Joint Budget Committee - Pre-Fiscal Session Budget Hearings

I read members grab your seats. With that you're. Are we have a public safety day in in department health we're going to roll through these make sure you're ready with your questions that you're mike will do those you know as we come along if you can try to keep your questions to appropriations understand there's some other issues there but you know at this point we're not really talking about one time money again will allow some latter to let's keep try to keep it to appropriations and with that often you are recognized to present all right thank you mister chair if you'll turn me to page two sixty three your manuals or go ahead and look at the permanent public saved the administration insured services division summary. So I mention this on wednesday they're worth three of preparations that move from department of corrections to public safety that's criminal attention facility review. Criminal attention committee expenses and transportation of june all offenders there's appropriate and haven't changed but they have moved department of public safety so they're now under the umbrella are happy taking those questions later and then we have one appropriation that moved out and that's fire prevention commission grants that on page two eighty of your manuals that moved to department of emergency management we'll talk about that when we get there. I'd like to touch on the operations budget for administration sir service or the category level appropriation rather that's on page two eighty four of your manuals. The total there's eight million five hundred ninety four thousand seven hundred thirty eight dollars but mister chair there are no change levels to that or any of the properties that moved in or remaining appropriations i'll be happy to take any questions. Representative camera thank you mister my question is for the agency and then i'll have a motion at the proper time if you get I go ahead and ask your question then whoever appropriately needs to respond and identify yourself for the question thank you this is going to be one we discussed already done which is on two seventy four which is a public safety equipment grant program. I just want to make sure we're still all in agreement that that's one that can be reduced is on page two seventy four. I'm karen perry chief fiscal officer department of public safety yes representative we can't reduce the appropriation to ten million okay thank you so much i'll have a motion for the proper time was return. Members we have any other questions and I guess I should ask what you're like making statements really good good to get a distance request I do have a brief opening statement okay that's i'll try to keep your brief up. I put it riding because most of members know by now that a separate from eighty day and i'll get all over the place if I don't so just want to start the first time my kigger and secretary department of public safety and director of state police. This was start about thanking this body in our governor's office for the support you've shown not just through your words but through your actions omission is sample on our proud report that because of the resources you've given us at the state of arkansas safer today. I go through a quick or review et and see and then make our directors and staff available for your questions for the state police just to give you an idea coming over view of where we were versus where we are today in two thousand we had six hundred and eight troopers with the population of two point six million citizens that worked out where we had one trooper for every four thousand two hundred and seventy six citizens. When it's administration took office in two thousand three we only had four hundred ninety troopers where the population of three point one million citizens they put is it one trooper for every six thousand three hundred and twenty six members of our state. With your support we've hired close to a hundred troopers this year and we now had that racial down to one trooper every five thousand three hundred and eighty one citizens these are just numbers but it translates to the services that we can give our citizens and local law enforcement partners mean which are very relying on a speed to support your law enforcement mission we provide support through patrol criminal investigations of major crowns tactical operations aircraft services etc we're not a trying speeding tickets and working car crashes we prevert provide every aspect of the law enforcement services that. Sorry excuse me that many of our local partners depend on me the districts that this body represents and they understand the the assessor the estate to support them it's actually a statutory responsibility of or agency to provide that support just want to give a few tangible examples of what we've done with the sport that this parties given us over the last year as fee has made more than four thousand criminal arrest more in two thousand twenty three then we did the year before. Our vehicle recreate our crash is reduced by more than a thousand were thirty six fewer fatalities. Just in the drug enforcement arena and this past year. We've confiscated seized over ten thousand three hundred eighty six pounds of marijuana that's out from eight thousand pounds almost two thousand pounds more in the same time period in two thousand twenty two. We sees three hundred fifty four pounds of cocaine that's up a hundred forty four pounds since the last year we've also seen fifty seven pounds a minute and federal means one pound of hair when in forty seven pounds of final and everybody knows the crisis that we're suffering right now in this country and you can do the math on what forty seven pounds for due to our population as well as a population of the country we've also seen one point four million dollars in the last fiscal year or i'm sorry the last calendar year that's out just under a million dollars in the same time period in two thousand twenty two want to take a second to recognize their cheapest staff you fingel stand as you know where to has the secretary department public safety but also directors state police and to say that i'm reliant. And hue whose the quarterback for department of public safety that can't be overstated how much they were rely on him and how much we appreciate he i'm as well as the the directors of the shared services or cfo or c HR o I think that's where you see it am all the people that i'm support as can't say in that for them what they do for us in your c shortly when you start asking questions how much we rely on the provide that information you guys. This real quick m the other agency's acrc and we've got two hundred fifty thousand dollars you're more for a message which platform upgrade. That all of the directors will be here to answer any questions you have about that. They can't say enough of that accs in what they do behind the scenes anyone that's ever worked in the criminal justice arena knows that they're the silent partner behind the scenes were silver line on what the service is they provide for us in i'm not just as with the courts in have through several different levels. Our commission law enforcement standards and we have a completely. Enhance the new level of oversight thanks for director chairman. We clear to backlog opinion the certification proceedings which are basic keeping back ups out of law enforcement and that is such a critical. Necessity this day and age we've opened a new central arkansas law enforcement academy in benton we're drawing students from against is that we didn't serve before because they have a renewed faith in our in our department to provide their training for them. We have twenty one million dollars in our part finds that great the candidate spring deal facilities for the crime where we have a new facility that we're currently in the process of. The. The well the construction process to get the money allocate or the money spans of this body gave us a two hundred million dollar appropriations for the new state crime land we've made an offer earlier this week on a piece of land they've met with the architectural firm they're in the process of doing the design and review review phase. We recently completed three day programming session with writing in well architect firms. Three hundred fifty thousand dollars from the attorney general's office was provided for cadaver transportation improvements this party knows that through legislation that you gave we've been able to increase the. Process to reimburse or basically provide the. The financial needs necessary to where we can transfer transport suspected over those cases and then also they give us the opportunity to prosecute those cases which is poor work and sell protects with the death by delivery act. We've had an increase in our tops is as a result of the appointment or open your legislation in two thousand twenty three the medical examiners section way to wreck a number of our tops. Of one thousand eight hundred and sixty eight which was approximatel. The crime will I have received approval about the accreditation counts for graduate medical education to offer one year for instant pathology fellowship program partnership with the university of arts offer medical sciences that's a huge step for us. The medical examiner section was recognized by the arguments all regional organ recovery agency with the rural donation champion award. For the work they burn in saving a restoring last during the past fifteen years six hundred and eighty one lives have been saved in seven hundred fifty eight organs have been recovered to a partnership between our dps partners in the aurora team do our teams commitment and support the arguments all generous office and organs are attorney general solves the backlog of sexual sockets for me to protesting a significantly decreased or team remains focused on. Meeting at sixty day turnaround time by twenty twenty five. Forget some department of emergency management that managed numerous natural disasters they continue to work through that process they better the fire marshal's office in a working through the transition of those services fiscally and operationally. Our crimes victoration i'm sorry crown victims reparations board. We now have a new directorally said yang she's dugging and she's already made significant tries to work through the backlog she scrolled strained at each employee to be able to properly investigate the different claims this new approach is already paying off their short man power right now it's all of our departments are bid they're making great progress in that area and so with that I will close in all opened up for any questions about it may have alright thank you and appreciate that presentation singer gilmore well I don't know if this is the appropriate time was going to ask question about the the crime lab or get yet there to be a next thank you and then see sender repson camera you have a motion right now. Okay alcohol dangerous second thing sinner hammer. Like miss share and I think this is the right place on. Page two seventy two and our budget manual. You've got appropriate a hundred eighty seven thousand for juvenile transportation of juvenile offenders is that is that near bill. Yes it is. Okay they are noticed it's money that we have and head there before from reading the book right it's new money can you explain which interest paid doing with that why you would need to request that well it was transferred from department of correction and it is money that we reimburse to agencies that transport juveniles and up into this point we haven't had any reimbursement requests but there is one agency bextre county that said they were going to submit a request. To thank you thank you. All right thank you repson cabin all you recognize promotion thank you miserator I make a motion to accept executive wreck with the exception on public safety equipment grant to redo set to ten million from the forty million and that us on page two seventy four appropriation e ninety eight. Okay. Alright thank you members you've heard the motion senator hammer you got a question of discussion on the motion. Okay we'll get a motion to adapt with you and in to reduce the public safety a grant program appropriation fifteen million dollars we've got a motion we've got a second in discussion on the motion all right sinner hammer your recognized discussion on the motion. Thank you and could the chair clarify it just the ten million that's float round out there that we've talked about as far as equipment grants for various police agencies to apply for z different amount this is went through two cycles I think it originally had a lower preparation and that was exhausted really quickly through restricting serve transfer and then we up that to the ten million transfer the last cycle because it was popular course at this point we don't know if there will be additional moneys allocated through that in it something will probably determine when we're in session but as far as ongoing money is far in you and the governor's vouchers budget that's not part of it it's always been funded through one time money. But it was the appropriation right level was set at forty million they're not utilizing forty million in an agreement was go ahead and reduce that ten million which should hopefully be a little bit more close to which realistic alright so the appropriation level that based on this motion the appropriation level that would remain would be ten million million so there if we come back and fund it later that gives us what historically has been spent is that right well if there's been two tranches I don't remember what the original was but it was not in million I think the second round is worth it six years old or grant hi thank you thank you but earlier so up to ten are this sooner murder discussion on the motion. The senator love above black book but I looked better well for whatever reason this for this computer screen in this no mississippi I just have in light of the conversation I just want to know if if the reduction of of this appropriation is going to impact negatively the performance of the agency in anyone. I don't. I don't believe so so we're we've never had more than ten million that was put into that account i'm not sure what the that process was on the forty million dollar appropriation but it was we've never had more than in ten million we don't suspect that we will but that's the number that we're working on to provide those services to the local latencies and so I don't think it will have any negative impact ok just want to know thank you thank you miss chair sir thank you. Center flowers. Thank you miss chair so. Those are funds in the great program what is the source. At the sources of restrictive historically been a restricted reserve transfer so initiated by the governor through governor's letter and approved battles in alc. So is that from. General revenue surplus in a review that was the end swept over into restrict reserve account. Okay and then I wanted to know. The. How many grants. Average being awarded since the program has been in existence. According to and about the size of the grants. Curing king she has those numbers in front of there have been numerous they always been limited limited to one hundred thousand dollars per request this past year we limited those to fifty thousand because that fine had been depleted and we wanted to be able to provide as many grants to the local latencies as possible so it's. It's somewhere between a hundred thousand fifty thousand per grant that has been awarded. And I don't know if curious has more specific numbers that she could give you. I don't have the exact numbers but I mean it's it's a light a lot of agencies applied for it and a lot of agencies received the money. I can give the exact count later so went. When it's applied for detention centers does that help with the facility itself may be maintenance improvements or does it. Help in terms of the budget. That they are having to set for and get reimbursed for housing. State inmates. Well these are green and sets one time funding the agencies are not I don't think they've gone to the detention centers that something totally different. Well in the analysis it says grant awards under the program to law enforcement agencies detention centers and corrections agencies for equipment that aids. In improving trust and relationships. So. New memoranding from talking to our partners with the shares association and keeps the police association the majority of these grants are one time. Finding opportunities for them to purchase equipment that they would otherwise not be able to purchase and it specified that it has to be less little it's specified and it needs to focus on issues with transparency such as body cameras dash cameras things like that but what it does is it freeze their budget up to wear instead of their them trying to find those fines to pay for issues with pay for items like that if they need they can then divert their resources sometimes which are very limited they can develop those resources other places and that includes course their detention facilities and things like that and again we'd have to look through the spreadsheet to see if any of the grandson's specifically going to detection centers or young in that arena but it more than anything else it just freeze their budgets after where they can put that money elsewhere i'd like to see a list of. Other the gramps that have been awarded what counties at arm quite interested in what if any grant has been awarded jersey county jefferson can be okay yes ma'am we can certainly do that you guys just a full list and then send it to staff and they could send it out of what's been awarded out of the innovative phone two days looks like about seventeen dollars and twenty two twenty three and so I think that'd be helpful just be you know for curiosity sake what's happened yes sir we have. It's a several pages but we can easily provide that so yeah thank you all right sinner hammer. Thank the shirt would you is the motion for just the reduction of the appropriation we bought to make a motion to adopt their proposed budget where were in this particular section will make a motion to the motion is motion to adapt and then also reduce that appropriation the public safety grant appropriation from forty million to teach II have a question on the jubil transportation so can I can I ask it now is this what you were just to seventy two yeah that you ask about yes that's okay on the under transportation you said this money has been allocated in order to help offset the transportation that all and you mentioned one county in particular. Is is this to the jdc centers or watch the transportation taking place from and to. They are transporting the one from the center to doctors office court hearings. Is that not a cost as normally covered by the county that is hosting the jdc yes but they can seek reimbursement for the salary of the person that's transporting the but it's limited to eleven dollars when we got the program the reimbursement rate was six dollars and eighty five cents an hour. Per employee and we revamped the rules and upped it to eleven dollars. We weren't sure how much interest we would get with eleven dollars and didn't want to run the program draw. Okay and i'm i'm sure in our post the idea is just the traditionally the counties have a had absorbed college to have operate in the jdc and are we opening up the door to something new and this will be available to all counties that have AB c's not just the one that was mentioned while ago. Correct it's my understanding that the facility juvenile facilities went down from non facilities to six. So we don't have much interest in the program. Okay that's furniture want to get that on the record of clarification that the other counties would be able to apply for it also correct thank you take mister. Alright then we did selected to their next time we'll just have discussion when we get the point in emotions already been made in the second spin you know I confirmed but I understand what we are this morning and wouldn't catch up a little bit but we want everybody to be able to have their questions let's just do that in an appropriate time because I don't want to get too far out of whack aren't with that members will get a motion we've got a second others in favor of sign of probably saying I was opposed motion carries we're going to move on to. Public safety department crime information and you recognized thank you mister chair see did you say crime information center thank you all right so the crime information center department summary can be found on page two ninety of your manual total for this division is eight million three hundred thirty four thousand eight hundred ninety eight dollars for a fiscal year twenty five is recommended there are no significant change levels this appropriation that will go over the operations budget real quick that's on page two ninety two of your manuals in the total there's seven million one hundred and forty thousand eight hundred and forty thirty four dollars sorry. If there are particular questions about that one or any other appropriations within crime are crime information sir i'm happy to answer this thank you reps in browse yes sir thank you page two ninety four there's the information about these sex child offender registration. I was just curious if you could elaborate on the budget there and just kind of the program in and of itself. I'm sorry and jeff long on the director of dark saw crime information center as far as on the sex register we're in the process right now i've. Upgrading the system it's at it it's been out of data I think about ten years old where in process updating it we're doing a contract of mainstream in little rock arkansas we use a sore grant smart grants to upgrade their system we're hoping to have the new a system out into field by miller may it's been pushed back a little bit there's a we're already looking at things we have to add to the the new system the biggest problem we're having right now with with these systems is we have to hire all this contract out in a lot of times it's just take it quite a while to get one out and before we actually get it rolled we already know updates that we need to add in to because of legislative changes. Follow up mistreature. Could you could you give me a couple of details on the changes improvements. I'm gonna bring out a actually lease winston that section in our adeptive directors and she will give you more information because she's a one who operates thank you in and when you do I just was curious the biggest differences from say two years ago last year and then maybe moving forward i'm just looking at the the budgets and I understand you're saying funding is coming from a couple different places but it was interested to know what progress were making in that area hi i'm at least the ones then I am the direct over special services which is cram information which is criminal history in fact what we're doing is update now system assistant was real and they had the vendors are making it to where we are able to access and make any changes as needed vs wait or have an event to do it all time where there's been an update is the software that allows us to put more off and using it and cannot register the victims information to where the big from new from information we don't give that interesting thing like that we can assist. And final question. It did I understand correctly you said to get more offenders into the system does that mean that there were offenders that were simply just not getting in no which I had to we have a program there were trying to amazing in this via having information for the victims having information is kind of like via we are having to put their program together to wear right now we don't sex offenders i'm sorry i'm a little nervous wines in two and we're just trying to have dead as another database to have them enter so if there is a issue we can easily go back thank you did a great job just appreciate the information the update some I think the state needs to obviously focus on so I appreciate that thank you. Alright thank you members any other questions aren't seeing none which will the committee will get a motion to adopt executive recognition others in favor of significant saying I was opposed motion carries public safety department crown laboratory. Thank you mister chair will move to page three or three of your manuals and that's where you'll find the crime will have division summary. Yeah. So the total here for the crime web fiscal you're twenty five is twenty one million five hundred sixty three thousand forty one dollars see on page three o nine you can go to the state operations appropriation total here is fourteen fourteen million sorry eight hundred thirty seven thousand seven six hundred fifty dollars there are no change of this appropriation there are a couple ones that look a little different they got added last session by leave it. Well i'm not sure actually the bill but it was a memorable by senator letting and represent wing that added the rabbit id jump start package and the rapid dna technology appropriation those can be found on page three fifteen and three seventeen respectively. Uh mister chairman there are no significant changes to the fiscal year twenty five recommendation i'll be having answering questions alright thank you sinner history is this right how do I ask questions about the crown land you sir okay so I get really two different things I want to ask about so this comes up ever every time what is our status on our sexual assault kits how far back are we on testing. The. Yes hi my name is ted brown i'm the director and chief medical examiner of the crime lab and i'm gonna ask my one of my deputy a directors jennifer batty west to come out give you an update on that so thank you. Duck brown and welcome I think this is the first time we've had you before it so. If you could just recognize yourself with the committee and if he needs to dislike not to restate the question yes I think you my name is jennifer batty west the deputy director of scientific operations I also just recently was in the in a case workers and supervisor with the sexual kids so so that though the question is what what is what is the backlog and so we are right now at about a ninety day turn around time with their sexual sort kids which are the same as significant decrease in turn around time from this time last year where we were about eight months out erm right now we have about a hundred and thirty and assigned sexual sort kids this time last year we were about six hundred and a signed sexual socket so we are very proud of the progress we have made through our partnerships with the attorney general software with the support of our legislators and with the support of the governor's office. Yeah no that that is great progress in in really great to hear me with this questions have been getting asked for a decade did you just found money or you just prioritized what are we doing to get it better and can we get from ninety days to a month and these are great questions so one staffing if the governor's office provided us additional staffing in the dna unit and we hard the final stages of training those analysts it takes about a year to train at the na analyst in so we have invested a lot of time in training our staff and we will finish. The last two analysts that were provided to add some positions that were provided to us i'm about august of this year we have just signed up by the additional digging and less than the past three months so are you any section is going to be in a really great area as long as for able to maintain the staff. Thank you now yes I would finish by saying I hope the mood is getting good because they know we're committed to it to a new facility can anyone give us any updates on the new facility or weeks is is there any chance to have an opening in twenty four or is it a twenty five opening what what are we looking at. Center has her I wish we can move in and twenty twenty four huh no I i'm so thankful for all of you for your continued support of us at the crime lab this is a game changer for us and i'm so blessed and to partner with all of you so that way we can best serve arkansas moving forward i'll tell you right now we just recently completed as of about a week ago our second three day programming session where we really focused on detailed space programming for our new building so what does that mean it was focused on staff the functional flow. Of the building patterns adjacencies personnell and evidence flow equipment needs now and in the future security and safety lab creditation factors and insuring we are best position to exceed the expectations of those that were blessed to serve. Together we have completed a first draft of our program needs we want our building to ensure that we are well positioned to serve our state colders for years to come decades to come. Preliminary findings have identified that we need approximately a hundred and eighty thousand square foot building which places us well within the national data the national statistics of what we need based on the size of our team to best serve arkansas. As colonel hagar said we have identified the land that we would like to build our new arkansas day crime laboratory and once or agreement has been reached hopefully very soon our next step is to work with our architects in what's called a block and stack phase of our new building where we're focus on best positioning the spaces within the laboratory. And on our land so that we can maximize efficiencies and of course best serve our cansons in addition we are currently working alongside our partners with the division of building authority and I appreciate their continued partnership following a request for a proposal for preconstruction services and construction to select a general contractor so we're in that or about to start that fees to help us deliver this new crime lab so a long winded answer there but senator hester know that we're we're committed our entire team is committed we are so thankful for your continued support for us because we are excited to continue our ark or commitment in our service so thank you. Thank you for that really great feedback and I guess I had one more question II forgot to ask earlier if we're at ninety days on the assault kids do you know if you have any idea where that stacks are supposed to rest the country I mean I i've read some really horrifying stories on that are we are we near the best at that or we have do you have any idea. And no sir II don't really know where we compare across the nation one of the things multiple laboratories are struggling with backlog and turnaround time there you know it's a push that every kid collected as a kid tested and we've been very fortunate again with the support of our partners and to help us deal with getting these kids in and getting those kids tested hopefully we'd can be the leader in the nation and that's kind of what the goal I think is is that with our efficiency with the staffing that were able to maintain to sixty day turn around time and help show other labs how to do it and how to do it well thank you. So mark johnson thank you mister. And doctor brown thank you for your response to center hester's question which was. Pretty similar to what I was going to ask but I can do is the follow up more up the update on the facility is is important but I know that this is not just a shell building with some desk you have a lot of expensive equipment that you will be adding and I want to make sure that we are porning in the right direction both in money and in time to get you what you need to to do your job more efficiently my real question that that he didn't quite get into and I could your answered him was great on the other part but I like some. Services that government provides to our people you know carl haggers get some great state troopers out there but then there's always local police insurance office that can can do some of them we just got one crime layout and it's critical that it it has what it needs and functions a ramp won't my questions about personnel I have a friend who has worked with in the past and then it's it can't tell me how the operation is and I realize that if someone is a very qualified cumust they don't show up at your doorstep ready to do all of the work that you're you're need to require and there's a learning curve and then we've seen this and in other areas of government where somebody gets good and either private sector or even another government like to see how to way do you all have a plan in place to either come back to since I look you know we need to pay these people in these positions a hundred and ten percent or a hundred twenty percent of what we've been paying in the past just to remain competitive not just because they're harder to get but because of the learning curve for the job is there a a plan in place to address this i'm trying to look long term so we can anticipate needs and and properly respond to your needs and and colonel jump in there as well and doctor senator we do have a plane in place that we are going to bring to you soon i'll be patient thank you thank you mister chairman thank you sinner gilmore. But you as chair colonel thank you and doctor and staff thank you for being here just following up on the questions earlier regarding the sexual salt kids I don't think it's any secret that that's sort of in a priority of this legislature and reducing that backlog so I appreciate the efforts on that I guess there's just a way to be more specific do we anticipate with the new crime lab but that'll even come down a little bit further in reducing that backlog and perhaps any other backlogs in making us more efficient are we anticipating that I just want it sort of asked that question directly to to see what that answer is. Senator go more thank you for that question and chance of a question yes and we plan to meet our goal of the sixty day turnaround time at the beginning or our goal is by twenty twenty five and that would be unfortunately going back to a center of hastrious questions before we move into our new building but again to answer a question because of our team because of the people in our crime lab who are dedicated to improving their turnaround time for the people that need these results the goal is to have our sexual assault turnaround kit result turnaround time less than sixty days by twenty twenty five yeah thank you and and and just for the the members survive may just take some personal privilege on this if you haven't seen the current crime will have an understand what you're dealing with it's hard to understand maybe why the backlogs exist and that was why we pushed so hard to get this new crime where build money set aside for that because what you've been dealing with is just hard to believe so thank you for your efforts and thanks for stepping up and getting this this resolved they think thank you. At general bearing. Thank you mister and I director good to see it so how's your medical examiner and the other part of the question would be your turnaround time on our tops is debate average time that takes to get a body in them back to the reluctance. Yes due to the thank you for that question so due to the increase of our top season that are coming our way and the reason why they're increasing is because it's my vision that we bring arkansas to the national level as far as when somebody dies of a sudden unexpected violent death we know what are type seas must be performed and so now we're making that happen here in the state of arkansas and I am so proud to be able to partner with all of you our team at the crime lab to deliver these results to provide this information that is so critical for of course not only the families who are experiencing the worst day of their life but also for the all the other stake holders law enforcement prosecutors defense attorneys all those stakeholders public health officials that rely on our findings to deeply understand how and why people are dying here in arkansas and so with that anticipated increase of numbers of our types of that were performing similar to what karen said earlier about you know making sure that we are attracting and retaining exceptional scientists for ends of mythologists and tax within the crime lab and we will be coming to you for additional support for our team including additional positions to best position as to continue to provide excellent medically go our top c services to our state okay thank you and one less so are you at a hundred percent on your manning authorizations for your medical examiners. Can you. There were you out. Are a cheapest day of you may need to come forward answer any more specific questions but decided to no short drive it's a proximate leaves at eighteen acres I believe eighteen ninety nine and it was up to other state property and the the property is levels cleared it's ready to be odd and it allows us room to not only you don't provide the services that we do now but also forward looking as doctor brown said that we hope that this will be a side that we can build on there will allow us room for growth to wear this will be a many decades facility not just a facility to satisfy the short term need so that offer was made and this past week and you may be able to give any more specific details on that you think i'll stand cheapest after it part of the public safety representative of collins it was a property is directly east of a e and e has gone so ad with that's outdated. And it was an offer was made for a four point oh nine five million dollars which was the appraised value from I believe it was first hole in associates the one of the major parts of this is that that land is absolutely ready to build as we speak there have to be probably one foot of the ground that would have to be raised in and I think they would have to be anywhere in that area uh it's we have updated flood plane documentation that shows that it's I think point two percent of of risk in the flood plane the big draw on this in and talking to people at ene is that they're anticipating that they're running at a room so a co location with another state agency building allowing them to build on our lands that they have room for their employees to to be house in the future is one of the major benefits of that land as far as used by the state the uh their it's I believe it's nineteen acres is the is the amount that is purchase. Okay so I guess i'm I was kind of wonder are there any other comparable sized properties in that area that uh would offer you nineteen or so acres and are they looking at about four million dollars and there are two other areas in nor shore one is off of young drive and that is a pricely sixteen acres it's owned by the city of north philadelphia we have had we are the architects to cost benefit analysis there are significant problems with with that property if if you want me to go under detail about that there was there's a buyer that runs through it which is conservation issue or conservation it's it's deemed conservation so we couldn't use part of that when we looked at the decision or filled iraq is going to be requiring a road to go through part of that as well the acridge that we would end up with was approximately eight and half acres of usable land in that because the way it was shaped it's kind of like a you part of it would be would have to construct a road into it in the other issue with that is that utilities are not readily available we'd have to pay to have those brought in understand now get out of the queue just one more questions what were they asking on the ad or what was that a praise for if you have that we don't have the appraisal what they're asking is one point six million and then i'll base on the cost study analysis it would have been approx me a hundred thousand dollars more usable square foot in that area than in the doorshore area thank you. I thank you see thirty four apologies i'm not sure that that's okay i'm over here I just said a quick question on the rate kit. The. Yes this is just more information or from what time all the backlog of rate kits that have been caught up have those been entered into the dna registry are we still waiting to do that with the registery that's coming out. I'm sorry with the registry deeming that being a database yes thank you yesterday i'm so as we process these cases and if we obtain a profile at a profile that does qualify to go into the city in a database it is intered immediately it is interesting yes okay and all the backlogs have been injured as well so as part of the partnerships to help reduce our sexual sort kit we did receive funding to outsource sexual sought kids to our vendor laboratories and with that with a significant number of rape kids to have under laboratories we have received those back those are immediately reviewed and those profiles are in it entered into the code of static base if there are eligible profiles okay what qualifies an eligible profile it has to be a foreign b and profile meaning it doesn't. Match the victims dna does that make sense okay yes and then the new registry that's coming online it's not yet online. The one that represent our senator letting and carlton ring ran where you test the perpetrator or the potential perpetrator at the up yesterday I rapid the nab crossed. For added at no ma'am at this time the rapid denise system is going to only be utilized from what I understand by our jails to go ahead and collect the offender a rescue simple at that time okay so it's really too different registrations yesterday i'm so they both will be so the. The rapid dna will be into our overall being a database okay alright thank you yes me all right thank you sinner's doublefield thank you chairman sector hagger are we seeing that overall drop in crimes in state market. Center thing for the question. There would honestly I don't know the answer to that there would be something that are researching development team could try to keep stands on that correct i'm sorry you keep a statistics on that yes there there are no statistics that are kept nationally in its broken down by state. And are research team does keep tabs on that but honestly I can try to provide that information to you overall if there's a specific crime that you want is to look at that I would I would like just to get an overall overall number of of all crams committed in the side of work so because we were told I start that crimes overall and the united states are down but I would like to see where we are a particularly instead of architect yes sir so. Watch that and was very interested in that in that statement as well because that's yeah I for my personal perspective I would have a hard time leaving that data which support that statement thank you thanks thank you chairman. Thank you. The improved senator murdoch getting. Thank you missed it in time about the rate kids I know that we've even talked about the backlog in the back law cleaner but did the rate kids have a expiration date on I mean like when you collect that information at this kid expiring anytime I mean like. From what I understand no so it it won't so there are times that we have suspectless sexual thoughts and even if we're able to obtain a foreign profile on that sexual fault and by that appropriate a profile that made lead to the perpetrator we can we held that profile in the code of data based if there is not an immediate match to an appender or an arrest another case it will stay in that database indefinitely so until either a max occur in the discontinues to search there it's at what you were asking yeah because II just I just want to know you know did we discard any rate kids we didn't do anything like that we were logging them all yesterday that's correct that is correct and after the update to the law last year we are the crime lab has been receiving even the anonymous kits in which the person at the time doesn't want to file a police report but to help preserve that kid in ensure that information is protected in case they ever do decide to move forward with filing a police report we will have that so we can help that person with their case okay thank you that's what I needed to know thank you miss shere thank you synerges for film thank you message here in good morning secretary hager is the overall crime read in the state of arkansas. Me and honestly I don't I could need to there right now I would have to you with a research team and assume to provide that information our honestly don't know they answer that thank you one of the things that has been of concern to me is in the grand lab we've heard some difficulty securing qualified individuals to help us do what we need to do are we still having some difficulty in that area. Are are you at four capacity is for staffing is concerned. Thank you senator and general right now we we do have a handful of positions open i'm conversation with one to enter but handful this what I don't we defend that I think okay thanks to my deputy director we have two open positions currently at at the crime lab and so but going back to senator's hesters I believe the center hedgers question of continuing to attract recruit and retain really qualified individuals that so many of our kansas rely on that something that is on our mind at the crime lab and we're so fortunate department with karen colonel hagar and you and others with dps philip orner to and work with them to propose a plan to continue to allow us to attract the very best for unsick scientists do you think that the reason is money. That we're having a challenge are we competitive with our surrounding states for instance for salaries are concerned I haven't done any research on that thanks for that question yes we have done AAA regional study and we have reached out to multiple crime lads not only within a region but throughout the the country thanks to the leadership of semi williams and my other other deputy director at the crime lab he spent a considerable amount of time reaching out to other crime labs to understand what what is the pay scale there and how do we how do we compete with them our how can we better compete with them and so and soon as karen alluded to earlier we anticipate coming before all of you would presenting that detailed information and to ask for your your support because in my opinion there is opportunities for us to improve and better attract excellent forensic scientists. And allow me to ask this. How do we write if we looked at mississippi hormone texas louisiana channel c mazori how do we write as far as salaries concerned yes i'm gonna ask me williams to come up here help thus be able to answer that claim for thank you so thank you. This. Yeah. This. I assume me williams deputy director of administrative operations at the crime lab are grateful to be here today so it especially in the region we are unfortunately one of the lowest states in in starting pay I believe that mississippi is is the only state were saying thank god want one of them the main issues that we developed is a is growth for for employees and that was where we really saw a great disconnect between our lab and other labs is is is a a career path forward in the future and so our maximum salaries were considerably lowered than what is our max. And what is our minimum. I believe our minimum this is for a forensic scientists is somewhere in the range of forty five thousand karen may have this actual information here. Forty five thousand dollars. Yeah. Sorry is that thank you for the our current starting minimum salary is forty five thousand dollars and the maximum there is sixty five thousand dollars and this is bored for rensign that's correct yes thank you they should I think we are very have some problems only and II did just want to clarify those two positions that we have open our for instance I just positions that we are planning we are actively working on filling this is only. Thank you center center king. Thank you mr share that was very kind so we know that arkansas has only trying to be fair to sit here to. We know that arkansas then experiencing high crime whether it's up right now neutral down a little bit we know that we have to have a crime rate and so we also know that there's a direct correlation between the certainty of arrest and driving down crime we pass of course the protect arkansas act earlier or last year rather because we know we need to help our are law enforcement do their job so my question is do we anticipate this crime lab will help bolster a law enforcement and lead to a greater certainty of arrest which hopefully then in turn will drive down crime. Hi thank you for your your that question I think. Our job at the crime lab is based on delivering delivering excellent forensic sciences results and so i'll speak to their new crime lab building I think that is one piece to the puzzle as senator chesterfield mentioned there are other pieces to the puzzle to include how we can attract recruit ring retain excellent for instance scientists but dance your question. The building will allow us to help a tracked. Qualified excellent friends accidents as so that way we can provide those meaningful results. Based on science up with national standards and more efficiently so that our stake holders including law enforcement can have those results and take whatever action they need to continue their process. Thank you senator if I could follow up on that. We have a systemic issue right now in our criminal justice system and with our partners everyone that's going to be representatives of table today with all the interest that caprosdps and they do an outstanding job and likely they work with the servant's heart and it's not for financial reasons send her chesterfield is pointed out having said that the certainty of arrests as part of the issue but also there needs to be a certainty punishment and it's it's more than just a certainty of arrest they're you on the entire adjudication process is going to have to be looked at because if people don't realize that there is a a an actual tangible. Punishment. Then arresting them is only part of the problem yeah so in and it goes back to bed space in the prisons down to what the prosecutors can pursue your if we frequently frequently will charge people with fell any offences and those offenses are then counted. Reduced down to mister meaner offenses because they simply don't have a place to house that person wants the and they're convicted so it's it becomes more of an issue that the department of public safety can address because the you know is our marine lottery said recently yeah we don't have an arresting problem we have an adjudication problem and that's where I think it's going to have to be it's it's a against the systemic approach that we're going to have to reform to be able to truly drop the crime rate down because there has to be a known consequence and they have to believe there's a consequence for the crimes they're committing that's great thank you make you know nothing sincere turkers here today but there is some I think we've got you might want to if you if you can I mean I think there's some things will consider her in session at I think we already pass the bill does not have funding but there may be some ways that we can up coordinate efforts as far as rest and prioritize some of those more violent offences for arrest but anyway. To integrate I didn't see behind them the dealer but if you want to comment on that I think it's burden into senator davis's question i'd like to stay in car needo back here at app I prefer behind the pillar myself no I think senator davis is exactly right and as we discuss we've discussed over the last year a certainty of arrest is one of the most important elements of reducing crimes if if offenders think they're going to get a way with something then I wanted synthem do they have to obey the loss so and what what what we found when I should we're doing this research is that the most recent year from which we had date at twenty twenty three only thirty eight percent of people of reported violent offenses led to an arrest and that's just something that I think is a state we really need to work on it and we need to support do better to support law enforcement to put to put on forcement in the position of making the arrest so we pass the piece of legislation last year that created a grandfan with the department of public safety and it I think it's important for us to put some money into that fund what we haven't done yet and that would be that fun would provide grants to local law enforcement agencies to increase their clearance rates which is another term for arrest arrest rates and this program has worked in other states so I hope it's something that will take a hard look at and and try to get some money into if if we're serious about reducing crime in arkansas which I believe we are then it's important I think to do what we can to increase the clearance rate because the certainty of arrests are senator davis said is so important so thank you mister chairfer for lemme chairman is sort of thank you are senator petty thank you mister chair my question is probably a little more long term like senator johnson's but one of the comments that i've had with our long enforcement sorry locally i've i've been hiding from her or behind her all that week so she's now revealed me local law enforcements and just argeration myself is dealing with. Northwest arkansas and and other potential satellite crown labs some of the additional cost if you're in northwest arkansas comes into play and and and so my question is this I understand that the the northwest arkansas crime lab is is over fool it's like busting at the seams in terms of capacity and what they can do is that true and then I have another question about and i'll go ahead and ask it now and you can answer is is part of your expansion discussion expanding that or maybe adding another satellite like in jonesburg or someone somewhere else in the state. Thanks and petty actually my deputy director jennifer batty western I were just at low lab art or satellite lab in northwest arkansas or earlier this week and i'm pleased to share that right now we do have the appropriate amount of space at lol and we believe that focusing on the crime lab here in little rock and this opportunity to build a new crime lab for decades to come we feel that we can buy focusing on this and continuing our partnerships with our team in lol as well as we have a team at hope we feel that we are well positioned to continuing our ability to to deliver excellent forensic science services so in the end we are doing well at our lol and hope sites and we are excited with all of your support to continue our our focus here on building this excellent crime lab in low rock. Thank you all right thank you singer hammer thank you I want to go back to the reduction in the numbers and it was over the last year that you've had that significant drop is that correct. Is this in regards to the sexual socket yes yes okay so it takes you a year to train someone in that areas at which you testify to well go i'm a step out in let jennifer beating west answer that thank you thank you. Yes so that is correct okay so to have that significant of the drop in a year's time do jury have people trained ready to go or did you hire people that were a trained and and ready to go what attributed to that drop yesterday so a couple of things one we did have some additional english come off training that that assisted with that but we were also received funding from the attorney general's office that allowed us to outsource sexual thought kids to private laboratories that we had contracts with and that helped us significantly drop reduce that kit turn around time and backlog so moving forward then if you outsource the contract moving forward in order to get it down to what would be a goal of thirty days do you have in your budget what you need in order to do that or are you going to be dependent upon additional funding from the attorney general's office to continue that contract at this time we were also provided additional staffing umm in we're in the final stages of training that staffing so i'm i'm sorry when it back up a second so we had the funding to outsource but then we were also granted funding too higher in additional five the analyst maybe six additional been a analyst and with that the goal was that with that additional staffing we should be able to maintain a two one get to the sixty day turn around time and maintain and reduce the sixty day turn around time and would you expect that to happen in the next year before we come into general session our goal is that by at twenty twenty five we are hitting the sixty day turn around time and then the last question is this. Getting it done and getting it done quickly as great. But that prosecutor being able to go into the court room and do what they have to do is the most critical component my opinion with the accelerated drop in a number of cases using outside contractor are you seeing anything that would indicate that the quality is not there that is costing us a convictions in the courtroom. Another not that i'm aware of so one of the things that that we do have to take into consideration it's once a kit is processed it doesn't mean that's all that will be done there are times that additional evidence such as clothing items or other outside items are collected beyond the kit it the kit does not yield positive results or helpful results are staff will go on to additional evidence to try and see if they're able to find probed of information to that case so with that just because the kit is negative if there is additional evidence out there we do process it okay alright thank you yes I work you do in that area to thank you sir thank you I think that concludes our questions for the crown lab I think what you've just sinner flour. Thank you mister chair. Now i'm a little concerned about what the conversation was. Concerning these arrest and that it's gonna all have certain give us a magic state with less crime you have to have a conviction. You just don't arrest somebody and sentence them they have a right to do process I appreciate the. Commander commissioner secretary hager. That you spoke about a judiciation. And I think we need to not overlook. What are courts in our prosecutors. Are bringing before the courts. Cause they are cases that are just lingering back from twenty twenty one. And that's personal to me. Because I had a nephew that was killed merde. The. In twenty twenty one. The defendant the accused was arrested with them much. Steel sitting in the county jail waiting on trial. Now something is wrong with the prosecutives. They are holding these cases. Not given the defence discoverable material. Which results in continuations. So you earn up just. Ignoring what speedy trial means. And if the person. Even in that instance it's found guilty. The. He's lingering in jail they have a county jail waiting trial. If he is convicted by the time he's convicted if you. The. Can't be walking out of tail. The. So we need to consider things like that. And we need to consider the age and you for this. Of some of these offenders then we are putting in the juvenile facilities. That are coming out of school. Even been referred from their schools. Two juvenile. Not for a delinquent matters. But they. Other things that happen at school that kids normally when I was a key happened. We didn't have juvenile detentions housing all these kids. In an ultimately sending a month to adult penitentiaries. And we don't have to have that. The we need to start and looking at things that are in the middle. Not exist the crime was committed then go to jail. There is a process. And it's about justice. The. And i'd think we need to remember that when we want to talk about putting people in jail for a long time. Not getting any better that considering any families that are affected. Victims families. Dependent families. In all that stuff matters that structured in between. And we'd need to be a little bit more common into that of those bacs. And I bank you secretary hagger for talking and even speaking the word adjudication thank you mischeer thank you members have not seen any other questions or comments. We got a motion for an executive wreck we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none else in favor of single father saying I are the supposed motion carries a division emergency management thank you mister chair on page three hundred and twenty or find the department of pressure representation summary for the division of our emergency management. There are no significant changes this appropriation but there are two i'd like to go over the first being on page three hundred thirty nine. So act eight forty one of two thousand twenty three created the office of fire protection services within the division of emergency management this appropriation was formed by moving over a two license architects and two fire marshals from the division of state please. And their associated appropriation the next preparation is on page three forty one and that's that's where you'll find a thirty thousand dollar preparation previously and shared services and this is for fire protection grants mister chair there are no further changes to this and i'll be happy to take any questions. Revenue came off your question for the stay after agency agently you reckon thank you mister chair I got a real quick question it's gonna be on page three forty seven which is the arkansas public safety trust fine. I notice they at were actually looks like we're generating more than we're spending on the at and this is just information if you don't mind if you could just get to staff and hand to get targeted into us can we just cannot look at their if i'm not mistaken this is the money that we're getting from the telephone site dollar thirty that we're getting from their telephone lines that we pass what nineteen or something like that. Can we just do another valuation to see how much money you're actually getting from there if you can give me their information say from nineteen till twenty three what we were actually getting on that and how much we were actually spending that's really can all I would like to know on that yes may I mean I may gary director dogs on the vision of emergency management and as you know on that trust find it goes through the department emergency management and that money is pushed out so everything that is brought in is is pushed out but we can give you we can get you are exactly information for those years what was brought in and how much was going out when we said that I we didn't know if the one thirty was correct or not correct and that's really kind of what I want to look at is or we get the rat number that we need to be that's kind of what I want it kind of figure out yes I appreciate that in on page three fifty seven I just want to verify their set litigation levy mitigation cash fund I think are a fun balances down to thirty two hundred dollars and they act and I just wanted to verify our old k to reduce that appropriation to two hundred and fifty thousand. That is correct yes my in mister chair I have emotion at the property. Thank ribsen. Yeah. Review the roof your question yes sir you're recommended thank you I had a similar question to representative cabinet I was going to do in a deep dive on that arkansas public safety trust fine funding and I see the inner and inter agency fund transfers understand I think two hundred fifty thousand that went to nine one one training and there's the interagency that was eight point one six eight million dollars look like a hundred and sixty eight thousand went to the safety trust admin. And then there was the the additional eight million if I understand correctly it goes to you look at page three fifty one goes to the arkansas wireless information network and so in line with what representative cabinet was asking it with excess funds are we taking too much it looks like in that wireless network budget you had excess appropriation of about three point four million dollars and understood you to say that it was all being pushed out. But I believe that's you know ten percent tax on prepaid phones in a dollar and thirty cent per month per mobile phone for users and so three point four million dollars going to spread out quite a bit inspires taxes on our cansons and so i'm i'm curious if we are planning in future years to have three point four million excess spending a. Do you need that or is that something that we can return back to arkansas taxpayers. The. So that that's on the specific appropriations so as you know this has only been running for a couple of years four years since two thousand nineteen so we could look at that in and figure out what the average is to see if because when they preparations was first putting and we did know exactly how much would be collected so we could certainly look at that and and over a period of time that appropriation peace could be a possibly be adjusted but again all the money that comes in is is going out so there's not excess money citing there the money itself that that's not being pushed out to the peace apps to run the local nine one one center. And the eight million for a win is a used for the large upgrade the bond and that is upgrading one system throughout the state. Yeah I understand what you're saying also see that you know the excess appropriation decreased by about two million dollars from twenty two twenty three to twenty three twenty four and notice respect by understand you know i'm if we put money there it'll be found ways to be used but i'd like to think that maybe your. Our taxpayers could use that money better themselves so if there's there's a way for us to look at this and say maybe we're appropriating too much or maybe we're taxing too much that we could just look at that certainly we can we could look at the appropriations and appropriations needs to be adjusted II will tell you that even with a the increase and money going out to the nine one one centers i'm sure the the counties and cities you there still happen to make up that that difference to fund though center cell actually reducing the money here I think that would be dangerous but we can certainly look at the appropriations thank you. All right thank you. All right sooner hammer. Need somebody to turn off a mike. I think this year. The you had transferred to you are the transfer of the fire protection service and all that that took place during last general session can you just update us on how that is going in one of the things that were specific in that was that there would be someone that would help the volunteer fire departments you know fine and write grants for equipment can you just give us an update where we are in that and is it is it working. Yeah sorry thank you for that question to as you know we're we're still in the first year of that uh transferring those those duties and personnel over I am happy to say that we're in the process of filling our last bacon position and that is for the plan reviewer we have a grants admin position that you're asking about senator that person came on board a month ago a few weeks ago and so they're they're just now hitting the ground running I make meeting with this team actually the first of the week to get some really good updates and and really start getting now that we're fully staff start getting into what our future plans are for the fire services totally and try to set up some plans for the next five years ten years what we want that that whole fire services to look like but again we do have that person in place that you're speaking about. And I think that's gonna be very beneficial to our local fire departments to help assist them on those grants and do you have your interest paid getting worked out to the volunteer fire departments will be that person's duty or do you have funding and resources in order to make sure that they know how to contact that individual sure so where were in the process of doing all that now she we're actually going to having her meet with them and and talk to them we've got fire services protection board that's giving that information out so so we we've met and discussed that more also uh doing some things with our public information media section to make sure that we're getting that word out we have a. Through the act eight thirty three funding we have contacts with all of our fire department so that's very you know if it hadn't been done all radiates in the process being done to reach out to to all of those fire departments k last question the state far marshall has jurisdiction over the definition interpretation of the definition of the safety room correct. That of the other safe rooms at the schools are expected to build yes yes do you anticipate any further adjustments to the interpretation that would help at the cost of the safe rooms that schools are expected to build or we are where we are we're not going to build up getting further along in modifying that interpretation I if I understand right center and I may have to get with him and get some better clarification but as far as the safer rooms at states that in the legislation the schools being billed building on to those schools that is what the codies and and that's what we're following okay thank you take me sure thank you reps in kevin article recognized promotion thank you mr chair I make a motion to accept executive wreck with the exception of why eighty eight leaving mitigation cash on page three fifty seven and i'd like to reduce it to two hundred fifty thousand. All members provide motion we've got a second israeli discussion on motion synerges mr charade wanted to ask a question but I will you or to the to the motion but I add a really did need to ask a quest and get new manner would take the motion in circle back now not at all thank you most we'll get a second there is no discussion I was a favorite significant saying I other spouse motion curiosity chess filled you are recognized for question thank you so much more I appreciate it we had a nine one one task force. And we found out that there was so much discrepancy among areas of the status for as getting emergency information out have we done more to do that because we have people that were using technology from even during that time ten fifteen years old are we doing better with that or is that a part of the s or is that a part of your your house so it's it's partially part of of our agency if you remember I sent it under legislation as the director emergency management I chair the nine one one board we have done a lot of work in their c j angle is the executive director of the nine one one board I would be glad to have him either sit down with your maybe we can have him come back at that one of the committees and give a really good update on where we're at um but I just don't just really briefly we we've the e s I net throughout the state is as increased that consolidation p so that is going very well actually better than I anticipated that it would go and with that will be those improved services the training that that classed as working on for our nine will one operators and dispatchers is really going to boost out in and so to answer your question yes we we we've come I believe a long ways we still have a ways to go but we are moving pretty good in that correction and that's good one of the one of the challenges that I cheered the name on one task in one of the challenges was we couldn't determine some terms to what city the ping was supposed to go or or any of that have we have we done a better job of being able to assure the public there if you make the phone call is going to get to the right place or that we can have the right response and I think that was important the problem that we were yes and and again I would I would ask that we could have the executive director really give you a good brief I don't I don't want to say anything it's not a hundred percent. Correct but with everything that's being done that is getting better all right thank you so much yes. Thanks sooner or two a law enforcement standards and training. Thank you mister chair the law enforcement standards and training division appropriations summary can be found a page three sixty one of the manuals. Check it recognition for fiscal you're twenty five is five million two hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and fifty six dollars for this division we'll touch on the operations budget because there are no there change levels so on page three sixty three will find the main operations budget for class and the total there for fiscal your twenty five recommended is four million two hundred twelve thousand four hundred sixty four dollars mister chair there are no significant change levels to you when this division i'll be having to take any questions alright thank you sooner hammer thank you my question is gonna be under your fallen law enforcement officer please would they be you colonel they would handle that or. What you all might have turned off you might. Yes sir that does fall under clance director chap and could probably speak more intelligently on that than I can keep the question is i'm looking at the amount that's in it and when i'm an officer is this is for officers killed in line a duty correct and when officers killed online a duty they are able to receive money out of this but are they able to is the family able to receive funds from other sources as well or is this it. Thank you sir chris chabben director law enforcement standards and training so that find it set up for immediate assistance or it is not it does not limit them from other resources for following officers whether it be state benefits or federal benefits sir but we try to have that initial money to them within twenty four forty eight hours and the limit on that is is at five thousand the ladies correct sir we've had this discussion before and fortunately we're not having used all the money in there which is a good day. Could we go in and move that up a what would stop us or what would be the resistance as far as practicality in not reason that to say ten thousand because you know for funeral expenses are just a sheer shock of life once situation I think in this past year you know an official was killed in line of duty and and the wife basically lost all the income and if we're gonna have consistency in carry forward money. What would be wrong with bumping that to ten thousand dollars and so in my opinion there would be nothing wrong with that. Be in responsible for delivering those funds I know how greatly they are appreciated by the families in that immediate assistance is extremely important with the cost of the funerals and everything else that is associated with that dramatic event I see nothing wrong with that if that's the legislative bodies desire sir miss chairman magic question to the share just for education on the is that something that we can adjust in here in the budget special language or is it going to require subsidiary of language poor general session. Yet we can do the minute during the session but during the general session. Wing it fiscal also here yes we can do it we can do it in the upcoming session okay like to work with you get that done if you would will get together offline please thank you so they appreciate that. All right general bearing thank mister kinda follow up on sender hammers come in so that this that was my bill I believe that we're talking about the checkoff program and all that and I thought we had a place to limit like at fifteen thousand dollars and in and was that the we determined that through the rules that wasn't in statute but we established that in the in the rules is that that sample mary with you colonel. John be asked me i'm not sure that when was that legislation ram was it prior to. Yeah. The. Instead of and we don't let one general barrier you get with senator and you are going to talk about absolutely happened or what's in place circle back up with state police and we can figure out what to do from there if there's anything that we need to do so as I can make me the authority to do state mister all right. Center hammer due did you catch their. Okay there may be already some increased ability that you go through the legislation that was general various legislation so maybe alcohol talk of line in and see what what's actually available there you may be able to increase the cap without having to have. Anything happen. And that's from the sponsor of the bill so maybe all can circle up on that. And then you have another question okay. The. That is where maybe representative very kind. Clarify on this god forbid there is a multiple event that would occur and if this is raged either through the legislation that exists or through legislation that we need to take place. Would their speed of time and the place that we would want to go in and raise the appropriation level in case or multiple days that might occur because right now they're sitting at fifty thousand and god for bed we were to have a situation where we hit the limit. Would it be better I personally think it'd be better to go hidden raise it I just like to be educated from the chair as far as the. Is that the best to do or detain with what he's got we can do it. I mean we can do one of the way so you can come back and do a letter and request the increase after they're able to have a conversation about what's available or not or where we can do it today i'm just not sure we have an educated a minute. It's an appropriation we can raise it to a million dollars and i'll make a difference so long since not funded or hopefully needed but that it would be up to them the body on what to do that but it sounds like we've got some homework that we need to do and maybe let you address that some yeah thank you mr chairman so just for clarification january senator hammer there there's two cats there's too function there's the fallen offer phone and then the fifteen thousand dollar phone is for catastrophic illness terminal type issues that the officers able to apply for so we have a longer duty death find that we immediately give in the officers can request an additional fifteen thousand dollars for terminal illness cancer catastrophic events so there's two actually two separate funds once limited at five thousand the other is fifteen thousand circuit thank you. This is the one that's limited to five thousand the other one is at fifteen right yes sir the line of duty death is limited to five thousand catastrophic illness find is fifteen thousand service chair i'll get with general barry afterwards in before we get out fiscal will get it and we can make some changes if we need to get back in session and then increase that appropriation level if we need to art thank you. Members I don't do any other questions. No we don't motion to second record get a second discussion on the motion seeing none of us in favor significant saying I was supposed motion carries division of state police. Thank you mister chair you'll find the division of state police division summary on page three hundred seventy six of your manuals. The total for this division for first you're twenty five recommended is one hundred fifty five million eight hundred eighty nine thousand two hundred seventy dollars. The operations appropriation for state please is on page three hundred eighty seven in your manuals. The total there's one hundred twenty one million five hundred sixty nine thousand eight hundred and twenty five dollars. The only real movement here is those four positions I got moved to create the office of fire protection services other than that mister chairman there are no significant changes of the vision of arkansas state please thank you reps in a browse I just a quick question under the homeland security federal section page three eighty three I noticed there was a significant difference in the capital outlay funding. I see that there is a notation that there is a transfer from miscellaneous funding grant I was just curious if you could talk about what was purchased was it equipment. And is that something that you will need to do again since we only. You know appropriating about half of what you had to spend in the previous year. Representative these are grants from adam to state police and it's you mostly just one time purchases of equipment I know in the past we bite drones. And we just get the funding as it's needed. Okay thank you. Sir chest film looking at the property mister come back to you represent cabinet. Thank you mister chair I have a just a real quick question on three eighty five which is the automated fingerprint identification system what is that actually the funds actually used for I know where it's generator from but what are we using that money for. Sorry I sprung that one on our pressure it should go that question is so simple when allowed to director. Morning soon reminds my kitium deputy direct administrative operations to answer your question is used to run operations and with a native second self and clean salaries over there that pay the salaries of those okay I just know as we get a fun balance and you're going to be using that fund balance. We we've we've done some things that the previous administration did for some reason was reluctant to spend we've we spent that balance down from his previous fourteen and half me and down to about eleven ok thank you so much appreciate that. That's just feel you can hit your. A and move executive good motion for executive wreck we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none of the favorite significant saying I others oppose mission curious and it brings us to the department health before we get there will everybody trade out thank you for your time today and there was a question earlier about the corrections but we've done set aside for present construction we were kind of all over the place trying to remember if we release some not really some and so staff when you particular had went back and and figured this out force I will there was seventy five million that was set aside for the calico rock as we know that's not moving forward and that was determined in the last administration of the seventy five million it was released so it's setting in a dear phone and they have spend about a hundred and thirty seven thousand of that which I think was the study that was done to kind of prove out that maybe california rock wasn't the place to to try to expand and so there's seventy five million set aside right now for that that can be used for construction in addition we did a restricted reserve set aside for three hundred million so it's just share of three are three hundred and seventy five million that is in holding waiting for the construction in prison we were kind of like said trend of jump around and recall on that earlier in the week and those are the the actual members so with that I think we've got everybody in place. And we'll turn it over. To miss miller are you ready or do you don't want to do a quick presentation first couple statements. Pure more is if that's okay you could just recognize yourself committing you're welcome to the follow renaimalery secretary of health department of hill thank you mr chair members of the committee we can do you this morning with no request for an increase in our budget so hopefully that's good news we can do the s because we pursued federal greens earned so we use federal dollars for a lot of our programs in fy fifteen state general revenue was twenty percent of our budget today it's fifteen percent um. So you know keep in our sgr under control we also been able to cut some fees and some of our occupational programs as i'm sure yellow aware in but one more area I want to mention is our number of field positions in january of twenty three we had two thousand forty nine positions field and as a mandate passman though we had nineteen hundred and fifty eight which which is a four point four decrease percent decrease i'm with me today i've got our chief of staff are deputy director of programs in our cfo at the table i've also got members of our staff in the audience so hopefully we can answer any questions that i'll have and with they at I will close my remarks and we're open for questions thank you. Thank you a senator boyd. Thank you mister chair right here. Just. I've I do have a couple of questions. Topics of interest material health there was a governor's press conference so we'll make sure this important issue to me I want to make sure you feel like you have the resources you need to do in your office to do the communicating coordinating itself. I think we do at this point senator boyd and you know we're we're going to do a media campaign hopefully we can use some of our tobacco funding to do that our grass roots effort for those of you who heard me speak this week we're going to try to do a grass roots effort to start now in involved in our counties with our local health units local officials local stay colders to cut down on our number of mothers who don't get prenatal care so that's where we're going to start I think we've got the funding for that right nail futuristically where we'll see where our gaps are in where we need phoning but we're also going to try to use private public partnerships to help with they aren't so so we'll see where we where we go with it mr chair two two other quick questions that with your permission so the next one october fourth two thousand and twenty three there was a case of malaria and arkansas. Do you have what you need for you know surveillance and detection and such. I think we do you know we get federal dollars for infectious disease these diseases you know a margin when a new disease emerges we usually get extra funding from the feds for they aren't so II think we're ready for something to come and what bet for malaria specifically we have that okay then final question for me that I know of at this point so this legislature passed legislation that requires with no pharmacist prescribes oral contraceptives to be reported to the department of health so do you know if you had a lot of reports and if so do you do anything with those reports or do they just get collected in add to the bureaucracy I don't know the answer to that we can get you that was numbers and and tell you what we what we do with those reports. I thank you sinder pinzo. Thank you mister chair may I get sir that's alright so on the on page four ten your operations being account. Looking at looking through that you're operating expenses mine item is budget request is well little bit higher than what you're expenses are been in the last couple of the actual expense last year and then also dropping down to the infectious disease testing line item there is a seems to be a huge difference between what your agency is requesting and what the legislative are executive wreck is what wife the large disparity between those two numbers yes sir we expected that question and all that are cheaper staff in our cs theater wait. Down items cheapest department of health so most of this discrepancy between what the agency requested and what the legislative and executive recommendations are for from mfgs that we have received over the last few years particularly those during the response many of the ozer multiple year grants designed to be spent over multiple years they have expanded the scope to more general infectious disease control in some it modernization and so the addition of those mfgs into our appropriations bill is why you see those differences but it's over a hundred million dollars yes we received about six hundred million dollars in pandemic response finds throughout the pandemic we've spent of course a lot of that but a lot of it we still have in so instead of carrying that from one year to next as an mfg if it's multiple years they will include it into our appropriations bill okay so so which do you need though the agency request or the executive rate. Well for the executive wreck because the agency request was without those mfgs and our in our appropriations bill but through a series of dfa is required incorporate those include those into if they go for more than a year so since we will not have those mfg appropriations to spend those fines we need general appropriations to spend them so you anticipate spending over the ninety one million you'd requested in the next fiscal year. The. Yes and it had been reminded that the request that the agency made was in twenty two as well dare in the preparations for the bianial okay that's not a there's not a recent request ok thank you that there's a yes sir gonna. Thank you mr chair this gallery thank you secretary mallery and i'm as nurse and excited to have you as the head of detail so thank you very much I too am interested in the maternal and beyond that the early childhood development and with the deep with dhs moving to are with the early childhood movie to department of ad how can your collaborate so that we are making certain that those early childhood programs in the health department are also working together and not silo from from those other programs. So all answer that really generally you know we have. We have a cabinet now that actually we get together quite often we talk all the time we are a close group and that's help and breakdown silos that you know I can remember you know not be in a secretary but just that we didn't talk to other agencies but now I mean our chiefs of chiefs have staffed hark and the secretary's talk I mean we're pretty close near group so I think I think that helps in what you're talking about and we'll keep that at the forefront great but I don't want as we're talking maternal I don't want to forget about the infant and child development that zero to three so just if you're keep us posted in let us know how the funding and which which are those programs I reflected in the funding so that we can make sure that we're we're taking care of that you're saying thank you mister chair thank you reps in the board law. Thing was chair not appreciate a represent gardener's question because it is in line with what I was going to ask. King of my tension in the last few months certain provider groups license with you and then you have to register a dhs. And not only they have to send those forms to you and then they get a static if the resident all those forms over the hs as ridiculous and there's a solo that exists there and there's no communication between it too and. I don't know what is going to take I don't I don't I don't understand all of it a lot of times but governments government you both owned by state of arkansas there are to be communication between the two and I know secret button has agreed me she was going to get with you and try to figure that out but. And i'll appreciate you guys working on a background checks and all stuff you're doing you've really been awesome over there now appreciate that but these sellers have to be broken down and these things have to be fixed because it's very incompetent on providers and citizens that have to do the stuff over at your house and then have to come down town to do it at the excess of whatever we got to do i'd like to see year of movement to fix that. Yes oranges to your point thirty minutes probably within thirty minutes after you talk to secretary put them yesterday she had put in a call to me and we had talked about this issue so we're already looking at the issue you're talking about. All right thank you reps and bloods yes there was a i'm sorry oh here there was a report of tuberculosis in north west arkansas at harvard high school can you catch me up on that. What are we doing to address the. Casey car current deputy director for programs yes me and we are working on that case as well as the mothers in that part of the state so they're ongoing as the investigations surrounding that in order to day proper testing and treatment and identification of disease follow up two questions how many others and where did that come from. So the number right now is still undetermined because of the investigation side of it in the contacts so that's ongoing in the testing that's required to determine that as far as the origin I don't have that with me but i'll be glad to get you a report and can i'd like to have both if I could thank you will do. All right thank you. Repson rose sir thank you two questions to different areas here and if you don't have this off the top you heard that's fine it can be just happy to get it by email but the breast care program with the steep increase in breast cancer diagnoses specially women under I just noticed that from last year to this future there's no change I understand that's an important approach to not increase your budget news security if I could get a breakdown for that and if you do see a need for additional funding for an area that's increasing a diagnosis. Thank you for the question this program this these particular fines are primarily driven by provide reimbursement for our women that are brisky clients are women of a certain age that are uninsured under insured they're allowed to go to our breast care providers and then we reimburse them for those visits so this can fluctuate from year to year based on the demand and the uninsured rate and those sorts of things so we we have at least in twenty three we did spend under our appropriations level but that can change from year to year and we we put different amounts of money in that program kind of based on that demand that we see so we have some internal flexibility to at least from a funding source standpoint to provide more funding if we see there is greater need. Would it be possible to get a a breakdown on the funding but also the qualifications for what you determine to be underinsured uninsured but i'd be very interested I just know of different families who've had host fundraisers for cost of surgeries and treatments and I think that information make them more available we have all that information and we will get it to you thank you second question page four seventeen I was just curious if you get addressed the inter and interagency transfers just where that money has come from down there towards the bottom under funding sources for twenty three twenty four and twenty four twenty five there's a inner agency fund transfer of nine hundred thousand and inter agency fund transfer of six hundred and seventy five thousand I just look into here I couldn't pick out where it came from yesterday so those are fines from the tobacco program that go to other areas so that six hundred and seventy five intro agency goes to the breast care program and then the nine hundred thousand and i'll have my cfo correct me if I say something wrong I believe goes to two agencies the department of education. And then parked harriet and tourism for some health initiatives that we have collaboration we have with them. Would it be would be possible give me a breakdown on that as well please yes sir thank you very much all right thank you one thing because I think we moved from I was in a two yards credit you actually acts asking questions on the appropriations now but we didn't allow our staff to present so what might thought was we were gonna let them present and then we would circle back in let you have chances to ask not a preparation questions but again to your credit where you're doing what we're here to do that's of you can you give you a quick summary and then we'll move on into the preparations so but well done committee alright. Good morning members can horning with your chair I appreciate you giving me the opportunity we had an ask question in a preparation all morning long and then suddenly but honestly hit the presentation at the department gave us essentially when he did the happen this morning the very very insignificant changes from fiscal year twenty four going in the twenty five so most of my presentation would have been letting you know that the appropriations are basically flat with no significant changes there is only one appropriation that probably did have changes it was for the credential in committee that is further along on the agenda and it was just to let sound or how we know that now that appropriation does have the source of finding where it did not before it was a transfer or three hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the rainy day fine but other than that as you told them an excellent job so thank you for coming and they conclude my presentation is your chair all right representative cavenaugh you recognize thank you mister chair first time one say thank you a for looking at the tobacco prevention find as you probably wear of last session I tried to get five million dollars out of it to go to maternal health because I believe that's one in the most important things that we could do at that money but it in going anywhere so I really do appreciate you look in to do that because that is an opportunity we have these funds setting there and they're not being used and we have a major problem so I appreciate your operation your willingness to look at that opportunity that we have there anyway I can assist you in that i'll be glad to do so the one thing I do want to ask you about is on the wick appropriation I think we've already spoken about this that we actually do have it an over appropriation based on what you're expected funding there's going to be and I just want to make sure the job were okay to go ahead and reduce that appropriation to fifty five million rather than the seventy five. Yeah. Are representative cabinet just to add a little detailed and from our previous discussion we do get about sixty five million in funding for the for the week food instruments we did not certify all our funding so you don't see it all in the funding source typically we have not spent that much because our case load is not high enough to spend all that now food prices are going up so we do in anticipate some increase but historically we've been spending around forty five to fifty million dollars in this fund center and we don't have a fund balance that the the federal government sweeps anything we don't spend so I do think we would be saved to lower it up I would be more comfortable with sixty eight if you're an agreement yeah that's what gives us a little collision in case our case loud angry is but I do think we're over appropriate right now okay appreciate that in one other real quick question I think we talked about the and fexist disease cos when you look at that appropriation it looks like it's really over but what we've really done is combined a lot of different things in that area is in that is correct that is correct so it is an category fifty one which is mesolinius it's called infectious disease testing I think that's a little bit of a misnomer i've talked to the fa about maybe changing that it's more of a catch all for infectious disease control and efforts in general yes ma'am one final question on the page four twenty three the full independent practice practice credentially is that being a new lies yes ma'am we've had about approaching six hundred applications we've approved around five hundred thousand right now we're using staff from the nursing board and medical board to a ceased water managing this committee. We are talking about and so we hadn't had any expenses yet we are talking about maybe transferring them some funding for the effort they're providing and supporting that committee but yes that committees meeting regularly reviewing applications and we have approved several of the applications okay I appreciate that if mister chair i'll have a motion at the proper time i'll circle back up to you suggest film thank you mr I keep hearing the conversation about which being diminished. But the funding being diminished and we talk about maternal hill. Perhaps I am suffering from the wall be gotten impression that they're inextricably into twined. Explained to me why we can reduce week funding without a having a deliterace impact on maternal health yes ma'am good question so what we're talking about is just reducing the appropriate property that was not the finding right so we still have the funding we still will have more appropriation that we have historically speak and we can always come back and ask for more if we see we're going to exceed that so we're merely and I know we're talking about appropriations it's just that it was a claim for me because of my belief that they are inextricable thank you so much all right sinner hammer. Thank you for conversation on full independent practice credentialing can you can you tell us how many to date have been certified and the reason I meant says it toes into the budget is because we're charging a fee if I if i've got it right this fund exists by the fees that are collected and I wonder if it's appropriate to have that discussion about reducing the fee at this time yes percent of hammer we have approved specifically four hundred and seventy eight applications. And we have discussed reducing fees I think right now you know we're not really sure what they're expensive is is fairly new we're not really sure what their expenses are going to be moving forward. And we do either need to hire someone to support this committee or or reimburse split find some of the people that are currently supporting the committee so if once we do that we see we have excess fines we can we will definitely look at reducing fees we've been very progressive with reducing fees and our agency okay and there was four hundred and seventy eight did you say approved approved humming hunting applied five eighty eight so some of those are pending that if they don't have other information will send it back and ask for more information so there's always a little bit in the charn but we have approved four seventy eight at a five hundred and eighty eight then watch the I forgot what the fee is fifty dollars for the renewal I think it's a hundred and fifty for the for the initial application and certification. If we could will just watch that between now the general session see how it flows out levels out maybe in the general session we come back and look at reducing that he asserted we agree thank you thank you repson cavinally recognized promotion thank you mister chair am make a motion to accept executive wreck with the exception on v seventy two wick food instruments paid for twenty one to reduce that appropriation to sixty million from the seventy five million. I think members heard motion we've got a second in discussion on the motion i've got a question of discussion for the maker okay question for the make it to the chair representative can I hear it you will arrive at the reduction of fifteen. I think it was discussion that they were just having about reducing the fifteen and that was the mount he was comfortable with. Do I bet excuse me sir I think that. I think that there was the recommendation by the agency that they were able to so they that is when we started talking about the weak appropriation that they felt it would be reduced and i'm trying to get to what fifteen million what constituted at that particular number. Was that because that's what you spent the last time or predicated on a a rolling number how do we get to the fifteenth yes based on historical spending how many years I would say the last five years so the agency sprang with this yet mail and okay I just don't feel like fighting as they don't know I really think that's alright thank myself that answers my question members got a motion we've got a second in you discussion on the motion seeing now and I was a favorite signal fab saying I was a posed motion carries our at numbers I think that pretty much rats are set up for today I do want to circle back one more time because I wanted to confuse all of you just a little bit further on the prisons it's actually three hundred and thirty million and restrict reserves that's about four hundred and five million that's actually set aside for construction all right thank you all in the appreciate your diligence in getting through this week where journal.