Finance and Administration.

Bell said he's a poultry farmer and he wants Ward to make it clear that "we are going to see continued attention to Arkansas's largest sector, which is animal agriculture, and that we are not going to see less attention to potential disease outbreaks, etc., with this change."

Ward said department officials have been in constant contact with the governor's office and the poultry industry, including Poultry Federation President Marvin Childers, "charting the best course for addressing those." About 46.5 percent of the state's cash receipts from agriculture are from the poultry industry, he noted.

"We are in contact now about who the next deputy director will be for Livestock and Poultry Commission," Ward said.

Ward said he hopes to fill the new deputy director post by the end of this year. The salary range for the job is between $85,536 and $106,919 a year, Barnhill said.

Ward said his plan to eliminate the Livestock and Poultry Commission director post isn't a template for eliminating other agency director positions in the Agriculture Department. He noted that the Plant Board currently has a director but not an assistant director.

Business on 10/20/2016

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