ALC-Personnel

You have. The chair she's a quorum. There is if you all take your seats please. Mr chairman starting with item B. item B. is a request from the department of commerce's Department commerce's economic development mission to establish three new positions from the opium growth pool the first position requested also requires the establishment of a new classification of director the state board a state broadband office at a great SCO for the other two positions established will be state systems architects and agreed IT ten the department is also requesting approval to be able to pay the new director position above the current salary maximum of the great SCO for up to above the seller maximum of one hundred eighty one thousand five hundred dollars they would like to pay up to two hundred thousand dollars per Arkansas Code twenty one five two oh nine opium is recommended the new position new positions the new title in the approval of the option to pay up to two hundred thousand dollars the new director. It members this will have to be reviewed and approved. And who's sitting in. Okay. Do I have any questions. I have a motion to I have a second thank you have a second all in favor anyone opposed. It is approved. Mr chairman items C. is request from Arkansas state university Jonesboro for three positions from the higher education growth for the institution is requesting to assistant coaches assistant coaching positions and a trainer position to assistant coach positions are needed because all currently authorized coaching positions are filled in these positions will help them stay in compliance with title nine regulations the trainer position is requested to help continue provide athlete health and safety needs and also help the institution continue to be total non compliance the Department higher it has recommended the requested positions. Members again this has to be reviewed and approved. Do I have any questions. See no questions do I have a motion. She just feels that a motion. Thank you ma'am do I have a second I have a second all in favor. Right. Any post. Go red wheels. Mr chairman item D. is requesting the issue system office for a senior internal auditor position the higher education growth full the position is requested in order to conduct fiscal operational and that's to get of audits for the university system based on the recent expansions Department higher ed has recommended the requested position. Members again we have to review and approve do I have any questions. See no questions do I have an. Motion. I have a motion to I have a second. I have a second all in favor. Any post. It is approved. Its chairman items he has a request from a issue Jonesborough for temporary transition pole position these positions are only good for one hundred eighty days before they are eliminated and are generally used to help of succession planning and training of new employees by the by an outgoing employee in this particular case issues requesting temporary associate vice president position that serves as the chief operating officer at the issue system foundation income that will be retiring from the position in the institution wishes to have them work with whomever is hired to fill the position Department higher it has recommended the temporary position. Okay do I have any questions I have a motion you have any questions. I see no questions I have a motion the second all in favor. It's proved. Mr chairman I am F. is a request from Arkansas northeastern college to provide a more than two percent salary increase to all classified and non classified in faculty employees at the institution and see plans to provide each employee a four percent salary increase under this request the total cost of the increases will be about two hundred sixty three thousand dollars Department higher it is recommended the requested increase. Members are there any questions. Seeing none do I have a motion. I have a motion and a second all in favor. It is approved. Mr chairman item G. is request oh I'm sorry I didn't G. has been pulled from the agenda of opium and DHS they plan to bring this back next month with a couple changes so I. N. G. is is pulled that's okay Mr yes Sir this. the chairman item H. is another request from DHS DHS division aging adult behavior health services or position there and at American rescue plan act grants the preparation for the position was heard review by pure earlier this week Committee is only reviewing the classification assigned to the position The classification requested is a DHS program manager which work within a mental health pilot program to develop enhance and improve crisis services opium is recommended to request a classification for the position. Members are there any questions. Seeing none do I have a motion. I have a motion to have a second I have a second all in favor. It imposed. It is approved Mr chairman item I is a request from the board of commissioners for the Arkansas PBS network requesting approval to pay the Director of A. R. PBS over the maximum salary for the great of an SCO to the current maximum is a hundred and fifty seven thousand one hundred dollars they're requesting to pay up to a hundred eighty thousand dollars to the incoming director your recruitment by other public broadcasting networks the request requires approval under Arkansas code twenty one five two oh nine OPM has recommended the requested pay increase. In members I see multiple questions I will start out with seed eighty six. Thank you Mr chair is there someone that could come to the table to I'm over here on this at. If you will please of announcer sells. The money would go directly to the Secretary predator of the Arkansas PBS thank you Sir I'm John Brown the the current chair of the commission at Arkansas VS thank you Sir March zero director of external relations with Arkansas PBS thank you Sir. And service of a go ahead Sir thank you Mr could you explain your there's very little definition as to why we are requesting this can you going to that'll be yes glad to and we're privileged to be here with you and I understand that the questions that you may have over the past several years the commission at their site commissioners each one of us have an eight year term I'm in my seventh year I was a member of the Arkansas Senate from nineteen ninety five to two thousand and three so I understand the procedures here was appointed by governor Hutchinson to serve on the commission which I've been privileged to do certainly we want to be good stewards of the funds we receive of the people with talent and ability and their efforts that make on behalf of the programs that are provided to people in the state of Arkansas and so we want to be a positive part of that in the past two years I felt a little bit like a dog chasing its tail we are looking at the salaries commensurate with the an executive director position well this the state entire state such as Arkansas. spins around this I know for example Mississippi's executive director has an annual salary base salary of about a hundred seventy five thousand I think in your folder you saying the average in this region is probably around a hundred eighty two thousand something like that. We also were made aware not directly by our executive director she's been very gracious she loves Arkansas she's a part of what we're doing she was with her heart cut Springs By one of our adjoining states with an offer of two hundred forty thousand. As a base salary. And so we felt that we feel as commissioners at the eight persons on the commission. That so we need to be responsive to that if she were to leave we were looking for another person of commensurate talent ability and we can talk about that would spend happening through the pandemic through the last four five years including the baseball championship playoffs which start tomorrow on the Arkansas the community action access network. of the the things that expanded that have been done that we're very proud of and thank you benefited education and our state many ways we can talk about that are specific reason for coming here is to say that we need to make a commensurate kind of step. With her annual salary that's commensurate with her ability with what has been done in the last five years and what surrounding states who have the same question. some national programs but the this one that we were made aware of this and adjoining state. That we want to keep our executive director and that's one of our responsibilities as commission we've just had our evaluations. which we do annually her evaluations were a tremendously high from all of us and so we've participated in and a lot of events I had a lot of feedback and this particular point for us is imperative it's what we as commissioners should be. A concerned about losing talented people to adjoining states and saying the programming in the State of Arkansas so after which we do not want to happen so. That would be my opening statement I would is also a commissioner and the thing I was going to say is that we've been trying to bring a lot of thank you for sure if you will turn your Michael. There I'm sorry can you hear me now okay we've been trying to bring things in locally so that the the state of Arkansas and Arkansas PBS can be doing things locally so a lot of our. Programming from outside will not be as much as more of them in stat Arkansas so she's been instrumental in keeping us going with like John said with the programming for the baseball basketball football we've also been doing a lot of educational things for the cook from covid and Courtney pledger has been doing a wonderful job trying to bring it all together in Arkansas so it's it's a exciting time. I appreciate that I guess my question you about all the great things that I don't doubt there a quality person and doing their best all those things you all have any data to suggest those great programs are being seen by people we picked up and we do all these athletic events you know many people are watching. We have a roll up when the thing to we won eight Emmys this year shall the amendment if requested I get it and I this we can we can talk a lot about how good they are yeah I'll agree to that okay okay they're quality people they're doing a quality job do we know how many people are watching not let me if I could Senator thank thank you for the question and and we've we've had somebody discussions and and is you know we're gonna have interim study is going to look at some of these questions but I can tell you that you know we don't do we don't subscribe to the notion ratings it tell us those kind of questions of exactly how many viewers we have now we know love the the question is Arkansas to the coverage of sports we cover high school sports and you know it's it's a public service is part of what we do I can't tell you that everybody out there watches you know high school football championships but I can tell you the feedback we get around their their appreciative of what we do and and the cost is very minimal for the services we offer thank you Watson I encourage you to just turn on Arkansas PBS tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday and watch part of a baseball championship game the quality of the broadcast you're going to see is what you'll see on ESPN or or Major League Baseball network it is a quality broadcast with quality cameras replays of a commentary the whole thing you'll be incredibly impressed and the vast majority of it is done with our personnel are equipment cameras in the calls for doing that over the course of the weekend is about twenty five thousand dollars is always very minimal and you know the the quite frankly the funding we get from from the state does not cover the cost so it's a minimal cost and I can't tell you that if there's you know you know a hundred thousand two hundred thousand or half million people watching it but I know. You know in a little town you know like the you know I don't know Walnut Ridge or somebody has our team in the tournament they're turning their tune into and they're watching it and grandparents who can't make it to the stadium thirteen in there watching it and relatives it can't come to the stadium there tend in there watching it and we're public broadcasting we're a public service we're there to serve the public and and provide a service that no one else can do it channel four channel seven channel eleven they can't go out there and and make money doing this and and that's not our goal we want to compete with them what we wanna do is provide something nobody else is providing and we saw or Courtney saw and heard vision someone opportunity in high school sports it's something that the public would want and they would tune into and that nobody else is doing and so that's that's what we've done you know I I hear anecdotal evidence and anecdotal evidence is only evidence of an active. So to say that a lot of people are watching it but you don't know people Walnut Ridge or wherever a committee and I I hear the defense are the comments that this is about quality I've stipulated that the quality of high. And I'm not no one is questioning the quality of the people nor the quality of the product nor any of those quality issue that's not a question I was interested and I understand public service about it some point there has to be a balance between what we S. the government provide and what we don't provide in twenty five thousand dollars is a lot of money to some people it may not be to a E. TN but that twenty five thousand dollars is a your salary for some of our people working right now Mike Mike Mister chair I know we have I think we will have the there's a of interim study proposal that will go before GDPR. I think in June and I'm hoping that that will shed more light on what we do but again I can't stipulate enough I'm okay with the quality I think everybody likes quality is not the issue thank you Mr. And the chair recognizes representative Cavenaugh. Mister I'm going to have a motion at the proper time. All right. In the chair recognizes representative. Dotson if I can get that button right. Thank. Okay. Thank you Mr chairman over here to write I don't want to relitigate a lot of the arguments that were brought up for against AT and around the appropriation debate but I I guess my question would be to the the ISP that Senator Solomon reference if there's been some discussion among members of the legislature about this agency and its lead to an interim study proposal that the agency has agreed to cooperate with help with wouldn't it make more sense to wait until that interim study has been completed and we've had a chance to review the findings before bringing this proposal to the legislature. Well sorry. Thank you representative ray I was a yeah the interim study we're looking forward to doing that and talking about some of the questions during the fiscal session were around the the national programming and and how those decisions were made on what programs there and all those kind of things an internal functions and and those kind of things but what we're talking about here and and I'll let the I'll let the Commission speak to this because this is their their proposal but there's there's there's somewhat of a of the urgency or timing issue with with the losing our director tenet to other state and so that that's a timing issue and and as is the you know you we we we we have and can lay out all the successes that have happened over the course of the last four five years that I don't think would be in dispute that those have been successful and and and well done but the but the other the parts it that we will look at and go into the an interim study here or other type issues that we look forward to but I think there's more of a I think it's a little different as far as the urgency John you may want to well I let me follow up on that if I if I could and if you if you said earlier in your remarks and I missed it I apologize but what is the the urgency of the situation it sounds like you're saying the director is gonna leave if if if she's not given a salary increase is that what you're saying. She has not given us any ultimate. She was asked to make a sooner rather than waiting. on that particular it may not be the first one she's had it may not be the last we just felt it there is reason it was legitimate. offer an adjoining state we wanted to to show her that we were moving in the direction of making the salary commensurate with the benefits that are received here in Arkansas and I know that I know there's some metrics that that I hope will be available this fall with the interim study I'm looking forward to that I think it's an opportunity to show what's been happening also to invite you all to come down to the station and take a tour and so forth there are some metrics when I started as a commissioner under the ideas program the educational program which facilitates both classroom learning as well as teacher press professional development lot of required hours the teachers have to continue their certification and so forth there are over thirty thousand registered users of that network that was five or six years ago today given the COVID virtual learning all the things have been happening we have over eighty thousand teachers of educational professors professionals perhaps pre service teachers others but that's the number of people who are registered on that service that's provided and and the appropriation that comes from our the state is very helpful in that in terms of the other metrics Jett we have over twenty three thousand almost twenty four thousand now members donors people if given three point six million last year this year with we think it'll be close to four million at the end of the fiscal year. in terms of the internet it's a little easier to identify how many touches so many you know open things they've looked at and so forth we have the passport the on the on command kind of the programming that people can enter into it any time they want. under the digital viewership the reports that I have in the last year reports that Arkansas PBS at over eight hundred thousand unique users one million to almost three hundred thousand digital streams of people who are searching online or looking for information you may look look for just Downton abbey or something and they watch it at their time and and and and their own home PBS kids the dedicated channel we have for children children's programming had two million two hundred twenty five thousand six hundred seventy unique users so those are hits for almost forty five million US digital streams which would include parents of giving a access to their children perhaps I don't know it's a large number but those are the the numbers that show up in terms of the digital viewership so it's a little harder to identify the this just the broadcast channel I mean I you know I I love father brown I have a have I identify with them and there's a lot of programming that's what's the viewership is strong I don't think we have as much metrics around those particular programs but we have increased tremendously the amount of production here in Arkansas good rates that goes out and look interviews farmers and and looks at the agricultural community here in Arkansas just the Arkansas from there which is a really a video log for encouraging terrorism people who want to come to a beautiful state so forth just so many things that we have done that are Arkansas produced I had I know we get you know I have been president of. A Christian college in the you know I know there are some issues that you may have this or certain speech there's certain things that are. To your liking or to my liking. But when it's the news hour when it's you know reports one in its documentaries we tried to be careful and there is a review there is discussion it's not easy. But in a sense we're we are reaching the entire Arkansas community which includes a lot of different opinions different ideas and so forth and so but there is there is discussion and I've been a part of some of that I know Marty has and so we try to try to be open and of reason and if there are questions and we can discuss that later but I I just assure you that this is something that we hold dear we believe and we believe that the voice needs to be heard there's so many things pre K. E. learning for example in Arkansas the to can be reached through this medium the said so many people who can benefit who enjoy this PBS system so our our point was we have one of the best we're prospering it's expanding every year we have a strategic account plan we don't put that in a drawer we talk about it every three months when the commission meets where were progressing where we're having success where we're having problems and so we're we're trying to be good stewards on your behalf I assure you of that so. Get a little emotional I'm sorry. Thank you Mr chair. Thank you in the chair recognizes Senator Chesterfield. Thank you Mr thank you John for being here today I want to say thank you for those. For having the where with all to allow those individuals who are education support professionals are bus drivers and cafeteria workers who had come to depend on you during the pandemic for their for the hour or so that they could continue to be paid they had to go through a lot of in service training it was all via you and I want to thank you on their behalf for allowing that to be possible sure what you do the question I have for you is explain to us what you're saying is that Arkansas salary in this position is not competitive with our surrounding states are one of the things that Arkansas has been doing special education is trying to make sure that we are as competitive in the south the in the southern regional education board all these things were trying to make sure that we are competitive could you give me an example of the salary you said a few of them Mississippi is make what is the salary there Louisiana Texas Oklahoma where are we with the surrounding states as far as the director of this particular entities concern the court. Yeah do you have that. Yeah I'm I mentioned NO Mississippi is a hundred seventy five thousand yes I remember you saying that and I remember you from being in the legislature as well thank you to a service that will ease and I was the one who is and recruiting our director but just give me an example of what the surrounding states are doing as far as this particular position because that's what we're about here right trying to make sure that we are competitive celebrities if we are not happy with them every two years now if we're going to attract someone there we've got to have a competitive salary so if you would give that to me I would appreciate it and have the same question in recruiting absolutely yes and we did do that survey and our average salary came up to be one hundred eighty two thousand dollars for the surrounding area and we also through an Iowa because a lot of times were compared island based size size of the state and other factors so we came up average of one eighty to the highway was Louisiana which is what at two fifty I thank you for thousand. Two forty three two ninety seven closed okay and the Lois was. We have the lowest and we have the lowest not. No more than us so Mississippi higher for change what we show and I've data may not be the same as what you have because we said Mississippi is one thirty four okay so there could be changes space and that these were just quick response by Matt other factors they at any time thank you I always the motion from my colleague ms Cavenaugh. Thank you very much. Thank you the representative brown you have a question. She said. Share this is for a Mr rile you and I have talked in the past and and you may have already covered this and I apologize if this is a repeat but didn't you explained to me that there was a considerable objection you know for the budget for. For the channel and and you explain to me that you're not that we're not programming is much NPR stuff as we are local programming could you. Cover that just a little bit briefly place. well I'm I'm I'm not sure I understand but I'm not sure I said it let me let me say M. NPR's national public radio and and a lot of they they will run any other stuff at all and so but we do take the programming from the national PBS and and so like the news hour and and some of those things do we do take and as a member station we we are allowed some deviation from that and I think it's it's fifty some odd hours a year that we can deviate from that national programming so if there's something that that the you know for whatever reason we were preempted for local program and and you said there's other times that they have set aside for local programming but if if we want to have a special night well like for example this Tuesday night we're gonna have live election coverage from seven to ten which we're going to preempt the PBS national program is so that three hours would count against the fifty some odd hours we have other than there's other times if there is a program that is for whatever reason you know the director decides that the you know is that uh is more suitable to be moved or not shown or later in the evening or put on a different channel or whatever may be but basically there's there's. Fifty somewhat hours there to play with that helped me play with but you know to me to to maneuver around and have at our discretion it is that answer your question I'm I'm not trying to be evasive I'm trying to understand. I appreciate your answer and it's hard for me to remember just exactly what it was we were discussing at the time but I I thought you you know you are assuring me that a good bit of the programming yes local program absolutely and we're trying to do more and more local programming and you know some of them that we're you know we we we had exploring Arkansas with Arkansas we we do our Kansas asked we we just started recently good roots which agricultural program and of course all the sports program we do that's all new and that's you know every yes basically the fall in the summer and the in the spring we do those which is takes up three almost three full days. And oh my gosh there's other stuff I'm leaving out that that I think it blueberries clubhouses is a show for kids that we do and this is in its third season this local and produced in conjunction with the Arkansas museum of art and then of course all the stuff we do with education that the rise and shine program and and all those kind of things that we're over the summer to stop learning lost all that is locally done in you know in our studios so yes we're we're doing we're we're doing more I'm sure local programming and local production then has ever been done at the what use the ATM and the Arkansas previous thank you. Representative Cavenaugh you're recognized and like to make a motion that we hold this until we are able to have our jun J. P. R. meeting we're going to be talking about the I. P. R. and then they can bring it back to us after we have that discussion on their internal. Take. Until then. Members I have a motion do I have a second. I have a second. All in favor of the motion say aye. In the post. In the ayes have it. Thank you we appreciate your time well thank you will see engine. Hi Mister chairman items at J. K. E. and L. these are all reports the required no action if there's any questions on the reports all I can take those now or mispronounce if there are any. It members are there any questions on J. K. L. or M.. And see no questions. We are adjourned. For. Yes.