Hiring lawmaker’s wife for state job clears panel

The Legislative Council on Wednesday approved the state Department of Higher Education’s plan to hire a former Lee County School District superintendent — who also is the wife of state Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna — at an annual salary of $85,000.

The department’s plan to hire Willie Murdock as director of the Career Pathways program cleared the council in a voice vote after the council rejected an attempt by state Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, to refer it back to the council’s Personnel Subcommittee for further study.

The council voted 30-9 to reject Lowery’s motion, according to bureau records.

Willie Murdock will start work Monday, Higher Education Director Maria Markham said after the council meeting.

Willie Murdock worked for the Lee County School District from August 1995 through June 30 of this year and served as superintendent for the past five years. A legislative audit raised questions in 2016 about how the district paid for her health insurance. She was paid a salary of $95,000 a year and left the position because her contract wasn’t renewed by the School Board, according to her job application.

Lowery told lawmakers that he wanted to refer the matter back to the subcommittee because “this process may not have been completely followed correctly.”

Afterward, Lowery said the Higher Education Department’s selection committee for the position and the Personnel Subcommittee should have conducted “a full vetting” for the position.

“If you are going to say that someone is a superior candidate because of their years of experience, you have to include in that the good and the bad,” he said. “No matter what the explanations are for the bad audit in Lee County, that is part of bad that should have been vetted, and I’ve had conversations with people that were on that selection committee and they said they were not made aware until after the recommendation had been made.

“We have to do things right, do things correctly and I don’t think in this case it was,” Lowery said. “I’m not talking about the individual. I’m not talking about the qualifications. I’m talking about this process.”

But Markham said she disagreed.

“I, as well as my senior staff, were aware of both the facts that Ms. Murdock had not received a renewal on her contract from Lee County School District and that the school district had received an audit finding,” Markham said in a written statement.

“We researched both issues prior to the selection committee conducting interviews and determined through both references and public information that she remained a qualified and eligible candidate. It is possible that not all members of the selection committee received the details of the audit,” Markham said.

“However, as she had not been deemed personally liable for the audit findings, these were details that would not have affected the committee’s decision. I cannot speak to legislative processes for audit or review of legislator’s spouses. Those are well outside of the scope of my agency. I can affirmatively state that all OPM [Office of Personnel Management] processes were followed, and actually exceeded, in the course of the selection.”

Asked about Lowery’s motion to refer the matter back to the Personnel Subcommittee, Rep. Murdock said, “I just respect the process.

“I think there were people that probably had some misunderstanding or a lack of understanding, but the majority knew everything was fine and properly done. That’s what the body represented in the vote,” Rep. Murdock said. “I’m not totally sure what [the misunderstanding] was. Obviously, it was something that had a question, but everybody else was OK and everything went fine.”

In June 2016, Lowery told Willie Murdock during a Legislative Joint Auditing Committee meeting that she illegally received compensation from the district for her health insurance and should pay it back.

At that time, she replied that the school district stopped paying her insurance premiums above what is allotted to other employees, but she did not pay back $23,331 in premium payments.

She said the previous School Board had agreed to compensate her through premium payments and had approved the payments in a contract.

She said that neither she nor the School Board were aware of a state law requiring districts to provide the same insurance contribution for all employees. She said the insurance payments were made in lieu of an increased salary.

In a letter dated April 13, 2016, to Legislative Auditor Roger Norman, Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long of Forrest City said he received correspondence from an auditor who worked for Norman that “reveals that Ms. Murdock’s compensation was enhanced because she was not receiving a housing or vehicle allowance.” He said the compensation wasn’t pointed out in previous audits, and he wasn’t going to take any action.

The Legislative Council’s Personnel Subcommittee last week recommended that the council approve the department’s plan to hire Willie Murdock as the director of the Career Pathways program at a salary level that’s $7,138 above the $77,862 entry level pay.

The Career Pathways program seeks to improve the earnings of low-income recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families aid through postsecondary education attainment by enabling them to work in industries of regional importance, according to the Department of Higher Education’s website.

The Career Pathways program is administered by the department with funding from the Department of Workforce Services. The program serves more than 4,000 students across the state.

Willie Murdock listed Education Commissioner Johnny Key, a former Republican state senator from Mountain Home, as among her references on her resume.

Markham told lawmakers last week that the department had 105 applications for the position, and Willie Murdock was the most qualified applicant out of the applicant pool.