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0:00
Thank you.
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Thank you.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
4:30
I'm going to call the uniformed personnel classification committee to order for our monthly
meeting. First time we've met since when? February. February. That's February. It's
good to see each of you here. first item B
Speaker 10
5:00
and I'll turn it over to Tony. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Items B1 and B2 are reports
Speaker 11
5:06
from the Department of Higher Education and the Office of Personnel Management. These detail the use of director's discretion, labor market adjustments, special entry rates for exceptionally well-qualified candidates, and the use of existing administration grids as reviewed by this committee and authorized by Arkansas Code 215201 to 215-225 and 215-1410 to 1411. These reports show the actions taken by the institutions and the agencies uh january through june depending on whether it's an institution or state agency mr chairman that's item b1 and b2
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
5:39
any questions on those two items in in category b no actions required on those three and
four all right mr chairman item
Speaker 11
5:50
b3 is a report from the department of higher ed that details institutions requesting new provisional positions provisional positions are created using other monies which may include grants donations or other unanticipated funds under arkansas code 663 305 each institution has provided a number of positions available to them for this purpose there are 69
new provisional positions have been approved by dhe since february for both four-year and two-year institutions generally higher ed prohibits the institutions from filling these positions until until they have been reported to this committee. However, since the committee has not met since February, DHE did allow some institutions to fill some of their positions prior to being reported. In these instances where they did this, they have provided a letter to the committee noting which ones were approved to be filled. You're gonna
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
6:39
find that behind each institution. Any questions concerning B3 and four?
B3. Any questions on B3? Mr. Chairman,
Speaker 10
6:52
item B4 is a report from the Department of
Speaker 11
6:55
Correction Division of Community Correction that shows the average caseloads for parole probation officers to be 98 cases per employee. The high was 112 cases in Area 10, which includes Lane, Grant, Hot Spring, Clark, and Garland counties. The low was 85 cases in Area 9, which is the eastern part of the state, and includes Crittenden, Cross, St. Francis, Lee, Phillips, Monroe, and Woodruff counties.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
7:16
any questions on item b4 okay
Speaker 21
7:24
we'll move on all right i'm sorry thank you mr chair
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
7:32
uh in light of uh covet 19 are we losing more of our of our community correction workers senator i would have to have
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
7:46
I'd appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Is that your name and who you represent?
Speaker 30
8:26
Yes, sir. Jerry Bradshaw. I'm the director of the Division
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
8:32
of Community Correction. Senator Chesterfield. Yes. Thank you so much for coming in and taking my question. I'm wondering, are we losing more workers in Community Corrections or the Department of Corrections as a
Speaker 35
8:45
result of the virus? No, ma'am. actually uh y'all got the report it was from march and i went back and looked at it this morning i believe there were 27 29 vacant vacancies of parole officers then today it's 19.
we're not having a lot of turnover because you know there's a lot of places that don't
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
9:05
have jobs right now well one of the things that we were concerned about i'm not sure if you were on the the call when we spoke with the director was the fact that we were putting our officers . We were putting our officers in .
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
9:45
well this this seems to be an ongoing issue every time we meet
and would you repeat the hand did you understand her question relative to
Speaker 48
10:06
senator chesterfield's question no sir i
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
10:08
didn't the second question she she wanted to know if we're losing more positions or people in in this area than because of the virus i would say no sir no it's just an
Speaker 35
10:28
ongoing problem at the end of march march 31st when this report came out right um we had 27 vacant parole officer positions and today we have 19 so it's we're actually going we're making
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
10:47
ground are the 20 well again is the 19 positions the ones that we authorized new ones or is this
just normal turnover it's normal turnover how many
do you think y'all need um i think
Speaker 35
11:08
we're doing well at this point you know we've made a lot of uh adjustments with the uh the pandemic going on uh had a lot of individuals reporting remotely we have some we have an electronic uh ability for our lower risk and offenders that we've been seen that way uh i think i think we're doing okay right now
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
11:30
all right okay we'll come back another
Speaker 58
11:33
question thank you mr chair this is representative love um so when do you anticipate the the 19 will be filled
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
11:48
because i can't i can't remember the the point at which we said we needed 30 additional correctional officers to to kind of drive down the caseload you said we have it down to 98 and that's that's fine but
Speaker 58
12:00
we need to do a little better so when do you anticipate in filling those
those other 19 positions natural turnover for this
Speaker 61
12:09
position is about six percent which is pretty good in law enforcement i do not ever anticipate us being at
Speaker 35
12:15
zero i don't i mean you just naturally have turnover in a position we may get it down to five or six one day but the next day it may be 15 16. it just is a a job that you hire young folks straight out of college and they get their experience and a lot of times they'll go on to federal employment or some of that nature so
to answer your question i don't think that we'll ever get to zero but we you know when y'all gave us those 30 positions we had 20 something vacant positions then so we have added those 30 positions but you're going to always have
Speaker 61
12:51
a natural turnover in the positions and i think that's
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
12:56
true in all state government so so uh so the case low would you don't anticipate the case load being driven down any more than 98 95 i mean i think what was the what was the national average for the number
our cases per parole officer when csg came in they were
Speaker 35
13:13
stating it was about 60 to one okay so we give you the positions we
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
13:21
give you i mean let me ask this then what about the pay the pay for this position is it on par with what's what's nationally what the the national average is or is it low or is it i mean i'm just trying to figure out what i'm trying
to really ascertain is is that we said we needed 30 positions i'm i'm happy that you all filled some of those positions but if we said we needed the 30 positions we needed the 30 positions to draw down the caseload what seems to be the issue of us not being able to fill those positions i guess the other 19 and i know that you say turnover turnover i got i got you with the turnover but what i mean what what seems to be the the besides
Speaker 58
14:19
turnover what seems to be the
reoccurring theme on why we can't get all the positions or or most of the positions
Speaker 35
14:28
feel not all i represent love uh i i do attribute it to turnover i don't think that we'll ever get to zero no matter how many positions that we've been given, you can always probably perceive about a 6% vacancy rate. Sometimes we do better, sometimes we do worse. As far as the rate of pay,
nationally, different areas of the country have different standards of living. Law enforcement in Arkansas, it is on par in the state of Arkansas
Speaker 61
15:00
with other law enforcement officers at this time. All right, thank you. I
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
15:14
the attitude or your remark relative to zero, if that's our attitude and we're never going to achieve it,
we won't achieve it. And like I said, this continually comes up before the committee every time we meet. So, Tony, I want a request from the Department of Correction. I want a projection of, one, what it takes to get us to 60, even though, you know, how many people do we need and
what adequate salaries do you need?
Because everybody has the same question. How many do we need and how much are we going to pay them? And it keeps coming up. So, you
know, we're getting ready to go into a regular session. So I would hope that in the next meeting or next couple of meetings, y'all would provide us with a report to deal with this situation because it repeatedly comes up. Yes, sir, I'll be glad to do
Speaker 35
16:20
that. And I didn't mean to imply that we're not trying to get there.
I just have seen it for the past several years, and I've never seen it at zero. And I wanted to be completely honest with you as to the
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
16:36
outlook. Well, I guess what concerned me was the fact that you kept repeating that. Yes, sir. You know, and
we need – I'm not saying you're not doing a good job, but we need to do a better job of recruiting. And if it takes more money, then we'll just have to look at that.
Okay. But, you know, it's taken up 10
minutes, 12, 14 minutes today, and it's the same issue every time we meet. Yes, sir. Any other questions? Okay. If not, we'll move on.
Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, item C, D, and E, these are items
Speaker 10
17:18
that we'll need to take action on. These
Speaker 11
17:22
are requests from the Department of Higher Education on behalf of ASU BB, ASU Jonesboro, and Ozarka College for review of one new central growth pool position at each institution.
ASU BB is requesting a database analyst at a grade C-19 to track system courses and troubleshoot technical issues with the learning management system. This will help with the increased demand in online learning. ASU Jonesboro is requesting one research compliant coordinator. with a line item maximum of $94,000. The compliance coordinator will advise faculty and admin on regulatory requirements and assist in designing and implementing training programs. Ozarka College is requesting one aircraft maintenance coordinator with a line item max
of $73,000. The request comes based on the increased enrollment in the professional pilot degree program. The position will ensure proper maintenance of the aircrafts used in the program. DHE has recommended each of the requested positions and
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
18:27
staff concurs. All right, any questions on any
of these items? We need a motion on these items.
Oh, okay, excuse me, to Representative Lowry. You're right, you're right. You motion? Okay. Second. Second.
Senator Rice. Okay, all in favor say aye. All opposed, likewise. Okay, they carry. Mr.
Speaker 10
19:01
Chairman, item F is a request for the Department
Speaker 11
19:06
of Higher Education for the continuation of previously approved central growth pool positions. There are 13 positions listed that
have all been reviewed by the committee previously. These positions are generally requested to continue into the fiscal year prior to a regular session where they will most likely be adding them to the appropriation bill during the session, but they have to come and ask for that during the session if that's what they're going to do. Mr. Chairman, that would
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
19:31
be item F. Any questions on item F?
Chair sees no questions. Do
I have a motion? and made it. Okay,
second. Okay, seconds over here. Okay. All in favor say aye. All opposed, likewise.
Motion carries. Next item, G. Mr. Chairman, item G is a
Speaker 11
20:11
request from the Department of Agriculture for a reauthorization of a 5% certification differential for incumbents obtaining a commercial driver's
license for the division of forestry. Certification differential will affect the division's GSO4 natural resources program technician classification totaling three authorized positions. Individuals in these classifications are required to harvest and deliver trees to 13 nurseries across the state. Agency feels that the certification differential will decrease their 57 percent turnover rate within this classification and be an incentive for qualified employees to obtain a CDL as well as well as help with recruitment efforts. The department estimates the total cost
of the implementation of the certification differential will be $4,368 annually. OPM has recommended the request and staff concurs. Okay, you heard the request.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
21:02
Any questions? Chair sees none. Do we have a motion?
Motion. Okay, we have a second.
Senator Rice. Okay, I'll have a second. All right, all in favor say aye. Opposed? Likewise. Okay, motion carries. Item H. Mr. Chairman, item H is a request from the
Speaker 10
21:34
Disability Department of Social Security Administration to provide up to a 10% compensation differential
Speaker 11
21:40
to address the current backlog of disability cases. DDSSA is 100% federally funded and this differential will be funded through federal dollars as well the agency is requesting the differential as an enticement for employees to take on additional
cases without using overtime the differential would be paid only to employees who are willing and able to take on extra cases and the number of extra cases that they take on will determine the amount of differential that they receive the differential is temporary and will be an incentive for highly effective personnel to manage a heavy caseload the differential will be removed when the backlog is cleared. Elimiting the backlog using the differential structure would benefit the agency because it would be less costly than paying overtime. This process would be used each time a backlog occurs. The differential would have to be renewed each fiscal year. It would
Speaker 19
22:26
come back to committee. OPM has recommended the request.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
22:32
Staff concurs. Very hard to request. Any
questions motion second okay we've had
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
22:48
question question okay uh thank you mr
Speaker 86
22:53
chair okay have we done this before no sir we have not this is the first time right
Speaker 89
23:01
Yes, sir. And the reason we are recommending this is DDSSA keeps very detailed production statistics on the number of cases that employees take on. And here they have identified those highly proficient people who seem to do more than anyone else. And they're asking them to take on the
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
23:21
backlog from the four other states. Excellent. Well, when you talk to DDS, commend them for trying something new to save some money.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
23:31
Mr. Hammer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funds for this, are they all federal funds? Yes, sir. They're 100% federally funded. Okay. And do they anticipate once the
backlog is being created by cases from other states that are being sent in here? Is that
Speaker 89
23:56
right? Right. And that happens at different times. It's not the first time the state of Arkansas has taken on other states.
But for now, there's just four states that are involved in this at this point. All right.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
24:08
And so he's got the, which they've got a great reputation over there, he's got the employees that are willing to step up and do this, or he's already identified those? Right. These are his top
Speaker 89
24:19
producing by numbers, by statistics that he has, the people that produce, you know, take care of the most cases per week. And those are the people he's going to ask to take on these additional cases. Can I have one other question, Mr. Chair? Yes, sir.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
24:35
You're right. Thank you. So what they get paid over there are comparable to what other people and other agencies within the state get paid because they're doing something
right over there. Is the pay
Speaker 88
24:50
scale different? No, sir. Their eligibility workers start at grade 7, GS7, which
Speaker 89
24:54
is right about $40,000. So they can, actually they start at 6, at grade 6, but their entry level salary is $40,000, which is pretty comparable to most eligibility workers in the state.
And so they have a very clear career path, and it's all based on numbers and accuracy because that's what they, they've got very good records on that type of information. So why
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
25:18
can't they do it over there, but certain agencies within other agencies within the state can't do it within their agencies? I really
Speaker 89
25:27
can't respond to Senator Amber. I think it's probably the leadership and the way they keep their statistics, which they have done for my whole career while I've been in state government. They've always kept production statistics.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
25:49
that have as detailed statistics as they actually do. All right, we'll visit offline. Thank you. any other questions okay we've got a motion and a second all in favor say
Speaker 11
26:03
aye opposed motion passes item i mr chairman item i is a request from dhs they're requesting a salary administration grid and differentials for lpns licensed practical nurses and lpn supervisors to attract new hires
in STEM turnover in critical direct care positions. This request would affect 263 nurses and 10 supervisors across state government. Since July of 18, turnover has been at about 37 percent. Personnel in these positions will receive a one-time salary increase based on their years of experience. Current employees will see this increase upon approval of the grid. New hires will start with salaries set by the grid. Estimated statewide cost of this grid implementation is $622,000. The grid moves personnel to salary rates commensurate with their years of experience but
does not provide for continued annual increases. These if any would be awarded through performance pay system statewide. In addition to the grid geographic certification and difficult to fill differentials of up to 10% are requested for these same titles. A limit of 25% applies to any employee with multiple differentials. DFA has recommended the requested grid and staff concurs. Have you heard
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
27:16
the motion? Any questions? Senator Hamer.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
27:21
Senator Hamer. Could I get a, I can start with K or we'll go down to
the agency. Which one, Mr. Chair? If you wanted to start with K or the agency. Yes. So
is this applied to all LPNs throughout all of DHS and does that pick up the The human, I guess the human development centers would be one I wasn't thinking about, but also Arkansas Health Service Center down in Haskell.
Speaker 89
27:52
Yes, sir. It's all their institutional facilities this would apply to, as well as to the veterans home in North Little Rock will also be
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:01
utilizing these rates. Okay. And based on the pay grade that this will bring them up to, how much behind the private industry are we still going
Speaker 115
28:11
to be? Well, I think as they move up with
Speaker 89
28:14
their experience, we're going to be closer to the industry rate. I think the biggest problem we've had so far is we've been able to hire, but we haven't been able to maintain these LPNs as they gained experience,
as there's been a lot of turnover. So they're hoping with this particular grid we can hire more qualified and keep these people longer at this particular point in time. you do exit surveys
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:36
whenever you lose somebody in this field I would have to
Speaker 108
28:40
give that question would have to be answered by DHS I'm just not sure what they do okay all
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
28:52
right thank you mr. chair secretary Gillespie would you come forward please
Speaker 119
29:02
you Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mark White with DHS and I also have available if needed answer questions of course Secretary Gillespie and as well as Jay Hill who's Director of the Division of Aging Adult and Behavioral Health Services and Melissa Stone, Director of the Division of Developmental Disability Services.
I believe I can answer Senator Hammer's question if I may. Senator Hammer, you're recognized. Thank you.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
29:38
So what I want to make sure was that this applied to all the LPNs throughout all the DHS, and it's not just going to one particular group because I know, and they're not in my district anymore, so it's not doing, I'm just, I'm familiar with the Arts Hall Health Service Center down there, also familiar with the VA home and familiar with the, you know, with the human development centers. I just want to make sure, is this going to be sufficient to pick up all the LPNs
and get them up to a rate that's going to be competitive with the private sector
so we can stop seeing them get hired out from underneath us? Yes, sir. And I think I
Speaker 119
30:15
would just echo Ms. Barnhill's comments. I think she's absolutely correct in what she said. Okay.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
30:19
And the supervisors, now is this for supervisors or is this for the actual LPNs? I believe it is for both. yes it is it
is for lpn supervisors i don't think you're hot jay or yeah it is for lpns and lpn
supervisors okay so the supervisors rate are going to move up
proportionate in the scale so that the the lpns that aren't supervisors they're going to everybody's going to get a pay raise out of this deal basically yes
sir the grid does accommodate lpns lpn supervisors for lpns it starts at entry it at year one for LPN supervisors that starts at year three which to be a to qualify as an LPN supervisor you have to have three years experience as an LPN first okay all right thank you mr. chair any other
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
31:11
questions okay you heard the recommendation do we have a motion Motion over here. All right. There's a second. Okay, second. Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor of the cabinet saying aye. Aye. Opposed, likewise. Motion carries.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Y'all
Speaker 11
31:56
might want to stay in the next ones for y'all, too. Item J, like item I, is a request from DHS. It is a salary administration grid for licensed social worker classifications. The implementation of the grid would be based on years of experience as well as education and certification levels. The implementation will provide one-time salary adjustment for each incumbent of at least 1%,
with no one receiving more than $5,000. DFA has recommended the requested grid rates and staff
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
32:33
concurs. any questions do you differentiate between masters an MSW and just a social worker yes sir I believe that it does
Speaker 119
32:45
differentiate between those two Yes, sir. Any other
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
32:54
questions? Do you recognize? Thank you, Mr.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
33:05
Chair. So this extra $277,000 in FY21, I'm just going to throw this out there. Is this within your current budget,
coming back asking for additional resources and at the end of the next fiscal year.
Speaker 119
33:22
Robert Dawson I think our anticipation is that we can accommodate this with an existing budget. Okay
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
33:38
thank you. Any other questions? Seeing no further questions. We have a motion.
Okay, here we go. Any second? All in favor, any
case of saying aye. All opposed, likewise. Thank you. Next item. Mr.
Speaker 11
34:01
Chairman, item K is a request from the Public Service Commission. They're requesting three new positions with new classifications. A director of engineering at a GS-14, PSC Cooperative Manager at a GS-12, and PSC Complaints Investigator Supervisor at a GS-07.
The department will surrender three positions, Telecom and Quality Services Manager at a GS-11, PSC Senior Public Utility Auditor at a GS-11, and a Complaints Investigator at a GS-04. The agency is requesting the new titles to increase efficiency and streamline processes. Currently, other employees are doing these duties in addition to their workload, which is increased in response to 2015 legislation regarding formula rate plans. With these new titles, the agency wants to better manage that increased workload and be more efficient.
OPM recommends the request and staff concurs. And this is, it's not growing the agency by three. This is, they'll be giving up three and getting
Speaker 19
35:01
three in return, but it is three new classifications that
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
35:08
don't exist unless reviewed here today.
You've heard the request. Any questions? Explain the entry of the match and the salary differential down there.
Speaker 10
35:28
Yes, sir. So the three positions we're giving up and the
Speaker 11
35:32
three that you're getting back in place of, that what they're saying is if you hire them all at entry plus the matching rate that's provided, it would cost $257,000 if they hire at 15% above entry, which they have the authority to do, they could hire in, it's going to cost $293,000. And if they go 30% above entry, which OPM has to approve that, it would cost $330,000. So
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
36:03
the range for the director of engineering
The salary range is 86 to 125, right? Yes, sir. That is correct. Now,
Speaker 10
36:13
does that include the match? The salary range does not include the match. That is just the salary range. The match is typically in
Speaker 11
36:23
what we figure about 28%. Sometimes it's a little less. Sometimes it could be a little more, but that's probably on
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
36:37
have a motion got a
motion a second second all in favor indicate but saying aye opposed likewise motion
carries next item mr
Speaker 11
36:56
chairman uh item l uh actually items l1 through l9 these are all requests for continuations of differentials, grids, labor market rates, and pool positions that have all
been reviewed by the personnel committee previously that come back each year for review. L1 is a request for continuation of second language differentials for those employees who utilize a second language as part of their job duties. L2 is a request for continuation of certification differentials for employees who achieve and retain certifications relevant to their job. L3 is a request for continuation of geographic differentials for classifications stationed in areas that make it hard to recruit and retain employees.
L4 is a request for continuation of salary administration grids for classifications that may have high turnover or require extensive education, certification to complete duties of the job. L5 is a request for continuation of hazardous duty and maximum security incentive differentials. These are paid to employees in jobs that expose them to hazardous or dangerous situations during the course of their job. L6 is a request for continuation of labor market rates as previously established where the outside labor market creates a high demand and pays a premium
for skills that the state also requires. L7 is a request for continuation of on-call differentials for employees who work in positions where they are consistently on-call and may be called into work at any time. L8 is a request for continuation of OPM differentials. These are differentials that cover classifications where the employee may supervise or manage employees in the same classification l9 is a request for continuation of swap pool positions and a growth pool that have been created and not yet added to an appropriation bill for their
department if the department wishes to have them added to the appropriation bills they'll have to do so as request them during the regular session
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
38:54
mr chairman that's l1 through l9 you've heard
the recommendation any any questions Thank you, Mr.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
39:06
Chair. Two things. Okay, on number five, the hazardous duty and maximum security
incentive differential, is that strictly for the Department of Correction, or does that include other employees that maybe are working in a medical field that are in hazardous situations as well? Okay, let me find. On L5.
Speaker 95
39:31
Okay, it does include some other employees at the Department of Human Services, some that
Speaker 89
39:36
work in institutional settings where they have physical hazards, such as having to lift and transport employees at other times.
But it mainly is the Department of Correction for their people. The maximum security is limited to corrections, and then the hazardous duty
Speaker 115
39:51
is also at corrections. But DHS and I believe the Department of Health also can use hazardous duty. so the
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
40:00
amount that you got plugged in there the 4.9 million how'd you arrive at that number is that based on
Speaker 89
40:09
that was last year's expenditures for these differentials these are continuations so the 4.9 is what we spent
Speaker 145
40:16
i believe let me double check well okay yeah 4.9 is what we spent
Speaker 89
40:22
in fiscal year 20 on these hazardous duty differentials so are you aware of
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
40:26
any situation where employees put in to get hazard pay and were denied it and would that have factored into that 4.9 or are you just going on previous year's numbers no hazardous duty has
Speaker 89
40:42
to be approved by this committee by personnel committee so when the agency requested we i'm not aware of any that
we have turned down that i'm aware but it's not like an employee can request hazardous duty the director or the secretary of the department would make that request. Okay let me do
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
40:58
a little checking on that and I'll
get back with you and Mr. Chair is number nine the one I just want to make sure I'm on the same page number nine that's the one that was dealt with this morning that we have to concur with what they did over there in the previous committee meeting is that am I right or
Speaker 11
41:18
no sir no uh what what happened in peer we'll deal with in our supplemental agenda gotcha okay thank
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
41:25
you thank you mr chair question another question you're
Speaker 148
41:42
recognized thank you mr chair okay uh on number nine yes sir When you explain that to me, all those positions that is being surrendered as 35, is that?
Speaker 89
41:57
Yes, sir. In the Class and Comp Act, we have an authorization of 400 positions in a surrender pool. Over the last fiscal years, agencies asked to access 35 of those positions. So when they do that, they trade a position generally for a higher graded position to help them out. Sometimes they may turn in three or four positions for one position at that case, but we have created 35 pool positions through fiscal year 20. So
Speaker 153
42:27
those positions given up, they've been replaced with what?
Speaker 89
42:31
These are the replacement positions you see on this list. I don't have the list of the positions that were given up. These were the positions that we created based on the pool position, and as Tony mentioned, we bring them back during the biennial session, and
Speaker 108
42:45
that is when you have to approve them again for the for continuation
Speaker 155
42:52
okay thank you thank you mr chairman thank
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
42:55
you any other questions we have a motion
yes this will be the motion will cover l one through nine do we have a motion
Motion, motion over here, second, second, okay. All in favor of the campus say aye. Aye. Opposed,
Speaker 11
43:30
likewise. Motion passes. M. Mr. Chairman, item M, these are requests for continuation of previously reviewed classifications for miscellaneous federal grant classifications.
Peer reviewed the appropriations and number of positions earlier today. Personnel strictly looks at the classifications assigned. OPM has recommended the requested continuation of these MFG classifications. Staff concurs. Any questions? Any questions?
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
44:11
Okay. Senator Hammer. Thank you. So if I could ask staff a question, Mr. Chair. Can I ask Tony a question? Yes, sir. All right. So by approving this, so the debate that was this morning pulled those out of, I think it was
insurance, Department of Ag was the board, and then it was insurance and some others in there.
Speaker 10
44:36
What that discussion was about, that was about shared services. These are miscellaneous federal grant positions, so still something separate.
Speaker 11
44:43
When we get to the supplemental agenda in just a minute, that's when we'll deal with the bank, and it's bank, securities, insurance, and then the positions tied to the plant
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
44:53
board through Agri. All right, sorry, I thought I heard something
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
44:59
in the conversation there. Sorry. Any other
questions? I don't want to add them in. We have a motion. We have a second, thank you. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Opposed, likewise.
Speaker 11
45:20
Item N. Mr. Chairman, item N is a request for two new miscellaneous federal grant position classifications. The first is a request for an ACE program advisor to grade GS09. This position will be utilized at the Department of Workforce Services for the TANF program. The second request is for a grants manager at GS09 at the Department of Health. This position will work with the infectious disease program, specifically the ending HIV epidemic program. OPM recommends the requested classifications. Staff concurs. So these are two
Speaker 10
45:52
new ones, not continuations. Now renewal or they're new, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Any questions
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
45:57
concerning item N? If not, do we have a
motion? Motion. Do we have a second?
Second. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, likewise.
Speaker 10
46:28
sir. So, Mr. Chairman, committee members, we're going to
Speaker 11
46:31
skip over item O. and go to the supplemental agenda. We had to, there were some issues with item O, so we did a new agenda item. So we'll need to have a motion to suspend the rules to take this supplemental agenda up.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
46:48
Okay. I've heard the recommendation that we suspend the rules. Do I have a motion?
Do I have a second? I got it. Okay. I got it. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor indicate by saying
Speaker 11
47:17
aye. Aye. And opposed? Likewise. Okay. Mr. Chairman, the supplemental agenda item, which shows as item A on the supplemental agenda, this is the request from various departments to transfer positions from their divisions within those departments up to the shared services.
Senator Hammer this is what we were talking about so yes sir so we have I think there's 754 positions that are being requested to be moved from the different departments or excuse me from within the different divisions at the department level up to the shared services area okay this is part of what was done during a fiscal session to give the departments some leeway in how they
create efficiencies within their department. And I'll take any questions, if there
Speaker 166
48:13
are any. Representative Lowry. Yes, I'd like to get some better understanding of this concept of shared services. I mean, I understand positions that may be clerical in nature and such, but some of these positions looking specifically insurance department seem to be pretty specialized so how would uh how would that role are do these positions actually represent individuals or are they just
Speaker 167
48:39
positions that are unfilled these are positions many of them are filled but not all of them are some of them
Speaker 166
48:48
are vacant okay so in answer to my question then if it's a very specialized position and I'm looking at insurance department, say, information systems manager, if that was a filled position,
Speaker 168
49:02
how would that be shared? How would that work in a shared services role?
Speaker 89
49:10
And I may let Department of Commerce answer that because this is their request, but the information technology is one of the shared service areas that a lot of departments are looking at. Now, any specific duties of that position, I'd have to go to the Department of Commerce for clarification. That'd be good.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
49:51
State your name and who you represent. Courtney Traylor, Department of Commerce. Jeff
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
50:14
Moore, Department of Commerce. if he's going to hand that out just so you know what and then what else you're
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
50:19
talking about from the banking positions as well okay representative lowry you're recognized to
Speaker 177
50:24
continue okay well um and i've looked further in in here and one of the concerns that i
Speaker 166
50:33
i have had has been as chairman of insurance and commerce and having worked with insurance folks in my previous positions I know how important the premium tax is the trust fund and my concern is the ability to keep the trust fund sacred and within the confines of the insurance department
But I see some positions here, the premium tax examiner, there's four different positions that are being shifted to shared services. That's a very specialized and specific duty. So how is that shared services
Speaker 168
51:16
within the Division of Commerce or Department of Commerce? Sure. Happy
Speaker 180
51:25
to answer that. currently we have there are four premium tax positions
Speaker 174
51:31
and their primary job is to collect
premium tax we collect premium tax four times a year so it's not a full-time position but we have it spread out over four people so that we can quickly process those payments and get those because actually all the premium tax payments goes to general revenue and so we try to get those processed and audited as quickly as possible when we receive those so that we can go ahead and transfer those funds over. But in order to make up the time
in between premium tax collections, they do other accounting duties. So one of them, she, excuse me, does some accounts payable functions. And then we have one who um she does some grant reporting and also does deposits every day so they do other accounting duties spread out because the asus system you have to have you know duties separated so um they do other accounting functions as well as premium tax collection well that was and that
Speaker 177
52:38
was just a hypothetical example just i mean we're given
Speaker 166
52:44
multiple i mean how many positions uh 400 in something and this is the first anybody on this subcommittee has seen this so I didn't have much ability to be able to look at anything other than just what might jumped out at me so so I'm really questioning this concept of shared services when you're talking about specialty
positions. So you gave me a good explanation over a premium tax. Now, clarifying, and this is really off of this topic, but I thought some of the premium tax actually does go into the trust fund. You said it all goes into general
Speaker 174
53:28
revenue? All premium tax goes into general revenue account. The insurance trust fund is funded by some company
Speaker 181
53:34
renewal fees as well as agent and broker license fees okay all right thank
Speaker 177
53:41
you thank you very much thank you mr. chair
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
53:52
thank you mr. chair of the of the number of positions listed on here do you know the exact number
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:05
get that for you I didn't have it with me okay and then I'm just curious the intent of all this is to help save money by consolidating the workload and work responsibility so do you anticipate of the ones that are on here that are currently employed that any of them are going to lose their job because they're going to
Speaker 89
54:27
be put into shared services no sir I would say one of the governor's tenants the transformation is no one was going to lose their job due
Speaker 101
54:38
to transformation. Their jobs may evolve and they may have some different duties than they previously had, but I do not anticipate
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:46
people losing their jobs due to transformation. So is there a master plan behind absorbing these positions into shared services that shows where the workload is going to be distributed among the employees? Have you all got that deep in the weeds yet on it, or this is playing it out step by step?
Speaker 89
55:03
I would say we are into the weeds of it a little bit, but there's not a master plan. Each department has a different goal and objective they're trying to achieve through shared services. The concept is that things like IT, HR, legal, accounting, budget functions could be shared for a larger department. And so most of those are the type of positions that you see here on this particular listing. and some of those people you know have already evolved into taking on some of the additional
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
55:34
duties because one of the conversations we've had in this committee several times before is the whole concept was supposed
to create savings right so right what what would you put the savings you got an estimate of what the savings of doing this is going to be you recognize understand
this is just one component of the bigger picture just curious what price tag y'all
Speaker 187
56:06
got on this one for savings jake lead dfa office of budget we've not put down formal expectations for the amount that we anticipate savings if we look back at some of the other transformation consolidation of services we've put together over the years for example at dfa we pulled together the different parts brought them into a single hr unit and we do think that we can save significant amounts but at this point just because we are standing it up right now we're not
Speaker 188
56:34
going to in a position where we can put a finite number on it would you
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
56:40
consider given the fact that some of
these positions are not filled currently but i also understand there's the cost of insurance that goes with them are you factoring into your savings when you do your projections I mean, if share savings is supposed to increase efficiencies, which is supposed to eliminate the need to hire others and people are there, you know, absorb more duties, yada, yada, yada, it would seem to me then like you'd be able to just go ahead and eliminate the positions that are unfilled here. But I'd want to make sure and see how the cost savings is impacted by if you did away because you don't even know today how many are unfilled, but you come in force asking for it, which kind of doesn't settle real good.
i think you would have known that but i i think that that that's one thing i'd like to know is if you could do away with these positions and that would you know the the insurance that's attached to that that we have to cover the cost of how is that projected into the savings or increasing the cost um against what we were promised as far as 16 million dollars in savings yeah that's something
Speaker 187
57:49
we can definitely look at you know we're standing up these programs and i think one of the things we did depending on the department is when we pulled together the
positions it wasn't necessarily what individual human beings in that specific position were doing but what is that position assigned to that agency to to do it could very well be that when these things get up and running and as attrition occurs throughout the year the agency uh through better management through through getting these things up and running may be able to identify exactly what you're talking about which is hey wait a second we don't need to fill that position We think we can absorb the additional duties with the existing staff, and we can record the savings.
I think that's what you're talking about is exactly what
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
58:31
we're trying to do here. Okay. Well, I think it would be good if we were just, as you come before us with stuff like this, we had some of the, because right now a lot of trust factor, no disrespect, a lot of trust factor that this is going to save money, which was the motive as well as efficiency, but with just like an ongoing tally of
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
58:50
that. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator.
We keep asking this question. I'm going to take my mask off.
We keep asking this question, and we keep getting a number of $14, $16 million, but yet no one can give us a firm number or give us a number. And we're moving 700 and some odd positions here, and yet we can't come up with a number. And it goes back to the budget hearing. There's a lot of positions on here that are not filled, but yet they're in the budgets.
So that's money that's tied up. So are we talking about savings from the standpoint of the budget or are we talking about savings from the reduction of personnel do you follow what i'm saying yeah yes
Speaker 187
59:51
sir i do and and i i'd say all of the above right um so absolutely we anticipate being able to do more with fewer personnel positions and
as those positions uh through attrition as we shrink the number of folks there we find better and more efficient ways to use the available folks we've got I think and Purvis spoke to it pretty well this morning and peer that you know as folks come together as we make more use of their time basically we're able to find some efficiencies but on top of that you know particularly when you look at some of the smaller boards and commissions that are coming in to joining some of these agencies they're getting access to some expertise and some management that
previously they didn't have or weren't able to afford. So
Speaker 188
1:00:39
in addition to saving money, there's also an efficiency and just better management
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:00:48
advantage to what we're trying to propose. And there again, no example, no dollar figure is put on it other than $14 million. I mean, you know, I'm becoming more and more apprehensive about the savings because we're not being told as a legislative body
on the only thing we've been told is this is going to save money. And we haven't seen any examples of dollar amounts of money. We can
Speaker 187
1:01:18
certainly get you examples of transformation changes that have resulted in savings for us at DFA. I know we can. I know at TSS they can as well. We didn't want to put a price tag on a specific transformation change that we're presenting to the committee today because we are still standing it up. We are getting it up and running. But to Senator Hammer's question,
Speaker 188
1:01:39
that's absolutely something we'd look forward to working with
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:01:47
the committee on to document as we move forward. Representative. So what I want to be sure of, who's keeping up with this, the savings? Where is it being documented? Where can we, is there an audit trail that will lead back to this X amount of savings occurred and in this department and in this agency I mean it would have to
Speaker 89
1:02:10
occur well the transformation and shared services will be tracking all the savings through this and representative wouldn't what I wanted to also tell you is over the past four years we've eliminated approximately 1,400 positions for total savings of around 26 million dollars of the state's budget so that is what, as some of these do vacate through attrition, we think we're going to accumulate more savings along those lines as well.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
1:02:41
Senator Hickey. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there anyone else have questions after me? Because I have a motion. Okay. What I wanted to do was just explain to the members in peer, we've already adjusted out the monetary part for the banking securities and insurance and also through the ag department as it specifically relates to the plant board so this agenda was somewhat large and it was a little bit confusing it should have probably been or it had been easier if it had been in pier or if it would
have all been in personnel but it was divided up so i just want the members to know what has already happened in pier and at the appropriate time mr chair i plan on making that that motion
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:03:27
so that those will mirror each other let's get
Speaker 166
1:03:32
this question here representative lowry thank you mr chair and i as i go through this list um one of the concerns i also have you know we've we've had three weeks of hearings in jpr on henderson state and one of the things that has come out of
that is a desire to pass legislation that would give the higher education coordinating board or higher department of higher education more oversight and i and i see that we're transferring out a deputy director position uh various other positions in higher ed and i just
Speaker 197
1:04:08
i think that we're at such a challenging time because of covid but also because of some of the issues that we've discovered at Henderson State that could be occurring at other campuses that I would I would
be against depleting higher ed the other issue that came to my attention I see a position in ADC and I'm going to be honest with you I'm very
Speaker 166
1:04:35
I wish that there was another column here to tell us whether the position is filled or whether it's vacant because I'm very hesitant to talk about positions where there is an actual flesh and blood person in that job but I'm going to go with
Speaker 197
1:04:50
what you gave us and you can tell me whether my question is appropriate or not and I'm sorry
I'm popping so much but the windscreen has eroded probably because of COVID or something yeah people not wearing masks like me you know yeah yeah if I had
Speaker 166
1:05:11
the mask would be fine but I see with ADC there's a position marketing and communications a VP position and then there's also a marketing communications director position I have a dramatic concern and this goes beyond personnel but it really
is within this issue I have a dramatic concern that we are farming out more and more marketing communications positions specifically to one ad agency when we ought to
Speaker 197
1:05:44
be doing this in-house we probably would be doing it more efficiently we would probably be saving the
Speaker 166
1:05:54
state a lot more money if we were doing this within in-house and so I'm concerned about this issue of moving
marketing and communications to shared services unless there is a plan to have a division of marketing and communications that can service multiple agencies, and we can stop spending tens of millions of dollars with an ad agency. So can someone give me some background on that? I will try, Representative Lowry. Let me start at least. I
Speaker 95
1:06:27
think what you just described is kind of the purpose of shared services.
Speaker 89
1:06:34
They're taking these two marketing positions. They're not eliminating these positions at all, but they're putting them directly under Secretary Preston's leadership, so therefore they can oversee the marketing and communications efforts not only for AEDC, but the other commerce agencies that could benefit from those services. So I think that's kind of the intent. See, it would make
Speaker 202
1:06:57
a lot more sense. and maybe you can tell me if we're eliminating this whole concept of an agency giving up a
Speaker 166
1:07:07
position to create another position. Is this to replace that or are we still going to be having those kinds of reports come to us? You
Speaker 196
1:07:17
still have those kind of reports? See, I just find
Speaker 203
1:07:22
that extremely confusing. Okay. If I can jump
Speaker 187
1:07:25
in. So the purpose of what we're talking about here are for positions that carry out the shared services, those internal operations. If you look at each of the departments though, the shared services are gonna vary depending on where that overlap exists.
And what happened is the departments, once they were formed, those secretaries all got together and they looked at their positions. In this case, it might very well be that they looked and they said, well, you know, we've got a marketing director over here and we've got a marketing director over here. They're not talking to each other. They're not working together. This guy over here has some expertise that this division over here could really benefit from they don't even have a position dedicated for that so they're going to bring them together into one shop so that they can sharpen and affect the marketing for the whole department they can use those resources more effectively and efficiently and then we don't have to go add additional
positions the idea under the old model was you might have three or four different divisions well if one of them didn't have a marketing and communications position they might end up before you all asking for one because they couldn't access the talent or the efforts of the guy across the hall who happen to work for a different department so the idea of that is to really avoid making those kind of additional requests what we're presenting here and and this kind of also goes to the savings discussion everything here is a transfer we're not adding any appropriation
we're not adding any uh positions at all from what we're doing here these have already been authorized during the fiscal session we're just asking to move what
Speaker 202
1:08:52
has already been authorized into that shared service okay well it just concerns me
Speaker 166
1:08:57
it seems to be more of a centralized power grab rather than us being able to see a request where a position is being surrendered so that another position can be created we're able to see apples to apples it's going to help
us better and being able to approve budgets when we go into the next fiscal the fiscal budget hearings this shared services concept seems to be something that is going to make our job more difficult and being able to assess whether an agency needs an increase in their budget or whether they should be static and I'm just extremely concerned and and I know Senator Hickey has a
motion and I hope that he'd consider expanding his motion to include some other divisions that should be removed from this this action and if I can in response the intent here
Speaker 207
1:09:55
was is not a power grab and it's certainly not intended to somehow or other make
Speaker 187
1:10:00
it more confusing or difficult the intent here is really to not just create the efficiencies and reduce costs and all that, but also to make the programmatic efforts of the agencies more effective and efficient. If you think about some of our agencies, we might go out and hire somebody who is foremost expert in their field, put them
in head of an agency, and now under the traditional system, they'd spend a great deal of their time with the management, the individual accounting, the budget, the personnel, all the things that come with running that department as an individual director. The intent of this would be to allow those individuals to be freed up to really focus on carrying out the mission of their agency more effectively and efficiently ideally that would result in fewer requests for positions to your body it would also result in more effective
Speaker 205
1:10:45
and efficient agency operations all around well and
Speaker 166
1:10:49
I appreciate that but I guess the question I'm asking is when we start looking at budget requests uh and and funding for personnel is there going to be a booklet of shared services positions that we're going to see that these are actual positions that are being used and are we going to be able to be given information that tells us which agencies are sharing that service yes we
Speaker 197
1:11:19
can provide that to you i mean that's going to be a pretty big book well based on the
Speaker 187
1:11:26
number of positions we're talking about here correct but it won't be i guess any bigger than the books we're already giving you if that makes any sense some
Speaker 197
1:11:34
of the budget manuals i think we bring over already
Speaker 166
1:11:37
pretty large yes but the difference is uh if we see that there's 200 positions in the department of insurance we know that those are dedicated to the department of insurance if we see 400 positions to shared services, we don't know whether there's been a cutback at the insurance
department or not, or if the cutbacks have been too much, unless we know what the shared services are that they're being able
Speaker 166
1:12:07
just, I mean, I can appreciate all of our desire to be able to cut positions that are on the books, unused, underutilized, and also taking out all these separate silos where
there are skill sets that can be used across agencies. It just seems to be a very cumbersome process, especially when we're handed something that says here's 400 positions, 400 plus positions that are being shifted to some entity that previous you know didn't exist and we don't have direction on how those services are going to be
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:12:50
shared so and to your point this is what
Speaker 187
1:12:54
we're doing today is really always been intended as kind of a temporary transfer when we get into budget hearings coming up in october will the agencies when they put together their biennial budget those positions and the appropriation requests will be in that shared service it will become part of
Speaker 206
1:13:10
the agency's budget so it'll be something you can
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:13:15
look at okay all right thank you thank you
mr chair let me let me proceed again i've been down this road i headed to the former department of commerce years ago when it was reorganized government was reorganized
When I got there as director, we had 34 people in the central office. And when I left, we had six. And those other 28 positions were moved into existing agency positions. And we had a savings relative to the budget of several million dollars.
Now, are we going to run into the same thing again? I mean, some of these people that are being transferred and moved from one position to another have absolutely no experience. It's one thing to be in the insurance department and then be transferred to shared services to deal with the bank department. It's totally different. The approach, the work is completely different. so are we going to end up spending a lot of money to train people
if you put them in shared services I'm like Representative Lowry we're just not seeing the results that we need to see at this point in time after what two years that we've been down this road
Ann Purves
Unverified
1:14:57
The Transformation Act was effective for one year.
Speaker 214
1:15:02
Yeah, Transformation went to effect July 119. Right. Yes, ma'am. Representative Reuton, my name is Ann Purves. I'm Chief of Staff for Transformation Assured Services, and Secretary Fetcher apologizes, but she had a pre-planned trip out of the state. I think she did call you. She talked with me. One of the things I want to mention, a couple of things. as positions or individuals are moved into shared services, they have the skill set necessary to do that particular function, whether it's HR, physical, IT, they have to meet the minimum
qualifications to do the job. So we always verify that prior to doing that. I know that within the different departments, as we start doing those, and you're correct, we should have been able to recognize the budgeted, not the budgeted, but the filled and unfilled positions because as we start looking at this and really maximizing the efforts across government what we're finding is we may not need four physical support analysts we may only need two and this gives us the opportunity to do that in a more effective operational manner we will be able
to track the cost savings but right now we're just asking for the permission to move forward with this model and then be able to provide that information as
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:23
we go forward i appreciate that i hope y'all can back it up senator
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:16:29
hammer thank you mr chair just a hundred thousand foot view so we got the legislation through this is kind of
the one of the many steps in order to get a transition from what the legislation allows to the actual transforming it into reality as far as these positions going over shared services
fair correct okay tell me about the discussions leading up to this that you identified these particular positions and surely there were some discussions as to well we think we can take these positions and move them over here and it helped the overall goals and objections that you articulate so just give me a give me a comfort level about the discussions going into that Right. There are several different
Speaker 214
1:17:13
meetings going on during this past year,
whether it's with the chief of staffs, whether it's with the chief financial officers. We all started to look at our different positions. And sometimes what you have to do is actually ask the employee, what do you do on a day-to-day basis? Because sometimes their job title doesn't reflect what they actually do. And so there is an assessment of all the different job functions out there. And then what you started looking at is both your field and vacant positions, and how can you actually maximize that within your particular operational model.
And so all the different departments went through that analysis, and that's how they came up with the positions that they're presenting today. Some of it is also, if you think about what we look like statewide, is maybe they're seeing some efficiency within their regional offices, their local offices as well, if they can combine some job functions there that maybe there was a duplication of effort at times so all those things that we looked at over this past year and this is where we are where we are today is being able to basically put that down into a format as Mr. Bleed mentioned that will
go into our annual operating plan for the next biennium and that will be reflected on the budget bills too if this passes today and I mean on Friday and so you will be able to see what looks like what all the positions that are in the shared services model for those particular 15 departments and then we can provide the information of where they came from during this transition period as well okay and reflected
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:18:45
in that budget that you're going to give are the unfilled positions and the salaries that go with them and the costs associated with it is that correct yes that's correct yes
is that going to and is that unintentionally intentionally going to inflate the budget that you couldn't lower your budget request by removing the unfilled positions i think there there's some of us that are a little
Speaker 214
1:19:09
bit hesitant to start unbudgeting a lot of positions for a lot of different reasons because currently where we are right now is may not be where we're going to be three months six months from now so we're wanting a little bit of time to see what this looks like as we move forward but i know that there's are going to be some positions that are going to be
unbudgeted that's just the nature of it and we all look at that because you know as we go through budget reductions and all those kind of things you look at any
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:19:39
places you can get some savings all right and i know that um and we get to the discussion when senator hickey gives his motion but i'm just also wondering how much that's going to upset of course what was done as peer is done how that's going to impact the overall goal and objective of all the conversations you've had leading up to now and the questions that were raised and the issues that were raised in peer
is going to take a chunk out of this and how is that going to impact all the discussions you've had leading up till now
Ann Purves
Unverified
1:20:09
it will have an impact you know if you look at for example department of commerce if
Speaker 187
1:20:15
we pull out the positions for banking insurance there's about 37 positions there so that will have a financial impact on the agency and their ability to in effect save the maximum amount of money from creating those shared services and you know with the plant board
this is something that i've talked to senator hickey about those positions that are in you know agriculture department was one of the first agencies to really create a shared services model it's something they've been doing for about 10 or 15 years so those positions are already integrated into the shared services the the administration of the agency so pulling them out might create some difficulties for that
Speaker 205
1:20:49
agency all right mr chair yes sir i got a request
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:20:59
to the chairs please all right sir you're
so nice so and and i'd like to ask that you allow them to weigh
in what i'm about to request to the chair so we walked in and we get this which we knew it was coming i mean for all practical purposes but we don't know how many on here are filled or unfilled positions so we're giving a we're giving a blanket you know pass um and you're going to be coming to us with regards to the budget increase and what i'd like to request to the chairs is that over the next few months and i don't know that it would necessarily be a discussion to have in a normal um um whatever this committee is we're in uh personnel committee meeting that we're in
today it might be a couple set-aside meetings i think it'd be good to have the secretaries come in and maybe get some of the employees to come in and let's just visit with them about the integration of these employees over into the shared service model and have that deep dive discussion about the plan moving forward how are they going to address like representative Lowry's question of the marketing and do we need to keep and those things that were just mentioned that they may find out that they could do away with a couple but it's gonna be an awful lot I think to get into the
budgeting and just have to take it in short notice and I just would request to the chair that you would consider maybe scheduling a few meetings between now and then so we could really analyze this and see how that is going to create savings and allow for a smooth transition without the agencies that are being impacted and the citizens that ask questions of them have an adverse
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:22:44
effect and that's what I'm asking thank you that's a fair request and the chair
will ask the cardigan on it and I asked Tony to put that give that some thought and try to pull it together but the more I hear Mr. Bleed the more I hear and I hope that this will become a reality but you and I'm giving you forewarning and we need we need zero based budgeting again we need to go back in every agency and look at every program, every project, every position of state government.
I was amazed when we went through the budget process at the total number. One request that stands out, they spent $16, $17 million the year before, and they requested $100 million for the next year. That doesn't make any sense. At least it doesn't to me. But it's the same process that Senator Hammer's talking about.
You know, we've got all these positions here, and we don't have any idea what's filled or what's not filled. But the point being, the money is tied up. the money is committed to that position that's vacant. I was looking at studying one agency this week. Found a position that had been there since 2017 and had not been filled.
Now I don't understand that. I don't know how y'all let that get by DFA. Unless the same thing is going on in DFA of asking for positions that you don't need. And then that money's tied up because we budgeted for that position. If I can in response, and I think
Speaker 187
1:24:56
Kay mentioned this, we have shrunk the number of positions significantly, I think, since the governor took office. And as you know, that is... Yeah, and I guarantee you, most of those positions
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:25:10
were funded but were vacant. Some of them. Unless
Speaker 187
1:25:14
I'm misunderstanding, sir, I think that's what you're talking about, and it is an issue that we've been working to address to
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:25:24
reduce those positions overall. Well, from the last budget session we went through, it hadn't been addressed, because there was position after position, project after project that had funded one amount and then increased tremendously the next time so do you see what i'm saying yes sir does that make sense yes sir
Speaker 89
1:25:47
mrs barnhill no it makes sense and representative we do have reports that we run that can tell when the position was last filled and every year when we begin the biennial budget cycle which will be starting again in august we request those agencies to tell us why that position should be continued in most cases we eliminate some I think what Miss Purvis referred to this time trying to have a little leeway I figure out which positions we need but we anticipate eliminating several of these
positions at once that process has been completed. Why was that position
Speaker 45
1:26:24
still there from 2017? That's a good question and
Speaker 89
1:26:31
we've asked that question before and I'm not sure which agency you're talking about but I can tell you. But I want you to be rest assured that we are looking at that that's something that's not taken lightly. Thank
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:26:41
you. Thank you Mr. Bleed. Senator Hickey. Thank you Mr. Chair
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
1:26:50
and members what I'll do is just kind of like I did in
Pierre and I did hear what you said Representative Lowry. Of course I'm gonna limit mine to exactly what I did in Pierre to mirror it. As most of you all know, during the session, whenever we did the transformation, the bill was about 2,000 pages, and during those discussions and everything, we had added language which had said that the banking department, the securities department, the insurance department were supposed to stand independently, although we were going to allow them to be put with
the Commerce Department in that transformation. We actually had pulled one entity, the Public Service Commission, out and left it as a standalone agency. In addition to that, we also had some discussions and we have some different type language in there in the ag part as it relates specifically to the plant board. So in order to mirror what we did in peer, what I was going to do is I'm going to move that we approve the requested transfers in this supplemental agenda
to shared services with the exception of the positions within the banking department, the positions within the securities department, the positions within the insurance department, and then also the positions within ag that are tied specifically to the plant board. And that's my motion, Mr. Chair, and I'll try to help answer any questions if I need to. all right do we have a
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:28:26
second for that motion a second any any questions
any comments from dfa or others any further discussion okay all
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:28:51
aye opposed Mark the chair down as vote What else we got Appreciate it
We went a little long but we got Started late we appreciate All the agencies Being here and Answering our questions have a good Day we're adjourned Turn this off You
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Communications
C. Request from Division of Higher Education-Arkansas State University-Beebe (ASUB) to establish one (1) classified position from the Higher Education Central Pool authorized by Act 763 of 2019, ACA §21-5-1415. (Department of Education, Division of Higher Education, Dr. Maria Markham, Director)
D. Request from the Division of Higher Education-Arkansas State University Jonesboro (ASUJ) to establish one (1) non-classified position from the Higher Education Central Pool authorized by Act 763 of 2019, ACA §21-5-1415. (Department of Education, Division of Higher Education, Dr. Maria Markham, Director)
E. Request from the Division of Higher Education-Ozarka College to establish one (1) non-classified position from the Higher Education Central Pool authorized by Act 763 of 2019, ACA §21-5-1415. (Department of Education, Division of Higher Education, Dr. Maria Markham, Director)
F. Request from the Divison of Higher Education (DHE) to continue thirteen (13) Central pool positions in the Higher Education Pool authorized by Act 763 of 2019, ACA §21-5-1415 to be effective through FY21. (Department of Education, Divison of Higher Education, Dr. Maria Markham, Director)
G. Request from the Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry for reauthorization of a previously approved certification compensation differential for incumbents obtaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL). (Wes Ward, Secretary)
H. Request from the Arkansas Disability Determination for Social Security (DDSSA) to establish a compensation differential in accordance Ark. Code Ann. §21-5-221. DDSSA has requested the establishment of a 10% compensation differential to compensate employees that are assigned extra disability cases from other states to eliminate the accumulated backlog. (Arthur Boutiette, Agency Director)
I. Request from the Department of Human Services (DHS) for a salary administration grid for licensed practical nurses and licensed practical nurse supervisors in accordance with Ark. Code Ann. §21-5-222. (Cindy Gillespie, Secretary)
J. Request from the Department of Human Services (DHS) for a salary administration grid for licensed social worker classifications utilizing the career service schedule of pay grades as delineated in the Uniform Classification and Compensation Act 365 of 2017. (Cindy Gillespie, Secretary)
K. Request from Arkansas Public Service Commission to establish three (3) new titles from the OPM surrender pool established by Ark. Code Ann. §21-5-225(a)(1). (Donna Gray, Executive Director)
L. Continuations of Second Language Differential, Certification Differential, Geographic Compensation Differential, Grids, Hazardous Duty Differential, Labor Market Rates, On-Call, OPM Differential, and Pool Positions from various agencies/institutions.
M. Request from various agencies for continuation of Miscellaneous Federal Grant program positions for Fiscal Year 2020-2021.
N. Request for the following classification titles for use of a new Miscellaneous Federal Grant Program Appropriation Position (Ark. Code Ann.§19-7-501 et.seq) for Fiscal Year 2020-2021.
O. Request from Department of Transformation and Shared Services to transfer positions from various divisions that will be assigned to the “Shared Services” section of the Department. (Office of Personnel Management-Department of Transformation and Shared Services, Amy Fecher, Secretary)
P. Other Business
Q. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 11
Speaker 14
Speaker 21
Senator Linda Chesterfield
Unverified
Speaker 30
Speaker 35
Speaker 48
Speaker 58
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 61
Speaker 50
Speaker 19
Speaker 44
Speaker 86
Speaker 89
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 88
Speaker 101
Speaker 115
Speaker 108
Speaker 119
Speaker 95
Speaker 145
Speaker 148
Speaker 153
Speaker 155
Speaker 161
Speaker 166
Speaker 167
Speaker 168
Representative Mark Lowery
Unverified
Speaker 177
Speaker 180
Speaker 174
Speaker 181
Speaker 187
Speaker 188
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 197
Speaker 202
Speaker 196
Speaker 203
Speaker 207
Speaker 205
Speaker 206
Ann Purves
Unverified
Speaker 214
Speaker 45
Speaker 87