The Arkansas Legislative Council on Friday authorized the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay to settle a lawsuit by its employees over the agency's policy of docking workers for lunch breaks whether or not they took time off.

Two-thirds of the money will pay attorneys' fees and expenses.

Sen. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, and Cory Cox, legislative director for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, disagreed about whether Rutledge's office sufficiently communicated with lawmakers about the proposed settlement before the parties agreed to it.

Earlier this month, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cathi Compton signed the settlement for $850,000, including a $252,568 payment to 288 nurses and assistants who sued the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The settlement also requires the department to pay $551,566 in legal fees and expenses to the nurses' attorneys: John Holleman, Timothy Steadman and Matthew Ford of Holleman & Associates law firm of Little Rock. The rest of the settlement will go to 51 of the plaintiffs and for miscellaneous expenses.

The council on Friday approved the department's request to increase its spending authority by $825,000 to pay the settlement and Gov. Asa Hutchinson's request to give $600,000 in rainy-day funds to the department to help finance the settlement. The department will use other funds from its cash balances to help pay the settlement, according to a legislative analyst.

Maloch, chairman of the council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee, said it appears that Rutledge's office failed to inform the council's Litigation Reports Oversight Committee about the proposed settlement before it was agreed upon, as required by a memorandum of understanding between the attorney general's office and the Bureau of Legislative Research. The litigation panel, according to the Legislature's website, reviews lawsuits involving the state and determines what action "may be necessary to protect the interests" of the state and Legislature.

But Cox, Rutledge's legislative director, countered that the office informed the offices of Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and the Bureau of Legislative Research about the proposed settlement in July.

"We were trying to figure out the procedure for this settlement, how it is outside of the normal procedure, seeing how this is not a claim," Cox said. "We contacted [the Bureau of Legislative Research] trying to figure out how to proceed with this and I think that's why we are here today because we contacted [the bureau] and talked to the speaker and president pro tempore's office."

Maloch said he doesn't believe that's consistent with the memorandum of understanding that "says that you are to present this to the Litigation Oversight Committee before a settlement is entered into."

"I think most of the members today will realize that there is really nothing that we can do today, except authorize payment of this claim that has been agreed upon by the parties and approved by a court," he said.

"We may not like it, but we really don't have much of an option. We do have some options when the settlement is not yet entered into and it's presented to the Litigation Oversight Subcommittee," Maloch said.

A Legislative Council co-chairman, Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, said he wants Cox to provide copies of the correspondence that Cox mentioned because he doesn't recall any correspondence with the attorney general's office in this particular case.

Rep. Nate Bell, an independent from Mena, said he wants information from Cox regarding a specific timeline about when the attorney general's office started to discuss a "final settlement" of the lawsuit and when the office contacted Dismang and Gillam.

In response to a query from Rep. Douglas House, R-North Little Rock, Assistant Attorney General Amber Schubert said the settlement was a good one.

"Quite honestly, I was pleased," she said. "I know that it seems like a high attorneys' fee award, but given the litigation history of this case and given what I think the judge would have signed off on ... I think this is a very good settlement."

Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he doesn't know whether he is more disgusted with the Department of Veterans Affairs' timecard practice or with the circuit judge.

"We should have gone there and tried to settle this before this got to this point," he said.

Hickey said he's disgusted with the circuit judge who signed an order giving about two-thirds of the settlement to attorneys. He said lawmakers need to question every one of these claims to see what the attorneys' fees are.

"The public deserves to know what was in this and this almost got by us," he said.

Metro on 08/20/2016