Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs- House

One of the most sacred of our religion or our freedoms our religious freedom since the programs are founded our nation to our founding documents the declaration of independence and our nation's constitution we have honored that our religious freedom is really the bedrock of our society Thomas Jefferson wrote skews me Page two I like to read his quote there that freedom of religion is the most in a label and sacred of all our human rights so today I'm bringing to the resolution again honor religious freedom days Thomas Jefferson the the seventeen eighty six was his statute in the state of Virginia the foreign agenda sixteenth as religious freedom day so that as in my presentation I hope for good vote. Members are there any questions. Represented by you're recognized. Thank you madam chair thank you representative Bentley for bringing us this how many years has Arkansas absurd this is two thousand seventeen was the first you're a witness to. Any other questions from committee. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak for or against. This resolution. You are recognized to close for your resolution. I'm closed colleagues thank you what's the will of the committee. Thank you would you like to explain your motion. Good. We have a motion to pass all in favor say aye. Opposed no. Graduations you've passed a resolution colleagues thank you have a great starter ready have a great day. Thank you members okay now for all our lovely housekeeping I first would have like to have introduced you well let me first tell you that I'm very grateful to be filling the big shoes that I am attempting to feel so be patient with me that representative fight vacated I am honored to be your chair I'm thankful to work with representative Mayberry but she unfortunately could not be with us today her mother recently passed away and she is on her way to Florida yes so if you will keep them in your thoughts and prayers I know she will appreciate that. So I will just tell you a little bit about myself and then we will all introduce ourselves we'll start with representative find work already around the table. my name is on Eubanks Barker I am from Smackover Arkansas south central I represent. Parts of six counties I have a very large district now after redistricting but that's what it is in our lovely rural areas I represent parts of and Bradley Calhoun Cleveland Dallas Ouachita and union counties I have three grown children I have a husband to so I guess I could start there I'm. Been married thirty two years we have three grown children to married we have five grand children of for which live here in Little Rock gonna get to see them while I am here so that's a little dose of normalcy in reality once session gets going on and again I am honored to be your chair and would ask for your patience but this is a great committee it does very important very heart wrenching at times work but I'm glad you all whether you chose to be here or whether seniority placed you here we're glad to have you we're going to do some very important work so if you would just briefly introduce yourself as we go down the real. Thank you madam chair I'm Charlene Fite I represent parts of Washington and Crawford County I consider this one of the greatest committees that we have I say often that this committee will break your heart and if it doesn't you don't have a heart but what we do is is crucial for the children and for the aging the military and everyone that we represent in this committee I am a retired school psychology specialist and special ed teacher and was formerly lived in Taiwan the Republic of China for nine years as a missionary there and my husband and I live in a beautiful figure five if you don't know where that is it's near Cedarville if you don't know where that is it's near Van Buren thank you. And everyone of representative Aaron Pilkington this my first time on aging children and youth but very excited to be on nine live in Knoxville Arkansas which is in between Clarksville and Russellville so I'm a representative represent the jewel of the river valley which I'm very happy about I have two young children to under to see because that definitely have a new appreciation for youth and children. but I have I have a background in healthcare administration I have a **** for UAMS and served on public health for the last few terms so on I'm excited to lend my expertise in that round to this area as well and X. at work was so many great great people here on this committee so thank you. Good morning my name is Joyce Springer and I am originally from south Arkansas down close by our two year I grew up in Stevens Arkansas and I'm milk chocolate it to Arkadelphia met my husband and I saw one on the is in little rock now so I now represent Little Rock from downtown I don't know if you're familiar with the area of Little Rock Chester street all the way west to around the Baptist hospital sold I'd guess the street would be canis road sold I'm a representative here in Little Rock. I too have served on this committee previously and it is a great committee my heart is in of education however everybody could serve on Education sold I like being here so that's fine I have a hit my background is I have a background in business I grew up in a small town in Ouachita County my father was a businessman so I thought I want to be in business sold additionally I did start out in business however I met an attorney who dissed of convinced me that I needed to switch over to education so I have a degree in elementary education as well as a master's degree in education administration so I'm here now because of him attorney John Walker I don't know if you've heard of that name before but that's the reason why I'm here and he told me that you will take over my seat if anything ever happens to me and little did I know that I would be here he suddenly passed away in twenty nineteen so now I'm here because of John Walker so I'm so happy to be here and I look forward to working with each and everyone of you thank you. Well I'm Rick McClure and I will echo what the representative Fite said that this is a a committee that deals with some issues that will tug at your heartstrings this is my second time around as all of us we have other lives outside of here my corporate background as an operational management and economic development and then I have been a pastor for thirty years now so this hits home a lot of things that I deal with that in the past or role in so welcome aboard is gonna be a great session. Thank you madam chairman is Keith Brooks are present west little rock northwestern Pulaski and little bit of northern selling County this is my second time on this committee as well I think there's four of us that served on this committee before of our besides represent fight and and represent Barker so echo seven same thing everybody else that it's it's an honor to have the chance to to deal with matters that are difficult for a lot of people but we can make a real and meaningful difference I also serve on the Legislative autism task force and so kids as a dad with kids with special needs and and having seen a lot of the challenges that are out there for our system this committee is a great place to make a huge difference for for people the people of Arkansas kids especially so glad everyone is here look forward to doing great work. I'm Tony Furman I represent another part of selling County I don't have it yet six counties in your district who. I part of one county so will be smaller. But yeah I live in Benton my wife and our foster parents which is why I guns Committee last session and yes the work we do here will definitely tug at your heart. And but the it's very important work that we do here for for the kids for the aging for the military everything we do here is super important so thank you for being on here looking for to working with you guys. My name is Matt brown I'm a from Conway my district internally within the city of Conway so I've got one the best districts ever turns walkability NO I love it com is a great town go bears we're Jeremy went an attorney my day job and I'm just proud to be here. Okay we get that the I'm hope Duke and I am from credit I am represent the very north west corner of our state so you go much further and you're gonna be a Missouri you're gonna be in Oklahoma and I'm married and I have three adult children I want to teacher will when the teacher and coach and then one's a freshman the year may I also have a teaching degree I haven't taught since early nineties but I have been working with kids since I was sixteen and I've been going to nursing home services before I can remember doing anything different and thankfully we were able to get back into our local nursing home this last Sunday which was a real blessing to be able to minister to them there so I have a real hard for kids for elderly and I'm super excited about having the honor to serve on this committee. Joy Behar District thirty four eastern portion of Mississippi County I'm upset of represented Duke five miles from Missouri in two miles from Tennessee right on the river but I like representative Springer I have education background. I was looking to get on the Education Committee but the lord opens doors up and I think I'm right where I really need to be of thirty years in public education eighteen years as a coach. And civics teacher and then the last twelve I've been elementary principal so I see this as a great chance of ministry because I want to protect our youth. I want to respect our aging and I want to honor our veterans I have four children right now my mother in law lives with us and my dad served in Vietnam he turned twenty one while he was there and so I can relate to all three capacity so. I'm excited to be on this committee thank you. Thank you madam chair. My name is shared peers and I also thank you colleagues and I will be like you please the. Be patient with me I will tell you this I'm very very passionate about all things listed on this committee and I have a wonderful wine two children four grandchildren my backgrounds in wildlife law enforcement with the game and fish. And I'm ready to get started and thank you. Traced I'm all I'm district to and that's part of Randolph sharpen Fulton counties call Pocahontas Arkansas home where I have a background in real estate and insurance all have a wife without five kids ranging from the ages of twenty two to six so I I just never wanted to retire I guess and I know I need some state benefits that's why I got just kidding just kidding but I do look forward to working working with the twenty all in this is important capacity so thank you. Thank you madam chairman aims Jeremy Wooldridge District one northeast Arkansas green clay and Randolph counties my background I'm a licensed behavioral health therapist and have been for many years and currently running Development Council in Jonesborough so northeast Arkansas I have a wife and two sons and probably the only interesting fact about me my wife and I share a birthday in the in eight years ago our son was born on our birthday so I think the odds of that are pretty slim but that's my claim to fame and happy to be here. Thank you madam chair my name is Brett McKenzie I represent the seventh district parts of Rogers Garfield gateway invoke a and been County I'm excited to be here that my most important facts are has been to Sydney and father to two sets of twins The the older sister to three on Saturday so I'm excited to do this work it's important work and thank you for your leadership. Thank you madam chair I am representative Shepherd I represent south of six thirty back to selain County so this parts of maple Vale Alexander and of course southwest little rock I am a former board member with the little rock school district I'm excited about that I've served before would on the board with representative Springer I'm also a correctional auditor I tell people the most phenomenal experience of my life as I had the opportunity to travel to the Pentagon and I that the United States Army correctional coming and so I travel the nation and IT jails prisons and parole authorities but in my day to day practice on the compliance manager Arkansas juvenile assessment and treatment center so I have more of a correction of background in juvenile adults I've done it for a little over twenty years so I'm excited to be here today and I'm very excited that the majority of the people on the board on my classmates. So thank you madam chair. Thank you madam chair I'm representative Steve owner from Springdale I am fourth generation Washington County I joined the navy pretty much out of high school I was at an listed hospital corpsman medic with the marines back in the nineteen seventies finished a college degree became a surface warfare officer did that for five years then fill the call going the ministry when seminary and then went back in as a chaplain and I did that for the last twenty five years of a lot of what military chaplaincy is is in fact what we call re parenting. Because a lot of young men and women who joined the service basically practically raised themselves came out or rough situations broken homes of abuse and neglect and so I just have a real passion for use have a passion for foster care even though I wouldn't pretend to have a great depth of knowledge I am married to one that we have a twenty five year old daughter who lives in fade bill in my wife and I lost our nineteen year old son to cancer in the year twenty twenty and so he was a member of the Arkansas Air National Guard and one hundred eighty eighth wing in so when the C. one thirty flew over yesterday all day I got a lump in my throat. Thank you manager. Thank you madam chair I met the field representative of district fifty three look forward to working with each and everyone of you I'd like to thank everyone in attendance here today ready to get to work I'm available twenty four seven Matt the field dot com if you have any concerns in this committee don't hesitate to reach out look forward to working for the great people state Arkansas and learning from the manager thank you. Thank you madam chairman and Stetson painter from the beautiful part of the state of Mountain Home Arkansas we have two lakes and Three Rivers also cover Fulton County been married for almost eight years to my beautiful wife Kaylee we have a four year old under Marie painter and little bit of background on me as I've been a soldier since I was seventeen years old I still currently serves are going to Fortner would Missouri teaching the Sebring command up there. And then we have a small business and then I've been a congressional staffer for almost eleven years and so I worked five years in the Senate and six years in the U. S. house so I'm looking forward to working with everybody on this committee specially you madam chair and each one of these are passionate to me one might district is has a pretty it's a retirement community so we have a lot of seniors there. Children educ you know all this stuff so military being a veteran myself so I look for working with everybody preaches about chair thanks. Hello my name is Zach Graham like I am a representative from Fort Smith I have a very small district I just measured about six miles long and two miles deep so but I have a background education I've been a teacher for seven years at a. Ex extremely diverse from the poor school I teach stem classes in coding I have a wife Tiffany and I have a two and a half weeks daughter named Bonnie Lynne Kramnik and my wife is a rock star for that would be here right now so. thank you have a four to Arkansas you. Thank you all very much and before I make a comment or two on the committee I failed to tell you a little bit of my background I also eman educator this past fall semester of twenty twenty two is the first semester in nineteen years that I have not taught even wild and serving as a representative I would teach and coach for semester I'm an English French teacher and a coach the tennis team they're in Smackover for years so also an. Three of our five grandchildren were adopted from the Arkansas foster care system so and all of that near and dear to my heart also so I wanted but we have an awesome Committee now that you're here not just sit down and see the faces but you hear the background you the reasoning you here the depth of the importance to each one of us not just as we represent our citizens. But each one of us personally so thank you for sharing all that I want to introduce our staff are amazing staff Blake Gilliam is our committee analyst destiny Davis is a committee analyst. Lara Reynolds will normally be here with us right as the attorney and she's not here with us today and then to resa Maxwell was filling initi she left the building okay and would you like to tell us a few. About the handout what you're gonna. Members my name is Billy Gillam on the Committee analyst for eighteen children Youth Legislative Military Affairs I've been on this committee staffing it for coming up for years this summer. During our meetings I will be fielding parliamentarian questions I'll also be working with some paperwork for the bills but I also am here to help you with any questions I serve in a non partisan capacity and I'm just thankful to be here thank you very much. Also for forget I did leave a handout of agency official contacts at your seat at the beginning of the meeting that is very ball tile expressly sensor will be positions moving around with the new administration but it is just to let you know there are agencies that do work closely with the work that you will be doing here is just to let you know that there will be contact if you have any questions. Thank you very much we're very appreciative of our staff here and speaking of agencies do we have any directors or representatives from agencies that would like to stand and introduce themselves if you're willing you can come to the Mike you can't like take over take too long but if you're willing to come to the Mike we can actually record you. Good morning and happy Wednesday I'm Kristi Putnam I am might not yet official I'll be Commissioner of take the oath of office this afternoon but I'm the secretary for department you Mr president I come to you from Kentucky and I'm very excited to be in Arkansas I've spent some time here working with the team at DHS on Medicaid and some other projects little bit of very quick background I'm an educator by trade originally that let me Human Services very quickly and I've spent about twenty plus years in state policy in government so I'm very happy to be here. Good morning committee almost seven years ago at and gave my title for the first time so it's interesting that today is my first day in my new role and you will be the first a committee that actually say out loud my title to anyone I am Mr Martin I'm the DHS deputy director of youth and families I previously for the last seven years have been the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services so I spend a lot of time in front of this committee and that whoever the new director is why I will continue to serve in that role and you will hear from a lot around reports on child welfare in my new role I will be working with Division of Youth Services so Adams you're if you don't mind can I just introduce some people from the back because out please do okay Division of Youth Services director is Michael crap. And then from Division of Children and Family Services and who you will be seeing a lot through legislative session and hopefully working closely with is Kristen Harper his assistant director and her support team will be sera's who is deputy counsel at office of chief counsel who is under DHS but I'm trying to hit most of the DHS team if that is okay I have J. he'll he is that is the division director of the division of aging adult and behavioral health services I Mark why is here chief of staff with DHS at Jeff Williams will be supporting governmental affairs and former legislator we have Laurie might Donald who is deputy of governmental affairs interim deputy I believe is the correct title. Everybody okay I think I got everybody from DHS but we will be working closely as DHS has aging children and families as well as you know this is all that comes before this committee. Thank you very much. You did a great job introducing everyone thank you yes and I don't know everyone yet so she had to come and do that we thank you very much for the time thank you thank you. Anyone else. Good morning madam chair my name is Major General Kendall and currently the adjutant general for the Arkansas National Guard all the way up until about one o'clock this afternoon at which time all swear in as the the secretary for the department of Veterans Affairs right next to me as my deputy and chief of staff Mr Scott stagger. And we're honored to be here and to meet everybody we look forward to working with everybody in the future. Thank you very much thank you. This state. I just introduce myself a major Jeff through the Arkansas state police crimes against children division of in the division commander there for about five years I really became interested in and the children I'll always said it used of Senate people at an interim to much for kids but I found out ideas kind of broke my teeth it with this on a card team which representative pairs with was a part of what what we done while I was stationed there in in Newport and it and it definitely opened my eyes to some things what I have here is Khaliq have issues with my investigations administrator and then mac who's over the the hotline he's a hotline administration that led to mention we'll tell you about themselves thank you. Good morning my name is clear I just like you said I am the CACD investigations administrator I've been with CACD approximately twelve years I am personally a month in replacing Mister Gehrke listen and so hi I look forward to working with you guys. The the road. Would you like me to have that stricken from the record. Good morning I'm up I'm Dan Malcolm holiday administrator I've been with the the state police at the hotline for the past twenty three years for my twenty fourth year and in the administrator for the past three and a half years. Thank you thank you thank you for what you're doing thank you for introducing yourself. What. Are there any other representatives are directors from agencies thank you. I mean this will likely be the easiest time you have at the end of this table so you might as well take advantage of. Hi amber Digby on the juvenile ombudsman for the state I've been in my position for about four and a half years I monitor all of the juvenile prisons in Arkansas keep a close Mr Michael Graham. I'm excited for the work that you guys to hear thank you for. Hi I'm Laura Roberts and I'm the executive director of the Commission on child abuse rape and domestic violence and I'm fairly new to the position M.. Been there in interposition since may of twenty one I started at the commission as the child welfare on but it's been the first one for the state and in September of this year I was finally able to stop doing both jobs and hired station make Donald to be our new child welfare ombudsman and and so I'm excited to start actually working with you on or what her introducer some. It's a strategy good morning and I'm station make Donald as the other is that I am the child welfare ombudsman for the state of Arkansas and I have I'm an attorney and have been in various roles in the child welfare field since nineteen ninety eight I'm very excited to work with you all thank you. Thank you. Any other. Agencies representative directors. Okay thank you all this committee looks forward to working with all of you for all of our aging children youth military okay so now for the more boring things of a few housekeeping items we need to go through that I need to give you First of all this is the room one thirty that we will median on Wednesdays and Fridays if we are here on Fridays that's not my call so it's also not what we have normally done so likely we will be meeting in here every Wednesday but if it is a Wednesday Friday it will still be in this room ten AM or at the call of the chair. A quorum of course must be seen to begin the committee so it's important that you get here on time and eleven takes eleven to be a quorum of course and of course to get anything passed we need eleven. Voting in the same way agendas are prepared in accordance with House rules two days in advance so if you're sponsoring a bill or resolution those notifications will be sent to you as a member. Two days before the committee meeting and they're sent by email also on the subject of email if you have an email address that you prefer using other than the house email I don't know if yours is like mine but I get a lot of very interesting emails to sift through to see what's actually valid so if you have another email you would prefer that that Blake used to send out information we'll have a sheet up here after committee after we gavel out if you would like to leave that email with him if not it will be sent to your house email. After a bill resolution has appeared on the Committee agenda and has been called up for consideration in the sponsor is not present that item will be placed at the bottom of the active agenda if you have a bill or resolution to run and you fail to show up for three times it will be put on the deferred list. And request to move bills from the deferred list to the active list must be made by at two thirty PM two days prior to that scheduled committee meeting. And let's see amendments if you have an amendment to bring to your bill then you need to have that in writing and please let the staff know ahead of time that you have an amendment no surprise amendments please. And special order of business we can have. Meetings called obviously that are not at ten AM on Wednesdays or Fridays that happens sometimes when there's a controversial bill and we know we're going to need more time or we have a lot of people that we've already seen and know that will sign up to speak for or against the bill so sometimes that will happen or when a sponsor has people coming from out of town we can have a special order of business but you'll be notified of that as well. To the left anything on. This can be a subject as well okay right. Special order of business can be a subject on the agenda as well. Do you have any questions. Chairman chair Parker so with the deferred list and the normal as I mean that's just hold over from the COVID rules from last session that my understanding or is there sure please. Generally it's best if the bill is passed over three times it goes to the deferred list. And that's just procedure that's kept in place not to have so many bills if they sponsor is choosing eventually not to run a bill it's not punitive it's just if sold to take it off they just email me or the chair and say can we have that put back on the list Gatch okay perfect that's on. So more for inefficiency it's four four offensive changes in the. Any other questions. That I can have like enter for you. This is my fourth term on this committee I chose this committee as a freshman and I have chosen this committee every time and will continue to use this committee chair not sure just because like many of you have said. There's so many parts of it that though they're not necessarily easy to deal with their very very important so thank you all for your time unless we have other business where to okay I'm sorry yes. Thank you madam chair I would just like to say that Mr Gillam is of very great resource so if you have any concerns or questions contact email thank you. I'll second that.