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Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
5:30
THANK YOU, MEMBERS, FOR BEING here. The first thing we're going to have to do is talk about something we're going
to try to add to the agenda. It'll come up under item E, but I'll let Miss Kathy explain the
Speaker 6
6:09
reasoning behind that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's on the supplemental agenda packet. There is a suspension of the rules request for a contract that will come up later on, and it's actually a contract that DHS had worked and
Speaker 8
6:22
sent to state procurement, but they were going to wait until August to have it on the review agenda and the need arose for it to be added to today's agenda, so it was considered an
Speaker 9
6:34
administrative error and they were requesting permission to add
it to the agenda today at the
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
6:47
proper time. All right, members, you've heard the explanation. We have a motion, a motion and a second, all right, that will be added to the agenda. Again, it'll come up under item E as we get through the service contracts. So moving back to the top, item B, methods of finance. Ms. Cathy. Oh, yeah, hang on a second.
We have a motion to add that to the agenda. We had a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank
Speaker 6
7:19
you, Senator. I got ahead of myself. All right, Ms. Cathy, item B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're going to
Speaker 8
7:24
start with methods of finance, and those are going to start in your B packet. Beginning on page one is the letter from DFA acknowledging that these are the items to be placed on today's agenda. If you'll turn to the next page, we have a chart that shows the first one to be ASU, and this is for collegiate part for their HVAC, and it's to replace 30 units HVAC systems, 320,212.
They note that they have university reserves to pay for that. Next is ASU Three Rivers for their nursing building. It's a new academic building to house nursing programs, $8 million, and they have federal grant funds to cover that. Number three is UA Community College at Moralton, and they have a clock tower. This is for construction of that project, and it's $711,000. They note that they have some operating reserve funds to use, as well as they're receiving private donations from UA Foundation for 35% of that project.
Number four, also UA Community College at Moralton, it's for the maintenance warehouse. It's needed due to demolition of the existing warehouse space. So this will be construction of new space, $711,000, and they have college operating reserve funds to cover that. Number five, again, for UA Community College at Moralton, is Tech One and East Campus Renovation Projects. This is for roof replacements, $948,000. They have college operating funds to cover.
And on the next page, U of A for Yoakam Hall renovations. This is $12.5 million. They note that they have university housing reserves to cover this. I also want to point out that today's agenda will also see the alternative delivery for this project as well as the architectural contract, and I'll point those out when we get there. The next, number seven, is UA Monticello. This is for music hall tower repair. The tower and roof were damaged by a lightning strike.
The repairs are $302,652. They note that they're going to use reserves to cover this. I spoke with the agency about insurance, and it happens that their deductible is more than the amount of the cost of this, so the insurance will not be covering that. Those are the methods of finance on today's agenda. Members, any questions? Representative Meeks,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
9:51
you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm wondering if there's anyone from UACCM here, Moralton. Good afternoon. Just introduce yourself for the record and
you can go ahead and answer his questions. Sure. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 23
10:24
Chairman. Melissa Rust with the University of Arkansas System here
on behalf of the Moralton campus.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
10:30
All right, thank you. So my question is on the clock tower. I'm just wondering if you can
go into a little more detail, because the potential criticism I see of this is we all know the rising cost of tuition is going up, and it's getting more expensive for students to go, and we're spending almost a million dollars for a clock tower. How is that beneficial to the students, and is it worth, why are we spending a million dollars on this?
What benefit is there to the citizens and to the students versus putting that million dollars
Speaker 27
11:09
to something that would be maybe a little more practical? Representative Meeks, first of all, the MOF is an estimated amount and the amount that the campus is estimated is just a little over $700,000. About 450 or 460,000 is from campus reserves, and then about 250,000 is from donations to the UA Moralton Foundation, which is part of the UA Foundation.
The information that I've been provided by the campus is that although they have $250,000 in private funds, that they are still raising funds for this project, and so it's very possible, excuse me, that the private funds would be in excess of the 250,000 that's currently identified on the MOF. My understanding is that this particular clock tower would be primarily in the center of campus, a gathering place where a number of campus events for
students and others, you know, from the community and associated guests, you know, there would be a place for various events, sort of a gathering location on the campus. I certainly understand the questions you've raised and the concern, because clearly we're all concerned about the cost of higher education, you know, whether it's, you know, through tuition fees or otherwise. But I will tell you, and I don't know if this matters, you know, from, based on your question,
But it is estimated a little over 700, it's not a million, and obviously there's at least a significant portion of it being paid with private funds and hopefully in excess of the 250,000 that they've identified on this MOF to date. Thank you. Thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
12:54
you, Representative. Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My
question is for Three Rivers. All right, can we
get someone up here that represents Three Rivers?
Speaker 39
13:10
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Shane Broadway with ASU System. I would have waited a long time. I apologize. I was pattering my nose. Representative Kavanaugh, you're up.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
13:45
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is, when we're doing this expansion, are we going to increase capacity for students, or is this just for update the actual? This is to increase capacity. Okay. Do we have a projected increase of capacity with this? I can get that to you.
Speaker 43
14:01
We had to submit that when we submitted it through Senator Bozeman's office, how many students we would add, but I can get that for you. Yeah, because, you know, we're in desperate need of nurses, so that's why. Yes. That is why this is federal funds, because it's the only construction allowed
by the federal government right now is for new construction for adding additional students. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you,
Representative. Members, any other questions of Mr. Broadway? Seeing none, thank you for coming down. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members, any
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
14:44
other questions on item B? Seeing none without objection, these items
will all stand reviewed. It takes us
Speaker 8
14:51
to item C. Kathy. Mr. Chairman, these are alternative delivery construction projects. These are the projects over five million dollars we have two of them on today's agenda the first one is ua fort smith for windgate building expansion this is a little over 19 thousand eight hundred seventy six square feet project it's uh adding uh more space for uh public
experience of the space and and fine arts for students and faculty they are have selected clark contractors for this project they received five proposals they interviewed four of those mag architecture will do the professional design work the total project is eight point eight four five million and they note that they have private funds to cover the cost of this on the next page number two is ua fayetteville and this is the alternative delivery contract for the yokum hall
renovation that we saw the methods of finance for earlier. It's addressing the exterior and interior renovations, roof replacement, etc. They've selected Kinko constructors for the project. They received five proposals, interviewed five, and selected Eldorado Polk Stanley Wilcox for their architect. We'll see that again later on. And the total project is $12.5 million, and they say they have university housing reserves to cover that project.
All right. Thank you, Kathy. Members, any
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
16:27
questions on item C? Seeing none, these items will stand reviewed. That
Speaker 6
16:34
takes us to item D, Kathy. Mr. Chairman, the next thing are discretionary grants. The first group will be
Speaker 8
16:40
coming from the Health Department on page D1. The first one is 100% federal. This is an amendment to an existing grant that they have, adding a little over $20,000 to the grant for sexual risk avoidance education. Numbers two and three are for the health department,
and these are both going to be for establishing school-based sealant projects in primary schools where student population enrollment in the farm free and reduced meal program is a minimum of 50%. Then on the next page, the health department has one there. The funding for this is other. It's an amendment to an existing contract dealing with statewide project prevention coalition and the goal of reducing tobacco use among youth and young adults. The next group of contracts on page three are from DHS.
The first one there, I'm sorry, these are grants. The first one there is for $3 million and it's 100% federally funded grant. It is to license, monitor, train, and implement the family-centered treatment model for treatment facilities. Numbers two and three are both going to be grants for employment and training services to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. Numbers four through seven, these are all going to be for peer support services.
Those are original new grants. And number eight on page five is a federal grant, $2.5 million to our house for family crisis stabilization. On the next page, we'll start some grants for the Arkansas Heritage on page six. This is for the Arkansas Arts Council. These grants were funded through an annual state partnership grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Arkansas Conservation Tax Appropriations, and then they also receive a grant, $150,000, from the Wingate Foundation.
These funds are used to support their arts in school and summer after-school artist and residency programs. Also, other grants help provide annual general operating support to establish local arts organizations, major project support, and programs providing administrative and marketing skills for performing artists to participate fully in Arkansas's growing creative economy. Beginning on the next page, page 7, you'll see there are seven pages of grants.
We provided you with the provider city, the area served, the type of service that they're providing. they provided the amount that was originally requested and then the amount being awarded and what the funding source is for those. On the final page of that, on page 13, it shows that the total amount that was requested was about $2.4 million, and they're able to fund $1,185,820. We have one more set of grants.
These are from the Arkansas Beef Council, and it's a grant to the Arkansas Cattle Women's Association. They have special revenues that help fund their program, but this particular grant is to enable them to conduct special projects related to beef promotion, consumer trade shows, conducting beef cooking and general food preparation classes for drug courts in three counties, staging beef-related cooking contests at State Fair, several other food events.
And so that concludes all the grants on today's agenda. Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized. Thank you,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
20:23
Mr. Chair. And just, I have three questions, but they're on different areas. Sure. But my first question is going to be for Health Department. All right. Can we get someone up here from the Health Department? Page two. Good
afternoon, if you would just introduce yourself for the record and then we'll get
Speaker 65
20:57
started. Casey Cochran, Arkansas Department of Health. Matt
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
21:05
Gilmore, Department of Health. All right, Representative Kavanagh, are you ready? Thank you, Mr. Chair. as soon as you saw this was tobacco cessation you knew I was going to ask a question on it. So my question is we already give how much to the tobacco cessation program? Is it like two million dollars already a
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
21:23
year? I'd like to ask Ms. Sellers come up here from the tobacco program.
There's multiple different programs and grants as far as the overall budget per year on the tobacco program, I defer to Ms. Sellers to give her ballpark idea and if you would push your button and
introduce yourself and then you can. I'm Christy Sellers from
Speaker 72
21:46
the Arkansas Department of Health. Okay. She's
Speaker 73
21:49
asking for the budget. So the budget for the tobacco prevention and cessation
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
21:56
program, how big is that now? I'm sorry are you meaning the total
Speaker 74
22:03
yes for the Arkansas Department of Health
Speaker 78
22:07
yes so it varies depending on how much you know the amount is each year but
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
22:13
it's about eleven million dollars that we keep and does that all
Speaker 78
22:17
go toward prevention and cessation some of it goes to operate like the be well helpline so yes for cessation and for you have your wreath prevention here with project prevent so again cessation and prevention so
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
22:30
yes it's all health related okay and on the quit line that That is just, we're not just using that for tobacco anymore.
We're using that for other diabetes or whatever. Diabetes and hypertension in particular. Okay, so we included that in that. Okay, so this $379,000, what is it going to do? So this
Speaker 78
22:52
is for Project Prevent. Basically, it's just established youth coalition chapters in the schools. So it's to kind of grow the thought of if we start young, that these kids will inspire other kids and their communities not to start tobacco in the beginning so it's really for youth in schools and they set up
chapters they have meetings they have events if
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
23:15
I may the most recent number on the number of chapters across the state is in the I want to say in the 70s or so
Speaker 78
23:24
we have 95 chapters in 50 counties so we're trying to grow that so that there's one in
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
23:30
every area. Is this including vaping? Yes ma'am. Yes. Okay if you don't
mind at some point get with me offline I'd like some data on how we're able to track just how effective
we're being with these dollars and if you can also when you get this money what are the restrictions on it. Okay thank you.
All right thank you thank you for coming down. Representative Kavanaugh do you have any more questions?
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
24:02
Keep on going. Thank you so much. This one's going to
be for DHS. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming down. If we could get someone up here from DHS.
Good afternoon, if you would just introduce yourself for the record and then we'll
Speaker 59
24:34
start it with the questions. Mitch Rouse, Chief of Staff.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
24:38
Thank you. Rep. Kavanaugh, you're up. Thank you. This is going to be on your contract number eight. It's with our house in Little Rock and it just says that our house for family crisis stabilization, can you explain to me what it's actually going
to, what service it's going to provide? Getting
Speaker 94
24:59
somebody up here to answer that question.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
25:01
Thank you. Good afternoon sir, if you would just push that button and introduce yourself. Phil Harris, assistant director for TANF DHS. Representative Kavanaugh, you want
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
25:17
to repeat that question? Yes, on your contract number eight with our house for 2.5 million, it just says that it's for family crisis stabilization what are we what does that really entail that's what I'm trying to find out yes
Speaker 99
25:31
ma'am yes ma'am represent that really
entails the we're funding our house to intervene in those families who are experiencing homelessness and those families who are experiencing the risk of homelessness this includes when I say families this includes the children and And so it's a two-generation approach that our house is using both to address the adults of the family, but also address services to the children. So we're doing workforce development services in terms of job preparation, training.
This includes mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, but also for the children out of school time, academic tutoring. Our house has an 80-bed facility here in Pulaski County, and we'll be working with them in the use of that facility.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
26:28
Okay, and it says on here, it says discretionary but exempt disaster relief. So is
this, we're not providing help for people that maybe because of the homelessness, because of the weather
that we had, they don't qualify?
Speaker 105
26:47
Not necessarily. I actually be, to be honest with you, I don't exactly
Speaker 99
26:52
know why that's on there, but these are 100% federal TANF funds and the eligibility criteria for these funds are, you have to be family with children under the age of 18. But if they lost their home and say the tornado, they
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
27:07
could still qualify through our house? Yes ma'am, that is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have one other, which with heritage place of somebody else, heritage
of somebody else's in the. All right. We have one more, so
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
27:25
hang on just a second. Representative Brown, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr.
Harris, is that correct? Harris is your last name? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Harris. I just have a question. This money, will this build additional bed space. Do they currently have an 80 bed capacity or are
Speaker 99
27:45
we adding 80? No, ma'am. They currently have an 80 bed capacity. TANF funds cannot be used for construction or to
build any kind of facility. What these funds would be used to do is rental assistance, crisis intervention, again, mental health counseling, mental health, substance abuse counseling and to provide supportive services to the, to these families. So just to clarify, this doesn't necessarily
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
28:12
mean you're adding, these people be living in the community, not at our house. That's correct.
Okay, thank you. Yes ma'am, thank you. All right members, any other questions for these
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
28:35
gentlemen? Representative Kavanaugh, your questions for these two? Okay, you're recognized. Thank you so much. On this particular thing, this
is covering for Pulaski County, so what about TANF money for all the other
Speaker 99
28:49
areas in the state? Are there monies going to them also? Right now, we're looking to develop a mechanism, an RFP, an RFA, that will be utilized for
for homelessness in other areas of the state. We're also looking to work with our house to learn best practices and be able to work with other organizations throughout the state because we know that it is a problem more than
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
29:14
just in Pulaski County. Yes. So, follow up, Mr. Chair. So, how
did our house apply for this grant? And I don't see any others from any other
Speaker 105
29:26
part of the state. This is actually a continuation of work that we have
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
29:33
Okay, so that's going to ask me another question. If
you're using this to figure out best practices and you've been doing it from 2017, how come we've not addressed the other homelessness
issues in the rest of the state and only still concentrating on Pulaski County?
Speaker 99
29:51
that madam is probably a question I would
Speaker 98
29:54
need to get back with you on to be honest with you I'm not able to answer that
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
30:00
question if you would I'd appreciate that because although I'm all for helping everybody in the state there's more than homelessness in Pulaski County and every one of
us representatives here can tell you about the homelessness we're experiencing in our areas and if we're only since 2017 working with one organization to deal with Pulaski County we're not using the funds to help all Arkansans. Yes, ma'am. And I would
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
30:31
appreciate that. Thank you, Representative. Representative Flowers, you're recognized. Thank you. This kind of piggybacks off of that question, and I'm going to ask, having some familiarity with our house, I know that they're more focused on sustainability
and supporting families for long-term solutions. In Pine Bluff, our only resource is a Salvation Army homeless shelter, and it's temporary. People can only come in and have a warm, safe place to sleep for certain hours. And of course, they're limited in terms of the number of people. So, and then the other place we have is for domestic violence victims, and that's the only place where we have somewhat of a homeless shelter.
And so that puts a great limit. And I guess my question is, as you look to kind of defining the best practices and the successes of our house, which I know cost a lot of money, and they have done a lot of fundraising outside of grants over the years, are there any current dollars available for areas with these issues with a focus on more long-term sustainable outcomes for people with
these problems be it you know drugs or someone who is a veteran or you know what I mean some of the families like is there something in existence for those kinds of programs we
Speaker 99
32:20
would need to really research that for you a little bit we know
Speaker 98
32:26
that clearly TANF funds are available but they are limited in scope because TANF is family centric and we have to work with
those who have children and we all know that homelessness is more than just those that have children we know that HUD has been making money available and and through our continuum of care organizations there are other funding sources that that are available but we we really need to research that for you and come back to you with a more comprehensive answer I'd appreciate it
Speaker 128
32:58
but mr. chair would ask for a real quick follow-up
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
33:02
thank you um so when you say that TANF and I'm asking like really I
have no idea so I'm just for a ballpark can you give us an idea of what those limited funds look like for to address family homelessness like what could any given city county or program within one of those jurisdictions look for either out of the blue or for an existing program like what is the limitation for funds in a given year or biennium well
Speaker 99
33:41
in in terms of I think I'm understand the
question correctly in terms of eligibility the
Speaker 98
33:48
the TANF funds are to be used with those that have children either custodial parents that have children under the age of 18 in terms of what the funds can be used for again in line with what our house is doing, it could be mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, rental assistance, although short-term TANF cannot be used in a long-term methodology,
so the assistance there has to be short-term, less than
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
34:21
four months. I'm sorry, I was really asking like
Speaker 99
34:27
about monetary limitations. Monetary? Yes. Well, in terms of allowable expenditures, TANF cannot be used to build or construct a facility or add to on to a facility I mean how much oh how much okay I'm sorry I misunderstood that question well in terms of how much I don't
I think that based on other allocation of funds of using TANF and
Speaker 98
34:55
in other ways right now TANF recently joined DHS, and we've got some work going with DYS and other programs, so it'd be kind of difficult for me to answer that right now. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Representative. Representative Kavanaugh,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
35:13
you're recognized. You probably want it. Mine's for
Heritage, so you probably need to pass over me. All
right. Just when we get flipped back in in a minute, Representative Milligan,
Representative Jon Milligan
Unverified
35:25
you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm over here, guys. since 2017 how much do you know how much money that our house has been given is it the same amount every year 2.5 or is it varied do you
Speaker 105
35:39
know the total of that money no sir I would have to look that up
Speaker 99
35:45
for you but this this particular increase is quite a bit more substantial than what we've been doing so this is a pretty good expansion of what we've been doing with our house I think 17
somewhere around 300 to 400,000 per year has been in the average. Okay thank you. Members any other questions for these two? Okay.
Representative Kavanaugh. Okay when you said that it
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
36:15
made me have another question. So if you've been historically doing 400,000 why did you feel the need to raise it up to two and a half million but still not put any out in any other part of the state?
Speaker 99
36:30
Well, the answer then is just the expansion of homelessness, the growth of homelessness in this area, and to help our house expand in order to combat that. That would be, that's the answer. And so there's
Speaker 103
36:42
no other parts of the state that have contacted y'all about
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
36:47
needing help with homelessness? No, ma'am. Do they even know that y'all will
give out grants for homelessness? How did our house, is the only one in the state of Arkansas that knows that?
Speaker 105
37:03
No, others know. We advertise, we put our solicitations out and so we've just
Speaker 99
37:08
not received any proposals. Where do you put your solicitations out at? Well, on
Speaker 120
37:17
our website and other places. Representative Kavanaugh, we'll be happy to work
Speaker 144
37:22
with you and anybody else in this committee to make sure we get the word out on that and see how we can use those dollars better. Like he mentioned, this is a new program that just got moved over.
Well, it's new to DHS, right? So I think we're exploring avenues of how to use these TANF dollars and to use them appropriately and making sure that we're servicing all of the state. So we'd be happy to take suggestions or meet with you all on how we can do that better. Yeah, I'd appreciate that because we do have a huge
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
37:51
need throughout the state and it's just odd we got one place that's getting the money, so thank you. Thank you representative. Members, any other questions of these two? All
right, seeing none. Thank you for coming down.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
38:08
I believe representative Kavanaugh has a question for Heritage, if someone here. Good
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
38:29
afternoon. Introduce yourself for the record and we'll
Speaker 149
38:35
get started. Marty Riles, Director, Division of Arkansas Heritage.
Patrick Ralston, Director, Arkansas Arts Council. Representative Cavanaugh, you're
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
38:45
recognized. Thank you so much.
I guess I'm going to go down a similar wormhole with your department on addressing all of Arkansas's needs. When I look through
this list, I see lots of Northwest Arkansas, Central Arkansas, North Central Arkansas. I see one Northeast Arkansas that
got a grant. So my question is, how do you determine who gets the grants
and how do they know to apply? You know, it seems odd that with an area in Northeast Arkansas that is growing, that we only get one
Speaker 151
39:28
grant. Representative Kavanaugh, I, you know, I feel
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
39:31
that in the first district, eastern Arkansas, northeast Arkansas, that's an area where we see a lot of expansion. Certainly, we have the Delta Symphony, which is not listed on here
because these are, of course, grants of $10,000 or over. Foundation of the Arts in Jonesboro, we're in the process right now of actually doing a lot of on-the-ground community work to try to build more awareness in northeast and east Arkansas about the services that we offer, working with the members of our advisory council that are from that area, and we are, I do recognize that problem.
I think that it is a, it's historically been a problem with the Arts Council, that we are not, we're not an agency that should just be serving central and northwest Arkansas, and that's where the money is. But, you know, we have a mandate from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the state to serve every county, every community in the state of Arkansas. And right now, actually, one of my program managers is leading the charge.
We had a meeting about a month ago, what we call a lunch and learn, inviting nonprofit managers to come in and just kind of updating them on what our grants are and that we are changing our grants to serve and to bring in more participants in that region of the state. And how did they get an invite to that meeting? How did they know?
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
41:13
And who came to that meeting? Was it just
northwest and central again, or was there other parts of the state that was included in that meeting?
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
41:22
No, ma'am. We are doing this locally. We're doing it in Jonesboro. We've done it in Osceola. It's, it's been, we, we, we have a full marketing campaign and social media that, that we push out for this. We try to, we're trying to get people who have not previously participated. We're looking for non-profits, very often after school programs that maybe they don't know that they can get a mini grant and hire a teaching artist to conduct a, you know,
after school program or a summer program
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
42:00
right and something you may not be familiar with and I'm very familiar with it because our family started it this is why I know this has happened but there is a theater in Jonesboro that does exactly what you described which is they bring Broadway performers to have after school with children so that they can learn from professionals and it is something that I'm sure
would qualify for some of these grants but again nobody knew
about it nobody knows and that's just one example there
are examples in every one of our districts of arts and you know and Arkansas is full of heritage and arts and symphonies and everything else it's and it's just odd and it's for somebody who represents not Northwest Arkansas or Central Arkansas I don't see a lot of that money gets put anywhere else and it's frustrating I guess I would say so if we could work with you to try to find ways to get it in Northeast Arkansas Southeast
Arkansas East Arkansas the areas that that desperately need the
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
43:10
money. Representative I commit to you that we'll do that. And we're looking at that in several areas of the division that we can reach out to other parts of the state that just on paper don't look like they're getting the share that they should or the attention they should. So we're looking for ways to do that. And we'll reach out to
Speaker 159
43:27
you and make sure in your area and others that we're reaching as many as we
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
43:32
can. Yeah, I sat on the Delta Symphony Board for many, many years,
and it's a struggle to find money for a symphony, just saying. So, anyway, all right, thank you.
Thank you, Representative. Representative Beatty, you're recognized.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
43:47
Well, I was kind of hoping, Mr. Director, that seeing my mic on somewhere, we would mention Southeast Arkansas in those discussions. And you got it in there a little bit toward the end. But looking through these grants, and this is an issue I raised with the former directors and leadership at Heritage.
Looking through the grant awards, I see mentioned in Union County and Eldorado, and I see some in Jefferson at Pine Bluff, but I don't see anything referencing Southeast Arkansas, Ashley Bradley, Chico, Cleveland, Drew, DeShay, Lincoln Counties, nothing there. So my question is, what are you going to do to get the information out through the organizations in southeast Arkansas and what can you do, and we're willing to assist the legislators
that live in those areas with getting that information out to folks to apply for these grants and utilize those funds in our area of the state. A lot of these say statewide, but I think just by looking at the nature of the entity, that's more that you have a draw from throughout the state instead of that these funds have statewide impact. So I would like for you to tell me what you're going to do in southeast Arkansas to make folks aware of the grants that are available and
encourage applicants. And after that point, if they don't apply, then that's one thing. But I'm kind of leaning toward that the information is not being provided out there to these organizations. So could you speak to that? Well, I can speak to it from a
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
45:31
division-wide standpoint that that's something we're evaluating. And part of it is just charting it out. If you lay all these out on a map and look at, you know, where the parts of the state
and find those holes, which we've done in a couple areas. We haven't done it here yet. But just a limited time I've been there, we started looking at, like, Main Street, Arkansas, some of these other programs and looking at how we can reach out to some of the areas where you can just look and see. But I think part of that is going to be reaching out to members here in your communities and other leaders in the communities, whether it's the Chamber of Commerce, because we all know that the arts and those kind of things are an economic driver in the state. And the rural parts of the state are areas where they need that as much or more than anyone else.
So I'll commit to you that we're going to be evaluating that and finding ways that we can do that. And like you said, all we can do is make the information available. But I think they're hungry for it
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
46:30
and we'll apply for it. And we'll look to make sure that happens. Yeah, because I'm just going to state that 6% of that $1.2 million that was awarded in South Arkansas, and I'm talking El Dorado, with two there in El Dorado and one in Pine Bluff, is way too small an amount to be invested in that region of the state
where the arts and culture and heritage is too vitally important. and there aren't avenues of funding and sources that can contribute to those organizations. It's vitally important, and 6% is just too low of a number. Yes, sir. Thank you, Representative Beatty.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
47:07
Quick question. This is a grant program that you do every year. Is this amount about typical, and is this about typical of how it's dispersed?
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
47:18
Mr. Chairman, historically, I would say that we're dispersing it a little bit wider every year, but I think typically this is probably pretty typical of the past. That's the reason that we're doing more of our in-person expansion work in east, northeast, and south Arkansas. We, you know, 90% of success is just showing up, and I think in the past it's
been easy for us to send out emails and send out social media and just assume that that is going to have statewide coverage, and that's not true. And we are in the process of actually coming into the communities, working with mayors, working with representatives and senators, and trying to basically, we're trying to build infrastructure, organizational interest and infrastructure in places where we've just never had it.
The arts are out there. It's just that they need to be connected with us so that we can provide the services and
the grants. What is the total amount that is collected? I guess
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
48:38
some of this is, I guess it comes from all different places, conservation tax, the Wingate Foundation, I mean, are you expecting in the next fiscal year to spend at least this much and disperse it more widely or do you, is there more money coming
in to do these things? I can tell you, I mean, we're a granting
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
48:59
agency of 70, about 70 to 75 percent of our, of what we, of our operating budget is grants and this year our total budget comes out to be about 1.9, our total grant budget comes out to be about 1.9 million dollars. It is a lot, you know, there are some grants that push, that, that are wider, wider available or are used wider across the state. Many grants because they're,
they're easier to match. A lot of schools use those. My hope is that these general operating support grants by, that's, that's kind of a, that's a grant that goes to an organization that is doing art programs in a community. I mean, they, that's, they, they, that's bricks and mortar and so we want to expand those services into the areas where we're just not seeing a lot of them. Okay. Thank you. Representative
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
50:00
Beatty, you're recognized. Just, just a request. Maybe this would
be more meaningful if we had maybe a heat map or something showing exactly where these funds have been expended in the state. And let's do it over a maybe five-year or 10-year period since you've been doing this. And let's look at that and see what that looks like graphically with an image that we can see. If that's something that y'all can do. We'll put that together. Representative, what we'll do
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
50:23
also is because the grants you see here are those that are over the amount of 10,000. There are lesser amount of grants that go out that aren't on this list, that don't require legislative review, but we'll include
those. Please do. My guess, some of those are going into the smaller, I'm just guessing. I hope so. Some of the smaller ones may be in some of those smaller communities, but we'll see. We'll put that together and share it. Is that something you have the
capability of doing and you can get to staff, get it to the committee members? Yes, absolutely. I'd
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
50:51
be glad to share it with all of you.
Thank you. Representative Wardlaw, you're recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Marty, you
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
50:58
and I talked this morning. Do you know any kind of timeline on when we could see some of that for that monument? I don't, but I talked to the
gentleman that after we spoke that runs that for us, and he said that is certainly something we can do. We have a committee that it'll have to go through as far as the wording that goes on the monument, but securing the monument and getting it placed shouldn't be a problem. Thank you, sir. All right, members.
Any other questions? Anybody? All right.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
51:36
Seeing none of these items will be, without objection, will stand reviewed. All right, Ms. Cathy.
Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks
Speaker 176
51:44
for coming. Next on the agenda is the e-packet. These are our contracts. On the first page
Speaker 8
51:51
is the letter from Mr. Armstrong, the Director of the Office of State Procurement. He notes that no contract that they are submitting appear to have been procured in violation of Arkansas procurement law. The first group of contracts that we start with are construction-related contracts on E1, beginning on page 2 of the E packet. Arkansas Heritage has the first
two contracts for architectural and design services. These are their on-call contracts. ASU Three Rivers, number three, has an amendment to an existing on-call contract. Number four is the Health Department. This is the Engineering Consultant. This is for installation of an owner-furnished cooling tower for the Arkansas Department of Health at the West Markham Street location. Number five is DHS, and this is Engineering and Architectural Design Services
for Wastewater and Domestic Water Systems at Boonville Human Development Center. Number six, Military Department for Military Professional Design Services. This is the addition to the RMTC Gym on Camp Robinson in North Little Rock, and it's an addition to an existing metal building. It's going to result in additional gym space, office, and clinical space. Natural Resources Commission, number seven, is an original on-call professional engineering services contract for them.
UA Fayetteville begins at number eight. The first one there is an on-call architectural services contract. Number nine is architectural services contract. This is the contract going for Yoakum Hall renovations that we saw the MOF and the ADM earlier. Number 10, U.A. Fayetteville, this is an original construction contract for professional services for the Arkansas Union interior fit-out for student organizations project. And number 11 is U.A. Fayetteville for engineering and design services on-call contract.
Number 12, at the bottom of page 5, is UALR. This is for architectural design services. This is for the Trojan Way and Library Plaza Renovation Project, and those are the construction-related contracts on today's agenda. All right, members, any questions on these items? All right, seeing
none without objection, these items will stand reviewed. The next group of
Speaker 6
54:16
contracts that we look at are intergovernmental contracts, beginning on page seven.
Speaker 8
54:22
The first one is a DHS one, but I have been asked by the agency to pull this contract, so the legislature will not be reviewing this today. Number two is National Park College, and this is with the Garland County Sheriff. It's for armed security services. Number three, Veterans Affairs with UAMS. This is for occupational, physical, and speech therapy to residents of the Arkansas State Veterans Home in Fayetteville. And on the next page, number four, is Veterans Affairs,
also with UAMS, and this is for a medical director for the Fayetteville home. Those are the intergovernmental contracts.
Chair
Unverified
54:59
All right, members, Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized. Thank you,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:03
Mr. Chair. Mine's going to be for Veterans' Affairs on their contract number four.
Speaker 179
55:09
All right, someone here from Veterans' Affairs?
Good afternoon. If you just would push your button, introduce yourself,
Chair
Unverified
55:30
and we'll get the question going. Scott Stanger, Chief
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:35
of Staff, Veterans Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mine is actually on the medical director for the Fayetteville home. I noticed that that's a contract with UAMS in Little Rock. So is that an employee of UAMS that's acting as the medical director there? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And...
Speaker 182
55:53
They are actually at the UAMS facility in Fayetteville, though.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
55:56
Okay. And he worked, I'm assuming they worked for UAMS and then they still work for you also? That is correct. Okay. Can you explain to me
Speaker 182
56:08
how that works? Yes. When we have certain diagnosis or certain minor services that we have to provide for our veterans in the Fayetteville home, the Fayetteville home is a wing of the UAMS facility up there. it was easier for us to get a director of medical services from there,
a medical doctor to come essentially walking through the building and providing those services for us. Okay. And I'm assuming
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
56:36
we're paying this directly to UAMS and not the doctor? That is correct. So
the doctor's salary is actually in UAMS's budget? That
is correct. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you, Representative. Members, any other questions?
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
56:52
Thank you for coming down. Members, any other questions on items E2?
Seeing none without objection, these items will stand reviewed. All
Speaker 6
57:01
right, Kathy. The next group of contracts begin on page 10. These are
Speaker 8
57:05
the out-of-state contracts. The first one there is ASU Jonesboro, and this is an original new contract to provide diploma credentialing solutions. Number two is an amendment to an existing contract a Department of Finance Administration has with Alvarez and Marcel, and this is for continuation of current work that they're doing as well as additional work items to be performed,
and this is for the financial viability assessment for rural hospitals. Number three is Development Finance Authority for Student Loan Capital Strategies, and this is a contract for the Student Loan Authority, which is a part of that agency now. DFA Management Services, this is for, with Computer A, this is staff augmentation to maintain the DFA IT systems. Number five, DTSS Building Authority, this is to provide unarmed security guard services
to the BG Hendricks Building in Fort Smith. Number six, Economic Development Commission with Kerasoft, this is for broadband bead initial proposal, and that is the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment. program. Number seven, this is Health Department. I received a request from them today to remove this from a review today, so we'll not be looking at that contract. Number eight, Health Department. This is a contract for updating security system access control devices. Number
nine, this is an amendment to the contract that Health Department has for removal and disposal of hazardous medical waste. Number 10, Health Department, this is an original contract to conduct a feasibility study and evaluate the current management information system named SPIRIT and other MIS solutions that align with the Women, Infrared and Children program technology needs. On the next page, we're on page 13, contract number 11 is an original contract for
DHS. This is for highly qualified skilled nursing and other medical personnel for positions that they need at the Arkansas Health Center and other agency facilities. Number 12, this is for DHS, and I want to go ahead and note that there are going to be several contracts on today's agenda for DHS that are no dollar amount being added to the contract, but for one reason or another, rates changes are being made or scope i'll explain that as we get to them but this is the first one
and this one is an amendment and again it is no dollar amount being added to this but the they're updating the scope to continue the electronic benefit transfer services for delivery of cash and supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits the next page number 13 and number 14 are both going to be for DHS. These are original new contracts for nursing and medical staffing services for the Arkansas Human Development Centers. Number 15 on page 15
is DHS, and this is an amendment to an existing contract, and this is for the Arkansas Medicaid Enterprise Information Technology Project Management Office. This has to do with some training that's taking place with that. Number 16 is a contract DHS has with Deloitte and this is their information technology consulting for Department of Human Services. Number 17 is state police and they are purchasing and installing
equipment in first responder vehicles while utilizing the TIPS cooperative contract number 18 on page 16 is state police for pre-employment and fit for duty physicals number 19 is state police for their Medicare Part D and retiree subsidies services number 20 is state police and this is an original contract for ASP promotional process and this one is done as a special procurement so on
pages one through five in the pale pink packet we have information and on this particular request the state police requested a special procurement for hiring and uh for the promotional text testing services which was required originally due to a court-ordered settlement agreement from uh discretionary practices that they had and so in 1998 this vendor was selected to develop examinations for these services and their process is proprietary in nature and has been successful.
And the state police was recently released from their current consent degree, but want to continue with new contract for seven years. OSP, however, has approved the contract for one year and asked the state police if they want to develop an RFP if these services are needed past that approved period time number 21 on page 16 is ua community college at hope this is a contract amendment for additional modules of their website design contract number 22 start some contracts for
ua fayetteville the first one is for their broker consultant services by gas procurement firm to support ua with management of gas procurement number 23 ua fable for global advisory and support services to assist in development of comprehensive global operations risk management program number 24 consultant services for data strategy number 25 professional services for cloud foundations UA Fayetteville number 26
is a contract original contract for advisory services pertaining to investment management of operative funds number 27 is UA this is actually UA system, and this is theirs for short term, excuse me, short term operating funds management contract. Number 28, UA Fayetteville, this is an original contract that they have for grant writing and proposal revision. This has to do with the Division of Agriculture. On page 19, contract number 29 is for UALR, and
and this is for their student navigation services. Number 30, UAMS with Computer Aid Incorporated to provide web development database administration and report development resources for the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement and the Arkansas All Payers Claims Database. Number 31 is Veterans Affairs. This is a contract for Polaris Group MDS services. MDS service, that's the minimum data set measures for health status for nursing home residents.
The next two are both for workforce services. The first one, number 32, is UA Call Center Management. This one is also done as a special procurement. The letter, the pink packet, has pages six through nine are the letters pertaining to this particular contract. It says that they've been operating through emergency authority in regards to COVID for UI modernization project, but emergency authority has expired.
They requested 12 months for special procurement extension of existing contract. OSP has approved it for six months, and so this contract will end 12-31-23. The number 33, also for Workforce Services, is another special procurement for a grants management system. And on this, they had entered into an agreement with this company through a cooperative contract that has expired. And OSP has approved this particular contract for an additional year.
Those are all of the out-of-state contracts on today's agenda. that. All right. Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized. Thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:05:19
you, Mr. Chair. I have several questions, but my first one's going to be for DF&A Management Services. Who's that again? DF&A Management
Services. Okay. Can we get someone from DF&A? Good afternoon. Introduce yourself for the record and then we'll get Representative
Kavanaugh's questions. Andy Babbitt, DFA. Melanie Haislip, DFA. Representative Kavanaugh. of Kavanaugh. Thank you Mr. Chair. My question is going to be on contract number four which is on our page number 11 and it's for computer aid and we had just done an amendment for 5.1 million dollars on that with the expiration date of 9 30 of 2025. Why are we now adding an additional 714
Speaker 193
1:06:21
thousand to that. Okay subsequent to our initial amendment it came to our attention that we
Speaker 194
1:06:28
had certain functionalities and processes that were really at the end of their life that had not been factored into that original amendment so we're coming back today to ask for the additional resources for a couple of years to go ahead and automate functions that
Speaker 195
1:06:43
we have now. Okay I guess my question is what what are they going
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:06:48
to do for the we're already paying on
5.1 million so what are you going to do for the 714,000 that they weren't doing for the 5.1 what
did we miss? I'm sorry. I know
Speaker 194
1:07:09
you talked about functionality but what did we miss? So we have certain processes that deal with with state payroll that are currently the methodology we're using and the technology we're using. Is it end of life? And so the $700,000 for the two years will provide up
to 4,000 hours of staff resources, a very specific type of programming that SAP utilizes. and we're going to automate that function from what we're doing now to where we're going to be. If we don't need all 4,000 hours, we will not expend this whole 700,000. Okay,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:07:50
and so for this contract, and it shows, so basically we're at 5.9 million or pretty close to it.
So when that comes in 25, 930, 25, we're not going to need this contract at all with computer aid. we're done with them? Is that an assumption that
Speaker 195
1:08:12
is right or not right? I would say it may be
Speaker 194
1:08:18
helpful if TSS procurement comes up. My understanding of computer aid is it's a cooperative agreement that we continually sign on to and agencies can come to this existing
contract and contract for specific resources as needed for staff augmentation. So from DF&A's standpoint, when we get to 9-30-2025, we will reevaluate the need for additional staff augmentation and whether it was still needed. As far as the main contract, that would be state procurement
Speaker 200
1:08:47
that can answer that. Okay, so you're saying in 25, you may
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:08:52
come to us and say, hey, we still need to spend $5.1 million from them to continue this type of process?
Speaker 194
1:09:03
I would hate to put a number to it, but we may come back. I'll unpack this a little bit more. The specific type of programming we need for SAP is a proprietary language that SAP utilizes in their current system, and it is very difficult for the state to hire those individuals and retain them. So we're left with
Speaker 198
1:09:29
utilizing a contract such as this to get them in on an as
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:09:34
needed basis. Okay, so we're using a language that it's hard for us to hire somebody in-house to do and we're going to keep a system where we
Speaker 195
1:09:47
can't actually do our own maintenance on our systems? We do our own maintenance on
Speaker 194
1:09:52
our own system. The language as we modernize our system We'll become more, shall we say, standardized as to current languages. However, the core functionality is still an SAP product. And it's not that we can't do our own maintenance.
It's hard to retain these individuals. SAP is utilized by a number of very large corporations in Arkansas. And those people hire away from us, hire our staff away, because they can pay more. And so we're left to
Speaker 195
1:10:20
utilize a contract such as this. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mr. Chair,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:10:25
my other questions are not for DFA. Okay. Anyone have any more
questions for DFA? All right. Thank you for coming down.
Speaker 100
1:10:37
Economic Development Commission would be my next one.
You say human development? Economic development. Economic development. Okay. Good afternoon. You would just, when
Speaker 204
1:11:02
you're ready, introduce yourself for the record and we'll get started.
Speaker 162
1:11:06
Good afternoon. Jim Hudson, Chief of Staff, Department of Commerce.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:11:09
Glenn Howey, State Broadband Director. All right, Representative Kavanaugh. Thank you. This is on our contract number six, page 11, and it's for the broadband bead
the initial proposal, can you explain what that is actually doing? Yes,
Speaker 207
1:11:26
ma'am. So, as you may have heard a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Arkansas is going to receive a little over a billion dollars through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This portion of IJA is called BEAD, or Broadband Equity Access and Deployment. So out of the 42.45 billion nationwide, Arkansas is getting a little over a billion.
Now we don't have it yet. So in order to unlock those funds, we have to produce what's called an initial proposal and it's essentially a roadmap for the next several years of how the state anticipates
Speaker 162
1:11:59
to complete the build and upgrade that has to happen as it relates to broadband infrastructure. Okay, that's going to
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:12:06
bring my question is, I thought we hired a consultant when we were We're using these ARPA monies and COVID monies and whatever monies we were putting at broadband that we hired a consultant to kind of help us lay out a map about how we needed to address
it in the state and that we used it wisely and we didn't just give it to areas that were already
Speaker 207
1:12:30
covered. Why do we need another one? Yes, ma'am. So I would say first that BDG, they did a really great job. They improved the program across several facets. They introduced project footprints from the state's perspective. We think that was great. We incorporated that into the last round. They incorporated an interest and focus on affordability that needed to be in the program. They also incorporated some other scoring matrix that needed to happen to make sure we had a truly competitive process across the state.
And it helped us get through the capital projects fund round, that $150 or so million of projects that we just ran. And with this new bucket of funding comes new requirements. And so U.S. Commerce is requiring us to do an entirely new document that covers 20 different pieces of what they would at least consider to be relevant to infrastructure build. And so U.S. Commerce has said, okay, Arkansas, you have to do this new plan with these 20 requirements.
We're going to give you $5 million to go find some folks to help you do it. and we hope to and we plan to build upon what BDG was able to accomplish for us the improvements that they made and incorporate that and then go above and beyond that with this new document so I guess my
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:13:42
question is the work that they did for us we're not just throwing that out the door this that's going to be the foundation and then we're
going to go from that yes ma'am okay I appreciate that an answer's question but Jim you might want to stay because I have a question for workforce services.
All right. Members, any other questions before we go?
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:14:04
Representative Kavanaugh, you can go ahead. Thank you. Jim, this is on workforce services. It is for the,
to complete the allocation system for the UI modernization is talking about, I guess we're calling in to get help and I guess that's my question is, I still have a lot of constituents that tell me that when they call in to kind of get an answer with the phone, they still have long wait times and they get hung up on or they've got somebody
that can't answer a question. Is this going to help solve part of that problem? It will
Speaker 212
1:14:44
help on maintenance of effort, but let me get some of the DWS folks to the table to join me in answering that
Speaker 213
1:14:50
question for you. Okay. But as they're coming up, let me just say this. I think long wait times are unacceptable. We need to be able to answer people's questions as quickly as possible. It's just that sometimes, just depending upon what's happening at the part of the month, it could be folks who are on vacation, staffing issues, or something happening in the overall economy.
But we are working with DWS to make sure we have the right monitoring tools in place. So if that, you know, a hold time is getting to an unacceptable level, we're surging resources in the office to get people on the phones to bring that wait time down. So we agree with you. We need to do better on that. But I'll let them speak to the actual contract itself. Yeah, because I have constituents
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:15:30
that talk about holding for hours. Yes, ma'am. And then when they get somebody, they're like, I can't help you.
So, but yes, if you could. Would you push the
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:15:45
button, introduce yourselves before you start? Yes, sir.
Speaker 123
1:15:48
Kristen Rhodes-Berry, the Assistant Director of the Unemployment Insurance Program. Courtney Traylor, Deputy Director of Internal
Speaker 222
1:15:57
Operations at DWS. Thank you. On the call hold time specifically, we are in the process of trying to reallocate resources. It is difficult to train staff to understand the UI program. It's about a six-month onboarding period to make it where they can be helpful.
We have tried several things to help assist with the call times. We've actually implemented a two-tier system. Unfortunately, claimants still go to tier one with the intention of tier one being your shorter issues, the ones that are quicker to turn, and then tier two being those that are more complicated to kind of streamline the process so those more simple issues can get taken care of quicker. Unfortunately, claimants have figured that out, and so they click on the first tier even when they have a longer question, and then we're having to transfer them back to tier
two, which is actually increasing their wait times. The last time I pulled that statistic, which was on yesterday, our hold time average for yesterday was an hour and 46 minutes, which is a long time, I understand
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:16:57
that, and we are doing everything we can to address that. It's easy to forget that back when the UI program was housed in only the local
Speaker 222
1:17:05
office, there were several people who would wait all day to get an answer. It's a different method. The people who are getting the services don't
see the other people in line, and I think that that also has an effect on how they feel about being on hold for that period of
Speaker 225
1:17:23
time. If I can add to that, one of the things that we've asked EWS to
Speaker 213
1:17:28
do is we know we have higher turnover in this area, and so we need to just have a process on a continuous basis where we're advertising, we're recruiting, and we're training, knowing that the turnover is going to get us to a certain baseline so we don't have to wait six months to get somebody up to speed.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:17:46
A hour and 45 minutes isn't acceptable. No, I mean, let's face it, we're closing offices down, people can't go in face-to-face, so the option that they have a lot of times is calling in, and that's why we ask them to file online, we ask them to call, and then when I got a constituent says, listen, I was on hold two hours, and when I got there, they said, I can't help you with that, I'll have the transfer to somebody else and most of the time these constituents are people that need help now
they're they're trying to figure out how they're going to pay their bills or whatever I mean during the pandemic it was massive hold times but we're we're past the pandemic now and we're not improving any and I mean I'm sure all of us will have constituents that say yeah I can't get any help can you call somebody Fran and see what you get done I don't mind doing it but I can't do it for every one of them because they don't call me and but I they really shouldn't have to and what do we have to do to fix that issue I
guess is my question and if this contract isn't going to do that what's
Speaker 228
1:19:01
going to do it yes ma'am I understand and this contract will help us it's about a a 15 to 18 month process that we have for modernizing our UI system, so we are in process of getting there. It's just, it's a big change, and so it's taking us a while, but as soon as we get to modernization, we won't have to manually handle
all the claims as much. There'll be a lot more automation, so I do see that it will get better. It's just taking us a while to get there. Also with the staff turnover and then trying to have staff to test and implement the system as well as address the claim that's on the phone. We're challenged with that as well, but we're trying to be agile and adjust as that demand
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:19:52
increases. UI is an odd beast.
You have to understand UI. And the only reason I talk about this is because I've had to handle all my unemployment claims throughout 23 years with y'all, so I kind of understand the process. But it's a different kind of beast and it takes a lot of knowledge that sometimes when you hire somebody, they just don't have it. Are we trying to develop a program where we can keep those people with that institutional knowledge of UI? Because I see that our bench is not real deep in UI. We've lost a lot of people that understood UI. Are we working to try to retain those employees
Speaker 224
1:20:27
so that we don't? Yes, ma'am. you Secretary
Speaker 213
1:20:31
McDonald is he's laser focused on this issue and as somebody who comes from the private sector having been president of energy Arkansas he knows the right questions to ask and so we are trying to figure out what we can do to address maybe some of the classification issues that relate to compensation that's one thing already mentioned to you on the staffing end of things what can we do to have more people continuously in the pipeline so we are training them you're right it is a technical area it's not like we can
just train somebody for about a half a week and they can be, you know, in production. Can't do that. So we're working on short-term fixes. But to Courtney's point, when we talk about modernization, I think what we think of in that oftentimes are just things that we're doing on the computer system. It certainly is part of that. But our computer system is so archaic, that means our business processes are incredibly archaic, which requires an inordinate amount of human intervention to get a claim through the process. We've got to modernize the system so we can simplify the system so it doesn't require having maybe a 30 to 45-minute phone call
to get something unstuck so that, for example, we can get off the mainframe, where we're still on a mainframe with green screens, if you can believe that, and get to a different platform in the cloud so that we don't have to turn the system off every single night at 6 o'clock. We could extend our customer service hours and take some evening calls. Right now, we can't do that because the system's inaccessible.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:21:59
Okay. I appreciate that. I mean, I just
know it's an ongoing issue that I know I experience. I'm sure all of us get the phone calls from the constituents.
Speaker 229
1:22:09
We just want y'all to know that we care about it, too, and it's a problem, and
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:22:16
we don't want to see that number that high. I appreciate that. Mr. Chair, the rest of my questions are
going to be for DHS. I'll get out.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:22:24
Somebody else has got a question. Okay. Representative Meeks, you recognize. So just kind of following up on that, I know during the pandemic, there were efforts to try to install a new online system to try to be able to handle a lot of this. But then after a while, I guess that was scrapped to try to develop in-house. Where are y'all at on the online
platforms where people can self-service to try to get their concerns met so that they don't even need to do a phone call. And then my, I guess, part B to that, where are you at as far as getting those antiquated systems modernized? Let y'all speak to that, yeah. Go ahead. Okay. So, as Courtney-
Microphone. Microphone. So sorry. As Courtney indicated, the 18-month plan is to get us off of the mainframe.
Then we're, our plan is to do things like institute some auto adjudication to
Speaker 222
1:23:15
let people make decisions quicker, to institute some things like a tracker where they can online see where their claim is in its process. Those are our first things after we get through the next 18 months, but we have to get through the 18 months before we can put any of the bells and whistles on it to where the public is going to see that that change has made a difference. Any way to speed that
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:23:36
up so we're not having to wait 18 months to get the modernization, or is that just the best we can do right now?
Speaker 213
1:23:43
Well, moving off the mainframe is a part of modernization. You know, the sort of customization that Kristen's talking about, we can't do a lot of that until we're off the mainframe, right? And so that's a part of it. You know, we are evaluating ways to accelerate that timeline to maybe have some incentives for the contractor to be able to get it done a little bit sooner. We're exploring things like that.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:24:07
Kind of another follow-up, if you don't mind. This will be my last question. As far as getting off mainframes and into the cloud,
are you working with DIS on that? Are you looking at going on to our own systems or private systems or, it sounds like you are working with DIS to try to get this done as quickly as possible. Yeah, Director
Speaker 213
1:24:27
Askins is intimately involved in this process and we're following his lead on
it. Excellent, thank you. Thank you Representative. Representative Beatty, you're recognized.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:24:36
I'm just following up, you said it was an hour and 45 minute
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:24:40
wait. Yes, sir. That was yesterday. Now, keep in mind, Monday is always our busiest day because everybody who had an issue claiming their week on Sunday all calls first thing on Monday.
And then yesterday morning, we did have a slight technical issue with our phone system that we were able to remedy by about 9-10, but that
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:24:59
did put us behind. So that's just the one day. That was just for Monday, the average wait time, not that that's the historical average wait time that you would
call in. Could you provide us just with some information on the call volume, the number of calls that you take over a period, I don't know, maybe a month or something along those lines, as well as the number of personnel that you have that are answering those calls and fielding those calls?
I think that might be something that, I mean, we all see, I guess, the jobless claims and things along those lines that we have in the state. we've got a large portion of our population working, but I think that would be useful information for us to look at and maybe feel some of the pain that not only your staff
is dealing with, but our constituents are dealing with, so I'd like to see some of that information. We can do that. We can do that. Thank you. Representative Brown, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:26:05
Thank you all for being here. I am just curious. I
have worked in customer service and taken those calls before for different companies. But I've noticed that customer service these days often says, if you would like a callback, you won't lose your place in line. Do you all try anything like that, or does that just fill your funnel even that fuller? Well,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:26:32
we have researched that, and that has been mentioned by not just you, but other
parties as well, and we have looked at it. We have not found a system that provides all of the recording and statistics that we do that also allows that process that is FedRAMP approved because we are discussing very personal information. That doesn't mean that there's not one out there, but we haven't seen one. Yeah, I
Speaker 225
1:26:56
think it also gets back to what I mentioned a little earlier in terms of the very shortened day, relatively speaking, because
Speaker 213
1:27:03
of being on the mainframe. So if we redirect folks to make those return phone calls,
we've got to take them out taking live calls. So that's going to back up the queue for those folks. And we've got to be done before 6 o'clock so that we can do the batch processing that's required because we're on a mainframe. But that exact question, Representative Brown, I think we asked them a couple of weeks ago, like, when I'm dealing with the airline, I get that return phone call, and I always sign up for it. Can we explore that?
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:27:33
We're looking at it. Thank you. And another thing I'm curious about, you say it's difficult to get people trained
so they can answer the questions. Although their operations is on the mainframe, do you have an online access, like an operation manual, so that it's kind of cross-referenced and hyperlinked and all that sort of stuff so they can get to the answer quicker? It's not quite that
Speaker 222
1:27:57
simple. I wish we were there. We're not quite there yet. Because the system is antiquated, the interface is better than the mainframe,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:28:04
but not by a whole lot. So you still have to touch multiple pieces to be able to accomplish the one thing that you're trying to do.
as well as make service file notes for tracking and tagging things. So there are directions written. We do have directions for staff, but unfortunately it's not really a situation where you can go through steps one through five and you're done. It's more like these are the tools you have available. Which tool do you need, a screwdriver or a hammer? Okay, and
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:28:34
just one other question. So you might have people who have less training than others. You might have your experts. Yes, ma'am.
Can you keep them off the phone and let your people that are on the phone then forward those questions to the
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:28:51
experts so you might develop an answer quicker? Yes. During the pandemic, we lost quite a few staff. We went from 240 to 165. That's a huge drop for us. And all that experience also walked out
Speaker 222
1:29:03
the door. Most of our experienced staff are either in our UI technical unit, which handles the more complex issues already, or the adjudication unit that's actually making decisions
on if the person should be eligible or not. Our service center, our frontline staff, and they are not as well trained as our
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:29:21
more expert staff. And one final question. Do you feel that you lost the staff due to
Speaker 138
1:29:28
pay scale? Personally, I do. Well, that's part of it, but also the fact that the funding
Speaker 213
1:29:33
overall, we don't get any state GR for running the unemployment system. That's all federally funded. and the feds modulate the funding level depending upon what's happening in the overall economy.
So all that COVID money has come out of the system at this point, and we have to fund the agency and staff the agency consistent with what the feds are giving us. And so we do not have the budget for 200-plus people at this point. But your salaries are based on the state pay scale? Yes, ma'am, they are. Thank you very much. And I'm
Speaker 222
1:30:02
sorry, could I add one more thing? That is not the only reason that I think there's a problem. It's also very difficult to listen to people crying and cursing all day long. I understand. Yes, ma'am. Representative Rye, last question. You're
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:30:18
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jim, I heard y'all mention about the computer system about 15 or 20 minutes ago and how you thought it was in bad condition. Bad is a
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:30:34
Yes, but let me ask you this, Jim. Is this the time to upgrade? Are we there? Oh yeah, that work
Speaker 204
1:30:42
is underway. It's just going to take a while to get us there, but I think that is the
Speaker 213
1:30:48
most strategic initiative the Department of Commerce
has right now, is getting the unemployment system to a modern platform, and we take it very seriously. It's going to be a significant monetary investment. This body was very helpful to us and helping us create a fund to modernize the system, $35 million that we have available for that. And so we're going to be modernizing that thing. It just takes a while to get the effort completed. All
right. That, I believe, is the last question that we have.
Excuse me, Senator Filippo, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr.
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
1:31:24
Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to remind our members that the purview of this committee is to look at these contracts and to make sure that they are falling in
line with our state procurement laws. And I always try to give latitude to members, you know, and I've been there myself, but would respectfully ask that we start at this point in the meeting, start to reign these in and make sure that our questions are in line with our state procurement laws as they pertain to these contracts and how they were handled. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator DeVopo.
Representative Carr, did you have a question? You're good? Okay. All right. Thank you for coming down. Thank you,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:32:02
Mr. Chairman. Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have two quick
questions for DHS. Two quick questions. All right. Welcome back, Representative Kavanaugh. Representative Kavanaugh, you're
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:32:28
Thank you so much. This is really dealing with your contract 15
and 16. Contract 15 is dealing with the Arkansas Medicaid Enterprise Technology. And we're adding 5.7. And I'm just making sure that this 5.7, we're adding scope to the original $38 million that we're giving them. Is this going to be an increase each time to the contract?
Speaker 264
1:32:58
I've got Jeff Dean coming up, he should
Speaker 265
1:33:09
have the answer. Jeff Dean, DHS CIO. This 5.7 is very specific and it's a time limited function. Much like earlier you heard DWS talking about the need for testers and having to test a new system out, the system AR Focus, our new child welfare system that's replacing Chris, has been around for over 20 years, we needed testers for that system and this scope is
to directly address that. So by the end of next year, we expect this to
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:33:37
drop off. Okay, so it's not going to be one that gets added to the next. Okay. And on
16, the contract with Delote, we talk about that we're trying to create efficiencies. Are we ever going to get to where we have an efficiency to where we're not paying them $24 million?
Speaker 265
1:33:57
$24 million is a lot of money, and I agree. We do expect to come way in under budget
on this for our original projected, so there are portions of it that are there just in case we need it, that we have not leveraged like some as-needed services. We use very little of that funding, but long story short, the predecessor of this contract in 2017 was charging us $30 million dollars a year so we have managed to whittle it down so but there were also some very major systems like our answer system which was our old Medicaid snap system which has been replaced now so that is rolled off so we're seeing cost
reductions and I do expect the next this is your seven of this contract so and I know there will be some inflation due to higher salaries and stuff out there but But I do expect for the next contract to be less and to continue on that pattern. That's the pattern we're trying to go on. Okay. I
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:34:58
appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, these items will stand reviewed and that takes us
Speaker 8
1:35:05
to E4, Catherine. Next is in-state contracts beginning on page 21 of the e-packet.
The first one is agricultural department. This is an amendment for a consultant to provide custom-built solution that will allow ag to streamline their system with their goal of higher efficiency. Number two is Department of Transformation and Shared Services Building Authority, janitorial services for the MAC building. Number three, janitorial services for the Rockefeller building. Number four, also building authority for janitorial services for Justice building.
Number five is Health Department. This is an amendment for the contract they have for their armed security guard services. And number six, Health Department for chemical waste collection and transport and disposal. Number seven is DHS. This is for specialized rehabilitative services for severe needs patients. Number eight is for continuing the health and well-being program for DHS. numbers 9 through 11 are all going to be the same again these are more of those
contracts that are changing the reimbursement to current Medicaid rates and so these are adding $0 amounts number 9 through 11 number number 11 is also it does add some money to that particular contract for the counseling services number 12 is DHS and it's for continuing substance abuse treatment services number 13 on page 27 is for counseling services and to change the
fee structure number 14 again the same for counseling services number 15 is no dollar being added but it's for substance abuse services statewide for fee reimbursement change. Number 16 on page 29 is for outpatient and or residential substance abuse treatment services for DCFS. Number 17, number 18 are both for concerning outpatient
and or residential substance abuse treatment services. Number 19 is another contract for counseling services. Number 20 is to provide nursing and medical staffing services for human development centers. Number 21 is to amend to advise the rate sheet for the juvenile justice community-based reentry and vocational and career and support services in Region 5.
And number 22 is for Consolidated Youth Services. This is for, again, for, there are several for Youth Services. It's going to be number 22 through, looks like through 30 are all going to be for the Juvenile Justice Community-Based Reentry and Vocational Career Support Services. This is where they are changing the rate for that with no dollars being added.
Number 31 is for Natural Resources Commission. This is an amendment to a contract they have for CPA audit services. Numbers 32 and 33 are both going to be for Nursing Board. This is to provide investigations upon request for Arkansas Department of Health Board of Nursing. Number 34, Public Employee Retirement for Private Equity Consultant. This is an original contract. Number 35 is the State Police for the administration of their dental and vision insurance for the State Police Uniform Health Plan.
And now we're going to take up the contract that's on the supplemental agenda for the suspension of the rules that was approved earlier. You'll find the contract on—there's information on page 3 about it, and then you'll find the contract on page 4. It is an amendment, again, this is another one of the ones not adding any dollars, but it's for the counseling services changing the current Medicaid rates, and so that takes care of the supplemental agenda item.
That's all of the in-state contracts on today's agenda. Members,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:39:39
any questions? Seeing none, these items will stand reviewed.
Speaker 8
1:39:44
Mr. Chairman, the next thing we have on our agenda are our reports. The F packet is going to be your report. There are three types of reports, and those are available for you, and then we have one other item on the agenda under other business. That would be—this would be an approval item. It is regarding actions of the board of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority
awarding additional funding and benefits to entities owned in part by Senator Jim Petty. In doing this, they need to receive prior approval of both the governor and this legislative council. On page 25 of the package, you'll see that the governor has signed off on this. And in March of 23, they voted to award certain benefits to a company that is partially owned by a General Assembly member.
And so this is a way of disclosing that information to this committee. I also have provided you with a document that was received today that has to do with an advisory opinion that was received and shared with the committee. so we have all of the documentation and that is, again, an approval item.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
1:41:22
Senator Petty, you're recognized. Thank you. Sorry about that. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's obvious, but I'm going to recuse myself from any vote on this
action. Duly noted. Members, you've heard the discussion on the item in
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:41:43
G1. Do we have a motion to approve? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? All right. The ayes have it. That
Item will stand approved. Members seeing no other business, thank
you for your inquisitive nature. We are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order - Comments from Chairs
B. Methods of Finance
C. General Contractors Construction Projects exceeding Five Million Dollars
D. Discretionary Grants
E. Services Contracts for Legislative Review
F. Reports and Communications
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
A. In-State Contract
1. Department of Human Services – Division of Children & Family
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - REVIEW, Jul 18, 2023 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| B. MOFs | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| C. General Contractors Construction Projects exceeding Five Million Dollars | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| D. Grants | Exhibit | 14 | Official source ↗ |
| E. Contracts | Exhibit | 39 | Official source ↗ |
| F1. PCS_TGS Previously Review No Material Report | Exhibit | 42 | Official source ↗ |
| F2. Executed Contracts Report | Exhibit | 25 | Official source ↗ |
| F3. PCS TGS Critical Emergency Procurements | Exhibit | 4 | Official source ↗ |
| G. Other Business | Exhibit | 25 | Official source ↗ |
| Supplemental Agenda | Exhibit | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 8
Speaker 9
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 27
Speaker 39
Speaker 43
Representative Les D. Eaves Chair
Unverified
Speaker 65
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 72
Speaker 73
Speaker 74
Speaker 78
Speaker 59
Speaker 94
Speaker 99
Speaker 105
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
Speaker 98
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 128
Representative Jon Milligan
Unverified
Speaker 103
Speaker 120
Speaker 144
Speaker 149
Speaker 151
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 159
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 176
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 179
Speaker 182
Speaker 193
Speaker 194
Speaker 195
Speaker 200
Speaker 198
Speaker 100
Speaker 204
Speaker 162
Speaker 207
Speaker 212
Speaker 213
Speaker 123
Speaker 222
Speaker 225
Speaker 228
Speaker 224
Speaker 229
Speaker 138
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 255
Senator Scott Flippo
Unverified
Speaker 264
Speaker 265
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified