Lots of changes on state level

Latest heads to roll, Surgeon General and State Police Director

Maylon Rice
Maylon Rice

Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson has approached the transition from private citizen/defense attorney to governor with a structured business-like approach.

People who do not fit his "management team" mold will be replaced.

Gone is Grant Tennille, head of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Gone is Dr. Joe Thompson, Arkansas Surgeon General, under both former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Gov. Mike Beebe.

Gone is Col. Stan Witt, a 29-year veteran with the Arkansas State Police, who has held that post since August 2012.

Retiring and soon to be gone is Richard Weiss, head of the powerful Department of Finance and Administration who announced his retirement well ahead of the election.

Retiring and gone is embattled Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Director, Teresa Marks. She worked for Gov. Beebe in the Attorney General's office and followed Beebe to ADEQ eight years ago.

Three of these mentioned above, have been notified by Governor-elect Hutchinson they would not be retained in his administration. The latter two, Weiss and Marks, were set for retirement no matter who the governor-elect became on Nov. 5.

This past week, a "pop-in" visit at the state's Alexander Unit for troubled teens, seemed to mitigate the subsequent firing or dismissal of Col. Stan Witt. Col. Witt was said to be a "trooper's trooper," when appointed by Gov. Beebe.

There have been some notable miss-steps in finding the right person to head the Arkansas State Police over the years. Many times bringing in someone from the outside, attorney Tom Marrs, for example, might not have been such a good fit. Others appointed from inside the agency itself seemed also to not last long.

But Witt, to all indications, was a good, sound fit. Sadly, he did not seem to mesh well with the governor-elect's plans.

Governor-elect Hutchinson's little "pop-in" at the Youth Lock Up may have been a warning shot over the bow of the independent contractor who runs the facilities for the state. Many times leasing the care of court-ordered criminal cases -- even these cases of youths -- is very costly and rife with problems.

Another contractor-run youth facility in Yell County, readers may remember, was recently found to be using a kind of immobilizing body wrap of straps, tie-downs and even a motorcycle helmet with face shield to keep an out-of-control teenager from hurting himself or others in a fit of rage.

While that looks and sounds and is barbaric, we need to remember this: The Alexander facility houses 100 of the state's most violent and behaviorally troubled juvenile delinquents.

Also the state pays an independent contractor, a Florida firm called, GS4 Youth Services, almost $10 million a year to run these youth facilities for the state. The state, in turn, monitors the GS4 at almost every level.

There have been some complaints about treatment and staffing which are currently under investigation by a federally funded organization called Disability Rights Arkansas. So stay tuned.

The public relations "bump" was for the governor-elect's high profile "pop-in" visit at the Youth Lockup this past week.

The PR boost was meant to down-play the soon-to-be demotion of the head of the state Police.

It worked.

The "pop-in" visit, with no press around to witness the event, rated higher than the demotion of Witt with the State Police on the same front page of the statewide newspaper.

I've said before I am impressed that governor-elect Hutchinson has kept his campaign slogan's promise: "...as Governor will hit the ground running and never look back."

Asa has seen the "pop-in" for public relations work.

So what's next?

-- Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 12/10/2014