JBC-Personnel
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5 documents
Bills discussed (5)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB29
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “D. SB29 Lieutenant Governor- Letter dated February 20, 2026, from L…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB51
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “E. SB51 Auditor of State- Revised Letter dated April 10, 2026, from…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE AUDITOR OF STATE - OPERATIONS AND UNCLAIMED PROPERTY PROGRAM APPROPRIATION FOR … | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB55
Act 137
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “B. SB55 Supreme Court- Letter dated February 1, 2026, from Chief Ju…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB55 is now Act 137 |
|
HB1014
Act 69
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “C. HB1014 Secretary of State- Letter dated February 12, 2026, from Se…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES - DIVISION OF PROVIDER SERVICES AND QUALITY … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1014 is now Act 69 |
|
HB1041
Act 125
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…1, 2026, from Chief Justice Karen Baker Amendment JAR135 C. HB1041 Secretary of State- Letter dated February 12, 2026, from Se…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1041 is now Act 125 |
Machine transcript
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- October 2, 2026
Right members thank you for being here this morning we're going to go ahead and call this
meeting to order and I'm going to turn it over to my
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
8:29
co-chairpresentative wooten for some opening comments. Thank you madam chairman I just want to refresh your memory each of the committee members that the the new percentage is40 to45% on the fringe benefits that that's the number that's involved in the lenters that
we'll look at today constitutional officers can pay the maximum if they choose to do so whenever they have a position that they want to change or increase salary but to if should should any of that be voted down it goes back to the current salary the present the present salary and the bills have already been filed with
this amount that's in the with the amount
Speaker 8
9:22
tony which one would want to say bills have been filed these letters
Speaker 10
9:27
are there are letters of request that would amend the current bills and if they in
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
9:33
and if they're approved by the committee then they will be amended in or put in the bill that that amount and that's all and it's good to be back here. thank you Mrf
Thank you Representative Wooten. All right, we will go ahead and jump into
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:54
item B. madamirman. Item B is a request
Speaker 13
9:56
from the Supreme Court. This is for one new position. there's no request for appropriation changes. The position requested is a supreme Court police chief at a grade LESO5 with the salary range of67,000 dollars to $100,000 this changes the total number of authorized positions in the bill from76 to77.
right members do we have any questions on item B OK. See none do I have a motion to approve. and a second OK I've got a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries itemm C
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
10:49
Madam Chairman, item C is a request from the Secretary of State. Letter states that they're requesting ive additional state
Speaker 13
10:55
capitollice corporal positions along with changes to the job titles and adjusted salary maximums. you could see on page ive and6 of the packet that the requested realignment of job titles includes three new classifications at the bottom of page6 in the middle column you will see the titles that are being eliminated along with the changes in total number of each classification the maximum salary increases requested are shown on the right side of that middle section as well
you can also see on page five that they're requesting an increase of355,000 in regular salaries and 142,000 in matching increasing the total appropriation by498,000. Senator Bryant, you're recognized for a question thank you madam chairir. I just have
a question a few questions for the department.
is somebody with the secretary of state's office here Thank you. please state your name and who you're with for the record. kenneth
Speaker 26
12:12
Eddington matt pitch, secretary of state. thank you thank you thank you gentlemen. just a few questions. I was
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
12:20
looking at at last year's budget appropriation and a few things caught my eyes obviously your maximum annual salary rate for every position is going up anywhere from 1% to15%. and then you are collapsing the number or the line item of positions as far as what your titles are from57 down to39. you're rearranging several positions as you described a little bit in your summary I think my question is
is the total appropriation is only going up to the, I believe the5 extra positions that you're asking for but when you collapse everybody's existing pay grades or or titles and you get rid of a whole bunch of positions that are paid39,000 and you're being absorbed into the positions of57,00 and 80,000 but you're not asking for new appropriations I guess the question to me is is how are you doing that and then when are you going to do that when you realize that maybe the money's not there
Speaker 31
13:25
thank you for the question senator. we as we exist today are doing no request of funds we were asked to provide security to yet another building much like last cycle we were requested to provide security to this building in doing so then we went back and changed our request to put those5 Capitol police in there one of the things we we decided to do the governor's
directive or statement was get yourselves as constitutional offices on her pay plan but find the money within your budget through open slots etc. people who have left and that's what you see in our budget cycle we decided to clean up what was kind of chaotic and messy57 job classifications for 180 people. and our staff went to great lengths
to figure out that person A's job had the same status, same duties as person B while one might be in elections one might be in business services etc. so that was an effort to clean up having all of those you referenced59 job classifications we referenced that back to the37 you see in our requested letter. basically as a housecleaning thing an organized office runs more efficient and that's what we were trying to do there
so in summary if you if we don't take on the added security of the501 building across the street. we are asking for nothing new other than we cleaned up our rolls and we went to line item maxx's but we're not asking for any funding. OK
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
15:14
I think that can satisfy me as far as the building that we're taking over with new security does that mean you're you're losing a contract that was previously provided by a tenant or by the currently the building authority SAs
Speaker 31
15:31
has asked us to take that on much like they ask us to take on this building they were under contract. I don't have the details in front of me of what they were doing but I know us taking it on we said here's how we'll take on a six-story building for security and what we need to make that happen u ite frankly we'll put some of the extra duties onto our other staff. We think there's an efficiency of scale there if they were providing the same level of security I would bet
that there would be a savings economy of scale because we're doing it with a we're adding5 people to a staff of of over ir0 now and we'll cover some of those gaps with that30 when we can hopefully OK so there's already security guards there's
Speaker 35
16:15
already security but it's a rented contract
Speaker 31
16:17
I believe much like this building was so to the taxpayer I guess you could say that goes away and that money now comes to us under hopefully a higher security presence that security contract is going to go away. they're not going to renew
Speaker 37
16:33
that's again not in my budget it was in their so in theirs ok all
right all right thank you thank you thank you
and and if you'll recall this is something that we've been working on for maybe two years now at least just expanding security under the Secretary of State to secure that the capital grant to really just secure the capitalol grounds and make sure that we've got a police force able to keep everybody safe as the world gets a little more volatile so I appreciate the phased in approach that you guys have
taken I know we've worked through it and said you know sort of one building at a time to make sure we've got that going well before we take on something
Speaker 31
17:13
new and so there are others that are I don't wanna say formally requesting but they are knocking on the door saying hey how did they get you to do that and it's it's a discussion and then a plan and does it make financial sense to do
so that's great thank you Senator hill you're recognized Mr pitch with the increase in
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
17:34
the salaries that you're looking at and moving your employees around as far as the overall police department that y'all are operating do you feel like that will allow you to retain the employees it is
Speaker 31
17:47
a really big problem open you know people leaving to go to the private sector in our pay scale and our structure is is a problem I'm not prepared to go down that path yet we're happy with where we are we love our employees we work with them we try to figure out ways to
keep them motivated you know security personnel law enforcement they're there for the for a reason they want to provide security to their fellow man and not to get too emotional but our folks do a really good job I think I'm bragging a little bit on the on our personnel and I think others have seen that with the advent of this building my concern if I have a concern is I almost think it would have been easier to take give us this building, that building, that
building and cover the whole campus with security and to the chairpersons comments it's probably better that we do it in a phased in deal because we get good at doing this building security and then we're going to501 and doing get good at that and then we maybe go to what the others who have knocked on the door I I think it's a good thing. I think our our people are trained professionals as opposed to rented security guards not to diminish their efforts but I just feel like when you walk in here you see a
a weapons detection system you see our bomb sniffing dog you you hopefully feel safe in your environment my main concern was just to make sure that
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
19:16
you felt like you would be able to retain these employees we're we're doing the best we can. I
Speaker 31
19:20
mean, I think we do a decent job of doing that but it is a real thing. I mean you can you can take a look at what our folks make and you can see the private sector and you know we're not here asking for more money but we do struggle with that with people you know I wasn't going to give any
examples but I can give you examples offline because it deals with lives of personnel that people people that have left you know same spot people have left a couple times this year so we've we've got issues with that right are there any
other questions on item C? right see none do I have a motion for approval in a second got a motion in a second any discussion?
all those in favor please say aye all opposed no motion carries item D. thank you madam
Speaker 13
20:19
Chair. Item D is a request from the lieutenant governor's office requesting a change from line item maximum salaries to pay grades associated with the state pay plan. there are no changes to the total number of positions but they do request an increase of roughly349,000 dollars in regular salaries and matching appropriations page three of the D packet details the requested changes showing the difference
between the current line item maximums and the maximums of the new pay grades along with the requested increase in appropriation. right do we have any questions
on item d? Senator hill you're recognized madam chair can we get someone someone down here from the
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
21:00
from the office yes there's someone here from lieutenant governor's office. Thank you.
right if you would please state your name and who you're with for the record. Sandy Hall, chief
Speaker 49
21:33
of staff to lieutenant governor Rutledge austin Lynch, director of communications right senator hill thank
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
21:42
you Miss Hold just looking at this overall I know it's less employees so your percentage is going to be higher than a larger office such as the secretary of state's office was a while ago
when you're looking at salary increase on this you're looking at a pretty dramatic change can y'all go into a little detail
Speaker 49
22:01
on that senator and so with that change and
Chair
Unverified
22:04
why it is so high you know our ultimate goal is just to get on the current pay plan, be able to get the lieutenant governor's office consistent with the other constitutional offices who are already in other state agencies who are on the pay plan and the current market rates but because
that number is so high the lieutenant governor's office in 2024 we did receive a 10% increase just in other constitutionalists did too and so we we got that but even with that 10% increase prior to that the lieutenant governor's office has not received any salary raises in nearly a decade. and so we're just working on getting that up to date to be able to be competitive with everybody else and so just to have that consistency but it's been nearly a decade and even with the 10%
raise that we are still every single one of these positions compared to other constitutional offices are still below. and I did forget to mention we do have handouts happy to share that with you or if we need to give it to everybody, let me know right oh yes can yes can we please get the handouts?
Sorry I thought you were saying you were done with your questions. No we're just getting started. Perfect
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
24:41
right Representative Kavanaugh you're recognized for questions thank you madam chairir. my question is y'all are asking for these increases but
can you explain to me what your hours are at your office? because to be honest with you the lights are out most of the time that I go by
Speaker 60
25:00
so I'm asking oh goodness the lights should definitely
Chair
Unverified
25:03
not be out but we all the time working for a constitutionalhe because we are a three person staff in the office there's times where we we
might all be traveling with her we're out at events or we're all trying to cover different events but we are on we're I mean we work all the time working for a constitutional officer and so 8 to5 or you know maybe some mornings start early, some mornings are really long and so there's nobody in your office how did the citizens of Arkansas able to come
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
25:32
in and talk to you or actually get a hold of you. Yes ma'am and so if we are not in the
Chair
Unverified
25:38
office if a lot of the times if we don't have visitors
we're getting phone calls but those phone calls are rolling to our cellphones and so if it goes to if someone has to leave a voicemail that voicemail goes to our executive assistants email and so she's able to see OKok somebody just called they left this voicemail and we return it within 24 hours. same day yes ma'am but so you're so there are times that there
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
26:04
are nobody in your office. We always try to keep it
Chair
Unverified
26:08
staffed but there there will be times where if we are all running in different directions just
because there's only three of us in the office. yes ma'am thank you.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
26:23
Senator Bryant you're recognized. Thank you for these positions just because it's not as convenient right in front of me what is the maxx actual number for an executive01 or
a LES07. what's what's that top top number so for let's say
Chair
Unverified
26:45
and the reason we did the we did it that way with the grades is just to be consistent with you know the governor's office and how others did it in their appropriation bill but for example like ExcO one the maxx is 191 and so and when you get to when you get to like the law enforcement you get into LES7 which the maxx is 121. and in those charts if you see you're able to see where
the maxx number is where other constitutional officers are at in those positions that we are all compared to and you can tell where we're at versus where they're currently at and then this even if we get to the midpoint on those pay grades, ours are still falling below way below so what what is as
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
27:39
chief of staff what is your max line right now and are you at your max? Yes we are all currently
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
27:51
10 So I'm just trying to compare when I try to when we're gonna give a list of apples for apples and I look at just the previous testimony of Secretary of state's office they have their general council's max salary rate set for 2526 at one16857. and I I'm not saying there's not a lot of work at the lieutenant general's office but legal counsel atlieutenant general's officer Lieutenant
governor's office versus general counsel at Secretary of state's office probably has a different workload and so I'm not said I'm not I'm not knocking them for not asking them. I'm, I'm I have heartburn trying to compare those as apples to apples when they're not. No and
Speaker 60
28:38
absolutely and great question and so the way our bill is you know chief of staff slash legal
Chair
Unverified
28:44
counsel and so in the case that you know for example, former the former chief of staff left the office to go work into the private sector and
solieutenant governor promoted me to that position but in a situation where if I wasn't in that position or and she decided, OK, I'm going to bring a lawyer in we could not afford a lawyer for that office and so putting us getting onto the pay grades for the consistency of these you know allows her to be able to retain OK, maybe if I want to be able to find a lawyer then just comparing trying to fight with the private sector. Currently right now no one will come. trying to f fill that second position after the
former chief left was probably one of the hardest things just seeing because everyone was just making so much money. but yes you know not comparing the everyone does have different workloads but just to be able to give the opportunity to be to retain someone just good people that will be able to come to these offices so this
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
29:47
ask versus the ask just to increase the line item maximums was that off the table or you're
just gonna run this route and let the constitutional officer be able to keep asking for more money to get to get that up there versus just saying hey we haven't gotten a raise we're not asking for 191 but we're asking to be able to go beyond the maximum
Speaker 60
30:11
to 120 and with that great question senator and so with that we
Chair
Unverified
30:16
getting onto these pay grades just gives the lieutenant governor gets future lieutenant governors the room to be able to pay as they wish because when we came in we were capped
everyone there was no room to go so we were going to have to come to you all anyways and ask for more money for these positions and now that the with the governor's office and the consulting company that came in to see how far off we were. this was just the best route to be able to come in and say ok this lieutenant governor will be able to pay but future lieutenant governors will just have the room to be able to give to their their future staff and not have to hopefully come back to you to you all and ask for more money. right all right thank you
are there any other questions right senator hill you're recognized madam chairir, I'd like to put a
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
31:06
hold on this one to just get with them offline right Senator Hill, we will hold
it until tomorrow so we can get your questions answered thank you
right we are holding item D and moving on to item E.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
31:45
Thank you madam chairir. Item E is a request from the auditor's office the request includes realignment
Speaker 13
31:50
of position classifications and increases to land at a maximum salaries for all but one classification the auditor states in his letter that he intends to provide 12.5% increases to all staff with the exception of the deputy auditor and chief of staff who will receive3.25 and3.5% increases respectively the request also
includes the addition of one UCp claims examiner one position and one UCp compliance ag ent the total requested increase to regular salaries and match is579,468 dollars for both the operations and UCp appropriations. you will see a summary of the requested changes on page 11 of thee packet. right members do we have any
questions on item E. Senator Bryant you're recognized thank you madam Cha. Yeah I just like some staff to come up thank you both
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
32:47
if you would please state your name and who you're with for the record.
Speaker 81
33:10
Dennis Milligan auditor state ac y et er son director for communications
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
33:20
for the auditor's office. thank you so much for for being here. I I must say out of most agencies you did you did a very good job trying to educate us on your ask as we approached fiscal session and I one of my statements back to you that I I will not be able to support was the addition of a position strictly
for the sole purpose to engage with the legislature to advocate for policy changes for your office. I don't I don't I find it difficult when it comes from inside of a of another branch and I know other branches do it but and and that's just personal policy position questions but what what are you doing differently than previous auditors of the states that would require you to need a position to make these asks versus you yourself or somebody
already working within your staff to come to us once
every other year to ask us for policy changes well first
Speaker 84
34:21
of all senator if you're if you're asking about the government relations position we pull that we are the only constitutional office that does not have a governmental relations individual we also for your for the record and that you know we have some300 million dollars in US Treasury bonds that
because we pull that position that we're not going to be able to try to get back to ourkansans they're hardworking money but that's fine to answer your questions with respect to the other two positions they are revenue neutral because of the bill y'all passed we're able to pay for those positions with interest that we receive with respect to the data match program that you passed our presses our our
check printing machines are actually smoking over there we're averaging giving back Arkansans their hard earned money at about a million a week. I've got staff working overtime at nights on weekends and we simply in order to achieve and I'm sure you would agree with me that getting ourkansans their moniess back in this day and time is very important Oh yeah I don't disagree with a
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
35:39
lot of the portions of your asks
I'm just focused on the government affairs position that is not revenue neutral as far as that's that's coming out of central just told you we pull that I I don't know what
Speaker 84
35:53
else to say I pulled the ass for that position. Oh you pulled it
Speaker 9
35:59
off of here? yes sir Well I apologize sir your a is accepted senator Bryant we we admitted
that yesterday and so this is an updated packet that was yesterday that's ok thank you
any other questions right Senator Hill you're recognized Mr I just
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
36:24
want to say appreciate you coming today to to discuss all your your issues today in person. I appreciate that very much thank you sir thank you very much very important
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
36:32
to us. Representative Wooten you're recognized On the increases Mrilligan
did you do a market survey of an independent outside state government is that how you came up because there's some pretty pretty good increases here 138 to171126 to183,141 I don't have I don't have a problem with people making money but are we in the marketplace and will this help your office? I mean you you ' ve asked for it but is there has there been a market review uhpresentative what we did was
Speaker 84
37:24
we took the request and I think it stays in my right mid range from the governor's pay plan in order to keep and to compare with the private sector with respect to education capabilities those types of things so we kind of again took a middle of the road not the not the very high highest level with respect to the salary well with the exception of the last two physical years regular
salaries from my office have been stagnant for the past5 to7 years and I actually have a document here that outlines this if y'all would like to see
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
38:03
it I didn't look at the scale are you paying the maximum in these positions no sir you're just you're below the maximum sir OK. all right thank you thank you madam chairman thank you sir any other questions all right see
none. Do I have a motion to approve item E.
motion drive a second got a motion in a second. Any discussion? all those in favor please say aye all opposed no motion carries right any other business that's it all right seeing no other business we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. SB55 Supreme Court- Letter dated February 1, 2026, from Chief Justice Karen Baker Amendment JAR135
C. HB1014 Secretary of State- Letter dated February 12, 2026, from Secretary of State Cole Jester Amendment JAR137
D. SB29 Lieutenant Governor- Letter dated February 20, 2026, from Lt. Governor Leslie Rutledge Amendment JAR134
E. SB51 Auditor of State- Revised Letter dated April 10, 2026, from Auditor Dennis Milligan Revised Amendment JAR136
F. Other business
G. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — JBC-PERSONNEL, Apr 14, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex B Supreme Court SB55 | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex C SOS HB1041 · HB1041 Secretary of State- Letter dated February 12, 2026, from Secretary of State Cole Jester | Exhibit | 6 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex D Lt. Governor SB29 | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| Ex E Revised Auditor | Exhibit | 11 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Breanne Davis Chair
Unverified
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
Speaker 8
Speaker 10
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Speaker 13
Speaker 26
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 35
Speaker 37
Speaker 49
Chair
Unverified
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 60
Speaker 81
Speaker 84
Speaker 9