ALC-JBC Personnel

The. And. You. Thank you for being here today. And we're going to get started with personnel. Okay if you're ready your leadoff. Yes Sir in your packet you will immediately see a state PAYPLAN proposal. I'd like to go over this proposal with you this is what the office of personnel management is proposing for the next financial all state employees what you will find in this if you ask why do we need a pay plan adjustment we did the pay plan back in two thousand and seventeen we did an adjustment that particular point in time but a lot of changes have occurred in the market since that. Land went into affect we got extremely high employer demand for a Employees we've had inflation as you know we've brought before personnel committee and joint budget over the past year several labor market plans several labor market grids I'll kind of special needs for employees so I pay plan proposal is in this packet what effect all state employees not just a select group of employees so what we've done with this new pay plan to keep it pretty simple as we're trying to move closer to the labor market rate. We have to increase the minimum for all grades by twenty percent have also increased the maximum by twenty percent that's makes a significant change and the pay range for every job that we have now what that will mean upon implementation not all employers are going to receive twenty percent by any way shape or form what's going to happen is we will implement the pay plan implement the new grad employees will either go to the minimum of the new pay table for their great are they will get what we call a seniority adjustment sonority adjustments or range from two to ten percent based on every five years of service so have you been here under five years you would be looking at a two percent increase if you've been here over twenty you'd be looking at a ten percent increase the reason we're doing it that way is to keep relationships have been established for the years I don't some of y'all might have been here and seventeen we had a lot of older employees feel like they did not get treated as fairly as newer employees and this is our way of trying to address that problem that we ran into with implementation of the last pay plan the total cost most importantly the total cost for the pay plan is approximately forty one million dollars and general revenue so what I want to point out here this will be in general revenues were looking at placing this money in the performance fun where it will be placed in agencies can access that as they needed and I have utilized other funding sources it's let me make sure you understand when we implement employees we have gone through to get to the forty one million dollar cost we've looked at every current current employee in state government at this point time and determined whether they will go to the minimum or whether they will fit the seniority adjustment employees will not get both. They'll get whatever is most beneficial to that particular employee so that is the way we've done it the next party attachment goes through the four basic pay plans that we have the pay plan that is populated with about ninety five percent of our employees and government as I general salaries paid table you will see here we make significant in roads and that are minimums are now up by the twenty percent grades one through five are a little bit higher than twenty percent. Yes ma'am Page four Page four yes yes ma'am a sorry about that Page four reflects the pay plan like I mentioned earlier that the majority of state employees or in an page four is where we make significant adjustments in grades one through five we've gone a little bit over twenty percent for the minimum because as you may recall over the past year we've had a salary agreement and we use the mid point of the current pay plan for the starting range of one to five and that's what we've adjusted to hear everyone else from sixteen fifteen we've done a twenty percent adjustment to the minimum twenty percent adjustment to the maximum and I'm may stress the need for the adjustment to the maximum is critical because over the past several years employees that maxed out and have no where to go we've had employees leaving state government because I've already already reach the maximum of their grade and they receive all their payments as lump sums this will allow those employees to get percentage increases as all other employees as we go across the explaining. UP page five is what we call our impregnate information technology PAYPLAN these are jobs that are generally in the I. T. secretary and again we've done the same thing to these jobs and page five that T. jobs all plants or sensually for plans for state employees at this point in time and all plans receive the twenty percent adjustments but the man and the Max. Medical professionals that's right a lot of your nursing positions and certainly I your position positions a lot of crime lab positions you're going to find in the medical professional pay plan and then the final pay plan on page seven is what we call our senior executive pay plan this is where most of your appointee type positions are located and they also receive the same twenty percentage us. I'm. I mentioned a little earlier about aborting salary compression so that's why we're using the seniority adjustment approach and like I said a lot of employees might go to the entry right but most to your older employees will go far beyond entry right page nine we just brought you a graph so you could say with the labor market has been doing compared to the projected mid point of our new pay plan and I think you will see a put Arkansas on a much more competitive position when trying to attract new employees the major complaint that my office received at this point time is the inability to attract new employees to state government and so that's one of our major thrust with this particular plan And I will be happy to answer any questions you might have on the cycling That's. Anything. In representative gene you're recognized for thank you Mr chairman miss Kay I'm over here yes are you doing today I'm doing well of course this will take if implemented effective July one of twenty twenty three right yes Sir do we have any idea go to any kind of study. What's what's the bottom line increase across the board to the state budget if we implement this play pay plan what this is what we were looking at putting the funding in the performance fund representative Jane because we're projected the total cost would be forty one million but very seldom do we ever go to that total amount so we're going to be asking our state departments and agencies to utilize their existing resources first and then access that fine as they need to later on in the fiscal year so you thanks forty one me and is the high water mark yes I did you say that that could be but your anticipated being. It could be a lot less well it was a lot less. I'm the reason I'm saying that represent your ballpark and I'm I'm not over to it but I like a bowl or. Yes Robert same possibly half SO might be twenty twenty five million. Robert. Mr Robert Greco off Budget Office. Just based on past the. Hits on the performance bond by agencies it's typically much much less than than what we put in there as you recall in the last to budget talks we had about the performance fund. Very little is actually taken out this last year so we do think it'll be much less now what will impacted also to absorbing some of the excess funding that perhaps people could use for salary savings are the rather large increases that were never made a but we're making up for some of that with when we built the base for each agency so the hope is that would be much less likely forty one million is probably the the top and I would hope it would be half do we still have a performance bond balance we do I much is in there. Just. I'm going to guess because very little came out at the end of the year so there could be as as much as seventy million in their but don't quote me on that we we knew that was going to take a big hit this year with twenty seven paper in a so there will be monies that come out this time as the specially with the twenty seventh pay period but I think the current balances around seventy nine okay thank you thank you Mr chairman. Senator Chesterfield you're recognized ma'am thank you Mr chairman I thank you for the effort. I'm still wondering who is working for twenty six thousand dollars a year now. What those people what what give me some general salaries give me some examples of a pool day yes generally that's or grade one position we have very few grade one positions center Chesterfield so you're gonna be able to tell me some of who they are up well most of them were extra help positions people to come in temporary help in the summer time sometimes at some of the parks and other places like that but I think there's only I should know exactly what position with but I think there may be one maintenance position it's actually class the GS and so the rest of them ready which started the twenty eight mark yes ma'am well who's in that category okay well up and your great to some very sorry now what comes to example to comes to mind we have some administrative specialist that may not have the skills of computer skills but maybe processing documents as they come in and out of the office of I think grade three has some revenue clerks at that particular level it also has some administrative positions and some entry level maintenance positions and grades two and three as well so we have administrators who are making forty six and fifty one thousand. Yes when my if they've been here no not yet they could possibly with this new pay plan thank you. In center Johnson you're recognized. Probably a simple question what you can see the minimum the judgment if you adjust the maximum twenty. If you're just the maximum twenty percent one is the The seniority investment at ten. Well because that is we were trying to make it affordable for everyone was the biggest problem with the maximum right now is that you have some long term employees has maxed out as I mentioned earlier we certainly saw that this past year when the additional two percent and the merit raises were awarded but if we raise it by twenty percent some of those employees will get a ten percent tenure adjustment but still have ten percent left within their range to progress for other factors such as merit center. So instead of having to be closer to two thirds and my simple mass. Could. Thank you. Senator Hammer you're recognized thank you the the resources that were mentioned while ago by a take Robert mention them that would be used could you can next go down a little deeper what those resources would have been would have been money within their budget that they had but had not been used or can you identify that. Right what what generally happens and Robert can certainly clarify this for me if he needs to but generally what happens when an agency accesses the performance fun they have to document certify that they've used all available funds that they have some of those additional salaries that they've collected under the year might be due to vacancies may be due to having help positions vacant longer than filling those positions at same time our other saving measures that the agency might put in place. Knowing that was there. Where the monies that were available for the agencies to go ahead and do something the way the pay. Grade without having to of do it before we ask for to be done. For what were their limitations to keep them from being able to do it sooner. I guess I'm not quite understanding Senator hammer you mean if they had the resources available what was it that was prohibiting them from being able to do anything in the raising of giving of raises is it because of the pay grade say hit the ceiling and let's read itself legislatively they couldn't the money was there but they couldn't do anything with it right some cases right because that grade range itself didn't allow for interment just months I think it as you've been on personnel on scene of the year a lot of farmers to come in with an arm type adjustments trying to make those changes but it someplace you just hit the wall at the range does not allow you to do that. Okay then if that's the case. What do you anticipate in the future that we have to come back and do this again because are we going to be worker way right back into the same situation if inflation continues to you know minimum wage ranges continue go up what's the hi this is a short term fix or whatever or is how's it going to be a long term solution do we need to review it every year and make adjustments to it as we go or can you give insight on that generally yes I think pay tables need to be reviewed at least every biennium to ensure that they're keeping up to the market however that always has a price tag associated with it and sometimes when we make changes substantial changes we hope that they will last more than just one to two years but generally of him always refuse to pay plan in light of what has happened over the previous years as you know this past year with the inflation rate. Over the eight percent spent a pretty significant head from a State Farm right and then what's your consideration for critical areas such as nursing shortage we just had to be a in here in front of this and you know the difficulty getting nurses so was there any consideration given for areas that are a little bit more difficult to recruit train into the pay range recommendations take that consideration. Okay right now what I'm presenting to you today did not consider the special needs I think during the budget process when you look at agency requests and then we also talk about and I've got another statement to make on that as soon as we finish going on this pay plan but that's when we look at those particular needs either through labor market rates through grade changes are other possibilities so that comes that is somewhat separate to this particular pay plan propose all right so how. How will this coordinate with what they're gonna recommended one these agencies come through are we going to have to go back and look at this adjusted maybe an agency might recommend something higher than this or what was the coordinated effort between y'all and individual agencies so that these actually take that consideration yes Sir I'll be happy to address that what you're gonna find during the budget hearings as we go through each department's budget at this point in time is that your will not find any executive recommendations for what we call upgrades that's when you change the grade of the position are we classifications that's when you change the title of the position R. for additional positions at this point time the main reason we did not make those recommendations to begin with AS in order to see what the pay plan actually how that impacts those particular request we have several thousand request which we think the pay plan in itself will address saying that however they're still going to be some out liars that may need to be addressed again and that will come later in the process that we will come back to you once the new administration is in place and we've gone over all those recommendations without administration as well to make sure that we're reflecting the desires at that particular point in time okay okay one more Mister chairman I'll be a one more yes Sir thank you the performance. Fund balance sitting at seventy one million refresh my memory what they had to do to get money out of that was it was it when I hear performance fund that means that employees are performing up to certain level that entitles them to be able to get extra or my wrong on that or give me a quick education yeah I don't know why the performance one is called the performance of it it's not for that particular a reason the now they can use it for merit raises things like that but the performance bond is there just to make sure that agencies can do one of two things if the the money's there if they don't have any salary savings that they can utilize internally and we also let them budget against the performance fund so you'll see in sometimes in the budget manual you'll see a line for performance fun we've allowed them to budget some some funds against the performance bond they don't get those funds in less or is in actual short. Of this but we do let them budget the funds and that's why we would have to have the money there to you know at least the forty one million we we think in and just let you know we think after the obligations of FY twenty three twenty seven paper is going to be pretty be held on the performance from the after those obligations are still be twenty two million dollars left after the obligations just just to make sure that that's clear but it's really there to allow them to budget in its there as a as a as a safeguard in the in the event they don't have any savings in terms. So seventy what what's what's the number we need to look at keeping in that going forward if it's seventy one now the it's going to be forty three take a stab at twenty two when we get around the the twenty five twenty six or whatever that session falls are we going to need to look at raising that or we hope that there's internal savings to build that back up two things can happen and it's really up to the policy decision of yours how much to have in there the two things that there needs to be enough money in there for the obligations that were budgeting against the what that balance needs to be that is probably doesn't need to be as high as seventy million we we there were a lot of potential I guess request of that fund that could have happened that didn't happen in the last session because I think there were so many vacancies of that impacts how much the the performance one will be here there needs to be enough money in there for the obligations in any and it may have to be shored up some in in twenty six that really depends on how much as used in twenty five. Twenty four rather than what used in twenty four will know how much we might need to twenty five thank you thank Mr yes Sir. Representative Cavenaugh you're recognized thank you Mr chairman here to your right I just want to go back and ask a question it said that we're gonna look at races from two percent to ten percent yes ma'am and then we get to the executive pay we're going to give them a twenty percent raise no ma'am all employees will either receive I to our ten percent raise are the entry level of their great guy okay what was the twenty percent you spoke twenty percent is just raising the minimum and a maximum of the greats right but it's not giving people a twenty percent raise that point most people are are well above the minimum okay great well if you look at S. C. O. five the minimum now is one sixty seven oh ninety six and you want to raise it to two hundred. And five I mean that's a big jump so are you saying most of them already making. the two hundred thousand. They are in the Senate there somewhere between the one sixty seven the two oh one Right now most secretaries or I think we have some secretaries getting close okay well the reason I ask is we're going to be giving those people raises of about by the buyer. Table twenty one thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars okay. That's more than some of our people even make in some of these are for appointed positions secretary positions I mean. Why do we feel such a need to jump them so much higher. Okay what we did was basically look at all the paid plans and treated them all consistency consistently and that was to raise those minimums by twenty percent maximums by twenty percent the intent was not set out there to give people twenty thousand and forty thousand dollar raises at all and we can look at that some more yeah I mean what guarantee do we have that once you raise these that they don't we don't get a request to put someone up to the minimum or beyond I made. We we can't guarantee that is you know yes there is a clause that part but it does have to come over here for review for that can actually occur. The review but not approval thank you. Senator flowers you're recognized ma'am. I think thank you Mr thank you My questions have been addressed I wanted to know more about the performance fund is that something that accrues. Yearly. Stay in that agency and are and they still get to ask for more. It can be used yearly of princes when they won when the American crease's occurred So that they can be used for that purpose because I those were built into the budget in the in the last biennium if you look at the at the budgeting for each position on the last biennium it would have have those additional increases so the performance one is there to help with that then we appropriate more money for any merit. It It is built into this budget manual you'll see that those if you look at the line the top line for those salaries you'll see an increase that increase across all agencies road was around forty million dollars to to get everybody to get everybody that follows those monies but but future increases of whatever the merit increase might be. Next year of those won't be built into the budget manual will use the performance funded needed but but it turns out the salary savings you don't have to utilize a performance bond at its maximum. We we we will require them to use their funding first it's only there to shore up in the event that they need and and because of all of them to positions on the salary savings it just hasn't been needed much lately. And then the other thing Was it you've done a comparison with other state. And other markets. For competitive paying. Yes ma'am that's the grab the last page here a grant paid the city of on page nine somewhat reflects we did a comparison with other states we did a comparison with private industry within Arkansas and we had been smart positions that we use to make a decision that we were the twenty percent below and that's how we came to this particular conclusion. So this is the whole US labor market comparison. This is this is our comparison with surrounding states not the whole US surrounding states and other private industries within our general area. We don't usually compare too much around some of the east northeast and north eastern states and some of the other states that are unionized Arkansas is not a United States we try to stay pretty much in the southeastern region to compare against those particular state. Okay and this is just for the. The employment skills. In state government you do private comparisons to what we compared state government jobs to private jobs. And that's what this represents me. It just seems like. Since most of these positions. The pay scale affects state employment so why would you. If you do one state to state comparisons that seems like that would have been broken now. In your grass. Well there is I mean we belong to the the sour conference for all state so we do have data on all states pay primarily in Arkansas we find that we're recruiting in state for most of our positions sometimes you get to from specialized positions that we have to go out of state to recruit from but we generally try to remain competitive within this state and with our surrounding states because that's where our labor market grouping's generally are. Thank you Mr. Thank you ma'am. Senator Elliot you're recognized them. Thank you Mr chair I just have a couple of questions when we. You talked about the out liars sometimes them I'm not on the committee presently online Preciado the opportunity to ask questions I recall though when I when I was there we talked a great deal for example about with nurses if there were somebody in a market where though it is the but a man was higher price higher we practiced in right ways to do that so we would just after going through this process and we were still not competitive we would we would deploy that system I'm assuming right yes ma'am okay still do that yes ma'am and when we do I don't I'm not clear on if it's somewhere we don't meet the market with their salary or it's somewhere geographically it's just really tough to get somebody in those areas we we deploy that meant that either way don't we yes ma'am yes within the classroom compact today we have the ability to establish special entry rates which we do for nursing positions at many point time because we have had trouble with nursing positions in the past also we have the ability for what we call a geographic differential right now Northwest Arkansas is booming and sometimes they have to have added percentage to be able to attract people there but also in Southeast Arkansas we don't have our labor pool and we need to add a sentence to be able to attract people there so those are all interim type measures that we can address during the year those are brought to the OPM and we bring them for to the person or committee on joint budget committee for their review try to implement those measures at the appropriate time Senator R. their guidelines for how far we can go yes that's a discussion yes okay are they the same guidelines generally for if it's a geographical problem or labor market problems otherwise geographic differentials are limited to two. Ten percent on top of an employee's base salary labor markets can go all the way to the maximum of the paper but that would require legislative personnel committee review okay I. And my and my last question has to do with them weather or if we were to choose any number I'll just move over to the new proposed PAYPLAN. If it were a family of four Let's just say we were at twenty eight five hundred eighty five that minimum. A family of four would would we in Arkansas then. Meet or exceed the poverty that the federal poverty rated for family of four with that kind of salary do we do we know Senator Elliot I don't have any information with me at the happy to look that up and be able to respond to that. Yeah and so if we if we do so and it isn't if you get that with I can really look it up I guess but I just occurred to me I'm wondering because I know there been times when the salaries we are paying folks from the state still leads that that family at the federal at the heart rate. There's so many variables that affect that particular determination that we do have some families that still require some assistance but it's that's on an individual case analysis at that particular part time and generally they will come to us I mean we actually I've had employees asked not to get a raise before because they would lose their assistance if we actually made that right so we've had that situation involved in the past that's not common I'm not trying to say like that every day but it does it has happened is that's that's assistance usually from a federal fund thank it's generally yes yeah what okay. All right thank you thank you Mr. Representatives to arm Senator still feel you're recognized Sir thank you Mr chairman. first of all I want to go back just real quick why you're having this page yes ma'am why you think it's necessary first of all you gave three reasons inflation is one of those everyone experiences inflation would you agree that yes Sir at where the work for the state or whether you're just to you work anywhere else everybody wonders and not everybody's had a play increased in the last eight years would you agree to that. Yes Sir okay a here's the question when asked all the other particular jobs that fall into some of these categories that are more competitive let's say aye T. jobs verses General of salary jobs are. There's much more demand for I. T. jobs and or or general service jobs correct. I T. is certainly a very fluid market and that's what we separated them into a separate pay table itself to be able to address some of their unique needs yes Sir. So how do you how do you break these down as to what's more what's needed more than that some of the others. I mean you just what we have experienced over the past year is that all employees in all four tables have had trouble with being recruited for for example You have a family service worker I'm a pull that out of my head that they're at DHS I have a very high I can see right correctional officers on the GS plans have very high vacancy rates at this particular point with that job such as that room in the game of the we also have system analysis and database administrators thing to be extremely difficult for us to employ at this particular point in time so what we've seen over the past two years is jobs are vacant longer I think Robert mentioned that that talking about the performance fund having more men money and jobs are vacant and we're not able to attract we've also had a change with practices of in the labor market for some with that more younger people looking for a lot of different things when they go to apply for a job compensations the first level we use when trying to attract new people to the market we've always had a shortage of some of these areas specially DHS workers and are. Correctional facility workers we had a high turnover rate right in those historically right of. So so what do you what do you contributing. This this highly competitive extremely competitive labor market what do you contributing this to why are people. Is it because people just but working. Well I don't know if it's because people that have quit working I know within our particular instance we've got aging work force within the state and a lot of people are retiring and leaving and taking a lot of historical knowledge with them so now we are trying to concentrate on bringing. More people into the work force to take over and gain that knowledge is necessary to keep some of the daily operations going I mean that's one factor with that We've got very happy in parts of Arkansas for a lot of positions that that makes it difficult to attract those positions to do we have a lot of young people even say. We don't have a lot of young people coming in and to be quite honest with you that's what we tried to some programs like the internship and other programs trying to attract people to come in the state government and see that it is a good place to work. Mr chairman thank you appreciate that yes Sir. Senator Hammer you're recognized thank you let me just touch on that real quick and ask your questions of following up there like in DHS to turnover rate is pretty excessive in critical areas what's your consideration in the discussion about doing something in areas that specifically have a historically high rate of turnover. And do these the these recommendations reflect that I think this will address that situation for a lot of jobs that have historically high rates of Turner I do. In our state of certain things you can't I don't care what you offer you know if people want to live in a certain area or the population is there a matter what the money is we're not going to be able to that we got to figure out a different solution but the money should address the issue based on what you are presenting I think Senator Hammer if we go back and look over the past two years and those of you that have been on personal committee previously will realize that we've done a lot of the labor market rates a lot of pool position allowed us exceptionally well qualified rates for certain groups of employees when we've done that we've left other groups of employees behind and part of the purpose of this pay plan is to do a holistic approach trying to address all employees with this proposal realizing we may still have to come back if we continue to have issues with some of those high demand jobs are so one last question then in your discussions about the paper plate pay plan in this area of our bond before money is part of the problem the money's may not be all of the problem you may be dealing with issues that employees want to channel their thoughts and what they think would be good corrective action plans in the pay plan was there any discussion about that or just just simply about the dollars and cents this plan is simply about the dollars and cents at this point in time our thank you. It members there's not a vote on this this is for information I have three left in the queue I'm we'll take those that we will move on the Senator probably representative Scott then senator Chesterfield and then senator flowers and with that. Representative Scott you're recognized thank you Mr chair just a question to understand the process so ten percent is what someone would have the flexibility. Like a administrator to give the race according to the study. Okay what will happen with the implementation of this particular plan all employees would be evaluated and they would either be assigned to the minimum up their pay grade are they would get this in RD adjustment ranging from two to ten it's automatic it's not really at an administrator's discretion it would be automatically applied to those employees based on their years of service so did the survey say that we ten percent behind the market rate is that why surveys basically a season and ending in or the survey basically indicated that we were closer to twenty percent behind the market right that's what we're doing the twenty percent some cases twenty five some cases more that's what we did the twenty percent overall adjustment to the table okay so this is a market rate raise and not necessarily a merit place not. Right I got to thank you the. Senator Chesterfield you're recognized thank you Mr chairman thank you again K. for being here. We are for the first time in an employees market are we not is made in the blast in the past we've been an employer market right but during covid people discover their value. And so they don't like what's going on right now young people move every six months right of we stayed in professions twenty and thirty years that is no longer the case right and we're gonna have to be nimble. To attract and retain and it's not just about salary it's also about benefits which is one of the reasons we're looking at the health insurance these things we should be looking at other things as well like infrastructure what can we do to build housing so that these people going to these high needs areas that they refused to go into now there's gotta be something but we can't stop at all the personnel wise we can deal with this issue to date to help us move a pace to try to keep up with Amazon to try to keep up with Walmart Costco all of these other places that what you're telling us today yes ma'am thank. In center flowers you're recognized man thank you so. This is just for salary deliver salary. What about benefits in terms of affecting the bottom line the forty one million what what what the state. Obligation to be the forty one million included the matching cost that we have at this point in time so that forty one million one just Sauer cost that did include all matching costs associated with this rates. Okay thank you. And I'm going to recognize my coach here. Representative Wooten thank you Mr chairman of okay do you have an average dollar the average dollar increase that will be throughout state government. Nest no Sir I'll be happy to check and get that information for you. Mr chairman of. Several good points have been made and ever question is been ask is relevant to two what is created this situation in the file allows and I thank you senator Hammer is exactly right in case response was poor of we will have to continue to evaluate to be a good employee and to senator Chesterfield porn it's a whole different world out there of the pandemic is created a lot of it but I think they were in order to be a good employer we're going to have to address and look at salary structure every session that we may. Both fiscal and regular session because of the fact that to moving target and if we're going to be a good employer we're going to have to offer benefits and of the salaries the will permit us to be able to provide the services that the. Of Arkansas and the and I think I want to commend K. and do you have you for their efforts on this because it's a it's a challenge and we've got to we've got to face up to the and also I will S. K. E. and and Robert this question if we keep pace. Will the performance from the have to be increased as we catch but we got to catch up we're way behind. Is it not true if we if we address the salary structure as we move through the process. If we address that regularly it is located you say in twenty seventeen was the last time that we six says five years the minister generation and in today's world but isn't all right with that investment become less because we keep us if we keep pace so there will have to be more money put in the performance on the think about using the performance going to do this some of my for my friends in the audience of agencies probably would prefer to get the money and not have to go to the performance on what that does is decrease the cost of the state because they can't get those funds and lesser actually needed Matthew ventrally yes we're gonna have to build into the base these the salary increases but by using the performance one is going to make it less expensive in in the short term and give us a better picture of what we what we're actually going to need going forward. So the looking at all the positions of like imposition over two years and that thing over half of those or funded visit budget disposition. And that money could be reallocated other places with the rand health of the agency I'm not saying take it away from an agency but I'm saying you can reallocate that within this or structure of those agencies if you look at it and we'd stop playing these games are coming in and we'll give you five you give us one it will do away with this rule are we not going to use these five positions and we need to use that money over here we. Those cities right. I would hope so. Thank you thank you Mr. Senator Hammer if you will queue up I will let you have less questions or. And senator Hammer you're recognized thank Mr the impact to the retirement system to joke throw that the mix of anything I mean per going to be increases salaries act I can't help but think that if we retain those employees would be a benefit to the retirement system or the jolly and factor that in the discussion we did not send right. Okay all right thank you thank you Mr. Members with that with Kay thank you very much we're gonna move on in Mr Robbins if you will. Go ahead thank you Mr chairman I just got a a few notes remarks before we get started with the staff presentations on your agenda is as you look at your agendas you'll see certain divisions of departments research departments the say no change it just means that the agency has had no personnel related request for this biennium so there's no change so we have a form for them because every agency needs to be heard but if there's no changes the form all all it shows is your current authorized total positions and in their agency requested which is the same and executive recommendation which is also the same so you'll see those and we'll probably try to patch those in as we go also on your desk is a mental folder in a folder is a pay plan the current the current pay plan a reference document it's got a lot of definitions terminology we may use in the in the committee and then you'll also see A list of the all of the departments divisions and standalone agencies in its listed in its got their authorized total of positions by division and and then by department it's got their number of budgeted positions they budgeted in the last A. OP and it's also got the current as of October first number of vacant positions and a number of those vacant positions have been vacant for two years so all of you have that in your folder to look at as we go through this couple things I want to point out K. yeah said this but I want to reiterate as we go through it was a blanket denial by the executive for any additional positions for any new re classifications in any upgrades on positions as we move forward in the reason for that was because the of the implementation of the possible implementation of this pay plan so as we go through that that's one big reason why the while the executive did not put these requests on whole okay the other thing that will you will see or at a family re classes witcher. Positions that are authorized one way they're currently being used a different way opium is look at those and said okay you've used it this way for a year two years want to make it permanent so no if you're using an accountant as an administrative assistant you no longer have the accounting position have the administrative assistant position okay those are those are at a family crisis does have been recommended in places you'll see some title changes title changes strictly that it's changing the title is a change of duties doesn't change the grade or salary strictly you know changes maybe you know a dog Walker to a cane on Walker it's the same thing just change the terminology and you'll also see the continuation of pools growth pole positions swapping positions and MSG positions that the agencies received over the interim they have to ask for those to be continued input into their bill and so you'll see those as most of them I assume are are recommended he also see positions are being eliminated lots of agencies have requested to eliminate positions that they no longer need that been vacant for significant amount of time so you see those those of also been recommended so with that Mister chairman I'm done in Leicester's questions miss Browning will do the presentation for department labor license. In misbranding. If you will announce yourself. My name is heather Browning in legislative analyst for the. If you're let's say research personnel section thank you ma'am in proceed. Are you all right bye and see which is department of labor licensing beginning with the C. one. We were a license and shared services. The department has thirty five authorized additions and receives regular recommendation for continuation of one pole position elimination of two positions into position is transferred from the state board of accountancy in the athletic commission respectively resulting in a total number of thirty five positions. I am C. to the State Board county state board of accountancy has not authorized positions the board receives a good recommendation for the elimination of two positions in the transfer one position to the Department share services. Leding total number of six positions for that particular board. I am C. three is a state athletic commission the Division has to authorized positions executive recommendation is for the transfer of one position to labor licensure services result in a total of one position. I am C. four is the Division of contractors for the Division has eighteen authorized positions they were seeded second recommendation for the elimination of one position resulting in a total of seventeen positions for that board. I am C. five is a towing and recovery four division has five authorized physicians and received several recommendation for the continuation of one pole position resulting in a total of four positions. I am C. six the Arkansas more vehicle commission the commission has seven authorized positions and received a second recommendation for the elimination of one position resulted in a total of six positions. I am C. seven is workers compensation commission the Division has one hundred and seven are authorized positions the second recommendation is for the elimination of two positions resulting in a total of one hundred and five positions. I am C. eight. Is the division of labor the Division has seventy authorized positions the second recommendation is for the elimination of one position resulting in a total of sixty not positions. Is it is C. nine two C. twenty five C. twenty one I had any changes to their departments commissions and respective boards and that completes my presentation. Thank you Mr Browning members we're going to have one vote for all department of labor and lastly if there any questions I have one already I'll recognize those and senator Chesterfield you're recognized ma'am thank you Mr chair you of explain what the process will be. So are we going to look at all of these under C.. If we need to pull out anything we can do that otherwise we're going to accept the whole thing is that right yes ma'am if you would like to have some pulled out. The owner of motion at the proper time. And thank you ma'am and senator flowers you're recognized ma'am. Yes thank you share so when you I'm trying to understand growth pole positions under C. five the. Towing and recovery board. DO five authorized positions. And then the executive director it's for. Can you explain what the grow full position. How does that work in there you take in the. The one lesson five and put it in a bowl full. What it was for this particular board doing the interim day requested to surrender to positions in order to get one so that's how you get a total number of four positions for that particular board. So they they often they offer to surrender to positions in order to get one. In case you have some but they already had five authorized. Yes we have five authorized so when they came into the interim in a rebate this particular request they have five authorized physicians so they gave up to say that love them with three positions when they game the one then they ended up with a total of four as a result of AOC approving that their particular request so what what is what is the the gross position is that something that agency has or is that its internal affairs investigators that some under some other agency I believe the case has may have that answer. Well. Thank you. I can hardly hear you. I don't think I'm Mike is on. Can you hear me now yeah. Under the uniform class and compact which covers all executive branch agencies we have three different types of types of pulls one numbers call the surrender pull I believe there seven hundred positions that pull is utilized one agency determines that they do not have a position at the correct great to help them with a particular process so they have a new unanticipated program what they can do at that point is turning in one to however many positions they want to to get a higher level position that's available to all state departments and agencies there's also what we call a growth pulls that's when agency or department does not have any positions to give up but they've had a new director of a new program that's been assigned to them and they come to the growth pool and they requesting the position we bring that all those request over the personnel committee during the interim or their proved so what happens if they give up a position we'd I do not continue to recommend that that position be continued but we will recommend the position that was established farm during the interim process. Is it the same great. No ma'am it is almost always at a higher rate when they come. Okay but it wouldn't be shared it's not a position that shared by other agencies are inspecting it's very specific to the requesting department okay. And obviously they didn't have a internal affairs investigator before is that what it is that would be my assumption or at they weren't paying them sufficiently. Thanks eleven because of okay. Sometimes it is because of the pay yes ma'am it's sometimes it's because of the grade level that might've had a lower level investigator and determined they need a higher level investigator thank you records when they come to those pull positions Hey you guys reinforcements only right there Mr chairman Darrell bass that secretary of labor like to have an opportunity just addresses this was a particular a peculiar situation obviously you see the number of employees there we don't have a a lot of employees that this was a situation where we've got a director that is going to be leaving we had an employee already there a number of years of service and he had an opportunity to lead and so we had a choice to make first of all obviously we want to continue the institutional retain institutional knowledge that this individual had we also we're looking at the possibility of utilizing him as a possible replacement for the director we're in a little bit of a dilemma we went to OPM and we said we we need to retain this employee in order to do that we will give up to positions if we need to in order to be able to retain this individual at a higher grade so that he can stay there and we can retain an institutionalized that's the backdrop of this particular situation. It should flowers and answer your questions and. It does thank you ma'am. Members are there any other questions on the other department of labor if not. Senator Chesterfield I recognize you for your motions. Right. Go ahead ma'am. How do we just move review what what is a proper motion sensing. I'm sorry she said she. Yes for a second record yes. Thank you. Okay and I have a second. Members we have a motion the second all in favor. any opposed. And that this past. In Mr Browning you may go into part of. Thank you Hillman was thank you Sir. I am D. is department of health I am do you want is a chiropractic examiners board the Division has to authorized physicians and did not receive the second recommendation for a grade change the result of their requests incentive recommendation left no changes to their total number of positions I am due to the Arkansas state board of dental examiners the board has three authorized positions in received as second recommendation for the elimination of one position resulting in a total of two positions. I am the three Arkansas dietetics licensing board the board has won authorized position is a good recommendation did not recommend one grade change no change in the number of positions for the board. I am ready for it is the state medical board the board has forty one authorized positions in several recommendation recommend eliminating seven positions resulting in a total number of thirty four positions for medical board. I am D. seven is the state board of nursing the board has thirty authorized physicians and received a second recommendation for continuation of one pole position note change in total positions. I am D. six is the dispensing opticians bore. The board has one authorized position and did not receive executive recommendation for great change no change in the total positions. I am D. seven is a state of Thomas report the board has to authorized physicians the Division did not receive is making a recommendation for grade change leaving no changes in the total positions for the board. I am D. eight is the state board of pharmacy the board has eleven authorized positions the board seat is a recommendation for the elimination of one position they did not receive as they could recommendation for one reclassification resulting in a total ten positions for the pharmacy board. I am D. nine is the Arkansas psychology board. The board has to authorized physicians and did not receive executive recommendation for one great change no change in the total number of positions. I am D. ten the Arkansas spinal cord Commission the Commission has twenty seven authorized positions receives written recommendation for the elimination of two positions resulting in a total of twenty five positions. I am D. eleven is the minority health commission which also have special language the Commission has eight authorized positions the commission received that a recommendation for the continuation of one pole position resulting in a total of nine positions. He also receives written recommendation for continuation of their special language resulting in the In discussing the positions for the tobacco settlement funds the special languages basically states that the Arkansas the state of Arkansas any of its agencies or institutions will not continue to fund any positions paid from the proceeds of tobacco settlement in the event that the funds are not sufficient to finance the position number two state funds will not replace tobacco settlement funds with funds expire and number three the disclosure of language shall be available to new hires included in the employee handbook our professional services. I am the twelve. Is the tobacco settlement commission which also has special language the commission has to authorized positions in receipt of record a recommendation for the elimination of one position resulting in a total of one position for the commission they also receive executive recommendation for the special language which is the exact same for the minority health commission dealing with tobacco settlement funds in employees hired in positions paid by the tobacco settlement funds. Item D. thirteen. Is the health department. The health department. Has two thousand three hundred thirteen authorized positions the health department did not receive is it a recommendation for one who classification thirteen great changes and five additional positions. The health department did receive executive recommendation for continuation of twenty four MMG positions and this is listed on the rest of Page sixteen. All of page seventeen and why five on page eighteen. The department also receives written recommendation for the elimination of sixty four positions which are listed on the rest of Page eighteen. Pages nineteen through twenty. In lines five through eight on page twenty one. The rest of page twenty one two Page twenty five this is second recommendation for eighty two out of family we classifications due to the use of these positions during the interim. All recommended changes result in a total of two thousand two hundred seventy two positions the health department also has special language which is the exact same as minority health commission and also with the tobacco settlement commission basically saying that State of Arkansas cannot use of state funds to fund positions are funded by tobacco settlement door Can they use the funds to replace tobacco settlement funds in all employees hired in positions paid by tobacco settlement funds must be made aware of how the position works under such funding. I am D. fourteen. That's on page twenty seven. Is the health services permit agency. The agency has five authorized positions. The executive recommendation is for the elimination of one position resulting in a total of four positions. And exhibits D. fifteen through the nineteen do not have any changes in that completes my presentation for the department of health thank you Mrs Browning Senator Hammer you're recognized for. Thank you Mr chairman of the tobacco settlement conversation basically we're gonna tell those employees This Is like federal funding of federal funds go away your job goes way is that pretty much it in a nutshell that's correct and do you happen to have personal knowledge about the tobacco settlement funds now to know if there are sufficient funds for the areas that would be affected by this or how far out into the future we might see a decline R. for the question to K.. Good call. I don't have that answer senator Hammer I think someone health department may be here but I don't. Yeah. If you will announce yourself you're more. Beg your pardon health. Senator hammer features second question one more time I'm sorry. The this is all built around. The. The articulation of funding and that would happen if the funding goes away is that I mean this be tree like federal funds that if the money goes way their job goes way that's gonna be put in not hiring package so they know that their yeah that's that's part of yeah correct okay so as far as long term. The money will continue as long as tobacco products are sold One there's not really an end date in sight but those payments. Basically are starting to decrease but we don't have an end date I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. Okay and I mean the reason the whole idea that it would be put in there. Suggests to me that there's some suspicion that somewhere on the future this is this is going to start showing some in at some point but we don't have a date in sight yeah I have a projection there's not really I mean it's based on the there's lots of different factors that the go into that payment every year to come to the state its inflation there's a sales so it's it's a it's a large formula that the AG's office works on with the tobacco companies but I think long term I think we feel coffins guilty coming for quite awhile right and the. The I don't know but the whoever oversees the disbursement of tax tobacco money you know how it actually gets it is a margin in there that if the sherry came up short that money could be redirected from within the settlement in order to take care of this particular years that on us as legislators or who's that come before the legislature there's there's no provision for general revenue take over this funding for okay all right thank you thank Mr yes Sir. You senator Chesterfield you're recognized thank you Sir move executive director. And before we do that Senators fillable recognized my culture representative who. Thank you. I tried to keep up with this we went through it looks like you're eliminating seventy positions is that correct. Of all the of the major part of that is from the department of health sixty four and a don Adams department health deputy director sixty four in the department of health and there are some of the boards and commissions I think there are seven in the medical board so I think it's slightly over seventy okay follow up question we were told that and and the budget hearing for you all that eleven positions we're going away from the. Medical board that is seven I believe it is seven correct okay thank you thank you Mr yes Sir. Senate bill you're recognized ma'am I move the second correct. I have a motion to I have a second. I have a second members all in favor. Any post. Thank you Mr chairman that will cover all of items the one through the nineteen unless the one or. Thank you Sir. Moving on to paragraph the Department of Parks heritage features. Go ahead Mrs brown I am he is Arkansas parts here to terrorism I and II one is Arkansas parts here tension tourism share services. This department has one hundred for authorized positions in receded secretary recommendation for continuation of three pole positions in six out of memory classifications due to use of those positions during the interim resulting in a total number of a hundred and five positions. I am P. two is capital zoning commission. The agency has three positions and receive executive recommendation for one title change no change in the total number of positions for the commission. I am E. three is a division of Arkansas heritage the Division has a hundred thirty to authorized positions the Division did not receive recommendation for a grade change receipt is sent to the recommendation for continuation of two pole positions resulting in a total of one hundred and thirty one positions. I am E. four is division of parks and tourism which also have special language the Division has a total of seven hundred and thirty three authorized positions the Division did not receive it is a good recommendation for three great changes but receives a recommendation for one title change. Is that a recommendation did not provide for two additional positions on pages six through seven. This shows any recommendation for a continuation of one pole position in twelve out of family we classifications due to the positions use during the interim but is there a recommendation did not recommend nine classifications are recommended changes resulted in a total of seven hundred and thirty four total positions. On page eight of the year. Report. Liz the continuation of special language recommended by the the executive the the recommendation shows continuation for the utilization of authorized extra help positions in contract labor Maxine eighteen hundred hours for special events or seasonal events at war Memorial Stadium. In isn't it E. five does not have any changes in that completes my presentation for Arkansas parts here to deterrence on. Any questions. Concerning the This. Senator flowers you're recognized thank you this is where Kate so where we see these The Great request changes. Yes. That are not Recommended right. So if the pay plan. That is that you want over earlier that's the proposed right if it's passed by the legislature. Will these requests necessarily. Change the the. The field okay hopefully the pay plan will address some of these request if they do not the department will come back to us and we may be back before you with some different recommendations but will want to sit with pay plan does first we figure that addresses the majority of the upgrade requests that we received across state government there may still be some position were classifications are additional positions needed that would bring for to you at a later date. So. The agency I would think is basin their request all what the job description of the duties are is that right yes ma'am. And so I'm just wondering how how would it not if those paste that pay scale is not. If it is approved. Why wouldn't that agency request be fulfilled. If it's a matter of. Duties for the raid. Right the agency might still feel it needs a higher grade at grade visits which when you see reclassification a lot of times there for jobs to go to a higher level. And that is the case well that is not the case and all of these parts but that is the case in case in a lot of them and if the pay plan doesn't address it we still have methods within the inform class compact to address those concerns. Select page four okay eighty three. With the archaeologist. The they've been authorize the GSO eight. Agency request nine. And the recommendation is stay at four eight and stayed eight which we feel like that is one that would probably be addressed by the pay plan because of nine is only about ten percent higher than the great ape what we're recommending a twenty percent overall great to the grade of an oh eight so we think that is a request that may be eliminated due to the pay plan okay thank you. You committee members only we're we're trying to hold up to to to to reduce the workload. Relative to any adjustments changes reclassification additions and that type thing because if we if and your wisdom we send the new pay plan to the General Assembly for their approval should not pass then they will have to go back and we do a lot of work it'll just stay in place is is and then they could come back to the personnel committee and ask for adjustments then but if we make a bunch of changes now and in here and the Senate over there and it doesn't get approved then we have to go back and undo all that and we evaluated the hope it makes sense. The upper upper should your question yes. Senator flowers. So is that why you think the executive. Did not recommend. That's what you're saying. The I thank I'm not speaking for the governor's office but I think they had to. reasons one is the fact that we're doing the okay receive of redoing the I plan okay and I think the second reason is just out of courtesy to the governor whoever that the okay can make the budget decisions Senator but ultimately you think if the pay scale recommended is approved by the legislature most of this will. Not what we won't have to work a whole. This yes ma'am that's right thank you thank you. Members see no other questions on the Department park heritage tourism. I have a motion do I have a second. Members this is a reminder this is for all of the which is the one two three four five so I have a motion the second all in favor. Imposed. It is passed. Now we're going on to. Item if your paragraph if public employee retirement system. Is it F. is the Arkansas public employee retirement system the agency has anyone authorized physicians Senator recommendation is for the continuation of four pole positions in the elimination of six positions resulting in a total number of seventy one positions for the agency and that includes my recommendation means. My presentation for Arkansas public employee retirement system thank you Mrs Browning. Members. C. No comments do I have or no questions rather do I have a motion. I have a motion to I have a second I have a second members all in favor. In the opposed. And paragraph if. Arkansas public employee retirement system has passed. Going to item G.. Teacher retirement system I am G. is the Arkansas teacher retirement system the agency has eighty seven authorized physicians and did not receive executive recommendation for one who classification and one additional position resulting in no change the total positions and then concludes my presentation for ATR S.. Members say no questions do I have a motion. I have a motion to have a second I have a second all in favor. Any post. Thank you. In thank you Mister brown for a good job today. In nexus department of the military. Sean Penn you look sharp today. Yeah. Good morning member's name is Angelica Mercado and I am legislative analyst for personnel at today we are going to go first with the military department exhibit H. one. They currently have five hundred and forty six positions they requested fourteen new classifications on page one line at ten to twenty three but the executive recommendation does not provide for this request on page two you will see that the agency requested for additional positions on lines five through seven and again the executive did not provide for this request they received five growth pole positions on Page two line thirteen to seventeen during the interim and executive recommendation provided for this request lastly the agency requested a reclassification of positions starting on page two line twenty four and ending on page nine a line ten the executive recommendation did not provide for any of these requests with the exception of an admin specialists just security officer supervisor which is found on page four line twelve because it is in out of family reclassification. The net effect of these changes will increase the number of total authorized positions of five from five hundred and forty six two five fifty one. The agency also has a special language that is requesting requested for continuation it addresses the line item I maximum for the position of adjutant general and deputy adjutant general to be based on the salary grid set out by the US department of defense and shall be compensated in accordance with the department of defense advisory service pay plan the executive right provides for that request. I'm exhibit H. to the department a military admin services. Administration insured services have no changes and will remain at one. And that's all I have for that thank you. Members say no questions do I have a motion. I have a motion to have a second. A second all in favor. Any post. Thank you this past. Are moving on to exit I we're going with the department of Veterans Affairs. I the agency currently has three hundred and three positions the agency is requesting three classifications found on lines standing twelve an executive right provided for two of the three classifications. The agency also had two positions from the swap full during the interim and executive recommendation provided for those requests they are found on line sixteen and seventeen. They also requested eight record re classifications however the executive recommendation only provided for three of those positions that are found on lines eight nine and eleven due to them being out of reclassification out of family re classes. The net effect of these changes will keep the total number of authorized physicians to three hundred and three. Items are exhibits I two I. four will cover the administration's shared services disabled veterans service office in Arkansas veterans child welfare service and there are no changes to those and that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Members see no questions. I have a motion to have a second. The second all in favor. It imposed. Thank you ma'am. Mr chairman before Angelica starts with department transportation of the department transportation wanted us to hand out an informational document for the membership so as they do that Angelica and continuing the presentation okay go ahead ma'am. Synnex when in the Arkansas department of transportation I would like to let the members know that the department of transportation's manual is different a one because they are not an asus at and they are stand alone agency and they produce their own manual. So that at the department of transportation currently house four thousand six hundred and seventy four authorized positions. And the changes that I present to you will decrease the amount of positions by one hundred and sixteen this is due to structure reorganization within the agency and expanding their pole positions which will allow them to repurpose or eliminate unused possessions. I would also like to point out on page three and beyond that this is going to be what their bill will look like. Are turning to the second page the members will see the historical data of the positions the department has requested throughout the years and how it has changed in that time period the department has reduced our authorized positions by seven hundred and eighty six and it will include the one hundred and sixteen positions they are decreasing for the upcoming biennium. Some other changes to their line items include Terry classifications that affect for positions they are also requesting to upgrades they also have several changes to their pulled titles and then requested seventeen upgrade and six downgrades throughout that can be found throughout their bill. With all of these changes the net effect will change their total number of authorized physicians from four thousand six hundred and seventy four two four thousand five hundred and fifty eight and that concludes my presentation. You have a. Okay in the chair recognizes my culture. I'm sorry I had to step out of would you what was the total net. Fund exist you're talking about the transportation Arkansas okay what was the total number of positions changes out when they're decreasing by one hundred and sixty well they gave up one hundred fifteen okay thank you thank you Mr yes Sir. In the chair recognizes senator Hammer a question for the Director when it's appropriate time pollution. Of the highway for. Mr. Allowable to talk about the content of the design behind this as part of the discussion. Go ahead Sir thank you when they introduce ourselves thank you ma'am if you will or do so yes I'm Laurie tutor the Director of the Arkansas department of transportation. Good morning. A couple questions first of all pretty major overhaul The idea behind the overhaul stimulates from what we're to come from and what really the impetus behind this is how many of you know Randy order deputy director and chief operating officer he's been with the department for thirty five years and he's retiring at the end of the year so that that instigated thought the thought process is well how we can move forward with that position. And that coupled with the fact in November twenty twenty that has since sales tax became a stable source of revenue. I'll along with just our workforce challenges in distributing the workload more evenly after all the years that we've had this this structure in place we had ten districts in place and that's been true since the nineteen sixties a lot is changed so in order to this this reorganization in a nutshell will just physician has to be successful in the future to deliver the program of projects that we have promised to voters and just to retain recruit and have that succession planning in place because we do have quite a few employees that are getting close to retirement. This is a. Recently hired a consultant Besser remembers just driven out of some of those. Recommendations yes Sir several of the. Recommendations from the efficiency review the department went through in nineteen twenty and we're continue to try to implement those recommendations several those will be taken care of through this restriction. And you created a new do I am I reading this right he created a new district out of all of this. Yes and since the nineteen sixties at the demographics of Arkansas has changed quite a bit Northwest Arkansas central Arkansas became extremely urbanized while the rest of the state is still very rule pretty rule and so in order to better serve the public we're shrinking District for which is northwest Arkansas or shrinking District six which is central Arkansas to provide better services for those heavily populous areas and they were creating a new district district eleven that will allow us to have a great coverage over the entire state. Okay. How long do you anticipate is gonna take to transition into this if it's approved. And I think it'll take between two and three years it's going to take this time to get this all in place some things we can do immediately some things you will take time to get it into place like they need district and then let's say suspended for the transportation committee years as the first review of the side and have a major transportation committee or is it made by them yet no Sir as the course the highway commission approved it at their last meeting and we're so we're just moving forward at this point with the biennium and to see if we can get the positions in place if so will be will be presenting this to the transportation committee spoke on the Senate and the house side okay all right thank you thank you Mr. Yes Sir. Senator flowers you're recognized. So director or this might be for this McConnell. The one hundred and sixteen. A physician's. That are being eliminated. Does that kind of balance out what the budget would be. In terms of the. Great. Request. The increase in the grade level request does it and I'm gonna have to defer to the agency. Okay if you speak to that because it's. Thank you have a lot of positions in construction and seemingly does on the field is that where we put in. Their their emphasis can you can explain how how do you try to care for the whole state. A. And use a C. I don't know what bridges is highlighted here are on the up on the issue bridge operations. The war what do you see and that. You makes you feel comfortable that you're going to be able to take care of the needs. Throughout the state even in the rural parts Southeast Arkansas south Arkansas we you don't have. That much of the population but you still need the roads to have to carry the the goods to market in yes and other kinds of commercial transactions so can you speak to that and it are you dividing these employees for these operations. Up. The. Per the district's or with the needy is. Okay will well what I'll say is this this. A hundred and sixteen unused positions appropriated positions that we're allowing to go backward we're eliminating those positions from our our total positions as. They're just unused there I needed where we we don't protect we don't expect any those in the future what is a clerical what what is I'll. What is it mostly is at a general area I mean I wouldn't thank you we get rid of people that are at that we see every day trying to work on the roads and bridges. My name is crystal woods I'm the head of human resources that are not these positions are positions that have been and field from for many years we have had a cushion of I would say occasion we have had additional positions that we Did we've had career path positions without tooling prior to the last biennium last biennium we pulled some of those career paths positions so that we can eliminate the additional appropriated but not budgeted positions. So this biennium we're hoping to pull more of our positions and further reduce the number of appropriated but not budgeted positions for example we have. Four thousand six hundred and seventy four appropriated positions in the current fiscal year we only intend to fill thirty eight hundred actual bodies so these reductions in our positions do not. resulted in actual reduction of numbers. He's. Well you you mentioned that terms about pole position that. I don't think I'm understanding pool positions of you know you got growth tool that Mr Bassett spoke to the. Can you cannot tell me what what is it we're talking about here when we say you got some cool positions okay for example a construction aid is an entry level construction employee the next level on that career ladder is a construction advance construction a. The next level on the latter is a construction inspector and then a senior inspector all four of those positions may be held by the same employee overtime so we don't need for. Separate positions we need one in a pool to allow us to promote that employee overtime it It is that part of the one hundred and sixteen unfilled positions yes ma'am that's how we're able to reduce the unfilled positions by doing more pulling and creating more of these career ladders. Okay. So you're not losing any workers now make. Okay then into the director. With the creation of this new region of district. Are you gonna be able to satisfy the existing of districts I mean how do you do that will and you're not hiring more people. We we are going to hire more people so that we have a better coverage across the state we're hiring more people we within the bounds of the appropriated positions that we already have you still have some unfilled positions yes me okay thanks me. Yes ma'am inst representa Richmond you're recognized Sir. Thank you Mr thank you Director. The reorganization chart that I see here. Isn't it your president organization isn't kind of like a funnel we're you know all these requirements and things basically funnelled up through I think the gentleman that's retiring and and that's that's been kind of a chokepoint hasn't yes Sir and so this this route reorganization you have here this is it's going to help spread out the workload and also maybe reduce that choke point. Yes you have president Senator it will that's exactly what we hope it does we know what we'll do that the way we've got it restructured all right thank you thank you Mr yes Sir in center Irvin you're recognized ma'am hi Hey first thank you for everything. I am they they have just been helping our little town of Leslie so much so. So so grateful about that That question just on the organization chart that we have here I mean just kind of go through the mind set about moving like some of the counties out of their existing districts in and to different districts do you mind just sure like what was the mindset behind that. Our chief engineer a rex vines at he did an analysis of the entire state he looked at not only at lane miles he also looked at vehicle miles traveled the amount of traffic on these different roads across the state and what he did is he tried to do a better job of evening out the coverage. All over the state and that was what was behind it since the nineteen sixties the demographics of Arkansas has changed quite a bit and I don't want a call Northwest Arkansas are Central Arkansas which problem children but they kind are they got a lot of attention yeah and then the the rule areas were kind of late getting left behind a little bit so what we did is you know what if we could add another district. We can provide better coverage to take care of those really high needs in those urbanized areas take good care of them but also take care of the rule areas as well and I think over in in sixty years it's worked pretty good for us but we're starting to fall behind and that I hopefully most of you are. Are happy with your response time from the Department but we one ink we wanted proof that in do a better job of taking care of the system yeah well and I can just speak to my folks in stone county I mean they do a fabulous job in and of I think it's probably just a comfort level they've been with the the Batesville district and you know they they love them and so they were a little you know worried about moving in that I think to one of the things that we deal with obviously up where we live is inclement weather probably more so sometimes and the rest of the state so I know sometimes that causes equipment shifts the needs and salt trucks and all those kinds of things and so I just didn't know if that also played into you know kind of the way it was organized or not it does it really does I mean the maintenance needs across state discretion in northern part of the. Date during inclement weather you know we have worked hard to get to do better at responding there and we want to get better and better and you're right you know I think but. So you were district five which which county is it's down yes time yeah I mean it doesn't I mean I you know I think you I don't know if there's anything I I don't know why you know I mean you have a you have a current district headquarters and to me they're not checking in with them every day or anything like that so and. I'm not quite sure I understand what it's any of an issue but to me I know that those northern counties DO hit get hit with a lot of snow and ice more so probably than some areas so I know that they're just kind of they do a fabulous job but there always scrambling and out at two AM if they have to be you know which is I'm super grateful for and I was just asking all right no problem thank you thank you. The chair recognizes my culture representative who. Direction shooter the June state to this man. Sixty two years since you had any substantial reorganization out there. It has to this extent there's been not not in the district's school districts have been the same since nineteen sixties at the. The structure that you're seeing for the central offices. There's been changes but not this to this extent this is a pretty radical compared to where we've been in the past so. The question of gun. As a result of this will you be able to provide greater assistance to the Senate is in counties as a desire to. work with the agency yes Sir that's when things changed quite a bit over the years is the amount of money that funnels through our got to our local partners to our cities in our county. And so in order to do a better job of helping them navigate through the Federal Highway Administration rules and regulations and just provide a better service for them we're creating a new division is just focused on our local agency programs that we also you know we do become more efficient in taking care of their needs. Thank you thank you Mr chairman. Senator Hammer you're recognized Sir thank you two questions one the bottom line bottom dollar bottom line for the dollar cost for this restructuring is what it says to add the additional employees we need for this restructuring is about ninety five additional employees using an unused positions. But that costs will be more than offset by a reduction read the redirection of funding we're currently using for consultants. A we now have since sales tax the temporary half cent sales tax passed and not in twenty twelve twelve. We promised voters a a program of projects major projects because it was temporary we decided to use consultants to help us deliver those projects instead of staffing up. In twenty twenty one yup we took the word we took temporary offer that has since sales tax and now it's a stable source of revenue we feel like we need to staff up in order to deliver those projects and reduce our dependence on consultants in looking at our numbers just for program management and for construction inspection we're going to be able to once this is fully implemented offset that six million dollar cost by about and it reduction or redirection of funding we're using currently for consultants of around ten million dollars so this should result in this in a savings for the state in order to bring us back into better balance what the what state government is meant to do is to provide services and also use consultants as we need them that's part of the economy I understand that we've got a little lopsided over the years because of that temporary in front of that revenue and now that it's gone we can we can pull a little bit of that work back into the Department. And get a better bang for your Buck if you will for the citizens of the state provide a better service. Okay so six million estimated cost but your consulting savings you project the six almost eight six to ten minutes of this basically gonna be revenue neutral then once you get it all up and implemented which you understand that's gonna be a two to three year period for for all to shake out that's right that's correct okay any additional costs that you anticipate that's built into your budget for the transitional process of dropping off consultant's adding employees making the salary adjustments or you got all that factored into your budget. So our current operating budget our next stop if this is approved if we're given approval to move forward our next operating budget will take everything into account in increments course will do it as we're able to get it in the place. Was that your question it was I just wanna know if there's any unforeseen cost in the transitional period could you testified two to three years to get it done I envision dropping off consultants will you shift at work load in the house and I just wanna make sure that your budget has all of that moving part all those moving parts calculated into it save yes I'm back with a surprises yes Sir will be sure we continue to offer services in the what we need to do. And make sure budget allows us to do it until we get this fully implemented okay and all the strip and all the recommendations of the consultant we hired to review the efficiency processes of the department correct yes that's a great uses that efficiency review is it opened our eyes to a couple of things in this will take care of it did you thank you thank Mr in members and I'm going to take two more questions of. I'm trying to move along with got another rule will be coming in behind as of yet Senator Chesterfield Senator flowers thank you senator Chesterfield yes I will yield to senator flowers because I was going to move the are not salary request the twenty four twenty five biennium. Thank you ma'am and senator flowers you're recognized for. Get an idea of how many consulting contracts. Are you all. Do you have now. Hello I don't have that number I can get it for you I don't have that number in front of me right now I'd like to know that and and. The end date. Okay that of will of I can get to that information we have we have a lot of consulting contracts in Iraq right now with different end dates but I can get that for you sure can at the agency are you all allowed to just have of multi year contracts for consulting company yes ma'am we are we are you do you are you subject to any limitation on the the term. At that number of years of of. And no we're we I mean we are under that we are under the control of the highway commission we do minute orders asking for approval to go into these contracts and they know that many years you know normally we we negotiate that contract and it's for a certain like our on call consultant Sir for maybe two to three years that we can go in and we can use them on we need to and then we have to come back and get commission approval to extend those contracts. Are those the type of consulting contract you're talking about when you answered senator Hammer. Well that was a contract that that that report was created by the highway subcommittee. And that's what we have been looking at a lot of those recommendations came from there I'm sorry I know I'm on a different section to assure that you know that I'm I'm just trying to understand that six million dollar savings. Are awash is that just one contract no ma'am it's it's it's I don't know it's probably ten contracts that I'm looking at maybe twenty I can get that for you yes I'd like to know the terms of those contracts that at least in terms of the time it how many years. Of these the projects the specifics so like for construction engineering and inspection they will be on board to do that service for the Department until the project is complete so some of our projects go from two or three years you know it there under construction at law and that consultant firm that is inspected at work will be on board for that amount of time we always have a need for consulting contracts when you're talking about projects so I'm just trying to understand what consulting contracts are you getting rid of a at two. The amount of six million dollars I mean that must be something specific yes okay that that we when we in twenty twelve when the House temporary half cent sales tax passed and we have that group of thirty one projects that we needed to get ready the project a development and let them the contract in respect that work when we wi in order to for our for us to deliver that program we brought on a program manager at one of our consultants came on as a program manager to deliver those projects to you know to administer oversight of the consultants that were you that we're designing the projects and then to do oversight of the the consultants that were inspecting the projects that contract alone which is going to expire in the next year because that temporary program is complete. That would that right there was six million dollars a year and we're gonna be able to take that in house and do that ourselves that's that one contract then all the construction inspection current consultants that were using those we print we're going to probably be able to cut those in half or more because of the additional district and having additional police out in the field to inspect our construction projects so that's where the ten million dollars came from is that answer your question. You're welcome. In Senator Churchill did you have a yes I do I move the salary quest for the twenty twenty four twenty five by any and by the Arkansas department of transportation. I have a motion the second all in favor. Any post. Ma'am thank you appreciate all. Members we will move on to public service commission. Thank you Mr a public service commission currently has a hundred and fourteen positions the agency is requesting five new classifications found found on lines ten to fourteen and executive recommendation provided for three of these classifications lines twelve through fourteen. The agency requested to great changes for the Executive wrecked did not provide for the agency's request they had also asked for additional position starting on page one line twenty five Page two line fifteen for a total of thirteen positions but the exact corrected not provide for the agency's request the agency received for positions during a from the spot pool during the interim and executive recommendation provided for those requests which is found on page two line twenty one through twenty four. The agency also requested to re classifications on page three line six and seven however the executive recommendation did not provide for those requests the net effect of these changes will increase the number of total authorized physicians by one two hundred and fifteen and that concludes my presentation. Members seeing No questions do I have a motion. I have a motion. And I have a second. Excuse me all in favor hi it imposed. And thank you that has passed. Exhibit L. is C. Arkansas ethics commission they currently have eleven authorized positions they are not requesting any positions they are requesting one reclassification online ten however the exact correct does not provide for the agencies or request the authorizations will stay at eleven. Is a resident. I have a motion and a second. Members all in favor. It imposed. Thank you ma'am go ahead what is the Arkansas claims commission they currently have ten authorized positions they receive an attorney specialist position on line nine through this what pole during the interim they are requesting three eight classic re classifications however the exact correct does not provide for the agency's request the net effect of these changes will not change the number of authorized positions and it will remain at. And that concludes our presentation thank you I have a motion. I have a second all in favor. It in the post. It is accepted. Mistranslated. There are some. If you will use of mark. This. You Sir thank you for angel art angel a bill or. Item in item is going to be a part of finance administration and one is the administration shared services division. Currently authorize one hundred and five positions the requesting a great increase you will see it on your report online eight. Exactly recommendations not provide for this. Their questions make permanent ones what to position it was granted interim command line thirteen of your report the second recommendation does provide for us. Three out of family re classes you see is CD's on lines twenty twenty one twenty two on the bottom of the first page of your report. The second recommend recommendation does provide for these and it brings the division to one hundred and three positions it decreases to to the swaps. In two is the DFA assessment coordination division they're currently authorized thirty two positions. The request to upgrade a title from GS ten to just twelve was the ACT deputy director if you look on the third page of the in this section is coming on line eight this is not recommended by the executive. Division wishes to add two pole positions ACT division administrator GSO eight and a property assessment coordinator manager G. S. O. seven the mobile lines thirteen and fourteen in the report in the executive right does provide for these. Click on lines twenty one and twenty two page three there's a request and request an out of family we class the request one is the tax auditor supervisor. Any other family is the ACT division administrator the executive director Vice without of record out of family requests only. The Division also request to transfer two positions with revenue services was going in one's going out of the assessment coordination division. These are on lines five and six this will be on page four. The executive record does provide for these. These changes request of thirty three positions that's an increase of one. In three is management services. They're currently authorized two hundred and thirty six positions. The requesting one upgrade to see that online eight on page five. The executive recommendation is not provided for this. Other questions for title changes. See these on lines thirteen through sixteen exactly recommendation does provide for these. Your question no one knew position is gonna be online to twenty one it's a grants and listed yes six. Executive record recommendation is not provided for this request. On page six division has six what pool positions you'll see those on lines five through eleven. If you look at line nine they're going to the right there's a couple sells their blank that position to be transferred out to revenue services so it has no request or no recommendation there the executive recognition does provide for these positions. Management services which is to eliminate for vacant positions if you look on page six see these on lines seventeen through twenty there are three DFA E. R. P. analysts and one help desk specialist executive recognized for these. At the very bottom of the same page line twenty six three classes start and they run the line twelve Page seven. Therefore requested by the Division for out of family executive recognized for the out of families And the last section of the report starts on page seven line seventeen goes all the way to the end of this of in three. He's a position transfers there's nine of them. They're all leaving division with four going to revenue services and five to D. T. S. S. executive recognized for these and then they have these changes a request of two hundred twenty four positions at a recommendation of two hundred twenty three that's a decrease of twelve and thirteen positions respectively. We we we. We're still going to answer. In for is the A. B. C. alcohol beverage control division. They're currently authorized twelve positions. the requesting to new positions those are gonna be on lines eight and nine reports ninth page. These are requested but they're not recommended. The Division wishes to request a positions the wrong page nine and they go from line sixteen to twenty three. these replies are not recommended. These changes bring division to fourteen positions has increased to the executive recommendation is to maintain the twelve positions. In five as the next division DFA's revenue services. Currently authorize one thousand five hundred and sixty six positions you look on lines nine ten and eleven on page eleven. You see the Division wishes to create three new titles. Of the second reading is not provide for these they would also like to upgrade ten titles you'll see those on line sixteen through twenty five on page eleven. These the executive had been provided for these either. Division has sixty one pool positions and they start on page twelve line five and they go to the end of page fourteen. The fifty two these are DFA servicers it yes three they're obtaining an even swap back in April of this year. the rest also swaps but there's one that's just a regular straight growth pulls the tax appeals staff attorney on line seven. the executive director of provides for these. This request. Division which eliminate one vacant position of fiscal support tech GS for some Page fifteen line five executive rep provides for this. And starting on line eleven Page fifteen there are four hundred and sixty. Question replaces. He's got a line seven of page thirty eight. twenty out of family re classes in this section to you'll see those are the majority of the request request is or to one of the new times it was requested earlier the DFA SRO service rapid yes so far. The executive a recommendation provides for the out of family we classes only. The last section reports on page thirty eight highlights twelve to seventeen these are position transfers there five coming into the division and one going out to assessment coordination. Of these changes bring the request to one thousand five hundred seventy four positions that's an increase of eight there are three pieces specialized chairman section forty is continuing language. Ms extra help at the Revenue Division from the limitation of ours And requires a report to the Legislative Council or Joint Budget if part time or extra help stays on long term which in this case is seven months or longer the second recommendation provides for the request for this piece special. The species pieces section forty one is also continuing language allows the Revenue Division to employee up to five certified law enforcement officers executive right provides for the agency request for this piece special language. And the last is section forty two of this is language that if they wishes to delete the use of contagion positions at the division of Revenue Service. The second rope provides for the agency request for special language in this case as well. I'm in six is the regulatory division currently authorized fifteen positions request eliminate one see the on line eight. The position is vacant executive recommendation provides for this action. The Division request to re class a DFA dog racing that to a racing commission that that MPO for the great wouldn't change in this case see that online fourteen but this isn't recommended by the executive director. It brings the division to fourteen positions a decrease of the one that's being eliminated and exactly records also for the fourteen years of pieces specializes Mr chairman section twenty two continuing language. This piece of language allows the racing division thirty one extra help positions per fiscal year with no one thousand hour limit on hours worked. The executive right provides for the agency request for this piece special language. And item in seven is the office of child support enforcement. Your current authorized seven hundred eighty one positions the requesting to new titles the on page forty six lines nine and ten. The executive right does not provide for this. Throws a request to upgrade three titles see those online fifteen sixteen seventeen same page. Exactly read is not provide for these. They're five pole positions the division is requesting all DFA service reps GSO three you start online twenty two of page forty six and go to the line five on the following page these are recommended by the Executive per. CSE which delineates six positions is on page forty seven of your a report lines eleven through sixteen all of these are vacant and executive wrecked provides for these. The request thirty one re classes the starting line twenty two page forty seven and they go to the end of this section of the report. They're also five out of families in this section Jolla's twelve to sixteen or page forty eight executive records for the other families we classes only. The nature of these changes the request of seven hundred and seventy five positions it's a decrease of the six that they wish to surrender there's a piece special I was chairman. Section four is continuing language that exempts limits on the division's extra help hours. Request report to the Legislative Council or Joint Budget if extra help or part time personnel are employed for an extended period again seven months or more. The executive director special language provides for the agency request Mr chairman that's all have pretty. Thank you Sir. And senator Hammer sure you're recognized thank you Mr on the Administration and shared services did you say the would you say about executive reckon that they did or didn't. They did not recommend the great increase. But the did recommend the permits to make purpose what pool and the three out of family re classes. Okay. And then do you know the on the last one the Extra help exemption was put in place because of the COVID time frame or was is this just like special language it lives on forever. it's going to be the latter I've been doing the if a car while in a I do this every time we do this so okay our thank you Mr. Senator flowers you're recognized me in this quick question on the dog race in that Nehring and The reclassification do we still have dog races here one was a Memphis. What. I think until December but. But what I can't hear you two December till December and and eliminated after that element vape DFA that's that's correct Senator flowers live racing at Southland and we'll and end on December thirty first I think that's across the country in. I'm not sure if it's totally across the country but it certainly is for Arkansas and so the veterinarian will be just for the horses. I suppose indicates that check some or whatever we will. Is that we will continue to employer veterinarians for Oaklawn racing live racing and and and I Springs okay thank you and and I'm just wondering that wasn't even approve the by the executive branch. We think that becomes simple. It was called up senator flowers in the blanket disapproval that we've got a way to do that when when the dog racing season ends we can change it to horse racing at that particular point time are the two connected. But if you already have a position called all grace period I don't is it be for the horse to so I guess not. I don't I'm sure you got a veterinarian for the horses so why would you need to change this title Senator flowers we do we do have a veterinarians for horse racing a number some of those we hire on a temporary basis on the part it just for the for the racing season the position that is at Southland bill will go away but that veterinarian that's employed there has been we've we've approached the veterinarian about if they wanted to move dot springs if they want to continue point with the state we would very much encourage them to to seek that opportunity okay so it's just for one person yes ma'am thank you. Member center other questions Senator Chesterfield we're now there. I have a motion I have a second all in favor. Imposed. Thank you that is accepted. And you may continue Sir. Thank you Mr chairman item is the disability determination for the Social Security Administration or DD S. as a they're currently authorized five hundred ninety one positions they request to add the for growth pool assistant director positions that they were granted back in April we'll make those permit. See the person or committee for those will be on lines nine through twelve. Those are granted to supervise the employees and the growing number of cases that they get from other states this course federal funds in those four positions bring DD SSA's request of five hundred ninety five positions in the increase of those for growth will special language there's a piece in section five it's continuing language and allows DD SS eight at up to two hundred fifty positions over the fiscal years needed that's after opium approval and a senior JVC Review. His or seven to federal need a requirement in our federal federally funded the executive recommendation provides for the agency request for the special language Mr chairman that's all I have for DDS is. Members. I see no questions I have a motion to I have a second. I'm here second all in favor. Any opposed. Thank you this is accepted. In season. Interment the next item public defender commission we have a handout this is a revised recommendation from a disease revised executive recommendation on the special language so when Mr angel goes to it he'll he'll speak to that revised language. And it's the languages is in a letter from Act formula. Go ahead Sir thank you Mister chairman I have P. as a public defender commission currently authorized two hundred eighty six positions requesting a new title if you look on the report you'll see it on line ten. They like to re class thirty five positions to this new title you'll see these for a further down the report here in just a few minutes. The executive recognition provides for this new title. The commission we should upgrade for titles John lines fifteen through eighteen on the first page. Executive right does not provide for these. The public defender received three growth positions in the interim you'll see there's on page one. Their own lines twenty three and twenty four and then on the next page they finish up on line five. Per fifty nine re classes start on page two that's on line twelve when they go to the in the report thirty five of these are the public defender threes to the aforementioned new title senior public defender and twenty water requested to the requested upgraded title public defender investigator. Of the executive records not provide for these re classes. In the effect of these changes is a request of two hundred eighty nine positions. That's an increase of the three growth pool there are two pieces special language Mr chairman. Referred to section fourteen is continuing language exempts extra help positions from limited hours work per year it also allows persons working part time to be utilized as extra help within the agency language also caps total compensation for personal working part time and is extra help Executive wreck. For the aid is the agency requests for special language. The next piece is new language this is what we just passed out. It's revised language that went out of the in just a moment ago well as a public defender to pay up to a grades maximum salary for positions as determined by the public defender commission though this only applies to seven specific titles only. And requires reporting to AOC JBC and opium approval. The executive record provides for the agency request for this Special language Mr chairman that's all I have for public defender. Thank you Sir Senator Hammer you're recognized her. Can I get to great to the table please Mr. Correct Paris Arkansas Public fender Commission. Afternoon it's always an ongoing discussion about you having enough defenders to do what you gotta do and with it comes up every time we meet so can you tell me right now me are you down right now we're down fraudulent eight attorneys that we're trying to fill that does not include the the attorneys from the I. R. P. funds we just received but those are the ones that we have right now they're vacant okay so what you're asking for today how does it meet the needs of fill in those eight does that put you would you feel would be fully staff to be able to meet the needs are on you what I'm asking for today is is a retention because what we did is we looked at the attorneys that we have. and to break it down we looked of the attorneys with fifteen to eighteen years state employment and there are a GS thirteen. And their macs they got nowhere to go. In those and some of the attorneys that I'm losing two other agencies namely the prosecutor's office because they have the experience to just basically walk in the door the prosecutor's office and pick up the following contract case. All right and I I may be misinterpreting this straight me out are we given it seems like we might be or my misinterpreting that will give you a lot of flexibility that has never been done before with this or can you can you address that thought or it's it's limited flexibility I make a recommendation but I will still have to have the approval of opium to do this based on the special language that's just been handed out all right if I may right K. that that all ends up before us even though you prudent right right we reported to yell after the factor before after it back so okay so it be retroactive okay all right thank you thank you. In center Stubblefield you're recognized thank you Mr chairman okay this is a little off topic but you have any idea how much the Department of transformation insured services inside the state since it was implemented. No Sir but we have someone tracking this numbers I can get that to you I would I'd like to see that. Thank you thank you Mr chairman yes Sir. And senator flowers you're recognized ma'am I guess is more for the tier of this special language requested we vote no on it today what we are. So if the motion is just to approve the executive recommendation. That would not be included we do have to have a motion. The second to send this. Proposal a request to special language what we nine no ma'am so personal committee hears special language to the specific to personnel with this being specific to personnel. I guess the motion would be to adopt the executive recommendation along with the revised executive recommendation for the special language and that way he would be adopted and it would go into their bill in the format that is written in the letter. That this act is this up of men recommended by the executive branch yes yes ma'am that letter is from Hey Barnhill at for the. Yes ma'am. So then I have a question for Mr Farage. The You want the re classifications are the classifications public defender three. Are authorized to be. Paid up to the maximum salary. In the. Request for request vacation you have all of you that listed all these public defender threes. you want them to be at GS thirteen. So. I think here I don't I don't know we're G. old twelve ET and he is I mean maybe you Miss. The. Maybe you can explain this I'm I'm confused about this he has on the special language request public defender three. The fate of. Maximum salary. G. O. twelve AM would see that on the charting Senator flowers here's what currently exists to public defense defender commission all the public defenders are authorized as public December defender threes G. S. O. two I'm at GOP twelve in what Mr Parris does is when he hires and brings a new public defenders are according to need he downgrades those positions somewhat sometimes to a public defender one are public defender to based on the experience and expertise that the applicant brings with them so what he has right now are up. G. G. great thirteen public defender position. And he uses them sometimes is the twelfth sometimes is eleven and even down to ten and some case. It's kind of similar to the concept they were just talking about it transportation department. So okay so. You're saying that the chair this can go to special this will go to special language we are adopting it as special language as the executive branch has requested and yes ma'am if you if your office special language it It is adopted by the personnel committee it does not need to go to the special language subcommittee. In in any if adopted and it and approved by L. C. J. B. C. in our report to a LC JBC the once the bill is drafted the bill would be drafted with this language that was written in this letter by miss Parker this language would go through into that bill without the need to go to person without them your special language used. So then Mr that is the co chair moving then I guess governor's already made his decision on this particular. Agency in terms of the request. At least there's some some of the positions the. Senator I'm sorry. Trying to understand how this all works if you have a. A response. Okay Senator. This is a hold this is a whole different deal here. What the executive branch has said they will do is not reclassify positions but this is a special needs here there were attempting to address with Mister pairs so it it is it it is an exception I guess is what we need is we're we're million exception to the decision has been made to reclassify positions and move them around until the new governor comes in but this is an issue of retention and recruitment of of a vital people in the office of public offenders let me let me ask them to question for one was the average increase call they do you know all public defenders for these positions we will will average correct okay let me clarify a little bit of what we're doing here what we're doing here now we have not recommended all the re classifications of Mr perish requested although I anticipate we may come back with those recommendations in the spring what we have recommended is a special language that allows Mr perish pay all the way up to the maximum pay level for any of his or turns the reason we have recommended that is because prosecutors currently have that language and so we're trying to create equity between the prosecutors on the public defenders because he's losing people from public defender's office to the prosecutor's office is I can give them more money because they have maximum authority so what we're trying to address here is truly the maximum authority issue I think we'll probably come back later in the spring with both prosecutors and public defenders trying to make sure we have all the greats worked out to every so you're back to having the achieve equity between the parties the prosecuting attorney's. And the Public offenders. What may I ask one other question concerning this. Yes our most of the public defenders and these are the actual grades now current great these are great yes ma'am. And most of them are not at the maximum for that current great. A good that I'm are not at the maximum of their current great at this point in time are all these full time. At least after all time and part time pending on where their son so even for the part time. They would get the maximum salary as a full time at half the rate Senator when when what we will all of our positions. Our legislatively appropriated as full time but to cover the areas that we have to cover we will take a full time position and converted into two part time positions so if I've got two people their feelings one full time position but they would only accrue at one half of that. Are they eligible for benefits to as long as they're it twenty hours a week yes ma'am. Okay thank you. I remember seeing no a. Cohesion what was the case load whispers for individual turn as ever here in Little Rock along with really well three hundred to four hundred here in Little Rock state wide to fifty four hundred and then once you start factoring the travel I mean come from Essex County district where I came from I was carrying three hundred cases myself easy that was ten years ago okay thank you. And members I am ready for a recommendation or brother motion. And we have to set specifically twenty fuel dress that. The if the if you want to adopt the special language the revised social language needs to be a motion for executive recommendation including the revised special language. Some okay I have a second offense who favor say aye. In the post it is accepted. Sir you may continue. Thank you Mr cues the board of election commissioners are currently authorized ten positions in which to make no changes. That's all I'm sure. I have a motion I have a second all in favor say aye. It imposed. That is accepted. Mr Miller I'm are is the judicial discipline and disability commission their current authorized six positions and they too have no changes. I have a motion I have a second. All in favor of. Posed. That is accepted. Members we or that other business does anybody have any other business. Seeing none. Members we are adjourned thank you.