ALC-Executive Subcommittee
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Thank you.
Thank you.
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Thank you.
All right, members, chair sees a quorum. We're
going to call the executive subcommittee to order. First on the agenda is the waiver request, tips waiver by Stuttgart School District. I guess we're going to see Mr. Jeff McKinney. Mr. McKinney, if you would come have a seat and introduce yourself for the record, and then you can give us an idea of what you're asking for. Yes, sir.
Speaker 10
3:30
Sir, hit your button there right in front of you. Sorry. Hear me now? Okay. Good. I'm Jeff McKinney, Superintendent Stuttgart School District. Good afternoon and thank you guys for your time and opportunity to explain our decision to pursue the turf replacement project through the interlocal purchasing system, TIPS, rather than the traditional competitive bid process. The district contacted with Lewis Elliott Vaden Architects to oversee the design and procurement process, the firm was engaged to ensure the project specifications were appropriate
and that the procurement process was conducted properly, particularly due to the concerns regarding the field base and drainage system. In January 2026, architect Clayton Baden and his firm issued a request for proposals for the turf replacement project. Bids were opened on February 10, 2026 in accordance with Arkansas bid law, and three bids were received. After reviewing the proposals, it was determined that none of the bids met the required specifications outlined in the RFP. The first bid was rejected because the company was a construction management firm
rather than turf vendor and did not meet the projected specifications. The second bid was rejected because it offered an eight-year turf warranty while RFP required 10-year turf. And the third bid was initially rejected because it provided $3 million in construction insurance while the RFP required $5 million. After reviewing the bids, Mr. Baden, in communication with the district determined that none were fully complied with the specifications. Following his guidance, the district entered discussion with United Turf and Track, the third bidder. While their proposal
was approximately $153,000 higher than the lowest bid, their system met the district's requested 10-year warranty specifications. The insurance issue has since been resolved, and the company has confirmed it will provide the required $5 million in construction insurance coverage. The district has also worked with United Turf and Track over the past two years to perform repairs and maintenance on playing surfaces to keep the field safe for competition. During that time, the district paid a little over $25,000 for services, and the company demonstrated professionalism and reliability in the work with the district.
Based on the architect's recommendation, the district determined that proceeding through the TIPS cooperative purchasing process would allow the project to move forward while still ensuring a fair competitive price. United Turf and Track has also agreed to honor pricing submitted in the original bid, supporting the District's belief that the cost remains reasonable. Finally, timing is critical. Approval and execution of the contract must occur soon in order to allow adequate time for summer installation. Completing the project during the summer will ensure construction does not disrupt spring
or fall athletic programs. For these reasons, the District believes the TIPS process is the most practical and responsible way to complete this project thank you for your time all right thank you sir members
any questions no questions we have a motion to approve you have a second second all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed guys have it thank you sir it's approved thank you you bet our members that takes us down to item C this is a consideration of a consultant services agreement between
blr and work ed consulting we have uh senator jane english and
representative mary bentley and miss thayer good morning
evening afternoon whatever good day Just introduce yourself for the record, and you can go ahead.
Speaker 17
7:20
Representative Mary Bentley. Senator Jane English. Jill Thayer, Bureau
Speaker 19
7:25
of Legislative Research. Thank you all so much for
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
7:29
being us here today. You were gracious enough to give us this consultant, Georgia Institute, to help us with our audit and the audit findings. I don't know if you guys have had a chance to look at them, but they were very thorough and gave us a chance to see that our workforce system in the state is really not efficient not effective and we have many of our kansas that are not getting trained they could be trained and so now we have seen what the problem is but we would ask assistance
from this group to help us figure out the solution to get moved forward so that we have good legislation for the 2027 session and we'll need to start soon with meeting with uh stakeholders and they will help us with that with zooming in and help us to make sure we have very good plan moving forward to really reform our workforce system i'm excited about this group and they've been very effective. And so with that, we'll let Senator English
Senator Jane English
Unverified
8:17
and Jill share some details. So we are fortunate all of a sudden a couple of really great things have happened that helps us along this pathway. And one of them is the
president's big, beautiful bill, which required folks to be able to draw Medicaid and or SNAP and some other programs to be able to work first rather than applying for benefits. The other is that the Department of Labor has said what we've been doing for 50 years in working, and states have an opportunity to build a new system, a workforce system,
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
8:59
and that's something I think that we're going to be working on. I'll just give you a couple of details about the contract, Mr. Chair. The contract will be between the Bureau and Work Ed Consulting, and this will be for the use of the Hospital Medicaid Developmental Disabilities Subcommittee as they complete their study required under Act 145. If this is approved, the term of the contract will begin on Friday after full council approval
and will continue until June 30th of 2027. This will allow the consultant to assist the members with any legislation that may come out of the study. And the total maximum contract amount will be $158,000. WorkEd has indicated, as you'll see in the scope of services attached to the contract, that they're going to utilize a few subcontractors, and they are the same individuals that assisted the committee already with the Georgia Center for Opportunity. So the rest of it is our standard language.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
10:01
I'll take any questions. All right. Senator Gilmore, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for the edification of the committee, would you all talk about some of the work that this group
Senator Jane English
Unverified
10:15
has done in some other places? I know they've done some work in some other states. They're right now. They have been worked with Louisiana, and they're moving in. They passed all their legislation, and they're moving to a new one-door and workforce services type of arrangement. They're also working with West Virginia and Mississippi and Virginia
on the same types of things that we're looking at. And I
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
10:40
would say, Chairman, they're really the lead people at this point across the nation. They're the leading source of getting states to where they need to be with this system. So I think they're the experts that we need to really move forward in the short window
Senator Jane English
Unverified
10:53
that we've got to get this done. And I think the other thing is that the Mason Bishop was with the state of Utah 30 years ago when they put this into effect. So he's got lots of background.
I think I have a question. So the Georgia Center is the consultant that we used to sort of dig pretty deep into what the issues were with how we were currently doing things. This group is going to be the one that's going to hopefully tell us how we can fix it and get better at it. So help me understand, you mentioned they're going to hire some of the same people at Georgia Center to help them with this. Is this not something Georgia Center can do on their own? Or how does that subcontracting work and
why is that necessary with this consultant?
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
11:38
Well, they're there Mason actually works for both Mason Bishop and he's the lead for this work at group So he's worked with the Georgia Institute. So he's actually part of the group that was here And so this kind of his he's really been the main focus working on The legislation and moving things for with the subcommittees and the groups that will need to move forward So it's really his expertise that we're getting
when we use in workhead Okay, all right. Thank you for that members any questions All right seeing none. What's will of the committee? a motion have a second second all any discussion not seeing none all those in
favor signify by saying aye opposed the ayes have it thank you
thank you gentlemen we appreciate it all right members that takes us down to item D we're gonna miss there's gonna stay there and talk to us about
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
12:33
a contract with BLR and per night miss there you're recognized thank you mr. chair Jill Thayer Bureau of Legislative research you should all have in your packet a copy of an actuarial and consultant services agreement this is re-upping our our contract with per and knight kyle hails as you'll remember as
the lead contact for them and he this will provide us with continuing actuarial services related to the new property insurance the captive that you all set up last year and so kyle will be available for any of the subcommittees that request it, but primarily the state insurance properties oversight subcommittee, similar to what SEGAL does for that subcommittee related to EBD. So this contract, again, Attachment A has the hourly rates that Kyle's group will charge.
It also includes the full scope of services. It would be effective April 1st and continue through December 31st of 2027 to get them on the regular biennial schedule that we have with our other actuarial consultants. The maximum contract amount for this one is $475,000. But just a reminder that with that, the Bureau only pays the actual hourly rates that are utilized and charged plus travel expenses.
And then the rest of this is just our standard language, so I'll be happy to
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
14:07
take any questions. Perfect. Senator Hester, you're recognized. When we made this decision, did we budget in last year when we decided to go to the captive? Did we budget in for this actuarial year after year after year?
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
14:17
Yes, the Bureau has that in our budget. So, yeah, but
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
14:20
I guess when we made the decision, we knew we were going to have somebody on staff advising us you're doing the act early yes sir am i am i that was my understanding can you can answer that mr
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
14:32
yes sir that that's been the discussion from day one and i know we have uh senator petty who chairs the insurance uh subcommittee and he may want to offer any comment he's welcome but yes that was factored into uh the captive overall and so this is something we would expect
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
14:48
to have is as at any point our insurance provider could offer this service to us as well or that would not be appropriate it needs to be separate i guess it does need to be
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
14:59
separate generally your actuarial would be a separate entity from the broker or the other person but yep okay thank you do they
typically submit invoices on a monthly basis or do they do work every month or just
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
15:12
only as needed no sir it's just as they do work and with seagull we it'll be it
Speaker 31
15:18
may be months in between all right uh representative brooks you're recognized thank
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
15:23
you mr chair appreciate the latitude to ask a question uh miss thayer thank you for the information quick question where does some of this agreement where does it overlap with what our current broker and captive manager are doing just looking at what the scope is captive rates deductibles policy terms contractual
agreements are all things that that stevens and will sowers watson are also likely doing so just trying to see kind of what the overlap is and what the benefit is to having the additional consulting services, given that we also have the actuary advantage under contract as well. Yes,
sir. So this contract will be solely for the use and benefit of the members of the General Assembly. Those contracts are for the captive and used by the executive branch. This will be your own actuary that can give you an independent look at anything that's going to come before you
as you request it they won't do it on their own every time something comes up it'll only be as that subcommittee asks for it
or individual members i guess my my question was looking at what we were um compensating actuarial advantage in terms of hourly rates significantly less than what potentially might compensate per night um 7 30 an hour is a pretty solid rate if you can get it so just wanted to kind of see how you know how that might compare to the other actuary service
that we've already entered into in terms of the captive and
Speaker 47
16:48
I haven't compared their rates but the overlap I would say doesn't exist and that they're doing
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
16:52
separate services separate types of services entirely thank you mr. chair thank you representative members any other questions all right seeing none what's the will of the
committee move a motion do we have a second second all those any discussion excuse me all right seeing none all those in favor say aye opposed the ayes have it passed takes us down to item e uh miss garrity thank you marty garrity
Speaker 53
17:21
with the bureau of legislative research um this is a request uh the bureau in its appropriation every year has $205,000 for committee room expenses this generally goes between the House and the Senate at this time there has been no request but I would like to request the use of those monies to renovate committee room C which is on the fourth floor of the Big Mac building the AV is out of date it's just not a useful room as it's set up and I think it goes back to the 70s original
everything so in keeping with the renovations that the house did and their offices and the fifth floor this would tie it all in all right members any questions no
seeing none what's will the committee the motion and second second all those in favor say aye all those opposed the ayes have
it passes members thank you for your participation seeing no other business we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration of a Waiver Request for Cooperative Purchasing Construction Services: Stuttgart School District.
C. Consideration of a Consultant Services Agreement between BLR and WorkED Consulting, LLC, for the use of the ALC-Hospital, Medicaid, and Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee.
D. Consideration of an Actuarial and Consultant Services Agreement between BLR and Perr & Knight.
E. Director's Report
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Les D. Eaves Chair
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 17
Speaker 19
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 47
Speaker 53