Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC)

Members please get you to. Members please get in your chairs we're starting a little bit like. Call the december meeting arkansas later council to order first up we have the approval of managed time to look those i've got a motion got a second ill in favor of the minute say I post. Minutes are adopted next we have presentations this morning from first excuse me. Need to get started start back over and door will go ask senator blake johnson if we all stand ladies and work. You'll give us a wisdom and inside to to make decisions that will be in in your wheel lower in. And pray that all the members and and everyone here. Will bless crashed through christmas lord we give you all the honor in glory and all we do and crashed I might pray these things a min. Like serve trade. We have thank our final two found two thousand. Presentation from our secretary first up is sector partner for dhs if you'd come forward. She has got her report membership give your full attention we appreciate that. They could be in here sector partner you are recognized present. Thank you to your rice thank you members for inviting us to be here today. Can you all see the presentation on your screens great well it's a believe I was scheduled a couple of months ago but we had to delay and so it's december and it's really hard to believe that this has now become a dhess you're in review presentation but wanted to give you awesome highlights will try not to take too much time but obviously we'll take questions at any point if you have questions but it I will save some time at the end for questions as well and I apologize as senator rice introduced me but I am christie putting him a secretary of department of human services there are many members from dhs leadership and our divisions it seeded in the early behind me and we are all here to serve an answer questions but we have an amazing team and that's the first thing that I would like to say. The. So I want to talk give you an idea of what we've been working on and what our priorities are at dhs are intention and what we very quickly identified was the need to focus on prevention first and foremost and that's prevention in all things prevention in not just poor health outcomes but poor family outcomes prevention of of poverty prevention of unnecessary state government regulation and so we're taking a look at all things across the house including contracts rules are policies to make sure that we are preventing things from taking too long we also are going through a medicaid sustainability review process that has been going on since about january february one week convenient in session and we are grateful for the partnership of many of you here who have allowed us to take some time to look at what the current state of medicaid is and i'll say a little bit more about that and behavioral health later in the presentation we have health continue of care as many of you also are aware we have some significant gaps in our behavioral whole services across the state of arkansas um until we're looking at how do we have we resolve some of those gaps and really work across divisions and across the agencies. And then lastly were also very focused on improving the employee experience we have a lot of employees we have a lot of employees out in the field officers in many of our employees deal with very very difficult circumstances every day. I wanted to share with all of you and I apologize that a print is probably a little bit small to read but hopefully you have a printed car be this is one of the very first things that I shared with our team and when I say our team I mean on sixty five hundred employees this is what I told them they could expect of me and it's also something that I asked them to aspire to as well but just very briefly radical honesty and transparency it's my expectation you can expect me that we will operate in ratified transparency and honesty with all of you if every experience something to the contrary please let me know but our team is has been really working hard to make sure that we communicate well we won't get everything perfect we won't do everything right you all know that but we welcome you at any time and i'm grateful to many of you who reach out to us regularly to help constituents who reach out to you with issues collaboration encouragement in respect it's kit critical that we clarity and work together and it's also critical that we respect each other especially when we disagree on something and that is at something that I hold very near dear. Trust and grit this is key for me the team has heard me say it probably one hundred times already assume the best intent assume positive intent assume that people are operating with good intentions. They will prove us wrong sometimes but if we operate that way and we approach things with assuming that positive intent it gets us a long way in conversation passion in dedication a proactive can do attitude meaning how do we get to yes and finally humility and service we work for the people we work for all of you and not the other way around. Yeah. Wanted to give you a snapshot of dhs by the numbers total budget of ten point nine billion dollars the federal portion of that is just over eight billion we have currently in this is a snapshot as of yesterday six thousand five hundred forty six employees twenty five hundred of those are at the facilities and the other areas are thirty nine almost four thousand and the other areas we have eighty county officers plus one processing center i've made it my goal to get out to all of our county officers as of today i've been to fifty county officers of i've also been to ten of our facilities so i'm working my way down the list. Youth place and do is custody three hundred seventy five that is a a pressure point that will talk about a little bit later we have increased our youth and custody youth and foster care three thousand eight hundred three that has been trending down steadily over the past few months. And then facilities we have eight hundred forty eight residents in our human development centers we have turner for patience currently in our psychetric hospital or psychiatric nursing home has a hundred seventy two residents and we have four general treatment centers that serve currently three hundred one youth that is different from the three seventy five because we also have youth who are in assessment and intake and some add our juvenile detention centers in the counties. So medicaid obviously it's our biggest budget item and currently are kensington receive medicaid benefits total eight hundred eighty four thousand nine hundred fifty one and that breakdown is between our home other adult which is traditional medicaid and our children of those are kansas who are served by our waiver programs community and employment support seven thousand three hundred ninety seven our choices ten thousand thirty seven and living choices one thousand five. And then just a quick run down of our key initiatives and updates that I wanted all of you to have this is by no means a complete list and I know that all of your are familiar with the extensive work that DHS does we have quite a bit going on all the time but the medicaid online do the public health emergency on winding reviewing our medicated sustainability working through the officer substantivity mental health which is the new focus area that i'll talk about at the moment every child arkansas the faster car recommendations combating him in trafficking we responded to the march thirty first tornadoes and continue to provide support to adam along those lines the medicaid waver called opportunities for success temporary assistance for needy families transition to us in july august july I believe we have participate in the work force cabinet we have also transitioned our early childhood programs to the urgence apartment of education we have instituted some adaptive work programs for employees. We've done some leadership restructuring that we communicated to all of you last month and we also have been very very active in partnering across other agencies and cabinets and I would be rumours if I didn't think the other cabinet secretary so are here today when I tell you that it is truly an environment like non other that i've ever experienced it really truly is we are not only colleagues and codashconspirators for good trying to figure out solutions but we're also friends and we enjoy finding solutions with each other. Mm. Yeah. So this is just a picture of some of the outand about getting to the front line meeting the team the one picture is a picture of us broken down on the side of the road so we've had some of it adventures along the way we can talk about state cars later on II apologize I do want to point out in the bottom right mary has been with dhs county operations for forty six years and in that office and I believe it was sheika account it was your sheika or ashley there was a total combined experience. Add the agency of two hundred ninety years yes that's. So I am happy to report that we do retain a lot of stuff and we do have a lot of really wonderful valuable people on our front lines and throughout the agency. Medically sustainability review process we are conducting a comprehensive review you all are aware of that we've presented to a number of different committees. It includes expenditures review of expenditures house house services are delivered rates etc and we do expect the current the current state of the system analysts is to be done in the early part of january. We are identifying efficiencies gaps and potential reforms to serve both beneficiaries and taxpayers. I. I will probably run through this fairly quickly because we've presented this a couple of times but just to give you a snapshot unwinding the public healthy emergency was the biggest challenge that we faced walking in the door in january. We did a have to continue eligibility for medicaid from march of twenty twenty in december twenty twenty two when president but I didn't sign the consolidated appropriations act. It triggered the six month statute that you are passed in twenty twenty one that gave dh six months to do all of the redeterminations that had been continued under the public healthy emergency. So this process was completed september thirtieth of twenty twenty three. Just a visual of the impact on enrollment you can see at the high point. In march twenty twenty three we had more than four hundred twenty thousand in rollies who remained covered who had their continue eligibility continued and the growth in the program was approximately twenty five percent so we had significant growth during the public health emergency. I apologize the did not start on getting checked up speaking to all of you. There is a great deal of thank you chain it man always therefore as are the others great deal preparation for unwinding there were providers beneficiaries and agency folks who participate in that we addressed updated addresses we sent renewal notices we did a great deal about reach through providers we advertised on provider screens in offices and so there was a great deal of effort and this started about a year before we begin unwinding so in april of twenty twenty two is when month many of these activities began. Some of the factors that impacted eligibility outcomes we were not surprised by the number of people who did not respond these recalled procedural terminations and I know that you all have seen a great deal of information published about that what that meant is if someone knew that they were no longer eligible and they received a renewal notice they chose not to send it back in cases where we found where they they maybe didn't receive a notice or didn't receive it timely we've been able to work through cases where there were issues and reinstate people who were still eligible. We do we are experiencing record look unemployment this is a factor that we believe has impacted our medicaid eligibility because people's incomes have gone up we also had two minimum wage increases during the time of the public health emergency which resulted in many beneficiaries being over income for medicaid. Cms did require some states to pars enrollments pause disenrollments or reinstate some beneficiaries because there were system issues arkansas was not one of those states we were not requested deposit is enrollment. Glad to enter any questions about demographics but in your packet and on the screen and i'll make sure that you all receive this electronically as well we have closures by age closures by gender and closures by race we had the majority of closures were in between the ages of of zero eighteen and nineteen to twenty nine and thirty to thirty nine. And then most our closures between mail a few million females. I do want to talk for just a moment about we have have pulled out some functions around substance abuse and mental health there's been a great deal of interest in discussion by this body around mental health issues and services we have chosen to place a special emphasis on this within the division of aging adult behavioral health services and we are focusing on provision of substance used to sort of treatment services we have some gaps mental health treatment services for rented evaluation services we have the state drug director within this office prevention and early intervention is one of the most important things that we can focus on and then strategic grant planning and implementation so that we are looking at across the board all of the substance abuse and mental health grants that we have access to through federal and state up projects. The opportunities for success waiver that was submitted for our home is a new approach to a work component it is not a work requirement it is an optional work component that people can choose to participate in people who choose not to participate in this and this is been submitted to sims we are awaiting approval we have been notified that the application is complete but we have not received any additional information on that at this time but beneficiaries if this is moved forward they they could choose to participate in work a work component if they did not they would not be disenrolled or lose any benefit any coverage they would move from qualified health plan to traditional fee for service medicaid. Every child arkansas is the initiative are established by governor standards executive order twenty three team and this was a working group comprised of every child arkansas which is a partnership between nearly thirty organizations who bring together a focused approach to recruiting and supporting foster parents as well as adoption and support for our staff in the field. Weak put forth recommendations we released these back over the summer to develop new community resource model and a number of other recommendations that include strengthening crisis responses and services also strengthening in the dcfs work force looking at trauma informed care and establishing a team to implement high quality there training for that redesigning training requirements for foster parents and dcfs staff and continuing our partnership with every child are considered to recruit open support and retain faster homes. We also had an executive order around combating human trafficking dhs with was the lead agency to convene several other agencies including representation from the attorney general's office state police and others to implement an evidence based screening tool update we recommended implementing an evidence be screening tool to identify the terms updating training educational manual materials and revising data and information sharing protocols to better serve victims of human trafficking. We also transferred tannef to dhs we worked with department of commerce and division of work for services and what we are working on now is to align tanner with existing programs and resources within dhs so that we're able to take a holistic approach to families and children who are in need of services to better streamline these operations and and provide rap round services to families. We also we brought tanner in we transferred early education out the net impact of that ten is a fifty six point seven million dollars in your grant the early childhood program is a total of about a hundred twenty five million we have prioritised efforts on literacy apartment accountability readiness networking in school safety the learns act by shifting those early childhood programs within dhs over to ade and were better aligning quality early education and childcare support for families by doing this. Yeah. We have participated in the workforce cabinet also established by an executive order governor sander's executive order twenty three sixteen and what this is as a cross agency focus on maximizing the effectiveness of inefficiency of work first development and correctiness programs these are programs that are in disperate parts of state agencies and I know that you all are aware of that if I if I showed you the federal slide that and I will send you the federal site i'm happy to share that talks about all the work force programs in funding that exist across the federal government it is frightening because it's the things are all over the place in in those systems and so what we're trying do at the state level is pulled altogether so that we have a coordinated approach to work force development and supports. Again we provided cancelling services and programs that provide food and shelter assistance in response to the march thirty first tornadoes. Yeah. We have implemented several adaptive work programs this is to meet our priority to improve employee experience we've implemented families at work and infants at work and this is a pallet that allows flexibilities to bring children to work sites as is appropriate in some cases we cannot do that like at our human development centers but we we have allowed staff to start bringing their children to work on we have policy around it i'm happy to enter questions around that but we have had about ninety seven people take us up on that and that includes being able to bring a new born to work with you for the first six months of the new born's life. We also have implemented a work remote policy and the ability to shift to an alternate four day ten hour per day work schedule and that has has helped some with retention and with some of the the culture at dhs. The. I want to talk about just briefly the leadership restructuring that we announced last month we we had some amazing work done by deputy secretary mission martin and she chose to resign and go work with her family and and surfer family and volunteer in october and with that we were faced with a question of you know how do we how do we fill that how do we structure now and so what we have done one of the challenges that we faced perennially is we had our youth and children on one side of the equation and we had all of our medicate services and behavioral health supports on the other and we have consolidated children and youth under a deputy secretary janet man and she is now not just she's not debit secretary for health at this point she's deputy secretary for programs and also the state medicaid director. We also use the other deputy position that was already existing and that was mission martin's former position to put a new new spin on that role and create a w secretary for operations and budget again this was an existing role that we repurposed so that we can have the support to develop the budget the policy in the implementation of operations strategy for any of the changes that we come to you for support on and then we also have a specialty medicaid services and populations director and that is melissa weatherton and she is helping us work across specialty programs and populations to assist with medicaid as our priority. The. So we have retailed DHS t we do hard stuff it's a it's catching on and at that point I just wanted to thank all of you for the opportunity to percent and I would be glad to take some questions thank you and we do have some questions I will say i'm impressed with the. Pitcher only room journey early childhood. A transport page where you're down in the floor of your legs crossed and from the on their level at trust you got it fairly easy someone was going to grateful to report I still can i'll let you know next year how that goes from their own on what you're saying that sector have a europe for. Thank you for sure in thank you for the right report I want go back to page four you'd mention you come back in hit on it and that was the use place to deway as custody and the juvenile treatment centers they have the three hundred one years the three seventy five and dhs custody could you just expand on that please that number higher than normal and could you just come up share your budget round that number it it is higher than it has been in the past three years the we have we suspect and we hope are the size week we don't have proof of this but we suspect it is some of the after effects of covered and children coming back into school and that being a primary referal to disciplinary action is and we're working with department of education on finding ways. To have alternatives to referring to disreferring to the judicial system but we we are experiencing a higher level of judicial commitments at this time then what we've seen we have several initiatives under way with dy as the that we believe will both work to bring that number down some some additional release programs were working more closely with the juvenile justice system to identify earlier to make sure that we have a hearing date set for us so that we aren't waiting on a hearing date we also are working on an internal program and do I ask that will allow us to for first time offenders to have perhaps a shortened time of commitment and then we are working as well with rate of passage who is our contracted provider to expand to at another facility to lose the add no additional costs within our current contract that will allow us to spread the population out a bit more but that is a higher number of commitments and we have we are in conversation with an aoc and the courts the judges to figure out ways that we can work with them for alternatives to commitment to do us one quick fellow mass sharing on quick one they. As far as the budget we've talked about does but as far as the budget being up to absorb because our higher number commitments the right of passage contract in any other contract touched by this is your are you prepared to absorb that within your current budget or you interest pay coming back to us and have nash for an increase our first priority is working to absorb that okay thank you thing this year. Thank you sent yourself and you read that thank mr chair so you quite an aggressive agenda and I know it's like herding care not all people can hurt cat. And I think when I saw in your presentation that some changes in leadership I think we've as was demonstrated yesterday we had quite a discussion and that comes up every couple of years that were you changed the program almost completely and the people who suffer from that that process ongoing process are the recipients of care. So I hope we can make those changes that we can resolve the issues we discussed yesterday and have a decade where we focus on the care and without changing all the programs would you come in on there so I agree with you there's a constant change in human services that is a detriment to the people we serve and it's not just in human services but in human services it has a it it has a derogatory fact on our clients and so what we are aiming to do is really stabilize our leadership stabilize our work force work with the governor's office and all of you to implement other things that we can can use to help stabilise both and we we aimed to be in place and and just running there I know you mention you look up there on one of the sides that talk about review process and I don't expect you to be able to answer the day but i'd like to know when we will review the pass process and we put that in with good intentions and I supported it but every few years we need to examine what they're successes and I don't know that because we have it really surveyed providers and patients to know what they're satisfaction is so new when that's on the agenda I would ask you to please report to miss share maybe they could let you know when they're going to start that review. Thank you yes sir thank you centre just feel thank you thank you mister chair and thank you secretary put them I just want to say thank you. Because you have always responded properly to phone calls you have always demonstrated a desire to be of service to those of us and the legislature but even more importantly to our constituency base and we ever had that always down here and thought that I just want to say merry christmas to you and thank you so very much for always taking my car. Is so appreciated that's very difficult to put into word because the people who you serve. Need yourself every much and so many people are just too busy just too lazy to care and so I want to say thank you first of all i'm concerned too about juvenile assessment treatment center because i'm understanding that there are some two hundred children there are those who numbers correct and if they are. You started talking about some things we can do to mitigate which you elaborate on that yes and I don't want to misquote you the exact number of allen sander today but I will text it to you later today and i'll get it to this body we were at two hundred when we may have decreased but I will check the. Initiatives that we have underwear or what I described a little bit to send her hammer but we do have work ongoing with the judges the chip on judges to work on release states and we've also done some analysis to identify youth who may be are beyond the release states for for various reasons and they can be kept beyond the release states for disciplinary reasons and other reasons academic reasons some of them need to finish and other academic credentials but we are working to identify and be proactive on that analysis to make sure that we're quickly identifying those who are coming up on their release date and working with the courts to make sure that we have a hearing date so that we're not waiting on that hearing date that's one thing well the other piece is we won't review I work very hard some time ago to get certified teachers into the assessment treatment center and the other status as well how are we doing with the and how is. How is right of passage delivering the education to those students. So it is a combination of a in person instruction and virtual virtual arkansas education we do have certified teachers i'm pleased to report that our certified teachers were included in the increased rates and under the learns act. Which is helped significantly but we do have that combination of hybrid model of education of part of in person with virtual learning depending on the students needs in the last thing is that I tried some time ago to make those individuals a part of the retarded system. Have we succeeded in doing that year. I do not know the enter to that but I will find out for you thank you so much thank you yes ma'am thank you santra chest feel for warning out the accessibility to secretary is greatly appreciated a representative barely you're recognized. Thank you chairman thank you secretary putting over being here today and as I look at your key initiatives today I just a decision that's lacking and I was want hopefully we can talk about briefly today is that are conservative with you in a row has been had the highest road much on more in the nation and infra more to hear that I know that we're working on things but I think it needs to be we don't recognize that it really work on it together we're not going to fix it and that has to be the safest place in the nation to have a baby you know script above mississippi and wants to be the best of the national look at that what can we do to make that happen so as I bring that forward and thank you for your vibration on that making that happen in our state cause we deliver it we pay for the deliveries of sixty eight to seventy three percent of the developers on our state depending on the accounting that's right we pay for a high number though so you are key component of that so I think we can work together my things better in our state and thank you for your collaboration with it thank you yes ma'am and when you make a list like this there's always a risk of leaving something off we are working on a maternal health strategic plan for statewide. Thank you. Represent it to new recognition. Thank you going off of representative on this question you said there is a state wide and terrible health plank he gives some highlights of what that plan might look like. It's some. It's in development and discussion really I shouldn't say we have anything that's been finalized at this point but we obviously want to work on prevention we want to work on accessibility in rural areas and so you know I would respectfully like to come back with some additional information on that representative poking to a certainly would like someone smarter than me on that topic to speak to that and that would be a deputy secretary janet man. Okay we're gonna have a follow up as well thank you switching gears on continues because monetary that was supposed to save us around four million dollars has been delayed can you give us an update on when we can expect the implementation of the cgm program. I'm gonna ask if we can have checked secretary me and come to the table for that. The. I knew it was only a matter of time. Good morning jane at me and deputy secretary of programs and medicaid director on the cgm we and we did experience a delay due to some questions and issues with the cmastic plan the goal is to go laugh on four one as opposed to one one of this year and it's we are still exploring the options of having a pharmacy be able to deliver that several other states are doing it and cross the country and so the way we propose it cms originally seem as demand why get so we've gone to some of those other states to see how they are doing it judges cms allows another states but for some reason our application was denied by cms is that but it was the way we wrote the stay playing a moment to be transparent we so dme is considered a required option under title nineteen of the medicaid act in pharmacy is not I know that shocking to most people but it's not considered a required benefits considered optional cms would not allow us to move it from a required to an optional benefit package so we have to find a hybrid method to be able to maintain it at the federal level but then still be able to offer it under a pharmacy thank you thank you. Represent cabinet you recognize thank you mr chair my question is going to be on number four two I mean it's really talking about the sake after hospitals and treatment field of these we have we have the numbers of the bears that we currently have available do we have an indication of how many beds we really need. We do not but I will return with that information as well if you just give it to staff cause as we're moving forward in the work group as you know that's one thing that we're always going to be talking about is how we know we don't have enough beds how many beds do we really need so yes we will get that for you thank you thank you central and your recognition thank you just honest I thank you for following up on where it's senator chesterfield said thank you for all that you're doing a really appreciate the collaboration to you between the department of education and a dhs you know there's been so many times where one agencies doing something another agencies doing something and affecting the same population or not collaborating working together so I think people just take note about what's happening there there's a great deal of collaboration that's a korean with dhs and the department of ad particularly in prescore making sure that our preschools are aligned with our curriculum and making sure that they're fully I guess start with curriculum and books and and high quality deliveries so that that is incredibly he I think to the success of our kids and education that's the first thing I just want to say thank you to but also i'm on the dis issue and they were working on that with the juvenile judges but I wanted to have an opportunity mr chair christmas and the capital thank you for those legislators that came and supported sharling fight and I at christmas and the capital decision everybody there was great one of the things that we would want to focus on is trying to build the libraries at our juvenile detention centers. And we have the opportunity to do that at dys gave me a list of approved authors and books and suggestions book series things like that I think if these candidates that are in our juvenile detention centers have access to great books that is going to be an outlook for them so I will send that out through the chairs that list so as your out shopping for christmas. If you're out of bookstore pick up one of those books and will collect those and will send that out and publicise it but I think it's a great thing for us as a legislature to try to build those libraries for them to have as the ability to kind of escape into a book because that for me in my kids that was really important so have anyway just appreciate your cooperation on that and then for all you legislators will send that list out so you can go shopping for books thanks thank you center thanksgiving to her representative now you the last one i'm going to screw thank you chair I just had a question on the look fact we had thirty seven hospitals that still deliver babies and one of those closed. And the other thirty one percent hospital. I haven't problem with their reimbursement on deliveries I mean i'll be looking at we don't want to do away with the delivering baby so what what how we're going to address that with all these it's not just a few hospitals merely all of them that deliver maybe yes are so reimbursement rates for all services including a obguen and services are under review as part of our overall medicaid sustainability review so we are looking at that. Okay thank you. Okay seeing no more question member sector we appreciate your report are you do you have your assisted living report ready would you like to go and give there if it's the wish of this committee that would be great thank you members without objection tomorrow move the h sector go and give us you have whatever you think you need to be here for subcommittee and after that you will have to wait around four h monthly report on the sisters living with. Thank you and mr chair if I may make one point a privilege of just wanted to reiterate to everybody in this room legislators and and partners alike that we have an incredible team there's very responsive we will make sure you all have our numbers if you do not but if you encounter an issue and don't escalate it to jennifer mister ubank's others myself we can't fix what we don't know about so I would just encourage you all to continue to raise issues to us and we appreciate the partnership working through things. This. Great. So moving on to the assisted living report. We did send her monthly required letter to chairs rice and work for on december first. Again as directed by section fifteen about two thirteen of twenty twenty two i'm reporting to alc the status of our efforts to increase reimbursement rates under the living choices assisted living waiver we're also continuing work to implement at one ninety eight of twenty twenty three which authorizes dhs to establish cost reporting for medicaid funded assisted living facilities to date all of the cost reports have been received the last one was received november tenth the information is under review currently by myers and stuff this is including identification of any outlawer item line items in the cost reports myers and stopper has been in communication with a number of the facilities with questions. We did provide myers list offers cost reporting methodology and their anticipated timeline for completion to all of the living choices providers prior to this meeting I believe it was last week or the week before that we provided the cost method out the methodology and timeline we also have requested myers and stuff for to provide a draft report for review by all stakeholders prior to the completion of the final version and the final timeline for completion has been updated since the date we issued this letter we said in the letter january thirty first the actual anticipated data's january fifteenth. We posted on october first of the public comment the intent to petition CMS for approval to implement the current appendix k rates to use an our facilities reimbursements as the permanent rates for the duration of the current living choices waiver we were required to do so a bicms because the the emergency rates expired the emergency rates that were in effect under the public health emergency of eighty one and eighty five dollars were going to expire november eleventh if we did not submit to keep them in place under the appendix k waiver just a side note that these rates we can request to make changes to those rates are but act ninety eight seventeen also required us to submit those as permanent rate under the appendix k waiver so we have submitted that amendment for the permanent rates to be eighty one fifty nine for urban facilities and eighty five sixty seven for rural facilities to cms october thirty first we are also continuing as I noted our broadbase to review of the entire medicare system to assess options for long term sustainability i'm that concludes the actual letter report I am happy to answer questions in we can also discuss any of the specific philip facility concerns that have been raised. The. Thank you center hammer you recognize. Thank you thank you and like for the report I just want to address one issue you do you said that it's going to be january fifteenth when it would be back if this goes through and this is approved today at what rate are we approving today then the ones that you mention the eighty one in the eighty five yes sir okay and if the report comes back and shows that increases or if it decreases then are we gonna have to go back to cmass and would that send a confusing message to CMS because here we are coming back such short time later. M good morning so actually we are required to put those rates into the base of the waiver along with the language for the ninety eight seventeen additional monies in the in the base waver so we would need that to go through if the draft report comes back on january fifteenth and it's given any costs the cost analysis it will have a thirty day public comment and then it will be actioned by the agency and then this body upon further review before we would submit anything else to cms we can submit waiver amendments in in increments of ninety days or a month to month depending on what is needed so I don't know that it would be confusing. But I would like to preserve the emergency rate into the base waiver so that we don't have multiple changes or more than two changes potentially in one year and last question be what would be the parm of holding the shover till january where you then so that we do at one time I mean what would be the adverse effect if we wanted to vote the whole dish till next month when they have reached in we can have that once in all discussion. Well we have already submitted this base amendment waver two CMS so we're asking for yalta review and it is pending approval i'm not aware that it's come through okay thank you but we have kept paying that rate also passed november eleventh in good faith so that could put processes and budgets and things in jeopardy depending how long we make a decision to make rate changes after after the report comes in it's just it's a lot of unknown territory that i'm nervous about said we have yours commitment to if it comes back and changes you i'll be back in front of us to adjust according to whatever that comes back that could be good north or south of the number you've given us just that comment would come back they could mister. If if you'd let him answer and that be it for me thanks. The the draft report will be public for public comment so I feel that we will be discussing it again but not knowing the outcome of the report I don't know that I will be back before you with a new report change without any number changes until I see it I haven't i'm an outlooked at the draft numbers myers are still working on outliers. Okay we thank you the one one question I have on the additional questions it. They are asking is there a. Required time or something with teeth that they require that they get answers. Are you referring to the questions we get back from cms on the on the way for the sector he said and requested additionally information we are talking with them every week specifically director hill is and we had confirmation last week that they had reached out to the facilities and were receiving the information we have not heard that they have not been cooperative that we have asked them to be expeditious because of the time on today thank you not seeing in more questions thank you for being here and appreciate your report. Just second central chest for you at that end thank you missed thank you secretary i'm looking at the zip codes of the folks that have last their medicaid coverage what is driving the ten thousand five hundred twenty eight in zip code seven two seven six four around fair building spring deal in that area you know was driving the I do not know after the top of my head but we can go back in and drill into the data and find out we produce that database it code for the entire state I have it's been a while since I looked at i'm just looking at the one that has ten thousand five twenty eight nobody else comes close to that high and number nor the zip code comes close to that number and it's in the spring day of fairview area. And so I was just wondering if there was a mitigating factors driving there and if so if you would be so careful to share it with me later yes mams use me we will thank you. Okay thank you excuse me. Okay members next step on report sector jim hudson the fine. We should you being here if you wheel. Started name for the record and your recognized if you report thank you mister chairman jim heads and secretary DFA good morning members I know that I understanding between you and the rest of your agenda and then christmas so I would just note there to act for thirteen report we submitted the in the summer that is in your packet so please feel free to look at that I would do want to be available in all you spend most my time answering your questions but before I do that. It's really amazing you know what sector putting them said about the collection of so- of our team as a category is absolutely true and she shared with you kind of the the cultural values that she's bringing to to DHS as well really for you very quickly you know four guarding principles that I sent to our team to all team members at the f a thing a couple weeks of of joining the face some principles i'm going to hold them accountable to and i've told them they can hold me account to an intern I expect you to hold me accountable to as well so just real quickly before we take questions. Just kind of read these things first while we're gonna be committed at dfa to continuous improvement every day let's look let's look for ways to get just a little bit better out or jobs does not be dramatic change a series of one percent improvements over time can result in a dramatically better agency so let's keep working with us improvement. We well fan ways to increase our efficiency in reduce our burden on taxpayers. Let's find new ways to achieve our objectives through simplified in reengineered business processes while reducing our calls and improving services these are not in compatible goals we're not going trade though affected as for efficiency in the end we exist to serve our customers. Was fine new ways to efficiently serve them but we will serve them well. And then finally we're never gonna compromise our integrity. That means honesty one hundred percent of the time. When we make mistakes and we will make mistakes we're gonna own them a hundred percent we're gonna learn from them and we're gonna move on. Calm at the df way the fayway that's how we're going to do business going forward so when I meet with my team i'm asking questions about that regularly how are we doing on these principles so you can expect that for me and with that mischairman i'm happy to take any questions about what's happening at the evening sector hurting term the first is center you recognize thank you mr chair and mr hudson thank you for being here certainly appreciate up to indeed ask questions and this may be out left field maybe you have an answer don't have any answers but of could get us a report it's come to my attention that. When definitely. Determines that a citizen was taxes more than what they paid or or outside of what they reported that citizen has an opportunity to challenge that. And that that goes before a commission or a panel. And that's so like in criminal all you know when a prosecution attorney burning charges again somebody they have changed to defend herself. The difference is if if you're found not guilty and criminal court we have a thing called double jeopardy where you can't be. Um prosecuted twice but from what's come to my attention if a taxpayer challenges your assessment and they they win their challenge. There are some cases where DF and a is appealing that the circuit court and even don't need to to appeal that to the supreme court any one case some familiar with it was fifteen hundred dollars and so this citizen is it happened to higher attorneys to try to. Fight a case that they've already won in circuit court and and own to the supreme court so i'd like a report how many cases are there where DF and a. Is is taking. Their loss and subjecting the citizen to what I see is double jeopardy and from what I understand you sound off on everyone that's appealed. I think I was told so I think you'll be familiar with. With the number of cases can you give us off top of your head and estimate how many cases we're talking about yes sir I mean since i've became secretary about four months ago. I believe i've authorized it's probably fear that half a dozen. Cases to be appealed from the tax appeals commission to the circuit court as the pathway for for appeal as per the statue they're about I think three thousand cases better document and have moving through the the tack process tax tax appeals commission process so it's it's it's a small minority I think the concerned it we would have that would would warrant going to circuit court is if we feel like the tax appeals commission made an error as a matter of law we're not going to appeal something just because we asked at the tax appeals commission it would be that we just disagree with what is an administrative determination that could have binding present in the future well and i'm pretty sure I disagreed with tho j simpson during but they weren't able to try him to and so i'm just having a hard time reconciling this with how criminal all works but if we could get a report on those handful of cases and what the dollar amounts are I mean I can see if if somebody else. A million dollars in taxes that maybe that would be something that would warrant going to the higher levels but I don't think the average arkansas citizen can afford to attorney in fight at three levels over fifteen hundred dollars dispute so if you could guess that report i'd appreciate it yesterday will certainly put something together for you will be limited what's in the public record is obviously we're talking about uh income tax information if that's an income tax case in sales text case which there would still be some you know privacy issues on it but it you know there's a law suit out there I was in circuit court that's a public record we can make that basic information available how many they are who the parties are and then what the amount controversy is yes thank you thanks for chair thank you center of a new recognition just minimum it wrong one. Sent your hammer if you put yourself or they both clicked out your major okay sent to everybody in the wheel okay thank you good morning just get more name quick question about the dfa your state infrastructure coordinator so and reading this it talks about the ability to try to so so miss kio is responsible for trying to find available federal infrastructure funding could you describe what that exactly that is is that all areas of all sectors of the economy or could you just give me a little more detail because this meant I mean I think this is a good idea I think we've needed somebody to do this for a very long time I just kinda want to know is this going to be focused in urban areas rural areas or in any kind of specifics sector yeah yes ma'am so because you know it's just doing a fantastic job out there hunting for opportunities for federal phones for projects primarily through the federal asia act and investment infrastructure jobs act that passed a couple years ago and just finding opportunities both giving work force it may be just different infrastructure huawei's railroads and that's an all corners of the state what she working alongside delaware and two should doing is consultant that we've engaged on this project is dentifying the opportunity and bringing it to the attention of the relevant agency that would have just restrictions for that and getting feedback from them as an available opportunity or the state's obligations in terms of matching phones it may be required and then assisting in the application process so how touch with australia and she's and also with local governments as well okay and that was my follow up question as local governments because there are so many counties and cities that are very rule that don't have the expertise and they miss out on any of those available. Am green opportunities are funding opportunities because they just don't have anybody helping them and so we've got to do a better job of bringing those opportunities particularly to this rule places in the state of arkansas so I hope she will focus on that but I want to say this out of the last usda funding. This. There are I think forty eight states that receive funding from usda. Arkansas was one of the two that did not. Arguments all receive zero dollars out of the billions of dollars sent through usda arkansas didn't get any of it and we are a rural state and that is ridiculous though we didn't get any funding from usda in the slash cycle now and we had director david brancom we got a lot of money because he worked very hard with rural areas to get that funding so I would just encourage you to utilize the position you know for a local governments but also with other federal agencies like usda to make sure we're getting those dollars back to our state which we need at particularly in rural areas that. Last one on screen center hammer you recognize that you've assured on the record you show that the number of permission for tobacco alcohol milk mirwana and when I flip over it shows that you did investigations of the tobacco and also of the alcohol and that you found violation reach those are there but I don't see where anything refers anything involving the marijuana so is that under your agent's wheel housers at under somebody else's were there any done and did they find any violations. Medical marijuana is a part of DF nights in our regulatory division any investigations are done by the road regulatory agents if there is a fraction that's identified it would ultimately go to the abc account beverage control for adjudication of that in a penalty imposed. I'm not sure I know there is one dispensery there currently is going through the infraction process down at hot springs i'm not aware of. Any others at this point not seen mister minner in the room we can find out and follow up with you create will get off line but but you the way this reads is your officers. Are responsible or have your stiction of the fifty three medical marijuana per mitch or oversight of them is that correct correct okay and you do the actual investigation then of going in to determine just like just like alcohol and tobacco same thing okay well offline thank you. Thank you sector husband for your court being here and with your merry christmas. Your excuse thank you servers were down to microsoft meaning agenda now we have. Presentation of the revenue report and doctor sailo. Thank you for your patience doctor saver please thank mr chairman carlos silver beer legislative research and we have november twenty twenty three report for this morning to be heavy three point three two four billion dollars that is a decline of three of one point four percent to a three point three seven two last year so that decline is similar to have seen to earn nearby states kind of riding the middle the average for this states that we have to have provided reports for this for this month is one point six percent arkansas one point four on their gross revenue it's it's near those states as we move forward to our net available for distribution wherever two point seven and sixty billion dollars it's a decline of five point six percent which we had last year at two point nine seven to a billion dollars as moved to beach to we're gonna have a hundred and forty four point one million dollars above the forecast that's a community value there so we have acceleration for less much of this month as we move from page should page three general revenues are going to present it there and then on page four pages seven is gonna be our special revenues are not no major changes we keep in an eye on on some of the commodities natural gas prices have going down a lawful last year did you see you gonna see a huge decline there or natural gas and some of the other committees have changed but no major changes for last month it is month and with they'll take any further questions. Thank you representative makes you recognize anymore far far right. You were talking about the one point four percent decline do we know it's driving that decline is that that expected or is this uh something with the economy going on or it's time a year. Yes also does there was something expected are we many looking show on nearby states to help provide information here we're gonna have some notes here missouri I believe I was one point two thousand lowest wireless with taxes close to two percent those on the highest month so any average house around one point six percent arkansas one point four to something similar to all we have seen a lot of this states have seen increasing sales that's revenues so we are following a similar tran the only difference is when you're looking to mendatory deductions every state's difference when you look at net available for distributions going to change for status state but as we look into gross general revenues it is pretty similar to tran they are concise following when you competitive by states so so that the client and sales tax sets of decline and consumer spending would that be correct analogy sorry I can you said there was a decline in sales taxes that decline in consumer spending this could driving no no no there's an increasing salestacks revenue to ask yet this increase to your stacks revenue there is interference have stated that there is zero intro span but that they're concerned about spending but in reality this a large spending going on if you're looking to some reports prior to thanksgiving there is a lot of discussion that we're not going to have a great thing sitting sales but that the sales have been a better than expected so then there's a difference between where people are reporting the surveys versus how they are acting and and we keep in a close looking should there we also take the looking short delegancy rates he has been increased slightly on the last month around one point eight eight percent it is still below what we have for twenty fifteen standing nineteen there are two point six percent but we can mcclose lurk to see what's going on on bank cards and odd alones is the one that's increasing a laugh from the ninety days and a hundred twenty days doing rates but we would keep in an eye on it we have to talk to you afterwards if you. Not that that's fine that's by appreciated thank you thank you. Seeing no more questions thank you for your board. Members next if we have the executive subcommittee vc culture wardle thank you mister the exact subcommittee met on thursday december fourteenth and heard from representatives of the interest department the args of school board association. Meadows adams and leave concern to study on education facility property insurance set of committee what meet again on january the eighteenth to continue it study of school property insurance and I encourage all alc members and alternates to a team in participating these meetings and addition to some committee voted to authorize bill are to begin the RFP process for updated audio and vision digital equipment and services for the committee rooms a and b I would add that it is the the new system will be very capable of integration between zoom so will have a lot better experience with members that have to. To zoom in so with that mischair i'll move for adoption port and be happy to answer any questions you have a motion to have second second saying no questions are in favor of report is adopted extent we have instrument rules represented brian evans if you hit your but you're recognized thank you mister chair administrative rules subcommittee met on thursday december fourteenth so committee found a report from the executive subcommittee concerning its review and approvable of emergency rules. Resume to act five ninety five a two thousand twenty one the subcommittee received agency updates on outstanding room making from the twenty one session filed monthly written updates related to the twenty three session and considered agency request for exclusion for mac five ninety five reporting requirements. So committee also consider the recommendation by group two agencies concerning the extension or repeal of rules pursuant to act seven eighty one two thousand seventeen and at sixty five of two thousand twenty one. All rules reviewed and approved as noted in a report and moved for the adoption of this report and most of her adoption have second sergeant at the new questions are in favor I posed. Report is adopted. The. The. Next app but you have claimed view litigation report representative the end vote you recognized thank you mister retired the claims review litigation report oversight committee met on wednesday december thirteenth twenty twenty three concerning litigation reports oversight the subcommittee reviewed for litigation cases and two proposed settlements concerning claims reviews the subcommittee affirmed the ruling of the claims. Commission as to seven reassurances of warrants and paid bills and sally correct salary corrections one negotiated settlement in eight denodd and dismissed claims finally the subcommittee declined to consider three claims which were filed outside the statutory tampering for appeal of the claims commission and decide decision under arkansas code annotated section nineteen dash ten dash two eleven a I moved for adoption of report. The grips involved motion have second circuit down for reports they are post report is adopted. Next time parliament benefits division center heaker recognized. Yes sir thank you the employee benefits division oversight committee met on december thirteenth twenty twenty three which was wednesday and reviewed and approved the actions of the state board of finance including the concept for an r p for consultants as secure a third party administrator concept for rfe for higher claims review audit service and an ebd drug formula reports for november december in the navigate david signature select the director of the ebd provided and update on the united health care network I moved for adoption of the report. I moved for adoption to here again it was is there anybody feel like they need anything repeated. Now they have a motion and second second one favor I posed report is adopted thank you next game in face representative miller you are recognized give the game in page state police report. Now got your own reps. Game and game in fair state lease up mary met monday to hear testimony regarding hunting laws concerning firearms the sub committee made a motion to repail a ca fifteen dash forty three dash one o five in the motion passed by a voice vote sender hale made the following comments regarding the upcoming meetings there will be an opportunity for the public to provide comments to the subcommittee on each of the topics we take up in this study there'll be a lank on the general assembly website for public comment to sign up and there will be a sign up sheet at the committee meeting only those members of the public who have signed up in one of those two ways will be allowed to come forward and present their comments to the subcommittee I want to invite and encourage all members of the general assembly to attend these meetings in participate as we work towards recommendations to present to life like council next year although only members of the subcommittee will be permitted to make motions and vote on the recommendations during this phase we do welcome input from all members of the general assembly our next meeting will be january tenth at one PM in this room and we will begin hearing information all presentations regarding concealed carry laws and regulations related firearms I move adoption of this report they grab the miller that is motion and second. Check it on there seeing no questions are in favor of adoption say I was forward as adopted thank you were down to number nine larry overseas right more claimed. Thank you chairman the lattery oversight committee met monday december eleventh and her testimony regarding the office of utterly arkansas lottery activities and operations report and received recommendations from the arkansas academic challenge pro scholarship program from the division of higher education. Emotion was adopted to remove camelod global services as a term contract from the subcommittees annual report the subcommittee adopted the report as amended in the report is attached I move adoption of the report. Motion and circuit take it now in favor just a minute I may change your gesture gape sir chase for you recognize before we take a vote thank you so much could you explain to me where came a lot was dismissed from whatever you said. That they were removed because their contract was not renewed as I understood occur and was there reason because it had been around a long time if they explain why it was not renewed okay thank you. The. They get a motion second on favoured up the report to act both reporters adopted thank you. Uh we have next up architecture of occupation on licensing reviews center english you are recognized. Yes thank you the accational licensing review subcommittee met on november thirtieth and approved a motion to include the draft legislation repealing the private employment agency licensure in the group three final report the subcommittee met on december eleventh and recommended that the issue of greyhound racing be referred to the appropriate subcommittee as. Subject matter committees by alc exponent the vote to include the private employment agency license your draft legislation in the final report approved emotion to accept the revised draft legislation and approved emotion to give the co chairs final approval of the subcommittee's group three final report the final report is attached I move the option of the report. Thanks since english you have emotioned and second. On favorite option say I losed report is adopted. Peer committee report centre dismaying you are recognized I think mischairman the peer subcommittee met on two said december twelfth committee reviewed reports reviewed request and approved the following various temporary appropriation american rescue plan act appropriation infrastructure investment jobs act appropriation and restricted reserve transfer funds one item of the report and from the department education PBS is held in the committee and move for adoption of the report. Yeah. Any questions about have a motion to have second. Say I posed. He report is adopted a review number fourteen representative easier recognized. Thank mischairman there are you sub committee met on tuesday and reviewed again the items including mofts construction projects grants and contracts they also approved a disclosure of a loan agreement no items were held and I move adoption of the report second they have most second going center petty. You're recognized thank you mr chair as I did in our review committee i'm going to receive myself due to disclosure of personal connection with my business in one of the items and so I want to go on record that i'm accusing myself from this vote as well thank you soon prepared anything no other questions motion second hour in favor I posed report is adopted. Report on personnel is centre davis you're recognized thank you mister chair the personal sub committee you met on december thirteenth the committee reviewed the listed items and approved one request to pay an employee over the maximum of the grade based on a recent promotion and they for adoption of the report. Yeah. Any questions seeing earlier motion is second on favor I closed report as adopted centre chesterfield thank you mister chair. In reading the paper I found that there were some concerns about the employee benefits as they relate to aritaries and the there is courtner relationship i'll put it that way between the baptist health system and the carrier that we have for a employee state employees and public school employees could you expect you as somewhere to tell me more about their and how they really use impacting or would it impact our employees as we have provided them with what we hope is a good plan going forward. I don't know whether I can move on I read in a favor but it would it will be nice to hear them in person. Is that possible to know if we've got the person in the room for that center still here. September hake would you be able to discussing committee and. You recognize on which one was it sir. My concern about. They help provider that we have for the retardees. In both public school and public employees. This discount this disconnect between the baptist system and the provider due tell me about that as well yes mister grant wallace he reported on that. And what he has said and this was included within a within the rfp the provider of those of those services those retirees although that they're going to continue whether it's in worker in network or out of network they will get the same reimbursement so there's not going to be any calls to our membership or to the state now there was some discussion within that committee that you know that the doctors the providers are whatever that you know their reimbursement you know could or could not you know be where they needed to be but that'll be at their option whether or not they want to still see those patience so as long as they see those patients it'll still be treated the same and there will not be any additional cost well do the cheerful um. What is of concern to meet years is it going to make those individuals who are on the plan have to choose other plans in case they don't accept whatever no man that may know I mean of course if they're I guess the in the worst case scenario if they're and I will use doctor if their doctor said no i'm not going to see you they would have to they would have to swap over to another doctor in this case you know a different facility but again those the way that everything is written there will not be any cost to them but they their areas that possibility that that could could transpare because that even though it's not a fiscal cost it could be a physical class because you've got a custom to a particular position for me with your case they're in the self system and because of what is going on they would be required to try to find another position you know especially a season is really like the state when we are because we know that their doctor knows right health conditions and center rights for cable and will make one more comment and again whenever whenever we had reworked all this is everyone knows the state was literally putting hundreds of millions of dollars additionally into this and whenever we were whenever we were reworked all of this we tried to structure it so that the members would could be in the best position and then through ebay and they did a good job on this you know they they even had the force at to say well for our retirees and things like that if somebody cannot negotiate through them. They will still only be charged the same amount the thing is it's hard to guard against everything although we tried and still and still maintain that physical responsibility for the state so that that we're not what I have to do it because if we start getting in the middle of those contract negotiations then it would be a cost to the state though again there their rate is a point of care of a diminishing returns on there but you can relatively assure our members that they are going to hail the opportunity. To have the health care services that they need regardless of the fact that the contract between those oh yes ma'am yeah it is structure that way even even if they're out of network even if they're that's correct I think that's very very important thank you thank you mister cheerful even though it was interesting. Members next week and review of communications we have some that do require motions there not all do but if there's anything in there that you want I squation john you can do that our first one that will require motion is a two which is the public employee's retirement system the investigative question of the got a motion that I have second on favor for be reviewed say I post that is reviewed next up we have on the number three at three teacher retirement system same thing in a question not seeing any own favorite eye posed that his reviewed number I have forward his department of agriculture that there's not equation this one that I think due to statue it is motion for favorable advice that I think it's a first time I saying that so they have a motion for favorable advice. I have a motion to have second on favor I thought that is past. Uh or next one is five c development finance authority the questions not seeing any own favorite I posed that is past we have already covered our other required one which was the dhs assisted living. Not seeing. Okay I don't see my co chair. In here own number ten b we've had a request to whole till later so without objection we were hold there. And members we have interested in our do not see. Senator king I have not had a request on their without objection we will hold that until that he can be here any other things go before legislative council in december nothing from director guarantee members of wish you may christmas please keep in man reason for the season thank you and we are german. Excuse me. Account is back in session scheme. As i'm sorry makes you given your time you did not remand me and i'm sorry I did not have that in rate so. Members of you bare what a little bit represent makes has a report. Please. Regrets yourself. Thank you mister chairman and colleagues I know on the last item on the agenda but I appreciate the chairman giving me this opportunity so want to visit with you this morning about one of the greatest natural phenomenons it's going to come to our state this april it is course that they total solar eclipse of the sign and I want to talk to you briefly about the opportunity this presents to our state and. If we do it right the benefits that will come to our citizens so as many of you know may get the slide show going here. So as many of you know for most my don't like I have been involved in astronomy education and thanks to the support of many of you in this assembly I operate this portable planet term that I take the schools across arkansas trying to get kids excited about math and science and obviously the eclipse has been one of the main topics that we've been looking at and the reason why I wanted to do this this morning is to make sure everybody in this room understands the potential impact that this is going to have to our state when this event occurs there will be more people in the state of arkansas then there has ever been in the history of our state projections are upwards of almost a doubling of our population to three million people additional in our state on that day there will be people who come to arkansas literally from all over the world and there will be people who come to our state that would ordinarily would never come to arkansas so this is going to be a rare opportunity for us to show case the people culture natural beauty of our state and way that we would otherwise never have the opportunity to do so and if we plan accordingly and handle it right it will show case our state and good life but if we take it lacks a day is don't understand the scope of what's going on then unfortunately we could only potentially perpetuate some of the negative stereo types of of our state that we've been trying to get rid of. So the path of the eclipse on the screen here as you can see it'll basically start in southwest arkansas it'll center line will cross into our state around the queen be about four minutes twenty seconds of totality down there as it passes across our state the length of totality will decline to about four minutes and twelve seconds but while the main focus is good on that center line if you're within thirty miles either side of that line you will still be getting up to four minutes worth of totality and that's going to be important as we talk about planning for how we're going to handle this the eclipse. Now I have asked but encourage the department of transportation to put signs on the interstate this is a cheap way to advertise as put signs on the interstate so there's people are driving back and forth across our state the next couple of months that this is where the path of totality start so does two things are less people know that arkansas are destination and then as people are coming into our state prior to the eclipse once they pass those signs they will know they've come far enough to actually see the the collapse i've also encouraged the department of transportation tours and worked together but information at all the welcome centers because one of those things i'm gonna talk about is the traffic and by putting information there there's a couple things that we want to do is. A lot of focuses on that center line but there are a lot of small towns and cities across our state that are planning for an influx of people but if tourists don't know about those small towns that are small towns were going to be missing out on a wonderful opportunity so i'm hoping that particular reason why I wanted to do this as I want to make sure all the our state agencies department of terrorism the highway department are thinking through these things. One of the very most important things that the department of transportation can do and hopefully there are already planning on this is i'm encouraged them to make sure there is no road construction or interstate laying closures if I had all possible on that day. Because what's going to happen pretty much all the hotels have already been sold out across the state for that day so what's going to happen is on the morning of that equipment there's going to be a lot of people from memphis eastern tennessee that are you gonna be driving to jones berle driving to little rock on the other side people from northwest arkansas toll set those are folks were all going to be driving in and if the texas is actually that the the primary viewing site but if it turns about to be cloudy in texas that day. Think about the population centers dollars for worth all those people are all going to be trying to come into arkansas on that date of view this event so again potentially millions of people coming in arkansas that day and when the eclipse sends at three thirty guess with are going to try to do it at the same time they're all going to try to leave and go home at the same time and so imagine the worst traffic jam you've ever been that out a couple ten twenty thirty forty hundred thousand extra vehicles and you can see why it is imperative that our interstate stay as clear as possible just give an idea in the twenty seventeen total so are eclipse I was over and can talk a and what was normally a seven hour car right home turned out to be an eleven hour and no reason why I made it eleven hours is once I got down to interstate forty traffic was moving at twenty miles an hour on the interstate and it was cars as far as you could see next exit I got off and took back roads and the backgrounds were going to reason why made in eleven hours and not fourteen or fifteen hours. So for the department of commerce. I want to encourage them to make sure they are helping prepare our businesses to handle the additional influence of people restaurants primarily drive the restaurants are going to be. But places that are going to see a huge influx of business a lot of people are going to be camping so as i've been doing these public presentations i've encouraging members of the public on the days leading up to the eclipse make sure you're buying things that generally people would buy when they're camping because all the people who are camping they're going to want hot dogs hamburgers you know dry goods can serial stuff like that stock up on that stuff early so that way our visitors will have access to it on the on the days of the collapse so again one of the opportunity for our businesses the department of terrorism I think they're here they may give you some numbers but the economic impact of this to the state could be hundred million plus so provider were appropriately prepared obviously one of the big concerns about in a solar eclipse is I safety every time there is an eclipse of there is unfortunately people who have their eyesight damaged. It is obviously never safe to look at the sign up one of the miss it is no more dangerous to look at the song on a clips day than a day like today but no one's going to go outside and stare at the sign nothing's going on but obviously on a clips day something's happening everybody wants to look at the sign and that's where the danger comes out the only way to safely view the eclipses you have to have these proper solar viewers or number fourteen walter's glass unfortunately there's going to be shady dealers out there that try to take advantage of this and so i'm encouraging the department of health or department of education to try to put together programs to encourage solar safety for proper viewing of this eclipse cell what should be a wonderful event to view doesn't turn into something that damage is somebody's eyesight for the remainder of their of their lifetime for the state agencies. I talked to oem earlier this week and I want to make sure our state agencies are looking at this because a lot of state employees are going to want that day off and someone encourage state agencies to treat it like a snow day for a couple of reasons. First off a your employee's gonna want it that day off and secondly a normal business day state employees would be getting off at the same time as all that traffic is trying to leave the state. And by allowing the state employees to have that day off it'll help reduce the traffic flow a lot of schools already across the state in the eclipse owner of already cancel school for that day because of the the traffic reason. A another I think that I would like the state agencies to consider is how they might work together because there's gonna be certain of our state agencies like state parks first for standards state police that are going to be overwhelmed and potentially beyond their capacity because of the great influx of people that were going to have and wouldn't be wonderful if we had state employees maybe from the department of health who might have volunteer in our local communities to help with like first aid stations or might volunteer to help in the state parks to direct you know and and help provide information to our visitors so just some suggestions for our our state agencies and course after this equipment we won't get another one for like twenty some odd years so we definitely want to take advantage of that I know there are some state agencies that are supposed to be here today to share what they're doing and I don't know if those agencies are here if they want to come up and join me at the table you kind of share about some of the plans that they are making and then following that then I will be open to taking any questions that you might have on preparations for the for the eclipse. Okay members we've got to say they. Yourself. Good morning she lewis secretary of the department of parks heritage and tourism and director of arkansas state parks. Captain brightly in our cell state police. Good morning I take gary director dogs or division of emergency management and good morning everybody joe martin director of office of preparence for the health parliament recognize report thank you german rice and think you represent it makes for that introduction to this topic since twenty twenty one the department of parks heritage in tourism has been in in a very active role educating arkansas cities counties and communities about this upcoming clips it's only a hundred and fifteen days away if anybody's counting and we have been conducting monthly meetings throughout this time period amongst agencies as well as a familiarization in training throughout the state of arkansas in preparation at four this event and so today we have a a panel here to update you on a few things i'll give you a brief update related to arkansas state park specifically twenty one of the fifty two state parks that we have within the state are in the path of totality twenty of those parks are sold out for the required four night minimum stay we have almost sixteen hundred individual reservations a booked within all thirty three state parks that have overnight accommodations what we have seen is that large amount of interest in this and that as soon as the the the reservation period opened for this for this date we saw an immediate influx of a reservation calls for those the parks outside of the path the totality are beginning to see reservations increase especially since the totality parks are sold out so if we're taking a look at the state park system in the the potential for visitation there we expect that if if each of those parks reach maximum visitation that it would be over eighty three thousand vistars. Alone on the eclipse day itself within arkansas state parks so state parks staff specifically are working to finalize operational plans for the specific management of park resources staffing and guest experience of forward the days leading up to their clips and the eclipse itself and following the eclipse our goal is to create a entire experience in package for visitors coming in for this event specifically we're working closely with our diet department of emergency management to aid guest to travel to and front state parks and planned for safe visitor experiences leading to up to involving the via our tourism division has realizes as representative makes that is that our state will be on the world stage we're seeing a large influx in interest in media outlets to be visiting arkansas during this time period as well we've per partnered with the arkansas hospital hospitality association to help communities get certified glasses for the for their own events and activities across the states so we've been working with media at social media influencers travel writers to promote attractions across the state for the twenty twenty four eclipse our goal is to see not just a a single event but hope in hope that vistas come to arkansas experience the clips have a great time experience or hospital resources and come back again and again and again. So our first update today is from captain bradley with arkansas state police in the department of public safety good morning the first one just one second century mark dozen is your question they beer you will wait for the other. Yeah. Well not work in hit hit you request again. The. Thank you mister thank you mister sector loose a thank you for working on the when I tended the dedication of michael mountain state parks new visitors there and by the way congratulations again and courage all my colleagues please go see it is fifteen minutes away from downtown and it's beautiful up I went through the gift store and you had the safety glasses in there and i'm thinking a we'll probably need to get a lot more those and b maybe we need to market it as something where citizens can place they can buy those glasses plus it gets him into the vista center gets amended parks not just benefit mountain but all the rest around the state have you all raised for a decent amount of inventory of those in and in our mister centers around the state yes yes specifically was date parks we have a branded glasses that are available for approaches there are through our state part give shops but we have also partnered with arkansas hospitality association kb back in those are available at a very reasonable prior price in large quantities for communities to or and don't forget the capital is store with secondary stay we can do that as well great great job thank you thank you mister thank you won't kept a land you are thank you good morning it's important for us to understand that they glimpse itself is not a threat but there are it's important when we're planning to develop threats that could occur out of disadvantage and as far as date please concern there's a potential for major disruptions and left or any accidents on our interstates hallways cannot roads and city streets and just so many associated threats if we've identified when looking at planning and some of these threads we don't want one the best thing to can do is reach out to other states that have been through this and look at their pre planning notes in their after acti. And so that's kind of how we we've come up with some of our plans but as we know there's a potential for disrupted emergency vehicles uh response there's gonna be private influence or stranded motors with all the extra traffic. And. There's a potential for communication disruptions and increased alan one calls so what can we do to try to mitigate to that the state police is going to will have our mercy operation center open or all the control and all state police operations when then state police headquarters will also provide a representative over to departments in management cause i'll have the state eoc open where all of the state partners will will be there for several days and i'm sure direct gearer to touch on that here in just a minute we've asked our supervisors in the field not to prove any time off we're gonna have all hands on back to a few days and including how a troll and our criminal investigators so few things we can do is we can preposition our troopers along interstate and how old we think they'll be most needed just to keep that traffic moving once that traffic starts when it starts colsin's problems though secondary crashes can be more more deadly than the original crash and so if we can keep though at that traffic moving that that'll be your main goal we're going to keep the shoulders clear to bringing abandoned vehicles so if you have to we can use that shoulder to get mercy vehicles out to those saints quicker we're gonna ask our record companies to stage in certain areas that way they can get their quicker and remove vehicles debris whatever off the interstate so we can get that traffic back and move in. Over work with our dot on traffic plans and road closures if we have to also as well as the message board from sure the current message the right messages get now at the right time. Will also pre plan with the metro area right long fortune eight c's radio in the capital city this is. I had the potential kind of to get great locked we don't want that to happen so we will work with him to be sure it doesn't happen. Or conduct her well well through checks will strain the motors and try to get them going to get them off the hallway other net we're going to like said just try to keep that traffic moving in that way prevent as many crashes as we can that i'll turn over direct dear. Alright thanks bread and good morning as mentioned earlier where we're planning for a large influx of visitors into our state not only from the united states but also or international visitors in an effort to stagger arrival and departure date several of our local jurisdictions are conducting festivals in other events to encourage those extended stays of our visitors and less than that traffic back log or back up scoricly prior to and after the eclipse adam is in the process of collecting that information from each of for each of those planned events. Adam began conducting coordination planning meetings with both our state partners and local jurisdictions we started these back in april and we'll continue to have those at host those meetings monthly until the event. Several state agency partners have established working groups to focus on the areas of communication transportation mass care medical public safety and public information. Both the state and local jurisdictions have been directed to develop incident action plans. With event objectives interrupted ball communications plans resource management joint messaging and other key elements of information to lead to successful management of the influx of these visioners adam is also participating and regional planning efforts with texas in oklahoma on communications throughout the event in identifying any anticipated gaps. Ah as captain land said the state emergency operation center will be activated prior to and after the clients along with several of our state emergency support functions and our federal partners. Our emergency sport functions and local partners continue to establish priorities in objectives for the state incident action plan and there are identifying those resource gaps or but determine what gaps they will have in in what resources will be needed. Excuse me. An inperson eclipse workshop was conducted on november eighth we had one hundred and one stake holders that participated these included eleven state agencies twenty seven c county government for federal agencies and eight from the private sector. Adam public affairs is coordinating with other agencies to ensure proper joint safety messaging to all our kansas and the end are visitors during that evening. Adam was planning to host a final table top exercise with with the stake holders sometimes and sometime in favor of worry of twenty four to finalize the solar reclips incident action plan and in addition to that the state emergency operations center will hold hold address rehearsal sometime in march of twenty twenty four so thank you yes thank you directly also with the help format so what we've been doing is also meeting go in state you name for the outsorry joe martin director office of preparedness for the health department. And so we have been meeting with our stake holders also every month including our time amil association and arkansas hospital association we've met with several county emergency managers several county judges and others there been participating in our meetings to discuss assumptions am you know get ideas from them as to what we have held art men or that we can do to help them or take their concerns back to division of emergency management when we have their monthly meetings also. Uh between the amal association hospital association we've also developed a joint letter that went out to all of EMS owner operators and all hospital ceos just letting them know the assumptions that we are going off of the things that we recommend that they plan for and also encouraging them to participate in their local emergency planning committees in their counties and in their regions. We're working with ems and hospitals to make sure that they understand traffic routing issues and that they can start pre planning and strategizing if they need to respond to emergencies and or if a hospital needs to transfer patient to a higher level of care that we have some plans in place there are some ideas out there that we can try and get those patients moved if at our possible. One the other thing that we're also working with arkansas nuclear one and our nuclear planning a response program is to make sure that our plans are included in those particular counties for alternate routine you know an evacuation routine if there were to be an event at nuclear one or. Practicing our shelter and employees plans and making sure that there are alternatives I make sure that no matter what's a scenario might be there is a way for them to respond to it. Eighty eight df is going around and conducting informative presentations to pretty much anybody is asking us we've had a lot of hospitals that have assessed come discussed this with their leadership staff so that they can get a better understanding as to what they think they may see on that day or even really pretty much for the week so we are doing that in hospital association has really been helping us push that in and also we have developed we've we've got a mass gathering rule and so we've been trying to push this out to places that are trying to make these advances festivals you know all these are besides that are filling up very quick so that they understand and have some guidelines on mass gathering such as food you know waste disposal and etc so those are the things that we've been working on also thank. You're making room for another were there. These stated name you recognize the mortar money mistake for is beyond the assistant chief engineer for maintenance for the arkansas apartment of transportation. So what kind of big brief and i'd be happy to answer more questions here are done is developed a traffic management plan to help public officials are not stay off other agencies prepare for and manage this is expected increase in traffic volumes leading up to during and after the solar clips this traffic management plan or t m p as we call it identify strategies to maximize traffic flow reduced congestion and provide real time information to drivers to avoid areas with congestion and delays strategies and counter measures will be further developed and enhanced over the next three months leading up to the april at the clips ardout has performed at the basis for our traffic management plan we performed traffic forecast modeling to identify the routes with the haste anticipated traffic to at us in these planning efforts and through that we developed a map that depends these hot traffic have all your marries are utilizing that this tmp list travel demand reduction strategies to a help avoid in mitigate this extreme congestion and delays we will be providing extra staffing at our traffic management center and our central office headquarters that's kind of our operator board will recommunicate the state police all of our districts over maintenance forces emergency responders so will be staffing up of course the t m c they'll help provide traffic updates or down aiming message boards incident management and such article of course we'll have a representative at the state emergency operation center or dot as representative meets mentioned our daughter in our contractors will definitely be avoiding routing maintenance and construction activities such as lane closures in any top of work even mowing I mean just during the event we're going to do our best to be ahead of the game and be prepared but in that weekend or in the vent no lane closures. Really minimizing any construction activity or maintenance work that could cause land closures or disruptions we're gonna be installing in our continue into install additional highway cameras or I drab system portable message boards and affected areas to assist during the evening or coordinating with the arkansas turking association we love to rock recommend what we call a truck holiday to encourage turkers to voluntary adjust their schedule during that time we'll definitely be minimizing avoiding any overseas load permits during that time frame on our major routes to keep that from calls on a problem beginning as. State police as mentioned will be a positioning our our dot staff and or arkansas how we please vehicles and staff to assist stranded motorist support traffic control and incident management is necessary I know the interesting thing I want to share is ardots continuing to use and prove technology to better communicate with drivers in real town a recent partnership that we made with a company called drave wise will provide real time in cab safety alerts congestion alerts and travel info to our commercial truck drivers so drive wise has a major share of the commercial truck drivers and so through that partnership we can actually send out messages in real time what was going on p s as in search or dots also partnering with ways some you may be familiar with the ways app it's a crowd sourcing app we actually have a free partnership with ways were we can gather their data we can push data to them and provide similar notifications to passenger drivers. In addition to coordinating with other state agencies were working with neighboring dots and the federal how administration to identify and share these best practices along with insure and roconstruction projects out of state do not contribute to this congestion for example there's interstate construction and texture texas where the water and out to six lanes in and methods tennessee there at the crump inner change of doing some major work and so we've already been in coordination where their friends with text dot and to the cdot uh to ensure what's going on their project so that we can avoid those lane closures and and get these travelers to come in in our state and out of the state travel and smoothly thank you. Representative white occur the question for a hoop. Thank you mister just briefly I haven't heard any specifics on this but term. First of all thank you for the incredible planning of doing on this but i'm i'm concerned about a cellular communication are the cellular providers in this state part of this plan which I tell you from personal experience living very near raise a max stadium that on game days we always get back down shareholders meetings in june we get back down and we know who providers bring in mobile resources to try to beef that up are are they included in this conversation because if we. It's a pretty safe better than if we've double our state population every one of those folks are going to have a phone. The. Yes or date your question the the private sector cell companies are involved in the communications I mention there was a separate communications meetings that are taking place they are very much a part of that it we also have the capability to bring you in a different additional cell on wheels to boost that capacity so all that is in the the planning process you thank you even representative down the year recognize thank you mister chair this is just really a comment in an invitation to those that you are left in the room texture counter is the only city in the nation that you can come and stand in arkansas and texts and see the seller eclipse at the same time we have really cool glasses one land like texas in the other lenses shape like arkansas so come to text your kid and stand on our state line thank you mr chair that could be close to a shameless plug that we appreciate representing your. Reps in the cleaned and neural net thank you chairman this is for really probably the stick police just curious as we look at so many people coming into our state right we we've looked at a mass gathering issues and making sure that we've got ways to take care of people if there is an accident but are we also looking at the flip side and saying while we're distracted we're all looking up at the sky that there could be in a various things going on are reprotecting things like nuclear one in our electrical grade during this time yes and they have been in in some of these meetings as well and we've been communicating with them and. There will be a lot going on that we we won't let that flat away from a two harrogate thank you thank you for having a regular thank you our doctor. You mention the construction project texan thirty down here we've had that center of discussion have we notified the contractors and what's going to be just position of our dot is far as those days not being counted against the construction or will they if they're in liquidated damages already had you communicated clearly with those companies what the position of our dots can be as far as counting those days and watch the either or side wander one water plus minus days. Sure center so in general state was yes we've been communicating with a contractors and that we would not count those days against them for example if they were expected to do construction it was a project that was let years ago and we were not planning for this then we would say you can no longer do lane closures with this top of work and we would not charge that those days against you as days towards the project now i'm sure as you're you're thinking of want to particularly project that is behind I can't speak directly and I could get back with you senator as far as how they're handling that project because it is in liquidated damages they're behind and and it's obviously cost and time congestion it's affecting everyone and so but where that said we still would not be allowing any lane closures that were calls in pack now to keep in man the contractors can be working where there are certain things that we can allow them to do that may not impact anyone which is things like that calls trucks to ingress an ingress can't create drugs delivery trucks we wouldn't at want that type of thing going on but there might be some minor miscellaneous things we want to get these construction projects finished in the time frame on that would be that believe that friday before through the tuesday following. I think I should thank you on there but just last week communicate with them clearly what the expectation is welcome liquidated damage so they will come back try used against assessment i'd like to say thank you center ribdon makes the anything to wrap up i'll try to squeeze a brief closing comment in your I just want you all to understand the garden to an effort that our state agencies are putting into this and all the hard work they're doing to make this successful so that our state shines during this event appreciate all the work all our doing will continue to work and with that wish everybody americh christmas thank you all for the report and with that we are adjourned.