Arkansas Independent Citizens Commission
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- October 2, 2026
Rose Mims
Unverified
0:12
live and for others to be able to hear including the audience that is here and interested in our work and I want to thank you all for coming today we fortunately are coming to back into session and it's nice to see you again and I'm
obviously noticed that our our vice chair Tommy May is not here we will check on him later but according to Wendy he is she has not been able to reach him so perhaps keep him in your prayers and I would like to call the roll now and then I will declare a quorum so
starting Frank Gwyn Jan Zimmermann, Robert whose song thank you Larry Mcredy clarksmith good and myself and I will declare a quorum we have our minutes in your packet
from the last meeting which was on November vember 15 a fairly short meeting at that time to approve after publication of the commission's recommendations for salary adjustment and we set our meeting for today and of course when you set a meeting a year out you think it'll never come but it's here
I will entertain any amendments revisions corrections to the minutes And I would if no no amendments
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
2:31
I will entertain emotion Madam Chair, I'll move that the minutes from October
Speaker 8
2:40
25,2024 be approved? thank you a second we have
Rose Mims
Unverified
2:46
a motion and a second to approve
as drafted and he other comments questions before we
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
2:55
take a vote if not, I will ask for everyone who agrees to the minutes to say yayay anyone who disagrees nay they will be approved unanimously. I'd also like to
Rose Mims
Unverified
3:14
point out that we have present with us from the attorney general's
office and if you will announce your name I think this is
Speaker 13
3:26
your first time to be here, correct? No no ma'am I was here
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
3:31
last meeting my name'sar Lory with thery thank you very much Earrin for being present. keep us on the straight and narrow. OK. now I'm going to turn the meeting over for a presentation
Rose Mims
Unverified
3:45
which I I've looked at online but I'm very glad we have a a
A way to look at it together and this will be regarding our duties responsibilities, history, constitutional limitations and our considerations that we do to review salaries if any of you in in the audience would like to see that you can come forward and sit over here if you want. I'm not telling you to I'm just saying it's it's available please go ahead TJ thank you madam chairir. TJ
Speaker 19
4:29
Fowler I'm legal counsel for the auditor of state as y'all probably recall I think two meetings ago you all had passed a resolution that y'all would like to kind of go over the
Speaker 21
4:38
duties at each meeting briefly and then actually consider all of the salaries under your purview each time rather than just choosing
Speaker 19
4:45
the piece meal or waiting to see if letters had arose arisen the presentation is largely similar to the one I gave last year just with updates for new information so go ahead and start se ction one is the constitutional requirements that are placed
upon this body so as you know this was created by a constitutional amendment in 2014. The main things y'all are here to do are to approve the salaries of the elected executive constitutional offices the legislature and the elected judicial offices and then before regular sessions you also make recommendations for the per diem expense reimbursements and mileage reimbursements for the general assembly
have some limitations placed on what you can and cannot do so y'all must consider the overall economic conditions of the state of Arkansas at the time you make your decisions you were the amendment requires that the salaries of the circuit court judges be uniformed throughout the state you cannot diminish the salaries of the chief justice of the supreme court chief judge or judges of the court of appeals the judges of the supreme Court, circuit judges or the district court judges
salary revisions may not exceed 15% and then you have the public comment period after you make a determination and that's why we have to come back in a couple weeks after ya'll make a decision . historical overview and and I'll just do this briefly because we did it last time this body was initially created because it had become untenable for elected officers to set their own salaries for just public policy political and real world reasons the first
commission came in and was tasked with sort of an overall overarching revision. they had a very comprehensive set of meetings over the course of many months and these were the items that they determined that they needed to review in order to set these salaries the qualification and skill necessary for each office the overall level of responsibility implicit in each office the total compensation of each position including benefits other than salaries travel and necessary out of office expenses
any per diem mileage or expenses received by the officials the overall public interest of the citizens of Arkansas salaries and comparative states and any other factors that y'all deem reasonable and appropriate the historical revisions by the ICC I've included in your packets so that y'all can see them there's no reason to go through this in detail but this is just every revision by position that you have so the first page in the first slide is the legislature the second page
in slide are executive constitutional officers and the third page and slide or all of your judicial positions and your prosecutors and just a reminder the prosecutors came on a little bit later by statute not in the constitution that's why they don't have revisions at the same time as the judges in the early years. So at the last last year y'all had asked me to compile changes to all of state government
employees and there were quite a few last year because of some changes in the pay plan under governor Sanders there are less so this year governor Sanders did allow performance increases for eligible employees effective on622 employees who received an overall rating that exceeds expectations for could receive a3% increase in employees who received an overall rating of meat's expectations3 were eligible to receive a 1% increase that
doesn't mean they actually received them they were only eligible to do so there was the new pay plan that went into effect it was implemented on629 and this created all new titles and grades for a number of different categories of public employee any employee whose salary fell be below the new minimum grade were automatically raised all the others were still discretionary with whoever their payroll and budgeting officer were so of the approximately 22,700 executive branch
employees about 16,000 400 received a salary increase but the amounts of those increases were vastly different some were very small some were very large about6,300 did not receive any increase under the pay plan and as y'all recall last year I provided the comparator states for elected representatives I
I selected the surrounding states last year I had a big disclaimer about how it's really hard to compare one state's treasurer to another state's treasurer this year I've tried to dig a little bit deeper since I had some more time so so you'll see I have some added slides here governors pretty comparable you can see what the surrounding states are I went ahead and included the median and the mean so the median for governors in the surrounding states is 158,307 dollars. The mean is
$158,237 we're a little over the mean and the median with 166771 for the governor that transition took way too long on PowerPoint for attorneys general the median is 153,750 and the mean is 157115 we're pretty close to both the median and just a little bit below the mean with 15376068 and here's where I have tried to do a little bit more digging and no we had secretaries of state
last year so secretaries of state median is 146,260 Mean is 147159 we're considerably below both of those with 10,644,970 and then this is where I where I really did more digging and what the treasurer or auditor or comptroller do in other states is not necessarily a 1 to 1 comparator with Arkansas but there are three or four core functions that are performed in each state and I tried to find
the officers that perform those core functions so in Arkansas among the things the treasury does and we'll talk about those in in more depth here in another slide but they invest all the cash funds for the state of Arkansas they act as the state's bank and so I looked for who are the officers that do those core functions and then in Arkansas the auditor acts as the state's payroll officer it issues warrants and does the accounting and it administers the state's unclaimed property program so I
I tried to look for the offices that do those in these states each of these offices does some of those functions it may not do all of those functions and as you can see in Arkansas we're currently paying the treasurer and auditor 1 0053 $5.83 the median if you take those surrounding states is 139988 and the mean is 142 we're pretty considerably below the median the mean for both of those offices
I still have the slides that main duties of each office I've updated them change materially executive powers they have the legislative power sessions they can veto bills they're responsible for preparing state budget and submitting the budget to the
legislature appointment powers for all heads of state department and for boards the artkansas National Guard and the diplomatic representative for Arkansas at a national level lieutenant governor is a part time position presides over the senate with a tiebreaking vote serves as acting governor in the governor's stead and his first in line of succession for the governorship the attorney general and I won't read the entire slide but the attorney general is the state's
lawyer and represents the state in all matters in which the state is a party and is kind enough to provide a representative to all boards and commissions to come and make sure that we understand the guard rails that are placed upon us by the constitution or the enabling legislation some of the updates I I will go through and read them the one big update here is obviously salaries have changed over the last year for the employees so the attorney general now managed an office of 192 full-time employees and 102 attorney professionals those are those
numbers are both up from last year earning salaries between $84,000 and 199999 both of those numbers are up from last year the secretary of state has primary roles as the chiefle officer for the state the business and commercial services officer for the state they maintain the capital facilities and they also controlled the Arkansas
Speaker 24
14:14
Capitollice forcece which that number has grown
since last year with now49 sworn personnel and5 staff they are the chair of the state board
Speaker 19
14:26
of elections the chair of the capitalol artts and Grounds Commission an ex officio member of the Capitol zoning district and an ex officio member of the INA board. have no idea but I'll look it up and tell you here in just a moment actually Mike you were at the secretary of state's office do you know what the INA board is Now I'll look it up and I'll get
back to you the treasurer of state operates as the state's banker it handles70 million in daily deposits from various local state and federal sources processes about 2 to3000 checks a day and reconciles3,000 accounts daily oversees the state's investment portfolio and this number has gone up that portfolio is now 11.6 billion the number of employees has stayed the same but the salary range has gone up from it is
now between48,0 and $1886186,222 and the treasurer serves on a number of board and commissions the auditor of state is essentially the state's accountant it's the office I work for it was originally created as a check and balance to the state treasury it has audit authority although that audit authority has largely been sent over to legislative audit these days we issue every state warrant from any office in the state so any agency that is making a payment whether it's a
paper warrant or whether it's an electronic warrant it is issued through our office if you ever get your tax return and it's a check and isn't direct deposited and you peel the edges off we print those in our offices we got a big printer and we do that every morning we're the payroll officer for all the elected state officials which is why we staff this board and we administer the state's unclaimed property program which you've probably heard called the great Arkansas treasure hunt and we're a member of these boards salaries have gone up a little bit in our office they now
are between47,255 and $165,160 the land commissioner is responsible for all state public lands they research and notify people on payment of delinquent property taxes they conduct public auctions of delinquent properties process applications by former property owners to receive excess proceeds and they serve as a leasing agent for natural resources process requests for patent information on land deeds
and they serve as a custodian of Arkansas's original land records if you've never been to their office right down the hall and seeing those original land records they're pretty neat that's worth going over general assembly as y'all know is the bicameral legislature here35 senators,100 house
Speaker 24
17:15
members a remain a part time position despite ALC meeting year
Speaker 19
17:21
round these days regular sessions and odd numbered years fiscal sessions and even number years sessions last about60 days. The governor
Speaker 14
17:30
can call special sessions they're responsible for making our laws and creating our budgets and
Rose Mims
Unverified
17:37
with that I'll just see if anyone has any questions is there anything you feel like I left out anything you'd like me to try and add the next time I do
Speaker 35
17:49
this presentation you have a question for clarification on the auditor of state you said you
Speaker 19
17:55
have here granted executive branch audit authority now is
that just for executive branch folks what's give me some help on
Speaker 21
18:04
that Sure so the auditor of state was originally created by the 1874 Constitution to audit all of state government so not just the executive branch I say I wrote this and I wrote executive branch audit authority because with the advent of the bureau of Legislative audit coming up in the60s and seventiess they really do all of the state auditing and we do not perform that function any longer even
Speaker 31
18:31
with the executive branch even with the executive branch the Bureau of Legislative audit audits the executive branch they audit us
Rose Mims
Unverified
18:46
we still have the statutory authority to do it it just isn't done that has been shifted over to BLA OK thank you . Anybody else have a question
it's always good to go back because you know we've slept a few times since the last meeting and you know I I appreciate you giving us the recent comparisons of of constitutional officers from around the state with the caveat that some of their responsibilities are not exactly the same
so if there are no other questions we will move on to our next agenda item and our next agenda item is a consideration we do this at the beginning of
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
19:53
each year consideration of the stipend for those of us in the ICC commission and so I will entertain a
Rose Mims
Unverified
20:08
discussion of in the past we have not done that we have not asked for a stipend but I will I think I need to raise it again and see if they're if anyone wants to make a motion to consider a stipend for the ICC. In view of silence don't don't everybody speak up at once and and please I don't
think any of us are shrinking violets if we felt that that was appropriate we would raise our raise our voices so in view of that I will consider that our prior vote stands that we will not be asking for a stipend for coming to each meeting and as mentioned just earlier by TJ we do have to consider amounts to be paid to the
members of the general assembly for their per diem reimbursement
Speaker 21
21:19
for expenses reimburse and reimbursement for mileage under Article 19 Section31 I3B and I beli they have to have this before they come into session right the constitution requires that y'all provide this before a regular session it's not required before a fiscal session
Rose Mims
Unverified
21:44
so y'all y'all considered this at the last meeting before the regular session y'all are it is within your purview to to make revisions if you would like to but there's no requirement
Speaker 15
21:56
that you consider it this year. OK, I will open the floor for discussion as to whether we want to make it for
Rose Mims
Unverified
22:05
this year so it's really biennial or to to pass that for this year and I
Speaker 50
22:15
really don't have any figures on that at this time so I'll open
Speaker 21
22:19
it for discussion in other words what we voted for the last time remains right for two years I'm sure TJ do you remember what we set it for like I think we tracked federal reimbursement rates you did and I was just about to pull up the resolution and I'll put it up on the board so you can see it
Speaker 54
22:36
give me just a second and I also looked up and thank you Marty INA
Rose Mims
Unverified
22:47
you had asked about it they are the informationwork of Arkansas and it is a board for thought leadership in Arkansas. OK thank you thank you so we'll we'll see what the I don't know
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
22:55
even know if the federal reimbursement rate has changed since then but we did that we we adopted the federal reimbursement
Speaker 57
23:14
rate last time and we'll wait on TJ to pull that up
Speaker 19
23:31
you can read it for those of us right this is the recommendations that were sent on September 24,2024 number one you recommend that the House and Senate follow the mileage reimbursement guidance published bydF andA'sinancial Manage guide for Arkansas state employees you recommended that they follow the expense reimbursement guidance published bydF andA for Arkansas state employees and then you recommended that the House and Senate fall to per
Speaker 21
24:02
diem guidance published by DFA'san Man Guide for Arkansas State employees to the extent it exists and if that
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
24:11
financial management guide does not provide adequate per diem guidance alternatively you recommend
Rose Mims
Unverified
24:16
that they follow the US GSA recommendations so there were no amounts given you just said to follow the the most recently published guidance by
Speaker 50
24:27
the authorities in those sectors Anybody want to make a comment
or make a recommendation about whether we should forego this consideration during this session I'm fine keeping it how we voted last year What I
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
24:43
would say is maybe a note for next year's consideration that we get the
Speaker 14
24:51
amounts so we can understand what DFNA has includes in those
Rose Mims
Unverified
24:54
manuals but given that it's good for for two years I suggest we just leave it as is this would be my recommendation
any other comments? I agree so everybody agree and he and he did ok we that will be the vote to have it considered which we would do anyway for the beginning of the next biennial and also have those figures whether they're in the form of policy or manuals so we can see exactly what those figures are now we come to the real
meat of the coconut so to speak commission review of salary adjustments and I would like to to bring up something that we have regularly done in the past which is invited a usually it was Mr. Shellnut who came and gave us an
Speaker 15
25:58
economic forecast and I think that's one of the considerations we have to
Speaker 21
26:08
have to look at which is the economic conditions for the state of Arkansas and so I'm not sure who that is now do you do you know TJ it would be Mr.silvadF andA, their chief economist, and he had a happens to be meeting this morning. I was sitting in the ALC meeting this morning and I listened to his economic report so as best I heard it which the state
Speaker 19
26:49
Is that working now the state is currently74 million dollars ahead of the last quarter this quarter is on pace they don't anticipate fluctuations away from their
Speaker 24
26:58
forecast for the remainder of the fiscal year there are some markers
Speaker 14
27:04
out in the future that could indicate some downturn but they don't see that downturn coming in
Rose Mims
Unverified
27:11
any sizable way this fiscal year that's the the 12th version of his 20 minute presentation to the ALC.
one of the que you know
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
27:26
questions we normally consider you'll notice in the letters from different folks that have submitted letters
Rose Mims
Unverified
27:35
they're asking for cola. some of them and I'm not real familiar with what the stats are right now on the inflation rate since our last meeting so I think we do need to have that information and I don't know if
if the state's economist looks at what may be happening with exports in the agricultural field and how that will affect the state and so I I'm I guess I have some questions and I'd like to have people on the commission our commissioners
Speaker 85
28:28
information before making a recommendation any anybody who has questions that they yesRobert would you put turn on your mic don't have a question but've got a comment you know based on the slide that that TJ had a few minutes ago if we stay consistent with what the governor did for the for the state back in June you know those those employees
Speaker 36
28:58
who had a it exceeds expectation received a3% and then
Speaker 19
29:02
meets expectations which was a3 I believe. that was a was a 1% and that's consistent with with what we've seen outside of the government is that what you've
Speaker 24
29:07
seen in business and Chair Ttuck just a quick internet search for one of your questions what is the current inflation rate? it looks like as of August 2025
Speaker 14
29:22
we're showing the current inflation rate in the US at about 2.9%
Speaker 21
29:30
thank you any other questions or comments I should also note I don't know how y'all plan to go through the salary adjustments is there more than one microphone on and we get a little feedback sorry there were some letters sent in by various offices
Speaker 14
30:01
particular offices if y'all plan to take them in turn I'll just highlight that either there was or there was not a letter from that office decision at the last meeting was we were not going to require a letter but that information would be helpful. thank you.
Rose Mims
Unverified
30:37
Officers and I'd like to in using the the comparisons you did let's start with the governor so here we have the salary comparisons for the governor if you want to pull that up so it can be seen quickly we know as you said the governor of Arkansas is
Speaker 50
31:11
that the median is 158 and the governor is receiving around 166 any comments or questions or discussion have a question madam Chair in and it's for TJ and you referenced
Speaker 35
31:28
it saying that they weren't required to submit letters but
Speaker 19
31:33
was there a solicitation to the various offices to submit input if they chose to
or was it just those who on their own decided to submit it if they so desired we sent out correspondences to the different offices that this commission has a purview over and just said reminder
Speaker 21
31:48
this meeting's coming up if you want to send in some sort of letter if you want to make a comment let us know but obviously there's no requirement to do
Rose Mims
Unverified
32:04
so and frankly this commission was created because of the realities of those offices it's just not always possible to do so hear hear you good
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
32:18
Do I guess what I'd like to get a feel for from the members do you want
Speaker 101
32:31
to look at each of these individually and then as a group or do you want to look
Rose Mims
Unverified
32:37
at them individually and decide I'd like you know you understand what I'm saying on the constitutional officers that category Yes, madam Chairman, I think I
would appreciate examining each office individually. OK and and I think there is some difference in each office generally so any other comments OK we will do it individually then any any discussion on
Speaker 63
33:09
the governor's salary based upon the information
Speaker 105
33:13
we have been given as well as the economic forecast and the inflation rate
madam you want to turn on your is it on? I believe I'm on it looking at the median and mean of the governor's pay it seems like we're already above it and considering that there may be some headwinds coming I do believe we should give some kind of a raise but
Rose Mims
Unverified
33:48
I personally would be leaning more towards like 1% just preparing for but especially given the that you've
made the comments about our farmers in the state right now and the headwinds they're feeling I'm not going to get into the politics of it but the exports especially
Speaker 105
34:13
in the soybean and rice area which are big
Rose Mims
Unverified
34:15
and in in the situation with international trade period so any is there a second to that motion
Speaker 85
34:30
just to clarify and sure that was that was more for discussion discussion any any comments based upon that recommendation we're 7 or 8% above the the the mean and the median so you have something on the lower
Speaker 14
34:48
scale such as 1% or so for that particular position for the government
Rose Mims
Unverified
35:05
If not I'll entertain emotion Madam would make the motion to increase the governor's pay by 1%. . Second? Second . Second, thank you any further discussion now that the motion has been made and seconded if not, I'lll I'll call for the vote and all in favor of the
motion please signify by saying yay all opposed say nay any abstentions ? OK that will be adopted unanimously on the governor now we will go to the attorney I'm doing this in the order of the slides. The attorney of the attorney general's salary
if you'll notice it's almost right on target with the median and surrounding oh would I say Oklahoma has a hun is 20,000 more Tennessee is quite a bit more so it it's probably interestingly Texas is about
Rose Mims
Unverified
36:38
and then Kentucky so I would entertain a motion of
Speaker 117
36:53
a discussion about any race or adjustment to the attorney general's compensation with all the factors we've already talked about
Speaker 117
37:15
me that we should maybe proceed with a 1% increase for this office. OK.
Speaker 9
37:21
any further discussion If not I'll entertain
Rose Mims
Unverified
37:28
a motion madam Chairman, I so move 1% increase for the office of attorney general. thank you and a
any further discussion if not I'll ask for the vote all in favor of this motion please say yayy yay all opposed please say nay any abstentions that will be the decision the recommendation of of the commission that the attorney general's salary will be raised by 1%. now we're at the secretary of
state's office we have been given information about the duties I'm not going to repeat all the duties of each of these offices and the secretary of state
Speaker 15
38:34
for Arkansas res it is substantially lower
Speaker 21
38:38
than the 16 , 500 and the median is 146,260
Speaker 42
38:47
and mean 147 so we you know we we need to consider
Rose Mims
Unverified
38:58
that disparity anything TJ and I would just add the Secretary of State's office is one of the constitutional offices that did provide a public comment. Their letter is in your packet towards the back and I can put the letter up here on the screen yes let's do that this was by the secret of State Co justster and I believe his
respo and I appreciate him submitting
Speaker 82
39:24
this. he expressed the feeling that it would not be
Rose Mims
Unverified
39:29
constitutionally appropriate for his office to request a salary adjustment because it belongs purely to this commission that's interesting anyway so I appreciate that and I think the figures we have as well as the factors we consider of
economic and and inflationary as well as economic
Speaker 101
40:01
forecasts we have plenty of information in my view if if there's
Speaker 117
40:06
no if you all agree anyone anyone want to discuss
Speaker 50
40:14
this particular information in this slide madam Chairman, it does seem that we're egregiously low. Um-hum for this office
fellow commissioners what do you think Well I agree that the the numbers show that it's very low I think one of the difficulties we have is making a comparison between the duties of the secret of State of Arkansas versus the Secretary of State of the surrounding offices I don't knowhum I don't know whether or not they're Substantially the same or
whether or not there's there's you know deviations that are reflected in the
Speaker 53
40:59
salary amounts so while I do think that it does appear low it'swoles well
Rose Mims
Unverified
41:08
below the median and mean I think before we were to take a step to dramatically raise it to make it closer to that I think we need to understand a little bit better the responsibilities of the office compared to those other states OK and you you have all the
duties we've already got in this packet which include the election office business and commercial capital capital facilities Arkansas Capitollice all the the state board of election commissioners and two or three
Speaker 35
41:47
others so I I'll entertain a a suggestion as to
Speaker 19
41:52
whether you wish to postpone this till we
this decision till we get come back for the next meeting I can just tell you that in my research the secretaries of state and surrounding states are largely similar you you have business and commercial services that are generally handled by secretaries of state in other states and then you have election
Speaker 126
42:16
services that if not handled fully within there or there at least a member of the elections board in those states and
Speaker 126
42:29
are the two main functions of the secret of State Mr Harry I
Speaker 21
42:33
mean I know there are others Capitol grounds and the Capitollice I think and I I think we're one of the few states that that do that so so there are more responsibilities would in my research and it's limited I'm going to look to so Michael
Speaker 14
42:45
Harry's sitting in the back worked for the previous administration at the Secretary of state for the better part
Speaker 24
42:53
of a decade in my research I think our Secretary of state may do more than the secretaries of
Rose Mims
Unverified
43:00
state and surrounding states is that your is that you want
Speaker 129
43:04
to get to a microphone so we can have this on the record sorry to put you on the record i'm sorry but that And and no longer works for the secretary of state so he might be a good independent arbiter here thank youike if you'll say your name fully and then yesmierry I'm actually a current employee with the with the treasurer but the main difference that separates Arkansas's Secretary of State
would be the facilities and the capitalpitolli themselves to sizable police force now I think there's like60 officers that patrol the capitol grounds but not
Speaker 31
43:41
just the building but the grounds itself that
Speaker 14
43:49
the secretary of state is is has authority over that that varies but as far as responsibilities go that's pretty unique yes thank you very
Speaker 15
43:58
much I appreciate that no you're fine thanks
well you were wearing two hats today any
Speaker 134
44:18
other questions or concerns any any thoughts or suggestions by
Speaker 85
44:24
a commissioner on on any adjustments to the Secretary of State's salary keep Back to what what happened
in in June for the rest of the state employees and you know everything was in the range of 1 to3% so I'm I'm less inclined to venture too far outside of those. Uh-hum. barriers. Uh, I mean if we you know if we said you know a a a a 10% increase on 106 that would be like $10,60045 which I am not recommending 10%. But I mean something you know the governor's reign was in the one
to3%. I mean I would probably support something
Speaker 21
45:15
know just to say we based on the information that we have and based on the potential economic outlook for the state that you know a cau a cautious a cautiousju approach I would like to clarify what I said because and I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion or influence this but while the the the merit increases or the performance
increases were between that 1 and3% you did have the pay plan change and some of those pay plan changes especially for executives professional level attorneys accountants and police and corrections officers were pretty dramatic. I mean some of the some of those positions were raised I don't know
Speaker 19
45:57
the exact numbers but I would say50% in some instances now those weren't uniformly given those were just appropriations that were offered. They were about the position. It was about the
Speaker 21
46:09
position so what you have in most of the state government is you have classifications by position and every position classification falls within a range then they're appropriated to budget and the person running those agencies can determine where in that range they can
Speaker 144
46:24
pay people using the budget that they have some people in state government receive very sizable raises last year so I only say that to say it wasn't that there was a3% cap on the raises in state government in limited instances it was considerably more than that last year. thank you.
Speaker 126
46:42
curious you did a similar comparison last year would you happen
Speaker 21
46:45
to have the data from last year so we can see what the surrounding states did as far as raises for their secretary of state's not that we would be bound
Speaker 14
46:51
by that but it would be a good comparison possibly I do I have to be on my it's on my server at the office so it'll take
Rose Mims
Unverified
46:59
me a second to log in through my VPN I'll be pulling that up but it's going to take me5 minutes to do that that's fine. that's fine why don't we put this one
Speaker 19
47:25
and get that information our next one is treasure and is is the auditor of states in the treasure so the way was phones again but so
like I said in in my intro what each state most of them have a treasure as you can see other than Texas as a comptroller in Florida that has a CFfo Most of these states have something like our auditor although they probably don't call it the auditor because as I mentioned we no longer audit we're really more of an accounting function and we run the unclaimed property program which is a large program so you may actually have an officer of unclaimed property or you may have a state accountant or something like that I think it
makes sense to keep the treasure and the auditor batched. They were created by the Arkansas Constitution as a check and balance to one another. one of them is one
Speaker 21
48:24
of them controls the bank account the other one is allowed to write the checks so that so that's why I've sort of batched it this way and I should note that one of the other letters that you have in your packet is from John Thurston, the current treasurer of state and he he kind of goes on to explain in greater depth than I did in my short slide what the treasury does you know I think
nationwide and and I worked in the treasury for seven years so I know a little bit about this too in the last decade there's been a real push either for treasurers or whoever the state investment officer is to move away from very simple investments like CDs and going to into a more active investing portfolio so now that Arkansas has an 1 $1 billion portfolio. I know they're working hard to invest in corporates and different mortgage backed instruments and they're looking they have a short term portfolio and a long
term portfolio and they try to match their investment laddering to the cash flow of the state so they're constantly monitoring all the debits and credits for the entire state to ensure that they can have the maximum time in the market but still in ensure liquidity to pay the state's bills it's a in all of these states it's not just Arkansas but nationwide whoever is doing the investing of funds for
Speaker 65
49:46
states it has become a more modern procedure and I think that's what
Speaker 19
49:57
trying to point out in his letter 10re0,000 figure 00500 is just the treasure or to date
Speaker 24
50:09
the auditor and the land commissioner in locksta
Speaker 19
50:23
those salaries have always been the same I think it's it's up to this board whether or not that should
Speaker 21
50:30
continue to be the practice. OK. that that helps because these others yes sir since the inception of this board, the treasurer, the
Speaker 144
50:44
auditor and the land commissioner have all had the same salary so when this board has risen one it's risen the other two as a batch
Speaker 19
51:01
TJ back to your your chart up there when you say the treasure and auditor each of them are making 100,500 but are are you also implying that those two positions is what it takes to be comparable to
Speaker 21
51:11
the other positions around our state no so the other states I just picked one some of those states the treasurer does what I would call the core functions of both offices some of those states the treasurer only does one of those core functions and then they have outside offices that may
not even be elected to do the others. some of those wards some of those states the
Speaker 19
51:40
treasurer invests all of those funds not just the state's cash fund the agency cash funds or the trust funds so as I've said in previous years there is not a 1 to 1 comparator. What I tried to find were the offices that were the closest and so I
Speaker 24
51:59
would argue that our treasurer and our
auditor are the closest to these offices that you see here they likely have a second office even if they're calling it the and we'll just call treasure one and auditor the other for simplification other office that would be more comparable to the auditor. some of them don't have the
Speaker 144
52:22
separation you know and then some of them have this CFfo who I don't believe is an elected position as an appointed position in Florida that handles all state financial operations I know that's not
Speaker 21
52:39
it was helpful because that was in my mind I was thinking we were
Speaker 19
52:44
combining those two salaries to be comparable to the other states else may understand they're separate yes sir And I am unable to log into my VPN from here so I'm not going to be able to pull up last year's I can I can circulate it later I can tell you that the changes what we know what we paid our treasurer and our auditor last year I can pull
Speaker 21
53:02
up that chart and I can tell you that the changes in the surrounding
Speaker 50
53:13
states for the most part were within the realm of what you would consider a normal change you know, somewhere between 235% increases to where they were previously any further discussion madam Chair I would just comment I think there's wisdom in continuing to keep at least those three sort of financial offices
considered together I don't think it's good to split those off and and I think that it does appear that we're lagging in those areas just surrounding states also
Speaker 53
53:54
in agreement with commissioner Clark about not going to too large to close the gap in any one year so my my sense I don't have
Speaker 14
54:00
a recommendation right now but my sense is perhaps a little bit more than what would just be considered a cola increase is is a way to try to
Rose Mims
Unverified
54:16
begin to to to bridge that gap yeah you and a lot of times you you do it over a period of years any further discussion of a possible recommendation what I'm hearing you say Mr. Fowler is that the the the pay plan the change in
the the whole structure of employees on the state level there was cola but there was
Speaker 21
54:57
also and that was meritbased and then there was also trying to do what we're trying to do which which is get the salaries so that you can attract people from private enterprise at least that's what I'm hearing and it's probably worth noting and
Speaker 9
55:12
I don't want to single anyone out in state government
Speaker 159
55:19
but I know that among the among the positions that got some of the larger increases based on the ranges it included the investment personnel at the treasury that that's that's good to know that's good to know yeah Miss Zimmermann , Madam Chairman
, as I review these numbers and look at the discrepancy in our treasure otter land collection there and even the secretary of state I think that we do need to consider something above the3% just because there's so much disparity but in light of economic conditions and I certainly appreciate the nod and concern to farmers because I am one of those and economically
it's just horrible and there is no market even though farm ers are having great crops I I think that we have to take the general feeling of what our state looks like but I would propose that maybe we go back and include the secretary of state and do a5% increase for secretary of state treasurer, auditor and land commissioner considering each one of those separately just not because of
Rose Mims
Unverified
56:53
any other reason than we do need to attract wonderful people in those offices they're very difficult and time consuming offices
Speaker 101
57:13
and I think that we would be negligent as commissioners to
Speaker 159
57:17
not take that into consideration any responses to this and any other thoughts on this
was well we'll do you do
Rose Mims
Unverified
57:34
say that as a commission we move forward with a5% increase for the following offices that of Secretary of state treasurer auditor and land commissioner5% please. and the second has been done any further discussion if
Rose Mims
Unverified
57:58
those who were in favor to please say aye a those who were opposed please say nay any abstentions that will be our vote5% for those three constitutional offices oh for yes4 excuse me4 constitutional officers in view of that let's go to
Speaker 43
58:31
the next one we've done attorney general right
Speaker 15
58:41
no we haven't done to let's do lieutenant governor which is part time and let's see I think we're we're at the point where
Speaker 86
58:51
we have attorney general lieutenant governor
Rose Mims
Unverified
59:03
and general assembly left to do in constitutional officers is that correct? OK we did attorney general we did the attorney one person
Speaker 126
59:10
never mind let's look at lieutenant governor then and I don't think we had any figures on that and that's because it's kind
Speaker 69
59:17
of an odd position that's right. I can bring up the slide that's had
Speaker 42
59:20
the historical changes to the position here in arkansas but I don't think
Speaker 69
59:33
there's a comparative position in any other state that's it's a worthwhile compari
Rose Mims
Unverified
59:52
let's look at that. let's look at that slide on salaries so you're currently paying the lieutenant governor49,067 dollars75 cents
Basically as I as I read this the salary vision's history the lieutenant governor has basically stayed in the same kind of position even pre 2015 in terms of salary but others were raised substantially
Speaker 172
1:00:32
by by this commission in 2015 so I'll open the floor for discussion
Speaker 24
1:00:58
So the lieutenant governor's primary responsibility it is a part time position it's primary responsibility is presiding over the senate and providing a tiebreaking boat so when the senate's in session the lieutenant governor sits up there and presides just like the federal senate and the vice president and and if there's a vote that's when they get
Speaker 19
1:01:16
to to speak up and then the other primary role is next in line of succession so
Speaker 134
1:01:23
when the governor's out of town if the governor becomes infirmed the
Speaker 85
1:01:29
lieutenant governor would step up and either act as governor or if go forbid something were to happen to the governor the lieutenant governor would be the next in line. it seems that if macrophone I don't
Speaker 108
1:01:43
know if this is the case but it seems as if the the lieutenant governor salary has been kept similar to that of the general assembly speaker in
Speaker 55
1:01:53
the pro team now's whether that's the
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:01:59
the right approach or the wrong approach I don't know but that's yeah yeah but I presume that when the I'm sorry constantly having to be
Speaker 85
1:02:31
so are you suggesting we may consider those together although their
Speaker 50
1:02:38
jobs are really different suggest that but I'm just like as far as the sorry I'm not suggesting that but as far as the salaries it it seems as if they were kind of grouped that way maybe I I don't know that but any comments comment andll'll I
Speaker 9
1:02:54
think it'd be appropriate to keep the increase the same as governor and AG and
Speaker 15
1:03:02
and a 1% increase Igre that I think that the the salary number
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:03:09
seems to be in the appropriate range at least for for them For these duties yes and is that a motion and in a second please Zimmerman seconds any further discussion if not let's I'll call a boat and ask everyone who's in favor please to say aye
all who are opposed say nay any abstentions if not that will be adopted for the lieutenant governor of 1% raise. Now we get to the legislature the the general assembly and we have our salary revisions you can see and and of course we've gone through the duties
of the general assembly as pointed out by lark it's the salaries now the speaker in the pro tem I presume are they would take the same increase if we give an or we recommend an increase so I'll entertain discussion on that issue for the general assembly
And I think we need to be be cognizant of the fact that there are per diemms there is mileage there are other and
Speaker 144
1:04:56
and I think some get office expenses. I don't know anyway, I'm just sharing that this is not the sole composition
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:05:14
I'm sure I think it'd be similar to the governor to the governor and Ag and I think that would be in line with the general assembly speaker and protem as well. so I I would lean towards 1%. OK Second any further discussion all in favor please say aye all opposed please say nay any abstentions
that that we have covered all of the constitutional officers by that latter vote so we will now proceed in our list to the judicial branch and I will say on this part of it that the prosecuting attorneys probably can indirectly have an interest in what the judges at least on the trial court get
because the prosecuting attorneys raises are calculated based on that there's A and
Speaker 24
1:06:26
B and so in in saying we're doing the judicial I think we we know we're really including the prosecutors correct Mr. Fower I mean that's up to this commission but historically
Speaker 19
1:06:34
yes there has been a mathematical formulation that informs the prosecutors salaries and this this
Speaker 21
1:06:52
did that formulation and I shouldn letter p re s ent ative for any or all of those if if y'all would like to hear those public comments
Speaker 196
1:07:50
good morning good morning please chairman Tuck you have the misfortune of me not being the president thought I amarlton Jones circuit judge a
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:07:59
judicial district south now I am a member of judicial council and I am on the board of directors however the chair I mean our president is unable to be here so you get me instead well I think that's a good that's a good fair substitute and
Speaker 196
1:08:25
let us know what what you understand from the board and from the president of judicial council what their request is during this this session chairman commissioners you know we do what what we are here to say is this and you have a copy of our letter it is in your packet every one of you has had an opportunity to review that so it's not any necessity for me to go over it I believe though
and in my experience this commission has been you know fair and cognizant of the salaries and the adjustments that are made based upon the executive branch we and that's historically how that has been made we've appreciated that and we continue to appreciate that and we would hope that you would still consider that at this time you know to be consistent with what you know this commission which
Speaker 15
1:09:22
is charged with that responsibility to do has done with the executive branch decisions
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:09:38
any questions or comments thank you very much judge And I'd like to pose the question that I posed earlier with constitutional officers do you want to consider these categories that are listed from the Supreme Court
Speaker 66
1:09:57
down to the court of appeals judges do
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:10:01
you want to consider those as a group or do you want to consider
those categories individually I personally prefer to consider the categories individually. OK. Any any objection let's do that then so do we have a representative I know of the administrative office of the courts is here whoever will be speaking on behalf of both the court of appeals and the state supreme court
councilbody that that sounds good so let's so we will rely upon the judicial council's letter which basically as I read it once would like us to consider a cost of living adjustment and so
and here here you have the the salary revisions for the judiciary with categories so I'd like to start with the supreme court the chief justice's salary you know if we're going to do cola those would be together because for that category then we'll do court of appeals then we'll
do circuit judges and then we'll do district judges so you see that we did the commission did and I think this was actually before my time salaries were raised considerably in March of 2015 in the past we've had some information from the Center on state courts and I would say
that in that information we were pretty well recently in tandem with other surrounding states would that be accurate marty ok thank you so let's do the supreme court which is now
at 215 about almost 216,000 per year of course I can speak to that job but I will say this I am when I was on the court I became engaged to get married and my husband, a retired FBI agent henry said don't you all just flip a coin I said I don't think so because
he was watching me reading is that I is a lot of work and it's not just the opinions and the debating it's all the motions it's the
Speaker 101
1:13:38
business of the court because the Supreme Court so to speak
Speaker 159
1:13:43
heads up the whole judicial branch so just wanted to throw that in for your consideration
Speaker 19
1:13:55
chairman did we have a misplaced letter last year when we were making
Speaker 14
1:14:01
yes we did and so we didn't get that until after the fact can you remind me of what didn't happen that should have happened
Speaker 50
1:14:14
or yeah that was the year before the year before so last year you considered essentially two years of salary I remember it as being two years yeah thank you yeah
I'm sure I'm just I'm gonna make my comments and thoughts I'm gonna make it as a group for for all of the judicial positions I I do think certainly cost of living adjustment is appropriate the way I view the judicial positions is is a little bit different the way I view the the other executive positions or political opinions and so I do think that that
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
1:14:52
probably a slightly higher cost of living adjustment is appropriate for the judicial positions
Speaker 117
1:15:00
and the range I'm I'm I'm open to ideas of what that is but but I think somewhere in the 2 to3% range to reflect the increase in just cost of living would be more appropriate so it's out of motion
Speaker 15
1:15:14
at this point but those are my comments and and they apply to all
Speaker 85
1:15:24
the physicians any discussion comment Commissioner McCready something around the3% for cost of living is what I'm thinking.
Any any further discussions If not, I'll entertain emotion Ro ber t madam chairir I I move that we propose a3%
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:15:41
cost of living increase for each one of the positions OK chief justice supreme court well each one listed here one so court including the district judges and attorneys well the district judges will do
separately but you know they're now a part of the state system finally how many years wy years it took us to get a unitary system. OK.
Speaker 15
1:16:14
ok and so that would be3%3% except for the district judges and we'll do them separately because
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:16:25
they have a letter separate and the prosecutor separately too I assume yeah yeah
Any further discussion we have a second did I hear a second ok thank you any further discussion if not, I'll call the question all in favor of the motion as seconded please say aye aye all opposed please say nay any abstentions
with that we have decided on all of the judge positions to get a3% coloraise except we will do the district judges and prosecuting attorneys separate and that's not any reflection on the district judges it's just we like to do them separately so we will now go to the district judges and you have their how they have
their salaries and like I say you need to understand that we went through a long period of integrating the the district judge bench into the state system so you will see you know that they they basically have come forward
in the same manner actually as the other judicial officers more recently I do want to let you know that the district judges are and circuit judges are now working together in many cases and it it you know the Judge Jones can probably speak to this but it does anybody from the district judge counsel want to come
Speaker 209
1:18:42
forward and speak ok great thank you and if you'll
Speaker 210
1:18:46
just repeat your name and so we have it on the record Good morning I'm Billyjack Gibson. I'm the district court judge for the thirtyirdjudicial district in Arkansas which covers Hot Spring County and Grant County. I'm here today on behalf of the Arkansas district judges judicial counsel you
have seen our letter we we really have put forward two things in our letter to the to the commission and first and foremost we as an organization we wish to express our gratefulness to the commission for the work it's done in the past and we would hope and consider you know that it continues to do its good work moving forwards madam chairs pointed out the fact that we are now in all of the district judges in Arkansas are now fulltime beginning the first of this year
of 2 whereas prior the framework of the district judges throughout the state was vastly different with part-time judges and full-time judges but now this year we are finally all full time and so in our our letter we have one wished to point out to the commission the that there is a a wide gap between the salaries that the district judges make with the circuit judges in consideration to the difference between circuit judges and the court of appeals judges and the
the the supreme court justices our group is not specifically asking for the commission to take action on that we merely wanted to bring that to the commission's attention this and and we have reached out to judicial
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:20:30
council and we seek to have a joint commission that we can look at that in the future and perhaps we can come to some
Speaker 57
1:20:36
sort of resolution to submit a proposal to the com so now that everybody's on the
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:20:48
state payroll and is full time the thought work with the the judic Yeah consistently and and as I said
Aaron Lowry
Unverified
1:21:03
I'm I'm very aware that the district bench is helping the circuit bench now
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:21:22
which by the way may be allowing and enabling the judicial system to be I'm not going to call it well yes more efficient in how it is handling matters on a local level because usually the dis district judge is more local than the circuit judge because the circuit judge rides the circuit
kind of like Methodist ministers and so this may also have an impact have had and will continue to have an impact on the number of circuit seats circuit bench seats we we we need to fulfill the goal. I will tell you that and and you all probably know this that just as with doctors
lawyers around rural lawyers in rural areas and you probably can speak to this too Mr. Mcready in the rural areas the lawyers there's much many fewer lawyers and there's been so to speak a dearth of attorneys moving to rural areas to take take over practices that have been there for generations
I mean I've witnessed that even in Cleburne County in Heberw Springs where the lawyers are just working the heads off because they have they don't have as many lawyers and that that also has an impact on state district court judges if you don't have a lawyer living in a state district court area you got a problem
and so I'm I'm just sharing with you some of the things that are coming up in the pipeline in terms of the judicial branch. I'm not as up to date on it as the folks who are in the audience but I do know that I've been very involved
Speaker 209
1:23:50
in access to justice issues and that is becoming critical so basically what you're saying you
Speaker 210
1:23:55
want us to know that this work
is going to be done in coordination with the judicial council is that correct that that is correct other than reaching out to judicial council at this point to express our idea
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:24:11
we haven't made any covered any ground in that regard I believe that judicial council has been meeting this week and I suspect that after that meeting we will have a a a better path towards that resolution to that joint committee thank you. I appreciate you sharing that and thank you for coming.
anybody else from judicial I know that Bob Mc mann is here he's he's kind of the and and and you're on behalf of the prosecutors right why don't you come forward now for the prosecutors because as you could see we a lot of this works in tandem at whether it's just the way it's been done in the past of
Speaker 215
1:25:03
how a is calculated and b is calculated so Bob if you will start off and tell us who you are and then go forward with what you all are requesting. I know you've submitted a letter yes madam Chairman Bob McMahon prosecutor coordinator representing the Arkansas prosecuting attorneys association we we would stand by the the proposal that's in our letter just to remind you that that is tied into something that previous commissions have adopted as to the protocol to follow and that this very commission adopted last time so
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:25:33
we were just asking to to continue what you have already done and those percentages would make our division A prosecutors 95% of what the circuit judges get and then our division B85% of the 95 and that we just ask that that be continued ha Well I appreciate you all
coming and listening to this process because I want you all to know as as I told my husband this is not the flip of a coin and it may take time and
Speaker 217
1:26:14
we know on the judicial side that justice does take time to do it deliberatively and
Speaker 215
1:26:18
impartially. so thank you very much if you don't have anything else, no ma'am, I just we want to thank
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:26:30
all of you on behalf of all 28 elected prosecuting
Speaker 15
1:26:35
attorneys we we very much appreciate the hard work that you all do
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:26:42
each year to to make sure that we're taken care of you I'll open the floor for discussion So I just wanted you to know your basically doing the district
Speaker 15
1:26:56
judges right now and you've really done
Speaker 134
1:27:06
indirectly the prosecutors already with the circuit bench OK, so
Speaker 14
1:27:14
I don't want you to think you have it's it's just the district judges at this
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:27:25
time Silence is golden in order to remain consistent that's that's let's stick with that re%3% any other comments or a
second thank you any further discussion if not, I'll call the vote all in favor of the motion by Commissioner
Speaker 126
1:27:56
Huson please say yaay all opposed please
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:28:07
I believe we have the full do we have any more ? I think you've you've voted for all of the judges above district judges and then the vote that just occurred was for district judges I don't believe there's been a vote for the the prosecuting attorney the vote the formal vote to adopt the prior procedure
Speaker 50
1:28:38
that we have followed actually since I've been chair I believe and
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:28:46
for further back than that if if somebody wants to make that motion please do. I'll move that we keep it how it was last year and is requested by the prosecuting prosecut representatives second ok any further discussion if not
all in favor please say a all opposed say nay any abstentions I will declare that we have a full vote on each of our categories and I I want to say that I'm really appreciative of the auditor of state's office in preparing us for this meeting
you know we we really do rely Wendy and TJ on your work it and updating your work from the last time and the only thing I would really like for us we have to come back again to to the calculations
Speaker 126
1:30:04
have to be done and then we have to come back again to
approve that and then there'll be a notice
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:30:28
period right so what will occur is we will for the commission will have
Speaker 225
1:30:33
to come no more than30 days from now revieww any
Speaker 126
1:30:46
OK so what I'd like to do now is set a date yes will ask one question Sure. Now they are going to come
Speaker 225
1:31:08
and give us a, outlook of income of the state at that meeting and that, then I understand that. No, if do is I could forward the fiscal the ALc today which is
farming right now and up in our area which what are we30,40 miles apart-hum Up in that area. a lot of the farmers up there depending on what the president does. Right. are not
Speaker 15
1:31:36
going to make it. they're not going to farm.
Speaker 230
1:31:40
Oh, OK. they're not going to fire me next year. Sure So I, I think thats one of the things too
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:31:47
that we need to know is, uhar the the income. Right. of the state. Oh clark you need to turn your mic on yeah there
we go. So I I just would like to know that because maybe I'm in business play in some towns well and agree I was going to say for the next year I'd like to have either a written report of economic conditions by the state economist but
Speaker 21
1:32:20
for the purposes today I'd like to have the auditor of state forward
Speaker 24
1:32:28
each of us and put on the website of the commission the report that's available I will do that and just so you everyone knows
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:32:39
since it's been a topic of conversation at ALc today the situation with farming tariffs exports was a it was a topic of considerable conversation at ALc this morning.'m not surprised duringdfNA's financial report to that committee well yep
let me say based upon my my having
Speaker 117
1:33:08
been raised by a extension agent. I'm very keenly aware of
Speaker 159
1:33:12
Arkansas farmers so if if there is no other I agree with what you've pointed out rank yeah thank you so much for being so thoughtful and mentioning that just a quick little overview if I may personal privilege but on
our farm we raise enough rice to feed every man woman and child in Arkansas the average is 11 pounds per person a year plus half of Mississippi when it is at a point where you can't even cover your cost. you can't even break even the cost of doing business as a farmer is so egregious that you can have your best crop over ever and you're still in the
hole and there are no farm subsidies that I'm aware of most of us don't have crop insurance because we gamble on being able to make a crop but there's also mother nature this year has not been cooperative as we would like so it is dire you're right there's many many farmers that will
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:34:21
not be able to be in business next year and it is a crisis that I don't think most people have really wrapped their heads around to really know what
Speaker 101
1:34:36
that's looking like so thank you so much well agriculture
Speaker 159
1:34:39
is a main industry in Arkansas and then that has a ripple effect in in business you know it affects the businesses too and then not only just the agricultural idea but it affects duck season which is coming up and if there's no rice planted and the ducks don't have any food and then the farmer
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:35:06
then doesn't flood up the ducks have no water just think of what that does to60 days of the economy in Arkansas with dead hunters coming in so there's a lot of consequences of consequences so thank you well thank you and I appreciate you sharing that as a point of personal privilege my brother of blessed memory his name was Bill Davis and he was a the agriculture council in
embassies all over the world from Turkey to Kenya to Japan to China to Mexico and helped negotiate NAFTA but he he was there to represent the American farmer and to make sure the American farmer had markets outside of Arkansas and so that's why I'm peculiarly aware now my father was an extension agent as I told you.
well he was concerned with the Arkansas farmer ne sometimes those interested merge because most of us have small farms we we have a small farm and so you my father's position was he wanted to help the small family farm and so that's kind of it was interesting to hear them debate when I was a young young person and my brother was
advocating and also my father went overseas to help small farmers in other countries Anyway thank you so much for your attendance for your interest for your service on this commission and let's get our calendars out
Speaker 43
1:36:59
and look at when all of us can agree on
Speaker 127
1:37:05
coming within the next3030 days you say ok
Speaker 21
1:37:16
that will put us at the 21st of November now that is not and
Speaker 141
1:37:28
to clarify one of the strange quirks in in this time period it's not after30
Rose Mims
Unverified
1:37:39
days it must be within30 days within a reasonable period with of the law
well ok we can back up a little bit I think that would that will work if for me is November 14th how's everybody for November 14th and he conflicts because I do want us all to be here and of course we need to let a commissioner Mays know we'll set it at 10 o'clock
Unknown speaker
1:38:35
OK there's nothing further I will entertain a motion to adjourn Second , OK, we are adjourned and wishing you a good weekend
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Rose Mims
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Aaron Lowry
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Representative Bruce Cozart
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