JBC-Personnel

You will face 1215. March 801000 do you know what the yes Sir because I think that's because the positions are all coming back they're moving us positions at a shared services and out of the and investigations of operation the whole investigations appropriations going away consider moving the appropriation with the positions back into fair housing okay all right any other questions. We knew motion on that yes Sir William I have a motion the second all in favor say aye All opposed like worms motion passes next chairman item B. 2 This Is governor's letter 9 it created amendments W. F. P. 056 and W. F. P. 057 for the Department of Parks heritage and tourism the governor's letter in amendments move 11 positions and the appropriation amounts from parks and tourism division operations appropriation to the park's heritage and tourism shared services appropriation so this is this is going from from the parks department or did Parks Division back to the park's heritage and tourism shared services to be used across all the different divisions. So. What I would call a central office visitors shared their yes Sir any questions on this letter from the governor. No increase in preparation no increase in. I'm not sure about increases in appropriation I know that that preparation for the positions is being new okay the seller moving all of okay. I have a motion on this letter. Motion second all in favor say aye. Posed thank you next level Mr chairman I to be 3 this is governor's letter 10 this created amendment in a H. 082 for the Office of skills development department commerce in Amendment adds an additional ACO M. program advisor position to the regular salaries shared services section along with the regular salary and match appropriation in the operations section so this is an additional position their father appropriation adjustment you can see in section 5 for offices skills development appropriation and the state appropriations state operations appropriation for rule services in section 27 they're also for sections of special language to be amended but these will be hurt by special language they have if they were her yesterday. Anyone from commerce here. If you would identify yourself. Yeah good morning thank you Mr chair Cody weights director for the Office skills development. I have a question on this issue creating you will explain what you're creating the position for sure so also schools almost created back in 2015 and been operating since 16 and since then we haven't added any additional positions or anything of that nature in that same amount of time right we have grown a number of our programs preparation for example we've gone from 82 programs under over 100 25 we've increased the number of occurrences were 7 around the state from roughly around 30 500 to well over 7000 500 in addition to that right we've taken on some additional items and and programs interact in 79 of 2019 which require restitution industry led secretary reviews creating an industry certified credential list and a number of other items that we are spreading around current staff is just not operate as efficiently as it could be you know we've taken and and moved kind items around we've automated some internal processes to try to make it flow more efficiently and that's why we ask for this position is just we really needed in order to kind of continue operations as we need to see fit for the people who under who we serve to our programs. You didn't you didn't have any other positions vacant that you could. No Sir. All your positions are filled yes Sir. Any other questions from any member. You saying none I have a motion to accept. Thank you for a second. Second all in favor say aye. Well opposed thank you thank you Sir thank you Committee. Next up Mr chairman of removing on item before this is and is member amendment H. a R. 140 and this is from a representative Wardlaw in a men's SB 17 which is for the University of Arkansas at Monticello The Amendment moves 6 faculty positions in 20 graduate assistance from a 9 month to the 12 month academic sections there's no change an appropriation and no additional position just movement of positions. Any questions. I have a motion to approve. The motion second. Second all in favor say aye. Bozella close thank you. Nicks Mr chairman items see these the regular business items I don't see is requested move one ACT program coordinator GS 10 from the Division of career technical ad at the department of education into their shared services division opium is recommended the request to transfer now because this is regular business is a regular business request this will have a upon the review of the side of this would happen in this fiscal year more than likely for several of these items that were about to talk about you'll see a governor's letters to come come through tomorrow that will pick the same positions up and move them permanently over to shared services for FY 23. Questions. So explain that one more time exactly okay so he is since we since transformation is going to place agencies have had the ability to come in and request positions be moved out of the agencies are the departments individual individual divisions up to shared services that it is my understanding that that ability is going away at the end of this fiscal year and so we've got governor's letters they're asking to move positions up to shared services permanently they meet that deadline we've got some of these requests are to do that now in the goes along with those governor's letter so they can get it done now and then carried forward into 23 as well okay. Any questions. I have a motion. Second. Second all in favor say aye. Posed. Next is chairman item D. as request with one information technology manager great I 2 of 5 from the County Board to the shared services division of labor in licensing opium is recommended the request to transfer. Okay any questions. I have a motion. Okay so. I really can't say aye. Pose like wines. Nicks. Mr chairman I. D. is a request to move 11 positions. From the parks division to shared services this goes along with governor's letter 9 that we just handled it the same 11 positions so we're they're just wanting to movies now. In this yes you're these okay yes Sir these things 11 and I to me any questions on this. I have a motion. The motion second all in favor say aye. Close like wireless motion passed next month. Sherman item F. is requesting the department of agriculture to create one new classification of agro a law enforcement assistant chief this is just a job title in a grade it does not create a new position they want to use this title on an existing position they already have. To assist in the well we're creating a title for them to you yes Sir and then they can they can go through opium to do what's called a cross street downgrade to to be able to use this particular title it is coaches question. The motion. The second. All in favor say aye. We'll opposed. Next up Mr chairman we are going to skip over item G. this particular request is being change we'll see it tomorrow so would you can hold it for tomorrow okay. Item H. this is a. Sorry I am H. is a request from the public employee retirement system to create for new growth pole positions with the classifications listed the last classification is new it will be created pawn review of the request OPM is recommended the 4 positions and the new classification and estimates the projected cost to be about $307000. 3 307 in court yes Sir yes Sir they're gonna spend 300 7000 roughly more with these 4 additional positions. Any questions on this side of my age. Senator Hickey. Yes. Yes Sir I guess I just like to hear I don't I don't know the having issues with this I mean we've been operating a certain way now what why do we need why do we need these and what what within our operation is causing us to need to need these additional salaries from or at right now. Yes Sir. Mr Duncan is here yet or not. Here comes he can give more specific. Don't compare executive director of the Arkansas public employees retirement system. Thank you Mr chairman. You. Well I think you would ask the kind about how we were operating differently or you know or we operating the same and I think really the reason that we're bringing them is because we are operating the same you know I've been with a purse for 3 years we've been working during that time period to reduce the number of fill positions we've gone from 723 years ago to 61 today so we've been trying to be very efficient and how we you know run the agency and administer the agency if you look back you know even 10 years ago we had 74 employees and so you know the point that we've reached today is a very low historically you know from an efficiency standpoint when you look at the number of employees that we have per member we've gone from about 990 members per employee to about 1350 today so you know so I think we're doing very good from an efficiency standpoint but you know these positions really go back to you know that question of you know or we operating the same or we operating differently and we're really trying to operate differently and that's the reason to bring these today and you know we've tried to be very efficient but we really want to circle back and try to fill some of the needs that we've identified over the last 3 years you know just so as we move forward we can continue to you know work to improve our business processes work to increase the level of service we provide to our members you know for us you know accuracy in quality is important because you know of retirement benefit is a lifetime decision you know it's important that you know the member make the right decision is also important that we make the right calculations there and so we really just want to position ourselves very well as we go forward and and that's what we're bringing these for today. And and that's fine I don't want to continue but okay let's just take if you don't mind Mr the Attorney specialist okay. What I I would assume that we've had. The staff people there you know currently. What additional duties are they going to are they going to take you know so you know in the case of the attorney we we do have a chief legal counsel you know I think if you look at the you know the history of apers if you go back to about 15 years ago there wasn't an attorney in the agency I think I think we've had our first attorney back in 2007 disappeared of time where a deputy director was an attorney and we also had a chief legal counsel so we had to attorneys on staff but today we only have 1 I think the importance of the attorney is that our plan design is in the law so like when you think of like a 401 K. you know you get a document in the mail in that document as your for 1 K. plan but in the case of a prison are planned design is the law it was the laws that you all create it's also the federal laws that we have to comply with in order to be tax qualified and you know so it's just important we get the legal part rights and we've done some other things we've you know we have outside tax counsel that we utilize but you know I think the importance internally is just to have you know the ability to continue to build that knowledge and internally make sure we're able to give our members due process when they ask for it and there are some duties that we would plan to shift to that position over time for example I'm the state social security administrator and so over time this a duty that we would want a new attorney to get more involved in so so there are things that are rules and regulations we want to do some work on those as well so so we have plans for that there is a need there but it's a variety of needs 1 more Mister chair and I'll stop I'll skip this 1 if you could just on the human resources manager because I guess I just need to understand if we haven't taken owned more employees. As I thought I heard you say then then why we need that we not had it this is in addition I mean it looks appointment is in addition but you know what we've had is a director of operations that in the past did you are budget did procurement did H. or but you know that position has also transition as well we moved the budget and procurement over to our finance team and what we'd like to do is have a dedicated HR staff and be able to utilize this operations position more in our benefits area and you when you think about our benefits administration we have one GSO 9 right now this supervises all of our pre retirement counselors post retirements are call centers about 2 dozen people under one GSO 9 and so a lot of the movement is to try to get more you know structure and more management over in the benefits administration area once again because you know we are you know we've got 40000 active members 40000 retirees we process a lot of transactions you know we just wanna make sure that we're able to serve our members you know at a high level but also we wanted to do it in a you know very accurate and very high quality way and yes of the human datar person is actually there once again you know so that we can shift for over to the benefits part so it kind of goes back to this idea of you know we operating the same are we trying to operate differently and we're very much trying to of all for the future. Thank you Mr. Duncan. The you know we're gonna have some pretty significant changes in our of benefit package do you have enough staff that can ensure proper communications in the feel with our people of to make sure that it's clear what these changes are going to be or is that going to be more on the up provider of to introduce this new benefit package because communication of as you know is the key to this that this whole deal. Yeah it really is and you know we've made some changes there when I came in we had a someone that was over educational outreach with added another staff member there so we've tried to emphasize the out reach that we do the seminars that we do you know we tried to increase our communication as well you know these pieces that we're looking at today also fit into that puzzle because when we talk about benefits administration we're also talking about the outreach piece in the communication piece and so so there is still a lot of work to be done you know on the communication part I know a lot of members are familiar with that you know the changes that have been put in place we've done some communication there are are newsletters as to the you know the changes that were proposed the changes that were enacted and now we're working on you know ramp up for the actual implemented implementation of the changes in July but you know these that is part of that puzzle but you know I I think it also illustrates you know just the complexity of the benefit you know when you think about we've got you know we have old contributory members from the seventies and before we have all the non contributory members up through you know the early 2 thousands we had the new contributory plan and now we have another variation of the contributory plan and that's just for apers you know we also do our counselors administer the judicial retirement system state police retirement system we also have the old district judges retirement system and so you know the job there are benefits folks do is you know it's very complex you know everybody's individual career path you know if you're a member of our system you may have gone through one or more systems you know you might have been in the legislature you might've been a regular state employee might have some 2 for one service as a county employee you might have been a judge at some point and so you know the very much skilled positions and we just wanna make sure that we're always moving in the direction of doing it more accurate you know more timely you know with a higher. Love service as we go forward. You'd be familiar with that moving for the legislature to of state employment would you well that I mean that's very true but we also look at you know I think a lot of the complex cases hi you know the that we get or just around those kind of things you know somebody goes from the you know executive branch over to the judicial retirement system they wonder you know House reciprocal service going to work there and you know how many years and I have to work and you know we so we get all kinds of questions and it is very complex and it all goes back to the law once again you the plan designed so you're you're comfortable that you've got enough staff because the key to this implementation of what we're getting ready to do is communication and you're comfortable that you've got that covered so we're comfortable we've been working on the the technology implicate implementation we rely a lot on technology we've been working on that you know ever since the changes were enacted you know even before that we were talking to our technology vendor you know I think communication is always hard just because you know especially for our system you know we cover a lot of different lawyers and a lot of different places you know I think about you know if you go to a county there's not just one office you can go to that has all of our members you know you have the you know that the county employees you might have some very cities and city employees in any particular county might have a. Hi Committee corrections office that separate from a child support enforcement offices separate from IDF in a office and so you know we do have a challenge from a communication standpoint once again I think. You know some of the work that we want to do with these positions is actually to try to beef up. That area of benefits administration which includes communication and outreach and and so that's part of the long term goal I think from our perspective thank you Mr. Any other questions. Saying no other questions. Is there a motion. The motion second second. Second all in favor say aye. Postdoc was. Thank you next up. If. Mr chairman that item I is requests from DHS to provide a 10 percent certification differential from place in the list 2 classifications at the prior authorization and utilization review unit if they have medical or dental billing coding certification the differentials are added to an employee's salary and removed if the employee transfers to a different section or division with the certification is no longer required OPM recommends to Rick the requested differential estimates the cost to be about $131000. Any questions on this one. I Mark you won't come forward please Mister white. The identify yourself and thank you Mr chairman mark what department Human Services would you of elaborate a little bit we we've already had 109 positions that we've added over there and you and I talked about it and the secretaries talked about it. But now we're asking for. What 10 is it. These are additional positions Mr chairman they're just it's it's a it's an add on to the 10 percent okay yes Sir discipline this the one word we discussed the other day were you're trusting the division heads of department no Sir no Sir this is just is is a small part of our Division medical services these are the nurses and other experts who work around Medicaid billing and the familiarity with the codes that are used for health care billing and this just for allows us provided differential for those to get a certain certification that's related to that and the reason is folks with the certification man much higher salaries and medical clinics and doctors offices and so we will bill compete with that and Mister of I can we are folks are looking letter and we just realized there was one misstatement in the letter from OPM and that's I think it's our fault we apologize for that we can't pay for training lessons we can't we can't pay for the training but without the difference will be the best way to help keep these folks in our offices not lose them to hospitals and doctors offices poaching the. This is a competitive mode yes it to the law market place yes any good any other questions. I have a motion. Got a motion the second. All in favor a survey or favor. Opposed thank you thanks thank you mark. Mr chairman item J. is a report only does not require any action I take any questions if there are any. Any questions judge. The question okay. 112. Will will adjourn number will be be back here in the morning at 730 at the same time. I know there's some questions have been raised about the resolution of the Cola Dale and the there's a meeting getting ready to start and here in just a few minutes with the governor's office and Senator Dismang and Senator Hickey to discuss exactly how will road attempt to deal with that so if any of you here for that hopefully in the morning we'll have a resolution as to how we're going to handle it. The any other business. Okay we're adjourn thank you.