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Speaker 2
0:46
you.
Thank you. would find their place. We've got about
Speaker 19
2:49
co-chair kavanaugh do you have anything all right thank you all for
Speaker 20
2:56
attending and And if we can, just go to the method of finance,
Speaker 22
3:03
if you would. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Katie Walden, Bureau of Legislative Research, Fiscal Division.
Speaker 23
3:09
Good afternoon, members. Beginning on item B for methods of finance, you'll see the letter that we received from Mr. Daniel Brassert from DFA Accounting.
They are presenting five methods of finance for your review today. On the next page, you'll see a detailed schedule of those requests. I'll go over them with you now. Number one is from ASU Jonesboro. This is an increase to an existing MOF for clock tower and audio upgrades. They're increasing this MOF by $42,000, and they use all university reserves. Number two, also with ASU Jonesboro, this is a new MOF valued at $10.5 million. They're using a combination of hired grants and university reserves funding.
And this is for the Careers Research Education and Skills Training Center. Number three with ASU Jonesboro, this is the A-State Meat Lab Snack Stick line. This is a new MOF for $750,000 using a grant they received from the Office of Skills Development. Number four is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This is a $1.7 million MOF. They're going to use UAMS revenues. And this is related to expenses for the separation of their retail pharmacy and specialty pharmacy.
They want to enclose the specialty pharmacy into a closed-door facility of approximately 6,500 square feet. Number five is with UAA Monticello. This is a new MOF valued at $496,000 using private gifts for the installation of new scoreboards. These are the methods of finance, Mr. Chair. Senator Rice
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:13
Now I'm on. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any opposition to this. Could the staff tell me what that number
Speaker 32
5:28
three was again? I wanted to hear that one one more time. this is
Speaker 19
5:41
the a state meat lab snack stick line thank you mr. chair that's good anybody else have any questions on b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 see no
questions without objection these items are reviewed see under discretionary grants see one Thank You mr. chair this takes us to the discretionary
Speaker 23
6:05
grants and item C of your packet item C one or two grants that we received from the Department
Speaker 36
6:14
of Health these are two both federal funded grants one is to the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership and the others to engaging Arkansas communities the first one is for coverage and services relating to
hypertension and high cholesterol prevalent areas in the state and service provide provision in that area and the second one is for quality improvement and performance improvement support and expertise by participating in the AR primary care registry program which is the state portal
Speaker 37
6:43
for the American Board of Family Medicine prime registry these are the
Speaker 39
6:50
grants for Department of Health Any questions from members on C1?
Speaker 19
6:57
Seeing none, without objection we will consider that reviewed. Go to C2, Department of Human Services.
Speaker 22
7:03
Thank you, Mr. Chair. C2 are the DHS subgrants. There are quite a few, but I
Speaker 36
7:09
will try to group them for like purpose. Beginning on item C, page two, you'll see there are grants number one through
Speaker 23
7:19
number six are all with DHS, Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health Services, to various service providers around the state to provide for the implementation of the Partnership for Success Program. And these are all to help reduce the onset and progression of substance abuse in the state, as well as providing mental health promotion services.
so that takes us over to page four in item c grant number seven is also with dhs division of aging adults and behavioral health this is a grant to centers for youth and families i'll also mention grants number eight and number nine are also to other service providers in the state all three of these are for assisting homeless individuals who have serious mental illness to obtain adequate housing takes
Speaker 36
8:08
us over to item c page 5 number 10 dhs division aging adults and
behavioral health this is a 2.5 million dollar grant for intensive in-home services to families going through addiction recovery number 11 division of aging adults and behavioral health with the alcoholism and drug counselors incorporated this is to work towards medicaid billing for peers peer support ethics testing and certification of drug counselors and alcohol counselors number 11 division of aging adults and behavioral health this is a increase of a $200,000 grant to the Arkansas Alliance of Recovery Residents this is for houses building
infrastructure for families with hard to reach populations number
Speaker 23
8:50
13 is a grant to the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and this is for government performance and results act survey implementation number 14 is a grant to chess mobile health this is an increase in a grant for technology-based services and access to rural health and recovery partnerships number 15 division of aging adults and behavioral health with river valley medical wellness this is to increase an agreement to address the opioid crisis at the local community level through evidence-based
strategies and i will group the next few
Speaker 36
9:21
grants together these are number 16 through number 19 these are all with the dhs division of youth services these are various grants ranging from 12 to 20 000 and they are aimed at helping youth through community service projects sports programs life skills training and other non-traditional learning experiences throughout the state as well as job training and
Speaker 23
9:49
finally that takes us to number 21 with dhs division of youth services
this is also an increase to an existing grant it's federal for the relevant education and life skills program these are the
Speaker 39
10:08
grants for dhs mr chair is there any questions on
Speaker 19
10:13
c2 on those 21 anybody like seeing none without objection we'll consider those reviewed
Speaker 6
10:21
c3 the department of agriculture promotion board beef council thank
Speaker 42
10:26
you mr. chair c3 are four discretionary grants that we receive
Speaker 36
10:31
from the department of agriculture arkansas beef council all four of these grants are funded with special revenues and they are aimed at the promotion of the beef industry in schools through providing youth programs, educational training. They sponsor the Beef in the Classroom program, Arkansas Ag in the Classroom program, and the Ag Learning Center.
Speaker 23
10:54
These are the discretionary grants for the Beef Council, Mr. Chair. Is
Speaker 19
11:00
there any questions on any of those under C3?
Seeing none, without objection, we'll consider those reviewed. Go to D1. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This takes us to
Speaker 23
11:16
the contract section of our meeting. In the item D of your packet, you'll see a cover letter from the Office of State Procurement Director, Jessica Patterson. In this letter, she
Speaker 36
11:29
lets the committee know of a few things. First, she states that all of the contracts that are presented for your review today were found to be procured properly, with the exception of one.
You will have one ratification that you will review here shortly, and I'll go over that in greater detail. She also provides the list, as requested in the September 2024 ALC meeting, of all the contracts that were
Speaker 23
11:54
procured using the MAP method or the traditional RFP method. And then on the second page of that letter, you will see an update on the rule promulgation. You'll remember OSP is going about updating the procurement law to be in conjunction with recent legislation that was passed they state that they are just about finished with that
promulgation process and it will go before the governor's office for review and then it will come before this subcommittee before going to the rules subcommittee finally you'll see their quarterly training and certification report also as part of the overhaul of the procurement process this committee tasked osp with reporting how they are doing with establishing agency trainings in their new procurement process and also giving you all a report of participation so you'll see that information there of their progress so far in setting those training programs up as well as
the agencies that have participated in these training programs so that's the letter next item d1 is on d page d4 this is the ratification letter that we received from the department of public safety. In this letter, the Department of Emergency Management states that they were previously engaged with a contract with COMSIS for IT services, and that the old contract was properly procured, and they were under the impression that it was exempt by law, and so they engaged
with COMSIS again to renew their services as well as to expand some of the services provided. The Office of State Procurement found, upon further review, that the contract, because of some of the services that were added, needed to go before review. They were no longer exempt by law. And so because of that, the Department of Emergency Management is committed to continue with this contract through 2026. and so they're asking for this committee to ratify the contract and to review to
Speaker 42
13:56
review all the parts of the contract today so that is the ratification
Speaker 6
14:07
mr. chair is there any questions seeing none I'll entertain a motion motion
Speaker 19
14:13
by representative ladyman second by senator McKee all in favor say aye all opposed like son thank you go on to d2 thank you mr. chair d2 is on page d5
Speaker 36
14:29
this is a request for qualifications from the Department of Human Services Office of Procurement this is an RFQ valued at 83.8 million dollars over three years for community mental health center services dhs states that the office of substance abuse and mental health they seek approval to issue a multiple award request for qualifications this will identify qualified community mental health centers interested in providing mental health treatment services for individuals who have no payer that's the rfq for
Speaker 55
15:02
today. Thank you. Representative Rose. I just
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
15:10
wanted to ask a question of somebody from the department of how this compares to previous, whether annual amounts or three-year budgets, how it stacks compared to the previous times. Someone from the department here.
Speaker 19
15:32
please introduce yourself and you recognize my name
Speaker 60
15:41
is Paula stone I'm with Department of Human Services office of substance abuse and mental health could you
Paula Stone
Unverified
15:49
all ask that question again I heard but I was kind of getting my
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
15:53
stuff together no it's just fine thank you it says 83 million and change over three years just shy of 28 million a year is that the way that's extrapolated out is it 28 roughly 28
million a year or is there something that it's a front loaded for or back loaded for and how does this compare to the
Paula Stone
Unverified
16:13
previous three years um so the the contract is coming it's been a seven-year contract it's coming to an end the only real fluctuation in any funding going to the community mental health centers has been we've received some federal funding it's in the form of a block grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And so some years we get a little more money, some years we get a little less.
And so that would be the only fluctuations that happen. But it is standard, about $28 million a year has been for the last seven years, and it would be for the next three. Okay, that was what
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
16:46
I was going to ask. You said something about it being a seven-year contract. So is it actually a 10-year contract then?
Paula Stone
Unverified
16:52
So we are ending that seven years. We're at the end of our seven years. We'll be at the end of our seven years in July or the end of June of 26. So this is a new procurement for the same types of services. There will be some adjustments.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
17:07
So is it a new seven-year contract, and we're just looking at the first three years, or is
Speaker 68
17:12
it a three-year contract? It is a three-year contract this
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
17:16
go-round. And you're saying it's roughly the same amount of money you're not needing to pull
from or have pulled from other areas in order to fund this?
Paula Stone
Unverified
17:25
No, sir. This is the money that has always gone to our community mental health centers for our safety net providers for mental health services. I was going to say,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
17:35
just for the lay people in the room like myself, could you summarize it briefly, kind of what this program serves?
Paula Stone
Unverified
17:42
Yeah, so we have our state divided into 12 catchment areas covering all 75 counties. And so they have traditionally served individuals who are uninsured, and that shifts, you know, through the years it's shifted a bit. A big focus of this service, this go-around, is going to be our individuals who are in jail. As everyone knows, when you are arrested and in jail, your Medicaid turns off, your commercial insurance turns off,
And so there's no way to provide services, particularly for our individuals who have had a forensic evaluation and have been found unfit to proceed. So we provide a lot of treatment services. We provide services for those individuals, assessments, helping them become fit to stand trial unless they're going to or until they go into the Arkansas State Hospital or they may be able to be restored in a jail setting. So we do a lot of that work with that, those individuals being the primary group that is uninsured.
There's also some crisis work that is done with the community mental health centers for seriously mentally ill adults in communities. And so they have some funding that goes for the purchase of acute crisis beds if individuals are uninsured. And then some services going just to provide infrastructure in those particularly rural areas for hard-to-serve populations. And the seriously millennial adults, you know, they're so few in some of those very rural areas.
It makes it very difficult for anyone to start a business and really serve them all adequately. They have to be pursued to some degree. They don't exactly come to a clinic. And so that's the other piece of the funding. So those are our main buckets of funding that we send out and ask for them to perform those kinds of services. All right, thank
Speaker 75
19:49
you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Ferguson.
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
19:52
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just two quick questions.
You've answered most of my questions that
Representative Rose had asked you. But the $83 million over the past three years, is that the same figure six years ago? Has the figure increased or decreased? The figure has
Speaker 60
20:13
stayed pretty much the same annually. Again, so sometimes we
Paula Stone
Unverified
20:16
get a little bit more money from our Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. So some of the source of this funding is federal.
And when we get those changes, sometimes we get a little bit more money. Then that money might change in any given year. But it has remained pretty much the same. So three years ago, it
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
20:37
could have been down or it could have
Paula Stone
Unverified
20:41
been up. and we can absolutely look back to see if there was any fluctuations in that
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
20:46
funding and then the other question in terms of the grants going to the different regions is that based on their population or is that based on the number of participants they're currently serving maybe the previous year or how
Paula Stone
Unverified
20:58
how does that work yeah so in the past has been based strictly on population but one of the things that we have learned in this go-round is that and in looking at that is that it doesn't quite help our individuals in rural areas with serious mental illness as I was talking about you know that that makes it much more difficult there are difficult to serve population to begin with and then is the difficulty in building a business in a rural area to serve a
very few individuals, you know, if you have 10 people with serious mental illness that you need to serve and some of them are in one of our 72 jails and then some of them are, you know, spread across 100 miles. It makes it very difficult. So we looked at a new formulary this year and worked really hard on it. That formulary being we would adjust for the rural nature. We also adjusted for the number of seriously mentally ill adults in any area. So it's a little bit more complicated than just census so we've we've come up with a new way to divide those funds I asked that question
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
22:03
one final question Mr. Chair if you please I
have a larger community health center in my area and then in the rural part of my district there's a little bitty one and so that little bitty one is not receiving kind of support so what you're telling me is that with this new formula it may help them a little bit more that that is what
Speaker 60
22:26
we're seeing is is that and we can share that with you we we worked really hard to say okay how do we divide this money
Paula Stone
Unverified
22:34
in a way that does exactly
what you're saying is supports are very small agencies that are serving a very few people and would never have the volume of population to really be able to stand up a large business mr. chair if it'd be all right if she could share that
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
22:49
with the staff and they send it to the members I can see that information. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you Representative Vaught. Thank you,
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
23:01
Mr. Chair. How can you remind me how many centers there are? So there are 12
Paula Stone
Unverified
23:07
Organizations and they have some Facilities or a clinic in each of their areas We just did some work this last year If they have one they we don't have them having one in each and every county But if they have something within a certain mile radius, I can get you the number of clinics they have in each of the counties as well, if that's what's needed. Yeah, I'd like to know each county. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 93
23:37
Representative Rose. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
23:41
had a quick follow-up. It's page six, but I think it's the second page from you guys on D2. Under the providers shall serve the following populations in the delivery of crisis services. item b on there it talks about uh all persons in the custody of dcfs who are not a member of a pass it says a community setting includes without a limitation a home or foster home school or dcfs
office how does this intertwine with with working with like the mdt's and local cac's how does this incorporate with
Paula Stone
Unverified
24:19
that so generally this is around a mental health crisis um and so Those kind of crises are that the child is displaying symptoms, maybe suicidal, or perhaps that they are having behaviors that are extreme, which would put them in a psychiatric hospital.
Generally, it's kind of separate from those. We call it the DCFS population because they need some special services, so they have mental health conditions probably at a much higher rate than the general population. Um, it's separate from the MDT work. So following an incident, some type
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
24:57
of abuse, something awful in the life of a child, a lot of times this comes out
through an interview at a local, like at a local CAC, if that is
discovered and, and, and a break or something like that happens in the care of like a CAC, are you guys not looped in? Would this not be
Speaker 60
25:21
a service in that situation? So if there's a, like you're saying, if
Paula Stone
Unverified
25:26
they've identified that somebody while at the CAC has become suicidal or needs immediate psychiatric care, then we could do that. I don't know. I need to go back and make sure that there's a direct call that can be made.
But yes, if there's something that's identified while being interviewed by the CAC and there's suicidality or something that is very concerning, which would indicate a need for immediate psychiatric care in a hospital, they could go out. I
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
25:59
know that this encompasses a lot of very important work, life-saving situations. I wonder
if it would be possible for you to provide us at your earliest convenience just like a ratio or percentages of where you guys get the referrals for these,
where it's talking about children who are not on a pass, like how do they come into your care in this situation? Is it CAC? Is it law enforcement? Is it a hospital? I'd like to know how that's happening. Absolutely. That's something you think you could
Paula Stone
Unverified
26:34
provide? we can i can i do have reports on the number of screenings they do and then the number of beds they purchase um for uninsured individuals okay and
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
26:44
where where you guys get them from
kind of how they're referring to you and the
Speaker 19
26:52
referrals that come in all right thank you thank you mr chair thank you members seeing no other questions uh with that information being provided to representative ferguson and and representative rose uh i entertain a motion motion in a second by representative rose motion by senator or representative painter all in favor say aye all opposed like sign thank you
Speaker 55
27:15
members uh go on to d3 thank you mr chair d3 is on
Speaker 23
27:24
eight of item d these are the construction related contracts for your review today there are 11. contracts number one and two are both with arkansas tech university for on-call architectural services with amr architects and witzel evans rasco both valued at nine hundred thousand dollars contract three four and five are all with
Speaker 36
27:46
department of parks heritage and tourism state parks and tourism divisions also all three of these are for on-call architectural services
for the agency contract number six is with department of parks heritage and tourism with wittenberg deloney and davidson this is for architectural services for the renovation of war memorial stadium number seven is with dps division of emergency management with vertical structures this is amendment two to an existing contract and this is engineering design services for
Speaker 23
28:17
the refurbishment of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network, AWIN, towers across the state. Number eight is with Henderson State University with Riley Hayes Roofing. This is
for roofing services for the university for $1 million. Number nine is with SAU Tech. This is amending an existing contract for new construction planning and design services relating to the forthcoming emergency medical services building and restroom facility located at the Arkansas Fire Training Academy. Number
Speaker 36
28:44
10 is with University of Arkansas and Architecture Plus. This is amendment one to an existing contract. This contract is for architectural services related to the maintenance building and wood shop construction project for the Arkansas School
for Mathematics, Sciences, and Arts. Number 11, University of Arkansas with Building and Earth Geotechnical, Environmental, and Materials Engineers. This is for on-call geotech engineering services these are the construction contracts mr.
Speaker 39
29:14
chair any questions on those 1 through 11 representative Kavanaugh thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
29:23
you mr. chair this is really for staff on item number 10 this morning we held until Friday U of A and
Mathematics school does this contract need to be held also I would like to
include both of these hold to Friday till we figure out what's going on in here
Speaker 6
30:05
also if we can for those without objection we'll hold we'll consider
Speaker 53
30:09
reviewed one through nine and and number 11 and hold number 10 until Friday without objection all right we're going to d4 thank you mr. chair item d4 the intergovernmental
Speaker 36
30:28
contracts for your review today. There are four. Number one is a contract between the Department of Health and UAMS. This is an original contract valued at $549,000. This is for
the UAMS Division of Family and Preventative Medicine to offer quality improvement and performance improvement support and expertise by participating in the AR Primary Care Registry, the state portal for the American Board of Family Medicine. Number
Speaker 23
31:00
two is with ZHS, Division of Medical Services, also with UAMS. This is for an extension and
Speaker 36
31:06
to revise performance indicators to continue the antenatal and neonatal guidelines, education and learning system and stroke assistance through virtual emergency support.
Number three, with UA Little Rock and ASU Jonesboro. Three and four are both between UA Little Rock and ASU Jonesboro. Both are original contracts, and both are for the provision of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center programs. This is federally funded through a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and this is for the provision of entrepreneurial and small business services within two geographic territories. These are the intergovernmental contracts, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 19
31:48
Any questions on D4? Any of those four? seeing none without objection those are reviewed go to d5 out-of-state contracts thank you mr. contract
Speaker 42
31:59
thank you mr. chair contracts for out-of-state contracts begin on item
Speaker 23
32:04
d page 14 there are 24 contracts in this section number one is with the public service commission with daymark energy advisors this is amending an existing contract for analysis and evaluation of the technical and economic issues related to the utility industry
Number two is with Department of Commerce, AEDC. They're amending an existing contract with the Boston Consulting Group. And this increases this contract by $29.7 million. And it is for the execution of the BEAD program
Speaker 36
32:36
and support of AR Connect, which is the broadband program. Number three,
Speaker 23
32:42
Department of Corrections with WellPath. This is Amendment 2 to the existing contract. And this changes the scope of the contract to add specialized care for female offenders housed at the Women's Health Unit.
Speaker 36
32:56
Number four, Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality, with Deloitte Consulting. This is an original contract for services related to the E&E Mining Reclamation Program. Number five, Department of Energy, Environment, Oil and Gas Commission, also with Deloitte Consulting. This is to execute the Davis-Bacon Compliance Monitoring Program to monitor contractor and subcontractor wages throughout the state.
Speaker 23
33:28
On the next page, contract number six with Department of Health and Information Management Services. This amends an existing contract for hosting and maintenance services for the SEER DMS, which stands for Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Database Management System. And this is for the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry. Number seven with Department of Health. This is an existing contract amended for WESTAT Incorporated. This is
Speaker 36
33:58
for services relating to continue the Certified Tumor Registry, Quality Assurance Services, and the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry.
Number eight, DHS-DCFS with Evident Change. This is an amendment to an existing contract to provide and to continue quality improvement reviews of cases. Number nine, DHS-DDS with EGA Associates. This is for Psychological Examiner Services for the Conway Human Development Center. Number 10, DHS-DDS with Samaritan Integrative. This is Amendment 4 for an existing contract for psychiatric services at the Arkadelphia Human Development Center. On the next page, number 11, DHS-DMS with Keystone Peer Review Organization.
Speaker 23
34:40
This is a new contract. It is a special procurement, so you will find in your packet the yellow letters. There is a letter from OSP describing the reason for this special procurement, and this is to administer prior authorization and retrospective review services for behavioral health, developmental disabilities, and aging and adult Medicaid populations statewide. Number 12, Department of Military with SHI International Corp. This is for Infotech Research Group services relating to IT research, advisory services, and diagnostic tools to support IT leadership.
Number 13, DTSS, Building Authority with Republic Services. This
Speaker 36
35:19
amends an existing contract for Waste Disposal Services. Number 14, DTSS with the Building Authority. This contract is with S&S Management. It amends an existing contract for Unarmed Guard Services at the three Division of Building Authority
Speaker 23
35:36
locations in Little Rock. Number 15, DTSS with DIS with Ondaro, LLC. This is an original contract, and it is for the State Office of Technology to have a multi-phased implementation of the ServiceNow Enterprise Platform for cabinet-level executive branch departments, and it is related to digital transformation for state agencies.
Number 16, Southeast Arkansas College with Bernard MCC, LLC. This is for energy cost reduction measures at
Speaker 36
36:06
the college. on the next page number 17 ddssa with trinity tree this is a 298 000 original contract for medical consultant services for the agency number 18 university of arkansas with carisoft this is an original contract for 914 000 this is for the facilitation of the budget development process
as well as the creation of forecasting and commitment models for u of a number 19 university of Arkansas with Presidio Network Solutions. This is a $1 million contract for the U.A. Fayetteville Wireless Network Refresh Project. Number 20, University of Arkansas with PTO Inc. DBA PTO Exchange. This is to allow U of A to access a self-service portal relating to the administration of the university's leave exchange program established
Speaker 23
37:02
by a board policy 420.8. Number
21, University of Arkansas with VIA TRM. This is an original contract to provide a platform to facilitate and manage as well as provide oversight and compliance for the study abroad participants and international students visiting scholars. Number 22, U of A with VIP Special Services. This is amending an existing contract for window washing at the University of Arkansas. Number 23, UA Little Rock with Jeffrey Skiba. This is a new contract for $50,000 and this This gentleman will provide guidance to the UA Little Rock Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Services.
So just providing professional oversight services for this integration. Number 24, UAPB with Ecolab. This is for pest control services to the university. These are
Speaker 37
37:48
the out-of-state contracts, Mr. Chair. Representative Richardson. Yes, sir, Mr.
Scott Richardson
Unverified
37:57
Chair. I just would like to talk to someone with the Office of State Technology, number 15.
Speaker 123
38:17
Jay Harton, Director of Office of State Technology and State Chief Information Officer.
Speaker 124
38:23
James Caldwell, CFO, Shared Administrative Services. Thank you
Scott Richardson
Unverified
38:28
two for being here. Nice to see you again, Jay. So my question really revolves around a couple of different pieces. I did notice that this contract is still in a division of information systems as opposed to a state office of state technology rather. So is this ongoing? I know we've talked about it several times, and I'm just sort of looking for where we are in this. Is this finished or just starting?
Speaker 123
38:54
No, this is just starting. So this is taking us from our existing ITSM or IT service management tool that is the end of life of December 2026. So this will be the implementation of ServiceNow to replace that. So this is
Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:09
a full rework of the existing environment, and we're just at the beginning stages. So this contract is for the full amount? Yes. And ServiceNow is doing the implementation or a third party? third party
Speaker 123
39:21
we did an RFP and on Daro scored the highest on that okay so how
long is this contract expected to go we're hoping to have it well so we're going to do it in phases so the ITSM module which is the primary module that goes out of support in December of 2026 we should be completed with that by May of 2026 and then the next phase will also include the cyber security governance risk and compliance module along with the strategic portfolio management piece
Scott Richardson
Unverified
39:56
okay good and then overall the entire contract you expect to complete by
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
40:04
fabulous okay thank you very much representative kavanaugh thank you mr chair um my first question is going to be for the department of commerce um on item number
Speaker 134
40:44
two broadband Good afternoon, Allison Hatfield, Chief of Staff, Commerce.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
40:49
glenn howie state broadband director thank y'all for being here um we're asking to increase this by almost 30 million dollars i'm up here um prior it was 8.8 mil almost 8.9 mil why said the substantial increase yeah thank you representative
Speaker 136
41:08
great question so uh the the one year that we just ran through was eight point eight five million this is a four-year term for this renewal slash amendment so it'll be four years so eight eight five for years one and year two and then six for
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
41:25
years three and years four and what
Speaker 136
41:29
are you getting for this 30 million dollars yeah great question really is structured around five different work streams over the four-year period one is project oversight and grant management with our team policy compliance at both the federal and state levels enhanced technical assistance for our ISPs throughout the grant performance period proactive risk mitigation and issue resolution and lastly reporting and communications
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
41:56
okay we how much money have we spent on broadband in the
Speaker 136
42:00
state yeah to date if we take out the bead program because we're still working through that process right now it's over 500 million okay with the bead program how much have we spent the current preliminary grant selections in the bead program are 305 million so totaling it would be over 800 okay so we're nearing a billion dollars almost how much of the state is covered as of today there are 79,228 locations which are subject to our bead
program so at the high level there's about 1.36 million locations across the state and the bead program itself is intended to take care of the last remaining locations, and there are 79,228 locations that are part of the bead program that to date do not have broadband access and have not been issued a grant to date.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
42:51
How much of the state of Arkansas, in percentage, is covered with broadband service? What I
Speaker 142
42:56
would say is, because it's a nuanced, and it seems like a very
Speaker 136
43:02
simple question, but it's nuanced in that there's over 200,000 locations that have been awarded a grant
today that are not administered by our team, and so we don't have insight into the exact construction, you know, timelines as far as getting things done on those other projects, but there's less than 80,000 locations left that have not been built to and not had a grant yet, and those are the ones that are being taken care of in the BEAD
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
43:25
program. They may be built to it, but how much
of the state is not covered? I mean, bottom line is I want to know how much of the state is not covered by broadband, because we've been throwing money at this now forever. And I understand we have ability, we've had some opportunity,
but I also understand we've had some trouble with providers. So my question is, we're spending all this money. I can never get an answer whenever I ask this question because I repeatedly ask it. How much of the state of Arkansas is now covered with broadband service? Because I can tell you there's some that's not covered because it's in my district. So that's a question I want answered. is how much of the state is covered, and I want to know how much money we've spent to get this state.
I don't care what program it is. How much money have we spent to get this coverage of broadband to the state? And what problems are we having with providers? Because I'm hearing that we've had to stop some of them because of issues with providers. And I want to know what guidelines that we're doing, that if we have a provider who is not doing what they're supposed to do, how are we getting that money back from that provider? And are we going to have to spend money with another provider to finish up what that provider did not do?
There's a lot of issues going on in the broadband, and we're not getting the full picture of what's happening with that. So I guess I'm asking for transparency, because there is none. And we're spending $30 million with someone to help us with that. it's mind-boggling so with that Mr. Chair I'm going to ask that we hold this to Friday so y'all get that information
Speaker 39
45:21
together for me any other questions on number two no other
Speaker 19
45:30
questions representative Eubanks Thank you, mr. Chair. I would like us to hold
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
45:36
the contract number one with the Arkansas Public Service Commission There's a meeting this afternoon with Chairman Webb
and I'd like to see what comes out of that meeting before we take action on this contract All right,
Speaker 53
45:52
let's let's go on on through and we'll just put them all together
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
45:58
Representative Cavanaugh you have another yes, thank you mr. Chair. My last question is for item number six with
Speaker 19
46:28
Southeast Arkansas College just whenever you get situated just introduce yourself and and let
Speaker 153
46:32
Representative Kevin I'll ask a question. Debbie Wallace, Vice President for
Speaker 154
46:39
Fiscal Affairs Southeast Arkansas College. Allison Hunthret, Purchasing Specialist for Southeast Arkansas College. Thank y'all. My question is this and
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
46:45
you may not be able to answer it but if you can just get the information for me is on this energy program is there amount that we've actually saved because that was one of the things this was going to do was going to help us recoup some energy cost. Is
there anything that y'all have that shows how much we've been able to recoup or what you've been able to do?
Speaker 155
47:07
Thank you for the question. That's part of what we're here today to continue with the measurement and verification part of the contract. And to date, I believe we've saved close to $86,000 over the last year in our energy costs. And I can share those reports with you if you would like. They do
Speaker 157
47:29
generate a report. I bought the last one that I have available with me today, but it shows a
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
47:36
savings of $86,000 over the last year.
Okay. I'm really looking for the cost over the whole project. Right. So if you could get that information,
that would be great. Because we started it in 22, so I'd kind of like to know how it's been progressing now that we've had several years under
our belt to see if we're actually getting a return on the investment with them. Sure. We
Speaker 6
48:01
can get that to you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. any other
Speaker 53
48:06
questions on item 16 seeing none uh do you want to allow that one to go go on okay
so we're going to consider all reviewed except for one and two and we'll hold those till friday without objection no objection uh all out all items but one and two are reviewed go on to d6 thank you mr chair item d6 is
Speaker 23
48:37
on page 24 of your d packet this is the in-state
Speaker 36
48:42
contracts for your review today there are 17 the first one is department of corrections division of community correction with renew life center this is for community-based treatment services for a 74-bed re-entry facility in Little Rock number two Department of Corrections Division of Community Correction with wings to recover also an existing contract for a 24-bed male re-entry facility located in El Dorado number three Department of Corrections Division of Correction with ARG Aviation this is amendment eight to an existing contract for aerial application services for the
east arkansas regional farm on the next
Speaker 23
49:21
page number four department of corrections division of correction with methvin sanitation this is amendment seven to an existing contract for waste disposal services for the north central unit located at calico rock number five department of corrections division of correction with waste pro usa this is amendment six to an existing contract for waste disposal services in newport arkansas at the grimes and mcpherson units number six department of health with the arkansas hospital association
Speaker 36
49:47
this is a new contract it is a sole source by justification so you will see the letter in your yellow packet or golden rod this new contract is for the office to allow the office of health information technology to access proprietary dashboards that utilize hospital discharge data for the purpose of data analysis number seven dhs division of county operations with arkansas mailing services this amends an existing contract for mail processing services statewide for dco
number eight dhs dds with alexander tyler this is amendment three to an existing contract for the medical director position at
Speaker 23
50:29
the conway human development center number nine dhs dds with miss Karen A. Byers. This is amendment four to an existing contract, and she will provide psychiatric services at the Conway Human Development Center. Number 10, Department of Public Safety, Arkansas State Police with HMO Partners. This amends and increases an existing contract. This increases the
member account to $15.75 in this program. It also increases pricing from $52.70 to $54.80 for the health plan administration program for state police number 11 dps division of emergency
Speaker 36
51:05
management with compsus this is a new contract this is this goes with the ratification that you saw earlier this is a new contract valued at 70,332 dollars this is for it support services
for the department of emergency management including computer security monitoring support maintenance, as well as Microsoft Exchange and Skype services for up to 220 users. Number 12, DTSS with building authority with international business machines. This is for the implementation of the Maximo real estate and facilities management system and related software. Number 13, University of Arkansas with Cushman and Wakefield. This is amendment one to an existing contract for
Speaker 23
51:50
real estate advisory services for the university number 14 ua little rock with mangan holcomb partners
this is amendment 7 to an existing contract and this is for mangan holcomb to provide all kinds of public relations and marketing services including graphic design video and radio commercial production copywriting editing media buying broadcast print digital outdoor etc that takes us over to item d page 31 ua little rock with southern lawn services this is for landscaping services at the ua little rock campus number 16 with uams and miracle window cleaning this is an original contract for window cleaning
services at multiple locations on the ua campus and number 17 with the university of central arkansas with startup junkie also known as the conductor this is an original contract for $495,000 to become UCA's strategic partner for innovation and entrepreneurship. Deliverables will include technology transfer and innovation ecosystem development, programming and events, applied learning, and a student pipeline development for faculty, staff, and community impact building.
Speaker 53
53:11
Chair. Any questions on those 69s under D6? Seeing no questions without
Speaker 46
53:28
E1. Let's go to other business under F1.
Speaker 36
53:33
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are four items under other business for your review today. The first one is a member disclosure that we received from Arkansas Development Finance Authority. This disclosure was submitted on behalf of Senator Jim Petty. Senator Petty has partial ownership in a construction company that is currently working on a project called Patriot Park in Fayetteville. this project is
Speaker 23
54:02
ongoing and um so if the length of the project has been extended and so we will
continue to see disclosures as long as his interest in that project construction continues the project has been delayed due to heavy
Speaker 36
54:14
rain and bad weather and so we are receiving this disclosure again just stating his involvement in the project this is the member disclosure Mr. Chair. For approval. Any questions?
Speaker 6
54:32
All right. I'd like a motion for approval.
Speaker 19
54:39
Accept a motion for approval by Representative Ledeman. Second by Representative Ferguson. all in favor say aye all opposed like sign thank you let's go on to two under F thank you Mr. Chair
Speaker 23
54:57
a vehicle lease approval request from Black River Technical College you'll see on item F2 page 2 they submitted
Speaker 36
55:05
a letter to the committee they state that they have received
a federal grant valued at 1.6 million dollars and they hope with this federal grant to lease two 15 passenger transit vans over the course of two to three years and they will use those vans to bus students from local school districts around to their career and technical center for those students receipt to receive training so they
Speaker 50
55:35
are requesting your approval of their motor motor lease of those two
Speaker 39
55:41
vans any question on f2 saying none and accept a
Speaker 19
55:46
motion motion by representative ladyman second
by representative ferguson all in favor say aye all opposed like sign
Speaker 53
55:52
thank you members go to f3 thank you mr chair f3 are some
Speaker 36
55:58
additional discretionary grants that we added to our agenda they are from the arkansas
Speaker 23
56:04
arts council these are the arts council grants that you all see every year from the division of heritage and you will find a schedule of all of the grants
including the areas served the amount requested and the amount awarded these grants are funded through general revenue special revenue and conservation tax funding and the total award for this year is on page eight of eight or item f3 page nine and the amount awarded is 1.1 million dollars for the year and there's a number of them also at the end that are federally funded these are the arts council grants for your review today mr chair representative
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
56:49
Kavanaugh yeah thank you mr. chair is there someone from the Arts
Speaker 167
57:09
Council here more you're out more you're out director of the vision of heritage brazier watts our
Speaker 169
57:16
acting director of the Arts Council thank you for being here my
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
57:21
question is when I look through this when I'm going to look at Northeast Arkansas there's one grant for Northeast Arkansas and I think we've had this question numerous times and we've spoken about this is that this these grants don't seem to go equally to all parts of the state and I understand there's bigger populations in some area but what is the art council doing to reach out to these underserved areas and making sure organizations know that they can apply for these grants because it's been an
ongoing battle as long as i've been here i mean it's pretty bad when northeast arkansas gets one grant one for eighteen thousand dollars yes if i went and added up how much northwest got or central Arkansas got, it's a lot more. And although we might not be northwest Arkansas and we might not be central, but we do have some arts up there. And so does the south Arkansas. And there's no representation there. So I guess I get a little frustrated when this comes to us every time
because it's the same outcome every time. I mean, what do we need to do to make sure these organizations and other parts of the state are allowed to get some of this money because it's their tax dollars
Marty Ryall
Unverified
58:46
you're using. Yes, ma'am, and I know we've had this. Sorry. You think as many times I've been up here I'd know to push that button. Sorry about that. And we've had that discussion, and it was a couple years ago that we implemented where we have teams in the Arts Council
to go out into rural areas and conduct sessions to try to get more involvement. Brazier, I don't know if you can elaborate
Speaker 174
59:12
on that, but I know that's a program that we implemented a couple years
Speaker 168
59:18
ago. I will. Yes, so we did implement our Lunch and Learn series program. It's part of
Speaker 169
59:24
our Get Smart series. We go out into these communities that we've already targeted, that we have low interest, it seems, in our grant opportunities.
Of course, our grant opportunities are open to everyone, but we do have low interest in areas. And so we have started touring those areas as a group, introducing those areas to our grant offerings and to what we do as the Arkansas Arts Councils. Some areas are not as familiar with us and what we offer. And so we've been actually going into those communities. And we have had some results in some of the areas. But, yes, of course, we still have a lot of grant action coming from northwest Arkansas.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:00:12
So what communities have you gone out to and did outreach to and say,
Speaker 169
1:00:21
hey, we have these opportunities available for you? This particular year, we specifically targeted southeast when we also specifically targeted the Delta area. And so, oh, my goodness, we've gone from Marion to Helena to several cities in those areas.
And we've had good attendance, but we still haven't had as much action as we would love for people to actually apply. We are going to attempt to follow a model that we have been studying out of Ohio where they not only specifically go in and do workshops, but they target the mayors and elected officials in those areas to kind of help connect us with the right community leaders and individuals that would really apply for those grants.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:01:22
You know, from being from Northeast Arkansas and being involved in the arts community up there, I'm telling you, there's a lot more in Northeast Arkansas than the Foundation of Arts. I'm not being, you know, despairing of the Foundation of Arts. I'm glad they're there. We've got a granddaughter doing Nutcracker with them. But there's a lot more opportunity there. But nobody ever reaches out to these nonprofits and lets them know that this ability is out there. And we seem to give these grants to the same organizations year after year after year.
And we're not making any progress into getting it to other parts. And so that's something I really want to urge you to do is because you're using northeast Arkansas's money and we're not getting it back. And it needs to go back to northeast Arkansas because we need the assistance as much as northwest Arkansas does. Probably more so in the Delta, more so in part of the rural part of Arkansas than Northwest has. They have the ability to raise money up there where the more rural parts of the area do not. And so I really urge you to find a way that you have a more diverse group that you're giving these grants to
because it's the same ones over and over and over. And
Speaker 18
1:02:41
I appreciate it. Thank you. I'll add to that. In a lot of the small areas, the school does
Speaker 19
1:02:52
a lot of that training and arts, and then it bleeds over into the community, and then you'll create a foundation or something like that. So it may be something where you can touch in the school systems
in rural Arkansas and south Arkansas and northeast Arkansas. So that might be a good place to where, you know, if there is something in place in the community, the schools have that knowledge because that's the first place your kids are going to be introduced to art programming. Yes, Senator, since the last year, the focus on the Delta,
Marty Ryall
Unverified
1:03:31
we'll make a point this coming year to make sure we get up to northeast Arkansas
and provide some of these lunch and learn educational activities up there to get more activity up there. I just think, you know, schools is
Speaker 20
1:03:45
a good place, you know, whenever you're going into the community to have the invitation to go out to administrators and things like that. Thank you all. Thank you. Is there any other questions? Seeing none.
Speaker 6
1:04:07
on f3 without objection or we need a motion on that without objection uh we'll consider that taking care of f4 thank you mr short mr chair f4
Speaker 23
1:04:20
is an alternative delivery method construction project that was added after the agenda was posted to the web this is from the university of central arkansas it is a
Speaker 36
1:04:30
campus district loop and hydronics refresh project that's the name of the project the description states they want to spend up to 10 million dollars using capital
reserves for the construction of a new north chiller plant an upgrade to the existing south chiller plant at the university of central arkansas campus they have chosen kinko construction as their contractor the design professional is amr architects and they estimate they will complete this project in june of 2027 this is the alternative delivery method construction project mr. chair
Speaker 20
1:05:04
any question seeing none without objection that'll be approved
Speaker 6
1:05:21
item E is reports give you a minute to review those reports any questions
Speaker 53
1:05:40
on a seeing none without objection we'll consider those approved or reviewed
Speaker 6
1:05:46
any other business come before the committee. We are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
- Comments from Chairs
B. Methods of Finance
C. Discretionary Grants
D. Services Contracts for Legislative Review/RFQ Approvals
E. Reports and Communications
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Speaker 7
Speaker 6
Speaker 11
Speaker 13
Speaker 18
Speaker 19
Speaker 20
Speaker 22
Speaker 23
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 32
Speaker 36
Speaker 37
Speaker 39
Speaker 42
Speaker 55
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
Speaker 60
Paula Stone
Unverified
Speaker 68
Speaker 75
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 93
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
Speaker 53
Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 123
Speaker 124
Speaker 122
Speaker 134
Speaker 136
Speaker 142
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 153
Speaker 154
Speaker 155
Speaker 157
Speaker 113
Speaker 46
Speaker 50
Speaker 167
Speaker 169
Marty Ryall
Unverified
Speaker 174
Speaker 168