ALC-Personnel
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call this meeting of the personnel committee to order Cha Caorum co-chair would you like to say anything I think she's tied up so
ok all right so we'll go into items
Speaker 8
1:44
for review tony if you'll take over on that. Thank you Mr Chairman. Item B is a request
Speaker 9
1:49
from the department of Public Safety Arkansas State Police they're requesting to surrender three corporal positions at LESo7n in return for an or three AP lieutenants at LESo9. The positions are requested for the I-40 corridor to cover the increase in new troopers providing proper supervision and ensured chain of command. the cost of the positions is estimated to be at $89,000
that's out of general revenue this request does not increase the total number of positions at the division and OPM has recommended the requested swap.
you've heard from Tony, do you have any questions if not I'll entertain a motion second all right all right all those in favor say aye all opposed same
Speaker 8
2:36
sign motion is approved Item C Mr Chairman, item C is a
Speaker 9
2:42
request from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro. The request is for three project program administrator pool positions from the higher education central growth pool these positions will be assigned to work with the administration faculty and students within the collegelege of Veterinary medicine which receives its first class of students this fall the duties will include developing recruitment strategies administrative and curricular support for the first year courses and student activities as well as the student ambassador program the department of higher edd has recommended these request the requested positions and this
will increase the total number of positions authorized at AU by3. you've
heard the report any questions? all right I will entertain a motion second all right have a motion in a second all in favor say aye
Speaker 8
3:28
any opposed mo tion is approved Itemd Mister Chairman, itemd has been pulled so we're on to item
Speaker 9
3:36
E. Item E is a request from the department of Commerce Economic Development
Commission for an extra help position through the infrastructure investment jobbs Act peer approved the appropriation for this position yesterday. personnel is tasked with reviewing the requested titleopm has recommended the requested title which is an extra help and according to the agency we reached out this is gonna be a fiscalre related position involved in budgeting and auditing the program. right you've heard what
he had to say on that any questions I'll entertain a motion right second
all right motion is second all those in favor say
aye any opposed all right motion is approved
Speaker 9
4:24
we'll move on to the report Mr Chairman, another reports require action want to point out one in particular which is item F this is a reduction in force that was done at eterans affairs it eliminated six positions the employees in those positions were eligible for severance and a special
reemployment consideration with other state agencies any questions on that I'm sorry hold on one second Senator
Petty, you're recognized miss it we go now thank you Mr Chair and
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
5:18
and I'm not sure who this is addressed to but but anytime we we do anything that affects veterans'd I'd like to have just a little bit more knowledge and so especially when we're talking about a reduction in force that could potentially affect the the services that we provide to veterans so just a little bit of insight if you could on the process
and sure if you would come to the table once you get seated introduce yourselves
you are you on bear with us just a second we'll get you working.
Speaker 30
6:27
are any of your microphones working? oh there's there we go good afternoon. I'm Colonel Rob Ayder. I am
Speaker 31
6:37
the secretary of Veterans affairs for AA. All right sir Wayne Ruth and I'm chief of staff
Chair
Unverified
6:47
at Veterans affairs right I'mRochelle Garcia. I'm the HR administrator for
Veterans affairs thank you OK, Senator Petty, you're recognized for your question. so
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
6:58
the question was just and I know colonel that a lot of thought and and you're of of all people are going to be looking out for veterans but I just wanted to know for for the sake of the audience here what drove that decision and and to to be assured that it's not going to affect services to our
Speaker 35
7:15
veterans and and Senator, let me let me start off by saying I really, really appreciate the question. and
Speaker 37
7:21
what this body does to make sure that we're taking care of our veterans in the state of Arkansas that's very very important to us and
and the partnership that we have with you all is is vitally important so I really want you to look at this not as a riff per se it was a restructuring so the last time that the department of Veterans affairs was restructured it was in 1979 and it the the structure that we had is not reflective of all that we want to do to be able to take care of veterans so specifically what I was doing to live within our own budgetary limitations again
you know 88% of of the of the funding that I have for the agency comes from the federal government via reimbursement and about 14% I'm sorry about 12% comes from from the general revenue in the state I needed to reclaim some positions to be able to expand and this is what the governor has asked me to do was that she thought and I absolutely agree with her is that we had spent too much time and effort on end of life care for veterans and at the time
we're looking at when we see all the struggles that some veterans have in reintegrating into society that we need to do a better job while they're still productive in their productive years you know after service in our in our our nation's cloth. so we wanted to be able to expand that and so we're we've started a new program we're calling it a continuum of care but basically we're interacting with service members while they're still in their last year of enlistments and then we're going to carry them and work their benefits before they leave service and then what
we're doing is we're freeing up these resources to create a new position called a VEs or a veteran employment specialist and their job is to work with Arkansas companies to provide those opportunities so that we're not, I don't want to say handhold but we're gonna do a warm handoff with these companies that allow us to be able to walk our veterans as they come out of uniform right into a job and then we're gonna care for them through their life cycle all the way through their vet there are times when they we need some help at the veterans' homes or
at the end when we honor them and on one of our state cemeteries so this is an expansion it's not so much a riff so these are positions that we that did not reflect what we were doing and it certainly I was trying to free up resources to be able to expand services and at the end of it you know we actually saved some money too and and that's vitally important because of how lean the organization is we want to be able to continue the expansion of those services to veterans all right
p re s ent or senator Love you're recognized oh hold on
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
10:15
hiter hit it again thank you Mr chair so Colonel let me let me ask you this in the same kind of in the same thing what are we doing for veteran service officers are are is our veteran service officers program still running strong and and do you do you foresee any improvements in the veterans
Speaker 44
10:33
service officers it's a great question and again thank you and yes you know
Speaker 37
10:38
the way we're currently structured is is that I have about6 district veteran service officers that covered the the entire you know state but then you know each county has a veterans service officer and you know I'll be per very frank with you that sometimes the performance that we're giving our veterans will vary county to county and so we've taken this very very seriously and so some of the things
that we're doing is we're really trying to lean into making sure that we're gonna train them and we're gonna have more contact time with them to be able to make sure that the performance that we're getting out of our VSOs is more consistent across the board ar t of that is is statutorily I'm required to provide supervision to to these county BSos and and a lot of that comes with working with the county judges and as a matter of fact tomorrow I'll be addressing all the county judges at the at the association
meeting tomorrow this is the second time I've talked to them you know the first time was to explain the value proposition of having a veteran most people don't know that every time you have a veteran in your county that's about37,000 dollars that comes into your county, you know without having to do anything and but you know, especially now when you have a veteran whose whole life is centered around service how they absolutely make a community better if there's a there's a value proposition there so I
explained that so now what we're doing is we're gonna be explaining and we've come up with an algorithm to be able to give a report card to the county judge to tell
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
12:20
them how they're performing no no no that's great I I was I was listening I just said wow didn't
Speaker 47
12:27
know OKok I'm sorry I didn't know that the
Speaker 37
12:30
microphone was just right there but yes you know I I wanna be able to have partners with the county judges and so we're having that dialogue and so that they know exactly how their county VSOs
are operating and what other things that we can do
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
12:47
to be able to help them all right thank you thank you yes sir Senator Hammer you're recognized thank you good afternoon. appreciate what y'all do for the veterans. quick clarification on a statement that's in the handout sheet. Each one of the six employees are eligible for severance pay, correct? sir if they should take employment with the state somewhere else then that severage amount would be reduced if they if they
find employment first or do they get
that severance regardless well I'm gonna defer to Miss Barnhillenator Hammer
Speaker 53
13:20
once they received the severance pay it is theirs we do not recoup it if they are going if they are rehired by another state agents state department but generally that's what tides them over till they are retire rehired or somewhere else if they're transferring immediately to another state department they don't get the severance pay and just to curio
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
13:40
if you don't mind pull the mic a little
closerate just like in one minute or less what's the what's the strategy or what is the policy for determining the amount of severance that they would receive because I see that one is 24 years and 1 is3 years well the 1 with3 years is going to get 80 the one with 24 years is going to get 1600. can you just give me a one minute or less explanation sir it's all spelled out in the class
Speaker 53
14:07
and compact and it's all based on the total number of years of service each employee has and it's a graduated scale with
$1600 being the highest payout and $800 being the lowest. there's one more level in between but I'm afraid I'd quote it to you wrong. I believe
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
14:23
it's 1200. OK so if the employee of 24 year and I forgot how many years with the state they got to have to be able to start drawing their retirement e so if that employee of 24 years doesn't find a state job that's going to give them4 more years they will have lost their benefits is that correct? Um,
Speaker 53
14:41
well they don't actually lose their benefits now we're kind of
moving into the retirement area where there's options available. some employees at that time choose to retire early but there is a0% per month penalty I believe if they retire early but some take that option. some just keep their years as they are and go look for another job somewhere with the government agency where they could get the other four years but if they don't do anything that $1600 is going to be it until they actually file for retirement from apers or teachers or whichever the appropriate system is. OK, last
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
15:16
question in the case of that 24 in that 20 years of service one if they weren't able to be hired on by another state agency where they could continue to work toward their 28 years and they were forced into where they had to take early retirement to make ends meet would they be penalized because they are starting earlier even though they were riffed or would they have that penalty applied against them I believe that penalty applies against him that's something we'll talk about offline. I won't be around
next year but that that seems like it
might be something we want to take a look at and and appreciate the intent of what y'all want to do I just want to make sure you don't confuse my questions
Speaker 37
15:57
with disagreeing with what you're doing. Thank you. No sir I appreciate the question and and believe me you know one of the hard parts about this decision is because it does impact real humans and you know I've always lived off the theory of you know once they're my airmen they're my airmen till the very end and so I appreciate your care thank you
all right I do not see any other questions that's the end of
the reports there's no other business to come before the committee we stand adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
Items for Review:
B. Request from Department of Public Safety, Division of State Police for three (3) positions from the OPM Surrender Pool established by Arkansas Code Annotated § 21-5-225(a). (Col. Mike A. Hagar, Secretary)
C. Request from Arkansas State University-Jonesboro for three (3) positions from the Higher Education Central Pool authorized by Act 778 of 2023, ACA § 6-63-319. (Jacob Oliva, Secretary)
D. Request from Auditor of State for three (3) positions from the position pool for elected Constitutional Officers of the State. (Dennis Milligan, Auditor of State)
E. Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act of 2021 for one (1) position- Department of Commerce-AEDC-State Broadband Office. (Hugh McDonald, Secretary)
Reports:
F. Reduction in Force Report.
G. Special Compensation and Recruitment Incentive Award Report.
H. Arkansas Community Correction Quarterly Caseload Report.
I. New February Provisional Report twenty (20) new positions are approved for four (4) Four-Year Institutions of Higher Education. There are two (2) new positions for two (2) Two-Year Institutions of Higher Education. (Department of Education, Division of Higher Education, Dr. Ken Warden)
J. Fourth Quarter Employee Relative Disclosure Report.
K. Personnel Actions Report- Office of Personnel Management-Department of Shared Administrative Services. (Leslie Fisken, Secretary)
L. Other business
M. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 1
Representative Les Warren Chair
Unverified
Speaker 8
Speaker 9
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
Speaker 30
Speaker 31
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 35
Speaker 37
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 44
Speaker 47
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 53