ALC-Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee
Video
Transcript
6 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 8, 2026
Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
15:00
Thank you all for being here. I think Senator Irvin got caught up and we're already a little late, so we're going to go ahead and begin. I think our first item of business will be a presentation by Senator Cooper. Yeah, there he is. If you'll make your way to the table, you'll recognize when you get there.
Speaker 8
15:44
Ready? Recognize, yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm John Cooper, State Senator, and with your permission, I
Speaker 9
15:52
have somebody here to help me with this. So I'll let him introduce himself, know him well. Buddy Johnson, parliamentarian for
Speaker 11
16:01
the House, and I've been working on this occupational licensing project for a couple of years. Thank you. Go ahead, you're recognized.
Speaker 13
16:14
Okay, thank you. What this is having to do with is the occupational licensing initiative. I think most
Speaker 8
16:21
of you are very familiar with that, so we won't belabor a lot of the details on it, but just to kind of remind you of some of the highlights of it. In the summer of 2017, Arkansas applied and won acceptance for membership in an 11-state national consortium to study reforms and occupational licensing. The Occupational Licensing Learning Consortium has been supported by a grant
from the U.S. Department of Labor and administered by the National Conference of State Legislatures. the Council of State Governments, and the National Governors Association, and its work will continue through June of next year. The consortium's objective was to review and address licensing regulations that create unnecessary barriers to labor market entry. It looked at the portability of licensing and reciprocity for licensure among the states.
Here's how the Occupational Licensing Initiative unfolded in Arkansas. A core team of legislators and executive branch officials met and developed a strategy for initiating licensing reforms. The core team had the support of stakeholders that formed an advisory group. the advisory group surveyed licensing entities and developed a self-assessment tool for those entities to examine their purposes and practices. Governor Hutchinson in March 2018
appointed a 17-member red tape reduction working group. The group held hearings considering considered research developed by the advisory group in Arkansas and came up with a series of recommendations for legislative action. During the regular session earlier this year, 83 bills related to occupational licensing were introduced in the House and Senate. Of those, 41 became law.
Several of these new laws resulted directly from recommendations by the Red Tape Reduction Working Group. These included laws related to criminal background restrictions on licensing, improved processes for licensing military veterans and military spouses, streamlined rulemaking process, and improved portability of licenses from other states. The most critical piece of legislation, Act 600,
resulted in the establishment of this group, the Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee of the Legislative Council. It seeks to create a systematic process of considering new licensing proposals and to review existing ones on a regular, cyclical basis. I'm optimistic for your success. While much has been accomplished in occupational licensing reform, much remains to be done. The Occupational Licensing Advisory Group continues to meet and is focused on
improving licensing processes for military personnel, veterans, and their spouses, removing barriers to licensing for individuals with criminal backgrounds, extending labor market opportunities for low-income, unemployed, and dislocated workers, and developing streamlined consumer access to information about occupational licensing in the context of job development.
It is my understanding, too, that the governor is considering appointing a successor group to the Red Tape Reduction Working Group. This new group would focus on sustaining and extending the occupational licensing reform process. And that concludes the prepared remarks, and I would be ready to answer questions if there are any. And, Buddy, do you have anything to add to
Speaker 9
20:21
that? No, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions?
Speaker 23
20:29
Thank you, Madam Chair. As I listened to and
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
20:39
read this outline, and I don't believe I've ever had the opportunity to attend any of the meetings and was aware of some of the legislation that passed previously, Wondering whether or not how much focus was paid to, I guess, safety and accountability.
So if someone is coming from another state with a license to do something, especially related to health careers, if there is something in place to ensure that someone's not coming from another state and had a complaint or something like that, quit the position, left the state, and then would come here with something that wasn't fully fleshed out as, you know
what I mean, in terms of punishment or fleshing out that complaint. How did we deal with that, especially where safety to the public is a concern? Well,
Speaker 9
21:46
keep in mind that what we did was in coordination with the boards and the people that we were involved with. We did it on almost everything that we did was on a cooperative basis.
And the boards were very involved, especially, I guess I can speak from the legislation that I sponsored And I don't know all the background about all of the 41 that passed, but certainly the ones that I did. And I encouraged, from the chair's standpoint, that we do this cooperatively. I told them from day one that it was not our intent to cram anything down their throat, that we wanted to address everything and the nature of what made sense
and remove the unnecessary things and keep the good and keep the things. It was not ever our intention to just throw licensing out the window. We realize that there is a place for that, and everybody that I've heard talk about this effort realizes that, that there's a proper role for regulation. and certainly the boards that I ran legislation that pertained to,
and I think probably everybody approached it the same way, that they were in tune with what we did.
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
23:22
totally agree with what we're doing, especially when you're talking about streamlining and making sure that people can
have seamless transitions, moving state to state. I'm just wondering if there is room for, or if there was discussion about ensuring that information was shared. So if we're going to take someone who is in a given
field, and let's say an occupational therapist, and that person comes from Texas, and that person might have a record where there were a number of complaints, but nothing that ever materialized into a lawsuit or nothing that ever materialized into the suspension of the license, I'm wondering if it would make sense to, as we say, okay, we will extend that license, we'll be a part of some sort of pact where you don't have to go through the same red tape in Arkansas.
You've been through it in Texas. you've been practicing in Texas, but we want to have access to any record of any complaints so that that would be a part of the record here as well since you're operating on that license. Am I making sense? Yes. I'm not sure that I
Speaker 9
24:33
know if that particular thing was even addressed. Are you aware of anybody on any of that legislation? Yes, please. Thank you, Senator.
Speaker 11
24:47
Representative Flowers, the core team, the working group, the advisory group has honestly been looking at the big picture and has avoided, I don't want to say micromanaging, but it has avoided zeroing in on particular licensing entities just in the pursuit of the bigger reforms,
the bigger picture to the establishment of this subcommittee to have a systematic process of looking at licensing entities and seeing if their existence remains justified. And it didn't, none of what the groups got involved at the micro level of, and I think that was a sign of respect of the groups for the different licensing entities at this stage to let them do their jobs. Got it. Okay, thank you very much.
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
25:49
Thank you. Representative Godfrey? Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Cooper, thank you for your work here. In thinking about the big picture, one of the questions I got frequently from both House and Senate members during the session when I was working on my licensure bill for nurses was the fact that we were looking only at nursing licenses for non-citizens who have legal work status. And so I'm just wondering if the working group is looking at that broader issue of residents of Arkansas who are not U.S. citizens
but who do have a legal work status and if we could expand licensure for those individuals who want to work and have legal status to work but can't currently be licensed by any entity other than the nursing board. Just thinking about expanding that opportunity for more of Kansans.
Speaker 9
26:41
Okay. The red tape reduction task force has completed its work. And as I said in the prepared remarks,
I think the governor is probably going to reappoint one, but that's still undetermined. It's up to him whether he does that or not. But there is an advisory group that is still working, and I guess they are starting on a new cycle right now. And frankly, I don't know exactly what they've discussed. I'm sure that the licensing entities will have some type of thing that will be looked at at some point to some level.
that's part of part of the lastening structure but as
Speaker 38
27:30
to what it will pertain to I don't know at this point but he may know more about that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
27:38
than I do I'll just I'll follow up to say I mean that's really part of what the subcommittee can do so I mean the subcommittee's really charged with looking at all of these at an individual basis on a rotation type basis and then reading these reports and then you know going through it and making recommendations asking those questions
and making recommendations that might be tedious to do it for all entities but that's that's kind of what our we're tasked with doing so this first group can be something that you know we're going to have to explore so they've kind of identified it created us and then it's up to us to kind of individually go through each and every one to see where their issues are where we can kind of further go down and cut more red tape for those licensees that are you know under each of these
type of boards licensing boards does that make sense yeah yeah so i think that's feel free to work subcommittee that is that is the excuse me that
Speaker 9
28:47
is the structure of what the sunset sunrise sunset does is to look at what's already in place to review that and that's exactly what this committee is designed for in the department of labor's materials and discussions i believe
that is probably the number one factor that they think is important for the states to have a look at is sunrise some some method of reviewing things before it winds up in the legislator's lap and also seeing reviewing what's in place right now that may need to be changed or eliminated so that's that's what sunrise sunset is all about and that was a it was one of the key bills that came out of this recommendations to the governor and there was a bill that passed in regard to that
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
29:42
Thank you. Senator Bledsoe. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just out of curiosity, when you start talking about people coming from other states and the safety issues and all of that, did you have any discussion about state compacts and the overlapping of that with what we're trying to do? Compacts
Speaker 9
30:08
are always a part of the discussion. at every level.
I think that we have probably initiated some compacts in the last couple of years, I think. But in the conferences, those come up all the time, and there are reports about what other states have done in regard to compacts. And I'm not sure. There wasn't any of the five points that came out of the red tape reduction committee that dealt with
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
30:40
compacts. But there was no overlapping, in your opinion, between the compacts? No, I don't see any.
The reason is because mainly the compacts come from the state boards, and I just wondered how we were going to fit that together. So that's just an item of curiosity for me. That's a complex issue,
Speaker 9
30:57
as you well know. So we have to be, I would say we have to be very careful in that area. All right. Thank you very much.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
31:07
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would definitely agree with all those comments. Representative
Speaker 56
31:13
Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess my question may be
Speaker 57
31:16
posed to the chair more than anybody else.
So in this template that we're using for the different boards to report to this committee on their procedures, is there anything that would identify whether there's a roadblock for non-citizens that are here with a legal work status or not? Do you want to answer that? Do
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
31:35
you want to answer that? Go ahead. I'll let staff. Question.
Speaker 65
31:55
Thank you, Madam Chair. Marty Geraghty with the Bureau of Legislative Research. Representative Payton, there isn't anything in the questionnaire that the agencies fill out with regards to that information. Okay. Well,
Speaker 57
32:06
that was my question. I've missed a few meetings, and I was just curious whether we had a spot we could refer to to see. Thank you.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
32:18
Thank you. Any other questions? All right. I want to say thank
you to Senator Cooper and Betty for your work on this.
Y'all did an excellent job, and you did a lot of work. And I think there's more work to be done, and that's our job. but just trust and know that we really appreciate you and your work and all that you've did on this, and I'm sure you'll still be a part of it. Whether you're on the subcommittee or not, you can still make recommendations and give them to me or a member of the subcommittee because that's the way you need to work on this.
Speaker 9
32:54
So thank you very much. One final thing, if it's okay. I think we owe a big gratitude to the advisory group that worked with us.
Yes, absolutely. They've had a lot of meetings, and they did a wonderful job, and out of their work came a lot of what we were able to recommend and ultimately pass. And right here is another one that spent a lot of effort and good work
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
33:21
in doing that. Yes, a ton of effort. Do you have any comments, final comments? You're sure? Okay. Well, thank you for your work. We appreciate it. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Moving down to item D, we'll have a presentation on motions and recommendations by Ms. Davenport,
Michelle Davenport. There you are. And it's exhibit D. As the subcommittee reviews occupational authorizations, subcommittee members will have the opportunity to submit recommendations regarding these authorizations. Moving forward, members will submit their recommendations to staff for compilation before distributing to all members to consider at the following meeting. For this month, any recommendations to be made will be turned in by December 9th,
distributed to the members on December 12th, and then discussed at our December 19th meeting. So Ms. Davenport with the Bureau of Legislative Research, the Legal Division, will provide this information regarding what types of recommendations could be made. So, subcommittee members, pay attention. because she's going to tell us exactly how to do our job.
Fair enough. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to come.
Speaker 83
34:39
What we're going to talk about very briefly is the structure
that the Red Tape Reduction Task Force put in place with Act 600 that was adopted. Act 600 created the new Arkansas Code Annotated 10.3.318. And so if you're looking for that in the books that are out there, it's not there yet. You still need to look at the original act as it was enacted. The new supplements have not come out. If anyone needs a copy of that, it's available on the website, but if you need anything, please let us know, and we'll be happy to get you a hard copy. It has a lot of very detailed information that came out from the Red Tape Reduction Task Force.
Part of that was taking a look at what it considered the legislative intent of both the subcommittee creation as well as the actions that they had taken that led to that. And I thought that was an important place to start when you're talking about the recommendations. The legislative intent set out that this subcommittee now is to determine and implement the least restrictive form of occupational authorization to protect consumers from significant and substantial harms to public health and safety.
Now, in order to do that, there had to be a process put into place. So originally it was designated to ALC with the option to designate a subcommittee. That was the choice that was made. The subcommittee will now review each occupational authorization, and an occupational authorization can be anything from a license to a certification. There's a lot of different terminology that's used, and the Act covers a very broad range of that. So any time you see the phrase occupational authorization, it means any of those types of actions.
And this subcommittee will then review each one on an annual rotating basis. The subcommittee will vote on recommendations, as the Madam Chair has already explained, for legislation to then be submitted to Legislative Council. Legislative Council will then vote on those recommendations as they've been proposed by the subcommittee. And then, as in other situations where there are recommendations, bills can then be drafted off of those recommendations at your discretion. So the big question is, what kind of recommendations and motions did the Act anticipate?
It's a very broad list. So beginning, you can repeal the occupational authorization if you believe something needs to have a repeal. You can convert the Occupational Authorization to a less restrictive form of Occupational Authorization. Recommend the promulgation of revised rules reflecting the use of less restrictive Occupational Authorization. Modify any of the qualifications for an Occupational Authorization.
Modify or redefine the scope of practice of an occupation or profession. Recommend any other relevant legislative reforms deemed necessary. If there's something that's not covered by a license that should be, that would be one of those recommendations. Or determine that there are no changes or recommendations necessary. If you feel that that license is following the intent of both the occupational authorization that's being asked to be performed, or if you feel that it's in good shape,
you can vote that no recommendations or changes are necessary. So while I'm here to tell you what you can do, really the door's open. These are all recommendations that the subcommittee has the ability to make any recommendations that it believes appropriate for those licenses, and those recommendations would then be submitted to ALC at that time. And that's all based and found in the Act. If you need specific references, I can point you to where those are found. But again, Act 600 has a lot of very detailed information.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:34
all right are there any questions any
questions all right thank you okay so again for this month any of these recommendations that she pointed out um you can make them by turning them into staff december 9th is your deadline, and then we'll distribute them to all the members, and then we'll discuss them at the
next meeting. And then from that, you know, recommendations from this subcommittee, then we can vote on them, and then we can draft bills or things like that. I think, you know, our intention here was really to focus on the process of the licensure and make, you know, moderate changes as needed i don't this is not a subcommittee that's going to you know create a new profession or dramatically change a profession that's not really our our place here um but that's that's
where we're at so any questions none okay so um now we're moving on to exhibit uh to item e um all right so we're going to start with the review of
the reports from occupational authorization entities and our first one exhibit e1 arkansas state board of acupuncture and related related techniques and if you folks will come to the table we'll get started
Speaker 87
40:24
Madam Chair, I'm Martin Isley. I'm president of the Arkansas State Board of Acupuncture and Related Techniques. Thank you. And this is Maria. She is with CGI. She does the administration of all of our board duties.
Okay. So she'll have more information than I will. Okay. She brought her computer. All right. Well, if you want to go
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:59
ahead and just talk about your report that you submitted to us, that would be a good place to start. Sure. Do you want to start with the scope of practice? Yes. I mean, we'll just
go down the report. That'd be fine. Okay. And do scope of practice. I'll need you to do that part. I mean, you don't necessarily have to read.
We have it in front of us, but if you wanted to highlight some things on it or talk
Speaker 87
41:33
about it in general terms, that's fine. I can give you kind of the overview of what our board does, and basically we're just a licensing board. We have, I think, 30 licensees, and applications are submitted. cgi goes over and makes sure everything's there and then then we have board meetings a lot of the
times we'll just have phone conversations and vote on them then but we do have regular scheduled meetings our scope of practice as you would imagine involves acupuncture and all the related techniques involved in Chinese medicine so our licensees are trained in the full system of Chinese medicine so we do acupuncture and some of these things you
may have heard of or not but cupping moxibustion which is using heat to treat certain points on the body and a number of different other things electrical stimulation you can imagine that some of the sort of the Chinese version of physical therapy so we also are trained in different types of breathing exercises and meditation so for instance I will most people come to me for
acupuncture and they I treat a lot of pain but we'll teach people some meditations and dietary recommendations and those kind of things and then we do Chinese herbal medicine and we recommend those just based on per patient needs our licensees are fully trained in the traditional Chinese herbal medicine our Our training is a four-year program, and
then we have to have two national tests that are required from a national certification association that also is coordinated with a national certification of the schools that we accept the training from. on um on the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:03
fees and the penalties are you able to um so
is it annual licensing one of my questions
for everyone is efficiencies because to me i feel like you know do you have an annual requirement to be licensed or is there an option for a two-year licensure
Speaker 102
44:28
how does that work the initial application is submitted with a
Speaker 87
44:33
$250 fee. And then we have a biannual continuing education requirements that we ask people to require 24 hours in two years.
So basically if you hit the deadline right the next time that you have to renew your license is two years. And that is a $400 fee. And then we submit the documentation of whatever the continuing education is there's a little bit of a gap there depending on what time within that two years that the initial application is so what we sometimes give them a little bit of leeway if they have submit the application and then there's a kind of
running when we do the renewals um but basically it's every two years that we do renewals do you get
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:27
any complaints from your licensees i mean i see you only have 37 registered but do you have any complaints about the efficiency of being able to renew their license or is there any do you ever get any feedback because i mean one of the things that i look at is like we have all these licensing um processes right so do you do yours online or is it how do you say do you see just i'm like
basic i'm a real basic person so to me like the ideal world
is that we would have arkansas department of health portal and all the things that need to be licensed under there on one website just because then we could save money I think so I just how I mean just
Speaker 106
46:14
can talk to me about the process sure so a new application none of it's really online
Speaker 107
46:20
when it comes to like an online form you can download the application but you're not able to just go online and fill out the
application so it's basically hard copy they have to mail everything to the office and for payments we only take check or money order so there's not we don't have the option of credit card for payment of that same with the renewal we actually email the renewal we call that our renewal checklist and just kind of tells them to verify their contact information and what they need to submit as part of their renewal packet and that's also typically mailed or emailed we do take scanned
copies of their continuing education certificates and then we pretty much review them as staff we review the packets we prepare them and then we present them to the board for review and approval but none of it's online yeah so i like the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:17
option that you have cash too because a lot of people don't use credit cards even though anyway but now i appreciate i appreciate that but it could be it be nice to have it online, too. So, for some people, I'm just looking at efficiencies.
Okay. Are there any questions from members? Yes. Senator
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
47:38
Bledsoe? Yes. This subject came up six or eight years ago. Were you here, is it Mr. Isley or Easley? Isley, were you here during that time, and were you part of that discussion with the Chinese medicine
Speaker 114
47:56
and I think I've been here forever it's
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
48:01
okay so you were I'm pretty sure yes all right in in what you're doing are you intending with the herbal medicine to use any type of prescription
Speaker 87
48:14
well we basically rec make recommendations on herbal medicine people can go out and to go to Whole Foods and buy Chinese herbs. But we know the whole background. We know the contraindications. I do have patients that they'll come in and they'll say, oh, I went online and bought this stuff. And I'm saying, no, that's not the wrong stuff. We know the contraindications with other medications and when to use them, when not to use them,
those kind of things. And we were really the only ones in the entire state that are
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
48:52
trained in the Chinese herbs. I remember part of that discussion, and I think it's been, like I said, six to eight years ago. Yes, ma'am. All right. Now, as I remember it, there were those who would put together the herbal medicines and somehow, some way, their patients were being sent to a pharmacy. That is not anything that you're going to do.
Is that correct? No, I mean. But that did happen. that a few years ago. I think
Speaker 115
49:28
it was, I think I remember you specifically. I'm not sure that exactly
Speaker 87
49:34
what you're talking about, but we don't send them to a traditional pharmacy. I mean, usually if we recommend herbs, we'll have them available either in our office or we can give them a website to go to that we recommend, that kind of thing. Traditionally, Chinese herbs,
they're basically herbal medicine, and so they're a bunch of sticks and leaves and things like that, which part of some Chinese culture, they use them in their
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
49:57
cooking and all that. I understand all that. I was just trying to make clear where we were
Speaker 115
50:03
going with this. And so, anyway. But, yeah, there's not a
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
50:07
pharmacy that we really send people to. As you remember, the discussion many years ago, or six to eight years ago, that was the discussion about patients showing up at a pharmacy
and wanting their prescription to be honored, if you remember that. I think that was a completely different issue than what
Speaker 115
50:26
we're talking about with Chinese herbs. But I'm just asking, though. I don't want to interrupt you, but I'm
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
50:31
just asking. Is that where we're going? No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 87
50:35
All right. That was taken care of through that legislation back then. That was in 2009. I think I know what you're talking about now. That was, that issue was taken care
Speaker 115
50:44
of. So that's that's all I needed to know. Thank you so much.
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
50:48
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank
Speaker 111
50:58
you. Representative Richardson. I think that's Richmond. Oh,
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
51:00
yes. Richmond. I'm sorry. That's okay. I'll answer all no matter what I'm called. I'll usually answer up. My question is concerning and thank you, Madam Chair. My question is concerning the fees and everything. Help me try to understand this is that I look at this and there's an annual processing fee required to maintain the
active license so a guy goes in or lady and they pay the initial application for licensing which is 250 that's one time they also have to pay the hundred dollars though so that's 350 dollars and then the next year they're not being charged anything probably except maybe i don't know when you pay your continuing education except they'll still have to pay the hundred dollars because this says annually to maintain the active license and then that biannual they have a $400
fee that they have to pay plus another hundred dollars to maintain the active license so they're actually paying $500 is is that am I tracking that correctly
Speaker 106
52:02
yes and it probably makes more sense if we look at it time wise
Speaker 107
52:06
so let's say that somebody applies in March they pay $250 If they get approved, they go ahead and get their license. By the June-July time frame, they're due their administrative fee. So it's always around that same time frame, the June-July. So they have to pay $100 at that point.
They won't renew until the following December. Not that December, but the following December, they'll be up for renewal. So that's when they would pay for $100. But yes, go back to that summer, they have to pay another $100. So you're looking at $250 plus $200 of admin fees, and then you get to your renewal fee of $400. So if it's okay, I can give you a little bit of comparison of how we are, you know, compared to Texas or I think I have Texas, Tennessee, and California, if it's okay.
So just looking at Texas, which obviously is very close to us, Texas requires $312 just to submit the application. That's just for the board to actually go through it. If you do get approved, you need to go ahead and pay the fee to be licensed, and they have options. You can either be licensed for three months, nine months, 12 months, or 24 months. To be compared to us, 24 months is $671. So off the bat, you're going to have to pay around $983 for that period.
And then their renewal is $667. So that's Texas. Tennessee has a $500 application fee and then they have a $250 certificate fee. So if you apply and you get approved, then you're looking at $750 and their renewal is $300. California is $550 to take their exam and then $325 if they do pass it in order to get the certificate.
it. And then there's a $325 renewal fee. So that's kind
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
54:06
of how we compare. Follow up, Madam Chair? Yeah. When I look up top of the page, it says you have 37 people that are actually regulated. The question I have, and I don't know if you can give me any data or not, but just how lucrative is this business? Is this a pretty good business where they make a fairly decent living on this thing people
Speaker 87
54:32
making pretty good money i think the active membership we have is
around 30 is that correct yeah 37 okay so we've had some new ones but over the years um it's been around 30 and people sort of drop out for various reasons um as you can imagine starting any business um is hard it's hard to get patients in hard to get known i practiced law for 15 years before I left and went back to school and I knew a lot of people and I thought I'm going to come back to Arkansas everybody's going to know me and I'm just going to start like that
it took me about 5 years to get up and running that said it really depends on how much you want to put into your practice and marketing and getting your name out and that kind of thing some people prefer to do it sort of part time but most of us are full time and making a decent living paying our bills and that kind of thing with it. But it's not like it's lucrative. That really depends on, you know, your definition of it.
So we're paying our bills, but we're not making a killing on it. Our fees are fairly low. As a matter of fact, my fees are about the same as you would when you pay a massage therapist. All right. Thank you. Thank
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
55:57
you, Madam Chair. Yeah, just trying to compare to see if the fee is appropriate with the average salary. I'm sure I understand that. Representative Birch.
Representative LeAnne Burch
Unverified
56:04
Thank you, Madam Chair. Did I understand you say there's four years of study required before you start practicing?
Speaker 87
56:11
All licensed acupuncturists in Arkansas are required to have four years of training. Now, that's the traditional training, and most states require the four years of training from a school that's nationally certified and they're able to get federal loans, student loans. And then the tests that we take are from a national certification group. And that's pretty standard across the U.S. Now, there's other folks doing acupuncture.
For instance, in Arkansas, our law has an exemption for chiropractors. We have to have close to 4,000 hours to do our licensing. Chiropractors can do it with 100 hours. If you're an MD, you can watch a YouTube video and do it. Physical therapists are now doing it with 24 hours. But that is very simple, basic, stick-a-needle-here kind of training. But our training is the full system of Chinese medicine with the acupuncture,
all the related techniques, all the herbs, the theories, and
Representative LeAnne Burch
Unverified
57:22
all that kind of thing. Madam Chair. Thank you. Where's the nearest school, or what schools are attended most often by persons practicing this art or science or in
Speaker 149
57:35
Arkansas? Yes, ma'am. I think the closest school, there used to be
Speaker 87
57:41
one in Dallas, and its sister school is in Austin, and the Dallas but the one in Austin is still open.
I believe there's one in Houston. I went to Boulder, Colorado. There's about 30 across the U.S., but when I went to school, I went to say, okay, where is a cool place to live when I go to school, so I went to Boulder. But I looked at schools in Santa Fe and in Florida. I
Speaker 150
58:04
don't think the Austin School was open at the time, New York, but there's no schools in Arkansas. Thank you. Thank you. Representative Payton. Thank you, Madam Chair. So
Speaker 57
58:20
the reason we license people and regulate them is to protect the public.
Can you tell me, with acupuncture, what is the public risk, and what is your
Speaker 87
58:31
licensure board doing that protects the public? In general, kind of the same things you would expect from any other medical professional board. We look at the background of people coming in, and then we are open to receiving complaints of any sort against any sort of whether it's from the acupuncture itself or herbs or any sort of anything that you can imagine that
would cross the lines. But our training is we were required to have what's called a clean needle technique training and everybody in acupuncture school has that training before they start practicing in our schools we have to have 800 hours of clinical practice before we are allowed to move before we graduate so we are trained in all the the safety techniques all the contraindications when to refer
to other health care professionals. I can't tell you how many people I send to physical therapists. So
Speaker 153
59:40
as a board, you're saying that the verification of the training is one of the things
Speaker 57
59:46
you do to protect the public? Yes, sir. You verify the training? Yes, sir. You qualify it and verify it? Okay, Madam Chair, could I follow up? Yes. So do you require any bonding of the acupuncturists that are doing the job
Speaker 152
1:00:01
where they have to have a bond or some sort of insurance to protect their customers?
Speaker 102
1:00:07
I don't think that our statute requires, and
Speaker 87
1:00:10
I'd have to go back and look and see, requires any sort of liability insurance. Okay. So
Speaker 57
1:00:16
do we have reciprocity with other states if they have licensed acupunctures? We do. In our
Speaker 102
1:00:22
situation, for some reason, it was a lot easier just to go
Speaker 87
1:00:28
through the licensing process, but the reciprocity is in our statutes. Okay. If
Speaker 57
1:00:33
I could keep going, does a foreign citizen who's here on a work permit, can they get licensed?
Probably not. Okay. And can you tell me what your cash balance is and the number of
Speaker 160
1:00:50
staff for your board? I don't have the cash balance right away, but they don't have staff as
Speaker 107
1:00:56
barred contracts with a management firm, and we provide administrative services. That contract is $8,000 a year. Okay. But I can tell you that the budget, revenue-wise, is around $11,000. Okay. I only have one last question.
Speaker 57
1:01:11
I'll be out of your way. Go ahead. Go ahead. So facility requirements, do you have any type of requirements for what type of facility? I mean, you mentioned cleanliness and the needles being sterile and stuff like that. If somebody's going to get licensed, do they have to have a facility requirement like a used car dealer does? I didn't know used car dealers had that. Oh, yeah, we have to have a desk, a file cabinet, and
Speaker 87
1:01:34
a bathroom, and a sign that's visible from the road. I think the only requirement we have is to have our license posted on the wall,
but it's not a particular facility that any requirements there. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:01:49
probably do have to have an autoclave, though, and have...
Speaker 87
1:01:53
No, ma'am, because the needles, by law, are sterile, single-use, thrown away. Oh, okay. And there's companies that take care of it, medical waste companies. Medical waste companies. Yes, ma'am. Okay.
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:02:06
Thank you, Madam Chair. You mentioned complaints. How many complaints or issues did your board handle last year with your practitioners?
Speaker 169
1:02:13
I don't think. Probably two. Last year? Last year. Mm-hmm. I'm trying to remember.
Speaker 107
1:02:23
One or two, and it was, there are complaints that come in. you know typically we get a letter and somebody you know saying you need to look into this person a lot of when I say a lot of them it's really you know five or less but some of them come in and it's really not a licensed acupuncturist so it's not something that we eventually take on because it's not on our register so it could be a chiropractor or it could be you know another
licensed professional that's just advertising to practice acupuncture so we get the letter but then we redirect if we're able to find where it needs to go. We redirect that way. I would say last year we had one complaint from Texarkana, but that's been, on average, I would say one every two years, if that much. What's the nature
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:03:11
of those complaints typically? I mean, I know we're talking about a very small number,
but what's the one you see most often? is it somebody's doing acupuncture that shouldn't be or is it this acupuncturist you know messed me up you know what what's the typical nature of complaint the majority is acupunct the majority
Speaker 107
1:03:32
of letters if we do get one is you know they're practicing acupuncture but we don't show them as a licensed acupuncturist so that's when we know it's not a licensed acupuncture and we try to redirect the one complaint for somebody you know that was licensed i have to defer to you on what
Speaker 115
1:03:48
I think one of the complaints we got was what she was talking about
Speaker 87
1:03:54
somebody in Hot Springs Village doing acupuncture and whoever sent the complaint in was trying to find out if they were licensed acupuncturist. And as I recall, maybe the medical board had sent it over to us and we work with our attorney general representative and we go through the proper procedures with them. but I think that one just sort of died on the vine because we couldn't really get any information
and it was also I think maybe it may have been the guy's ex-wife or something like that I'm not really sure that sent the complaint in I've been on this board for 10 years I do not recall any complaints about medical malpractice related issues
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
1:04:46
thank you representative flowers thank you madam chair my question about
insurance was asked and but I did still have a question with regard to complaints and I just heard your answer about the frequency and what they involve but are Are
there standards that would dictate licensure revocation or suspension? You know what I mean? Is it very specific that if you do this, if a licensed acupuncturist
does this or doesn't do this,
their license shall be suspended or their
Speaker 102
1:05:26
license shall be revoked? We've always had those in our statutes. And in the past
Speaker 150
1:05:31
legislative session, they sort of made a list of all those things. I don't know that we have, but we've been working with our Attorney General
Speaker 87
1:05:45
Representative to put those in our rules. So things that you might imagine, you know, sort of inappropriate sexual things, just poor hygiene or, you know, anything like that.
And there's different layers of reprimands. Some of them would be like an automatic, lose your license, and some of them might be fines, those kind of things. We've always had that. I think we did find one licensed acupuncturist a couple years ago for using the title doctor or something like that. Thank you. Senator Bledsoe.
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
1:06:27
Thank you, Madam Chairman. When you are an acupuncturist, do you have access to the electronic medical records of the patients that come in? No, ma'am. Well, I mean, I'm not that familiar with a lot of the treatment, but I kind of get the idea of most of these. And for the ones I don't, I'm not that familiar with. But tell me about the bleeding. tell me what you do about that
and what about if a patient is
Speaker 102
1:07:05
on a blood thinner you know a lot of patients will ask or will
Speaker 87
1:07:11
say they're on a blood thinner we usually get all their medications right off the bat honestly I've been practicing here 18 years total about 21 and blood thinners don't really have an effect so much.
Now, sometimes, just like when you get a shot or you have your blood drawn, there might be a drop of blood or those kind of things, but we always check with the patients. Are they on blood thinners? What kind of medications they're on? To give you an idea, you know, the patient comes in and fills out a little paperwork and goes over the whole history and all the thing, and on my paperwork, there's, please list all your medications, and then we sit down and we talk, and then we eventually do the acupuncture.
The bleeding that you're talking about is not anything that you're, it sounds bad, but it's just
Speaker 115
1:08:08
more like just a prick of the needle, just like a one-time thing. Well,
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
1:08:13
I'm talking about it's listed with cupping and that type of thing, so I would think it's a treatment. Well, it is, but
Speaker 115
1:08:20
it's a little bit like when you pull a needle out and there is a drop of blood, that's
Speaker 87
1:08:26
basically what it is. Okay. And you're familiar with cupping and that kind of thing. Yes, ma'am. All right.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:08:34
Thank you very much. Thank you. And I just have a quick, the ordering of radiological laboratory, other diagnostic tests, do y'all work
with, who do you work with to have that? Are you in contact with our primary care physicians or do y'all have a relationship there? It's
Speaker 102
1:08:53
at the discretion of each acupuncturist. Personally, I don't order those tests. I will send them
Speaker 87
1:08:59
back to their primary care, or I'll send them, you need to go to your OBGYN,
you need to go to an orthopod or a neurosurgeon and have those tests done. Now, I could send them down the road, down University to Quest Diagnostics, where anybody can walk in and have any tests done they want. But for payment
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:09:18
purposes, though, So you can't really order it and be, you don't order it and bill it through, like, Medicaid? No, no, no. Yeah, okay. No, no, no. Yeah, okay. That's
what I thought. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. Senator Bledsoe.
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
1:09:36
All right, I was going to ask you this question initially, but I thought maybe it might, maybe
you might say, now, you're from Fort Smith, is that correct? No, ma'am, I'm from
Speaker 123
1:09:48
Hot Springs originally, but I've been practicing here. In Little
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
1:09:53
Rock? Yes. Little Rock, okay. Now, there is a school of acupuncture. Is there not here in the state? No, ma'am. There's not? No. I
Speaker 87
1:10:03
think there used to be many years ago, and there were several people that were trying to start schools.
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
1:10:08
Okay. What about the School of Oriental Medicine? Because that's what I remember you were here,
or someone was here, and I think it was you talking about the School
Speaker 87
1:10:20
of Oriental Medicine. Well, oriental medicine is acupuncture and all the related things that you were just talking about, but there's not one in Arkansas. Has there been one? I think there was back before the law that allowed us to have our independent board in licensure. I think there was a few of those. And because the licensure then required the national certification
and the national standard of licensing, those schools shut down because they were two weeks long. All right. Thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:10:57
so much. That's important. Good. Thank you. Any other questions? I'm sorry. Yes, Representative
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:11:02
Wilma. Just help me understand. So say I call with a complaint, who will I be dealing with? Who do you, I'm sorry. Yeah, who will I talk to? Who actually handles my complaint? Is it that management company that you were talking about earlier?
Speaker 192
1:11:18
Yes. And that contract is around $8,000 annually? Yes. And when
Speaker 106
1:11:23
you say we receive the complaint, we prepare it and then pass it on to the board. We don't handle
Speaker 107
1:11:30
that complaint, if that makes sense. So we're not the decision makers or the ones that decide what's going to be done. We just basically do the administrative services because we receive all correspondence in phone. We receive it. we record it and then we pass it on to the board even if it is a complaint that ends up being for
somebody that's not one of our licensed acupuncturists we still record it and we still pass it on as this came through it is not one of our licensed acupuncturists and many times we ask you know advice
Speaker 173
1:12:03
on do we need to forward it on we've raised we've done the following research so we're not
Speaker 87
1:12:10
the final decision makers boarded our board is consists of three licensed acupuncturists a medical doctor required and then um i think there's a couple positions for at least one
position for just a lay person and that is the board that that will handle those complaints so then we'll vote on it we have our attorney general representative who's there and we always run things through her and make sure that we're going through the proper procedures and
Speaker 150
1:12:34
get those recommendations before we vote and do anything on those things has the board taken any action in
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:12:40
the last couple years that you can recall regarding any of those complaints i do remember the one from hot
Speaker 115
1:12:48
springs village but i don't think we took any action because we couldn't get any
Speaker 87
1:12:53
verification we have the option of hiring investigator now that we're moving under the department of health i think they have an investigator so we have that option but i think we decided not to pursue that because we couldn't
Speaker 150
1:13:10
really get verification without hiring somebody to do
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:13:14
investigation. All right. Thank you. Appreciate your being here and your report and having a dialogue with us because that's really where we're at.
We're all kind of going through this together. Did you find that the reporting mechanism was easy to use and functioned well for your purposes? Yes, it was. I would say, you know,
Speaker 107
1:13:32
based on the questions, I think, you know, I've just kind of made note of things we probably need to have that we could you know sorry I'm not able to do the cash balance but I'll be happy to send that you know and then and then just if you have
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:13:45
any recommendations you know just please don't hesitate to send them to us absolutely all right thank you thank you
if there's no other questions we appreciate it thank you thank
you very much thank you
for being here. Okay. Okay, moving on. E2. At this time, the
Arkansas Fire Protection Licensing Board, we have Exhibit E2, but we also have, when they were reviewing their licenses, they accidentally left a few off um or yeah two i think so um and they can explain that when they
come to the table um so we have a supplemental agenda that i wanted to just we we decided representative womack would be better just to go ahead and add that uh supplemental agenda so that they could have be here in front of us at one time so i would need a motion to suspend the rules to take up the supplemental agenda. These two authorizations by the Arkansas Fire Protection Board were not submitted by the deadline of October the 15th. Do I have that motion? Thank you. And a second. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? Ayes have it. And the
supplemental agenda will be adopted and considered. Okay. With that, if you would like to come on up to the table, we will go through this report from Mr. Jim Holub, and if you will all just take a seat and identify yourselves for the record, we will go through it. We'll start with Exhibit E2, Class A and B, Hydrostatic Testing Technician, and then we'll go through
those so we have actually there's several different licenses that you have so we'll just start with the first one and then we'll go straight to the supplemental agenda which is exhibit a all right go ahead if you'll identify your name for the record and then proceed push that button
and pull it right up to you
Speaker 202
1:16:00
thank you madam chair i'm jim holub the chairman of the
Speaker 203
1:16:05
board. I'm Jason Wills, Secretary. Pat White, Administrator.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:16:16
All right. If you want to, let's just start with the first one. Just do a quick overview of the report that you submitted. Um, and then we'll ask, have questions from the members of of the committee, but if you just want to go through your, give us a
Speaker 208
1:16:38
brief overview. We can read, but just give us an overview. Well, a real
Speaker 210
1:16:43
quick overview of what we do, regardless of what the license is that we do, we license people and organizations that have portable or fixed fire extinguishers,
sprinkler systems for public safety and human safety. Okay. Do you want to go through your process? I'm
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:17:06
going to ask this probably for every entity is just to go through your fees and your process and how you're collecting those fees and the registrations.
Speaker 208
1:17:24
With that, I'm going to let Pat handle that because all
Speaker 210
1:17:30
of those come through her desk. Okay. So without going over each individual license,
Speaker 214
1:17:37
they're all handled pretty much the same. Okay. Hi. Hi.
Speaker 215
1:17:41
We do testing exams twice a month, first and third Tuesday of every month. At that time, they can come get any test as far as what we administer, portable, fixed,
Class A, Class B, CO2, clean agent, and sprinkler fitter, sprinkler inspector, and RME, which is Responsible Managing Employee. Once they get their license, then it is good for every sprinkler license expires every year on June the 3rd. Every portable fix, Class A, Class B, all that falls under fix, expires on September the 30th.
So at that time, we send out renewals, emails. They send them in.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:18:46
on easy easy you have a lot of penalties here so does that happen a lot? those penalties
Speaker 216
1:18:57
are only for if you are late
with I talk with my hands it's fine
Speaker 215
1:19:05
just pull the mic up to you If you are late paying your renewal, sometimes the company thinks, oh, we're not going to do business in Arkansas, so we're not going to renew our license, which is fine. Then they get a job or they bid on a job in Arkansas, and so now they want to
Speaker 223
1:19:26
renew their license six months down the road. Oh,
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:19:29
I see. That's why you have that structure then of all the days.
Right. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Are there any questions? Representative Payton.
Speaker 152
1:19:43
Thank you, Madam Chair. So do you have any bonding requirements, and what are your CE requirements for each license?
Speaker 215
1:19:50
We don't have any bonding. We do require $1 million worth of liability, general liability. Is that on all the licenses? That is on the company. So which
Speaker 210
1:20:07
That would pertain to any firm that either handles portable, fixed, or sprinkler systems in the state of Arkansas. Not on
Speaker 152
1:20:20
the individual. Okay, well, I'm sorry. I'm looking at several pages here of different licenses that you offer. Which one would that come
Speaker 227
1:20:30
under, the RME? No, those licenses that you're looking at is referring to individuals.
Speaker 216
1:20:37
The liability is only for the firm. So you have another license that would be a
Speaker 57
1:20:42
house license type thing? I'm sorry? Do
Speaker 215
1:20:51
is it? We have a license for the firm, Bill Smith's sprinkler system, and Bill Smith hires these people, and they have licenses. So do we have a sheet on the
Speaker 71
1:21:02
license that you offer for the firm? What is the cost of that license?
Speaker 215
1:21:10
For the company, on the sprinkler, on the portable, it's $300. On the fixed, it's $300. On the Class A, it is $100. On Class B, it is $50. Your clean agent CO2, halon, that all falls under fixed. So that would all be a fixed license.
Speaker 153
1:21:40
So basically under the sheet that I'm looking at that says fixed fire protection system technician, you also have one that's
Speaker 57
1:21:47
a fixed fire protection firm. So we don't have, you didn't bring that or supply that. I did not
Speaker 230
1:21:54
understand the form. And same thing for the portable, there
Speaker 57
1:21:57
would also be another one for it. I'd request that we get that at some point. Yes, sir. email to the members. Right.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:22:10
So the problem, though, is that it's not under the legislation. The legislation
only dealt with licensed individuals, not licensed entities, which is why they didn't report it. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. No, yeah. So the legislation is only for individuals that are licensed, not necessarily for So if an individual is going
Speaker 56
1:22:39
have to have an individual license and a firm license, both?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:22:44
Yes, sir. Depending, yes. I guess that would be depending on, yeah, depending on whatever the entity
Speaker 153
1:22:52
would be. Yes. So as an individual, you don't have to
Speaker 152
1:22:56
have the insurance, but as a firm, you have to have the insurance. Yes, sir. And the individuals working for the firm do not have
Speaker 210
1:23:06
to be licensed, just the owner of the firm? No, sir. The firm has to have a business license, and then the individuals, depending on which license he is applying for,
that you have a copy of there, they have to
Speaker 237
1:23:19
have a license. An individual license.
Speaker 152
1:23:23
getting it. What about continuing education? No. None of
Speaker 210
1:23:29
these licenses require continuing education? They're sending in renewals. It's kind of on-the-job training. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
Speaker 239
1:23:35
Yes, Representative Richmond. Thank you, Madam Chair. I
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:23:41
noticed on all the different licenses you have here, when you come down to the part where it's talking about veterans,
active duty, military, and spouses, that there's no expedited. The answer is always no. is it just not practical in your case to to expedite anything for veterans or the spouses just not applicable or it's just not i mean we've never had it
Speaker 220
1:24:05
so you want to yeah we've we've never
Speaker 210
1:24:08
incurred one of those uh individuals so it used to be in our rules and regs but because of streamlining we took it out uh it just doesn't apply they have to go through the license i mean
and we expedite it just by the sake of licensing the individual. Follow-up? Yes. How long does it
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:24:30
normally take somebody to go through this licensing process and get into whatever they're trying to do? It
Speaker 237
1:24:36
depends on how fast they can absorb the information needed to pass the exam. All right, thank you, Madam Chair.
Speaker 210
1:24:45
And if they come from another state and already have a license, if they're in the military and they come from another state and they already have that, reciprocity then kicks in.
Oh, okay. Thank you very much. Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Not yet. That's on
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:25:03
Okay. Very good. Thank you. On your proposed rules and regs? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So
you are, that's what that's, you have a proposed rule to accept reciprocity. When will that rule be before? Depending upon you guys. Oh, depending on us. Okay. Gotcha. And when their
Speaker 210
1:25:20
latest letter passes those rules. Right.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:25:24
So do you have a timeline? Do
Speaker 248
1:25:46
you have a timeline? Good afternoon, committee members. I'm Assistant Attorney General Sarah Farris. I represent the Fire Protection Licensing Board, and the board has undergone about a two-year complete rewrite of their rules.
And we're in the process now of preparing the documentation required to send to the secretary for review and approval, then to the governor's office, as you know, and then the formal promulgation process will begin. So
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:26:14
I'm hesitant to put it, I'm hesitant to... No, but you're in the process. So it's nothing that we need
to do unless we just say this is a recommendation. Absolutely. So members. That is correct. As subcommittee members, we could say that we recommend this to be a promulgated rule.
Yes, ma'am. Okay. And can you get that, a copy of that
Speaker 248
1:26:37
to us at the appropriate time? A copy of the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:26:41
proposed rules? Absolutely. At the appropriate time. Yes, ma'am. Yep. That'd be great. or maybe is
it too early to ask for that now maybe why don't you give it to us after the it goes through the review at the governor's office perhaps if we wouldn't
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:27:03
yeah why don't you check on that and I think it would be good for us to have that so that we could then look at that and see if that's one of our recommendations that we could put forth but we can't really make a recommendation without looking at the language of it does that make sense that makes excellent
sense so if you could just check that to see if that can happen that'd be great i don't know i
Speaker 248
1:27:26
don't know i don't think that we could get it to you guys before
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:27:31
the governor reviews and approves yeah i but i think we can work together in that process but just go through your channels and and then see get back to me if
you don't mind because that that could be something that we can recommend yes ma'am happy
to and be helpful in the process i agree because that's that's our role in the legislature absolutely and it may help him the governor or we need all the help we can use well it could be helpful if we review that and say yes we give our blessing or we make these changes recommendations and change
of language or whatever does that make sense I mean that's what this process should be about we're a working committee so we would love for that to
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:28:25
happen okay other questions yes representative thank you center uh how many
Speaker 205
1:28:30
board members and what do they make up There are 12 board members, and
Speaker 210
1:28:36
their makeup comes from the industry, portable and fixed, and sprinklers make up the majority.
My background is from insurance. We have customers that are customers of that industry that
Speaker 205
1:28:49
are on the board. uh is there kind of a set framework like you try and keep so
Speaker 192
1:28:57
many practitioners so many consumers or or do you just yes sir yes sir and the and the governor
Speaker 205
1:29:04
appoints those from all districts of the of the state okay do you know that makeup
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:29:10
of the 12 like like how many are practitioners how many
Speaker 192
1:29:16
from the insurance industry how many consumers or whatever i'm just curious i mean we did You got
Speaker 263
1:29:22
the rules? I don't have it. No, I've got the occupational rules.
Speaker 215
1:29:27
If you'll give me a second, I can tell you. There are two from the portable side. There are two from the sprinkler side. There is one for large industries. My memory is. Here we have them. We got the board. We have one that represents public restaurant industry.
We have sprinkler industry, large industrial safety, sprinkler industry, large industrial user, portable industry, insurance, fixed fire suppression, industrial safety, fire chief, state fire marshal. So, if I understood all that, eight are in work in
Speaker 192
1:30:08
the industry? Eight, I'm sorry, what? Eight of those
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:30:15
people are practitioners with one of these licenses? Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. One more question
Your annual budget Is what Just ballpark Annual budget
Speaker 214
1:30:38
I have no idea And I apologize to you For not having that answer You never
Speaker 217
1:30:47
know what we're going to ask You bring
Speaker 248
1:30:52
that Pull the mic over to her The total appropriation for fiscal year 2019 was $228,478
Speaker 165
1:30:58
Okay, and how many people hold one of these licenses in the state of Arkansas?
Speaker 266
1:31:07
And then I'll stop As far as the sprinkler side individuals, there's 578 as far as I'm sorry That's the total That's the total number of licenses Total for individuals is 825 for sprinkling
that includes apprentices If you do not include the apprentices which I don't understand why you wouldn't it would be 578 Total for full fix side is 318 So Just for my clarity, that's
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
1:31:42
that many licenses or that many individuals that hold at least one of these licenses? That's individuals
Speaker 275
1:31:48
based upon the form that we had to fill out. Thank you. Okay. Other questions?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:31:59
Any other questions? Was this easy for you to follow and report, and did it
make you— do you have any further recommendations that would help you or
the people that you license? You can speak freely. pull that mic over to you we're talking we're trying to make this efficient right and making it easy for people and well easier under
Speaker 215
1:32:26
the circumstances of it need doing what a normal administrator would do because we're without an administrator so i
I recruited lots of help to get it done. I do highly want to say my thanks to Maddie Avery. Tremendous help. I could not have done it without her. But once you get the hang of it, you know, and because it was the same thing for each license, it got easier
Speaker 277
1:33:06
so yeah mine was nerves but as far as the form yeah yes sir one of
Speaker 210
1:33:20
is paring down boards and things and now we're under the department of labor they have been a great help a great asset recommendations coming from them and cooperative meetings with them to help us through the process
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:33:36
and, of course, our attorney. Good. We do appreciate that. I think that's absolutely, I think those are smart things because you need those resources and you didn't have them before and you didn't really have a place to go, it seemed like, in a lot of these instances. And my hope is that as this alignment, it's brand new right now, but as it continues, that they could actually figure out how to make it easier for you to administer the licenses
or, you know, how we make that more efficient. I mean, mailing it or can you do it online? You know, how can we become more efficient with being able to get these licenses into people's hands so they can go to work faster? I think that's kind of the end goal with all of this. And it just,
Speaker 227
1:34:25
you know, our process of receiving a license is very quick. I mean, they
Speaker 220
1:34:30
come in, take a test, and they get a license as long as they pass that test. There you go.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:34:35
Okay. Thank you so much, all of you, for your input, your work, and for being here.
Speaker 271
1:34:41
Are there any other questions? All right. We've seen
Speaker 219
1:34:46
none. Thank you. Thank you. That was easy. Thank you. Great
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:34:50
job. All right. Okay. Okay. Is there any other business to come
before the committee? okay so i would just make a reminder to folks you can take these reports home so our first two i want to commend the first two entities for uh being here and being the guinea pigs um but i think it went well so um let's work on that any information that you have you can get
to um miss airy we you're at the attorney general's office you can get to her and then there we go communicate with her and thank you very much members if you have recommendations then get them to me by december 9th or to her not to me all right anything else
all right with that we are adjourned thank y'all
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by the Co-Chairs: Senator Missy Irvin and Representative Richard Womack
C. Presentation by Representative Cameron Cooper
D. Presentation on Motions and Recommendations under ACA § 10-3-318 [Exhibit D]
E. Review of Reports from Occupational Authorization Entities
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Richard Womack
Unverified
Speaker 8
Speaker 9
Speaker 11
Speaker 13
Speaker 23
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 31
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
Speaker 38
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 57
Speaker 65
Speaker 83
Speaker 87
Speaker 102
Speaker 106
Speaker 107
Speaker 114
Speaker 115
Speaker 111
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Representative LeAnne Burch
Unverified
Speaker 149
Speaker 150
Speaker 153
Speaker 152
Speaker 160
Speaker 169
Speaker 123
Speaker 192
Speaker 173
Speaker 202
Speaker 203
Speaker 208
Speaker 210
Speaker 214
Speaker 215
Speaker 216
Speaker 223
Speaker 67
Speaker 227
Speaker 71
Speaker 230
Speaker 237
Speaker 239
Speaker 220
Speaker 143
Speaker 248
Speaker 252
Speaker 205
Speaker 263
Speaker 217
Speaker 165
Speaker 266
Speaker 275
Speaker 277
Speaker 257
Speaker 271
Speaker 219