House Judiciary Committee
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Bills discussed (4)
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HB1203
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1203”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1021
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1021”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1192
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1192”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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SB96
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB96”
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Pre-2017 bill |
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Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
0:00
Buddy, I want to take a moment, a point of personal privilege. I see standing back against the back wall over there, a long-time friend, colleague, somebody I respect a very lot, our Attorney General, Dustin McDaniel. Glad to have you here, General. Thank you for being here. All right, the next item we've got on the agenda, without objection, we're going to take out of
Speaker 2
0:27
order. We've got Representative Meeks going to present House Bill 1203.
Speaker 4
0:31
Mr. Meeks, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At the beginning here, I've got an amendment to my bill. You're recognized. I've got an amendment to make to my bill. Okay. What's the amendment?
Speaker 9
1:03
The amendment is basically what we've done is we've had to pull out a couple of things like the asset forfeiture and restitution to the bill because it was a little bit broader and made an exception for human trafficking. So based upon the concerns that we had, we went ahead and took it out so that it mirrors The asset forfeiture will mirror what we currently have in state statute, so we've got that on there. Also, we have – it takes out Section 9 and Section 10 as well of House Bill 1203.
What we wanted to do was we wanted to mirror the bill that Senator Irvin actually
Speaker 4
1:40
filed yesterday, and basically that's what that amendment does is it mirrors that bill. Give us one second, Mr. Meeks. We're looking for an amendment.
Speaker 12
2:15
Okay. Okay. All right. Anybody wishing to speak
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
2:17
for or against the amendment? Anybody wishing to speak for or against the amendment? Committee member? All right. Representative Gillen, you got a motion? Thank
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
2:32
you, Mr. Chair. I move to do pass on the amendment, adding to the House Bill 1203. Is that for
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
2:38
the adoption of the amendment? Sorry, chose the wrong word.
All right. What's the pleasure? All in favor? All opposed? Okay, the amendment's adopted. Ed, you
Speaker 21
2:53
ready to present your bill? Thank you. This morning we're here to
Speaker 9
2:59
discuss a very grievous, horrendous crime that we see in our state, in our nation, and in the world today. Human trafficking is just that. It's modern-day slavery where people profit from the control and exploitation of others. There are two forms of what we call human trafficking. It's divided into two separate groups.
The first one is sex trafficking, and that is the recruitment, harboring, transportation provision or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion. We also have labor trafficking, which is the recruitment, harboring, transportation provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery.
The factors that both of these situations have in common are fraud or coercion that are used to control people. Every year, human trafficking generates billions of dollars in profits. Some have estimated that to be $32 billion a year worldwide by victimizing millions of people around the world and, unfortunately, here in the United States. Human trafficking is considered to be one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world.
Just to give you some statistics on human trafficking, the average age of someone who's trafficked is somewhere between 12 and 14 years old. In the world, there's estimated to be 27 million people in slavery with human trafficking. And here in the U.S., that number is estimated to be about 100,000, with thousands more being brought every year. Human trafficking is something that is tough to recognize because it's hidden.
It's out of sight. Most people do not realize it exists. It's because the traffickers, they're very subtle in the way that they do things. When you're talking about human trafficking, you're talking about prostitution, and statistics show that a good percentage, and I've seen upwards of about 50%, of those who are in prostitution are there not by their choice, but because they're forced to.
Like I said, it is a hidden crime. And we have a situation here where we've had cases of human trafficking here in Arkansas. And at this point, I would like James Dold, who is with Polaris Project, who's done a wonderful job at helping us to craft this bill, but not only that, to help bring awareness here in Arkansas to give you some Arkansas statistics. Great. Thank you
Speaker 23
5:46
so much, Representative Meeks. And thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, honorable members of the Judiciary Committee.
James Dold
Unverified
5:52
I first just want to start out by thanking so many people who are involved in this effort, the Attorney General's Office and Bart Dickinson.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
5:59
Mr. Dold, let me interrupt you. If you could just remind everybody your name,
James Dold
Unverified
6:03
please, and who you are. Yes, I'm sorry. My name is James Dold, and I serve as policy counsel with the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project. Thank you. But I just wanted to thank Bart Dickinson with the Attorney General's Office. They've been a tremendous resource the last couple of months, as well as the Prosecuting Attorneys Association. A lot of work has gone into this bill, and really we wouldn't be here today without all of the able assistance of the different law enforcement agencies that really worked on this.
Polaris Project is an anti-human trafficking organization based out of Washington, D.C. We do a couple of unique things for the United States. We operate the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and the national hotline for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. So we receive calls from all across the country referencing different types of trafficking situations. It's our job to take those tips that we get and send those out to our local, state, and federal law enforcement contacts across the United States. It's also our job to make sure that when victims are identified or when victims call the national hotline,
we're able to send them to a service provider that can provide them with shelter, housing, different types of care that a victim of trafficking might need. To date, since we started operating the hotline in 2008, we've filled it over close to 70,000 calls from across the United States and have identified over 8,500 potential victims of human trafficking, including both those in sex and labor. In addition, we've sent over 3,000 tips to our law enforcement contacts at the local, state, and federal level, which has resulted in the successful arrest and prosecutions of several traffickers.
This is a huge, huge problem nationally and internationally. I can tell you that here in the state of Arkansas, we have received several calls referencing both labor and sex trafficking situations, and I'm going to highlight a couple of those and just give you some baseline statistics. I would state at the outset just to note that this is very much a limited snapshot that we have because most victims of trafficking in Arkansas, they're hidden, as Representative Meeks alluded to, they don't necessarily have access to the national hotline,
and so we don't have an accurate picture of how broad the problem is here in Arkansas. But I want to just touch on a couple of key stats that we've received. In 2012, we received over 100 calls from the state of Arkansas referencing 14 potential human trafficking cases. We say potential just because there's a lot of factors that go into verifying whether or not somebody is a trafficking victim, and so we just want to make sure that we qualify that. But those calls came directly from victims of trafficking themselves or who were self-identifying as trafficking victims in both labor and sex trafficking situations.
I'm going to highlight a couple of these. One call that we received in the last six months was from Prescott, Arkansas, from a gentleman who was at a truck stop and saw two minor girls who appeared to be under the age of 15 years old going from truck to truck soliciting commercial sex from the truck drivers. In this particular case, we were able to send that information on to our partners within federal law enforcement and report that tip. We're still waiting for follow-up. We don't know what the conclusion of that case ultimately has been, but that's one example on the sex trafficking side of a case that we've seen here in Arkansas just in the last six months.
In Warren, Arkansas, also within the last six months, we got a call from two H-2B visa workers who were working for an organization that was planting pine trees. In this particular case, the workers were not paid their wages for the last month. They had deductions from their paychecks that were unauthorized for fees that the employer was saying were required. And so what we're able to do in that particular situation is refer both the victims to a legal service provider here in the state of Arkansas
and also make sure that we reported that information to the Department of Labor. Those are two examples of what we've seen on the hotline just in the past six months alone here in the state of Arkansas. Last week, I came across a news article that highlighted another potential sex trafficking situation. This case actually stemmed out of Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it involved a young woman who was 24 years old who was taken from, I believe it was, Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Oklahoma, and there she was forced into prostitution.
She was located and identified by law enforcement because they were running a sting operation on Backpage.com, which is notorious for having sex trafficking ads on its website. And so what ended up happening in that case is that they arrested the young woman, and she told law enforcement that her keys and a car were taken by this pimp as well as all of her money and that she was being forced into prostitution against her will. There's currently pending a human trafficking case against that individual, but she was taken from Arkansas to Oklahoma, and this happened just last week. And so I think when we take a step back and we look at the scope of what we're seeing on the national hotline,
what we're seeing just in some of the anecdotal cases in the news and what some of the victim service providers here are seeing in Arkansas, we can see that this is a problem that Arkansas is not immune to. Given all of that and some of the stats that I've just highlighted, I'd like to point your attention to a packet that we just handed out. In this packet, you'll see the Players Project National State Ratings Map. Every single year, we go through and rate states on how well they do to fight human trafficking regarding their legislation. As you can see, Arkansas is one of four states with some of the poorest laws in the country regarding human trafficking,
so much so that it was named one of the faltering four along with Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. Currently on the books right now, there's only a baseline human trafficking law that doesn't really mirror what current modern-day best practices are. And so what Representative Meeks' bill proposes to do is modernize the human trafficking statute, bring it in line with best practices both at the federal level as well as what the surrounding states are doing. Regarding the criminal provisions that are currently in the bill, I would note that they're similar to what other states in the surrounding area also have, such as Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Those are all states that surround or are in the same region as Arkansas and have adopted this comprehensive approach. What you'll also note from the state ratings map is that they're also one of our Tier 1 states, so they've been noted as having some of the best human trafficking laws on the books. Texas and Louisiana and Florida and Georgia in particular have done an outstanding job in combating human trafficking because law enforcement has the tools that they need to be able to effectively go after this crime. So I think it's important when sort of looking at the criminal laws and how they're framed,
it's broken down into sort of three main elements. The first element is getting at those people who are facilitating trafficking, right? So in other words, those people who are recruiting, enticing, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for either commercial sex or labor or services. The second component are those people who are actually using the force, the violence, the threats, the coercion against that person to induce or compel them into a commercial sex or forced labor situation. The third component are minors.
With regards to minors, when we have children, at the federal level and in most states and all of the states I just highlighted, we remove the requirement of having to prove force, fraud, or coercion to make it easier for prosecutors to prosecute those who are trafficking children. Children are very susceptible and are easily brainwashed and psychologically manipulated by pimps and traffickers. And so it's very important that prosecutors not have to prove those additional elements when it comes to the crime of human trafficking. Like I said, these are all things that have been adopted by surrounding states as well as the federal government and are recognized as best practices universally here in the United States.
I'll also say, I'll make brief note, the Uniform Law Commission is also considering this topic right now. And this is the same sort of draft that they're working off as well. Some of the other provisions in the bill get more to the victim-centered impact. And so when we talk about creating a truly victim-centered, comprehensive approach to fighting human trafficking, there are a couple of things that are paramount to include in the bill, which Representative Meeks' bill does. For instance, creating a civil cause of action for victims of human trafficking. There's nothing more empowering for a victim than to be able to come back and sue her trafficker.
Oftentimes, the criminal process revolves around whether or not the state has the evidence to bring charges against the trafficker. In this instance, the victim herself is completely in charge of whether or not she wants to file a suit, and then the burden of proof is a little bit lower as well. So in case the prosecutors can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that somebody has been victimized by trafficking, the standard of proof is much lower in a civil cause of action. In addition, with regards to prostitution statutes, we've added an affirmative defense for victims of sex trafficking.
Oftentimes, like Representative Meeks mentioned, victims in sex trafficking are forced into prostitution. Now they'll have an affirmative defense that they can bring that they were a sex trafficking victim if they can show that they were, in fact, forced into that situation. Again, these are best practices. Similar states like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana have all adopted these affirmative defense provisions as well. And so with that, you know, I'll sort of step back a little bit. I'll be happy to answer any questions. This is, like I said, in keeping with some of the best practices across the nation, including what the federal government has adopted.
Again, I just want to thank so much Representative Meeks, and I'll yield the remainder of my time to
Speaker 9
15:24
any questions. Thank you. Thank you. If we could, I do want to allow now the AG or representative, Bart Dickinson, to come up and speak just briefly on what the AG's office is.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
15:50
Mr. Dickinson, you're recognized. So I'll just remind everybody of who you are.
Bart Dickinson
Unverified
15:55
My name is Bart Dickinson, and I am with the Attorney General's Office, where I serve as an Assistant Attorney General. You could hit that mic button, please. My name is Bart Dickinson, and I'm from the Attorney General's Office. I serve as
Speaker 31
16:09
an Assistant Attorney General, and I work in the Cyber Crimes Division. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I also want to thank everyone who's involved here today, and there's been a lot of people involved in this legislative effort to get here today.
I want to appreciate Representative Meeks for his sponsorship and his hard work. I know the last six, seven months we've exchanged emails and phone calls. He's worked very hard on this. I also appreciate the prosecuting attorneys, law enforcement agencies who've been involved in looking into this legislation, and other agencies and entities who are here today represented. This is a culmination of a lot of hard work. I also want to thank Polaris Project, James Dole. He's done a fantastic job in working with us to see if we can make this law more kind
of an Arkansas law based on the national laws and the goals that they have as well for their organization. Human trafficking is an issue that's very important to my boss, General Dustin McDaniel, and the attorney general's office. I appreciate his efforts to get us involved and make sure we're involved with Representative Meeks and the other entities who are here today. We know about trafficking victims that they are oftentimes very exploited victims. They suffer. They've been subjected to horrific treatment.
They're suffering oftentimes. It doesn't just go to human trafficking. There are also more crimes and offenses they suffer from. They're people who are being extorted, who've been raped, abused physically and mentally. They've been kidnapped. Oftentimes they've been coerced, manipulated into this situation, this lifestyle they're forced into. So they're very victimized in this process. And until recently, these issues and these crimes were not aggressively prosecuted or
addressed here in Arkansas. And I've been a prosecutor most of my career as well, and it just wasn't something that was on our radar as much. Over the last year, we've seen more awareness raised. We've seen actually people who've come forward to talk about how they were trafficking victims. We've seen people like Polaris Project come forward and say we are seeing numbers of people in our state who are victimized in this way. In the last six months, we've actually seen more cases and investigations hit in the newspapers here recently, as was pointed out.
So since this awareness has been raised, we have seen more trafficking cases in our state. And now, because of that, is a very crucial time for us to pass new legislation that will will help our prosecutors, that will help our law enforcement agencies to address human trafficking, to investigate these cases, and to bring traffickers to justice. Because we know people are being exploited and abused in our state. Last March, I had the privilege to attend a national conference on human trafficking.
It was sponsored by the National Associations of Attorneys Generals, and the title was Pillars of Hope. The speakers and sponsors at the conference talked about those pillars of hope for human trafficking victims. They talked about changing laws, amending laws, strengthening laws in our country. They talked about holding traffickers accountable, the victims who suffer, and raising awareness for these crimes because they are happening in our country, in the world, and right here in our state.
The Attorney General's office is proud to be involved and support the efforts here today to make these changes and to make a difference. In your packet that you have here, I wanted to highlight five things that I think are very crucial in this legislation. I think that increasing the penalties for trafficking when it involves minors as victims is very essential and very important for some of the reasons that were already mentioned. Increasing the penalty for those who patronize, who knowingly patronize trafficking victims,
is also a crucial part of this bill. Providing an affirmative defense for misdemeanor prostitution charges when a trafficking victim is involved I think is also a very important step in this fight. Amending the trafficking law so that law enforcement and prosecutors can effectively arrest and charge those who engage in human trafficking is important. And finally, the provision that allows the Attorney General's Office to convene a task force to address human trafficking issues as we move forward in this fight.
I think those provisions, there are more important provisions as well, but to me, I truly believe those changes in the laws will really assist in this fight against human trafficking in our state. Again, I thank you for this opportunity to be here. I thank Representative Meeks for his hard work and the people who have been here and are involved. I appreciate all of you for considering this important legislation today. Thank you. Mr.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
20:59
Dickinson, thank you very much. Thanks for all the work from our Attorney General's office. all right before i go to the rest of the audience uh who would like to speak for and against the
bill i want to make sure everybody gets a chance to speak but it looks like we got a whole bunch for and no against so i would just ask if you just just keep your comments comments brief
Speaker 9
21:22
i recognize mr if you could just real quick um i do have um a couple of human trafficking victims who want to have a brief testimony before we do that i'm sorry go ahead yeah um i would like to I'm Louise Allison and Kathy, Brian, to come.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
21:47
Ms. Allison, Ms. Ryan, you all recognize that you'll just introduce yourself to the committee and let us know who
Louise Allison
Unverified
21:54
you are. Thank you. MS. My name is Louise Allison, and I am with Partners Against Trafficking Humans. This bill on human trafficking is a very important one. one. It's important in making Arkansas a safer place to live and important to those who have been victimized. To increase the penalties would stop traffickers from thinking that Arkansas is a safe place to hide. And to increase the rights of the victims finally makes the statement that
they are not the one to blame when someone else has raped them and beat them, when someone has sexually exploited them and forced them to do things against their will. It's not okay to charge someone with prostitution when they did not choose to be there, especially when they're under the age of 18. No kid wants to be sexually assaulted. When trapped in this lifestyle, they're afraid and ashamed. I know. I was trafficked from the age of 14 to 16. I was bought and sold. I was raped, beat, drugged, and threatened. From the first incident, I
was filled with fear and shame, and that eventually was replaced with an emotionalist, robotic existence. I went where I was told to go, and I did what I was told to do. During those two years, I was arrested a number of times for prostitution. I was labeled a prostitute. I was a little, skinny, stringy-haired 14-year-old that carried that label, and I didn't have a clue what was happening to me by the grace of god i was rescued by police at the age of 16
but it took me over 30 years to recover from what had happened to me during that time it's important for victims to know that their trafficker is behind bars for what they've done for the lives that they've destroyed it's equally important for victims to know that they will not have to carry that scar externally by being labeled for something that they did not willingly commit to do I am not a prostitute. I was not a prostitute when I was 14.
And these little girls are not prostitutes either. One last thing, to provide services for rescued victims so that they can get their life back is a critical piece of the recovery process. The right program saved my life. And I mean it literally saved my life. So I strongly encourage you today that you support this
Kathy Bryan
Unverified
24:23
bill. Thank you. Thank you. We found you recognized. My name is Kathy Bryan and first I just really want to thank Senator Meeks and Senator Irvin,
I mean Representative Meeks, I'm sorry, actually everybody who has really poured their heart and soul and time and effort into taking hold of this issue and seeing how it affects Arkansas and wanting to make a difference. This is a crime, I know we've said it several times, that is silent. We don't see it's there. You don't see it because they don't want you to see it. And because the victims, we don't know who is safe.
I was trafficked in Virginia from the time I was 14 to 16. And just briefly, it was, if you look into human trafficking, it was classic. It was the whole, I thought he was my boyfriend. They win your trust. They look for vulnerabilities. And then before you know it, it turns. And there's usually some sort of an initiation. For me, it was, you know, we were supposed to be on a date one night,
and instead it was several hours of raping and torture. After that happens, you're going to do whatever they tell you to do. You know, and he used my sister. I had a six-year-old sister, and he told me if I didn't go where I was supposed to go and be where I was supposed to be and do what he told me, he would bring my sister into it. She was six years old. When you tell somebody, I don't care if you're 18 or 14 or 36, if you tell somebody you don't do this or I'm going to hurt somebody that you love,
you're going to do it because for me, I cared more about my sister than I did myself. This bill is important and the awareness that we're doing is important because when it happened to me, I'm 47 now, so that was in the 80s. I don't think we even had the term
Speaker 50
26:24
human trafficking at that time. There was no awareness. I'd
Kathy Bryan
Unverified
26:27
never heard of it. Like Louise said, I didn't know. You don't know what you don't know. I just knew I had to do what I was told to protect my family. I'm hoping with all of the awareness, with the stronger bills that, I mean laws,
that teenagers and people who are affected by this crime now will feel like they can reach out, will feel like somebody does care. If I speak to a policeman, he's going to hear what I say, and he's going to protect me. I didn't feel like I could go to anybody because I figured if I told, then my sister would be in jeopardy. They'd already proven that they would do what they said. So I really, really hope that you will take in everything you've received this morning,
ask the questions that you need answered, no matter what they are, and pass this law. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Representative Meeks, did you have anybody
Speaker 21
27:34
else? No, sir, I'm ready to take questions, or we can go for
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
27:37
or against or whatever. Well, we need to go to see if there's anybody out there for or against the bill. Stephanie, I'm sorry, I can't pronounce that last name. It looks like J-I-R-A.
Speaker 18
27:48
Jira, Ms. Jira. You're recognized to speak for the
Speaker 56
27:55
bill. Just tell everybody who you are, please.
Stephanie Jira
Unverified
27:57
My name is Stephanie Jira, and I'm the Arkansas State Director for the Not-for-Sale campaign. Not for Sales, an international organization that works on combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery. When our federal laws were created on human trafficking, they were meant to be coupled with strong state laws. Unfortunately, we don't have those right now in Arkansas.
Our current laws don't prevent trafficking. They don't protect the victim, and they make it hard to prosecute the trafficker, and we can't let that continue. Dave Batstone, who's the founder of Not For Sale, once said, you can look behind the facade of any major city and find slavery today. In Arkansas, we've seen that it doesn't have to be a big city. It can't be our tiny communities. You've seen cases in Greenbrier, in Cabot, in Little Rock, Rogers, Arkansas.
It is here. Traffickers are coming here because our laws are so lax. The surrounding states have stronger laws, so they think they can get away with it easier if they come here. So we just really want to urge you guys to please consider this bill. you literally have people's lives in your hands we need to make a change
Speaker 56
29:23
and we hope you'll consider this and really go for it
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
29:27
so thank you thank you Mr. Tyler I didn't see anybody I asked is there anybody against the bill okay anybody
else for the bill any else for the bill Mr.
Speaker 21
29:47
Meeks you want to close thank you Mr. Chair I really can't add anything that's already been said we have
Speaker 9
29:52
the resources in place we have groups such as PATH and Not For Sale who are ready to help the victims the only thing that's
missing now is we need the laws to give the prosecutors the tools that they need to be able to prosecute these trafficking victims so with that said I'll just appreciate a good vote on
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
30:10
the bill and passing it and Mr. Meeks I may I apologize. I think we did have a question from Judge McElroy. Okay. Anybody else? I believe Representative, I'm sorry, Ms. Scott, Representative Scott. We've got, right now, we've got a motion for Representative
Steele. He's first on the list. Representative Steele. I'd just like to
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
30:37
move do pass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. do pass as a minute but
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
30:43
we got a motion do pass as amended all in favor all All opposed? Congratulations. Bill passes.
Representative Hammer, we're going to move out of order to recognize Representative Hammer. Representative Hammer, you're recognized to present House Bill
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
31:34
1192. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee for allowing me this opportunity to present to you what is a personal issue that occurred down in our county.
and this is actually brought at the request of my Saline County judge because of his involvement with it. This bill deals with the limiting of the powers of intimate domain for property owners of improvement districts. And the best way that I can illustrate to you how this impacts individuals that would be
Speaker 67
32:02
affected by the passage of this bill is if you have a private property owner who is A and you have a private property owner who is B and they come together and form a board
that they would create an improvement district, then if property owner C down here below them stands between them and access to the right-of-way, they can exercise eminent domain over that private property owner and come across their property in order to gain access, whether it be for streets, sewer, water, et cetera. And there was a real-life situation that occurred in our county, and the situation was that we had a citizen who was a veteran, had come back from the Iraqi war.
He was disabled. He had property. And the private improvement district that was represented in my illustration of A and B exercised eminent domain over him. And there were several options that they could have taken in order to get out to the road to get access. but they picked him because he was what I would refer to as the weakest link. He didn't have the money to fight back. And as a result of it, they cut a road through his property under the current law. They gave him a very nominal fee of, I think it was $1,500.
And as a result of that, his property is cut in half. Now, all that happened because A and B up here didn't do a real good job of long-term planning and realized that when they got to the backside of their development that they had not followed the codes of the city. And as a result of that, they had to provide a relief out the backside of their improvement district. And so they were basically put in a position that they had to find a way out. And so they exercised eminent domain over this individual and cut through his property, all legal under the current law.
And what I'm asking for is us to go back in, and when it comes to improvement districts, property owners, improvement districts that we restrict or take away their ability to exercise eminent domain over their neighbors because in this case what happened was this boy just didn't have enough money to fight and as a result they went over him. Now there were several other areas where they could have accessed the property, they could have accessed, but it would have been more costly so they took the path of least resistance
and less cost and in my opinion in the opinion of my county judge we do not feel that is right we don't think that that a private property owner when dealing with a improvement district private nature should have that authority and with that that's my that is my reason for presenting this bill i'll be glad to answer any questions at this time representative steel you got a
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
34:54
question Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Hammer, would this include things like rural water districts and things
like that, trying to extend rural water to people that might not have
Speaker 70
35:06
access otherwise? It would not affect them, would not affect any municipality, city. There is
Speaker 67
35:12
one situation that was brought to my attention, and perhaps after the discussion I might reserve the right to pull this down and go back and address it. In Jonesboro, there is a utility company in Jonesboro that is an improvement district that is in a working relationship with the city of Jonesboro.
This might possibly adversely affect them. Okay. But as
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
35:33
far as local groups forming a real water association, forming a group for the purpose of establishing real water, are you telling me it would not affect those groups? I'm telling you it would not affect them. But honestly,
Speaker 67
35:46
my apologies to the committee. that one situation did pop in my head that I was asked about in the case of Jonesboro so if the committee would indulge me I at least wanted to get an audience with you this morning to get this out there and get you thinking about it
and I'll go back and address that one issue because I was asked about that and I don't want to adversely affect folks out of Jonesboro with their improvement district there. We appreciate that. Thank you Representative and thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Chair Thank you Representative Hammer Mr. Chair Yes, Representative Hammond I also have on the agenda 1193, but I had trouble getting with the bill drafter this morning availability to the bill drafter
for an amendment, so I'd like to just pass over for that now and come back later if that's okay with the chairman. That's fine, Representative Hammond Thank you very much. Thank
Speaker 71
36:44
you I'm going to go ahead and bring it on. You got this?
Speaker 77
37:10
If you would introduce yourself to the committee and you are recognized, proceed with your bill.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
37:33
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Marshall Wright, for somebody that might have missed that.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here to present House Bill 1021. I've got an amendment to it, so I need to present the amendment first. The amendment, all it does is make sure that Cori Gentry and the folks at ADC are happy with me, so
Representative John T. Vines
Unverified
38:00
I appreciate a good vote. Do you make a motion to approve the amendment? Any discussion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
Any opposed? Your amendment is approved. Proceed with your bill, Representative Wright. Thank you,
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
38:23
Mr. Chair. I'm presenting House Bill 1021 as amended. What this bill does is not a whole lot. Right now, the Sheriff's Association came to me and pointed out to me that in Arkansas Code, the sheriffs and the counties were required to transport all inmates in the Department of Correction to their county courts for any reason, not just criminal reasons.
And basically the sheriffs came in and said, look, why should we have to pay for the transport of an inmate with no ties whatsoever to our county? And the situations arose where two individuals were married. One individual gets sentenced to the Arkansas Department of Correction. The spouse that's not in the correctional department moves to a new county, and the sheriffs and the counties were required to pay to transport an inmate with whom they have no connection with in their county.
So what I did is I drafted a bill, and what this bill does is it says, the counties and the sheriffs are responsible for transporting inmates in the Arkansas Department of Correction custody to their county for all criminal actions arising in and around that county and for any civil matters arising from the criminal action. And then it says basically that the Arkansas Department of Correction for other matters is required to transport them
for matters that have no connection with the county whatsoever. If for some reason you don't like this, call your county sheriff and see what they have to say about it. And I've got a representative from ADC here if anybody has any questions. We'll open it up to the
Representative John T. Vines
Unverified
40:18
committee, and then I don't see, we would open it up to the public, but I do not see anyone. Is there anyone here that would like to speak for or against this bill?
Okay, I didn't see any. Any questions from the committee? Mr. Gillum, you got a motion at the proper time, Mr. Chairman. All right. Close for my bill. You're close for your bill, Mr. Wright. We have a motion. We'll recognize Mr. Gillum for that motion. Mr. Chairman, I move. Do pass as amended. Hearing the motion. The motion is to pass House Bill 1021 as amended. Any further discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. Congratulations, Representative Wright. You've passed
Speaker 77
41:04
your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee. I appreciate it. Is there anyone else here
Speaker 83
41:13
to present the bill today? mr. Neal we don't have
Representative Micah S. Neal
Unverified
41:30
one thank you mr. chairman committee I'm here to speak
for Senate bill 96 it's a cleanup bill for the second clerks mr. Jeff Sykes is here from AAC to answer any questions and I'd like to make a proper motion and motion at the proper time.
Chair
Unverified
42:08
My good friend from Little River County down there,
Speaker 87
42:14
Mr. Chairman. with the Association of Arkansas Counties. This piece of legislation right here is actually in the nature of some cleanup legislation. Last session, we agreed with Senator Marion Salmon to create a sliding scale for the cost of the preparation of these transcripts. Prior to the bill passage last session, it was $2.50 per page for every page, regardless
of how large the transcripts were. This created kind of a step-down scale where it gets cheaper as you go the larger the transcript. In the language, what we didn't realize at the time, and I guess we should if we missed it, it can be construed when you read it, for instance, for the first $2.50 to buy 1,000 pages of the first of the transcript. And so we had a few smart lawyers around the state tried to raise that issue. They didn't do any good with it because I informed the clerks, of course, you hold the transcript.
So we managed to fend them off, but we wanted to clarify that if we could, that this was $2.50 per page, and then it steps down, as you'll see, that this is a per-page charge, and that's all it does. Any questions from the committee? Representative
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
43:32
Steele, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Stokes. Where
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
43:38
does this money go? Does it go in the county general fund? Okay. Nothing further. Thanks, Mr.
Chair
Unverified
43:45
Chairman. Any other questions? Representative Bain, you recognize?
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
43:47
Motion at proper time. Okay. Is there anybody wishing to speak for or against the bill? Anybody wishing to speak for or against
Speaker 91
43:56
the bill? Representative Neal, you want to close for
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
43:58
your bill? I'm closed. No, do pass, please. Okay. Representative Bain,
Speaker 92
44:03
you recognize for your motion? We'll draw my
Chair
Unverified
44:05
motion. Oh, I'm sorry. Representative, yeah, you made a motion. I did. All right. All right. Motion by representative to do pass.
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
44:18
All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Congratulations. Your
Speaker 85
44:24
bill is passed. I'll text you up. That would be great. Thank you. Yes, sir. Is
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
44:29
there anybody else here to present a bill that we have missed? Anybody here to present a bill that we have missed? All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? all those in favor must meet in adjourn
Agenda
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Marshall Wright
Unverified
Speaker 2
Speaker 4
Speaker 9
Speaker 12
Representative Jeremy Gillam
Unverified
Speaker 21
Speaker 23
James Dold
Unverified
Bart Dickinson
Unverified
Speaker 31
Louise Allison
Unverified
Kathy Bryan
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 18
Speaker 56
Stephanie Jira
Unverified
Representative Nate Steel
Unverified
Representative Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 67
Speaker 70
Speaker 71
Speaker 77
Representative John T. Vines
Unverified
Speaker 83
Representative Micah S. Neal
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 86
Speaker 87
Speaker 91
Speaker 92
Speaker 85