Video: Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue at the Legislative Oversight Committee
Arkansas Lottery Executive Director Ernie Passailaigue presented his salary budget to the Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee this morning. Passailaigue requested approval of a start up budget which included $3 million for salary for 88 positions. Two of these positions, the VP of Admin./COO and the VP Gaming Operations, were both list in the budget at $225,000. Passailaigue emphasized the need to balance hiring individuals with lottery experience with the desire to hire from within Arkansas. Passailiague admitted to the committee that most all of the upper level position will need to be imported from states that have an existing lottery. The recommended budget passed with only one no vote from Sen. Johnny Key, who have problems not only with the salary levels but with errors in the documentations submitted for approval.
Passailaigue expressed his strong desire to get the lottery in operations by October 29, 2009 saying that his reputation is on the online to do so. He even suggested that if he did not achieve this he “might as well go back to South Carolina.” He later distanced himself somewhat from this remark.
“Everybody will know if this is a success or failure,” said Passailaigue. “If it is a failure, nobody will not have to show me the door. If it is a success, I will give all the credit to our staff.”
During his remarks to the committee, Passailaigue commented that he feels the press has mainly been negative in their coverage of the lottery process, but he said he expected this was also the case in South Carolina until the scholarships began and then no one complained. He told me that he felt the press gets involved many times in things that are trivial, such as the issue of keno games. Referring the keno, he stopped short of saying he did not want keno games instead saying, “It’s not important to me… In the scheme of things, it is a 1 out of 100. In the scheme of things, Powerball is a 99 out of 100.” He said he could not understand why it is a big issue, but he now understands that it is.
When asked by the press about the salary level of the two employees in South Carolina who he desire to hire at the $225,00 level, he could not remember exactly what their salary level was but said he thinks it around the $130,000 to $140,000 range.
“I talk a little bit about South Carolina because I think because I think that gives you a roadmap to the future,” Passailaigue remarked. “But that’s history for me. I have left South Carolina and I’m in Arkansas.”