Board Of Apportionment Organizes, Expense Questions Surface (updated)

The panel charged with redrawing Arkansas’ 135 House and Senate districts in the state legislature met for the first time on Wednesday morning.

The Board of Apportionment – which consists of the Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State – convened for the first time to organize for how they’ll proceed with their task.

The group consists of two Democrats and one Republican – Gov. Mike Beebe (D), Attorney General Dustin McDaniel (D), and Secretary of State Mark Martin (R). The bipartisan board will ultimately redraw and vote on a plan to shape the 100 House Districts and 35 Senate Districts to satisfy population shifts from the latest U.S. Census.

House districts must have 29,159 residents, while State Senate districts will be comprised of 83,311 citizens.

The three-person panel discussed hiring staff, developing their budget, and a timeline for performing their duties. A former apportionment worker named Joe Woodson was discussed as a possible hire to coordinate the efforts. The board decided to regroup in three weeks to move forward.

There was concern raised at the meeting that preliminary expenses may have been made by Martin without approval of the three-member board. Beebe and McDaniel were careful not to characterize the expenses as "inappropriate" but they did question the spending.

A DF&A expense report showed that $19,000 had been paid to Legacy Consulting, a DeQueen-based professional firm. Also, Tim Hutchinson, son of former U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson, has been paid from the apportionment fund a total of $6,473.  The nature of his expenses were not clear from the report, which also showed that a car had been purchased for $27,629 from Lewis Ford in Fayetteville.

Spokespersons for the Attorney General’s and Governor’s offices said they were unaware of the expenditures before the meeting.

UPDATE: Secretary of State Mark Martin tells Talk Business that Hutchinson has been working as the redistricting director until a permanent director could be named. Legacy Consulting has been working with local governments to help expedite the process of redistricting since Martin felt the effort was running behind schedule.

He said the vehicle purchased will be used for extensive travel that is required throughout the redistricting process during the next several months. Martin also emphasized that he had discretion to authorize the expenses and was working on the recommendation of "holdovers from the previous administration."