Arkansas Independent Citizens Commission

Keeping matters to talk to beginning so that'll give us an opportunity we can lobby take a break here in a minute in the. US and see if Tommy of Commissioner mayor commissioner jim going to join in of. If we could all call a meeting to order and would you please call the roll. Chairman banks here Jonathan Rogers here. At Clarke Smith you. Bill collector. Just a stack yeah timing may. Engines Amendment. Thank you will former president so what I'd like to do is beginning of. Is to have a little short visit of. First off I'd like to welcome. March this our newest commissioner to to this the commission and if you don't mind I'm going to cities of the commissioners to sit you probably hadn't had the time to do any homework just say hi to you and tell you who they are and what they do and then you tell us a little something about yourself so we get a point here that work for you I'm Chuck banks I have the privilege of the end of the chairman of this commission and I'm a lawyer I'm originally from East Arkansas but I've lived here in in in Pulaski County little rock for the last twenty five twenty six years of I don't have any special expertise I'm just another citizen mark the rest these good folks on this commission and like you And I especially don't have any as a lawyer as it pertains to the the work at hand for this commission so I'm tickled to death that you're on board and I think you'll enjoy what you're doing and I know that everybody of that I'm serving with on this commission are certainly please have the opportunity to be citizens here on this of independent citizens commission so. Phil. Remember using microphones please. Let your. I've lived in Bentonville Arkansas online or in the. Trending area and owned a construction company. About thirty five years now Of serve on August bank board president County we do a lot of work for Walmart and all the local. A. Contractors in the area I live my live actually west bend bill about ten miles on the farm we're in the cattle business lots of shows how which reminded we are social that the we appreciate you coming on board. Reporter good me yes. I'm Jonathan Rogers we met we walked in here. I'm electrical contractor so I have Electric Company we're statewide statewide we do work in northwest northeast and here we don't make build right a much but anyways so yeah of and enjoyed being on here I think this is my second year and it's been good pleasure meeting so. My name is Annabelle amber talk and I am here by appointment of the Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court I served on the court for over thirteen years and then was a trial judge before that so I guess I'm here I'm a volunteer and just bring. My experience to it just like everybody else does thank you. Clark. Clark Smith from elder radio yes I'm an old business I work for for refinery in Smackover Arkansas then live in Eldoret one working for the refinery for about thirty years so um my wife and I are there we've got two sons who were students I once graduated from Universitarios is a junior at the university of Arkansas so so I guess we're temporary razorback fans well whether income in college because we both went to attended UCLA so so so like you all here to volunteer here to serve in the law Glad to glad to be on the committee he already you're all I actually graduated from Smackover high school all right then after college I feel you know I put in about three years and leave I have a lift it so live over and over down until the rate of the working Smackover everyday I guess. Smackover or really that's it yes that's right. This is. Jan called and you of never called in yet. The option is not cold. Okay I will say. I'm sorry. All right. I will say of thank you to Donna Barker for of the good work she's been doing with us over the past month or two months to we sure of. Sorry the Melanesian have been pulled aside for for other duties but she's been brought back today and she's gonna be done her thing and we really appreciate all the hard work she's done on the past we'll the last commission of this sow we really appreciate you of how about the folks out there in the audience is anybody want to go ahead and tell us who you are we're going to a few other preliminaries and we're going to start letting folks talk to this. I put anybody on the spot. All right good enough. Of my right arm Jody bye of. Is here with us today Edgington last night is still there all right let's do this And there is everyone had an opportunity to read the minutes of the last meeting. Are there any additions or corrections. All entertain a motion if they be approved as read. It is unanimous so well. We now have the opportunity to of. This is Mister Garrity here yet. From okay. So is this Garrity I'm sorry I should know that. When you get my age those type mistakes are going to be my you know. Thank. Thank you for your apology. I'm Marty Garrity on the director of the bureau of legislative research before you should have some information that I sent to don I was the bureau was requested to pull up legislative compensation for members of the General Assembly and then the judicial branch for the state of Arkansas Iowa Louisiana Missouri Oklahoma and Tennessee as you can see we've laid it out in the information you were both in front of you this includes their status as full time or part time the amount they get they get for mileage reimbursements the per diem that each member gets and then their salary in world this is looking at legislative compensation on the second page that information for the same states for retirement benefits and then third pages last legislative insurance benefits. On the second document that's for the judicial positions and again for this is information here of for those states there were a couple that we couldn't get they never responded back to us of but again per diem travel reimbursement benefits and then their salaries I'd be more than happy to take any questions you have regarding this information. The state she were not able to get were if you look at the judicial it looks like we weren't able to get I believe from Tennessee. And got Missouri and at Louisiana. We had a hard time we couldn't get any information back from them okay. Thank you. Very much. Most of this information was pulled from four to state legislatures from NCSL the national conference of state legislatures and then the judiciary there's a national judicial organization that we feel that same information from their but we do have to follow up with some states in particular but with regards to the judicial branch. So I see that you were able to get the last pages table to salary comparison for you look all the. All the Legislative constitutional officers legislative positions for all of the states though you were able to get come make a comparison of compensation yes with regards to it's easier for for the legislative branch because most most of that information is on the national conference of state legislatures website when it came to the retirement benefits Louisiana showed that there was no retirement plan available But most of that information for the legislative branch is available very easily actually okay. The very last page of the document your salary comparisons a little bit older comparison. House in fourteen things yes. That's the current is that on for the judicial yes. No sex at all of all of the on the very last page of judicial or legislative compensation that your packet will back in two separate yes or this post will. And and maybe you don't have those prison with this table to salary compares. I don't know the answer I don't have that with me my apologies. You have an extra packet. I think we have. Course this is two thousand fourteen so sure what the salaries are currently for the constitutional officers but. Based upon this it looks like our governor is injured least of all the states okay where's over here to. Yeah yeah good it is pretty well doubled since the date I think that would happen. A few years ago this commission was created all that stuff was all that was correct yeah. Thank you. Well if I if I read this I can from the two thousand twenty book of states. It looks like course our lieutenant governor I'm I'm interested in hearing about our lieutenant governor position and the duties and everything because it's all of the salary is so vastly different than the other states I'm not sure. If the duties or less and that's the reason but it looks pretty clear that our secretary of state is paid less than any of the other states. R. A. G. kind of is in line the treasurer is paid a little less as well as the auditor. On. You know I. I I I'm I'm really interested in hearing about the duties of all these officers so that I can. Be more knowledgeable about it because obviously we all all live in our own silos with knowing what we do but not what anybody else does. Absolutely I understand and I would you know certainly I think that information regarding their duties probably needs to come from the individual has offices absolutely and I understand that thank you mmhm absolutely. So all of these that work are comparisons are part time legislatures. Yes that was the list we were given yes. I think most states are part time legislators side I assume that but I didn't wanna. Sure. And I can say the for travel reimbursement for members of the legislature it's tied into the GSA rate so the federal rate several right right it's adopted by both the house the Senate and then Legislative Council for inter meetings. Now I noticed in your comparison of additional compensation. all of the states have additional compensation for certain things and the only compensation Arkansas has is. For the president pro tem and the presiding officer. I presume. That are legislate tors. If they have expenses. Related to how does that work if they have expenses related to their duties How do they get reimbursed. I'm gonna leave that up to the house and the Senate I believe that I would take against I'm looking to to buddy and related that they would claim that on on their taxes as okay as business expenses business expense but again I would refer to buddy and okay Roy okay. It looks like Louisiana. Well Missouri has to pay their staff. Out of the budget the Senate. You know I'm I'm I'm interested because there's a real difference there are. And in Arkansas members don't have individual staff right right it's it's okay. Sure sure not already finished. Yes. More. Thank you one. All right. House the. This. All. Compensation. There is simplifies. What. I think that would be difficult to only because it's you know it varies by member here in Arkansas depending on it buried here in Arkansas depending on member you know it's someone from who lives in Bentonville is going to receive more mileage than a member who lives in pine bluff a member who is on the A. L. C. subcommittees who has to attend more meetings in the interim will receive more reimbursement in that method that a member who isn't and so to be able to looking determined at other states you know how they you know the amount of reimbursement that they get even the salaries for you know I think it was Louisiana you know that's a minimum beginning at twenty seven three hundred for you know salaries for their staff it may be more So it I think it's it's going to. We don't know would be difficult to to make that comparison. Without doing an extensive deep dive into you know each state. So we're discrepancy for a mile or. Hello. This this is the the best or the closest that we can do for information for this commission to be able to like of third judgments about close to assess more or less salary or how to how to handle it is it is it really a simple way to put it I will I I think so and I would just I would remind you all and I know that you know this but when you're looking at mileage and per diem reimbursement that's a reimbursement for their expenses so that's not taxable income because it's both it's considered a wash so you know when you look at me per diem and mileage that's not what you would consider income to the members. so that's something to think about too is as you look at their salaries that you know someone coming from Bentonville you know there expense they're gonna get reimbursed more for mileage because their expenses are more for mileage. This is my last question Sir again thank you for the use of. Do you know of anything else that this commission could do. The reason that could. Answer any other questions about how to properly have the information of what legislative powers are being paid in full our way of real dollar in. Other than try to go out on some sort in which we're not here to do that what no affirmation yeah that's all this is information get absolutely so I probably shouldn't have started by talking about the bureau in a role we serve you know the members of the General Assembly we are non partisan and part of that is we we don't provide recommendations and we don't it's our job and and you know we're pretty steadfast in not offering options to members and I'm going to. You know take that to this body that's not the role of the bureau we're here to provide information and so I would I would. I'm not able to answer that question there's not any other state agency the purpose of assume such a role to be able to answer that question not that I'm aware of thank you for your staff may be able to the auditor staff may be able to take that role but the bureau you can't cannot. Again thank you very much you're very welcome expertise I just have one more question and and maybe this is change maybe statutorily it's changed since I was familiar with it. I the the Supreme Court used to create a court of appeals has districts just like legislative districts and so. Thank you can be reimbursed for their travel to and from Little Rock. Is that's is is that true also now the Supreme Court. Because with the Supreme Court run state what he I'm not sure I and I and I and let me follow up with you okay I get that information's on because I could have been changed I knew there was a big discussion about that because you know obviously Supreme Court justices live in different parts of the state but because it was statewide they made a distinction originally and I just wondered if it was still the case that Supreme Court justices do not get reimbursed for traveling to little rock let me follow up in in that all really that information to not email it to her thank you absolutely thank you. Any questions from any of the commissioners. Of course this is just so crystal clear you know excluding. Committee chairs vice chairs of. Salaries for legislative. Just consider reimbursement. Correct. Yes. Any others. Thank you so much we appreciate. The next item on the agenda is Commission discussion duties first prime court judges court of appeal judges search search circuit and district judges and their caseload statistics is of Dr drive north Scott right here yes Hey how are you talked a little. Thank you. Good morning all morning director Sullivan expenses of his apologies for not being able to attend today we we actually have an agency wide there C. as an agency wide meeting today at the beginning I regret around now actually so since I'm not addressing the crowd or or introducing the Chief Justice I'm here instead. Well well well. Well I'll follow president a couple weeks ago the doctor so director Sullivan asked me to collect a cases to six for all for all the the levels of the court spring court courts of appeals circuit courts or district courts for the last few years which I sent to him as well as the the annual reports those figures came from our annual reports I have I reproduce those What I'll actually added something. Yeah. When I centers figures initially yes the last few years so I gave them by report here so there with the the figures that I'd given as twenty twenty or actually for the calendar year twenty nineteen but the a pillar in the in the twenty twenty report R. twenty twenty numbers are still a preliminary usually we we produce the record the recruit recruit the numbers for the annual port right around this time of the year submission time sometime in that month in November or early December but I by hi provided that twenty twenty figures the our preliminary numbers from the summer there so so that extends what you had earlier or a little bit and also properly properly attributes them to the year which in which the case load actually occurred. Right now. And I presume that was because of the pandemic yes yes national center for state courts who is my previous employer has been tracking of the panic if the effects of the pandemic both on case filings and case dispositions and the Arkansas is is certainly well within trends nationwide and seeing a dip in both filings and dispositions as you activities slows down. Few people on the road listicle economic activity also a moratorium on in person hearings trials things like that is slowed this positions as well so yeah this is Arkansas Arkansas was don't or a gift there is very much within within national trends. Well I'm I'm looking here at the other years. before that and it looks like the circuit courts maintain pretty evenly the district court's went up a little bit. But the appellate court load decreased before the pandemic somewhat Non dispositions they we have the same. The same. Ad or. Course you know that is all control but who appeals yes. Is not something court's control other than appeals in the pending caseloads for the Supreme Court in the court of appeals have remained fairly steady since twenty seventeen you may notice that the. This position rate the Supreme Court jumped in twenty seventeen as the court cleaned up yeah a substantial amount of the the pending there is a substantial pending criminal writ dot docket and we're still review docket and they did a lot House Leding that year yeah the route the pending cases at the beginning of that year were I think over twice the annual caseload and now they've they've you know there's there now below so the there during the two hundred three hundred range whereas they were above seven hundred before so is the slow but catching up and since then it's been Stacey Allen. Do you know if they're counting as individual cases you talked about the writ stuff of but what I call the post conviction relief cases. As individual cases you know what I'm talking about the thirty seven year rule thirty seven three seven five yeah we we do attempts to to to count those there's or or are we are still seek a re opens but the improper and impractical they're not. They're not re opens to sickly okay consistently so I can't say that that that that body of case load is is represented actually saw it so this this number might not be totally representative of the workload no no it's it's likely not a particular with regard to re opens there's probably some some some dark matter there so to speak AL okay. Well I always we we always when I was on the car we always had an interesting discussion about what constituted a new case all the for for statistical purpose as opposed to All re opened which doesn't count. And I know in the dependency neglect area. And you know there's a lot of re opens and yes I will. That also so the only reason I'm asking these questions of you is to let my colleagues know that this. The numbers may be a little lower than actual workload yeah that's that's that's likely true okay in fact one of the written one of the the reasons for annual variation you might see is just in improve improve improve reporting okay I particularly think that's that's likely the case and and district courts as more district courts just a courts have only in the last five years been switching over from paper reporting which is every month there they see at every months hopefully District Court that are operating send us like a page report which they count the number of cases filed a number of dispositions and like I say we we try to keep track of who's reporting you know diligently and who's not but as more more district courts go on to Ark are electronic case management system context reporting from those areas improves that means that that the variations in and in case counts aren't necessarily a result of the activity underlying it's it's reporting the that improves yeah at and I will say that it this is interesting because we've always known that district courts was where the. Where most people have their experience with the court system yes and that that shown by this because it's. One to ten I mean it's. It's Hendren times what is going on in the circuit courts but the but the other thing that I've I've learned since going off the bench was. That in criminal cases. Sometimes speak when the arrest is made and they're not arrested a place where they can. B.. Put in to the. The not the criminal registration system in that case doesn't count. It's not put in that register yet yet and it doesn't accumulating the CIC right to me all certainly yeah yeah that's over the last few years we've we've made a concerted effort to try to improve our percentage of cases with with eighty with arrest tracking numbers AT and and I just a few years ago was probably hovering statewide in the fifty sixty percent and now we it's regularly statewide about eighty five eighty six eighty seven percent so it's improving well and I know that there's been some support at least with my work with Pulaski County to get Fingerprinting and of the kind of equipment you need for that fingerprinting not just a fingerprint but how to get it into the system of locally of. To the A. C. I. see problem yes and that took New equipment to do that yet often takes quite a bit of coordination and particularly in intersections southeast someone to the right to north yeah how many district courts are still manual. Well it's. It's provide manual you mean the paper reporting court yes it's probably about four thirty five five thirty forty rounds. Well we should have full time and district judges what in one year or two years it why would I think one year one year and will that improve that you think I do I do I do think that will improve that and and that's another thing you know and and the District Court case load is that as more cameras more courts is more district court's. are changed over from local district court's status of course there's civil jurisdiction increases so right that also has an impact on the on the on the number of cases they received. Okay. Well I. Statistics are always. You know you just. Never know what that means. All rolled. All the guards damage to the fort's for full time employees that. The Department all they're all full time employee. the clerk's offices yet trump administrators yes yeah and the judge will the judges except for some District Court judges and that's it and eight a diminishing number. Are not full time district judges we've got a few part time yes yes we have a few that CRT. Again the majority of the majority of the and all in all the courts and our our full time the only ones there or not are are a diminishing number of District Court local judges thank you. Some of the circuits are huge geographically yes yes. Yeah the the like the the second first second third R. five six counties mainly because they're they're I mean they're the populations are are are more dispersed right it's which role area right yeah which often means that the judges in those in those areas have significant travel responsibilities as well compared with say that the twenty second of the twenty third which or one county well or I'm Pulaski County and Velazquez's two innocent. Much more compact. And that's not changing any no I don't think so based on the census no I don't think so. Well I don't have any more questions I for any of you please. It up. This just of of personal questions would it surprise you are come from the original of practice wall from the first district. Craighead. All legislative would surprise you know that that district is still it's actually one county larger and they still get circuit judges will travel as far north as Piggott and Corning. This far south south in Crittenden County. That would not surprise me about a year ago I did an analysis of travel reimbursement for their circuit court judges to try to get a sense of how much time judges are committed and that area was in an out liar in terms of of travel reimbursement would you call an out there the substantially larger. travel travel responsibilities on their part and in that I got if I died trying to estimate distance by. Working backwards how much they were paid and then doing and then going to the the GSA mileage. mileage rate and tackling backwards to to to distancing yes the based on that no I would not be surprised. Alar was elected Scrooge. Thank you very much we appreciate your time and attendance anybody else you for gathering shipments have any other questions. All right thank you Sir thank you if you do have any additional questions please feel free to contact me if you don't have my email address I don't have a card unfortunately but of. Where to find we you do actually live right over there you're welcome study you leave with. I believe all of I'll leave act I need to to join the right agency meeting thank you very much as well of. This is the commission discussion of duties and full benefits afforded by law for president pro tem and Senators is anybody here this specifically here. With with the Senate Senate. I am a full discussion of duties and benefits supported by law for Speaker of the house. The House member. Roy. Thank you very much would you come join us you gave us of a document of. First and we passed that out there for everybody else Mr Johnson nice to see you. Would you vote role would you of fresh the the commission we've got one new member here today with who you are what you do and same thank you miss Johnson. Senate chair not. R. a chair you. I'm Roy Ragland Chief staff for the house representatives. I'm Betty Johnson I'm parliamentarian and coordinated legislative services for the house of representatives. Your welcome of if you would. Just go ahead than though I don't think anybody has any direct questions to start with this go ahead and visit with the song about what we're interested in in hearing and we'll take it from there that all right. The Committee time you will. Well as far as the duties of course the Speaker the houses of is first of all member of the House represent is one the one hundred members and. Is elected. By that body or she is elected by that body to To be the presiding officer over the sessions and to handle. Other duties as they arise including the staff and travel and meetings in. Coordinating with the Governor coordinating with the Senate pro tem so those primarily are the duties in addition to representing his constituents. So You know he has the same privileges as any other member body has those additional duties which causes I guess you could say him to have to be. Here in the capital much more than the average member so Anyhow that says Accorsi's from elder writer like your. Mr Smith and so it's quite a drive up here. So it sent six additional burden on him to when he does have to come up here. But other than that. And then of course the members of the legislature I haven't been one. You There's several aspects is more than just being a legislator year a state representative so you have currently we have about thirty thousand constituents and you represent those people to their state government and that could be anything from happening with driver's license to taxes to anything it deals with the state government and or you end up being a liaison to the federal. Are the congressional delegation as well. then your law makers. You have also have over sign then of all the state agencies other performance then the unique thing about. Legislators is they're the ones that hold the purse strings so no money can be spent in the state of Arkansas except it be appropriated by the legislature so they're appropriators their legislators the representatives and overseers so all for those aspects are. Come into being a state representative so that's what we have committee meetings during the interim through. The Arkansas Legislative Council so those. meetings cover all areas of state government reviewing contracts reviewing personnel matters. all that that's that's one of the meetings or an interim and we also have meetings where some of the standing committees will meet jointly so you might have House education and Senate education meeting house. public health welfare and labor meeting with the Senate their Senate colleagues about issues that are coming up things that aren't come up during the session that are not resolved or sometimes put in what's called interim studies and those those issues are stated. During the interim with a view of being dealt with in the next regular session so there's all kinds of reasons why and that there have and may I also say that. we have that beer over legislative audit so one week. During the month on Thursday and Friday they meet with subcommittees educational institutions cities and counties and state agencies they have those three seven committees that review the audit findings and reports from the. Bureau of legislative audit so they review those so that they may generally once a month during the interim. Legislative Council on another week will meet and they're subcommittees meet during that week. About two sessions ago. Speaker Shepherd in. pro tem of the Senate came together and said we want trying to be more efficient in these meetings and so they they said the last. Week of the month we're not gonna have any meetings we want that we want to compact those meetings we may have to subcommittees of the Legislative Council meeting during one day and some people may be members of both of those committees so rather than those people having to make two trips there you would just meet. Maybe in the morning and afternoon and that saves them a. Trip from elder radio or from Bentonville our Jonesborough of where everybody is it saves them that expense and it saves saves the state from having to reimbursed for that expense so we've actually moved toward. Efficiency in those meetings now that that was in. Eighteen and nineteen of course in twenty. COVID come on right and just kind of. You know that we're talking about out liars I would say that. twenty twenty and twenty twenty one I've been out liars in two different directions in twenty twenty. Our meetings were. Almost nonexistent we we had to meet in fiscal session we really. abbreviated that session we had a three day special session and so our meeting time was drastically reduced. In twenty twenty because of code. inversely because of covid. In twenty twenty one. We ended up having a very long session. And then we had something that we haven't done in the modern era and that was we took an extended recess. And came back into a regular session in the fall and that was because of COVID in that the census bureau was not able to produce the numbers that we needed for congressional redistricting the legislatures task with the congressional redistricting. Not not their own and not downtowns are the Senate districts that's the Board of reapportionment but. it is the duty of the legislature well you can't do that if you don't have the census numbers. Also the. American recovery plan ACT we didn't know how much money that Arkansas was going to receive from that and so because of those two factors we had to recess. And come back in and deal with the appropriations. For arpa and also for the redistricting which we we did September twenty ninth th and. several days following that so that that created an issue we also the reason we went from January eleventh to April the twenty eight this year was because of the covid. inconveniences that we had to have to make sure that that this was still open. open session to the public where that they could come to committee meetings and we try to be as openness is we could be under those restrictions and that. That call some time delays also we had a week in there where we were at subzero blizzard conditions were we couldn't meet. And so that it causes to have that extended session to through that period of time that a special session back in August. And we anticipate we're going to have to have a special session before the first of the year. So that makes this year and now are in the inverse of of last year because we've had so many things that have come Addis. It's kind of like if you take a week off from work and when you come back to work you seem like you get three weeks of work to do and that's sort of what happened to us in the legislature is we were off that year as far as meetings we we met. DO Matt as necessary but we paired it way down then we're having to catch back up with that this year so as far as trending in any direction I don't think you can use those the this year nor last year. As saying well we're moving in one direction more meetings are less meetings because those are out wire years you'd have to go back to nineteen again the Speaker it instituted in the program. A more efficient use of legislative term. So The handout that that we have. that we presented I'm all it but if you will speak to you all about the. Historical context of whether we're meeting more or less or whatever great. Turn on your microphone okay thank you thank you have. Your chair members of the commission of property and be here the hand at that Mr Ragland was describing is a list of the Legislative dates it goes back to nineteen sixty nine this this is that is maintained by the beer legislative research inspiration the Legislative summary of actions at the end of each regular session the if you if you look at the last page that that is two thousand from the eighty fifth General Assembly to the ninety third General Assembly the the the dates of the regular sessions or are generally in the eighty ninety day range you begin the second Monday in January and then just rattling off the may thirteenth may first may first April twenty seventh may seventeenth in twenty thirteen April twenty second may first April twenty fourth it as you can stand in this one was April twenty eighth so as you can see the the date range for the regular session is is pretty up this state real dynamic it it's a it was pretty pretty steady and that we stop for a long time thought that was a result of us having bill filing deadlines and and this is that what we did waive their bill filing deadlines a few years ago in the link to the session remain the same so that that kind of worked out I guess the point is the regular sessions lasted about is long as it takes for them to get all the work done and there's not a there's not a I've as I've seen no indication of great desire to be up here in session longer than is needed I've heard you know chatter on the street talk about what they just will be in Little Rock for meetings with the record dead and dead and doesn't reflect that it. All is Mr Ragland said the bill would last you twenty twenty. Best of fiscal session year we the genie of traditionally don't made in in session that many days and we've only had fiscal session since twenty ten so the the the fiscal session last year was greatly appreciated in fact the house representatives we pulled up stakes and moved out to UALR and made in their gymnasium because this was in April the beginning of the pandemic we really weren't sure what. You know what was happening and no nobody really wise and we are we're taking every precaution can imaginable to to protect the membership and make sure that we were still able to fulfill the constitutional duty of meeting added on a given date and enacting laws and as as required and and recording all the yeas and nays for the journal and that says a lot of roll call C. with that we did Mr Ragland you know verbally call the call the roll which with a hundred members can be we we we gain new appreciation for electronic voting machine during the time we were at it UALR so I hope these these numbers just revealed you know the the the steadiness of the meeting dates of the of the General Assembly and as Mr Ragland mansion the the. The part of the legislative work you don't see so much of compared to when we're in session and then one I like to note that the House representative since twenty ten has streamed all the all the proceedings of of the of the sessions of the the committee meetings in the in the interim all that so streamed into an available for the public so that's a visible part of the legislative work the invisible part is there a. It in their capacity as a representing the people of member services we have a by above the. The. Data that Ben miss Garrity presented the comparison other states. Arkansas this is kind of considered to be a hybrid. The legislature is not it's not full time like California Pennsylvania New York but neither is it part time like but New Hampshire New Mexico Montana place like that were you know there's there's those those to the the spectrum those of the book hands we're kind of in the middle of our. Some states have the individual staff for individual members of the legislature we don't we have a lot of staff pool that provides multiple the the services for multiple members of the General Assembly our office of a member services for instance in the. twenty six seventeen had a case load of more than six thousand. you know instances of of cask carried out on behalf of the members of those numbers the six thousand forty six hundred thirty nine hundred twenty twenty was sixty dollars sixty four hundred and it so far this year almost fifty three hundred cases then that's our staff do and work for the individual members that we are recording as a as is being done that does not include the multitude of phone calls and is you know personal encounters that they each of these members have with their constituents both when they're in Little Rock working and when they're at home so that's that's kind of a DO digestive what about the workloads that that I see. Could I ask you this question and and. I'm really appreciate that we heard this information needed here this. Of. And there's no there's no way it is applied trick read this question is it's just right his fist on the House is I listen to this it it speaks to me in terms of not only are you not part time. But it's almost as if we're facto of our. And accidentally moved us where we almost are full time do you share that. Of all that's not what I think that's what I hear people say we're we're. We're no longer a part time legislature and I don't know what what the truth matter is about it it is not we're trying to find something here we're trying to understand so here because a lot of our work way beyond I thank at When we thank of legislate tors we're thinking members that come in my clause again the duties of the state representative or for far more comprehensive than just being a law maker. I don't think we're moving toward being a full time law making body. I thank the duties of a of a state representative once they're elective elected and I can tell you from having been one for six years it is a full time job right it you have to be on call twenty four seven to your constituents so yes But as the historical record plays out we're not necessarily meeting any more than we have. In recent history. But as far as R. as their duties yes it is a basically a a full time. Because you don't know tomorrow I mean you can schedule out of for example right now we we generally know when the special session is going to be but you can't plan on taking off and going on Christmas vacation next month because we don't know when exactly the special session would be because the constitutional authority to call that is a governor's. So you have to. Plan. Your lives around these meetings whether they're. Legislative Council where they're audit whether they're joint meetings or whatever they are and also you have that constituent. Issues back home you may have to go to a quorum court meeting you may have to go to the school board meeting mapco to the city council meetings. Library boards fire departments all kinds of things that you have to go to so as far as is saying their duties or not. Full time and yet they have to they may have a full time job to they may be an attorney they may be a banker a farmer. Housewife a school teacher superintendent whatever they may be then they have to work these duties around around those so it depends on. the view point where you're looking at it from whether it's a full time legislature. Lawmaking NO but in other duties they are or are there any of this will be my last question in that good information we really appreciate your your sharing all that was of. Are there benefits bow wave retirement or anything I don't care what it is that uh is paid to the house of the Senate by way of benefits retirement dental any this kind of thing that would make the legislatures being compensated now as if they were full time well members of the legislature. are members of the papers the Arkansas public employee retirement system. If my memory serves me correctly you have to have ten years of service to be vested that was very unfortunate during my day because I was term limited to six years so there's no way unless I got elected to the Senate. And then I could serve some time in the Senate. So yes there's there's There are members the a person so there is a retirement and it'll be based on like every other state employee on your three highest years there are healthcare benefits that the you get the state employee benefits just like any other state employee but they hold out just like they do for all of the state employees so So yes they do have those same benefits that's available. but they're just like any other state employee on on that. Thank you again for your full and thorough of. Motion to the commission I want to express my appreciation to as I mentioned earlier some of us know what we've done but we don't know what the other constitutional officers are doing. And I really appreciate this meeting date summary. And and. What I'm what I'm seeing here is the distinction your may Roy between legislating and duties of a representative. And on this when you say FES what does that FES stand for that is the acronym for the first extraordinary session okay in the ANC's the second extraordinary now I think there's one instance and the third extraordinary session okay that I just wanted to understand the the Well as your lingo. I I have many friends who have served in the legislature. And I have yet to understand how you can hold down a full time job and be a legislator or. It is probably the reason some lawyers don't run. Because they can't serve their practice in their clients properly I've heard one recently saved just can't do it just just not doing either job the best to the best of their ability. So. I guess what I'm asking is how how do I do how do these of representatives and senators hold down jobs I mean do you have a feel for that or is that just a rhetorical question that there's no answer to. Well I think it's it is. There's a hundred different answers in the House represent is because we have a hundred members. but you have a very valid point our attorneys. that are members it takes away from their practice and doctors say doctors I know we have a couple of doctors one emergency room doctor and he he works his schedule. Around the meetings that he knows he's going to have to be at that week farmers you know right in the in January February March and April when they need to be out feeding cattle or other you know the row crop farmers they they work around their harvest in the fall and planning in the spring and so teachers some of them have to take leave. Of absence for their duties and it's just each one has to make that decision. Based on their own their own sister and child care yeah and you just name it so when you look at the salaries that. This this is not some exorbitant amount that they're getting paid axle or not doing anything really thinking they were underpaid in my view but that's my view I don't for the commission because I think you you take a hit in some other areas. Financially to do that to be a public service and so I wish I am just very appreciative of of I mean I I kind of knew it but I. You know I think it's important to put it out there also for the public to understand what public service means So I once again I appreciate you coming forward and this was not the reason we ask for this information was because no legislator or ever ask for a raise and we understand why it you know it's not politically appropriate and in many ways so all we were hearing was the judges asking for their their appropriate raised and I just I think the commission has a duty to take care of the legislatures to in the senators where even though they don't ask for it because I think you can get really out of whack. Thank you. It was. All right. Thank you for. Business. Anything else on the general. Now is now out this was more of an informational meeting. As opposed to an action meeting thank you for. I'll close. But it is a life to repeat with Gloria The whole purpose of the. Repeating what you've already heard the whole purpose is. Is is we discussed here a couple meetings ago this we needed to read this is a standard by which we're trying information wise to make the right decisions about all these different constituency come under our our of. The duties here is the commission warnings more or less or leaving it is it is whatever chosen the. It if this is not to try to ferret out whether or not somebody gets more somebody list today we're just trying to understand and I will repeat to you if I had it to do over again I would saw again myself early in this process to do this the very first year within the first ninety days that we convene this because it would have been more helpful to us but having got and now then that puts us in a better position to come into the new year next year ones when it's time or maybe if we need to route of this again during the. During the special session I don't know. I thank you all again for your time and patience and coming this far too to listen what we need here. I and I I wanna say with respect to the other constitutional officers like the auditor of state the secretary of state of the lieutenant governor I presume. Their duties are listed out in a statute. Is that correct. Okay so what I'd like is for us to be provided the statutes with those particular duties listed out. On usually that's the way it's done and it may be part of our part of it in the constitution I'm not sure. I mean I can go look it up but I I think everybody. Yeah. The reference Arkansas then maybe not full time but not part time but hybrid hybrid so are these other states. This. All this is. Right. So I guess my question with with the what I'll what I will Louisiana Missouri Oklahoma Tennessee would they be considered hybrids will. Or or not was was you talking about I don't know well actually from the discussion that Roy was giving he listed off real part time legislators and none of these were included in the states he mentioned if you there full time he mentioned those first yeah you know. No but I mean I'm those that are really part time. As opposed to hybrid. I would I mean looking at their salaries. That's got to be hybrid. You know it. It It. In terms of. I don't know I mean I think we could. We can asked if we could ask Roy. Four if you look at whether these other states Iowa Louisiana Missouri Oklahoma Tennessee are also hybrid similar to Arkansas. It is this a matter of record we will work with you on this one on one the. Thank yeah yeah. This. So I'm clear on what you're saying hybrid you're talking about We're not full time or not really part time either we're somewhere in the in the sole so if the I thank I think that's correct I don't know that I fully with you know what you said about these are all hybrid or a story I I can't say that for sure I'm just it on what was on the ones you mentioned he said New Mexico it's really part time you know there were different from New Mexico but If we could just confirm. That. Whether or not there hi read or really part time. You're just jumping just from a comparative data yes grand view I think we can we can do that and we. Yeah on the national conference of state legislatures there's a really thinking how this color coded read this is Tom will pay large staff writers have rich in gold is part time at a small staff so could you give a tell us if Iowa is gray. Yeah. This is not liable. In my knowledge of geography you see how which I'll be isn't it yes it the Iowa Louisiana Missouri and Louisiana. Arkansas is right okay. Most of these I know I was Mrs. Okay. So what's your hurry right. So Oklahoma is Randy Tennessee Is grad. And. I. above the sorry would be I would also okay so they're all great all the states in answer to your question or on the hiring. Yes I just found this okay I wait is the majority of them are. Yeah.