Independent Citizens Commission

I'm. Of the Arkansas independent citizens commission my name is Senate bill ember Tucker I had the unfortunate privilege of being elected the chair of this commission last week and Tommy may was fortunately elected the vice chair. I do want to welcome a new member of our commission Franklin and thank him for joining us In in this endeavor you probably didn't think you'd get as much handouts as you did over the last two weeks but that's the job we have so I'd I'd like to be sure that we have represent we have of budget director Robert Breck is Robert thank you thank you and Dr Scott graves thank you thank you I will say we of based upon a conversation with Marty Sullivan decided we didn't need him to come forward he'd end indicated that doctor graves could handle everything for the AOC so let's move to the second item on the agenda which is the approval of the minutes for September thirty all of the documents that we are gonna be referring to have been posted on the public web. Hi welcome and a bill in the tough. It's a great if you'll have a seat here. And we now welcome Clark's mess and welcome you to the commission. And so consider going on with the approval of the minutes I'll entertain a motion up for if you have corrections please solve it so indicate. Like a motion for approval. Second. Okay that will be a motion and a second any discussion. If there is no discussion I will ask for a of for an indication on the vote of approving please vote yes if you approve. Yes yes please vote no if you do not approve. Unanimously approved the minutes of for the September thirty meeting. Now what I'd like us to do is we did not have this discussion at the last meeting which I realized after we had adjourned we should have when I first joined the commission of we had a discussion as to whether the commissioners on would of want a a stipend for each appearance at the commission as I recall in the past it's been like sixty five dollars or something like that so I wanted to bring that to the floor and find out what the the desire the consensus of the group is on having each of us paid a stipend for each appearance. Madam chairman I'd like to be on the record that I would oppose receiving any kind of compensation for our services for the state of Arkansas on this commission. Okay. Would you like to make that a motion yes madam chairman I'd like to move that the independent citizens commission receive no stipend are any payment there are a. Service to the state thank you second and there's a second and by Tommy may any discussion. No further discussion I will call for the vote all in favor of the motion and a second please vote yes yes yes all in favor in the opposed to the motion please vote no. That will be passed unanimously thank you now I would like to call on Mr Robert branch to come forward and have a chair I know you're way far down at the end but. Okay no that's okay whichever you prefer we do want you to turn on your might bring it close to your mouth so this is this is being up. Recorded and up we would like to have everybody be able to appear as I mentioned in the in the agenda of we have we. Let if we understand that doctor shall not could not be here today and so he suggested that as budget director you probably know as much as he knows about of forecasting except of and we have been given the opportunity ahead of time to review documents that were sent to us. would you like to make any opening remarks about the state revenue and budget and then we'll open the floor to questions sure I'd be glad to and I'm very comfortable down here spent many many years testifying to the Senate the table on the public health committee which meets miss rooms at the thank you very much for having my name's is Robert Brekken the state budget director I can assure you I don't know as much about forecasting as Dr Shaun was very kind of him to say that I can tell you about the current forecast to which which you've been provided it's a we were. Looking at roughly a nine hundred million dollar surplus in FY twenty three unify twenty three goes from July first of twenty two till June thirtieth of next year we're looking at right around a nine hundred million dollar surplus of because of the tax cuts that were done in a special session in December I believe of that that's been decreased by about five hundred million dollars so currently we're still looking at around roughly four hundred million dollar surplus just give you some perspective. At the end of FY twenty one was roughly a billion dollar surplus last year was a record surplus of one point six to eight billion dollars so we are enjoying surpluses at the moment as many of you are aware there are talks about a recession there are talks about a downturn there is some concern that if there is a downturn at the same time that you're that these the tax cuts to take effect and with the increase in spending that the looks like we'll be proposed in the next session the your future budget surpluses probably won't be what they are today but currently we are very fortunate to have this budget surpluses I say fortunate I think in a way it's a curse I. A little bit like the a family member that won the lottery and everybody wants more money in the so but we are fortunate that that we have that I don't know if you meet annually or biannually this is no well we meet basically every every year if we have a request in writing okay of from any of the constitutional officers okay Well generally the the state does everything a binding of basis So just to let you know in the end of June thirtieth twenty twenty one state employees were given a three percent to raise on average at then there was a two percent of the cost of living increase of this sort of an anomaly that that provision is in use very often and never be used again because it's been taken out of the code but I think believe that was in February the governor granted to two percent of the cost of living increase for state employees and then and then on June thirtieth of this year there was an average of five percent for state employees just to give you that perspective. something that also may be of interest to have I'm not sure how this will will play out but it was presented to the personnel committee. I believe his last week the rule there is new pay plan that's being proposed for state employees state employees are based on a on a grid based on what grades they are in their different classifications depending there's different ones for medical different variety different for a senior executive staff but but all of those tables it's being proposed a new pay plan those would all be increased a significant amount of twenty percent is what the was what was presented to the personnel committee nothing's been finalized yet I don't know what the end result will that will will be but our office of personnel management did feel like that the groups that are paid to scales they have fallen behind by that amount they do The studies based on different job classifications but different jobs compared to the private sector and compared to government employees and surrounding states and so that there is a proposal to raise those by twenty percent just just to give you a perspective other than that of the more than happy to answer any questions that you that you you've given some good meat for the discussion Now this twenty percent is an average right it's not necessarily each position actually each grade and and I made. It may be an average but if you but if you look at the if you look at the tables and I could I could send you a copy of that that would be good information but I think the the entry salary for each grade is going up twenty percent and I think even the maximum so we're going to twenty percent off if not it's extremely close to that in in all the different categories but that would be for when someone gets higher the first that's cool and then a higher maximum for those who are already ten years that is correct the other portion of that though that that may be of interest there will also be a. Because in the last PAYPLAN of the same type of of adjustment to the grid occurred and what happens when you do that an existing employee that maybe has been there for ten years when you they maybe I'll just give an example they're making thirty thousand they because of a merit increases they maybe get there up to thirty five thousand you change the pay grid and use the twenty percent of the thirty and all of a sudden this the entry to persons making thirty six and it is true that that person gets bumped up to the minimum but they've been there for five years so what's being proposed is is a a multiplier based on longevity and so if you're there from zero to five years you would get two percent above you get one or the other you know to both of you what's most of beneficial to you but that goes all the way up to ten percent if you're if you're there for twenty years so they did try to this is often office of personal management but they did try to put something in the plan that would take care of a you know in ploys that have been there for some time or they're not making the same as a person who started you know. Last week yeah that I had that experience Lasky County when I was a trial judge over there with staff and trying to meet the private market but yet having people then they're making about the same amount that the start person would so now my next question would be. How does this impact the budget. I don't know the overall the cost of the payroll that you're looking at I can't imagine that it's going to impacted significantly. I can tell you for every eighty million dollars it didn't impacts the budget about one percent of I have no idea what type of increases you're talking about or what your payroll might be if you're looking but the but that's a significant amount to we we've tried in the past to keep the budget around three percent growth we don't think we'll be able to do it this time to be honest because of inflationary pressures Education especially I'm sure many of you saying the teacher salary issues is been in the in the paper quite a bit and so because of those pressures we're we're looking at probably at. I don't think we'll be able to keep the three percent with that where I've I think if we can probably keep it five percent were we're going to be doing well pretty good I mean is my hope to keep it that three. I think I'm losing that argument the let me just one last question and then I'll tender to the other commissioners I guess my question though is the personnel committee's proposal how will that affect the budget get it the projections are that it would cost forty one million dollars and that's for all the state employees and keep in mind that that's in general that's general revenues yeah a roughly thirty five percent of this state employees are on other types of income or other special revenues federal revenues but for the general revenue side of that you're looking at the roughly forty one million dollars thank you okay on. Tell me. The grade increase that we're talking about the twenty percent of basically you've got a. A beginning of may but wait and. Indeed one. It would. Obviously the twenty per se at increase in the great or the right it is meant to get us in line with square. Other states or or a great state the and your your comparisons. what about performance is there a a performance evaluations that will impact the that. That increase or is it just automatic based over in here. Of the grade of the table would be automatic if you were making less of a clinical uses the example of a thirty thousand dollar minimum for a particular grade and goes up to twenty percent everybody in that grey would make at least a two thirty six thousand and twenty percent would that on top of that then you would have your performance evaluations at the end of the year the way for state employees that's done near the end of the year and it's factored in so that their performance raises can take effect on July first and so that there were there will still be that type of enhancement is will roughly that's that's typically been around three percent I don't recall another time of being five percent the way it was this year again I think that was because of the pressures that have been placed on trying to retain state employees as a governor Hutchinson decided on the two percent Cola and that's that's the maximum we could do in any one fiscal year and then he ate that a five percent to for the performance evaluations on average some people depending on your performance in and it's up to the different agencies some people might have gotten nothing some people might have gotten to present some got five some could have gotten ten it it it it's up to the agency to dispersed that but the third the ideas that they would state that five percent cap for the whole agency. When was the last. Great yes two thousand seventeen. And how much was that that I don't recall I I don't think it was the as much as we're talking about now there was one previous to that that I can recall I'm just going off memory but it seems like those are closer to probably ten percent twenty percent is is this significant but I think it's just because of the inflationary pressures in hand the retention issues to in state government at the moment that's what it's been like that and I'm told that that just gets us to where we need to be it's it's not as if that's going to get some kind of cushion for future growth and that's to put us where we need to be today and it was accepted for early well above the personnel committee but of course all that will have to be voted on during the next session and you know. We're insurer course otherwise how that will turn. Thank. Any other questions from the commissioners please feel free. I could go on and on and ask questions but what. I guess We've gotten some information on inflation figures and it looks to me like in the stats. That were at eight percent in that range yeah I think that's close the left her different numbers eight point two eight point six yeah I think so security out there right there they're increases are in the in the low weights eight point two right uh wrong about that is close as that and that's pretty high for social security yeah I think it's the largest increase since maybe nineteen eighty years as sometime in that time frame there wasn't really a couple of other times or it's been that large I also noticed that in in your handouts there was an impact statement of where. Four of a Senate bill and house bill one. Is the is are those the cuts that you've just referred to or are those new ones that'll be on the table in January well the the one that the one tax cut that was passed will go into effect on January first okay the corporate tax will drop to five point three percent on January first two thousand twenty three well what they did with the personal income taxes actually that was made retroactive the back to the beginning of the year and so the so the impact of on the personal income side tax which went under four point nine percent and keep in mind that those tax decreases were or built in they were to happen periodically were they would step down what they decided to which is X. xcelerated those cuts to directly to four point nine it would have taken the until I think police I think it's twenty twenty six yes we would have finally got to a four point nine percent on the personal side but the decision was made to accelerate those tax cuts and make them all effective immediately with the with the exception of corporate which will go into effect on January first of next year so so that was Senate bill one yes there is a Senate bill and house bill again and yeah. Well I think the house bill was to twenty five I mean twenty twenty five it it looked to me like they were a little bit different they may have come together may have a typically when they when they do something like that they'll of actually file identical bills and if each house just so nobody can can throw a wrench in at the end both both houses passed their version and goes to the other and even if one side backs out to you can you can go for you can go yeah it's great but they should of I believe they were identical lease the the ones that deal with the tax okay well I will admit to you I don't keep up with all of that is religiously as I used to I think I've. it in the in these tax impact statements I noticed that on down the line we're going to be an a minus. Situation. Well. I don't know that we did projections because of the tax cuts and because of accelerating those tax cuts a doctor shall not his group did projections further out than they normally would okay typically they would only do a forecast for the for the current two years but because of the tax cuts because of accelerating those and he did take those out a little bit further than normal of course I think he was you know they try to do those for cash rather conservatively sure I think the idea is you know if if you're low on the forecast as people aren't too upset when you have more money and if the forecast is too high and then we start cutting services and personnel and and budget so that's much more severe so I think it was a lot conservative going out past you know the biennium yes but I we felt like there was we would not be in the negative okay the. Within the current forecast for the foreseeable future course that's you know that depends on us on spending as well and when we did we did. forecasting on revenues we also built in a three percent increase on the budget and it looks like we're going to be about that this year so all that all that that has an impact if you have a billion dollar surplus and you cut five hundred million dollars in taxes and you raise five hundred million in spending the yeah it doesn't take you know much of a math genius to figure out your surplus is gone your surpluses got That I I'm. Course I'm interested in now that with these tax cuts in the current biennium have we been able to fund B. and C. of the budget yes so actually in the the current FY twenty three budget we only did two categories a and B. okay for one of the reasons was we just we knew there wasn't a reason to have a category C. ND because everybody was going to be funded okay course nobody wants to be in category B. C. or the and just for those who don't understand how the the state budget works when the budget is done in at least for the revenue stabilization act and and that portion of it if you're in category a as the money comes in day of that money is distributed do you get your percentage of the money as it comes in day it's dispersed out to fund that category so education for instance because forty one percent of of the of the budget so the dollar comes in forty one cents goes to education nothing goes to if you're in the B. category nothing goes to you and tell the entire eight categories funded so a category may not be funded in a typical year until may or June and so you would get your category be funding to the end of the year once category a is fully funded then you get your a pro rata share of category be until it's completely funded then you go to get accuracy so just so yeah okay so do most other works so for this for this biennium though a and B. have been fully fund well they they will be fully fund and tell the money comes in but we fully expect them to be fully funded okay easily and and along with the at least a four million dollar surplus okay thank you this. About It would be in the category B. C. and. Well. I'm not sure because I don't know whose it be it what what's in a and what's it be do you have a general idea that if you're talking about your particular where your money's coming for them that's typically not within those categories a. You know your your money's going to come out of constitutional officers or the Central Services Fund so that's that's a little bit different tools separate but we generally you know talk about the R. as a where the revenue stabilization act moe's but your senate your particulars hours as far as I know and if you're talking about judges prosecutors of legislators of those or out of different funds okay. But they did but they still impact all the state the right the budget yes yeah. Okay any other questions comments. Thank you very much thank you my pleasure. Now I'd like to ask a doctor graves. From the administrative office of the courts Thank you. Dr graves obviously if you want to come you have handouts okay. Please have a seat and Dr graves we we have been given some of the Arkansas court statistics. And and is this an update for this is additional information I believe after the September meeting you requested disposition data from the circuit courts this is of a much sort of more aggregate collection and a little bit of a little bit history as well with that with figures back to twenty sixteen but other summaries for each court level of for the last several years finally this positions as well as the clearance rate which is the number of dispositions per filing for given time period in this case the the the years in question. Well I really appreciate you doing this because I was trying to make some sense out of the what I'm going to call the detailed stuff and it was a little difficult because I couldn't tell. Cool I don't know if in that in those submissions that you had filings the stats no with the filings were not included in those in those figures a year is just the dispositions okay well this is this is very good because I was going to ask questions to try to get to this point obviously we know that two thousand twenty one got impacted by COVID I presume that was that was what caused some of the reduction yet to twenty twenty one certainly had saw some code affects twenty twenty more so yeah the edge you can see the the prickly the circuit court three drops below ninety percent which is unusual historically speaking at but yes since twenty twenty UC twenty twenty one and then the twenty twenty to estimate is the filing said disposition totals yes our estimates for the full year yeah assuming that the number of filings dispositions per day under this point the year continue for the rest of the year those those to be the the number of cases filed just and disposed and the clearance rate is dispositions are profiling and that's the ninety five point seven percent figure is based on its current to date because I know that the if the if the rates remain the same and then the clearance rate won't change right right now I I wouldn't I would note that so for that or do over the course of the year the assumption that dispositions and filings are both produce at the same rate per day has not proven to be the case yes in fact this positions have grown faster than filings over the last four months I do an estimate back in June and so lease based on that my guess is that the clearance rate for the circuit courts will come all over come up a little bit higher and quite possibly district courts as well okay good because obvious. Lee in the District Court dispositions we don't. we have the impact of of the into two twin and two thousand twenty and twenty one of covid yeah and we don't have two thousand twenty two I don't know yet about half the district court's report by paper so there's a lag in the lag is is is inconsistent so for some courts I may have eight months of data for some six and it's very good it's just difficult to make a an estimate based on you know all the debate all the departments and divisions not knowing how much of the year you have for each one or or having to to do to each by hand basically so I don't I yeah I wasn't able to make a twenty twenty two. Calculation or estimate Well I I noticed in the court of appeals filings went down in two thousand twenty well actually two thousand eighteen through twenty eight and then they they've ratcheted up again in two thousand twenty one at but filings have gone down considerably in the Supreme Court. from in the four hundred stand at least for two thousand twenty one two hundred and forty nine do you know if in two thousand twenty two whether there. Going back up I don't know I haven't I haven't looked at that yet I know that it is it for it for the people's courts filings in dispositions are highly nonlinear which means that you know that that one portion of the year might have might be very shallow right very very low and then a bunch of activity happens particularly in the latter part of part of the year when the some of the sessions resume well it in and when there is an election year yeah yeah so well I understand that because. Yeah it. It ranges all over the place there's also likely some affect that the slowdown in filings and dispositions like a year or two ago have some lag effects on the appeals because of the case I have to be there in order for them to be so cool so we're going to have to wait there's a gap right for things to get transcribed and get filed right right okay. L. I really appreciate you giving us this kind of us the statistic because like I say I couldn't have figured it out from what time. I was going what what we had before now we were also given some national figures and that was on a a link. I copied it let me see if I have it here. Okay here it is the The National center for state courts and I'm looking at of Arkansas and it's ranked. Four of the Supreme Court S. twenty five. Kind of mental right right well he was right in the middle and like walleyes of the intermediate appellate court twenty and the general jurisdiction court twenty. What's interesting to me and of course I don't know how they do this adjusted for cost of living since things have changed so much and with inflation how how they could determine where our general jurisdiction court is at this moment in time it's always a picture sure it is a moving target it's a bit of a moving target yeah so I I guess I'm not quite is. Looking at that figure because it's it's not gonna be able to really be reflective of the current situation and I believe those figures are from July so so this is way back to the yes the others might have been it's a lifetime ago yeah yeah. well I I don't have any other questions does anybody else. I don't like to hold the question. It is very explanatory I I would encourage us to have this at other when we meet again because this really helps us understand the work the actual work that's being done as opposed to how we rank with other states certainly easy easily done okay thank you the wonders of computers. Well I'm gonna tell you I started in the court system at a time when we had no statistics. And of course I'm always complimentary of our former executive director and Marty now of of pushing. All of the judicial circuit's to send in their statistics and of course to have a standard way of counting case. We had those great debates. In the juvenile justice system the review hearings blah blah blah I won't raise those nightmares anymore but that that whole issue of a standard counting I I guess since I do have a public podium I would like to urge the district court's. To see if we can't get a little better handle on statistics and I know but most of the district courts are now going to be the judge is going to be a state employee yes yeah and so that was coming what. Are we at that place now. Thousand twenty I can't remember when the last round of of full time district judges do you can you say yeah that. That's what I thought. Twenty five okay so that that will help on that side. Yes we we had it not only we have we had a number of courts transition from local to state judges in the recent past but we've also had a number of courts within the last year transition from being those paper reporting courts to send in their information on it on an aggregate basis of a month you know monthly one fax or something like that to reporting in the case management system in electronically so there there so a date or it's getting better and gives of the yes it is we come really far very quickly well course I know where credit is due. All the work of trying to get us on the line and and with. With the data processing it's it's like any statistics. You can miss. To some extent some extent but but this is tax. Thank you very much thank you appreciate it. I think if they're going the question you're excused. Thank you very much. I think we are now at the place on our it okay before I go to. Our discussion on on the request I want to ask is there any other person present representing a constituency that would like to make a statement. Okay I just didn't want to assume anything So I'm going to now president and have an open this up encouraging open discussion about are reviewing the request which has been made by the judicial council by the Supreme Court for all courts and that includes the prosecuting attorney's office that is automatic well we don't have to discuss them separately because they come in at a percentage And Of. Those are the only request we've had now in the arguments made in support of these the request. I think I can read them as one two percent cost of living based upon what governor Hutchinson did in February. And then an additional five percent. The based upon what governor Hutchinson did in may. But that was and that was. An interesting way of using budget for merit raises for department agencies to a lot merit raises up to five percent well anyway within their budget probably also indirectly to deal with cost of living but I think what we've heard. Is that that was just kind of a temporary thing to deal with what we we heard from Mister Brecht about personnel. Cracroft you know and where we stand this gap poses that happens many times in government. Between the private market. Rates and government. We had happened in the judiciary several years ago where we had to do some I think on this commission where we had to do some if you recall some. Really drastic raises because we were out of sync so I'm just going to open up the discussion and. Ask if there's any any comments questions. My my my thing is the. Just. I've been made yeah. Certainly certainly this test for which you like to make that a motion. Yes okay. I will entertain a second yeah I mean I think you know based on the with the governor did with the two percent goal under five percent obviously he gave the five percent the discretion of the department heads but you know that really doesn't apply here so I would second motion for just the two plus the five okay for all of the. any. Discussion of the motion and a second. Wow. This is an unusual because usually we've had a lot more discussion yes. Let's read like to. The lawyer My folks five percent yeah. With the consideration you know we may see some things come up now right. Hopefully hopefully so Seven percent is a pretty good race. Well my folks got more than. Of some of the banks are checked yes on the black employers. A little more research on on seven percent. So. Thank you for our state sure thank. Anything else coming. I would agree. With mission Fletcher that. The part I get certain about it. She just with what I get concerned about is what's down the road it would show up you know okay so. this down the road is a bigger issue it I don't. Based over my career thank you. Looking back at. Recessions. We ever look at anything exactly like we're looking at right now and I'm not trying to compare that to eighty just simply say that. All the rights issue. There are should real challenges there. In. A seven percent increase is. I believe three hundred basis points. Lord that your seat in the banking industry. So just though that the app. And like I say my issue is not. What we're looking at today my issue is what we're going to be looking at. The not too distant. The future. And that there's not take it back you know it's only going. Opinion yes but you know in employee talent retention is very important and very difficult. You know what for for those talented employees or judges or personnel that we have I will say the wages are probably somewhat depressed anyway. You know. Thank although seven percent sounds. Beg on the grand scheme of things when you're already behind. Then seven percent is. Not that much. Again I mean I mean we've been talking about surpluses for the last several years so. We can't say the money's not there I mean so. Yeah I think I took it back to as a problem employer also. You know sometimes the president officer talk about percentage with this group of people yeah but for us in the past year in order to get new people in in order to have it be a job where they want to do it we've had to raise our starting wage twenty five percent. You know what I mean yeah and that translates all the way to the writers and then bonuses and things Gonzalez to address so. Yes so I mean obviously we're talking about a different group of people here right but to get to me to get people that want to aspire to be you know attorneys and judges and and do those things that's one reason I just look at it same way I agree with with Phillips and I agree with what you said Tommy but in it you know it is a unique time right it's I mean I don't think we've ever in my life in my career we haven't given races like that right usually it's one two three percent but it is unique year so I'm good with whatever the commission decides this just from my perspective I want to give you that also. Mr grant any any thoughts. Your. Okay. I thank you dearly for. Businessman. I agree with the Tommy I think we've got a rough sliding I think it may be. Six eight nine months and but you know to get people to work now or in my business you would pay a lot more and I'm sure we're year your category so. Educate tax by I'm alive and I'm with a much but I I don't know the answer. Thank you yes I have worked for for conservation to agree with everyone of the. Based in the US on the show. That last year. You know we spent a lot of. looking at where we were Versch is where a broader market was in you know I can't remember step state or all we look at the so I'm base that. I. Issue on the assumption that we've moved those positions to those competitive levels the. Well I I will say aye a former member of the judiciary. I am aware that. You were talking about recruitment. I am aware that. Encouraging people to run. Four judgeships. Is it is difficult. It's obviously there are other difficulties other than just the money but. In terms of the private practice and the credentials of of someone who would be a good temperament as a judge and what I'm gonna say have the necessary experience all I'm in the field in the practice of law. Sometimes these folks in different age groups look at this and say you know I'm putting kids through college. And. I can't afford to take a decrease. In my salary that I get in the private practice of law. Some of us make and I will say I did I made a decision to take a decrease I knew I would Because my mother had already set up a trust fund for my son for college she I mean you know UP everybody has a different a different position but some of us are called to public service and we take the cut and go on but but for the for. The purposes of this discussion what you were talking about happens also where someone has to look at their situation and what because they can afford to take because they will be taking a cut. I'm just gonna tell you right now there they will be taking a cut this is not a step up. It's a step back if they're if they have the experience and the qualifications necessary to take the bench so I just want to throw that out for purposes of this particular group based on my experience. Madam chairman I'd like to add that I so much appreciate Dr graves for today this is the best piece of information that as long as I've been on this commission we've ever received and it shows clearly the hard work of our courts throughout the state and when you look at the depositions and the clearance right that's pretty incredible session given the situations that we've had having some courts that have not been able to post their filings on line and I hope that we can certainly may have to wait more consistent that degree of reporting but I do agree with everything that you stated inset because our judiciary is knocking it out in my opinion and that's one thing is in Arkansas I really appreciated seeing the effectiveness of our court so I'd like to say thank you well I will say that many times lawyers from other states will come to our courts. And they will be absolutely shocked at how fast we move things along they they they're use to delays delays delays and our judges say now that's not happening here. So I'm proud of them as well well on any further discussion. Yes I would like to say that the respective buys games under law respect pro judges on they give a lot of. Their personal time to give up a lot the judge and you know what they can and can't do and and the Public right got several friends for ages and I get picked on. A lot anyway you know we've we do represent the peoples United. And we need to be concerned about what we do. It's easy to give a raise but you know if things change and the comic. Dissimilar crash with a school record and right Boston very good possibility. You can never asked for any money back all right yeah and you know we don't want rubber stamp every request right this is Mike apologize for the body. You know that what you said. If and only only employees you know we we we don't pay it to get more to get more people. Lawyer I've got about a hundred employees and I find myself lantern to them just days to them after the. That is. That's because of the job market. It job market right now rise yeah you know the right wrong comes late in. Respect for your employee in and respect for your the. It's a balance that's online and so you know. We do represent the people. You know sometimes or personal use really thank bill what's going on what other what other folks do not do in a normal state employees so I know they players take someone like and thirty thousand dollars a year. That is. That's hardly likely yeah that's hardwood to provide for your family. And I hate it you know I make more than. Love folksy way but the. I want to this is a worthless store that's okay I want Walmart today I look down the aisle and one of my employees are done with his life. And this comic collect. we're construction this week Michalek twenty four dollars an hour. They were down there looking at some real deal never decide if this one was four cents but more than this. You know and and I had to step back and think about that and restrict the fact that I don't do that I'm going to try to find a little long and you would need an amount to. I I I don't want to sound like the person and hear the whistle negative yeah I think we always have to be aware that we do. Represent the. And It is hard to account for a judge because they do give up. A lot of personal and where they can and can't go you know. That's all I'm gonna say it law with this information thank you no it was it was appropriate very good point. Anything any further discussion. my lawyer has to have something here a lawyer for the state. pointed out that. We have really. Two different kind of motions going on and I want to be clear on what the motion actually it is. We can have a motion for two percent and then five percent which you understand compounds. Or we can have a motion for seven percent and there's no compound. So I would like to clarify that Mister Smith. And the motion was two one five okay okay so the motion as As seconded is two and then five so there would be compounding with that motion. I'm going to call a vote on that motion. All in favor of the motion as second police say please raise your hand. Okay that. All except one All opposed to that motion please raise your hand. One a post. I'm gonna declared that The motion passes and Then from that I will we will have to work with the auditors. Office about the resolution and the drafting of the resolution so we will have to. I have a meeting to pass the resolution as I recall is that right. So I guess what I'd like to know is Hi I can't remember if we came together to pass the resolution physically or if we did it. By email I don't remember think we did it by email yeah. Because it's basically putting in to the correct verbiage for. Yes yeah. How the computer and then that gets computed and then the resolution so what I propose is that we do have. The resolution. Drafted sent by email. And made public. To all the commissioners and then the commissioners can individually indicate their approval or disapproval. Is there a problem with that. No I'm looking at that you. Yeah two five days after two forty five days and so that would mean that. The race would not be effective until after the. Is approved. And I believe each of us has to sign. Yeah. I'm I'm looking at my old files let me. Go back to last year. Here yeah it It le I'll just give you an example it looks like this and it has figures on it. And we signed. Okay. So that will be House arrest be circulated by email of you can sign it and then. Scan it and send it back to the office. Okay. Of not more than forty five days so. Two I think last time it was like two weeks or fourteen days fourteen days. We'll have comment fourteen days. Yeah. Sure. Yes. I was well yeah. Well what I what I'm what I see in this and like I say I'm just a private citizen okay. I. Yeah but it chair of a public body and what I see is we have made the decision already. These are the figures that have been calculated from our decision. These figures flow from the decision we may. We don't. About. Savvas. Yeah yeah if yeah it was there will be a public comment period. Okay I've I've I would prefer just to have a meeting so we don't have this great debate so let's set a meeting and I guess the question doubt is how long would it take for this calculation to be done. C.. What I want to do is set a meeting date and we can set it out so that there's plenty of time for that process. And Member. We are here on the twenty eight. How about November. The eleventh. Two weeks. Now that's veterans day. Right so we need to go November eighteenth probably. Friday November eighteenth. How does that look for each of our members. November eighteenth. It's a Friday at ten o'clock. Yes. I have. Yes. Well what I I mean we can set a different time if you'd like but we normally done it at ten o'clock in the morning on and. What we will do is have the draft. For public comment. Ten days before. That'll work yeah. So. That work for you Tommy. Okay. Yeah yeah. Well I wouldn't say it would last. So November. Okay. So we'll need this room except around. And if you will. Have the in. You have access to these prior ones don't you. Yeah you have access to the prior one so you can look at that and and see how to but that calculation. Is I don't know who does that calculation. Yeah who who does the calculation for and remember this is two percent and then compounded to five plus five percent. So that will be We will move forward and do that so that there's no debate about whether it's done proper. Okay. Receive. Or they can come to me. Right right. Okay. Before we adjourn I'd like to. Ring up of. This will be our next meeting date so we'll just. Leave it at that. Any. Any comments or new business or old business that you want to bring to. Two. Okay. If not I will adjourn the meeting at eleven OO nine.