ALC-Administrative Rules

I go Rogers Arkansas department of transportation government relations. we've got in addition to the oversized NO way permit rules in Arkansas as a result of legislation passed in twenty twenty one these rules that allow us to issue permits on an annual basis for overweight vehicles involved in forestry Services logging equipment if you will. Of these vehicles come off the assembly line and already exceeds the weight limits for the Arkansas state highways and then what would happen is the bloggers would get in the woods be out in rural areas and not have access to a permit system yet they would have to get a permit every time they wanted to move on the highway system oftentimes they would move from one location to the next get the location they were headed and find out that the it was too wet or the the their plans to work there were not going to be able to be done and so they would then have to call and get another permit to move to another location so this allows those that are moving this overweight equipment to get a single permit all written regional areas we work with the timber association the bill sponsor. And industry stakeholders to come up with five districts in the state of Arkansas in order to keep it regionally significant you'll see in the packet there's a map that shows all the different counties in each of the five different forestry zones this is in order to make sure that the people holding a permit when they when their issue department to get a list of all what restricted highways and we restrict bridges in the in that particular area instead of having a list of all bridges in the entire state. There's an option for them to be able to if they want to work in a continuous County to get a reduced fee additional permit for the next zone over and so what we feel like we've had a good relationship with with the bill sponsor and stakeholders we done public comment period of that was one from July thirty first August thirty first September second we had a public hearing we received no comments on the rules as published the commission to prove the rules of the I think their June meeting and now we're just seeking your review and approval I'll take any questions. Members any questions so these permits already available this just makes him a one year permit it makes them a one year permit and provides additional restrictions so that we don't have This is the ability to move the equipment anywhere in the state of at any time so that we can keep going to keep a track on where they are and what's happening okay thank you members any questions are seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thanks. I thank the department of education. Good afternoon if you would just introduce yourself for the record will get started. Chris the park staff attorney with the Department education I'm here to present the Division of elementary and secondary education rules governing attrition physical activity standards and body mass index for age assessment protocols in Arkansas public schools. And these rules are amended to incorporate provisions of act ten seventy eleven twenty twenty one regarding access to vending machines and also acted ten seventy four of twenty twenty one the healthy active Arkansas scans ACT. That require the Division elementary secondary education to develop guidance and consoles. With Arkansas. Consultation with apartment held for addressing physical and built environment you Tristian standards physical activity can education activity and breast feeding practices in the health and wellness priorities. As a Bennett began and incorporating these acts we realize these rules get them clean at this rules have been in place for twenty years and then they get change very often after legislative session. So and. We incorporated the laws and and we also spent some time meeting and want to fix some of the inconsistency in the language we had several meetings at the the language to be consistent with current practices in consistency just throughout the roll and away we use language and we insert punctuation acronyms are consistent and we summarize sections that just reset it federal regulations over and over and we feel like now we've got a rule that has more of flow is much more readable with these changes but it did take a little bit longer than expected to get a final draft ready. Arkansas law requires us to take this to the child health advisory committee and we did so on may nineteenth of twenty twenty. May nineteenth of this year I would also incorporate suggestions made by that committee. The state board of education approved the rules to go the governor's office on do not June night the governor's office gave approval on June tenth the rules are open for public comment from June seventeenth through the nineteenth. A public hearing was held on June thirtieth only technical changes are made after the come public comment hearing and period in the state board gave final approval on September eighth and I will be happy to take any questions. All right members any questions on this item. All right seeing none and without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you. We have next up department of finance and administration tobacco control board. If you would you state your name for the record and who you're with we'll get started. Okay thank you Mr chairman I'm Greg Leding director of Arkansas tobacco control. I'm here to present to you you all know last legislative session there is a the statute that pass that allowed online cigar sales and so we develop some rules to go along with that. We plan to present those in the spring we did get a couple of verbal per objections we contacted those sources work with them and I think we come up with a solution for everyone and here to present those to you today Should have those in your in your packet of basically it's pretty simple you have to have a permit to sell the cigars online. A. One of the you have to when you when you start order you have to have some type of Certification that you are of age and then they can only be delivered to someone that is twenty one years of age or older. The per pretty simple. So with that I would ask answer any questions that you all may have all right thank you misstatement questions on this item. Senator English you're recognized so I guess I'm I'm just wondering to myself how do you. How do you control what's online. Well I mean are we sending that people are going to buy cigars from someplace in Iowa or online or someplace we don't know what I I don't know how you control that. Well in control and I was one of our concerns as well but I think we've put some controls in place that will work pretty good first of all when the person orders the product they just simply have to certify that they're of age and and that certification is as simple as clicking a check box that I'm of age now the the key will come when it's delivered one one is delivered third of also service or or how rich delivered through that third party they will have to check for ID to the person they're delivering it to to make sure it's not getting into the hands of minors. I guess I'm just still not clear how you gonna get stuff from California or someplace else delivered here how you going to get people to check this off on mine. Well we'll the ones that of what this rule is about is They will have to have a permit to sell in the state of Arkansas so it'll be four locations that are here in the. it's for of locations within the state of Arkansas the selling online no they can sell to people within the state or they can sell to those outside of the state but is basically for retailers in our state how to get a permit to be able to sell online all right thanks yes ma'am. Thank you senator senator Hammer. Yeah. Question for you do you have knowledge about the advertisement that occurred in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Do you have any knowledge about that that's that's in our comments section on this. Do you have any knowledge of that what whatever the advertisement for the rules are yes Sir. Of yes we we did advertise in the is that the the that are rules would have a public comment period. Do you know of do you know if you any comments as a result of that ad running in the paper. Okay sales roles result of that ad but yes we did have to two comments okay but you don't know if they came as a result of you having run that in the paper that no Sir are thank you. Thank you senator Hammer members any other questions. Seeing none without objection this rules are you know proved thank you Sir thank you. That takes us to item four department of health state board of dental examiners. It happened just with the US state for the record your name and who you're with movie star Meredith Rogers executive director for the Arkansas state board of dental examiners. Macular health. The Arkansas state board of dental examiners has to proposed rules before you the first one is pre licensure criminal background check. A the purpose of it is to remove the reference to permanently disqualifying offenses as required by at seven forty eight and it also removes from the rule form entitled free licensure criminal background check petition this document merely a form and the board would like to be able to make changes as necessary without going through the war promulgation process. It was advertised in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and there were no comments. Also for of. Our propose article twenty four on adverse events reporting. It requires a dentist to file a morbidity report within thirty days of the incident or event and requires a dentist to file a mortality report within five days after the occurrence of the death or such time as a dentist becomes aware of the death. It was also published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and there were no public comment. Thank you. All right members any questions on either of these two rules. Mark saying none without objection these rules are reviewed and approved thank you thank you thank you. Thanks is the item number five Department of Human Services. Division of Children and Family Services. Members is a B. on page eleven in your pack. I think if you just introduce yourself for the record you can get started. Good afternoon my name is Kristen Harper an assistant director with the Division of Children and Family Services. The rule before you today will allow the division to transition at previous emergency rule to a permanent rule and continue paying support payments to provisional foster or resource parents provisional resource parents or relatives and fictive kin with whom we can do an expedited placement after background checks have cleared and and visual inspection of the home has been conducted and in order to reduce the amount of trauma child experiences when they enter care by going with someone they know. Provisional resource parents that have six months to meet all other requirements of a traditional resource home training home study etcetera. And current law prohibits us from paying a board payment to provisionally licensed resource parents know certainly provided other supports the childcare receives Medicaid we can do day care about yours clothing vouchers et cetera however as cost of food gasoline and other commodities commodities of reason we realize we need to do more to support his relatives fictive kin who have stepped up to take care of her own. And as such we're we're fortunate enough to receive approval to fund the support payments in the amount of two hundred forty dollars per child per month and the support payments began in September once a provisional license resource home becomes a fully approved resource home and they then begin to receive the full for payment. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Our members any questions on this item. I was noting the financial impact it's going to say that. The estimated cost implement this rule for the current fiscal years one point say seven million and then the next fiscal year is three point eight million is that I mean is that money been appropriated in the DHS budget for this particular purpose yes Sir. Our members any other questions. Seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed approved thank you thank you. All right moving on to item six Department of Parks heritage and tourism state parks. President representative Beatty did you have a question on the previous one this one here okay go and read by that but all such up to second. Good afternoon just introduce yourself for the record will get started. Good afternoon I'm Leslie Fisk in Chief of legislative affairs for parks here to center of some. Checking deputy director for the division of state parks. We have to but I propose a minerals to present today on the first one is smoking tobacco and E. cigarette policy and state parks this was last updated in twenty sixteen and we are updating this rule to provide for a public health safety preservation of state parks and prevention of triggering any of the smoke fire alarm or vapor sensitive systems the amendment provides that smoking inside any of the state park buildings is prohibited eliminates the exception to the prohibition and open picnic pavilions an outside cabin areas in screen areas around cabins. It extends the prohibition of smoking tobacco and electronic cigarette use to include on the crater of diamonds mine field this the memo also does provide that all state park superintendents may establish smoking areas for employees and gas away from building entrances and primary use areas. We advertised this proposed amended rule and the democratic is that and we did not receive any public comments. With a couple of questions representative Beatty you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman I'd I just got a question I guess is some D. six the attachment To the agenda I guess that's the actual rule were you struck the language after we I guess the prohibited items an exception to the above is the legal use products that and then you got the open picnic pavilions outside the cabins to screen include screening open porches. Should there be some language in there I mean it just didn't read. It just it just didn't read well. In the actual language on that rule. It in the permitted in those areas or is it not permitted in the it is not permitted in those areas and thank you for noticing that I feel like in the proposed amended version it does it seems more clear I think when you read the clean copy that the deletion of the exception to the above we also deleting those two items listed as subcategories of open picnic pavilions and then outside of the cabins okay because I just didn't it just didn't read the the version I had did not read it it was unclear. Yes Sir. Thank you. Thank you representative cochair Hammer as a question. Thank you at you got **** question offline or want to get out in the open and ask you this question the it says smoking tobacco products a great policy does say anything about medical or what might possibly be recreational marijuana are you going to address that in the parks if it's not specifically listed in here or how is that addressed in the role currently this is not addressed in the rules specifically because the medical marijuana amendment of twenty sixteen prohibits the medical the use of medical marijuana in any public areas and state parks are public areas. I'm at as we move forward considering it if there are changes in our laws or in November we could can we could update the policy to specifically include any type of marijuana okay just put that on the list if you would to remember maybe moving forward please yes thank you thank you. Thank you senator Senator Stubblefield you're recognized thank you Mr chairman. Can you tell me what the criteria is for of these repelling approve sides. I mean how did you go about choosing the sites for repelling. Okay. I can answer that question and so right now we we really only have two sites in state parks where any type where are they at pinnacle mountain and mount magazine state parks and so this this rule will open up opportunities for climbing repelling and bouldering at other sites within our state park system those will be vetted by our park superintendents and by also but in conjunction with Arkansas climbing coalition we're gonna partner with on any new routes that would be climbing or rappelling in our state park system so there will be other sites that will be opened up in the future that's the goal of the of the real man okay are thanks a lot. Thank you senator garner you're recognized. I wish chairman on the smoking. The battle update seems like you're decreasing the amount areas that people can smoke when you leave it optional for park director's determination open area for guests or for employees at do we worry that because what do you think about smoking or vaping or anything else is activity a lot of tourists and other people come to state that if we leave that open there may be areas where people be precluded from doing that and so for they would not want to do as much tourism area thank you that option words may be doing adverse is an area that would be designated you think that's a distinction should be made. We've heard a lot from without this this up the amended rule was really the result of public comments to our commission and about reducing the areas where where smoking was allowed in our state parks in order to reduce letter specifically at that the beaches we have fifteen swim beaches and Arkansas state parks and so that would restrict smoking and except for at a designated location so I don't we don't feel like it's going to affect the tourism aspect because we're still going to allow for that for that. No use but just not overall in in these areas. Okay but is still optional for each poor person to to summer weather will be in an area where people can smoke because we will provide designated areas each part yes you will because language of says may. I mean if you want to share on the record that you will and that's options available to people who when use I'm I'm fine with that but I was reading the rule as written. Yes we we well and and it the the intent is that we do have areas in our parks where smoking is allowed thank you. Thank you senator Senator Rapert you're recognized. Thank you repelling rock climbing you're a liability to the state on that. What we are we're gonna work with hang on to second one let's get through with a if you'll hold on to say we haven't presented the rule on the repelling yet thank you have a second I'll get right back to you okay members or any other questions on the six a the smoking tobacco electronic cigarettes. Not seeing on without objection that rules reviewed and approved so if you would go ahead and re present your bill on the roof your rulemaking on the repelling we'll get to Senator Rice as questions yes Sir the second rule that we have is presenting the minute rules for repelling and rock climbing in Arkansas state parks these were last updated in twenty fourteen we're updating this rule to really include current calming practices within rock climbing and rappelling and state parks and to expand those opportunities the member provides for responsible management of rock climbing and state parks and also while preserving the natural resources of the parks the rock coming will be allowed only and approved sites which again Mr king is already expanded on that that that will be expanded and all of the as many state parks as we can allow this it will allow for bouldering an installation of fix hardware and climbing activities that were previously prohibit and state parks will not be allowed included in these roles includes a liability release waiver for participants. We're happy to answer any questions. Senator I thank you for your patience you're recognized for I'm sorry. So the. You've got a signed release on each and every climber anybody decides to get in there before somebody's. Manning the station to take those applications the inclines in follows in in their lawyer says I'm not against it happened I'm just I just liability. Skittish but they say you know it was on an approved trail who anybody there to get my application to one incline failed. Roper Beckham permanently injured statements promoting climbing NO you think you've got it covered where they. K. anybody get on that climb up till later in the application. I think we I think we do we will have plenty of signage that fourth signage for where you can climb and and that you have to complete this form and signed a law liability release before you're allowed to do any type of climbing repelling and signage yes I didn't catch it yes that would be key thank you. Thank you senator rice of culture Hammer you're recognized. Thank you I noticed that on the cost like where the. Have six hardware that the the cost to repair is going to be left up to an organization or to the climber in conjunction with the volunteer organization which you're mechanism enforcing that. Our intent is to is is to draft a memorandum of understanding with Arkansas climbers coalition following the passage of this amendment and they we would work in partnership with that organization okay and are they the only organization I'm just not knowledgeable are they the only organization in Arkansas would be the potential other organizations and they would have to comply like this one does there's the potential out there the primary primary organization at this time okay all right thank you. Thank you senator members any other questions on this particular rule. Seeing none without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thank you thank you. That's all we have on item D. that takes us to item. E. of this next item on the agenda will include updates from those agencies that have not completed their rulemaking in accordance with Arkansas Code as you may recall from last month the statute provides that if the rules were not filed as required the executive head of the agency or his or her designate shall appear before the administrative rule subcommittee to provide an in person update on any outstanding rules for any item of an Asterix whether we hear from the agency will depend on the action that we just took under item the if we reviewed and approved all outstanding items by the agency we will forgo any update we actually did that on item the one we've already heard from the department of transportation so we'll be skipping over that one and going on to item easy to department of agriculture. Good afternoon just introduce yourself the record and you go he started. Thank you Mr chairman members of the committee await Hodge chief counsel department of agriculture and we're here to talk about the plant board's industrial hemp rule and we talked about before so I won't go through the entire history after we completed the public comment period and we're ready to bring real to you we heard from industry representatives who asked us to make some changes the chance some of the changes that were requesting would be substantive changes so that is not something that staff can do our own that requires it to go back to the rule making entity which is the Plant Board and potentially start the process all over again Plant Board has a meeting scheduled for December fifteenth that will be their first opportunity to re review this rule and the request that have been made so that's where we are Mr chairman. Thank you very so last meeting or maybe even the one before that was there a mention of this maybe requiring some legislation and accession to kind of overcome some of the hurdles you're facing. I think we're anticipating some legislation eight you know as as we've discussed before there's one place in current law that says the plan for will not regulate processing practices or methodologies but then in the prohibited acts prohibited actions is says it's prohibited to process him in a method in consistent with the law or with Plant Board rules is so we're sort of caught in that word is our jurisdiction begin an answer okay thank you for that members are there any questions on this one. All right thank you for your parents today thank you members that takes us to item II three department education. Good afternoon just introduce yourself for the record good afternoon court a solace for chief counsel for the department of education we have five rules that I will be providing an update on for you the first one are the does the rules governing school safety we had held these for a short while to see if we would need to make any changes for the school safety grants that we're going to be coming out however it's been determined that those will be addressed in separate rules and so we will take these to our state board in November for final approval and then hopefully have them back here to you for your final review in December. The next rules are governing the school counseling improvement act even though and rules are not required upon further review the department determines that rules would be promulgated for the school counseling improvement act so those were taken to our state board of this month on October thirteenth and approved and submitted to the governor's office for a review so likely it will still be an past the first of the year into the spring before those come to you for final approval. The rules governing this exceed scholarship were approved on October thirteenth by R. State Board for final approval and will be coming to you in November for your final review. The rules governing nutrition and physical activity standards were presented to you earlier in this meeting and reviewed so those are now final. And then the rules governing the professional development again as I've stated in previous meetings are undergoing a very extensive and thorough review and so we do not anticipate that those will be brought to you into late in the spring and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you culture Hammer has a question thank you good afternoon do you know Ralph top your head of all the money that was allocated or appropriated for succeed scholarships was used yes it was in fact additional funding was made by the governor's office to ensure that all applications were provided funding a scholarship for do you remember right off how much additional money it was in like three months three million we had in the originally I believe so but I don't have that the number of additional funding that was provided but I can get that for you if you don't mind please get that just you know what the dollar amount of the additional laws and if anybody was left you know waiting even after that please yes Sir thank you. Thank you senator members any questions on any of these items. I'm saying on thank you for your parents today thank you hi hang on one second we may have one mint Senator Irvin. Okay all right thank you for coming down. And now we're going to the State Board of Health. I'm sorry Division of health related Board skews me for. Good afternoon if you would state your name for the record we get started I think there's a question already queued up for you are MacGill or Department of Health. So with the dental board has two rules one dealing with military licensure and one with some fees that they're trying to clarify those should be before this committee next month they had a delay with the promulgation of the public comment period but that should be your next month. All right thank you senator Gilmore you're recognized. Thank you Mr I think you just addressed my concern thank you. All right members any other questions. Okay. I know we waited long enough Senator Hammer you're recognized you anything you just like to say. Thank you for clarifying. Of I'm good thank you. Okay thank you. We have a question for who's in C. eighty five. Senator you're recognized. I heard from you they mad about that important question ask you last minute maybe afterwards. I spoke to someone earlier and they were supposed to get with you at noon but that has not happened but I will follow up J.. Sorry but I will follow the shortly across. The representative Beatty you're recognized Mr Gilmore out I ask again do you have anything else you'd like to share with us today. No Sir not today thank you thank you Sir. All right members saying no further questions thank you for your parents and for the update. Now we're gonna go to the State Board of Health. Good afternoon just state your name and who you're with for the record thank you Mr chairman l'arche I'm general counsel for the department of health Charles Thompson twenty with the Department of. As you all know we had one hundred and eighty five pieces of legislation that were passed in the twenty twenty one session that were health related that we had to evaluate and implement we have four remaining rules of the four remaining rules and medical marijuana rules are going back to the board of health on October twenty seventh and they will see the revisions that have been made since the public comment period rules for cosmetology are also pending the rules for abortion facilities are also pending as a result of recent litigation the rules for volunteer licensed health care professional immunity have made through the process and had a public comment period we filed a public comment report with the bureau and they are scheduled to be presented to public health committee on November seventh and thereafter to that ails the rules subcommittee happy to take any questions. All right thank the members any questions. Seeing none thank you for the update. Hi members that takes is down to item F. the monthly written agency updates. I'm sorry back up overlook the Office of the Arkansas lottery I apologize. If you would just introduce yourself for the record you get started thank you Mr chairman members of the subcommittee my name is Erica garner I'm executive director of the Arkansas lottery I'm here to give you a status report on an administrative rule revision that we're seeking and section thirteen of the administrative rules of the office of the Arkansas lottery it's to bring the rules into line with Act three six thirty six of twenty twenty one I'm here to report to you today that or have are not yet compliant with the mandates of section twenty five fifteen to sixteen B. one. As a result of a single layer in our public notice period we went through all the steps that are required by the statute say one step we did not deliver our proposed revised rules to be L. R. thirty days in advance of the closing of the public comment period we did have a public hearing we received no comments we feel certain that this process will move quickly we're undertaking to immediately remediate by appearing in front of the emergency rules committee tomorrow will be seeking a hundred and twenty day emergency approval will be going through the procedural process again including a second public hearing this particular revision should not be subject any disputed simply bringing three current trust accounts that hold a net proceeds scholarship funds into a single account that will be available to ADHD upon their request. steps being undertaken again were appearing before the emergency rule committee tomorrow we're also completing the the process the public notice process all over a move just for posterity anticipated date for adoption we're gonna begin this process on Monday October twenty fourth we anticipate completion within the thirty day period we should be ready to go in early December. Senator did you have a question your no more okay. Okay. Members any questions on this rule. All right seen on thank you for the update thanks. Senator you're recognized gentis for purposes of the to the Committee we are working with the department of education we may actually go ahead and utilizes current rules on school safety that are open we just we haven't really made that determination yet we're looking at the time frame of that and then trying to finalize things so just wanted to follow up with what was discussed about that so if we can leave that a rule rules open for public comment and kind of piggy back on that and add the grant program to it it'll expedite us and be able to get those grants out faster so we're we're working on that together I just wanted to give the members of the committee an update all right thank you for that information Senator are members that takes us to item have of this next item is the October monthly written updates percent ACT five ninety five of twenty twenty one these updates are from the agencies regarding the status of their rulemaking implementing twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two legislation and these are in your packets these updates are from those agencies who have a later deadline for their rules than the June first deadline so they have more time. Are there any questions on item yes. Senator you're recognized. Okay members any other questions. Maxine none we will file the October monthly written report updates rather not take this long to item G. this is the agency update on rulemaking that's been delayed by litigation that has now been resolved so the last thing we have on the agenda is an update from the department of agriculture Arkansas bureau of standards you may recall that at our December twenty twenty one meeting the subcommittee adopted a motion to no longer require the bureau of standards to submit monthly written updates concerning its twenty nineteen rulemaking delayed by litigation but requiring it to update the subcommittee with written notification once the litigation was resolved the agency has submitted that written notification and that is also in your packet are there any questions. Seeing none that we will file the written notices seeing no further business thank you for your time we are adjourned.