ALC-Review

Members of the on take your seats are gonna call this meeting to order. All right let's start this off representative Bragg any comments all right all right with that miss Kate winter ready. Thank you Mr chairman good morning members Katie Walden bureau of legislative research. The first items for your review today are the methods of finance they are in package item be if your packet. The first page of this section is a letter from DF eight summarizing the items for your review today and the projects detailed on the next few pages. On page B. two. Referred to the department of commerce we have a forty point eight million dollar grant using skills development funds this is for the awesome Office of skills development to help construct and equip in Arkansas in manufacturing and robotics center to be located in Faulkner County Arkansas next with a issue Mountain Home we have one point three million dollars in regional workforce grant funds for the expansion and renovation of their a issue Mountain Home technical center and this is to create a boat manufacturing space number three with ASU Newport is five hundred fifty thousand dollars in regional workforce grants this is for the repaving a commercial driving range for their truck range on the Newport campus number four is with national park college it is one point one million dollars in federal Arkansans for H. back upgrades. On the next page number five with Southeast Arkansas college they use a combination of loans and federal funds at six point seven million dollars this is for an energy performance contracts for cost reduction measures. Number six is you have a community college at Batesville. This is a combination of workforce grants and cash funds and private gifts at an amount. Not to exceed one point two five million dollars this is for the purchase of fifty acres at twenty two ten east main street and they will also constructed building on this property. Number seven is UAMS. They are using read reserves and revenues at one point seven million dollars for the ward pharmacy clean room. On the next page number eight also with UAMS they're using university reserves and gifts for a hundred and twenty billion dollars for the creation of the institute for integrative and innovative research number nine with UAMS they're using reserves and Rep and revenues. To use three hundred thirty four thousand dollars for the west central energy plant failed metering project. Number ten also with UAMS they're using reserves in revenues. At four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars for the Arkansas State Hospital water pipe replacement project Mr chairman this concludes the methods of finance all right got a couple questions here on start with representative Cavenaugh. President Cavenaugh who's your question for the department of commerce okay we its weapons commerce. Thank you Mr. Welcome to give us your name and your position for the record representative recognized received your question. Cody way it's director of the office skills on the department of commerce thank you for being here my question is it says that this is find it one hundred percent by the skills development fund can you give me a little information about the skills development fund what it is how it was created and how much we have in that fund yes it was created back in two thousand fifteen under Act the eight ninety two of twenty fifteen and other skills development funds essentially a workforce development fund that's funded through DWS training trust fund transfers workforce two thousand dollars other cap at that twenty four amount and everything above that goes into the steel Development Fund and really what it's used for is to invest in workforce development projects where that's to our state to go grant program we're going to not anywhere from probably three to four million dollars every year direct business to do incumbent worker training new hire trainings things of that nature I we also do special projects were award funds to nonprofit groups to your community colleges four year universities K. twelve to kind of invest in workforce development as a whole and currently I believe there's somewhere around fifty million dollars in that account so that's kind of the kind where we're at. Okay follow up Mr you're recognized for follow up thank you so if there's around fifty million and your taken forty million you're taken the biggest challenge that we have in this funding using it for one project. Yes so the way it works so as we we get these funds annually and so we're always getting these on a monthly basis and so while this project is a dissipated estimated cost of forty million and keep in mind this is a very rough estimate based on what we know and kind of where the market is today in kind of what the bill doubts were of some projects similar to this and so this is going to be a one time fund where we're spending all forty million right now right so we're gonna be strategic in the fact that we may set aside fifty million of it in the in the initial start see how that goes seal that progresses the how the fun is is impacted by that the other piece This Is there could be an opportunity to go out and do a bond issuance for it in partnership with that for now we don't necessarily want to go that route we would rather self funded as opposed to do that but we're gonna make sure that we're kind of responsible enough and look at the dollars and cents to make sure that we can fully funded out of schools building fund and if we feel like it's going to negatively impact the funds will level we're not gonna be able to invest in other projects we're gonna look at an alternative route. When the projects is is to be completed in one of twenty five so you were talking less than three years the Joint specter to spend the forty million dollars so if you did that and you did take it out of these a hundred percent of the skills fund it it would take almost all of it well not not necessarily so for example in work first two thousand phones we get about we got two years ago we received eight million last year received twelve million this year received roughly twenty plus million dollars in that fun so that's obviously dependent on corporate income tax rates and how that looks Act so again I just go back to well this is what we're anticipating and how we plan on spending it we may have to change that you as we get into this and like I said we'll probably allocate fifty percent thirty percent of whatever that fund is today and then try to make sure that we're watching those dollars they commend because again we find out what that is in the may forecast we actually get the number in August and so we get another twenty million dollars in August that we will be able to self funded all if not we may have to look at this monorail yeah but you do have a backup plan so you don't write this fund yes ma'am okay thank you thank you represent our represent vases for commerce question okay removed representative general quickly than. Representing you're recognized for a question thank you Mr I'm over to you far right how many acres or we are going acquire Conway we're gonna be located in what's the square footage of the facility that we're going to build so just over eleven acres it's going to be in the what they call the central landing area so there's a tract of land that they're developing over there and so we've looked at a number of different places and that really fit a lot of things right interstate frontage property centrally located little over eleven acres we're looking at roughly eighty five two hundred throws two thousand square feet of facility are dedicated to doing manufacturing robotics CNC industrial maintenance and in a space that would be dedicated to if there's a business that's expanding or perhaps a company who's looking to relocate to the state of Arkansas we could bring in specific equipment for that specific company move it in training hundred two hundred three hundred people the back out and bring the next agreement back in follow up yes Sir of Conway's Asian community what a job that Conway. Well I think it was just as we looked at you know a couple things first it was what we believe it needs to be centrally located and so we started working working with ATC and site selection and kind of look around what sites fit that mold in that area and so we looked at eleven to fifteen acre sites within the central Arkansas region probably around the thirty five forty five mile radius they have one that was interstate frontage property so that was enticing we work with Conway before on different bills and so there's just a couple of things that make sense for us and ultimately that's why we made the decision to do that ease of access to the interstate close proximity to an airport right off I. forty so if you're coming from East West or Harrison down south right it was easily accessible from all parts of the state okay thank you thank you Mr chairman Sir the purpose of all right coach Cody I think the you're good to go unless we got representive Vaught as captives covered all you have a question for commercial get somebody else okay our you're free to leave thank you Sir thank you Mr the members many are represented Vaught you're recognized for a question whose for south East Arkansas college East Arkansas college. The chair names and positions for the record and representative Cavenaugh will be recognized for C.. Good morning Mr chairman committee members Stephen Blumberg president Southeast Arkansas college. The morning Debbie Wallace vice president for fiscal affairs Southeast Arkansas college welcome thank you Mister chair I am represented by but that's okay you coming Cavenaugh I'm here Monday must be Monday represent of office thank you for being here this morning I see that were suspended on six point seven million dollars and you're taking out a loan for seventy three percent of that can you tell me how much we're going to save us from this project because this is supposed to be about saving money right. Correct so over the lifetime of the energy savings project will will realize about three million dollars in actual savings or realize about eight point nine million in deferred savings which means that if we were to do these upgrades over the next twenty years the actual cost of that would be close to nine million dollars so it's also about the deferred cost savings for our institution some of the measures that are on here are not related directly to energy savings but they're allowed in the department of environmental quality's performance energy contract one of those would be an upgrade or campus security system so well that's not an energy savings that's an important campus safety features so we roll this into one project so we could realize a savings now instead of trying to finance surveillance over the next few years. So these always bugged me we're spending a whole lot of money not to really see much of a savings over a lifetime I mean in reality you're spending six point almost eight million dollars for eight point nine million dollars in savings so that if you subtract those two that's really not going to. Give you that much of a savings but and then the loan is for how many years twenty year amortization schedule and on on this particular contract two point five million is actually related to campus safety and security so that is that you're correct that's not an energy savings measure but it's a campus safety measures so for example are are camera coverage on our on our campus is not sufficient we have cameras that that unfortunately don't cover one hundred percent of our college so this will actually cover ninety nine point nine percent of every square foot inside and outside so you're correct that the performance energy part of we took out the two point five million that's dedicated to safety and security building access controls I think you see the return on investment would be much better however we bundle this together for lack of better term just simply because our campus safety is really really not acceptable I'd marry on trying to fix our campus safety so I'm not knocking that by any means whatsoever can you tell me what the interest is on the twenty year loan the interest rate will be I believe below six percent we're currently negotiating with a local bank on that particular aspect of this we have not finalized financing yet but we are working with a local firm who is going to finance a project for us. Thank you Mr thank you representative. All right representative Cavenaugh your. Thank you mine is actually for the U. of a flight bill all right you guys rescues thank you very much thank you. Represent Dotson committed late you're recognized Sir thank you Mister chair I thought she was going to talk to him so I just was curious I think you came maybe to peer last month I'm not sure exactly which committee it was correct but requesting smart of funds are any of those anticipated to be used for this project no that's a really good question the arpa funds that we requested prior representative about a twenty percent investment in a fourteen million dollar projects that's a new student center so just to the point of clarification I'm glad you asked that question this is just the performance energy contract for our existing campus buildings and infrastructure clearly separate them that's correct yes Sir thank you. Thank representative. All right anymore questions all right you guys first use thank you Mr. And we need somebody from you a fat bill for representative Cavenaugh. We get your names and positions for the record. Good morning Mr chairman Scott Turley associate vice chancellor for facilities with your example. Hi good morning I'm Michael white on the socio vice chancellor financial affairs of. Mr Lewis white welcome representative Cavenaugh you're recognized receive your question thank you Mr chairman here to your right thank you all for coming mine is going to be dealing with the request for the hundred twenty million dollars can you explain a little bit about this project and because it looks like you're using about fifty six or fifty eight percent of the university reserves for this so just wanted to kind of talk about that and what you doing with this money yes ma'am the project is intended to be a incubator for new entered new information to research the idea of integrating different types of research in one building the Walton family charitable foundation is who funded the majority of this project it was initiative that they put forward the university funds that are going into this our partners service also park Barnes or what part of what the funding is for the university portion It's really intended to advance particularly in the areas of metabolic research so it's very much focused on on health And so the the investment from university side is Barnes and then some reserves. Follows Mr chairman recognized for follow up okay on your method of finance you say it is university reserves fifty eight percent and gifts forty two there's no mention on this report to us about bonds. I'll have to I'll have an answer for you ma'am. But I know from my involvement with the project it's It has roughly. Twenty million in reserves of cash it has roughly thirty million dollars in Bonded debt as part of that that contribution and then the balance of the latest mostly gifts is the gift portion so so there's fifty million dollars it's going to be used by that from the university and the rest going to be a gift from the Walton yes foundation yes. Okay and have you already done the bond have you already know so the the project is just now into a final design and they'll go for a competitive bid you're at the end of the year we will not need to find spend until for fiscal twenty four so we have not saw those funds yes. In the show in the completion date of one one two thousand twenty four is this project going to be completed at that time. I think it will be passed that that's a year but one that's two years out yes ma'am it should be. Let's not quite two years out we're in October twenty two so yes ma'am so I no it will not be completed by twenty early twenty four I think it would be more summer to late twenty four typically were driven by the school year so trying to have facilities open for school starts typically mid summer is is a often the great for us if you don't mind get us the. The true method of finance because what we've got what you're telling is not what is on a report if you don't mind getting that staff so we can have a certain thank you the staff and they can get that out to members. Can I can I make a comment yes Sir this is a multi year project and and we knew that we needed to go ahead and get the project started and since we have not made a decision yet or on the timeliness or the timing of any bond issue we have not approached our board of trustees without and because of that we didn't feel like we can put bond proceeds on the MOF but we do have free service that could absorb this if need be but our anticipation is that we will be going to the market in the future with bond issues to offset those reserves requirements. Thank you. All right. Center for questions from your excused thank you Mr thank you. All right members see no further questions without objection these items will standards reviewed. Okay thank you Mr chairman the next items for your if you today are the discretionary grants there in the C. portion of your packet. The first set of grants for your review or under C. one they are from the Department of Human Services. On page C. one number one is a grant from DHS division of child care and early childhood it is with the save the children federation it's one point eight million dollars and this is to continue a public private partnership with save the children. Next item number two through eleven. Are all federal grants. They're all a new agreements to assist in increasing the event availability of early child care and education and communities with identified shortages so those are available to county statewide that have been identified as having a shortage. This takes us over to page five of the DHS grants. Page four. Item number twelve is with DHS division of youth services this is with Carter's crew it's twenty four thousand dollar grant for training in communities where gang related incidences are common and there is a high incidence of poverty and crime. Now on page five number thirteen a grant from DHS Division of Youth Services with chip game chosen heirs intentionally puer this thirty thousand dollar grant is for community based programs to that seeks to help you avoid sexual risk behaviors and pursue healthy lifestyles number fourteen with DHS DYS is with comprehensive juvenile services it's a twelve thousand dollar grant to continue the strengthening families program it's a prevention program for parents and youth. Number fifteen with DHS DYS is with the ministry of intercession bridge to success this thirty thousand dollar grant is for academic enrichment tutoring and stem and is to create an environment of inclusion and diversification through areas of academia. Number sixteen is with DHS DYS this is with Jennifer Nelson. This is to provide youth with weekly access to mentors and monthly group sessions. Revolving around social emotional learning restorative justice smart choices and better chances. Number seventeen with DHS DYS is with big brothers and big sisters of Central Arkansas Inc this is a twenty four thousand dollar grant and it's is to establish an agreement to support the development of youth by addressing their need for positive adult contact. This is in Pulaski County so those are the grants with DHS in addition we have items C. two this is a discretionary grant with the division of workforce services this is eighteen F. grant. With the center for healing hearts and spirits this one hundred twenty five thousand dollar grant is for proactive prevention and remediation of at risk behaviors through programming and includes job skills training a civic participation in community involvement and reducing risky behaviors Mr chairman these are the discretionary grants for your review today. Thanks any all right members any questions all right saying done without objection these out of the stands review. Thank you Mr chairman moving to item D. in your packet these of the contracts that are on for your review today first you'll see a letter from Secretary rouse of the Department transformation insured services he states that contracts presented for your review today have been reviewed by the office of state procurement and they find no violation of Arkansas procurement law. Beginning with the construction contracts that's an item D. one. And that's item page D. two. These are the contract for construction related services around the state. Number one with Arkansas tech as a contract with Cromwell architects this original contract is for a hundred and fifty thousand and there to provide planning and architectural services for the Tucker Coliseum roofing project number two with a issue Mountain Home with architectural plus this original contract for one hundred forty nine thousand dollars is for the expansion of the ASU Mountain Home technical center. Number three correction department with McClelland consulting engineers this original contract is for on call engineering services number four with parks and tourism with Alta planning design incorporated. This is the eighth amendment to this contract and it is for the design of delta heritage trail improvements number five with parks and tourism with CVI engineering this is amendment eight to an existing contract and it adds funds for the lake Catherine devil's den and Withrow springs state parks. Moving to page for an item D.. Number six is parks and tourism with McLellan engineers. This is amendment seven to an existing contract and this is for projects at degree lake resort like for your senate park in lake Chico and lake Catherine state parks number seven with parks and tourism with Wittenberg Aloni in Davidson. This is an amendment to an existing contract for projects at war Memorial Stadium. Number eight is USA a bill with Bernard Tihany LLC this is an amendment for five hundred thousand dollars for an existing contract for on call. Services to complete current and planned projects number nine with you of a fable is with Cromwell engine energy is an amendment to an existing contract for on call. Services to complete current and planned projects. Number ten with you have a favorite bill with Petitt and Petitt consulting engineers. This is the first amendment to this contract for four hundred fifty thousand dollars and this is an on call contract for mechanical electrical and plumbing services. The last construction contract for your review today is with you a little rock with T. M. E. L. L. C. this is the sixth amendment to an existing contract for three hundred and ten thousand and this is for on going repairs maintenance and campus projects and services to the U. of a little rock campus Mr chairman needs of the construction contracts for your review today. Thank you all right members any questions comments okay C. nine without objection these items will stand as reviewed. Mr chairman moving the item D. two these are the inter governmental contracts there too for your review today. And this is on page seven of your deep packet. The first is with the environmental quality department this is an inter governmental contract with the university of central Arkansas it's an original contract for two hundred fifty two thousand dollars and it's a contract for you CA to provide administrative oversight of all of the eighty use in house and subcontractor activities. Number two is with DHS Division of Division of aging adult and behavioral health services and this is a contract with you of a little rock. This is amended a lead into an existing contract and it's to add nine hundred twenty eight thousand dollars and this is to continue substance abuse block grant prevention services across the state Mr chairman either the inter governmental contracts for your review. All right members not say any questions and without objection the exams will stand as reviewed. I am D. three. Begins on page nine of your dissection these are the out of state contracts for your review today. Number one is AS you Jonesborough with bass berry and Sims PLC this is an original contract for two hundred fifty thousand and this is for general legal services to AS you. AS you Mountain Home is number two a contract with transfer Inc this is an original contract and they will transfer will develop a gel coating virtual reality training simulation for their vote training program. Item three is with the crime lab this is with national medical services Inc this is an amendment to an existing contract this is for pool postmortem toxicology testing items for. An item five are with TFA racing with two individuals who will provide veterinarian services at Oaklawn. I am number six is with DFA racing this is with the industrial laboratories company. This is an amendment to an existing contract for equine and canine drug testing kits and services item seven is with educational television commission it's a contract with linked in this is an amendment to an existing contract and it adds additional funds for the expansion of the Arkansas ID ideas portal for the addition of a ready for life portion of the contract. Item eight is with the environmental quality department it's a contract wins our solutions Inc. This is an original contract for three point three million dollars it's a technological solution that will allow eighty E. to fully support the regulatory programs. Item nine is with the health department with a precise incorporated this is an amendment to an existing contract for the support and maintenance of prescription drug monitoring. And the software system for that. I intend is with the health department this is with the center for disease detection LLC this is an original contract and this is for cytology services with their women's health and breast care programs. Now we are on page twelve of identity. Number eleven is with the health department with ICF macro incorporated this is a five hundred and five thousand dollar amendment to an existing contract. And ICF will complete the land and cellphone interviews for behavioral risk factor surveillance systems with the department of health. Item number twelve also with the health department this is within trato interactive services this is an amendment to an existing contract. And it they will provide telemarketing services and the delivery of automated voice messages to remind patients when they are due or overdue for vaccinations as well as giving them weekly reports item thirteen with DHS division of child care early childhood services education is with Kohli art technology solutions this is an amendment to an existing contract and it's to add funding an update performance details for the development and implementation of the L. I. N. Q. FTP solution for their emergency food assistance program. Number fourteen with DHS DCFS is a contract with youth villages incorporated. This is a one point one point two million dollar amendment and its to revise their performance indicators and service area as well as to add funding to continue intensive in home services for DCFS clients. Number fifteen with the Human Services department. This is with Magellan Medicaid administration. It is an amendment to this contract to revise the scope and performance indicators for the Medicaid enterprise Medicaid management information system and pharmacy system. I am sixteen is with Southeast Arkansas college with Bernard and ends see see this is an original contract for six point seven million dollars also with their energy performance contract in conjunction with the department of environmental quality. I am seventeen is with you A. C. C. B. contracting with Howard industries incorporated this is an original contract to provide audio visual system upgrades for in different areas on the you ACC be campus I am eighteen is with you a fait it bill with Athena quest this contract is there is an amendment one point three million dollar amendments to an existing contract and this is it for an annual fee for the migration to a new advancement system. Number nineteen with USA a bill is with results lab this is an original contract. And it's for consulting services to assess outcomes a D. III and nonprofit capacity building work. I'm twenty is with you a fait it bill with WTC consulting this is an original contract for two point two million dollars and this is to develop a long term strategic plan to provide enterprise networking telecommunications services to meet campus means finally number twenty one. As with UAMS they're contracting with computer aid Inc and this is an original contract for IT managed staff augmentation. Thank you Mr chairman. All right representative Cavenaugh who's your question for at environmental quality department every is my fate EQ. And represent what was a contract number again at number eight on page ten okay number eight on page. All right welcome guys if you give us your name and positions for the record and representative you'll be recognized procedure question thank you Mr chair. Good morning my name is April golden and I'm the chief of staff at the department of energy and environment. Morning era black director of compliance a department of energy and environment. Good morning Keith waters's administrative services manager the Arkansas department entry environment thank you all for coming over here to the right over there. can you just explain a little bit about this contract to what it's actually doing what you're going to be doing with this. So this is a contract with winds are solutions to provide. Really a state of the art technological That program at management system so we're already using utilizing it within our office of water quality a part of this program and this is a much larger At. It's a much larger system so that we can use we use it internally now within our office water quality we also use that system within our fiscal and other shared services departments to streamline our processes and so this would allow us to utilize it not just in the house but also out of house with some of our stakeholders for permitting and inspection reports and to broaden it from our water quality office to all of our offices within the Q. and within any as a whole so that would include our other divisions as well Mr waters here has been very very connected to this program and as he works in office of water quality so he can speak to some of the specifics on that if you're interested and Mr black as well has worked with him on the contracting process follow up Mr you're recognized for Paul thank you so. You already use the software and part of your divisions. There's and software are you gonna be placed and then other parts of your division what are you gonna do with the current software that you already use out there is there going to be a savings because we're not going to be used on that are you going to continue to use that other software we will continue to use it it's all that other software is a part of a larger package that we've already been using and will continue to use that for for the parts that we use it for but the larger package will allow us to utilize it in in more novel ways to really streamline throughout the entire department. Okay so when I hear the word streamline it usually means you're going to be saving some money but it doesn't appear your saving any money because you're adding another software package to another software package and so that's that's what I'm trying to figure out is how this is streamlining or we just adding an additional layer of software I'll let Mr black speak specifically to that. Thank you representive this is so build on to the software so it would part of the price tag you're seen there which were funding through federal revenue mostly and and some a special revenue part of that price tag is what we're already paying we're already paying part of this as as you see it we won't be paying two different companies it'll be paying this company for an upgrade to their system. So the software that you currently use is already this software you're just adding new modules to it correct okay and. The outside people that are going to be using it are you going to get a fee from them for use in the software. I don't believe there's any anticipation of charging permittee's for this right now this will allow permit applicants to submit online following track it provide accountability for our department to ensure that they'll see where it is every step of the way so they'll be able to check on their permanency as it moves along so it's really not third party it's actual people trying to get permits the people that you're servicing that's going to be able to use it right we think it'll provide them value in the sense of ease of use and then additionally provide accountability and if you don't mind if you would get to staff how much of this amount is currently used for current software and how much is going to be additional software if you can get that for me I appreciate it what we're I've got those figures I can get that right just get Katie and she will get those out to members. All right. The more questions you guys are excused all right members saying no more questions or comments and without objection these items will stand as reviewed. Thank you Mr chairman the last items. In the contract section for your review today or the in state contracts. They begin on page seventeen of identity under item D. for. The first contracted a is with correction department with Method Man sanitation incorporated this is an amendment to an existing contract and this is to continue waste disposal services and equipment for their north central unit located at calico rock item two is with TFA racing with the Arkansas problem gambling council this is an original contract. To provide for an education program and treatment providers for the problem gambling program I am threes with TFA racing this is also with an individual Jennifer McDonald this is an amendment to an existing contract for her to provide veterinarian services at Oaklawn. I'm for is with the education department with Mr Antonio dish on more this is an amendment to an existing contract for him to provide janitorial services with eighty. Number five is with education school for the blind with Securitas this is an amendment seven to an existing contract for security guard services at the school for the blind. Moving to page nineteen an item D. number six is with Arkansas school for the deaf also with Securitas also an amendment to an existing contract for security guard services for the Arkansas school for the deaf. I am seven with the health department this is with the American data network LLC this is an amendment of two hundred ninety nine thousand to an existing contract this is to pay for medical record abstraction services to support hospitals participating in the Arkansas stroke registry item eight with the health department this is with the Arkansas foundation for medical care this is an original contract for two hundred and eighty five thousand dollars this is to implement a call center program for the every mom matters phone line. Number nine with the health department this is with the Arkansas information consortium this is an original contract for seventy five thousand dollars. And this is to provide maintenance and operation of the eighty H. cosmetology massage therapy and body art websites used for the processing of electronic payments for license renewals. Number nine with the Division of higher ed this is a contract with the Arkansas information consortium. This is an amendment to an existing contract and it is for their database hosting and maintenance and change requests. Number eleven with DHS division of aging adult and behavioral health services with Arkansas healthcare personnel incorporated this is an amendment to an existing contract. Nine hundred twenty seven thousand dollars to provide certified nursing staff for Arkansas health care are the health centers number twelve DHS division of county operations this is with Arkansas mailing service services this is an amendment for four million dollars to an existing contract and it is to provide mailing process services. Hi number thirteen with DHS division of developmental disabilities this is with the Arkansas medical staffing LLC this is an amendment to an existing contract and this is just to update their rate she and to continue this contract for nursing services at the Conway human development center. Number fourteen is with DHS DDS this is with the pharmacy care of Arkansas LLC. They're adding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to this contract. For pharmacy services for residents at all five of the human development centers located across the state. Number fifteen is with DHS DDS it is with Terry Grimes it's adding seventy thousand dollars to the contract for this person to provide physical therapy services for residents of the Southeast Arkansas HDC. Now items number sixteen beginning on items number sixteen through number thirty two. These are all contracts with the insurance department and it's with various entities across the state including agencies on aging. Counseling services and all these entities are going to provide one on one assistance to Medicare beneficiaries across the state and helping them navigate the program. And so I as as I said this is contract number sixteen through number thirty two. So this takes us over to page thirty one of item D. and we're now on item thirty three. With the public defender commission there's enter an amendment to an existing contract with eleven seed bill and this is for him to continue providing legal representation. With the public defender commission. Also number thirty four with the public defender commission this is with Joseph Matthew Sanders also an amendment to an existing contract for him to provide additional representation in dependency neglect proceedings. Number thirty five with the public defender commission and this is what with written our legal services this is a thirty eight thousand dollar amendment to an existing contract and this is for them to continue representation through the end of the fiscal year also just want to note if you'll see there's an a longer paragraph underneath the purpose of the contract this was a technical error in a glitch in our system so if it really state that the purpose of the contract is to continue the representation and also and the original contract amount was seventeen thousand dollars so the total for your review today with the original amount and the amendment should be fifty five thousand dollars three hundred dollars. That was our system here. I and number thirty six is with teacher retirement. They're contracting with the Arkansas capital corporation. This is an original contract at one point four million dollars and this is for them to provide institutional investment services for eighty R. S.. I'm thirty seven is with you a fait it bill this is within heritage environmental services this is amended to to this contract at four hundred thousand dollars and this is for additional funding for hazardous waste disposal. Number thirty eight is with you a little rock this is with Beck Davis incorporated and Jan pro of Arkansas. This original contract is for the provider to add to provide the studio services at the Jack Stephens event center as needed. I'm thirty nine is with you a little rock this is with the Conway County community service incorporated this original contract is for services relating to the substance abuse block grant program. Item forty also with you of a little rock with research solutions incorporated these funds original contract also relating to the substance abuse block grant program. I'm forty one is with you a little rock with the southern lawn services is the three hundred thousand dollar amendments and this is to add funds for the contractor to continue providing Lansing landscape services for the U. of a little rock campus. And the last in state contract for your review today is with you a little rock with the Saint Francis house in W. A. DBA community clinic. This is in a hundred thousand dollar contract and it's to serve region one in this state and it's for substance abuse block grants thank you Mr chairman. Thank you Katie all right represent Dotson would start with the. Thank you Mr chair and this is on item number eight the health department if there is a site M. eight page twenty if I might this might be a longer discussion if we could with the chair for motion just pull this one out of this group and then discuss it after because I know that so okay to be a little other things and pull this out and we'll circle back to this after we answer any other questions thank you represent Dotson if you go back in Mister Dotson get back in the queue then our guys with it all right. Representative of a lot. Thank you Mr chair a human Human Services department okay yes for me contact twelve our contract wealth. Welcome. Good afternoon. Yes here we all know who we are as good as your number position just for the record. Good afternoon I'm merry Franklin the Director of the Division of County operations for Department of Human Services all right thank you what you're recognized continue to question she has a chair can you explain to me the four million dollars for the mailing. I mean that sounds like a pretty high thank if we divided outside fifty three thousand dollars per county if you do that in all seventy five counties can you tell me. Yes ma'am. This contract males all of our notices related to eligibility determinations and processing for the Medicaid and snap ran transitional employment assistance program and so we we have increased cost there one of the changes that we recently made is we're mailing more of those centrally out of that contract service rather than an individual county offices for efficiency there in those county offices and so we are we are seeing an increase in these costs for this contract. So is it four million dollars worth of postage. It It is the envelopes the the processing of the mail the printing of the notices in proc putting them in the mail placing them in the mail we also have postage as well and about how many. Mail outs is this. We have recently over the last few months we're mailing about two hundred sixteen plus thousand notices a month. Okay thank you Mr thank you representative all right. Are there any other questions miss Franklin okay all right your excuse thank you. All right. President of capitol thank you Mr chair mine is going to be for teacher retirement. All right. All represented I think we got a few more in the queue for teacher retirement so if you wanna combined one what you know to questions the one. Right join the records you'll introduce yourselves Mr positions for the record and representative Cavenaugh will be recognized for C.. Executive director teacher talk. Of raw graves that the Director Arkansas teacher retirement thank you I'm over here to your right thank you all for coming my question combined in the two and one is first why do you do R. if Q. rather than the R. F. paid and I'd like to know the number of contracts these. Company would actually be looking at. So thank you for the question we have we we work with the office of procurement and I made the recommendation is essentially what we followed Broadgate great strappy Director work directly on this project so let him address any further questions. yes thank representative so there were there was discussion on the the right process or P. verses RFQ with S. P. at the end of the day it was determined are of queue would be the best approach for this sort of specialty type approach we actually conducted three different RF cues over about a year year and a half period and this was the only response to all three of our solicitations for vendor for the service. And how may number contracts that this person going to be looking at. Of contracts it. You mean that the project evaluations or for what they're actually being paid for how many or they don't look at our will that school the very representative there are deals that come to teacher retirement from in state potential projects regularly and that would be the function of this is to vet those deals are not only for new investments but is is is you all know teacher retirement is invested in some of state projects already that require ongoing monitoring right now we have I would say to direct deals and state and then we have a number of other probably four or five tax credit deals that this firm also be monitoring those tax credit programs are are based on legislation that's been passed over the years I think starting back maybe twenty fifteen or twenty seventeen. So we're talkin seven contracts. Active and then potentially you know reviewing new opportunities could be we don't know that number it's that pipeline that deal pipeline varies drastically and up from year to year I would note that the the one point four million being requested right now this firm is actually in the contract it's the amount to be paid is thirty thousand a month so the one point four is essential to cover almost four years but service. It actually shows it's for two. Right well it's it's a two year period after the two years we we would come back or questions extension after the two years but we would not ask for any more funding. Right represent kennel manager back in the queue we got some more was there thank you ma'am. All right. Senator Hester you're recognized for a question Sir. So just looking through this the person that you're hiring to do this it for at least a legal counsel your former boss is that correct. I don't I don't understand the question I mean is is is this capital Corp is George Hopkins not who were hiring another legal counsel for this no no you have to have a X. thank not to my knowledge no okay no but no senator I'm not aware of any involvement with this of the the people we dealt with Arkansas capital corporation were same walls and mostly one. Okay. I'm recognized that Senator Rice. Senator you're recognized thank you of this rule background Senator Hester as of course the. Okay the court that is the contractor on this. One of the projects that they would be. Oversight U. SEC currently we're seven. Would be one that the former a TRS Director is chief legal counsel for is that correct. I'm I'm not aware of that jord it's Hopkins is chief elect legal counsel for any of those projects. But one look at the internet. Okay the contract he said. It would understand the renewables. The director for one point four million. For two years you're saying you gonna you may ask them to do it longer than that. With that anymore request how much do you need twenty four month is fifty eight thousand three hundred something per month. well just. Just for clarity it's thirty thousand a month so that's three hundred sixty thousand a year roughly seven hundred twenty thousand for two years so the one point forward cover almost four years. But contractually it's for two years funding for the two years you're asking for. All right well that's certainly acceptable to its the one point four was a number of put out to central cover about half the expected char overall term of the contract but it is contractually seven hundred and twenty thousand four or two year period okay is is the amount of time. used in oversight or whatever this contract would do is that subjected to them. They would be required of its there's no limitation to the amount of time that we could ask that would be staff of in other words if one month there were five or six opportunities presented to staff we would send that to this vendor there could be a month where there were no. No deals to review but it all in the contract it's all based upon a TRS is needs and what we need to ask of them for that month so there's no limitation to the amount of time that could be to vote you can ask but they they may. It may be subjected to what they feel like they need to spend on it be fair. Yes I think that be fair we we wouldn't dictate Any amount of time however the contract does require them to allow us to do sherry duty to Arkansas teacher retirement system and by by all the prudent investor rules and other Arkansas statute and excuse me about distracted what what what was reason there wasn't on or if the but at this we worked with the office of state procurement originally was going to be an RSP but and again this is probably year and a half maybe almost two years ago at this point of discussions with S. P. the director of O. S. P. and and others it was termed our queue to be the more appropriate response and again we we have three argues this is the only vendor that submitted a bid from three different searches. Course the the legislature getting involved in. When there was we use the term downgrading. Of debt. With the fire. That we had a audit committee on it yes yes Sir yes Sir this is a direct response to that that is the. The. Concern I think you're hearing. From here. and and there was legislation that was brought forth to require some oversight correct the they're with us the recommendation from the audit committee recommendation yes Sir is this the response to that recommendation yes Sir this is that right okay and and if I missed it how many. How many applied. Back responded back this or if you. So as as Reid said earlier that that this is the only response we've had to the multiple attempts to happen or Q. R. F. P. of for the services. Okay Mr obtain on other questions of I have more questions okay I do have a motion for get through. All right Sir will circle back to you. All right representative Cavenaugh. You're recognized. Soon follow up yes thank you Mr follow up. We have use this company in the past. Have we not. Go ahead. Yes they were used once as a subcontractor and then I believe for recommendations on a project related to big river steel and then I believe. years ago they were actually had a private equity fund a I think that was known as a diamond state ventures of this predates me by quite a bit but I believe they actually ran one or two private equity funds. The system invested in over the years okay. Follow Mr my understanding is that we actually early on in the current administration we did have contracts with them but those were the funded so we date we not we quit using that. Are you aware why we quit using them. I'm not familiar with I'm not familiar with that did not do any due diligence to find that out. Other than their disclosures is required through though issue processing contracts Did not I wasn't aware that they had had any D. funded contracts. and just as a follow up are they the ones that recommended and oversaw on the investment in the pellet mill in pine bluff. no ma'am that was initially done by a former consultant to fill distro that Simmons bank okay. That okay. All right center I see another question. Okay. Get. If there's not any other questions only mature I just move it to we have listed for full review for council Friday all right and simply gets more questions all right members without objection read a hold this contractor full review of A. L. C. on Friday. All right now. Senator. Mr. On on on on the page seventeen the number three day DF a racing see if somebody could answer your excuse thank you thank you. Somebody from racing. Melanie Hey slip department finance and administration. Can. Mark Mr Hitcher yeah are you. Janmark let general counsel for the department of finance and administration the representative or senator has reserving on your left. Thank you so my question is on this professional code consultants arses contractor Jennifer Lynn McDonald from Dover is this state thirty percent cash seventy percent the state thirty percent is that is coming from G. R. what is that state thirty percent money come from yes Sir that is general revenue. So I guess that this is clearly a legislative of provocative that we are that were willing to. I guess we. We're spending general revenue as opposed to going to school teachers or something to A foundation the support race tracks that's the choice there. Sir I'm not sure I can answer that question I can tell you that the racing commission receives a bucket of general revenue which is used for the operation of the racing commission which includes the enforcement of the rules on the commission the that works at the track at Oaklawn to assist in that so the testing and those procedures as what that does okay that makes it makes a lot more sense to me so it's it's of it that's making you we're testing to make sure the rules are being followed yes Sir okay yes Sir yeah thank you. All right. Represent catalysts for racing okay. That you're recognized thank you Mister chair when you said that it popped the question in my head these vet center using at the race track the are they your state budgets. Those are contracted rates that were done through an RFQ process with the with the assistance of the Office state procurement but I mean usually at most racetracks there are state vets that want to make sure that the horses are sound that there's any issue that they're going to scratch I'll make sure they act up in the gate they don't run they're going to do periodic checks for wellness on the animal before they run is that what these are doing yes ma'am it is okay and we have what three or four of them we have one that is a state employee and then we currently have three that are on the agenda today for review and then we have one more that will be on next month so we have a total of five with one being a state employee and for being contract full time state employees. No ma'am that is not just during race season yes ma'am okay thank you. Richmond all right what is your excuse thank you thank you. All right representative Dotson circling back to you. And that was for Department health contract eight page twenty members. So matter if you're still around I know you are a are. Come on down. You don't think I'm going to get arrested in that. If you'll give us your names and positions for the record and representative Dotson you'll be recognized perceived question. MacGill Moorpark health. Casey Crawford apartment. Dot don Adams the director and interim chief of staff welcome thank you for being here all right represent Dotson you're recognized perceived to question thank you Mr chair Thank you all this this contract is based off of a ACT ninety that Senator Ballenger and I were the lead sponsors on in the last general session and Unfortunately. The way I and I re read the statute as recently as last night went through made some notes and the intent and purpose of the statute. Is not filled in the contract and got a copy of the proposed contract thank you Mr Gilmore presenting that to me late last night and kind of went through that as well last night unfortunately there's there's quite a bit this is left out of the I also pulled R. F. P. and read through that and so I guess the the first question all all have is Since this is. Directly related to abortion which is now legal in the state of Arkansas. this is a hotline the. Moms are supposed to be calling because a physician medical provider abortionist gave them requires them to to make the call hotline call before they can perform an abortion since that's now outlawed in the state of Arkansas this is in essence a hotline to know where we're gonna be spending almost three hundred thousand dollars a year on obviously the statute will need some tweaking in the upcoming session If it's to go forward and need to be done which I think they're still need for these types of services I just don't know that that this contract. Especially with our of P. that was put out complies with the law I'll leave. I'll let you answer that and then going to smart yes. Thank you for the question representative Dotson I do agree that the the focus of the hotline is changed with the Supreme Court decision but I think what we have now is potentially mothers that may have gotten abortion otherwise that are going to provide burst and and try to raise their children and so we see a great need for women that maybe are impoverished or don't have resources to call this line and I do believe that was part of the intent in the beginning is to provide resources to women referral screenings DO a care plan and do case management on these individuals so that is our hope that women who need assistance women who need support we'll call this line and we'll be able to provide that in the system. I absolutely agree and that is the intent and and the the purpose behind this unfortunately the RP that you put out and then the contract that's not part of the scope of work and so obviously it's a call center in a call hotline that someone can call no one will be calling it because we're no longer have abortions because the everyone matters actor specifically tailored directly to women who are in the process of having an abortion but part of the R. F. P. says contractors. See if your contractors. Shall prohibit any discussion of abortion or related topics and be in compliance with. The act at AC eight twenty dash sixteen dash twenty four oh six was was part of ACT ninety. M. part of that the the reference code there says that the Kerry agent or other person providing healthy pregnancy program services or care plan coordination services That that agency shall do the following. If they are prohibited from discussing abortion or abortion related topics when one makes a call how are they going to provide care coordination services or pregnancy resource. Of pregnancy program resources to a woman over the next two years of a child's life. I believe part of the intent of the call center is to provide non abortion alternatives in order to provide the support so I believe that we can provide that support provided those referrals provide that assistance that case management the screening for abuse our I believe that we can provide those things without discussing abortion or of course obviously the goal is we're we're not facilitating or or trying to we're not trying to assist the the women and abortion but we are trying to assist the women and non abortion alternatives and I believe that we can meet that intent with this call I sit so you they the care coordination they can discuss pregnancy they can talk to the woman say okay where you live I'm going to connect you with these resources in this area because according to the RP a road. They can't discuss any of that stuff. R. O. absolutely I mean. The way it was intended in the way we are interpreting it that that is that is their role is to screen and referred and counsel and educate of that is that is the intent of the of the call center so under this contract how do they provide follow up services. Well part of it will be referrals to existing service and then we'll do that do follow up calls to check on the individual see how they're going to they have to bury. The contractor. But they're prohibited from. Getting any personal identifiable information from the caller so how are they going to call them back. Since well I believe that and I think believe they can voluntarily provide that information but we're not gonna required for them to be a part of and I'm going to defer if I misspoke but that was my understanding. You. Hi Casey Carter and department of health so yes just to add on to what on was saying and so a person can call in and if they needed resources then they would help them organize and plan their care that they need or the resources that they need to go as far as connecting them to the actual provider example if they need B. care then they can actually do a three way call connection to connect them to the provider to get that started. Now providing their personal information is optional but they will still have that identification number that if they want to just use that number to call back or you know say this is my identification number then those resources that were provided they can go over those again they can continue to connect is higher or resources that are needed much light and what's happening now if you recall we started this line parenting line and earlier in S. Gallatin virgin utilizing our existing eighty eight staff so what they do is when people call me and it's an option for them to provide their personal information but they do provide them with all of the resources that they're requesting if they need assistance with food if they need assistance with transportation whatever those resources are made available to the caller and then also there ask if they you know want any follow up to that. So No I've got a list of questions that the Department answered and Rick that when this are if he went out that you responded in writing some written questions the answers to those questions as if a column if a caller voluntarily provides contact information for the purposes of allowing the vendor to follow up after after the initial call or for the vendor to provide additional services offered through the program made a vendor record that contact information your response was no. So are there any circumstances in which the caller may voluntarily provided in this then the record identifiable information response from the Department was no so under this particular R. F. P. and contract they cannot provide care coordination services unless you're planning to amend the scope of this contract after we review it. If you if I may represent thousand I think we've got to we've got the call line for the abortion those seeking the abortion have to make the phone call before they can get procedure and I think we also have the line that's the exact name of it but the life choices line whatever it is on the. Abortion call line of they are provided a number there any information they would receive we will route that back through the provider for them to receive that so that's I think there's two different lines there that we're talking about. Which that would be great if it was actually part of the R. F. P. and part of the the contract and that that is the intent of the law that was written however specifically for the ever my matters act which this R. P. says the scope of it is to implement ACT ninety which is ever my matters act that what you just said it is a part of this particular contract as is that would be an expansion of the scope of the work which would require you to enter into a new contract or an amendment I guess an add on to this so the Department planning on expanding the scope of this work after we review it today. Representative Dotson not at this time we we have we work with our legal staff we work with our procurement specialists we work with our program staff that experience with call lines to create this or at the we feel like it meets the what you know the written ACT and in compliance with that act in course were under a deadline to have this implemented by January one so it to be in compliance with the law we feel like we need to proceed forward I would love for you to work with me several months ago to get that done however it it hasn't happened so I guess the last question I have are you you ready to pull this down today or. You intend to press for we felt like we would be out of compliance with the law if we pulled it down today so we've we feel like we need to move forward okay all right thank you represent doesn't appear attacher Senate co sponsor here been queue for a while Senator Ballinger you're recognized Sir thank you Mister and and I think represent Dotson covered most of what I questions or concerns will be. What I mean I would say that I concur with with representative Dotson if you move for with this you're not in compliance with the law anyway right the law is written so that we're dealing with people who are who are professionals who and who can actually connect people with resources and what you have as a call center in a call center that actually will facilitate and and bring in any calls because it's a stagnant number right so the point was that abortion providers would would require a woman to call and provide that number require one to call and get the ID and all that what's what you're doing but we don't have abortion providers. So to me what makes more sense of that and I don't know why we didn't do this put the energy to twenty eight one thousand one that's in the the life choices lifeline that we the representative I worked on back in two thousand seventeen and that is designed to do exactly what you're saying you're wanting to do whatever the governor want to want to say in which this whole body wants to see happen and that is that we actually connect women apprised questions pregnancy with resources and and that bill that that framework would actually require us to go out and provide some marketing opportunities reaching out uses smart digital technology to go find these people who are looking for answers and then provide them an opportunity get those answers I I think that's I think that be great if that's what we did but instead we went to create a framework for a bill that no longer had a purpose because we don't have abortions anymore and so I agree I appreciate the fact that you guys are in this this tough spot I wish we would have had a little more opportunity to to make sure it did what we intended for it to do but I think you guys have that opportunity. In January when you grab the bill the truly is going to actually provide some resources for women who are in a tough spot. All right Senator Ballinger represent Dotson smoking of a motion to not review this service that you also intent we're not review this contract. My recommendations we pull for the packet one review the rest the back in a vote on this one separately. All right so we're going to pull contract date Page twenty of from the packet and without objection the rest of the items will stand is reviewed. With the exception of state and thirty six I'm sorry. The number thirty six okay with the sessions a contract number eight and thirty six all other items will be reviewed. Going back to the number eight. I was gonna eleven. Okay we're good. All right and I'm just gonna reports. Thank you Mr chairman the last items for your review today are item Eads these are the reports I am the one. These are the listing of contracts that were renewed but they had no material change in them. So let me just double five Katie so members you know these these contracts do not require review these are just reporting so if you all have members have a chance to look over you got any questions Please let us know. All right what not we're gonna be good okay thank you Mr chairman as I said I don't you want our contracts that had no material change they were just renewed. I need to these are the executed contracts. There seven pages of those. And finally item E. three these are the Emergency reviewed contracts. One of them the first page was pulled after the deadline for consideration and so the agency requested for these to be pulled you'll see that's noted on your packet and then the second page. This contract with communicator technology. Was emergency reviewed with the department of health. And these are the reports for the committee's review today. Represent Dotson. Thank you Mister chair I didn't think we had to have a motion to not review that last one we but I guess I'll make a motion to not realized. All right members we got a motion to not review contract number eight on page Page twenty with department of health of all in favor signify signify by saying aye. Post. With the contract data would not be reviewed. All right members and center for business we are adjourned.