ALC-Executive Subcommittee

Golly Arkansas Legislative Council executive subcommittee to order and first up we have consideration mercy rule the Arkansas department Education Division elementary secondary education if you will come to present. Thank you for being here for your Turner microphones OWN and identify yourself you're recognized. Good afternoon court a solace for chief counsel for the department of education Jerry key for safe schools unit department education. So we are asking and for your consideration to you approve these emergency rules governing school safety the first few sections of the rules are requirements of the law concerning training for school resource officers and other things that school districts have to do but the emergency provision really is applicable to the final section that has to do with distribution of school safety grants as you all know the legislature set aside fifty million dollars for the department to distribute to school districts to aid in the. Making Basco safety I'm a priority in making different upgrades and things to the school district that we are required to have rules promulgated before we can distribute any of these funds to school districts and so after working with and several members of the legislature we brought these to you for your consideration and if we can get these approved then that will assist us in getting the money out to school districts and sooner so that they can start putting these different safety measures in place and I'm happy to answer any questions. Wardlaw you're recognized thank you Mr did you call president of Cozart and representatives eleven I myself did not but members of my staff did call them and reach out to them to make sure that they were in agreement with these and my understanding is that they are where did David Branscum go. You know Branscum he got out of here as quickly as he could. Methode these rules up if you can't get it back in here. I tell them you want to show off his sweater but. We'll. I appreciate you having someone call in but next time I ask for you because I ask directly for you to call those members please make sure that those calls get take made I will do that. Thank you senator Ervin your recognized so does actually to respond to represent Wardlaw questions but we actually did have a zoom meeting that I facilitated with the department of ed with representive Cozart and am I believe Speaker Shepherd was on that call as well as Senator Hester to kind of go through the outline of what is being proposed and if I could on to say and they had great input that we also incorporated after that meeting and so one of the things that I think is important to state is that on this grant program it's read it really was I think. Created based on the school surveys that we received a hundred percent response on so I I want to say I'm so grateful to the schools for engaging on this and responding to the school safety survey that we sent out hundred percent response rate and then secondly the school safety commission so many of the way this grant is is created by basing it on a priority level one two and I think three and is based on the school safety commission and what they have created as standards for school safety so at the end of the day we're we will be able to say that no one hopefully one hundred percent of our schools have now that you know that priority level one of school safety standards as set forth by our school safety commission in that way this money you know will actually have an accountability to it to where we can actually have set some standards and set some goals and they were able to meet those goals and then I will say to a lot of schools responded to the immediate incident that happened in Texas and so their school boards and those administrations felt it necessary to act as soon as possible to to make some changes so I'll ask you and you can confirm this but it was our intention that they would be allowed to seek uses grants as a way to be reimbursed from things that would that they put in place as of the beginning of this current school year that were in the site correct yes that is correct any fines that they have spent already back to July first and twenty two can be reimbursed we will have an application process where they will the school districts will submit to us what they've already done or what they intend to do in alignment with the recommendations of the governor's school safety commission that once that's verified and then they'll either be re. Reimburse for what they've already spent or they will be provided the funds to complete those tasks that they have told us they're going to complete and as senator Ervin mentioned today we prioritized the recommendations of the commission so that hopefully by the end of the process we will be able to say that every school district has met priority one as safety measures recommended by the commission and then hopefully made at least a significant way into priority to or for those school districts who have met all of priority one and priority two they can go into priority three which also allows them flexibility to do things that perhaps and the commission did not think I have or that we were not aware of and so and making sure that those recommendations are done but that they also then have some flexibility for things that may be specific to their needs and their school district and and thank you so much for that explanation and then finally it was very important that we keep up with present technology that's available and so we know that there were requests for weapons systems west weapon detection systems and so that is also specific into this language that that be added just simply because of being able to keep up with the technology but we know that that would have been very very important and what happened in Texas if that were had been available correct yes okay thank you so much for your work on this. Your Wardlaw. In follow up to to your question on being under reimbursed do we think fifty million is going to be enough or we think that that's going to run out I know I had schools or want to put in double door systems and different stuff and the cost they were worried about the reimbursement because they're worried about the cost level and what the other schools were gonna be doing so is there an effort to get more money put into this fun and you see that need come in sooner than later or give us kind of an estimate from the Department side view yeah so it's difficult to estimate right now M. like Senator Irvin said that the commission did a survey of school districts to see where they were at in terms of safety and as you can imagine because of different areas of the state different sides of school districts it was and you know everything from minimal to extensive and so we hope that this will at least get all of our school districts to again that priority one type of basic safety measures that we think all students and staff are entitled to but to say that it will meet all of school safety needs I don't know that we could ever come up with a number that would fully insure every student was a hundred percent safe but we feel this is at least a good effort in getting to a. Equal level for all of our school districts and then of course that would be through the legislative process whether any additional funds were made available we do have some federal funds that we're looking at making available to school districts as well and so we're just gonna do everything we can to try to make sure school districts have the resources that they need and one of an Mr Kiefer's duties as director of the school safety unit is to find the most efficient and economical resources available to school districts so like you said if they wanna you instill install certain doors or locks and he can direct them to resources that are available and different manufacturers we're going to encourage our coops to do bulk ordering on behalf of their school districts and we want to make the most efficient use of the funds as we possibly can. Senator when you're recognized. Representative for law has a great point I just wanted to be able to say to him and to the members of legislature I think we've built a great vehicle so that if we do decide that there needs to be more money added the vehicles already built for this and we could you know adjust and put more money in it and then it would just continue like that that's what we we built it to think down the road that if we needed to put more money into it then we could and we would have to like re establish you know I don't know another way of doing it and so I love that we have I love the structure behind this and I think eventually if the legislature and the executive branch decide more money needs to be put in it then it continues just a track to where they when we hopefully then we can make a hundred percent across the board and every level priority but at so I just wanted to say that because I think the way it's designed allows for that ability to do that. Thank you senator don't see anymore questions without objection emergency rule is reviewed and approved in with review and approval shall be effective upon the German of the AOC meeting Friday December sixteenth Mar. Thank you for being here thank you all thank you. We're going to have the. Phil service. President next on the. The data use agreements related to preparation of financial impact statements by the Siegel group. If you will recognize yourself. You Mr chair Jill there be of Legislative Research thank you resent. So you all have in your meeting packets to a draft memorandums of understanding. Under Act one twelve that was passed during the fiscal session of this year there's a requirements that any bill that increases the cost of a health benefit plan of an entity of this state will receive a fiscal impact statement and you all approved a contract with the bureau to hire the Siegel group to do those. We're now working with EBT and institutions of higher ed who are entities that have those plans and to be able to get all that data that Siegel will need to look at to create those fiscal impact statement for you so that's the purpose of these documents M.. We've been working I've been working with Nick fuller with department of higher ed and and then with Julie Bates with a issue system unless the rest with your may and they have agreed to the form of the document that is is here for that and you and the data use agreement that we will do with institutions of higher education I'm under these agreements A request will come from Siegel once they have a bill I'll send that to the department of higher education and they will blast set out to all of the institutions with the request for the data under this they'll have up to five business days to provide that data back to Siegel and as we talk to there may be some situations where specialized state as needed and it might take a little bit longer and that's allowed for here also and. This form that you have here specifically less the University of Arkansas just as an example so what is being asked of you today with this one is just to approve the bureau to enter into these types of agreements once we have the full approval of Legislative Council and I'll start working with higher ed to get all of those signed with each one of these institutions and just so you have an idea of of what we're talking about and Nick provided me with a list of who of all of the institutions that have their own self funded insurance plans and and there are it's it's pretty much all of them in this state except for just a couple and as a U. tak has their own group health policy with Blue Cross blue shield BlueShield that they and they put out an RFP every seven years for those and benefits for their employees. M. and then it Arkansas tech does not have a self funded plan and we don't yet know how they're providing those so We're finding that out we're we're just waiting on that information and then Southeast Arkansas college actually does is in the billable less the EBT provided us so they are going through ET. I am at the moment you look at the second one this one is the The one with EBD we've had we haven't yet finalized this agreement I've been working with warm Ballard and Jake lead And late yesterday afternoon received I have the version that's in your packet as you can see there are there's red mark up on this these were the changes requested by EBT I responded back to them yesterday evening to point out a couple of issues that we have in that Siegel has with the changes that they've made so I'll just I'll go over those with you all if you look in your packet and this is exhibit C. two. I'm page two under section one AM EDT stricken through the. At one business day time frame for providing the data and as I told you under that higher ad imho use we have a five business day time frame so we're we're willing to go further than the one day however they've taken out any M. time frame at all for providing us that data which is a problem secondly any under on page three. Rather than providing the data that Seagal has requested and and that has been agreed to be provided by the institutions of higher ed EV's proposing just a one time provision of data in a line amount and it summary data rather than data specific to the requests that in the bill that we may have in front of us and I sent that language to Segal and they responded to me and said that they didn't feel that that would suffice for the what they're gonna need to provide the fiscal impact statement for the legislature so I have reached out to EBT to ask if you know we can go back to the language that we need and I'm I have not heard back from them yet and the last provision is on page four section thirteen. Entity is asking the bureau to agree to provide the fiscal impact statements that we receive from Siegel. Two E. B. D. Y. at least one business day before the bill is considered in committee I am I I pointed out to them that the beat of the bill are legally cannot do that as we're bound by confidentiality and until those are released publicly there the working papers of the member and in this case also those committee chairs SO we've asked them to will we've told them that we can agree to that provision so that's where we are with that one and I'm not sure how the chairs want to proceed with that and you. Kochhar Wardlaw you're recognized. To do I would say let's just go to page two section one I would say amend that to five days. And Senate backed away the documents mere then going over to Page three. I would say stick to the language that is the same as a language we had agreed on prior it not the new language inserted by a B. D. E. I also find it before I go to page four very amusing that they're not even here where we can get this negotiated out and done before the session and before we actually have bills that impact of. Their their stuff I would agree on number eleven to change that to consultant. on thirteen. It in committee on making this is a motion so you guys can agree or disagree on thirteen I would say strike thirteen in its entirety. So with that Mr I make a motion if that be the agreement that we go back to E. B. D. with and further negotiation I would also say that I'd like to send a message forum executive committee to EBT in this motion that we need this agreement signed no later than five PM tomorrow we're going into a session bills are being filed these these impacts need to be ready on the first week of session if members ready to run those said bills so this is not something we can delay so I would ask that you know that they negotiate in good faith to get this done before close of business tomorrow with that Mister I make that is a motion. Hold your motion virtually if we've got discussion I've got a couple on the board that's all right. A representative Dotson you're recognized. Thank you Mr I think a representative Wardlaw. Probably cover date the the point that I would brought up but just to so I'm clear on it If I understand correctly on page two item one changing that from one to five business days. then the rest of item to leaving it as is taking all the red parts of that. Then on item eleven change making that change to consultant in item thirteen just deleting thirteen altogether. Is that correct. Then I'll make a second your motion the proper time when the chair recognizes. Okay thank you and Senator Irvin you're recognized. Could just question on page three in the added language. that says for the time frame of January one twenty sixteen to twenty December one twenty twenty two. When there be. Any needs to extend beyond December one twenty twenty two. So I think with represent were laws motion that would go away all together and we would just go back to being able to have access to all of their data as for questions. Richey Wardlaw. What they're saying here center is there going to give they were agreeing to give us the one time doll of January one through December one nineteen okay okay and we're saying we want real time data right Pacific to the bill or not this big data box don't that everything. Absolutely yeah. I don't know how you would create a financial impact statement for a piece of legislation in March. Without having access to the data that you need Mr it would make any sense okay thank you. Thank you. Saying no more questions I have a motion by a representative Wardlaw second by representative Dotson. All in favor aye. Opposed. Motion passes thank you. Mister chair just to clarify when are we also authorized on the Department higher ed. Yes my is okay thank that anybody. This does anybody need made that. Clarified yes you may. Senator Irvin. I'll make a motion as at that I'll make a motion. That we we have that and I you approved through with the Department higher or with higher at that would any society yes. Institutions of higher at I have a motion and a second all in favor aye aye opposed it is passed. hopefully we've got Director Garrity has something just one small item thank you Mr chair Marty Garrity with the pure of Legislative Research one of the continuing issues that the bureau is is trying to address is better wifi service in the Capitol Hill building and so I've been talking to Eric Sanders who is our new chief information officer and they're gonna do a couple of things which is put additional access points in the Capitol Hill building the other is going to have a little bit of an impact temporary impact on members which is there's different wifi's here big mac in the capital than Capitol Hill building so they're gonna combine them all into one so that you don't drop off one and then when you go to Capitol Hill building have to get on to a new wifi system but what that's going to require is a changing passwords and so we've reached out to an enrollee to advise them that this is coming so they can communicate all the members of the house and the Senate that we're going to be rolling out a new password for the wifi over there but with the goal of providing better wifi service in Capitol Hill building so hopefully that'll work. All right members of the four House and Senate in you should be getting a notification on that and no other business we are Jr.