Arkansas Blog

Yeah, you're right Max. Anyone from outside of our borders is better than any old arkie. How the heck do you know the background on this dude? Why is he the "former" director? Maybe he's a jerk, crook, etc. Nice shooting first, then aiming "journalism". Does you're attorney know your tax returns? Does your accountant know your will or other legal documents? Are you sure you know the full story or are you continuing your beatings of Courtway because you're still mad that the legal folks at the Dept of Ed agreed with him and not the holy press? Heavens forbid the media didn't get their way for once. I know the media polices the government but who is policing the media?

I would say that someone who has actually run a lottery would be the best candidate for the job.
That rules out anyone from Arkansas.

At the risk of being repetitive, Tom Courtway was the legal counsel at UCA and on the Board of the University. If-
1. he didn't know what was going on then wasn't doing his job
2. he did know what was going on and didn't go public or resign to bring attention to it, he wasn't doing his job.

All this coronation work shows, that there are two classes in this state-those who are in the "in" group-politicians, business leaders, and high level state employees and the other-the rest of us that allow this s--t to keep going on and keep paying for it.

I was elected to a low level zoning position in a small town in CT in the 1980's and before I could assume this non-paid position, I was required by state law to attend a two day state run education program on the ethics of having a government position at my expense and at a location 2 hiours from my home in the northwest corner. If you didn't go to the program, you were not allowed to be swore into the position. While I wouldn't expect this state to take ethics education that seriously, we neded to be giving our younger people a reason to consider public service besides greed. They can get that on Wall Street.

Halter is right AND it'll go the other way. Would LOVE to be wrong, if even for the sinking reputation of our state as a bunch of Morons.
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>>Yeah, you're right Max. Anyone from outside of our borders is better than any old arkie.<<

Hey Erwin-
Q. How come we couldn't just up and hire an Arky fuball coach for UAF at $1.2 million a year?

A. Nobody here had any experience or idea of what it takes to coach a major college team.

Maybe the UAF athletic director/admin really screwed up and should have captured that coach at UCA.

Hopefully, the Lottery Commission will come to their senses and realize that hiring an unqualified insider is going to leave a stench for a long time. That equates to lots of suspicion. Few will trust it. Hence, fewer players and less money. Perhaps the success of the lottery is less important than the Gud Ol Boyism and taking care of one of their own was too incompetent to sense what was going on around him during his last professional stint.

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Hey Fletch,
You're repeating yourself, requiring the rest of us to repeat our past replies to your previous posts. When your accountant and lawyer are hired to work TOGETHER to provide the best service to you as the client, they should absolutely be working together to make sure you get the right outcome. Counsel for a university is darn well supposed to be on top of the goings on. Under even the best possible circumstances, Courtway has some explaining to do. It wasn't his job to sit in his office and twiddle his thumbs until someone came and asked him a question. It was his job to be on top of what was happening at UCA and make sure that things were on the up and up. Well they weren't. And it happened on his watch. He either wasn't paying attention, which is a huge problem, or he was involved and hasn't come clean, which is an even bigger problem. Either way, nobody should be criticizing anyone for asking for a little more light to be shed on his involvement before we just give him a sweet job with a fat paycheck just because he is buddies with those who make the decisions. People who fight against transparency and objective legitimacy are the ones who perpetuate the good old boys network that has kept this state 48th/49th in the country. You just want to give the good old boys the benefit of the doubt. Just about the time that the good old boys have this state ranking somewhere in the top half of the country is about the time you can start legitimately asking for the benefit of the doubt. Until then, be thoughtful.

Past lottery experience for the Exec. Director really isn't as important as long as he's competent and trustworthy. A smart ED will hire the right people to do the job. The most important thing for this ED to have the political will and back bone to stand up to the ever meddlesome legislators. And know which legislators are meddlesome. And which ones are say... trying to hook their brother or family up.

Halter should be given mad props for getting this thing passed. But you have to admit his personal and political skills are right there on par with Rep. Greenberg, bless his heart. He would be the last one to recognize that the Yankee from NY would probably doom the Lottery Commission.

(Besides the fact -- just because he has experience doesn't mean squat. Where did he get this experience? Is he connected to one of the 3 lottery vendors? And why did he leave NY?)

Besides Max -- you're missing the forest for this one tree. Why don't you do some real digging and find out who the major lottery players already have on their pay roll? Criticizing Courtway is low hanging fruit. The real stories are never who the lottery staff is, but who the vendor staff is.....

"People who fight against transparency and objective legitimacy are the ones who perpetuate the good old boys network that has kept this state 48th/49th in the country. "
Well put BT!

Solon, I won't take issue with most of your substantive points. Reasonable minds can disagree on some of these things. However, I will point out two things.
First, that your "Yankee from New York" comment is straight out of the handbook of how to ensure that the rest of the country sees Arkansas as an incestuous backwater pseudo-state. Ah yes, fear the outsider! Nobody and nothing good ever came from outside of Arkansas (except, of course, sports coaches and/or their players)! And be especially aware of anyone from that scary old New York City!!! Oh no! Wouldn't want anyone coming from anywhere else! Let's just keep inbreeding our ineptitude. Great idea!
And lets just go right ahead and look into why the guy from NY you are skeptical of left his last job....and then let's do the very same brilliant thing TO COURTWAY!!!!! You're making the very same suggestion we are, but you only want to apply it to the guy from NY while saying it shouldn't be applied to Courtway (who we know is coming from a debacle of a situation he was in the middle of in one way or another). You only want to apply the standard of due diligence to the guy from big bad scary New York, but not Courtway!?!? Come on!!! This is precisely the type of backassward logic that causes the leaders of this state (and apparently some of their supports) to trip all over themselves in plain view of those who elected them. Get with it!! And at the very least, be thoughtful!

What smears can y'all imagine again Wanda Young Wilson, executive vice president and general counsel of the Tennessee Education Lottery and former senior vice president and general counsel of the Georgia Lottery?

Prouster, that is a great question. And clearly the answer will lie in the fact that even though she isn't from New York, she IS still an outsider, and clearly you have to have an insider to be able to manage the complexity that is a state full of leaders that have kept the state near the bottom of the country in so many ways. Yeah, takes a brilliant Arkansas mind to be able to understand other "brilliant" Arkansans who can't seem to get us out of our decades long ruts.
And regardless, we should thoroughly investigate her background and the reason she left her previous positions (remember, she's an outsider!!), but we should absolutely NOT investigate inexperienced but well connected Arkansas based applicants who we know were in the midst of controversy in their immediate past position. Nope. Fully vet the outsiders and give the insiders with a sketchy past situation a free pass. After all, they know how to call the hogs!
Same logic must apply to finding a new University of Arkansas System president. Find the local farm manager with strong board ties and a bachelors degree. Forget anyone more qualified from outside the state. WE know how to keep this place running (near the bottom)!!! Never mind those unnecessary national searches!
I love this state...truly...but if it is going to go anywhere and achieve great(er) things, we better open our eyes to our complacency to free rides, back room deals, the good old boy network and the plain old lip service that our politicians spoon feed us to keep us voting for them just before they turn around to do favors for the deep pockets and big movers...cuz that's the way it is done here. Come on folks, we're capable of more and we can do better! Let's start now and keep it going.
If Courtway is truly (and objectively) the best person for the job, then God bless him. But if not, lets not fear the outsider. It makes us look small and petty and it keeps us at the bottom. And with that, good night, and good luck to us all!

I knows me some politics. I knows me how to scratch off a lottery ticket. I knows how to hide my disappointment when I miss the 32 million by one number. I needs me a job. I'm for hire. Call me Ray Thornton! Well, don't call me Ray Thornton, Ray Thornton call me. There. I've applied. Now back to the coal mine to await the call fromt he governor's office.

Starting a billion dollar enterprise from scratch is going to take a lot of specific knowledge of not just what to do but more importantly of what NOT TO DO!

We don't need the lottery to be a learn as you go enterprise for its leader. After it is up and running a talented administrator from an other industry could keep it going but initially as I said above, there is a lot of knowledge and specific experience needed.

Doesn't seem like those NY lottery directors stick around for an awfully long time - maybe that's good:

Jeff Perlee - 95-99
Margaret DeFrancisco - 99-2004
Nancy Palumbo - 04-06
Robert McLaughlin (our applicant) - Nov. 06-Aug. 07
Gordon Medenica - Sept. 07-present

With our willingness to limit the director's salary only by the sky, we should easily have our picks between stellar national candidates or the finest local political hacks. This is one case where moving to Arkansas would be a promotion for any Lottery Director anywhere.

Maybe Mark Pryor or Blanch Lincoln would like to move back to Arkansas for a pay raise. Maybe we can entice the husband of the Secretary of State to accept this plum or former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Maybe the Chancellor of The University of Arkansas for Medical Science could use the salary increase.

We need to put a lot of money into the director's position in order to attract the best mind available. With some other state in the Multi-state Lottery consortium picking the numbers, the Arkansas job amounts to selling tickets. Not just any yokel can handle a job like that.