# Kenneth Burleson Deputy Treasurer in the office of Arkansas Treasurer of State John Thurston. Listed on the May 16, 2025 follow-up contact list xlsx Wendy Spadoni provided to Brad Young after the April 2025 Capitol tour ([[auditor-foia-r1-spadoni]]). Burleson is documented in the wiki primarily as Jason Brady's Treasury-side coordination contact for the November 5, 2024 Election Day Berman trip. The Brady-Burleson text-message thread captured in the auditor@ R2 residual sub-batch ([[auditor-foia-r2-residual]]) is the first documented Auditor's-office Treasury coordination on the DCI delegation. On Monday, October 28, 2024 at 11:29 AM Brady sent Burleson two consecutive iMessages on his iPhone. The first message asked whether Treasurer Thurston ("the Secretary") could give Lawrence Berman a five-minute hello-handshake-photo on Tuesday November 5, 2024 (Election Day), plus whether Burleson and "Bill" (Bill Huffman, Treasury Chief Deputy, [[bill-huffman]]) could give Berman a 30-minute substantive meeting. The second message confirmed Brady had already scheduled meetings with ATRS Mark White at 10 AM and APERS Carlos Borromeo at 1:30 PM for the same day. Brady's framing "We are aware the timing isn't ideal" acknowledged the Election Day awkwardness; the request nonetheless proceeded. Two findings follow. First, the Brady-Burleson text is six months earlier than any prior documented Treasurer-DCI contact in the wiki. The wiki's prior framing of the 4/15/2025 11:30 AM Thurston-Berman Capitol office meeting (per [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]]) as the first Treasurer-DCI contact is therefore refined: Brady was already running the Treasury coordination on October 28, 2024, five days after the seed email to ATRS and APERS executive directors. Second, whether the requested 5-minute Thurston photo or 30-minute Burleson/Huffman meeting actually occurred on November 5 is not knowable from this text alone. The Brady-Borromeo APERS Election Day meeting is documented from Borromeo's side at [[auditor-foia-r2-jbrady]]; the parallel Brady-White ATRS meeting and the Burleson/Huffman Treasury meeting are both documented in this text as scheduled but not corroborated by Treasury or ATRS production. Burleson's documentary footprint in the wiki is limited to this iMessage thread plus his appearance on the May 16, 2025 follow-up contact list xlsx and the ATRS Board designee role documented below. The wiki does not document Burleson on any documented Israel Bonds correspondence beyond the 10/28/2024 Election Day coordination, on any State Board of Finance distribution, or on any pension-board materials beyond the ATRS Board designee role. The Treasury-side participation in the November 5 trip outcome would be a follow-up FOIA target. ## ATRS Board designee role (7/3/25 production) The 7/3/25 supplemental ATRS FOIA production introduces a previously-undocumented Burleson role: Burleson attends ATRS Board of Trustees meetings as Treasurer Thurston's designee under the ex officio designee pattern. The April 7, 2025 Board meeting attendance roster lists: > "Kenneth Burleson, designee for Hon. John Thurston, State Treasurer" > 04-07-25 minutes embedded in 06-02-25_BOT_Packet.pdf Burleson's specific procedural participation at the 4/7 meeting (motions, seconds, votes) is not separately documented in the extracted minutes text. The Treasurer is an ex officio member of the ATRS Investment Committee per BP1 Section XII; whether Burleson attends Investment Committee meetings as designee is not knowable from the Board-level 4/7 minutes alone. The cross-confirmation is structurally significant: the same Treasury Deputy whom Brady text-messaged on 10/28/2024 to coordinate Thurston's Election Day participation in the November 2024 Berman trip is the same Treasury Deputy who attended the April 7 ATRS Board meeting as Thurston's designee five months later. The Auditor's-office channel finds its institutional counterpart inside the Treasurer's office at the same person. ## Evidence > "Hey - Larry Berman and a regional team member with Israel Bonds is in town Tuesday Nov 5 - yes Election Day. I'm setting up meetings with apers and ATRS for them. The Auditor is asking is there anyway the Secretary could do a five minute hello / handshake and photo visit - and then if you and Bill could give him 30 minutes. More of a get to know than anything. We are aware the timing isn't ideal." > Jason Brady iMessage to Kenneth Burleson, JB to KB 2025-06-24.pdf p.1, Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 11:29 AM > "I have 10 with ATRS and 1:30 with apers by the way - it can be later in the day if necessary" > Jason Brady iMessage to Kenneth Burleson, JB to KB 2025-06-24.pdf p.1, Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 11:29 AM (second message) ## Cross-References [[john-thurston]] Burleson's principal; the Treasurer Brady was requesting time from [[bill-huffman]] Treasury Chief Deputy named alongside Burleson in Brady's coordination request [[jason-brady]] Auditor's Chief Deputy who initiated the 10/28/2024 Treasury coordination text [[lawrence-berman]] DCI National Managing Director who was the subject of the Treasury-meeting request [[auditor-as-dci-channel]] concept page documenting the Auditor's office as a coordination hub for DCI delegation visits [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] concept page; the prior wiki framing of the 4/15/2025 Thurston meeting as the first Treasurer-DCI contact is refined by this text [[atrs-board-governance-structure]] concept page on the ATRS Board designee pattern [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] [[atrs-bot-packets-7-3-25]] source pages ## Treasury R1 7-7-25 production: Burleson on the Walther-era Berman cc list The Treasury R1 batch documents Burleson on the cc list for Berman's 12/23/2024 11:09 AM "January 1 $10M Israel Bond maturity" email and the 12/31/2024 12:05 PM rate-sheet follow-up. Berman's distribution: To: Steve Pulley, [email protected] [sic — note misspelled email domain], Bill R. Huffman Jr. ([email protected]), Celeste Gladden; Cc: Larry W. Walther, Bradley Young, Luis Jimenez. The presence of Burleson and Huffman on Berman's distribution list at the December 2024 maturity-redemption phase confirms Burleson and Huffman are routinely on Treasurer's-office Israel Bonds correspondence beyond the 10/28/2024 Election Day coordination text. The "sos.arkansas.gov" domain on Burleson's address (the Secretary of State's domain rather than artreasury.gov) is anomalous and may reflect a Berman address-book error or a legitimate cross-departmental email alias; the wiki does not have other documentation to distinguish. Burleson is therefore documented across both the Walther era (December 2024 Berman maturity-redemption distribution) and the Walther-Thurston transition (10/28/2024 Brady Election Day coordination plus the April 7 2025 ATRS Board designee role). Whether Burleson continued in role through the Thurston era beyond 4/7/2025 is not documented in this batch. [[treasury-foia-r1-7-7-25]] source page