Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC)
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I'm going to allow members to ask WESP questions, but that's it. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 4
7:27
Yeah. We'll get this meeting called to order.
Need a motion for the minutes.
Got a motion? Second? Second. Got a second? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. We'll move on to reports from our standing subcommittees. and we'll go to Administrative Rules Senator Hammer. Senator Hammer you are recognized. Thank
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
8:06
You Mr. Chair. The Administrative Rules Subcommittee made
on October 16th all rules presented at the meeting were reviewed and approved and I move for the adoption of this report
get a second, I got a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And all opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you, Senator Hammer. We'll go to higher ed, which will be Senator Davis.
Representative David Whitaker
Unverified
8:41
Representative Whitaker. You are recognized to give the report. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Higher Education Subcommittee met at 1 p.m. Thursday, October 17th, in room B of Mack Building, Little Rock, Arkansas. Subcommittee heard information on the Higher Education Funding Formula. Mr. Nick Fuller, Deputy Director of the Division of Higher Education, spoke on how we got here, the funding formula breakdown prior to the current productivity funding formula, and
Ms. Beth Stewart, Senior Research Specialist of the Division of Higher Education, explaining the weighting and metrics of the current productivity funding formula. Ms. Sonia Hazelwood, Associate Director for Research Analytics of the Division of Higher Education, distributed a brief synopsis of the economic securities report showing the value of post-secondary education. The full report will be forwarded to the committee staff for distribution to the subcommittee. The subcommittee plans to hear from the institutions on how the current funding formula is impacting them in coming months. Presented on behalf of Senator Davis and myself, I move for adoption.
That's proper motion. Do I hear a second? Got a second. All those in favor say aye. And all opposed? Ayes have it. We'll
hear from Pierre, Representative Love, I'm sorry,
Speaker 22
10:03
Hospital and Medicaid. Thank You Mr. Chair. The Hospital Medicaid study subcommittee met Thursday September the 26th at 9 a.m. in room 205 of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center
at South Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas. The subcommittee heard testimony regarding the following items. Number one, challenges facing rural hospitals by Mr. Rex Jones, CEO of Magnolia Regional Medical Center. Number two, opportunities for diversity, equity, and inclusion by Dr. Brian Giddens, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Equity, Equity and Inclusion for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, UMS Regional Programs by Mr. Sterling Moore, Vice Chancellor
for Regional Campuses at UMS, UMS Sickle Cell Clinic Update by Ms. Colin Montgomery for UMS Adult Sickle Cell Program, and Mental Health Issues Facing Pre-K Through 12th Grade and Higher Education Students by Dr. Kim Bloss, Dean of College of Education for Southern Arkansas University. respectfully submitted subcommittee co-chairs senator eddie cheatham and representative frederick love mr chair this is my report and i move for the adoption that's a proper motion do i hear a
second i got a second all those in favor say aye aye all opposed eyes have it thank you representative Love. Representative Vought, peer report.
Senator Malik, are you prepared? You here? I'm here.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
11:47
I'm here. There you go. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The peer subcommittee met on Tuesday, October the 15th. The subcommittee approved one item, a reallocation of resources for the
Department of Human Services. The subcommittee reviewed several items including cash fund appropriation increase request, budget classification transfer request, miscellaneous federal grant appropriation request, and various reports assigned to the committee. The subcommittee referred two items to ALC without a recommendation. A rainy day fund release request of one million dollars in funding and a cash fund appropriation increase request of one million in spending
authority the two requests are for the department of agriculture to support grants and projects in the buffalo river watershed and mr. chair with that i move for adoption of the
report that's a proper motion do i hear a second we will take this motion and then we'll handle the unadopted proportion
so i hear a second i got a second all those in favor say aye all opposed eyes have it um secretary west board will you come forward and uh jake bleed please
and senator rice you're first in the queue for a question so if you guys would introduce yourself for the committee and sender you are recognized to start questioning uh jake bleed dfa office of budget west forward secretary of the arkansas
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
13:33
Department of Agriculture. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning.
Secretary Ward, let me thank you for our visit on the phone that we covered some ground. I'll try to be as concise as I can on this, but it's more than just this one piece, as I stated in the peer subcommittee that day. It's a culmination of a number of things that have caused concern,
especially in what I call the small animal ag community. The ones that I'm familiar with have one, two, four poultry houses, maybe a couple of hog houses or something like that. In the governor's letter versus the Department of Agriculture letter, the governor's letter is asking for a million dollars, and I am not against helping Buffalo River or any other rivers on keeping clean water and all.
But it says in there these funds will be used to support grants, projects within the Buffalo River watershed, including but not limited to the following, voluntary best management practices for farmers and landowners, improvements of waste, water, and septic systems for cities and counties within the watershed and reduction of sediment runoff from unpaid roads within the watershed. I don't have any problem with those specified things, but including but not limited to, with the background, as I mentioned,
of the CNH hog farm, which this legislature approved and I supported, because of where we were, we had a small business that had not been found violating regulations or been fined or whatever is just because of the excess resistance and possibilities down the road that brought to where we're at today,
and hopefully that'll be resolved. In my understanding, we're in the last part of that that they're shutting down. But it is the things, as I've discussed with you, that our small farms, animal farms, are concerned with. And while you're Secretary of Ag, and I have no doubt you're going to express ag interest, there's a lot of difference between big farming operations, row crop operations of thousands of acres,
which is part of your purview, and the little guy that can't even take off from his two-house chicken farm to come to Little Rock to be engaged. And as I told you also, it's not covered in western Arkansas. It may be covered in the Little Rock and northwest Arkansas dim gas, but in west-central Arkansas, they don't get the news we get down here, so they rely on their elected officials. just the concern from accumulation of events on the reg change extensive oversight and testing
without violation the accusations without factual substance is enough cost and aggravation to put some small farmers out of business or to keep them from even going in the business and that's my concern is down the road not this one thing we're talking about today the the four people entities or let's say the four secretaries that the governor's executive order spelled out for the buffalo river conservation committee is appropriate you yourself the secretary of
energy and environment secretary of park and tourism secretary of health as looking at the subcommittees that i believe have not been picked yet caused me some concern and I think some other legislators, and it says they will be local landowners, which may or may not be farmers, that conservation organizations, environmental and technical experts, representatives of the tourism industry, local, county, municipal officials, and federal partners.
Where is the voice in that for the small farmer? That was concerning to me. And in the, I believe it was Monday the 14th, DimGaz article that talked about some 400 people submitted comments all in favor of the ban of these concentrated feeding areas. and it talked about the comments in there. It suggested restrictions from prohibiting small hog farms
and barring other types of concentrated animal feeding operation. I think I asked you if poultry was part of that. To me, they are small concentrated feeding. I'll let you address that in a minute. And it said only two comments opposed any ban. The Arkansas Farm Bureau, which represents these people I'm talking about, that made the statement that no scientific evidence showing animal agriculture is causing an environmental impact, and also stated that letting a motion rather than sound science drive regulation changes, and then the Arkansas Pork Producers Association.
It mentioned that there were several other comments that questioned why the proposed ban would be limited to hog farms while other animal farms can cause pollution concerns as well as poultry farming. I try not to get off the subject of what we're dealing with today, and I do believe all of this ties together. uh that that is my concern is are we putting our small farmers animal ag farmers at a disadvantage
as we grow those who have seemed to have a political activism successes in the buffalo river area and in that uh the other information your agency sent that was helpful to me when I mentioned in the peer subcommittee about the purchases, and I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but I was concerned of the timing being around this time
that we did the C&H hog farm buyout. The information that the Ag Department sent me, counting the last purchase of the Garland County land, i only picked out the four that were 270 acres or more not the lower 40 acres 80 acres one two acres but tried to come up with some cost evaluation on that there was two from potlatch for 271 and 280 acres that were from roughly 1100 to 1250 an acre garland county which i can
imagine would be higher from nature conservancy in 2018 and 2019 was 361 acres and 408 acres one was $2,277 an acre this last one that is not yet totally through evidently deed hasn't been filed was 3,572 acres does a nature conservancy act as a acquiring land acquiring agent for the state or for Department
of Ag? So my response will just
Speaker 44
21:19
be limited to that last question
regarding the Nature Conservancy and I wouldn't consider them a land acquiring agency for the state but in this particular case they were they were doing work in that area it was something that we were working in partnership together on on just trying to protect that hot springs recharge area uh and so that that's where that collaboration is coming in okay all of those being willing
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
21:44
buyers willing sellers well i understand that but there it was i couldn't just see them buying it putting it in their inventory
and hoping somebody would buy it and and when i know when i
ask uh forrester uh director fox uh he said you know that they do that through appraisal and you You know, it's all, we know appraisals can run while, you know, my nature of suspicion always unfounded many times, and hopefully in this case, there was collaboration there. When I buy a piece of land, I like to look, see if I can find out what somebody gave for it, how long ago, and I can kind of figure out what a good offer is. This is the highest price piece per acre that y'all bought in the last five years, except for one or two acre.
track is is there any extra caution there when you're coming up with what you're willing to pay versus what the acquire paid
Speaker 48
22:47
sir I think those are all good points and from a state perspective we we do always want to
Speaker 44
22:53
make sure that we're getting the best deal possible and I think part of I would I would just assume that part of those costs associated with that particular track would be just to the specific area and the the potential economic development of that piece if
that was to be subdivided or you know developed in any capacity the the value of that property continues to go up so in the process of acquiring these these land tracks we we have to do a very thorough analysis our own internal legal review and processes with the governor's office with the the Attorney General's Office and Division of Building Authority. Several different components, even outside of the department, are looking at that to make sure that we're following those processes correctly
and that the state is getting the best
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
23:40
deal possible. We do expect that the Nature Conservancy made profit on their purchase and
Speaker 51
23:48
sale. If they did, it was interest. I mean, there was no... I
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
23:52
appreciate that. It's good to hear. Okay, and again, getting back just to the thing at hand, as you and I have talked and I have expressed to others, again, it's not just this one piece, it's down the road.
But when tied together with the article from Monday and all, there are people out there that have their livelihood and they're making it day to day. We had testimony in this room not long ago on the assessors of what this new poultry farm assessments are going up. And these guys, their farms don't cash flow already. And some of them, when they buy it, if they didn't get a bonus, they couldn't even buy them. And just that thing can put them out of business. and any litigation and regulation down the road that comes out of something
that's hopefully being done for a good reason, it's a concern to them down the road. So I believe you had been notified and others had been notified. I know we did hear back on that. My consternation on supporting this is where it says including but not limited to. and then the fact that I hope y'all will look at balancing the subcommittees where there's good voices. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Senator. Representative Slate, you're recognized for a question.
Representative Keith Slape
Unverified
25:24
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the phone
Speaker 58
25:29
call and the visit about this issue the other day, but still I'd like to focus on the subcommittees of who's going to be involved in that. you know district 83 is largely the watershed of the buffalo river i'd like to see all rivers as scrutinized and as quality water as buffalo but with this uh private donor money that's coming in
who it may be would this be allowed to uh put those members on the subcommittees is this only going to be locals and those straw men on the committees to tell those how they need to farm what their best practices are for
Speaker 44
26:09
farming yes sir i think that's a that's a very good question and i would say that our response to that is that we we control those subcommittees so with the creation of the buffalo river conservation committee by executive order
and who the governor has designated for that the myself and the other secretaries will have the final say so on who gets to be on those subcommittees another and as we talked about previously, we would love to have yourself or Senator Davis serve on those subcommittees to the extent that you want to participate in that. But the final authority for those subcommittees and who participates and who's involved would lie with that executive four-member committee. We do want broad participation. We do want to hear from everybody, people that are for it or
against it. We're not going to tell anybody that we're not going to listen to them. We're going listen to everybody but to make sure that the process is fair to make sure that the money is spent in the way that it's
Speaker 51
27:06
intended to be spent we do still have the control over over those subcommittees and and how those
Speaker 58
27:17
are structured moving forward follow up mr chair on you know there's so many projects that could uh go on with it especially you know two million will go a little
ways but there's uh other factors in cnh hog farm that was demonized and eventually litigated out of business but there will be no possibilities of this going with someone
Representative Keith Slape
Unverified
27:37
who does not want to participate into the best management practices correct that's correct this uh this program will be completely
Speaker 44
27:44
voluntary there's not going to be any forced participation uh any any programs that we identify uh if if the subcommittees identify something and we say hey this is a good idea and this would be a great project to do in the area but the landowners say we don't we don't like it
that's that's the intent of the subcommittee is to see what works and what people would want to do the local landowners within the watershed but if they don't want to participate there's there's no there's no potential that they're going to be forced to participate every every program will be voluntary if they choose not to that's that's their decision that won't be won't be demonized won't be publicized in any way that you know someone doesn't want to participate in a in a particular voluntary program thank you representative
Speaker 62
28:33
senator urban you recognize hi what counties does the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:40
buffalo national river run through i've got a map so we've got
Chair
Unverified
28:46
boone searcy newton marion maybe it's in the north side of madison
thersey newton it hits my map isn't very clear
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
29:10
it's thersey marion baxter newton yes ma'am did you visit with any of the elected officials that represent those counties before you decided to create a Buffalo River Commission or this program? Did you or the governor's office visit with any of us that represent those counties before you decided to do this? Yes or no?
Not particularly on the change. No, you did not. I represent Searcy County, Marion County, and Baxter County. You never once had a conversation with me. My constituents live in these counties. they called me when they read about this in the newspaper the fact that you have landowners and not residents of these counties listed is a problem because there's a lot of people from all across the state that own land in these areas but those are not necessarily constituents or residents of those counties that's a huge problem
and the fact that y'all single-handedly did this without discussing it with any of us who are elected to represent this area who work through these issues with our constituents with the Buffalo National River on a daily basis we have been through so much on those issues and we have tried so hard to work through it it is incredibly disrespectful it is ridiculous that this happened the way it happened we are elected duly elected people sitting here in this crowd in front of you
and you did not visit with any of us about this my senate district 18 i wish you would put a map on top of your watershed map i'm not happy about it mr chair at the proper time i'd like to make a motion to hold this until a meeting with the elected officials that represent the Buffalo National River and the watershed and the districts and the people that are affected that live here all the time
can meet duly and properly with you and the governor's office. And that is my motion at the proper time. Thank
you, Senator. I have two more people in the queue and we'll come back
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
31:35
to that motion. Senator Hammer, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. the way the letter is written on october
1st from the governor's office it specifically refers to improvements to wastewater and septic tank systems cities and counties within the watershed is that currently under the jurisdiction of the department of health or am i mistaken
Speaker 44
31:53
so i think there's there may be a little bit of overlap in the responsibilities there it's why department of health is also included as well as our natural resources commission within the department uh so some of those we've got some funding mechanisms that exist within the department but the department of health has some uh regulatory responsibility too so so some of these would be that that's why all four of us were identified as the members of the committee to to make sure that we're we're
Chair
Unverified
32:21
addressing all those potential concerns you know septic tank replacement
wastewater treatment all of all of those potential areas okay
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
32:27
and if it's under the department follow up Mr. Chair thank you so if
it's always been under the Department of Health and it's currently under the Department of Health and y'all are adding to the Department of Health what they're currently doing why would we need to establish this and spend the million dollars to do this if the Department of Health already has the responsibility to be monitoring this anyway so I think this
Speaker 44
32:58
This is a, in particular, would be an opportunity to supplement some additional funding to these programs to be able to get more projects completed. So the funding that exists for certain programs and certain regulatory responsibilities stays the same. It doesn't take any way of their authorities or responsibilities or any of their funding mechanisms. So the funding from the governor and from the private donations could be used to supplement that or could be used for a broader potential option such as some USDA programs, RCPP, Joint
Chiefs, broader initiatives that would require a state match to be able to initiate some of those. So I would say at this point there are several different programs and opportunities that we think could potentially be options. This is the importance of the subcommittees to identify what's most important but through the letter and the way that's written including but not limited to you to make sure that if there is something that is identified that we
Speaker 51
33:52
can move forward as the committee to be able to address that and and hopefully help fund the improvements
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
33:59
to those so all regulations will remain with the department of health to enforce regardless whatever comes
out of this committee's effort it's all going to still continue to rest with the department of health moving forward to
Speaker 44
34:11
enforce that's correct it wouldn't change any of the current statutory or regulatory responsibilities of any of
the respective departments thank you representative douglas
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
34:26
you're recognized for a question thank you mr chair mr secretary thank you for being here this morning try to explain this i miss pierce i missed some of the uh discussion on this but the the way i understand this and correct me if i'm
wrong i'm asking this as a question you know i know myself as a landowner i have a a creek that runs through my my farm and during this last rain we got 10 inches of rain here a couple of weeks ago i had a lot of stream bank erosion i had trees fall into the the creek i'm losing repairing area I'm losing land washing down the creek. As a landowner, I cannot afford string bank stabilization or revitalization.
That's a very expensive project. And in this case, I know myself, I'm more worried about how I'm going to save my farm, how I'm going to keep my farm from washing down the creek. and money like this in this instance if the subcommittee said hey we've got a problem with stream bank erosion we've got farmland going down the creek money like this could be used to help
supplement and pay for that if i wanted that done but if i didn't want it done you couldn't force me to is that
Speaker 80
35:52
am i correct in my assumptions here that's correct sir okay sir
Speaker 44
35:57
so those are certainly some of the options that we're looking at and that would be kind of the usda programs or the regional conservation partnership program the usda natural resources and forest service joint chiefs proposal to be able to find a mechanism where we can help fund landowners and residents individual operations to be able to to help give them some assistance in paying for
these improvements on the land for those particular purposes in general too
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
36:23
okay sounds like a great great deal for for the property owners out there follow up mr chair all right i understand a lot of people are kind of butthurt over this language not limited to and let me could you clarify this for me um we have as i say we have a problem with a lot of stream bank erosion up in northwest arkansas we've had a lot of development up there and we've got some
retention ponds that i've looked at in these subdivisions where they put 100 acres under concrete that used to be in grass and the weirs these things are designed to collect retain and slowly release the water the way it was in the natural habitat and now i've looked at the weirs they're not holding back a damn thing they're poorly designed they're not engineered and myself could bring this to the subcommittee and say hey we've got a problem with the design of these
weirs that wasn't included in the language originally but i've pointed out a problem that the governor's office didn't know about anrc or the department of agriculture didn't know about so this not limited to would that allow redesign or reconstruction of these weirs a problem that was unknown until a local individual brought it up would that allow those types of projects to be funded through this program absolutely yes sir and
Speaker 44
37:54
i think that's uh probably i think you hit
on the main point of that language including but not limited to you uh we realize there are concerns in that area of not wanting uh the government state or federal to come in and dictate what people are going to do so if i was to write down a list of things that the funding would be used for that would be in an effect little rock saying here's what you're going to do in this area including but not limited to says we're going to let the people local landowners identify what's important what's not important i'm not smart enough to be able to identify all those i think
you've given a great example of a potential area where local landowners local residents local ag producers within the watershed can say hey this is what's important to me this is a practice I need it's not spelled out in this letter but this is this is what I need in this area and then they can take that to the subcommittee to the committee and and we can try to find a way to help help fund that and help be able to make that accomplished okay thank
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
38:52
you sir that sounds like a great program to me I appreciate this representative Wooten would you hit your
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
39:02
request button for me please. You are recognized for a question. Thank you Mr. Chairman. You know we we spend 6.2 million dollars up there for a hog farm and I don't mind paying the guy. He deserved it. What I'm concerned about is the fact that there was no justification ever given for pollution of the of the Buffalo River
and then now we come back and we're using the word opportunity well who is the opportunity really for is it an opportunity for y'all to have a more invasive I don't care whether you say that the the landowner is going to have the opportunity you are still putting a bureaucratic burden on the people up there in those counties and for your information 45 years 40 years ago
we were collaborating with the nature conservancy on many projects but i i just don't understand why why um even from the governor's standpoint why why we need why we need more rules and regulations and spending more money but explain to me when you use the word opportunity is an opportunity for y'all to create another committee another commission another task force and spend another
million dollars or so or two million of the taxpayers money when the statement has been made that there's not that many or no known violations up there. But what is an opportunity? Who do you think it's best going to serve? Mr. Secretary, your agency or
the increased burden on the landowners,
Speaker 48
41:16
the small landowners? sir so I would say the the intent and
Speaker 44
41:24
and I think the way that the governor has written the executive order is that this provides additional funding for for people within the watershed so it doesn't doesn't create any new regulations or any new statutory authority or any new regulatory authority that would be imposed on anybody within the watershed it's an intent to try to get them additional funding to be able to to be able to adopt additional practices if they so chose
Speaker 66
41:49
they don't have to at all no additional burden no additional requirements thank
Speaker 89
41:59
you mr chairman representative payton you're recognized for
Chair
Unverified
42:04
a question thank you mr chair and i'm not certain who i should direct this question to i'm over here to your right um so my question is you know the governor has several pots of money some of them have to be approved by this committee and some of them don't and uh this is coming out of the rainy day fund
which needs to be approved uh what what's the reasoning why that didn't doesn't come out of the governor's gif which has recently been bolstered by the huge amount of surplus we had from last year
Representative John Payton
Unverified
42:36
so the the governor's gif is does not the gif fund is gone in fact we changed the name of it during the session to the development and enhancement fund the rainy day fund is the successor to it it's presented here to get y'all's input on it as required by the the laws adopted
Representative John Payton
Unverified
42:57
of the gif fund now i believe def the development and enhancement fund those are the appropriations authorized by the General Assembly to release rainy day funds so
Speaker 91
43:09
I'm losing track which fund is it that gets a bunch percentage of the surplus when we have
Representative John Payton
Unverified
43:15
a surplus so the surplus funds 25% is sent to the Arkansas Highway Department the remaining 75% moves into what's called general revenue allotment reserve where it will remain
until the next action by the general assembly to distribute those funds this is not the funding that is requested before y'all today is not coming from general revenue allotment reserve right it's
Chair
Unverified
43:38
coming from rainy day funds and i thought rainy day funds were titled that for the purpose of saving them for you know budget shortfalls and rainy days so i'm just curious could this
Speaker 94
43:50
be funded from the DEF, D-I-F fund? There's
Representative John Payton
Unverified
43:54
a number of DEF appropriations, and of course anytime we look at how we might want to release funds
from the Rainy Day Fund, we look at those. One of those considerations, though, is whether or not we want y'all's input on that decision. And so this is an opportunity for all
of us to discuss this issue. Okay, thank you. senator urban i'm going to recognize you for comment
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:23
or question and then your motion um so i i mean i
think i think it's really important that there's a lot of farmers that are residents of these counties that are not listed and so i think
this program needs to be reworked I think that you have some appropriation issues too I'm not sure if as Senator Hickey just pointed out to me the Buffalo River Commission Conservation Committee would distribute the funds for this purpose I don't know do they have an appropriation is that through Department of Ag how would that work that's a question
yes ma'am so that's what this would create
Speaker 48
45:00
would move this appropriation over to our cash fund within the department and then
Speaker 44
45:06
we could from there distribute that to the appropriate mechanisms whether that's through a state match to a federal program or or sending that to a particular program that already
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:18
exists okay well i i would just repeat my um motion is not to approve this at this time and request that they meet with the elected officials that represent these counties and these people that live there these farmers to get their input um and because i am representing my
constituents who have called me about this issue and so my motion is not to pass this at this time that's proper
motion does that motion include the cash and the rainy day yes department of agriculture the
Speaker 96
45:51
issue that we're talking about and senator also in your motion we need
to be clear on do we want to send this back to peer once you guys have had your meeting and discussion or
do we want it to come back straight to council we can send it back to peer
thank you senator hickey do you have a question on the
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
46:11
motion yes sir i do i want to make sure and what you were just alluding to was going to be my concern if it goes straight back to peer the way that it was written and i know we've had numerous people including myself about the including but not limited to that's way too broad for what I think this body's supposed to do as far as oversight but in addition as to what Senator Urban was saying I don't think because
the way that this letter came to appear and it says that they will identify and distribute funds I do not believe since we did not have the appropriation in the Buffalo River conservation that they can do that and we can get with staff i was thinking that the department of ag would actually have to distribute those funds themselves i don't think that if we go ahead and set this up personally i thought that the buffalo conservation committee could give them recommendations but the disbursements would have to come from the department of ag so
instead of this just coming straight back to pier i would like for that to be reworked to identify those problems before
it gets back to our committee thank you sir
thank you and we went before it comes back to peer we'll have an
answer for those questions do I have a second on the motion I do have a second all those in favor say aye aye all opposed eyes have it motion passes so we'll go to to revere a review subcommittee representative Richmond representative
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
47:52
Richmond you are recognized okay now you can hear me thank you mr. chair the review subcommittee met on Tuesday and reviewed methods of finance grants and service contracts a contract for community Corrections was recommended for ratifications there was no items
held and I move for adoption of this report that's proper motion all
those that need a second I have a second all those in favor say aye aye all opposed I always have it represent Richmond do you have a second
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
48:40
motion Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a second motion and that motion is for DHS to continue providing the monthly reports to review on the assessments being done under the Optum contract. That's a
proper motion. Senator Chesterfield, do you have a question? I
got you. That's a proper motion. I have a second. All those in favor say
aye. Aye. All opposed. Ayes have it. Senator Chesterfield, you're recognized for a statement question. Yes, thank you Mr. Chair. Just
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
49:08
a point of personal privilege I wanted to thank all of the members of the General Assembly who joined me at Philander Smith College for Legislative Appreciation Day. You were truly appreciated. Thank you very much. Thank You Senator. So
we'll go to Representative Wooten for personnel. You had to hit the request button.
Please. Representative, you're recognized. Representative, hold on one second. Hit that request button
Speaker 85
50:00
for me one more time. Yeah, you don't touch. Okay. Is that all right
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
50:04
now? Yes, sir. We don't have stuff out in the hinterland like that.
The personnel subcommittee met on Tuesday, October the 15th, 2019, and reviewed items of communication reports and requests listed in the report. The committee moved to have additional information added to the agenda regarding the authorized salary that can be paid upon review of requests as authorized in the Classification and Compensation Act. The committee also had a request from the Department of Transportation and shared services for a pool position for further review next month, and I would be happy to answer any questions, and I move for the
adoption of the report as presented.
That's a proper motion. Do I have a second? I have a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Aye's have it. Thank you for the report. and we'll
Chair
Unverified
51:11
go to lottery representative richie you're recognized for the lottery report thank you mr chair the lottery oversight subcommittee met wednesday september 25th at the alumni center at southern arkansas university in magnolia subcommittee heard testimony regarding the most recent activities and operations of the office of the arkansas lottery the 2020 census complete count
program and historically black colleges and universities with presentations from shorter college arkansas baptist college philander smith college and the university of arkansas at pine bluff now move adoption the report that's proper motion do i have
a second i have a second all those in favor say
aye all opposed eyes have it we'll go to the highway subcommittee senator dismayne you're recognized
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
51:50
thank you mr chairman the highway commission review and advisory sub committee met on wednesday october 16th the committee was provided an overview of amendment 42 of the arkansas constitution regarding the state highway commission and received an update
from godhouse on the status of their study of the department of transportation i move for adoption of the report that's the
proper motion do i have a second i have a second all those in
favor say aye all opposed eyes have it uh report adopted committee if you'll move on to item g we have one that needs a motion of review and that is the arkansas
teacher retirement system do i hear a a motion? I have a motion. Do I have a second? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed?
Ayes have it. That report will be reviewed. Members, we'll move on to I-1. It will be Senator Rayford. Senator, are you going
to present from down front or? Probably down front would be fine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Jason Rapert
Unverified
53:12
Members, we had sent out last night to you, hopefully, so that you could get this resolution. This resolution, I was asked to present this by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. This is an entity that was created by Congress in 2017. The President's administration and Congress supported this. And it was simply to better educate people on the realities and the effects of communism. As you see, the resolution speaks very clearly for itself, outlining a lot of the ill effects of communism that we've seen affecting the world over the last several generations,
especially the last hundred years. And so I could definitely read the resolution, Mr. Chairman. I don't think it's necessary. It does speak for itself. And what it is asking to do is seeking us to join with others and declaring November 7th the victims of communism Memorial Day. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Senator.
Seeing no questions, do I have a motion to adopt the resolution?
I have a motion. Do I need a second? I have a second. All those in favor of adoption of the resolution say aye.
All opposed Ayes have it Congratulations Members We stand adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order.
B. Roll Call.
C. Approval of the Minutes of the Last Meeting, September 20, 2019
D. Report of the Executive Subcommittee — Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, Co-Chairs
E. Reports of Standing Subcommittees:
F. Reports of Interim or Special Committees.
G. Review of Communications:
H. New Business.
I. New Interim Study Proposals and Interim Resolutions:
J. Adjournment.
Documents
Speakers
Representative Jeff Wardlaw Chair
Unverified
Speaker 4
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 11
Representative David Whitaker
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Speaker 22
Representative DeAnn Vaught
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Senator Terry Rice
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Speaker 44
Speaker 48
Speaker 51
Representative Keith Slape
Unverified
Speaker 58
Speaker 62
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Chair
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Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
Speaker 80
Representative Jim Wooten
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Speaker 66
Speaker 89
Representative John Payton
Unverified
Speaker 91
Speaker 94
Speaker 96
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
Speaker 85
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Senator Jason Rapert
Unverified