ALC-Personnel

All right, welcome. We're gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order. Thank you all for being here today. Um, I apologize, we're running a few minutes late, so we're gonna go ahead and jump right into it. Um, we'll start off with item B1. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Uh, items B1, B2, and B3. Our request from the Department of Agriculture, Human Services, and Arkansas Public Employee Retirement System to implement special compensation awards and or recruiting incentive plans as authorized by code 215227 and 228. These plans require approval by the committee before they can be implemented. The plans provide the agencies and departments the opportunity to give bonuses for special projects completion and incentives to new hires as a recruitment tool. OPM has recommended the plans for your. approval So item B1, this is the request for the Department of Agriculture. They're requesting to implement both a special compensation award system and a recruiting incentive. The special compensation awards will be available to employees in the listed classifications who work specifically on water and wastewater projects. The agency has seen a significant increase in the projects and anticipates more, uh, of these projects in the future. They've also seen a significant turnover in project administrators and engineers. The agency anticipates the cost to be roughly $170,000 per year at $55,000 per employee. If they offer, uh, 40 hours and 40 hours of leave in lieu of the cash, the cost would be about $44,000 a year. They've also requested as part of the plan, a $5000 recruitment incentive for new engineer supervisors, professional engineers, and engineers in general, based on the difficulty the agency is having hiring and retaining the engineer position. Chairman, that's B1. All right, are there any questions on B1? Seen none. It's got to be too. I would do it again. OK, we're gonna go ahead and approve that first. Um, do I have a motion to providing B1. The motion, a 2, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. All right, B2, Madam Chairman, B2 is a request from the Department of Human Services that also includes a special compensation award system and a recruiting incentive for current full-time employees and new hires in direct care nursing positions at DHS facilities, including Human development centers, the state hospital, and Arkansas Health Center. Employees in the classifications on the last page will be. Eligible for $5000 bonuses, while new hires in these positions would be eligible for $5000 hiring incentives. The total cost for the plants would be roughly 1.26 million according to DHS. That's item B2. OK, um, do we want to go ahead and call DHS up to the table if DHS is here. I think we probably have some questions on this. OK. Um, Representative Eaves, you're recognized for a question? Sorry, I'm distracted by my colleague. Um, Yeah, I, I don't even know where to start. I've got a couple of questions, um, and I know that we've received some emails that talks about how many positions are available or, or vacant at some of the human development centers. Um. Are the RNs and LPNs that are currently there, are they at the top? Of their pay scale, their pay grade. So, Melissa Weatherton, um, director of Medicaid Specialty Populations and I have with me. Tommy Tarpley, the deputy director of the division of Developmental Disability Services. So I'm actually gonna ask Tommy to answer that question because, um, not to put him on the spot, but he's done all the analysis on the data, um, regarding our current nurses at all 7 of our facilities, um, and I know it, we've looked a lot around midpoint. So if Tommy would answer them, I don't think that they're at the top of their pay. So it would depend from an employee to employee, the ones that have been there the longest, um, some might be at the max, the current max for the base scale, others not both. RNs and LPNs I mean I'm supportive of the of the plan you have to offer some bonuses to try to keep, um, nurses at these facilities. Um, how much are we spending right now on the travel nursing? So I pulled the numbers, anticipating I get asked. So we, um, we pulled the numbers based on just the last fiscal year close out because that was the cleanest because all of those bills have been paid. So as of June 30th. So SFY 24. So for the, um, Arkansas State Hospital. We spent on the, um, on-call nursing contracts. We spent 4.8 million. At the Arkansas Health Center. We spent roughly 3.2 million. And similarly at the across the 5 human development centers, a total of 3, 3.24 million. So, I guess, I mean, I, I'm just trying to follow along with, uh, clearly you're having an issue. Attracting nurses to work at, for example, the Human Development Centers. But if we're spending $3.2 million on travel nurses, and I have nothing, no issue with, with those folks. Could that 3.2 million not be used to offer higher pay for nurses and and LPNs and other workers at these human development centers? And if so, why aren't we doing that? Do you not have it in the budget? Is it not authorized or? So in short, you and Ms. Barnhill can speak to this when we change the pay on a certain position, like an LPN or an RPN, it affects the entire, um, pay scale for that position across state government. So what we're doing right now is we're asking for a proposal just for the 7 facilities at the Department of Human Services, while we work with the governor's office and Ms. Barnhill at OPM on the new class and. Compensation Act, that's my understanding will be presented to you guys, um, later this year. Yes, sir. We're currently working on a new pay plan nurses are a priority because we've recognized problems and we're aware of the contract dollars going out, so they are one of our we call target classifications and so we've got new salary data from comparable entities and we're looking at that as we speak. And, and I guess that's been an ongoing thing. Is that, is that one of the originally proposed plan was pulled from the June ALC meeting. And I'm not trying to put you on the spot. I'm just saying that we clearly recognize there's a need for higher pay for RNs and LPNs at these facilities. And and so knowing that, that there's a need to for higher pay, we've been able to spend $3.2 million in the last fiscal year. I'm just trying to understand why, why or what we need to do to spend $3.2 million on permanent nurses at these facilities. OK, well, I think the first step is this plan today. That was the thing that we all agreed on to give everybody a $5000 bonus as well as recruitment incentives so that would uh eliminate many of the vacancies is our hope with that. That would also be our intermediate step before we get the pay plan actually implemented. OK, I'm trying to follow what you just said. So we're going to give $5000 bonuses, that's to RNs, LPNs that are, or any nursing, is that, that are already employed there in addition to trying to give the same $5000 bonus as someone who signs up new. OK, um. It's a little different, I think the way they've mapped out for the new ones. It's not an immediate one time payment where the nurses that are currently employed, it will be a one-time lump sum payment to do you think you'll be able to nurses to these facilities? And, and knowing that the pay is, you know, below where it needs to be by offering this bonus. Is that, I mean, or are you just kind of, and I don't, I mean, are we, are we saying we're going to give you the 5000, we know the pay is low, and we're going to come up with a pay plan and hopefully get the pay higher. Is that the plan? That's OK. And, and I'm sorry, Madam Chairman, that I'm taking so long, but what about the cottage workers? I mean, are those CRNA positions? I may have the acronym wrong. CNA, I mean, OK, CNA. Oh yeah, sure. So the, the, the staff that do direct the direct care. Yes, so years ago, you know, we set up to get them upgraded, um, because they were extremely low grades. I think they were 0 threes. So, several years ago, we actually started CNA schools. Um, we have a CNA school on the campus of the health center, and we've had for many years and then we put CNA schools at the campuses of the. DC, so we were able to raise their salary and bring them in at an 05 level. Um, we have seen, um, that we were really struggling in that space. Um, but we have seen that level out. Where we are struggling, um, right now across all of the DHS facilities is LPNs and RNs. OK, and last, real quick, the CNAs, are they, uh, I, I suppose they'll be part of the pay plan and are they eligible for any of those? These one-time bonuses in this request. Is that because you're not having a hard time filling those positions? OK, thank you for the information. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I, I was, um, I was wondering, I mean, I know there is, um, a balance because we are working on a new state employee pay plan. Um, but I also know that this has been going on for a couple of years and so it's, you know, more than just about the, the pay, but really the continuity of care for these clients, and I think it's been, you know, they've probably been suffering for a little while and the families feel the same because of all the medications and the care, um. And so I just, I'm sort of wondering the same thing as Representative Eaves is, will this, I know we're trying to get to July 1, but I'm wondering if this will actually solve. It's my understanding that not all the HDCs are having, um, a shortage right now, but there are a couple. Is, is that correct? And then will $5000 between now and July really. Help. So for your first question, um, uh, Senator Davis, so you're correct. So out of our 5 human development centers, we are not utilizing the on-call nursing contract at the Boomville Human Development Center. We have staff there. That center is unique, um, and it always has been when we see issues in others with staffing, we do not have the same issues usually, um, in that, um, at that facility and probably just based on the location of where it's. Um. Will you repeat your second question? I will the $5000 help? So I, I will, I will say, you know, we took a stance at the department, a very uniform stance that really are high priority. Is retention, right? So we, you know, we have had nurses, um, across our, our facilities who have really stuck with us, right? Very loyal employees who have had to work a lot of overtime, um, especially during the pandemic, um, and we are able, there are some triggers where we have the capability of bringing in new staff, new LPNs and RNs at a more accelerated pay rate. It's called exceptionally well qualified. OK, so, but the problem we were having is that you, you don't, you're not really eligible for anything in our current pay plan if you continue to do the job that you're already doing. So once you get in the door, there's really no mechanism unless you move up a grade to get additional compensation. So it was very important to us that we focused on giving the $5000 right now to our current nurses um in an effort to show our appreciation and to try to retain them as this interim step. Um. Represent a barrier recognized just real quick, thank you, um, Madam Chair. The, uh, so is there a plan to include at some point our CNA CNAs are vital to this mission, especially at our, at our human development centers, uh, or even half of the amount or something to recognize the outstanding, uh, job that they're doing because if you don't have them, it's really gonna upset the apple cart. So is there a plan down the road or something to incorporate them into, uh, Uh, this incentive plan. I will say at this time what we focused on was the, like the most critical positions for us. And of course we had to run physical analysis because we are absorbing this in our current budget, um, without any additional funding requests. So we would need to run the fiscal impact of what that would do across all seven, for any additional bonuses to additional types of staff and critical employees are critical when you don't have them. So if you, if you're not recognize them for going above and beyond and provide going to that extra mile, uh, to provide a service to, to their clients, uh, and you lose them. Then it's going to be critical. So, I think we need to be more proactive instead of reactive in a lot of these situations. OK, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And is it accurate for me to make the assumption that as you guys are working on the new state employee plan that we're looking at ways to separate these workers out so it doesn't impact every RN across the state, but it really addresses this core issue. Um, well, currently we are really looking at all our ends because they have similar problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs at the nursing home, uh, health department has some problems out, uh, bringing people to the central office. So we are looking at all of them, and I think all of them are going to see a nice, um, increase, you know, I don't want to promise anybody increase, but I mean, we're grading a whole different grading scale that we're putting them on it'll still be nurses across, you know. RNs across the board or, um, OK, I just wondered. All right, thank you. I real quick. So while we're on that subject, I thought I'd throw it out there and ask where are we at on the the pay plan and when will this committee be able to see something on, um, well I can tell you I was actually happy to come here because I've been locked in the basement working on the pay plan for the last 2 or 3 months. We're getting very close. We have, we're finishing up some of the salary matches. We've got some. Tables designed, we're running them through costing mechanisms and um trying to prepare a good proposal for the governor. So I think we're closer, a lot closer than we've ever been at this point in time. OK. Do you think we'll see a proposal to the governor by the end of the year I think we should, yes sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Senator Hammer, you're recognized for question. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I may get the name backwards so straight forward Arkansas, Arkansas forward. Arkansas. OK, and incorporated in that is a review of the, uh, very thing we're talking about as far as the, as it relates to the nurses at all levels, whether it's the veterans or whether it's CHS Human Development Cents, whatever, correct. Arkansas For has several initiatives that will affect employees. So we're working through those now as well. Part of the question I've got the, the workers in question. That this relates to because there's something came through, I forgot review this week about the veterans and the nurses there at the veteran's home. This is, uh, are these nurses at these facilities classified as essential workers. I know at DHS they're central. I don't think veteran's home was included in the listing for essential, um, you know, there's a There's a listing in the act that was passed that named 6 or 7 departments that can actually give the 45 days that were considered critical and essential. I need to go back and check on veterans. I wish you'd look at that because I know in situations like the, uh, health center out there when it's inclement weather that essential workers have to show up regardless and they. That requirement is out there. And when you look at the, when you're looking at the pay scale that you're gonna bring to us for, I think that's coming before us in the general session, right, for approval when you're looking at that, I wish consideration would be given to those that are essential workers, uh, because they, they have to show up regardless. I don't know if that would help and, you know, identifying which nurses ought to get what pay scale, uh, versus maybe somebody working in one area and not the other, uh, and then my other question is You got 4.8 million, 3.2 million, and 3.24 million. How was that accommodated in the budget? Right now, it's my understanding and Mr. Tarpley can correct me. It's, um, with each of the divisions that it's the line item is housed under professional service lines. So to accommodate for raises, that money that previously was being sent out to contract companies. Will that be able to be utilized? Are you building that into the budget to accommodate the increase in salaries. Yes, sir. So we'll take an initial. Go ahead, yeah, you're better than me different line items, so we would see the. The increase, um, in the salary lines and we would see the decrease in the operating expense line, which is what the contract nurses would be paid out through. Right, so you, you'll, you'll, uh, move it from one to the other two order to help cover the cost of the increase to the salaries. Is that right? Ideally as close in line as possible, um. OK. And then the last thing is we're all getting emails and, and you appreciate parents whose children's, uh, children are in the facilities, um, how do you feel that with this, it's going to address the concerns because what's being expressed to us is the, the shortages, the potential for uh needs not to be met, um, those are the things I'm sure you're familiar with because those parents are great advocates, um, I'd just like you to give us an open air comment about how you feel this is gonna help. those concerns. I don't know that this is, is fully going to address the concerns. I, I think this is an interim step, um, but we still need to focus on a longer term solution, um, as you know, I was the director for that division for many, many years. And so, No, I, I completely agree with the emails you're getting. The clients that live in our human development centers and our health center, and even our site hospital, many of them have a hard time communicating. You have to get to know them, to know how they're signaling if something's wrong. Um, the only way you get to know people like that is to have consistent caretakers. So, um, that is ultimately our goal is to completely get off of these on-call contracts and higher, um, a full-time nursing. Team, um, that can get to know our clients and we do believe that will result in better patient care overall. I think that's the driving point to make when it comes because some others and other classification other job descriptions, you know, may feel if, if there's not equality across the board when it comes to the pay scale, but the one thing is, uh, you bring in somebody that's traveling, no disrespect to them, they, they're good people, but they don't know longstanding history of the patients of these. Populations that we're serving, so I think it makes for a good argument to take care of these nurses and these staff so that we can take care of the patients the way everybody wants, including the division, wanting them taken care of. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Sullivan, you're recognized? When I visited one of the HDC's the other day, they said that, that they, um, the hospitals can have uh students 17 years old working there an internships. But they have to be 18 to intern at HTC's and that is just a rule change. Is there a reason for that, a safety reason for that disparity? And Sara Sullivan, um. I just want to say thank you for visiting the Jonesboro Center. It meant a lot to them that you came out. Um, I believe that that is a role for state employees. That's a minimum age range, but they did not mention this to me when they got back, so I will definitely look into it for you and get back to you. So we don't know why that's true. No, sir, because it would seem that a 17 year old working at a level at the hospital with a higher need. Then you work at a lower level of care and you have a higher threshold. And if that is a rule change, can someone let me know by the end of the week what that is and if we need a rule change, our legislation to change that, that would have helped them tremendously in their labor shortage. And I would think it would also help our K-12 schools if they in our transition school to work would be a really big deal because they would be being paid then. OK, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Representative Eaves, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I'm just listening to the comments that are being said now, and, and Kay, this may be a, a question for you again, not trying to put anyone on the spot and I'm hoping you can tell me the reason, but if we feel like we can spill 3, 3.2, spin $3.2 million dollars on travel nurses. Was there any thought to spending 3.2 million on increasing the pay for these nurses, or are they at, and you may have answered this, or are these folks already at their? Maximum. I know we can pay over maximum in some cases, but I'm just, help me understand because we don't, this isn't the only case we're doing this with travel nursing. I mean, this keeps coming up time and time again we can afford to pay travel nurses. And I, and I understand the need for it, but could we not spend that same money and, and get, you know, solid, consistent, full-time help. Yes, sir. I mean, We would rather put that money into our own employees at that time, right now. Um, I'll go back and research it some more and see, see what can happen with that. I mean, did we know that it was going to cost 3.2 million for travel nursing? They. Yes, sir. And we've had, we've had to make projections because we've had to use on call staffing contracts throughout the pandemic. So that's when it really started and we were actually using a lot of CNAs through these contracts at the beginning. Senator Chesterfield's shaking her head. She remembers that we could spend 3.2 million and increase the starting pay or or current pay of these nurses to the same dollar. I'm just, I don't really understand that the department does not have a mechanism on our own to to increase pay on individual positions. OK, so how do they get a raise? OK, uh, over the last year, you might remember we gave all employees in state government a 3% market adjustment and then they received an additional 1 to 3% based on their performance results. So there was a large group of people that received 5-6%, um, we are still looking at that one of the premises we work towards is pay for performance, and that's one of the things we're trying to continue with this new pay plan study, so we will investigate other options. So if you hire a nurse now at a human development center, for example, at whatever you hire them in at, you're saying there is no mechanism for them to receive a higher pay and less. It comes from. The legislature. No, sir. Let me So there is a, there is a mechanism called, um, exceptionally well qualified. So we would send an exceptionally well qualified form, um, for new nurses, and we have been sending many, um, over to OPM for approval. There's no mechanism for current nurses. So you could not have spent the $3.2 million to give current nurses increased pay or increased starting pay, but you could spend it for travel nursing. I'm, I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot. I really am just trying to understand this, but is that what Is that what I'm hearing? So, so each state agency has to work within the bounds of the, um, pay plan that is given to Allstate employees. So Representative Eaves, you're correct. We, we, we have the appropriation right now to do, um, the 3.2, 3.2, and 4 at Ash, um, we have that, it's been approved, it's been appropriated. We do not have a mechanism to go in. And change the current pay of our current nurses. Thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate it. All right. Sender Hammer, you're recognized? Bottom line is your hands were tied because of rules and legislation and the pay plan, correct? Thank you, Senator Hammer. Yes, that's fine. I mean, it is what it is and we're trying to move to where we want to be, and this is the bridge to try to make an attempt to get us in that right direction. Where are you going to get the money from? To pay for, and if I'm reading it right, you got. 510,467 283, is that going to come from the same place that you were able to hire the contract nurses under or where what's the source of that funding? So the actual source of funds is the same, how it pays out from an appropriation standpoint would be different. Where's the pain out from? Maybe I missed that. So the contract, contract nurses are paid out as an operating expense through 02. And then the bonuses would be paid out as a payroll item. I think it's commitment at 00. Regular salaries and there'd be a fringe aspect to that too. So 3. So how many contract nurses do you have under contract now and how's it gonna hit your budget till we get transitioned to January. So I wish that was a simple answer for that, and God bless, uh, Mr. Tarpley for all the analysis he's done. So it's not, it's impossible almost for us to do a 1 to 1 comparison because the the way we are pulling nurses for the facilities is by. So I will, I'll tell you when we looked at state fiscal year 24 of how many hours we paid for across all of these on-call contracts across all 7 of our facilities, um, like at the state hospital, we were paying somewhere, we paid for around 70,000 hours of nursing, if that makes sense. So, you know, because sometimes they're doing, they're not doing the same shifts that a state employee would do. They're coming in for 2 days, there's another one coming. In for the another day. Um, at the health center, it was about 50,000 hours we paid for, um, to do contracting and then at the HCCs it was about 53,000.ly rate you paid out was. So it's a different rate for LPN or RN and there's different rates across all of the on-call contracts. So I know that y'all are seeing these contracts keep coming forward and asking for, um, additional, um, appropriations. So that we can hit them. Some of the contracts um produce better than others. Um, so, and it really depends on the location of where one of the facilities is, um, but they all pay a little bit differently. Is that fair? OK, but you've got the money, this will give you the mechanism to use the money gets us through to January. Last question, are you seeing nurses that have left working for the state coming back into the facilities working for contract vendors. Yes, sir. I, I would strongly encourage you. Um, And, you know. Those employees you mentioned a while ago that stuck it out. Through and through And I, I understand nursing shortage, I get that. And, and I don't even know that you can do what I'm about to say, but I would strongly encourage you that if you got somebody else at the head of the line to hire instead of hiring somebody that left the ship to go to another ship, only to come back to this ship. I'd strongly encourage you to put somebody else ahead of the line if they, if they meet it because. It ain't right. Thank you. Senator Chesterfield, do you recognized? Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon. We have a, we have rules which preclude us pain, our own. At the same rate that we're paying traveling nurses. Am I understanding that correctly? It's in her chest filled. Um, we don't have rules about it. I think our rates are lower than traveling nurse. I understand that, but how do we change that? It would take rule change because I'm understanding that because they're state employees they work within a certain. Um, Within certain parameters. He help me to understand how we get our own to a place where they don't feel that in order to take care of their families, they need to become traveling nurses because I truly understand that if I can make more money and I am better able to provide for my family. I'm gonna take a different route because they're overworked, underpaid and underappreciated in some instances. So tell me, how do we get to getting our own to a salary that would preclude them wanting to go to a traveling nurse. position OK, what we're trying to do with pay plan study is just that, just, uh, to reassess all the positions in state government, nursing has a major issue, but there's also some other classes that are jobs that are feeling the same pressures. So what we're trying to do is get these jobs appropriately matched with the market to make sure we are competitive. Um, one thing I will say, I agree totally with what Senator Hammer said about continuity of care. It's the same issue at the Department of Veterans. Bears at their two nursing home places. So we're trying to make these jobs more attractive by one doing this type of bonus immediately. Also, when you take in the benefit cost to every position as well. It raises quite a bit of most traveling nurses don't get the benefits. And so we're, we're trying to consider that like total compensation while we're doing so I make sure we're getting a true match. What is the starting salary per hour for the average state. Um, nursing employees. LPN And Ari, and what is the starting salary? OK, for a starting salary for RN right now, and this is one that's fresh out is 63 830. I know. OK, no, $638,830 salary. I don't have the yearly salary then for their counterpart in the traveling nurse sector, or do you know? I'm not sure of the travel learners, they may be more aware vary based on the contract. It could be anywhere from. Uh, I think the lowest was 60 up to some of, um, some of them were close to almost $100 an hour I believe, but I, I could go back and get you the actual contract of some making as much as $150 an hour, so I'm not, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get us to apples to apples so that I can better understand this, and I know it's gonna be an ongoing situation because. Employees have found out their value. Because in the past I'm not sure they knew what their value was. And because they know now I can make $100 rather than $23 or $40 an hour. I'm gonna go where it's best for me and my family. And I think that's something that we have got to deal with. It's more of an employee market now than it ever has been, uh, since I've been hanging around here for a minute. So I'm glad to see that we're trying to do something that would mitigate the loss. How Many nurses do we really need. We've been talking about this nursing shortage for a very, very long time, and we had asked, I know Senator Hickey asked just how many nurses are we short? Do we know now have we increased our capacity or are we still about where we were a year ago? So I can send you, um, for the 7 DHS facilities, um, the vacancy numbers for RNs and LPNs. I can send this to you. I'm sorry, I did, I should have brought those and I did not know, I'm sorry. Shame on you, but I'm sending to you as soon as I get back to the desk, um, the contracts did go, they, they did go up this year. We're projecting, I mean, so we're not, it's not getting better at this point. So the need is higher. We we're having a, we're having a more severe shortage now than we had before? Is that what we're saying? It's we are not having the. The downward trend that we had previously, it's, it's plateaued on a relative basis, but. That's, that's not where we want to be at the current plateau level. OK. So we have that for the LPNs. What about the RNs? I just need to know how many we need. You know, how, what's the shortage because as long as we have a shortage, there's work for us as legislators or for these folks who are coming back, uh, there's work for them to do in order for us to get the services that we need to the individuals who need it so very, very much, and if you would be so kind as to get that to me, I would appreciate it very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Eubanks you recognized? I have a motion to approve. OK, I have a motion in a second, but I do have another question. Um, so, oh, OK, great. Um, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Oppose, no. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for your work. We look forward to uh, seeing the state employee pay plan. All right, we'll move on to item B3. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Item B3 is a request from the Arkansas Public Employee Retirement System at the request of the agency and OPM, we're gonna pull a part of this request, um, the, we're, and they're pulling the part that's related to the special compensation awards. They're not requesting that. So approving this request would only apply to their recruitment incentive plan. Uh, we've been also notified, uh, that OPM and the agency only want to apply the. Plan to the accounting and investment classifications at the agency. There's, there's one of each, um, and so the request would allow Aers to pay $5000 or up to 40 hours of leave for new employees in the accounting and investment classifications as an incentive due to the difficulty the agency has in recruiting and retaining qualified applicants. The estimated cost of providing the incentives, um, from the agencies roughly $10,000 which would be one position each. Well, we've got a question. Senator Hammer, you're recognized? They can probably which, which position we talk this is going for one position. It's two classifications of positions, accountants and investment positions at the ARs. Right now, they only have one vacancy in each one of those classifications, and so this is targeted to one specific. Area that they're having trouble getting anybody to even apply for, sir. I think they've advertised one of their accountants 7 times and haven't had any luck wearing people on. So that's the one of the thought processes and establishing this bonus. What's the salary on that? Position, you know, I am thinking. It's Is it 7? But 45, 45,000 is a grade 8. It's 45,000 to, uh, 71,000. OK, there you go, if they're well qualified and they go up to 71. They get at the ether. OK, CPA required. I don't think the CPA is required for this position. I don't think we could touch a CPA that we're having trouble touching anybody these days, so, OK, thank you. All right, no more questions. Do I have a motion, a motion in a second motion for approval. Um, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. Right, I C. Chairman, I C is a request from the Department of Corrections. This is for a 6% geographic differential for the East Arkansas Regional unit in Mariana, as well as for employees in Benton and Washington counties. The request details a high level of turnover at the East Arkansas facility and the increased need for Officers in northwest Arkansas based on population growth and the subsequent growth in officer to offender ratio. OPM has recommended the request to differentials and estimates the cost would be about $530,000 for both areas. OK. Any questions? See none do I have emotion. In a second, um, any discussion, all those in favor, please say aye. Oppose no motion carries. All right, reports, Madam Chairman, the remaining items are reports that require no action. I do want to point out that, um, item G is a massive report, so you don't have it in your packet. We've got one copy on the back desk back here, it's over 300 pages long. It is on the web if you want to view it, um, at your leisure. All right, no other business, um, this meeting is adjourned. It Yeah