Gov. Asa Hutchinson has appointed Mitch Rouse, chief authorized counsel for the state Division of Transformation and Shared Providers, because the division’s secretary, Hutchinson introduced Monday.
Moreover serving because the division’s chief authorized counsel, Rouse additionally has served as director of the Workplace of State Procurement.
He’ll succeed Amy Fecher because the division’s secretary, efficient July 1.
“Mitch has proven his dedication to Arkansas, and I’ve full confidence that he’ll proceed to steer the transformation efforts,” Hutchinson mentioned Monday in a information launch.
“He has invaluable expertise serving the state and will likely be an awesome match as Secretary of Transformation and Shared Providers,” mentioned the Republican governor, whose eight-year tenure as governor will finish in January.
As director of the Workplace of State Procurement, Rouse oversaw the procurement of commodities and providers for the state. As chief counsel on the Division of Transformation and Shared Providers, he managed a employees of 5 attorneys and dealt with authorized issues for all divisions below the Division of Transformation and Shared Providers.
The division consists of the Workplace of the Secretary, the Arkansas Geographic Data Programs Workplace, the Division of Constructing Authority, the Division of Data Programs, the Worker Advantages Division, the Workplace of Personnel Administration and the Workplace of State Procurement, based on its web site.
Rouse’s wage will likely be $172,094 because the division’s secretary, Hutchinson spokeswoman Shealyn Sowers mentioned Monday. That is the wage stage Fecher would have acquired after a benefit elevate if she had continued as transformation secretary, she mentioned.
Rouse’s present wage is $140,189 a yr and Fecher’s present wage is $167,081, based on the Arkansas Transparency web site.
Fecher has served because the division’s secretary since July 2019.
Earlier this month, trustees for the Arkansas Public Staff Retirement System voted to rent Fecher as its government director, beginning July 1.
Because the system’s government director, Rouse will likely be paid a beginning wage of $165,396 a yr — the identical wage paid to former system Govt Director Duncan Baird, who departed in April to take a job at Walmart. The system is state authorities’s second-largest retirement profit with greater than $10 billion in investments and greater than 75,000 working and retired members.
Within the governor’s workplace information launch, Rouse mentioned he’s honored to be appointed by Hutchinson because the division’s secretary.
“Exhausting work has afforded me this chance, and I look ahead to main this division with vitality and integrity.”
Earlier than becoming a member of the Division of Transformation and Shared Providers, Rouse was the chief of employees and affiliate director of the Workplace of Air High quality at what was previously known as the Division of Environmental High quality. He additionally served as a federal legislation clerk for the Honorable D.P. Marshall Jr. within the Jap District of Arkansas.
He graduated magna cum laude from Arkansas State College, the place he acquired bachelor’s levels in English and philosophy. He acquired his legislation diploma from the William H. Bowen Faculty of Regulation on the College of Arkansas at Little Rock, the place he served as editor-in-chief of the UALR Regulation Assessment.
The state Division of Transformation and Shared Providers is among the state authorities’s 15 government department departments. Hutchinson’s reorganization of government department businesses lower their ranks from 42 to fifteen, beginning in July 2019, below Act 910.
Hutchinson’s reorganization in 2019 represented essentially the most sweeping overhaul of state authorities since 1971 when then-Gov. Dale Bumpers, a Democrat, led an initiative to meld 60 businesses into 13 departments below Act 38 of that yr.