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I want to go ahead and take their seats. The chair has a haircut at 3.30 that he does not want to be late for. I'm glad y'all find the humor in that, Senator Elliott. And so with that, we're going to go ahead and get this meeting started. and if you notice that to my left is not Kathy it is her marvelously right hand
and she is going to be filling in for Kathy who is sick today so
if y'all just say a quick prayer for Kathy when you
Speaker 7
1:13
get a chance she's doing fine just a little bit under the weather. Thank you Mr. Chairman. The first item on today's agenda is a rule from the Department of Transformation and Shared Services due to some procurement changes that were made in 2019. Any change in a rule dealing with the procurement process needs to come and be reviewed by this subcommittee first and then will be seen by rules and so this will be on tomorrow's rules agenda as well believe this deals with submission a resolution of protested solicitations
and awards and I believe there is staff here from DTSS to explain the rule change great so if we get y'all to
come up real quickly and just briefly walk through with members what this rule change is and
Chair
Unverified
1:59
if you'll gentleman give us your name and here with for the
Speaker 15
2:04
record and you'll be recognized to proceed. Mitch Rouse, General Counsel TSS. Edward Armstrong, State Procurement
Director. Welcome. Please proceed gentlemen. Sure
Speaker 14
2:13
I'll explain real fast. It's simple. We, in the last session, there was an act passed to clarify the language
Speaker 15
2:19
on this, so we knew when the 14-day time period started, and we did that through this rule. And
Speaker 18
2:27
this rule basically tracks the change in the statutory language. All right. Members, are
there any questions? All right. See none. rule standards reviewed mr. chairman the next items
Speaker 7
2:43
on the agenda are the item B
which are methods of finance you'll see their letter from the Department of Finance office of the county then you'll see the MOS that are listed there the first two items one and two are from ASU Jonesboro both funded with university reserves one is for the Beck Center for veterans going to be renovation of rooms for over 497,000. Number two is to renovate three biology labs for a little over 588,000. I will note number three for ASU Newport, we received word that
that would be pulled from the agenda, so that was pulled by the agency. That takes us to number four, which is Southeast Arkansas College. This is for a new student center and student housing. This is a revised current total. They're revising it to 37.8 million. This is bond proceeds, private donations, and bank funds number five is going to be arkansas school for mathematics and sciences and the arts this is for an 8 000 square foot administration building 3.5 million this is for reserves and general revenue number six also for arkansas school for mathematics and sciences and the arts
this is for the chapel renovation revised total to 5.5 this is going to be reserves uh gi funds general revenue and loan and foundation funds and i'll point out to the committee there'll be a construction contract that we'll see later on in the agenda that will tie back to this method of finance number seven university of arkansas division of agri this is for 14 million this is for the northeast rice research and extension center this will be funds from the rice research and promotion board gifts and plant reserves number eight is ua monticello this is a re-roofing
projects for the taylor library the memorial classroom building and a portion of the visual Performing Arts Center building on the UAM campus. This is a revised total to $515,000 for tuition and fees. The last two are going to be for UAMS. Number nine is for the Shorey Oral Health Renovations, over $691,000 university reserves and revenues. Just for the committee's information, this was held at the November meeting and so it has been put back on the December agenda for this committee. And the last MOF, Mr. Chairman, is also for UAMS. This
is to replace carpet and educational spaces. $390,000 also university reserves and revenues. I'm just determined that completes the methods of finance. All right thank you and
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
5:08
we'll start with Representative Cavanaugh. You are recognized for a question ma'am. Thank you Mr. Chair. Mine is on question, my
first questions on number four which is Southeast Arkansas
Speaker 31
5:18
College. All right We've got somebody from CUK coming up,
Speaker 34
5:27
and is your second question for them as well?
No, sir. Okay. Welcome, if you all please give us your name and hear your width for the record, and then representative, you'd be recognized
Speaker 39
5:48
to proceed with your question. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Dr. Steven Blumberg, President, Southeast Arkansas College. Debbie Wallace, Vice
Speaker 41
5:56
President for Fiscal Affairs, Southeast Arkansas College. Great. All right, representative. Yep, right over here. Over to your right.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
6:04
My question is just, we've went from $14.1 million to now $37.8 million. That's an increase of 23 million dollars on this. Why such the increase? Representative Kavanaugh,
Speaker 39
6:16
thank you for your question. So our original method of finance was for the student center only. After conducting a housing feasibility study by a national firm, we decided that it was in the best interest of the institution to also add housing to the project. That makes up the difference. So there wasn't a significant construction price increase, nor was there
a miscalculation on our side, but we decided that this project should move forward with the combination of a new student center and also 316 units of student housing. So we just expanded? That's correct. We expanded the original proposal. Okay. Thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
6:51
you. And I'll get back in the queue for the other
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
6:59
question. Okay. Thank you, Representative. All right. Representative Meeks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm either further to your right. So my question is, is it looks like about 80% of this $37 million is going
to come from bond proceeds, so it looks like it's going to be about a $25 million transaction. Can you give us reassurances, A, tell us
a little bit about that, what's the duration, what are the payments, and give us reassurances that you're in a position to be able to handle that. We've had universities and projects like this that have gotten their institutions and financial issues in the past, and just want some reassurances that y'all are in a
good position to be able to pay back this $25 million debt that you're about to incur.
Speaker 39
7:43
If you get your microphone, there you go. Representative Meeks, I appreciate your question. So obviously we have spent a considerable amount of time in due diligence for this project. Currently I think it's important for the committee to know that our institution has no debt today, so everything that we own, there are no payments on this. You are correct. We will have a payment on this. So this is a 30-year amortized schedule. The payment each year is approximately $1.3 million. One of the ways we will finance this is through revenues from the housing. And so we used a national study to determine the feasibility of the housing, the break-even analysis.
And so we break-even on this project at 71% occupancy for student housing. The feasibility study indicated that we would be able to open with an approximate 85% housing occupancy rate. But again, the minimum to make that payment without using any other reserves, without taking money from our education general funding is 71%. So institutionally, I think we have a very good plan on how we'll expand our recruiting efforts. Our new student center contains 30,000 square feet. It will contain our new state-of-the-art cybersecurity program, our new expanded nursing allied health programs.
I think we feel very confident that we're going to be able to recruit students from, honestly, around the country. Right now, 85% of our students come from within a 60-minute drive time. Part of the reason for that is that we have problems with housing because we don't have anywhere to house those students. So we felt like this was a risk, of course, but we also felt like it was a reasonable risk and that as an institution, we were not taking on debt service that would become insurmountable if conditions worsened. And again, on the housing revenues, as long as we're at 71% occupancy, we'll fund everything we need to fund.
And anything beyond 71%, we actually return excess revenues to the institutions. But I certainly appreciate your concern as well. Our governing board did vote on December 2nd to pass a final resolution authorizing this. The board was unanimous, but we spent several meetings with the Board of Trustees with the same kind of conversations, ensuring that the governing board felt comfortable with the transaction and felt comfortable that the institution would be able to repay those funds over a 30-year period. Awesome. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
All right. Thank you all. All right. You guys are excused, and we'll go back to Representative Kavanaugh. All right. Representative, who's your question for? Thank you,
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
10:09
Mr. Chair. It is with the Arkansas School of Mathematics and Sciences on number six. Okay. Great. Throwing it way up. If
you all give us your names and who you're with for the record and representative, you'd
be recognized to proceed with your
Speaker 58
10:37
question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Cory
Speaker 59
10:40
Alderdice, Director, ASMSA. Whitney Moore, Interim Director of Finance
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
10:44
for ASMSA. Great. Welcome. Thank you all for being here. My question is, just looking at your means of finance, you have GIF
funds. What is that, and how much of GIF funds have gone toward
Speaker 63
10:59
this? Right. So these were governor's discretionary funds that were previously provided for the project. The total for this is $1 million.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
11:06
$1 million. Okay. Follow-up, Mr. Chair. go ahead and just for clarification the general revenue reimbursement that you say 70% that's just your GR that you get from us is that correct that is correct okay thank
you all right thank you all very much you're excused all right members seen nobody else in the queue and no further questions these items will
Speaker 7
11:33
stand as reviewed Mr. Chairman that takes the committee to item C that is
discretionary grants. There are some from the Health Department and DHS on today's agenda. The first is going to be 12 for the Department of Health. Numbers one through five are all going to relate to COVID-19. Number one is for the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, $600,000 for implementing a national initiative to address COVID-19. It goes on to say at the middle of the paragraph that they'll work with historically black colleges and universities and their surrounding communities. Number two is with the Holman Community Development Corporation,
$250,000 is for the Be Ready program to provide education, outreach, and vaccine support to individuals who are vaccine hesitant. Three is going to be for the New York Institute of Technology, $408,000 is to implement a national initiative to address COVID-19 health disparities and they're going to work there in the bottom of that last paragraph on the Delta Community partners. Number four, which is going to be item C, page two, it's going to be River City Ministry of Pulaski County Incorporated, 112,000. This once again is an implementation of a national
initiative to address COVID-19 health disparities. Five is going to be with the Rural Arkansas Association of Arkansas, 110,000 for a communication strategy in relation to COVID-19. Number six, it's going to be with the Tri-County Rural Health Network, over $987,000. This is for training and support for at least 55 community health workers. Number seven, on page three, is going to be the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, $500,000. This is to create the South Arkansas Health Council.
Number eight is Healthy Connections, Inc., over $815,000. This is an Amendment 1 for $117,000 for Sexual Risk Advocacy Education Program. Numbers 9 through 12 are all going to be Department of Health with various educational cooperatives. This will be allocated to school districts in cost associated with maintaining staff devoted to COVID-19 activities in schools. Number 9 is with DeQueen. Number 10 is with Northwest Arkansas. 11 is with Ozark.
And 12 is with Southeast Arkansas Education Services. Then there are two discretionary grants for DHS, the first one on page 5 of item C, C2 is of the Arkansas Health Child Association. This is an amendment for 3.2 for the TEACH Scholarship Program, and the last one, Mr. Chairman, is with Our House, Inc. for $1.6 million to provide housing stability and case management services. Mr. Chairman, that completes the discretionary grants.
All right. Thank you. All right, members.
I'm not seeing anybody in the queue, and so without objection, these
Speaker 7
14:21
items will stand as reviewed. That takes the subcommittee to item D, which are service contracts for legislative review. You'll see there a letter from Secretary Fetcher of the Department of Transformation and Services. In that letter, they state that none of the contracts submitted on today's agenda appear to have been procured in violation of Arkansas procurement law. It takes the committee to D1, which is construction-related contract, that's on page 2 of item D.
The first three are going to be for ASU Newport, these are all going to be for on-call architectural services. Number four is going to be correction department, it's going to be an amendment to an existing contract for roof renovations. Number five is education department, amendment five to an existing contract for an on-call engineer. Six is DHS, this is also for an on-call architectural design professional. Seven and eight are both going to be for parks and tourism. Number seven is going to be funded by conservation tax, it's an amendment to an existing contract
for Mount Magazine State Park. Number eight is going to be for the Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Number nine is going to be Arkansas School for Maths, Sciences and the Arts. This is the construction contract that ties back to the method of finance earlier in the agenda. This is amendment two to an existing contract and it's for the chapel renovations. Number 10 is UA Fayetteville, it's a amendment to an existing contract for the U of A Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research Institute, and the last construction contract on today's
agenda is UAPB, and that is for the track and soccer stadium phase one project. Mr. Chairman, that completes the construction contracts. All right. Thank you. Representative Eves. Yeah. Just probably
Speaker 72
15:57
a dumb question, but I don't, can someone explain to me what on-call architectural services is?
Speaker 73
16:01
Is that like you have an architectural emergency and you have to have somebody on call or? Is that a question that you really want to burden us all with or?
Yeah. All right. Is there somebody here that can explain to us what an on call?
Speaker 7
16:22
I believe I'll take a stab at it. I believe that these are on call so that these contracts are done only if the services are needed. But they do the contracts in case there is an emergency that occurs and they would need, you know, architectural or in any case engineering, they would need them immediately and they wouldn't have to then go out and try to find a contract. They would have them. I believe these amounts are the maximum that could be spent on that, but they do go ahead and do the contracts in the event that those services are needed. Okay.
Speaker 73
16:53
Thank you. Representative, does that suffice? Yeah, that'll
Speaker 80
16:58
do for now. Thanks. You've burned your question of the committee meeting, sir.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
17:06
representative kavanaugh okay your explanation made me have a question so come at wendy i know can you and i know this is going to take a little work but can you can provide to me is on these on-call architectural or other on-call contracts since they're for
emergency use and they're not supposed to be used unless there's a case for an emergency how many of these have actually been used and to what amount an emergency
Speaker 7
17:32
might that might have been a misspoke by me it may not necessarily be an emergency it could be but there could be instances where they would need they would need them but yes we can we can provide that okay
thank you so much all right seeing no further questions without objection these items will stand as reviewed. Mr. Chairman,
Speaker 6
17:55
that takes us to item D2, Intergovernmental Contracts. That's page five of
Speaker 7
18:01
item D. There's one on today's agenda. That's the Health Department with UAMS. It's $157,000, all federally funded, and this is for technical support to the COVID-19 Pregnant Women and Infants Registry. All right, members, not seeing anybody
in the queue, and without objection, this item will stand as reviewed.
Speaker 7
18:20
The next item, Mr. Chairman, item D3 are out-of-state contracts can be found on item D, page 6. Number one is ASU Jonesboro. This is for $418,000. This is to provide
labor and materials to modernize elevators in the Ellis Library at ASU Jonesboro. Numbers 2 through 12 are all going to be disability determination and they're all going to be 100% federally funded, all for medical consultant exam reviews and evaluations so that's going to take the committee over to page 9 number 13 this education committee with college entrance examination this is an amendment to an existing contract for $275,000 and this is adding year one of pre AP coursework to the current
contract which is for administering and scoring of the college board AP exam Numbers 14 and 15 on the next page, those are going to be AETN. These are both going to be for executive producers for K-12 programming. I'll note that both of these procurements were by special procurement. You'll see in your green letter packet, you'll see letters that were provided by Arkansas PBS and a letter from Ed Armstrong. He did approve the special procurement and he states in
his letter that it was due to the short time frame to develop the educational programming. So that was for 14 and 15. It takes us to number 16 which is ADEQ with Timmins. This is 64,000 and this is for, they're doing this in partnership with the Department of Agriculture for a smartphone application to assist farmers in conducting the row crop prescribed fire pre-burn analysis and to determine the suitability of a specific day and time for burning crops. 17 is DHS with Deloitte. This is Amendment 1 for 43.7 million. It's the
implementation of a systems integrator for integrated eligibility and benefits management. Number 18 is going to be DCFS. This is St. Francis Community Services, Amendment 5 for intensive in-home services. 19 is going to be County Ops and this is going to be with, this is an Amendment 8. There is no money with it, but it does include updates in the scope of work and speaking with DHS that they stated that update to the scope of work relates to call
center services. Number 20 is continuing with County Ops with Maximus for $29 million. It's just to recruit, hire, and train eligibility specialists to support clearing of Medicaid application backlog. 21 is going to be continued with DHS Division of Developmental Disabilities. This is going to be for day treatment transportation services. 23 is going to begin medical services. It's amendment 7 to an existing contract for medical review projects, level of care reviews, and services for special Medicaid
populations. Number 23 continues medical services. This is with Optum. Amendment to an existing contract for 1.5 million for the Our Home project. 24 on item D, page 14. It's going to be medical services for non-emergency transportation services, an amendment to an existing contract. Twenty-five is going to be information systems. This is going to be an amendment to an existing contract for identify and access management solutions. Twenty-six is going to be Southeast Arkansas College.
This is going to be strategic enrollment management. Twenty-seven, UA Fayetteville, is an amendment to an existing contract for continuation of analysis tools and services and to provide for the delivery of additional content and tools associated with master license agreement. 28 is actually going to be the UA system. It's for Campus Management Corp. This is an amendment to an existing contract. I believe this is to facilitate the integration of Grantham University with existing online operations at the UA system e-versity.
29, UA Fayetteville with Heartland. It's an amendment to an existing contract for student loan services. Number 30 is UAMS for audit-related needs and amendment to an existing contract. 31 is U of A Pine Bluff, this is for pest control, and the last out-of-state contract on today's agenda, Mr. Chairman, is UCA, and this is an amendment to an existing contract for pharmacy benefit management services. All right, got a few people in
Speaker 92
22:43
the queue here. We're going to start with Senator
Chair
Unverified
22:47
Rice, you are recognized for a question, sir.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
22:49
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Number 23, DHS and Optum contract. DHS. Mark, it's kind of like playing a game of Price is Right, except not in his fun.
Come on down. Should I be jumping up and down as I come? We'll wait until Senator Rice finishes
Speaker 97
23:15
with the question. Okay. Mark White, Department of Human Services. Senator, you're recognized to proceed.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
23:21
Thank you. Mark, can you give us a little background on this? Is this scope of work on the R-Home, is
that defining some of the clientele qualifications, or is this anything in evaluation as the program goes forward? No, sir, it's neither of those things.
Speaker 104
23:44
I know there's, we get some confusion around Optum because we have
Speaker 106
23:48
two separate contracts with them. one is for independent assessment. This contract is for our decision support system, which provides
the analytics and reporting for our IT system that runs Medicaid claims. And so these changes are to make the changes necessary in that system for the implementation of our home. Okay. And
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
24:07
while I have you there, some of the discussion when we pass legislation on this, what are the markers going to be time-wise for evaluation as that moves forward? Do you remember those off the top of your head? I think I do. Let me see
Speaker 108
24:24
if Ms. Pittman. Ms. Pittman may have a better memory than I do.
Speaker 112
24:29
Okay. Elizabeth Pittman Division of Medical Services go ahead and if I can make sure I understand your question you're asking about them the quality metrics around the
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
24:52
plans themselves yeah after plans implemented can you give us some some timelines on markers I know it will being varying degrees it moves forward but could you refresh us on that yes sir i sure can so we
Speaker 112
25:04
just had our oversight panel meeting yesterday where they reviewed the performance metrics for those plans those performance metrics will be part of their contracts for 2022 so they they all understand that they will be held to that threshold we are looking in 2022 not to do any financial penalties but to monitor and take corrective action and then moving forward in 2023 we'll continue to update those metrics based on the data that we're seeing and look at enhancing the actions we can take against the QHPs at that time. Okay.
Speaker 109
25:35
Thank you for that information. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. Hold tight. Just make sure no other questions for
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
25:49
DHS. It'd be kind of lucky if y'all got off to just one. Representative Kavanaugh. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and it is for DHS. Lucky guess, Mark. My question is on number 20. It's the $29 million, and the description says, this contractor will recruit, hire, and train contracted eligibility specialists to support the clearing of the Medicaid application backlog
and to support the Department of Human Services with staff to process ongoing cases to afford further increase in backlog. now tell me what it really does sure
Speaker 106
26:20
that is using the outside vendor to help us with the work around processing medicaid applications as well as changes that come in that relate to medicaid eligibility uh we are short staffed as most you know both public and private employers are right now and we've got a backlog of uh applications to process so somebody i know some of you've heard
about the backlog of applications around long-term care and which we'll be talking that more about more about on friday with you all but we also have just on the other side of medicaid a backlog of processing for example things like address changes things like that that's as we get closer to the public health emergency that becomes more and more important and so maximus they're going to bring in staff to help us work through that backlog get all that cleared out and then also that will provide us some ongoing surge capacity so in the future if we get to the point where there's a temporary surge where we have more
applications coming in for some reason or more work that has to be done we can access their capacity to augment our own staff. Follow up Mr. Chair. Recognize for follow up. So
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
27:24
for this 29 million dollars you're going to get people to help us get out of the backlog but if things slow down and the backlog's gone are we going to have to continue to pay them or or is this contract as needed? It's as needed. Okay and I'll get back in the queue because I have
another question. Okay. on something different. Thank you. All right. I think Senator Sullivan, is that you down there?
Speaker 122
27:50
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've got a question on the, I guess, for education on PBS.
Okay. I'd run Mark. Thank you. Yeah, you're all excused. So we got somebody here from AETN. I think
Speaker 124
28:17
you all give us your names and hear your width for the record.
Speaker 127
28:20
Marty Ryle, Director of External Relations for Arkansas PBS. Fred Weedore, CFO, Arkansas PBS. All right.
Chair
Unverified
28:27
Thank you, gentlemen. Senator Sullivan, you are
recognized. Proceeded to your question. Thank you, Mr.
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
28:32
Chair. Yeah, I'm looking at the green sheet on this program that we're going to have proposing And it talks about, there's a broad, pretty broad definition of what's in the, quote, public interest. And they're going to be developing a curriculum. And it appears that the person developing that curriculum is Jessie, lost the last name,
Nankin. Nankin, yeah. And when I look up her Twitter post, she's a fairly radical, I would call her a pretty radical person on climate change and many of these other things and talking about promoting the Build Back Better program. So what restrictions are there on making sure when she produces this curriculum that it is in the best interest of Arkansas students and what prevents all these things from her
presenting things that may be divisive, you know, diverse, equitable, inclusive. I'm concerned about that. What can you tell me to assure me she's not going to put her personal agenda,
Marty Ryall
Unverified
29:50
which she's very open about, what prevents that? Well, first of all, sir, we'll have oversight over everything that she and Adam Rudman put together. Secondly, they have to adhere to Arkansas State Department of Education standards and guidelines,
and so they can't go outside of any of those state guidelines. But we will have direct control over any of the content that you're talking about. We're not going to let that happen. First of all, it's K-2, and so it's through second grade, and those kind of things are not even remotely part of them. Well, I would
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
30:31
really disagree with that. I think some of our materials in our library now are,
while they are classified as being in the, quote, public interest, the public interest seems to be about to include everybody and everything, and there seem to be no limits in our public libraries and our public school libraries over some of the information that's included. And even in our public school curriculums now, these issues of diversity and inclusion and equitable permeate even down, especially down into preschool and early education.
Did you vet this lady? Have you looked up some of
Marty Ryall
Unverified
31:12
the things she's posted? I have not personally looked at her Twitter account. I know that our executive director and our creative and production folks looked at several people and the background of these two as far as creating. I know like Mr. Rudman, I mean, he's worked on Nature Cat and a lot of those kind of Scooby-Doo, I think, and a lot of those Sesame Street, those
Speaker 137
31:38
kind of things. But I can assure you, Senator, that...
good turn to the left. I think
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
31:45
many people would admit even Big Bird have changed and that's my concern is that we're hiring someone to design this who has personal preferences in that direction and I'm very concerned about that and I would, I don't know what I'm going to do about that
Speaker 139
32:02
yet. But I'm really, I do not want this to go through.
Speaker 140
32:06
Well Senator, I understand your concerns and we're sensitive to that, and all
Marty Ryall
Unverified
32:11
I can do is assure you
that we're going to have oversight of this creative process and this. You know, if you look at the work that we've done for AMI in Arkansas two years ago and then earlier this year for Rise and Shine, those were all Arkansas TBS productions. And this is the next iteration of that, if you would, the third season that we're going to be doing learning loss. So it's learning laws for things that were taught in school already that we want them to retain.
So just the basic parameters are not conducive to the kind of things you're talking about. I understand, but let me just,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
32:51
I'll close with this. I don't want to get into a long discussion. I don't know why we're funding people that have these beliefs. Why are we perpetuating and helping fund them when they're going against Arkansas values? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Sutherland.
Speaker 98
33:07
And before you answer that, Marty, let me just say this. You mentioned you have
some oversight apparatus. Can you briefly define for the committee what that is and how that works
so it's not going to be this individual that's single-handedly going to have the ability to determine the content of this programming, but there's
Speaker 141
33:27
oversight? What's that apparatus look like,
Marty Ryall
Unverified
33:32
and how does that work? Yes, sir. First of all, we have total control over what goes on our air and the production process. We'll be hand-to-hand involved in the creative part of that, as also will be, again, it's
got to fit the guidelines set out by the state of Arkansas Department of Education and fit those standards and that they too will have oversight over that so you know we're all I can tell you is give you our assurance that we're sensitive to to those kind of things I'll be careful that I mean they're under no circumstances or these individuals will be able to say here's my product you know go put it on the air that's not gonna happen all right well I got a few more people I think
they're in a queue to ask you all some questions so I'm
I'm going to, it's Brown, we've got Representative Meeks, I
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
34:25
believe you're in 64. Yes, sir, thank you. You're going to ask for a question. We're over here to your far
right. Good morning, gentlemen, or good afternoon, gentlemen. So my question is, the whole purpose of this is learning loss, K-2, and according to what I've read here, you're developing curriculum and 10 episodes for a K-2 series that won't even be available until fall of next year. so help convince us why do we need this why how why is there not already programming available
to fill this niche why are our teachers not able to already do this why do we need to spend over two hundred thousand dollars on this what what value does this bring to us that
our teachers already don't have the ability to do. Well, I mean,
Marty Ryall
Unverified
35:16
I would defer you to the Department of Education for them. I'm not an education expert on teachers
and learning loss. I can tell you that when we produced Rise and Shine, we utilized Arkansas teachers and
Teachers of the Year and used their expertise, and they were the presenters, and so we certainly utilized them in that. And I don't know what this next one's going to look like, but that's our track record of what we've done. As to, you know, I guess there's continual learning loss over the course of time. I don't know. I forget stuff all the time. I've got a lot of learning loss. So hopefully our younger generation doesn't have as much. But seriously, you know, I would, I can't answer as to the educational component of why this is needed.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
36:05
That would have to be the Department of Education. Did the department approach
you to make this, or is
Speaker 127
36:16
this something that you went to the department for? What was the genesis of this, I guess? Well, it was in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Education because of the previous programming that we did to combat these issues. This is a pass-through of federal funding specifically for learning loss is the funding mechanism.
The Department of Education granted us these funds for this purpose, and they're on the front lines. It's a total partnership with the Department of Education. We're just the vehicle to try to accomplish the goals that they're trying to accomplish, especially considering the purpose
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
37:12
And Mr. Chairman, I don't know if this is the appropriate time or if there's even anybody here, but I'd be interested in hearing from the department, from them, whether they see
this is a benefit to them and the students of Arkansas before we approve this or not. But, you know, I'll leave that to your discussion. I'm
going to keep this to, you know, AETN, since this is their contract, I appreciate that. I'm sure there are going to be other opportunities with, you know, some of their contracts. But, you know, for those purposes, you know, anything that they can answer, but I'm not going to bring up the Department of Ed because it will be a never-ending.
I think we all know where this – sure, sure. And, Mr. Rowland, certainly you all realize you've got some concerned legislators up here. And with that, I'm going to recognize Senator Elliott for a question. Senator,
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
38:01
you were recognized for a question. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are just two things here I do want to speak to and ask you about. The first one is about the oversight piece. I have been in disagreement with ET and sometimes because they used their oversight piece
and recognized and did not put something on air I thought should be on air. So I'm pretty sure it works well. And so I really do think we have to be very careful, even when something was not aired that I thought should have been aired. I respected that fact that when we talk about Arkansas values and when we talk about whether you're left or right, that is a very nebulous kind of way to talk about this.
Because when you put those, as I understand from talking to people at ETN, because I was bothered, when you put the oversight piece in place, it was put there before George Eliot was there complaining or Jamie Scott or anybody else. So I recognize that, whether I liked it or not, it was objectively done and objectively applied to the issue that I had. And I think that's a good thing, whether I liked it or not. And I know, I can just say, I know it's not a wheel in any process because I've been in that process two times.
And my values are not here for me to usurp anybody else's values. And in education, it is important for our kids to be taught what is objective as we can to make sure they're getting what they get, whether I like it or not. And, I mean, would you agree that there's no matter what happens, there's just a real possibility that Joyce Elliott's going to be upset, somebody else might be upset?
Marty Ryall
Unverified
40:07
That's a normal thing, isn't it? Well, it's always possible, but if I could just say one thing. When we talk about, as the memorandum of understanding and our agreement with the Department of Education is to address learning loss. and addressing learning loss means we're addressing things that have already been addressed in the classroom. Well, let me back up.
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
40:26
Excuse me for interrupting you because I'm going to ask about learning loss, but I wanted to be sure the process that you use is clear. Yes. I know it's clear because, I mean, that's what I'm... We need to understand. We need
to know when you say there is oversight, there really is oversight. Yes, ma'am. There is. And the fact that I didn't like the result didn't mean it was not a good process. I just really didn't like the result. Now, the issue of learning loss, I mean, I can just tell you probably all of us understand. I mean, as a teacher, I know this, but I think I would know it if I were not a teacher, just to think about it. When kids are out of school in the summer, in normal times,
there is learning loss. When they don't have the same opportunity, perhaps, as your kids and minds. A lot of times our kids are getting enrichment opportunities. They are getting to have a vacation. They are getting to do things and play games and go places that a lot of kids don't have, which is one of the major reasons there's learning loss with a lot of kids in normal times. That happens. So when they come back to school, every teacher can tell you, we spend this time trying to catch kids up. That's normal. There's nothing
normal about what has happened with covid so i'm just going to suggest to my colleagues that we need all the opportunities we can get to catch people up that's why the federal government sent a certain amount of money to our states and required that we spend it on uh catching kids up from the learning loss because now not only is it in the summer it's it it went on all year long in many cases for some kids we're trying to learn from home didn't have broadband
and that kind of thing didn't have support so it's it's something that is a real issue that I hope that I hope we don't put this off because this is really really important to the kids in our state those
Speaker 70
42:28
who are struggling the most are still the ones who are struggling the most and need the most help so don't you agree thank you senator thanks in
early. All right, Senator Clark and Senator Kavanaugh. Senator Clark, you are recognized for questions, sir. Thank you,
Chair
Unverified
42:43
Mr. Chair. I'm not as convinced about the
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
42:51
oversight. A blank statement that we have doesn't convince me. I'd be glad to have more of a presentation. I'm still remembering, I don't think it was a Fort Smith Public Library, I think it was U.A. Fort Smith that had the drag queen reading day. I don't know who the oversight was on that. I know it wasn't you guys, but I don't find that oversight satisfactory. The porn, what I would view as porn, and certainly a
lot of parents viewed porn in one of our public libraries here in the state, that parents were, I don't think parents were objecting over, I didn't view that oversight as satisfactory. Just looking at the authorship here, I do have lots of questions and for that reason, Mr. Chair, I would move that we postpone that we hold this, the PBS AET items, until we
have time for further review. Yep. Thank you, Senator. So, is that in the formal motion that we just go ahead and hold this up? It's
a formal motion. Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and
hold this, Wendy. Is this items 14 and 15, I think? Yes. Okay. Okay, so we're going to hold this up, gentlemen, for further conversation on Friday. So members, if you have any further questions for AETN, I suggest that you get with them directly. And Mr. Rollins, I would like you to know if you all would reach out to members to see if they have any questions as well that can be answered between now and Friday.
Before I dismiss you, I forgot I've got
Representative Kavanaugh in here who hardly ever chimes in for a question, so we're going to
Speaker 12
44:55
recognize her very quickly. Actually, mine's for DHS.
Marty Ryall
Unverified
44:59
Ronbo. You all are dismissed. If we get DHS back up here. Can I just ask one? I know Senator Clark, I need to get
with you. Is there any other specifically that would like me to call and talk with you? Senator Meeks, Representative Crawford, Senator Sullivan. Wait. Sorry.
Marty Ryall
Unverified
45:17
Sullivan Meeks. Clark, Kavanaugh, did, okay. Crawford, Representative Crawford. Representative Crawford, Senator
Sullivan, Representative Veeks, and Senator Clark. Okay, all right. I think the rest of you can find me
Speaker 167
45:37
if you need me, but I'll proactively call these folks. Thank you. All right, thank you, gentlemen. And then if we get somebody from DHS, there he is, Mark.
Chair
Unverified
45:51
All right, thank you Mr. Chairman. Mark White, Department of
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
46:10
Human Services. Representative Kavanaugh, you recognize, proceed. Thank you Mr. Chair.
Mine is on number 24 with southeast, looks like transportation from college. We're going to pay $23 million, and this looks like for a year, to amend, to extend funds
to continue providing non-emergency transportation services. So what are we doing there? And I noticed that in the next section, there are several other ones that are in-state contracts for the same service. So what are we doing, and what's the dollar amount we're spending in total for this? Sure. Let me
Speaker 106
46:47
start that answer, and then Ms. Pittman may want to come up, because I don't know the total offhand. But non-emergency transportation, that is a required service under Medicaid, and so when you have beneficiaries who have a doctor visit, they need to go for lab measures or
some other kind of treatment, Medicaid pays for their transportation to that visit. And the way we do that is with a group of brokers that are located, operate throughout the state in different regions. beneficiaries call those brokers and those brokers are arranged for those uh for that transportation and so we pay them on a capitated basis is an amount of per member in that area per month paid to that broker and they're responsible for setting up all of those transportation uh visits follow up mr chair yeah so we
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
47:37
pay them whether or not they haul anybody it's just by a member so if that member
doesn't use them they're still paid for that member we're not paying for services provided we're just paying for membership we're paying
Speaker 106
47:49
a flat fee so when we put this contract out for bid we work for our actuaries to come up with an estimate of what the utilization would be and how much would be needed and then based on that we pay what we think it will make and so yes if utilization is down that means the vendor's better off if utilization is up means the state's better off but it gives a predictable amount the state can pay uh in any given year for those
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
48:15
services okay can you provide the utilization sure and go back for
this utilization and not just for this one vendor but for all the vendors that provide because like i said there are some in in-state contracts also um and if i can just have the dollar total dollar amount we're paying for these services and the utilization and i'd like that for three years if I can get it so I can see a running total. Okay, for three years. Thank
Speaker 177
48:38
you. We'll get that to you. Thank you.
Great. And Mark, if you can go ahead and get that to staff so they can get that out to the committee at large, that'd
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
48:51
be great. All right, thank you, Representative. All right, Representative Meeks. So I've got questions for the Environmental Quality Department and
Speaker 150
48:56
Information Systems. All right. So we got somebody from
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
49:07
ADEQ. And who is the other part of that, Representative? And then, secondly, information system, so I guess DIS,
Speaker 180
49:23
both technology questions. Michael LePay, Department of Energy and Environment. David Clark, Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
49:32
Representative, if you were going to ask, proceed. Thank you, gentlemen. This is the question I have. It looks like you're spending $64,000 to get an
app made on burning crop residue. Can you kind of expound on that a little bit? Is that a one-time thing or is this going to be an ongoing expense? This is my first part. And then my second part is do other states not already have an app that does this that, you know, do we need to
Speaker 181
49:58
reinvent the wheel here? So, to your first question, yes, sir, the $64,000 is a one-time expense.
The funds are from the U.S. EPA, so it's 100% federally funded. Other states do have apps, but not like this. Arkansas has a unique set of smoke management guidelines, and this app will facilitate the use of those by farmers. So we're not duplicating anything that is already in another state. Okay, and farmers, will they have to pay for the
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:25
use of this app or? No, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. That's all I have.
Thank you, Representative. Thank you. All right, members, see no further questions. Oh, DIS.
Speaker 183
50:36
DIS, yep. I'm sorry. Thank you. Anybody out there from DIS? Anybody tall? if uh if
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:52
not can we flag it for friday just to have someone from dis what was that number again representative it's a number 25 it's just it's 131 000 for
okay we'll go ahead and pull that for friday for discussion then so hopefully you'll have a chance to get somebody before
before then thank you mr jeremy all right members so seeing no further questions and without objection with the exceptions of number 25 numbers 14 and numbers 15 these
Speaker 11
51:21
items will stand as reviewed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's going to take the committee to D4 in-state contracts. It's
Speaker 7
51:28
going to be item D, page 17. First one is with Crime Lab, with Arkansas Central Mortuary. This is going to be for cadaver transport services. Number two is developmental disabilities. This
is going to be, again, for medical consultant exams, reviews, and evaluations. Number three is building authority of DTSS. It's going to be an amendment to an existing contract for janitorial services. Four is education. That is also going to be a contract for janitorial services. Number five is going to begin contracts with the health department. This is going to be for the Arkansas Information Consortium. This is a contract for $180,000 and this is for maintenance and operation of the ADH medical marijuana website. Six is continuing with the health department
with CQ Consulting. This is for the Lab Information Management System, which is an amendment to an existing contract. Seven is Health Department with Medical Waste Services. This is for Medical Waste Transportation Disposal. It's also an amendment to an existing contract. Number eight is going to begin the contracts with DHS. First is with Aging Adult and Behavioral Services with Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance. This is for Medical Detoxification Services, $600,000. Number nine is Developmental Disabilities with Area Agency, excuse me, Area Agency on aging of southeast Arkansas it's gonna be for day treatment transportation
number 10 is also developmental disabilities it is also for day treatment transportation number 11 is going to be DHS division medical services this is for non-emergency transportation services 12 is similar is also for non-emergency transportation services it's going to take us to item D page 21 number 13 is the contract with the insurance department this is for a digital marketing and advertising strategies and the last in-state contract on today's agenda number 14 is UA Fayetteville and this is to services
to affect the Wi-Fi infrastructure to benefit students living in University Housing Residence Hall. Mr. Chairman that completes the in-state contract. All right
members, seeing nobody in the queue and without objection these items will stand as reviewed. Oh, never mind, that was
Speaker 192
53:31
you. Mr. Chairman, the last item on today's agenda is out of me that's reports and Communications.
Speaker 7
53:37
Item E1, this is going to be contracts with no material change. E2, we executed contracts that did not meet their review threshold. And E3 is going
to be critical emergency procurements. There were five, two for the Health Department and three for the Department of Workforce Services. Mr. Chairman, that concludes
the report. All right, Representative Kavanaugh, do
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
54:02
you have a question on reports? yes okay what's the on number three and four DHS they're the Delta Dental and the in the MCNA insurance company okay and you do realize that these are
not subject to review. Yes, I just have it. Mark White, Department of Human Services.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
54:33
Representative, you recognize and proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On these two in particular, it's three and four, because the numbers are so large, like $183 million dollars a year and then another 183 million dollars a year and it's talking about dental service man dental managed care do these also include the claims yes okay so it's the management of it and the claims paid yes ma'am okay thank you all
right seeing no further questions and these items are just
reports they don't require review and no further business to come for this committee we are adjourned You
Agenda
A. Call to Order - Comments from Chairs
B. Methods of Finance
C. Discretionary Grants
D. Services Contracts for Legislative Review
E. Reports and Communications
F. Contract Amendment - Renewals/Extensions with No Material Change - Member Requested for Discussion**
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - REVIEW, Dec 14, 2021 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| A1a. DTSS OSP Rule Summary | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| B. MOFs | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| C. Grants | Exhibit | 5 | Official source ↗ |
| D. Contracts | Exhibit | 21 | Official source ↗ |
| E1. PCS_TGS Previously Reviewed No Material Change | Exhibit | 7 | Official source ↗ |
| E2. PCS_TGS $25,000 - $350,000 Minor Report | Exhibit | 9 | Official source ↗ |
| E3. PCS_TGS Critical Emergency Report | Exhibit | 5 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Scott Flippo Chair
Unverified
Speaker 7
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 14
Speaker 18
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 34
Speaker 39
Speaker 41
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Speaker 58
Speaker 59
Speaker 63
Speaker 72
Speaker 73
Speaker 80
Speaker 6
Speaker 92
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 97
Speaker 104
Speaker 106
Speaker 108
Speaker 112
Speaker 109
Speaker 122
Speaker 124
Speaker 127
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Marty Ryall
Unverified
Speaker 137
Speaker 139
Speaker 140
Speaker 98
Speaker 141
Speaker 148
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
Speaker 70
Senator Alan Clark
Unverified
Speaker 12
Speaker 167
Speaker 177
Speaker 150
Speaker 180
Speaker 181
Speaker 183
Speaker 11
Speaker 192