# Auditor's Office Senior Leadership Structure The Auditor of State of Arkansas (Dennis Milligan) operates an office whose senior-leadership tier is composed of six named principals operating in parallel functional roles. The structure surfaces across the cumulative R1 and R2 FOIA productions (6/18/25 and 6/25/25), with the Corrigan custodian sub-batch in the R2 residual completion ([[auditor-foia-r2-residual]]) supplying the missing role-identifier that closes the picture: Melissa Corrigan is **Chief of Staff**. The senior-leadership functional split: **Dennis Milligan** — Auditor of State; principal. Holds the statutory office, signs the formal correspondence, gives the public speeches, sits on the ATRS Board, APERS Board, Arkansas State Board of Finance, and is a past chair of SFOF. **Melissa Corrigan** — **Chief of Staff**. Internal-administration and personnel principal. Office at 1401 West Capitol Ave. Suite 325. Routes SFOF Communications work (Chavers/Oleka channel) to Peterson; coordinates HR and payroll administration (per the Brady-Corrigan merit-bonus text); tracks "Larry's next contract" as part of the office's DCI engagement pipeline. Attended the SFOF Spring National Meeting at Omni Orlando ChampionsGate April 22-25, 2025 as one of the four-person Auditor's-office delegation. **Jason Brady** — Chief Deputy Auditor. Policy and external principal. Drafts Milligan's formal letters (Sen. Dotson, Sen. Hester, Auditor-to-Treasury text-message channel), runs the SFOF policy letter operation, attends SFOF Policy Zooms, orchestrates the April 14-15 Capitol tour, coordinates Treasury-side participation in DCI delegation visits (Brady-Burleson text), serves as the carrier of Milligan's Israel Bonds request to the ATRS Board (per White's 5/22 preview), and is the operational liaison to DCI senior staff (Berman closes "thanks again Wendy....and Jason, a million thanks my friend"). **Wendy Spadoni** — Executive Assistant to the Auditor. Scheduling and logistics principal. Phone 501.371.2133. Coordinates the April Capitol tour eight-meeting schedule, formats formal letterhead correspondence, sends Brady-drafted Milligan-voice formal letters "from the dm account," maintains DCI-side day-of-trip communication (Berman's primary contact). Maintains a spiral planner with documented Larry Berman trip scheduling. **Stacy Peterson** — Director of Communications (APR). Communications and public-facing principal. Phone 501.371.2118. Drafted the 10/7/2024 Capitol Rotunda speech, designed the October 2024 Israel Solidarity Operation, scripts radio show appearances, designs social media content, coordinates video production with Underwood, monitors SFOF Policy Zoom calls on Brady's delegation (from late May 2025), brokered the 6/4/2025 SFOF Israel-Bonds-model-replication offer to Adam Schwend. Not on SFOF Communications-Specialist direct distribution as of late December 2024; her SFOF role developed through engagement with policy and operations principals rather than through the routine Communications channel. **Kristina Duke** — Assistant Chief of Staff. Subordinate to Corrigan per the Brady-Corrigan merit-bonus text ("we just need to let Kristina and the management team know we're going to push it back to the next payday"). Documented role limited to internal administration; Duke does not appear in any documented Israel Bonds or DCI correspondence beyond the management-team reference. **Kurt Underwood** — Auditor's-office video producer. Produced the 10/7/2024 "I stand with Israel" YouTube video (https://youtu.be/oPGl3ir_Bn4) under Peterson's direction; hosted the 4/16/2025 9:00-10:00 AM "Record Video for SFOF" session in his office with Milligan and Peterson. Documented role limited to video production; not on any documented Israel Bonds substantive correspondence. ## Functional pairing The four working senior-leadership principals (Corrigan, Brady, Spadoni, Peterson) operate in parallel functional pairs: - **Internal vs External**: Corrigan (Chief of Staff, internal) parallel to Brady (Chief Deputy Auditor, external) - **Logistics vs Substance**: Spadoni (Executive Assistant, scheduling) parallel to Peterson (Director of Communications, substance) The pairing surfaces in two documented patterns. First, the Brady-Corrigan personnel coordination (merit-bonus push-back during Israel Bonds and APERS banking-service scheduling pressure) documents Brady deferring to Corrigan on internal administration. Second, the Brady-Spadoni text-message delegation of the Dotson follow-up (sent "from the dm account") and the parallel Brady-Peterson speech co-finalization (the 4/17/2025 SFOF Spring speech "Sir, Jason and I have made a few tweaks to your speech for SFOF") document Brady working with Spadoni on outbound formal correspondence and with Peterson on substantive speech content. ## SFOF and DCI engagement load The SFOF and DCI engagement footprint is distributed across the senior-leadership tier as follows: - **Milligan**: speaker (SFOF Spring National Meeting 4/24/2025), letter signatory (SFOF sign-on letters), past chair (SFOF), in-person host (April Capitol tour, NYC office video), card recipient (Brad Young handwritten card) - **Brady**: SFOF policy letter signature coordination, SFOF Policy Zoom attendance, April Capitol tour orchestration, Treasury-coordination texts, DCI relationship maintenance ("a million thanks my friend"), ATRS Board carrier role - **Spadoni**: scheduling for both November 2024 Election Day trip and April 2025 Capitol tour, formal correspondence formatting, post-trip contact list maintenance for DCI follow-up - **Peterson**: October 2024 Israel Solidarity Operation design, SFOF Spring speech polishing, SFOF model-replication broker (6/4/2025 to Schwend), Capitol Rotunda speech drafter - **Corrigan**: SFOF Communications channel routing, "Larry's next contract" pipeline tracking, SFOF Spring National Meeting attendance, personnel administration Each principal has a documented Israel Bonds or SFOF role beyond ordinary office administration. The Auditor's office is structured so that its Israel Bonds and SFOF coordination is not a side function delegated to one staff member but a portfolio of distributed responsibilities across the entire senior-leadership tier. ## What this concept page does not document The mid-tier and junior office staff are not surveyed here. The wiki's documented mid-tier staff include Thomas Burchfield (asked by Peterson to read the SFOF speech aloud to Milligan for rehearsal) and Josh Wood (cc'd on Brady's "really ugly first draft" SFOF speech email). The full Auditor's office staff roster is not in the documentary record. This concept page also does not document the inter-office reporting relationships in detail; it documents only the functional roles surfaced through Israel Bonds and SFOF coordination. The org-chart hierarchy (which staff report formally to whom) is partially inferable but not fully documented in the wiki materials. ## Evidence > [!evidence] Corrigan signature block, FW Quick Communications Survey.pdf p.1, 12/20/2024 > "Melissa Corrigan / Chief of Staff / Office of Auditor of State - Dennis Milligan / 1401 West Capitol Ave. Suite 325 / Little Rock, AR 72201 / Phone: 501-371-2110 Cell: 501-580-3869 / Email: [email protected]" > [!evidence] Dennis Milligan describing Brady as "my Deputy Auditor," Emails3.pdf p.1, 4/11/2025 > "If your plans change, please reach out to my Deputy Auditor, Jason Brady, to reschedule a time. He can be reached at 501-516-2035 or 501-366-7525." > [!evidence] Spadoni signature block, May 16, 2025.pdf p.2 > "Wendy Spadoni / Executive Assistant to the Auditor / Office of the Auditor of State - Dennis Milligan / Phone: 501.371.2133 (o); 501.804.9184 (m) / [email protected] / 500 Woodlane, Suite 230 / Little Rock, AR 72201" > [!evidence] Peterson signature block, multiple files, October 2024 through June 2025 > "Stacy Peterson, APR / Director of Communications / Arkansas Auditor of State Dennis Milligan / 501.371.2118 office / 501.519.3650 cell" > [!evidence] Jason Brady iMessage to Melissa Corrigan, JB to MC text 2025-06-24.pdf p.1, Mon, May 19 at 8:08 AM (documenting Corrigan as Brady's deferral target for HR/personnel decisions and Duke as her subordinate) > "Honestly MC we just need to let Kristina and the management team know we're going to push it back to the next payday, unless you disagree" ## Cross-References [[dennis-milligan]] Auditor and office principal [[melissa-corrigan]] Chief of Staff [[jason-brady]] Chief Deputy Auditor [[wendy-spadoni]] Executive Assistant to the Auditor [[stacy-peterson]] Director of Communications [[kristina-duke]] Assistant Chief of Staff [[kurt-underwood]] video producer [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] [[sfof-policy-letter-operation]] [[sfof-state-financial-officer-network]] [[october-2024-israel-solidarity-operation]] [[dci-promotional-pipeline]] companion concept pages that draw on the senior-leadership functional roles documented here [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] source page that surfaced the Corrigan Chief of Staff title closing the org-structure picture ## Auditor R3 3-3-26 production: TJ Fowler as General Counsel The Auditor R3 production at [[auditor-foia-r3-3-3-26]] surfaces **TJ Fowler** as the Auditor's-office General Counsel — the eighth named senior-leadership-tier principal documented in the wiki. Office: 1401 West Capitol, Suite 325 (same address as Corrigan as Chief of Staff). Phone: 501.831.2707. Email: [email protected]. See [[tj-fowler]] for the dedicated entity page. Fowler's role is formal legal authority over FOIA responses and other legal-counsel matters. He is the third state-level General Counsel position documented in the wiki, counterpart to Olan Reeves at the Treasurer's office (Interim through Dec 2024) and Laura Gilson at APERS. The Auditor's-office FOIA-handling structure documented across the 6/19-6/23/2025 Re Freedom of Information Request thread places Fowler at the top of a five-tier operational structure: - **T.J. Fowler** — General Counsel, formal legal authority - **Stacy Peterson + Kurt Underwood** — operational handlers (Peterson 6/19/2025 3:58 PM: "TJ, is this something you want me and Kurt to handle?") - **Wendy Spadoni** — triage and forwarding (53-minute turnaround on the Dunlap FOIA forward) - **Jason Brady** — FOIA liaison and iPhone-based router - **Melissa Corrigan** — Chief of Staff coordination Fowler was on leave the week of June 16-20, 2025. During his absence the Auditor's office received both Lenow's second ATRS canvass forward (6/19/2025) and Joshua Dunlap's primary FOIA submission (6/22/2025). Peterson and Underwood ran the operational FOIA response without him; Fowler returned 6/23 and resumed the lead. The leave-period coverage establishes the office's FOIA-handling redundancy structure — Peterson and Underwood are the named alternates when General Counsel is unavailable. The complete Auditor's-office senior-leadership tier as documented across R1/R2/R3 productions is now: - **Auditor Dennis Milligan** — elected principal - **Chief of Staff Melissa Corrigan** — internal administration, personnel, Berman-engagement tracking - **Chief Deputy Auditor Jason Brady** — policy substance, external relations, SFOF coordination, Israel Bonds liaison - **General Counsel T.J. Fowler** — legal authority, FOIA responses (introduced R3) - **Executive Assistant Wendy Spadoni** — scheduling, calendar coordination, document triage - **Director of Communications Stacy Peterson** — public-facing, speech drafting, SFOF Communications, operational FOIA handling - **Assistant Chief of Staff Kristina Duke** — subordinate to Corrigan - **Video Producer Kurt Underwood** — video production, operational FOIA handling (introduced R3) Eight named principals (one elected, seven appointed) document the senior-leadership tier. The R3 production adds the General Counsel role (Fowler) and expands Underwood's documented role beyond video production into FOIA operational handling. ## Tensions This concept page is documentary-inventory and surfaces no first-class tensions. The page catalogs the Auditor's-office senior-leadership tier (eight named principals across R1/R2/R3 productions), documents the functional pairing structure, and traces the SFOF and DCI engagement footprint distributed across the tier. The documentary record on each principal's role and title is settled across the cumulative productions; the FOIA-handling redundancy structure is documented directly through the 6/19-6/23/2025 Re Freedom of Information Request thread. No competing readings of the same Tier-1 evidentiary base contest what the senior-leadership structure is or how its functional roles operated. See [[methodology]] § II for the criteria distinguishing documentary-inventory pages from concept pages that surface contested mechanisms.