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Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:21
meeting of Uniform Personnel Classification Compensation Plan subcommittee to order
good to see each of you here today the peer chair did apologize
for taking longer but we understand that they have work to do just like we do so we'll start off with communications and I'll recognize Tony to lead us through that Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Items B1
Speaker 11
1:58
and B2, these are reports from the Department of Higher Education
and the Office of Personnel Management. These detail the use of director's discretion, labor market rates, adjustments, special entry rates for exceptionally well-qualified candidates, and the use of existing administration grids as reviewed by this committee and authorized in Arkansas code. If you'll note, there are a number in this report for DDSSA. Those are part of a salary grid that the committee established for DDSSA. This is kind of their last go around,
their last few positions that they're dealing with for their agency, but that's why there's a number of them in there. Mr. Chairman, that's items B1
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
2:43
and B2. Do we have any questions? these two items don't require
Speaker 10
2:50
any action so we'll move on to three and four all right mr
Speaker 11
2:55
chairman item b3 this is a report from the department of higher education that details uh institutions requests for new provisional positions uh provisional positions are creating using
other monies which may include grants donations or other unanticipated funds there were 183 total provisional positions approved by dhe since june this is for both four-year and two-year institutions. DHE has also provided some of these some letters for new provisional positions where they've granted the authority to fill those in the interim. DHE typically does not allow the institutions to fill these provisional positions so they've been
reviewed by this committee unless there's a time constraint put on the institution through the grant and so in this particular case these are the letters that represent those that they did give the institutions uh the authority to fill in the interim between june and today
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
3:52
mr chairman that's item b3 tony on on those those positions if the funding goes away the position goes away yes sir okay any any questions from any committee member on b3 if not we'll move on to four
Speaker 11
4:08
mr chairman item b4 uh is a this starts on page 53 if you're looking for it is a continuation report of previously reviewed provisional positions these are provisionals that have already been created at the institution reviewed by this committee previously in previous years and they have to come back to re-request them to continue we have 1684 positions at the four-year colleges and 765 positions at the two-year colleges that they've requested to continue
this is a total of 2449 positions they're requesting to continue through provisionals and this is the same as we did in item b3 unanticipated funds grants donations endowments whatever it may be it's the same funding types but these are the
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
4:59
ones that require annual renewal yes sir for the position so we
can assume we can assume as a committee that the funding is still available any any questions on b4 from the committee
if not we'll move on to
Speaker 18
5:20
c thank you mr chairman item c uh you'll find on page
Speaker 11
5:26
197 seven um so item c is a request for continuation of previously reviewed labor market rates these are for classifications at institutions of higher education these rates are set in order to recruit and retain employees into necessary classifications dhe has recommend recommended the renewal of these labor market rates and staff concurs so these rates are for classifications at
the institutions where they have a hard time recruiting and retaining these employees and so they want to establish generally above the entry
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
6:00
rate in order to to keep these
folks okay do we have a motion to accept item c this will require a motion and action motion's made seconds made any discussion any questions on item c if not all in favor indicate by saying aye
opposed likewise motion carries we'll move on to item d thank you mr chairman item d this is a
Speaker 11
6:37
request from the department of commerce for one swap position for the securities commission they're requesting to surrender a systems application supervisor at a grade it05 in return for an information systems manager at an it08 this will enable the agency to fill the position with an individual who will oversee the entirety
of the it infrastructure at securities opm has recommended the position and staff concurs the cost of this based on the increasing grade would be about
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
7:12
19 000 Okay, now the salary that's
being given up has a high point of $75,000. Now, does that include all the other, the 28%? No, sir. If
Speaker 11
7:27
you look below that grid on the agenda, you'll see the entry of 71.
If they were hired in at entry, which is $71,704. Oh, match, okay. Yes, sir. And so the match is, based
Speaker 10
7:41
on what our figures are, generally 28%. That's what the match rate would be for
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
7:46
each of those salaries. It would be $91, $23, and $26. Yes, sir. Additional to the $130 at maximum. Yes, sir. Yes, because really this is in the $71, the base salary.
Yes, sir. Okay. Any questions from the committee concerning this?
Yes, sir. Senator Hickey you're recognized. Just
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
8:17
one, making sure we're compliant. Is this position it'll it'll solely be used at the Securities Department? Yes sir.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
8:35
Thank you see 28 I don't have a name for that hammer
there you go right there you
recognize senator thank you mr. chair
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
8:45
that are these job duties not currently being covered now? I think part of the reason for this
Speaker 44
8:53
request is to get this Securities Commission aligned with the other two regulatory, the Bank Commission and the insurance. They were getting some help from Commerce before, but they need this position to be a standalone for securities, which is why we're having to increase the grade in this
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
9:12
particular position. I guess they have some
documentation to show that the increase is going to attract the right candidate to do this job does it align with the other two it does align with the
Speaker 44
9:25
other two regulatory agencies within the department and so what they need is somebody that can and mr. Munson's here he can probably explain it in more detail if we need him to let's recognize him if you would come forward
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
9:45
If you would, state your name and position.
Speaker 53
9:56
Mr. Chairman, my name is Eric Munson. I'm the commissioner of the Arkansas Security Department. Mr.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
10:02
Munson, Senator Hickey, do you have further questions? Or hammer? So, do you already
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
10:07
have a candidate picked out for this? And is this salary going to get the right person?
Speaker 55
10:14
Or is it going to... Yes, sir. We have some strong candidates. Currently, they had an 05 IT position, and we had that position.
No one has been there. We were using shared services, and to mirror the other regulatory agencies, those positions are 08. We also talked to industry, and I need someone that can handle our star system. We collect about over $19 million in revenue, and there's some technical sites there, and we have a candidate in mind who is experienced in that. Okay, very good. Thank you. Thank you,
Speaker 56
10:44
Mr. Chair. Thank you. Representative Fide. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 59
10:53
Kay, this position that's being surrendered here today, when was the last time it was filled? I
Speaker 44
11:00
did not bring that information with me, but I don't think it's been filled this biennium. Eric, do you know
Speaker 60
11:10
any? No, sir. I'm, again, new. I've been on the job about three months, and this position has been gone for about 11 to 12 months. We've been using the shared services for our IT.
Speaker 30
11:25
Representative Fyde, it was September of last year.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
11:33
September? September of last year, yes, sir. Ms. Barnhill, let me ask you a question. Yes, sir. you may not be able to answer it today and it may be so complex that it may take a while okay i have found several positions in several agencies that have been vacant for two or three or four years yes sir and that's still in their budget to me that's tying up taxpayers money now i know it's
It's a help as it relates to insurance and other things to have those positions in there. But I also think we owe the taxpayers of this state a fair representation of budgeting as it relates to positions. And I think we need to look at, if we can, the number of positions that have been vacant more than six months or a year.
in these agencies because to me that's tying up taxpayers money in a budgeted amount Mr. Munson this does not involve you but it's a point of contention with the chair relative to sound budgeting yes sir we're getting ready to go into some budget hearings again and I got called down in one of the budget meetings in the fiscal session because of, you know, hammering on this point.
But is that fair? Yes, sir, that is a
Speaker 44
13:10
fair statement. And we are in the executive budgeting process right now where we do run a vacancy report to see how long some of the positions have been vacated. And when they've been vacated for an extraordinary amount of time, and we ask the departments to remind us why they need to keep those positions. I will point out that not all vacant positions are budgeted positions. Some agencies, like Department of Corrections and some other place, keep some extra positions that they don't have budgeted unless they need to.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
13:40
But we do review that. I'm concerned about those positions that have a dollar amount assigned to it and have been vacant for one, two years, three years. Because I ran across one that had been vacant for three years recently. Yes, sir. Mr. Monson, a question to you. There's a drastic difference between $75,000 and $103,000, and we've been told that we're going to save $14 million,
and every time we get one of these to come in here, the salaries are being increased. is where are you relative to your budgeting in transformation in going into the department of commerce are you saving money yes sir that is our goal
Speaker 55
14:36
again this position what i understand and what i inherited was going to be turned in when the
Speaker 60
14:44
the security department went to a shared services under commerce with the other regulatories this is one of the positions that was in the process going to be eliminated but then in June the legislature wanted to make sure understand to that the regulatories would all be self-supportive or on their own independent and so now we were having to go out and get some key positions on operations our fiscal IT we followed the orders and a lot of those positions people
retired we had a lot of retirements more than the other regulatories did and so we are having to fill specific key operations positions and IT is one of those and I've in my experience with our agencies and talking to industry we're looking at that starting point someone we can get a qualified person but what happens if you look at historicals in the IT field yes they're very good salaries but people tend to not stay very long we're trying to get a candidate We have a good candidate, someone that we can work with us a while.
That's our goal. I've been in other agencies. There's two and three and four people. I don't want to hire
Speaker 55
15:57
more people. I want to hire one good person that's efficient where we can get
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
16:03
the biggest bang for our buck without hiring more people. All right. Thank you. Okay. C28 again. Okay.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:10
Senator Hammer, do you have any? I do, Mr. Chair. do you know what percentage so this position was previously with shared services correct no who who was this position
Speaker 44
16:20
has always been with the securities department they just didn't
fill it when they were part of
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:27
shared services so there was nobody at shared services that was doing this
Speaker 11
16:34
job prior to it wasn't there wasn't senator i i think are you referring to shared services as part of the department of transformation and shared services is that what you're asking yes okay the each department each department level commerce uh dfa every department has its own shared services division now so a lot of times when you hear them talk about shared services
they're talking about within their own department so he's when they say shared services they're talking about shared services in commerce okay the position that they're giving up was at securities it was at the securities department they're giving up at staying at the securities department But when they reference shared services, generally, they're talking about the shared services division within their own departments. All right. And that position that
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:18
was at securities, was it filled or not filled? It hasn't been filled since September
Speaker 48
17:24
of last year. Okay. And that's where Representative Fyte was going with that.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:29
That's what I was trying to piece it all together. So how many are in your shared services division at
Speaker 60
17:40
Commerce? Well, sir, there's no longer a shared services and regatories. okay very good so we're borrowing other agencies are helping right now
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:46
until we can fill these positions how many are you going to how
Speaker 52
17:50
many are you looking at filling maybe that's the question i need we have we reported a fiscal
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:55
there's uh four four positions and you're so when you're all your positions are filled in your share services divisions of your agency you're going
to have four am i thinking am i
Speaker 60
18:05
right yes sir the the shared services that we used or were shared when i arrived those individuals went back to their original departments so banking the people did hr and i.t they went back to banking the other ones that did that went back to the insurance department and we didn't have any positions the the securities department through retirements and did not fill positions because they knew of the legislation the wish of the legislature on the on the transformation they never filled those positions i mean they were preparing
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
18:34
to use shared services. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Hickey. There we go. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. I was going to give clarification on that, but because I do want everybody to understand that this was because of what the legislature did here a few months in ALC. So I think, you know, whenever we need to, I'm going to call own it, we need to own it.
But whenever we had passed transformation back during the session, whenever that was passed out, the way everything was presented to the bodies and the way that we particularly presented it to the Senate members is that insurance, banking, and commerce would all be stand-alone. Now, what happened, and Ms. Fetcher, she may disagree with me some here, that, you know, that the language of the bill, although we passed it out under the understanding that those would all be separate, is that they could be used through the shared services.
What happened was, is during the ALC meeting a few months ago, we said, no, that was not supposed to happen. Some of you all may remember that. so this position being taken on is because of our action that we did in ALC and there could possibly be some few others but whenever we passed the legislation that is what we told especially on the senate end and I know some of the house members we had told the members that because as everybody remembers that was a 2,000 page bill and we were trying to relay stuff out and that transformation bill was passed because of that so however this is because of what the
legislature has done not what the securities department is you know just trying to get an extra position so i wanted to make that clear and i'll be happy offline to
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
20:36
try to explain that if i have to anymore thank you mr chair i recall that i remember that and uh there's there's good reasoning behind that from the standpoint of the revenue production that the insurance
and banking and securities receive, but it's still incumbent upon each of those agencies to be good stewards of what they're given from the various groups that are involved in those agencies. But I appreciate that explanation, Senator Hickey. Any other questions, any other comments, discussion?
Okay, do we have a motion on this position for the Securities Department? Second. Okay. All in favor indicate we're saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Mr. Munson. Mr. Chairman, item E is
Speaker 11
21:43
a miscellaneous federal grant request for the classification of apprenticeship expansion coordinator at a grade GS10 for the Office of Skills Development. The department through the grant is striving to
grow and strengthen the apprenticeship programs across the state. The classification requested currently does not exist and therefore needs to be reviewed as well in order for OPM to create position with the requested title opm has recommended the new classification and it's used for the mfg and staff concur so members this is actually two requests in one it's reviewing the title for the mfg itself but also giving them the authority to create the title because it doesn't currently exist mr chairman i'll take
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
22:24
any questions okay any questions concerning adam a
chair sees none do we have a motion to accept the recommendation someone got a second second all in favor indicate saying aye opposed likewise motion carries All right,
Speaker 11
22:53
Mr. Chairman, we have also a supplemental agenda today.
Before we can take up the supplemental agenda, we'll
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
23:08
supplemental agenda, and as it's been explained, we need a motion to suspend the rules and take up this matter. Do we have a motion? Do we have a motion? Second. Okay, all
in favor say aye. Aye. okay tony you're recognized thank you mr chairman uh there
Speaker 11
23:25
are two items on the supplemental agenda they're both miscellaneous federal grant requests um they're from the department of commerce
division of workforce services the first requested mfg has three workforce services specialists the second mfg has 14 dws workforce specialists so they're all the same classification on both request this is 17 positions in total to be used to help detect and prevent fraud and recover overpayments in the pandemic emergency unemployment compensation programs opm has recommended the classifications and the staff concurs okay do we have any
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
24:00
do we have a representative here from
workforce services Thank you. Thank you for being here. Would you state your name
Speaker 82
24:31
and position? Sharice Childers, Director, Division of Workforce Services.
Speaker 84
24:35
D.V. Pearson, Deputy Director, Internal Operations for Workforce Services.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
24:44
Okay. Any questions, Senator, from C-28? Hammer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The last
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
24:51
week you were testifying in committee, we're up in the thousands of cases that you're having to investigate because of fraud are these specialists dedicated to that population or which population are they going to be focusing on yes
Speaker 87
25:10
sir senator hammer this is we're
requesting these positions specifically for grants that have been given to us by the federal government to address that rampant fraud that every state is experiencing okay
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
25:23
so like the ones who are having their identity stolen in order to claim the the unemployment that's who these three because I'm if I what's the current number of cases that are being investigated I'm sorry
Speaker 87
25:37
I don't have the current exact number it is a large number and it's growing daily
we're doing our best with our current staff to try to address it but it's it's way more than our current staff can get to and people are there there benefits are being held up while we're trying to investigate you know some of them are legitimate and we have to release those back to the people we're working on that as quickly as we can but we need to go faster and we need more staff so that's what these grants are specifically designed to address right and I'm not I'm
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
26:10
not opposed to the idea and this is all federally funded correct yes sir did
you ask for more than three or
Speaker 87
26:23
was the the this amount was allocated to each state had a certain amount that was allocated to them for these grants so it wasn't really negotiated on our part we just accepted what the Department of Labor gave us so that the grant amount covers these three positions plus some other technology that we needed to add in to be able to quickly examine the the claims and determine whether or not they were fraudulent
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
26:51
and that's all these three are going to be doing that's all
they're going to be focused on correct okay have you all implemented any changes to help slow down the process such as didn't you implement like in-person id uh and they're having to go to the local unit or have you create have you done any other creative ideas that will help address that because you just said that it's growing daily which implies to me whatever we're doing may not exactly be bending the curve so so we
got three people which is great it's a drop in the bucket probably compared to what we need but have you got any other creative ideas that y'all have implemented to help
Speaker 84
27:38
slow it down and that'll be all mr. chair thank you yes sir go ahead go ahead we have created a new fraud unit
Speaker 87
27:46
within our division and we are in the process of hiring people who can specifically, who specifically have the knowledge and training to do these types of investigations and analysis. And these three positions are specifically for
Speaker 84
27:58
the PEUC, which is the program for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment
Speaker 87
28:06
Compensation Program. So we are also asking for 14 positions that are specifically for another UI program, and these people will, even though they're funded by these specific grants, they'll work together and use the tools that they have available to identify fraud and stop it before it happens.
And as far as the fraud growing, that may also be a factor of us being able to more quickly identify and, you know, train our staff and purchase new tools, new IT software, partner with some of our other peer agencies around the nation to come up with every kind of system that we can to identify these fraud payments before they go out. All right. Well, appreciate the work you all are doing. I know you're under
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
28:56
a lot of strain, but appreciate the work you're doing. I wish you'd go ahead and ask him for about 300 more positions. Thanks.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
29:04
and relieve our email and phone calls that we're getting but i have that secretary preston had indicated at one time that it was in excess of 30 000 perhaps cases that were tagged as fraud but not all those necessarily could be fraud as i understand it it could be a that two or three people at one address
that happen to live together because of economic reasons. It could be address wrong, phone number, or something like that. It's not necessarily, I know there's some fraud because I had one that turned out to be very much so. uh but uh not all of them are actually anticipated as as fraud is that correct
yes sir that is correct but
Speaker 95
30:11
it just they just fall under that tag they're in review so we are looking at all of those factors that you mentioned as we are going through them and they're being held in review so that we have the opportunity to look
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
30:26
at them closer and determine if they are
Speaker 95
30:30
fraud or not what triggers what triggers the review there are several things that would that we have queries for and we do algorithms to look at the one the
information that we've received from the integrity data hub which is our national entity that's helping us work through fraud and also identify larger rings and and and suspected fraud throughout the United States they send us reports we're using some of the tools that they offer and then also we internally are running within our system algorithms to pick up on the things that you mentioned earlier if there are triggers and flags then we hold those until we can review
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
31:17
them further okay all right any further questions from any member we'll we'll uh the vote will include 17 it'll be both of them 14 and one and three and the other but the vote the motion would be for passage of a and b in one lump it's going to move second all in favor indicate with saying aye opposed likewise ladies thank you very much for being here thank you motion passes
anything else anyone else have anything to come before the committee if not we stand adjourned thank you for being here You
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Communications
C. Request from Division of Higher Education for continuation of labor market rates for 27 institutions/entities for FY21. (Department of Education, Division of Higher Education, Dr. Maria Markham)
D. Request from Arkansas Department of Commerce, Securities Department to establish one (1) position from the OPM surrender pool established by Ark. Code Ann. §21-5-225(a)(1). (Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston)
E. Request from the Department of Commerce-Office of Skills Development for the establishment of Miscellaneous Federal Grant position to expand opportunities relating to apprenticeship programs. (Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston)
F. Other Business
Supplemental Agenda
A. Request from Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services for the establishment of Miscellaneous Federal Grant positions to assist with efforts to prevent and detect fraud and identity theft and recover fraud overpayments in the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program. (Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston)
B. Request from Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services for the establishment of Miscellaneous Federal Grant positions to assist with efforts to prevent and detect fraud and identity theft and recover fraud overpayments in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program. (Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston)
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 10
Speaker 18
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 44
Speaker 53
Speaker 55
Speaker 56
Speaker 59
Speaker 60
Speaker 30
Speaker 48
Speaker 52
Speaker 15
Speaker 82
Speaker 84
Speaker 87
Speaker 95