LITTLE ROCK — The Legislative Council Friday gave its permission for the rehiring of two lawmakers’ wives who were fired from high-paying state jobs because their employment violated state law.
The Legislative Council is the body of lawmakers that oversees state government between legislative sessions.
Last month, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences fired Phyllis Wilkins, wife for state Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, from her $60,000-a-year job as a mental health professional after officials learned that a state law requires state agencies to get approval of the governor and either the Legislative Council or the Joint Budget Committee before hiring the spouse of a lawmaker.
Soon after, Cynthia Edwards, wife of state Rep. John Edwards, D-Little Rock, lost her $95,000-a-year job as deputy state agriculture secretary for the same reason.
The Legislative Council’s decision Friday to clear the way for the women to be rehired to their state jobs followed the recommendation of the council’s Uniform Personnel Classification and Compensation Plan, which considered the rehiring request earlier this month.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, co-chairman of the personnel committee, said the panel approved the recommendation after hearing testimony from agency officials that the two women were the most qualified applicants for their jobs. He said the recommendation was approved on a voice vote in which he did not participate.
“My only opposition to it was … they are just more high paying jobs that we are filling down there,” he said. “If you add those two positions together, you know you’re looking at, the total packages, somewhere around $250,000 a year just in two positions.”
King said the fact that state Agriculture Secretary Richard Bell wanted Edwards back at work spoke volumes.
“You have to respect his opinion,” King said. “I don’t know anybody in agriculture that has been around and has the knowledge he does, so I don’t think he would pick somebody that he didn’t think was qualified.”
Cherry Duckett, director of governmental affairs for UAMS, urged the panel to allow Phyllis Wilkins to be rehired, noting that she was determined to be the most qualified applicant for the job in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute when she was hired in December.
Edwards had worked for the Agriculture Department since January 2011. Wilkins was originally hired at UAMS in 2003. She left in 2010 as a social work program manager and then was rehired in 2011.
Meanwhile, with a resolution approved Friday, the Legislative Council also joined a push to award the Purple Heart to two Army soldiers shot, one fatally, outside a Little Rock recruiting station in 2009.
The Obama administration last month announced opposition to legislation in Congress that would have the Department of Defense award the Purple Heart to the victims of the shootings at Little Rock and at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
The administration noted that the suspect in the Little Rock shootings was tried on criminal charges in state court, not on acts of terrorism. It referred to possible “appellate issues” in the case if the proposed legislative changed provisions under which the Purple Heart is awarded.
Service members are currently eligible for a Purple Heart if they are injured in a combat zone or are a victim of an international terror attack. The legislation would revise the law to extend the honor to military victims of domestic terrorist attacks.
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., added the proposed change to the House bill. Daris Long, the father of the soldier killed in Arkansas, testified in December at a joint hearing of the House and Senate homeland security committees.
Abdulhakim Muhammad is serving life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to capitol murder and other charges in the shooting death of Army Pvt. William “Andy” Long of Conway outside a west Little Rock recruiting center. Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville was wounded in the shooting rampage.
Muhammad, a Memphis, Tenn., native and converted Muslim, said his attack was in retaliation for U.S. military acts against Muslims in the Middle East.
The resolution passed Friday asking that the soldiers be awarded the Purple Heart was sponsored by Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron.
“It is important that Private Ezeagwula and the family of Private Long receive this recognition,” Rice said. “It is also important that we thank our whole congressional delegation for their work on awarding the Purple Heart and show they have support here in Arkansas.”