A powerful new group is about to be formed

Arkansans should watch for a new, powerful commission to be named within the next few weeks. It will be one of the most powerful commissions of seven persons in the state’s history.

Issue 3 was a grand compromise welded together at the last minute by state Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, and Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale. Issue 3 was by far the longest and most complex of the five state Constitutional Amendments considered by voters on Nov. 4th.  The text of the wording alone was longer than the U.S. Constitution.

While some small powerful commissions like the Arkansas State Highway Commission and the Game and Fish Commission exist, neither of these boards can regulate pay for the entire state judiciary, the 135 member Legislature and the state’s seven Constitutional officers.

But this soon-to-be-named panel of seven individuals will do just that. Thanks to the passage of Referred Issue 3 on Nov. 4.

Who will be these seven commissioners?

Found within, the newly approved Constitutional Amendment, the Governor, House speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore, will each name two of these new members. The final and seventh individual will be appointed by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.

None of these commission members have yet to be named. And few, if any names, have surfaced as potential candidates in the days since the mid-term elections. These seven commissioners have less than 90 days to set the salaries for such elected officials members of the state’s court systems as District Court Judges, Circuit and Chancery Judges, Court of Appeals Judges, and Arkansas Supreme Court Justices.

This group will also set the salaries for the 100-members of the House of Representatives, and the 35 state Senators. Also add to their duties setting the salaries of the seven Constitutional officers: the Governor. Lt. Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Land Commissioner.

Whatever salaries this group sets for these elective office holders will instantly become effective and simply taken off the top of the state budget. The salaries set by this panel will not need a Legislative rubber stamping. For the first time in Arkansas history, the Legislature will not be setting its own salaries and salaries for the judiciary and executive branch officials.

What a job the commission will have to do.

Arkansas’ elective Legislature and its Constitutional officers rank at the bottom or near the bottom of salary lists in all 50 states. The Arkansas judiciary salaries are not far behind on other national benchmarks.

While most elected officials expressed surprise at passage of the Ethics and Term Limits Amendment (as many officials began calling Issue 3), but state Sen. Woods said he was not surprised by its passage.

“When USA Today and some other news and political organizations began looking at what Issue 3 could do to make our state government run better and more efficiently, I was not so surprised it passed,” Woods said.

Neither was Rep. Sabin, a former University of Arkansas Student Government leader and a first-term state Representative from the central Little Rock area.

“I was hoping that people were ready for some stronger ethics from our elected officials, and I guess they were too,” Sabin said.

The Issue 3 wording began as three separate bills cobbled together at the last minute to make the deadline for the Legislative referral to the people. Hurriedly put together with comprises from Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature, the lengthy and detailed verbiage passed the Legislature and made to the ballot.

And the people approved.

Next week I’ll examine the No Cup of Coffee Rule also found in Issue 3 and approved by the people of Arkansas. Can real ethics reform be far behind?

Stay tuned.