City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate

Thank. Okay without objection of we're going to. Go to a representative Perry house bill fourteen twenty two. If you go the other table. You're recognized president house bill fourteen twenty two. Thank you Mr chairman committee. Fourteen twenty two is this agency bill it is to amend the authority the alcohol alcoholic beverage control board. And what it will do is the director of enforcement would be the oversight of the enforcement agents and the disciplinary and above them would be the administrator. And Director chambers here to answer any questions if you have any. The any questions from the committee Senator Clark you're recognized. Follows yes Sir and that. You said whoever who's here to answer questions the director Doorly Chandler said. Pretender you like to the in the table or decide either way and recognize yourself in those Senator Clark Is question. Doorly channel I director of alcoholic beverage control administration. The director was the genesis of the bill. At the center The the reason for this bill is that the director of alcoholic beverage control enforcement has a been provided with a different standard of oversight of his employees and so we were they were looking for consistency to make a consistent because the employees that work under me if they if I have this player action against them and then they go through the display for state employees as opposed to the enforcement agents they can appeal their disciplinary actions directly to the ABC board. Okay all right thank you. Any other questions. If not then you would have made a signed up anybody here who speak for against. If not represent pair you're recognized close bill I'm close for the bill recommend a good vote. What do pass Senator Clark second center Senator Solomon all in favor aye. Proposed graduation that number you pass House Bill fourteen twenty two and you are present House Bill eighteen forty five also yes Sir Mr chairman you're recognized. Members of House Bill eighteen forty five is to amend a law in advertising currently a microbrewery restaurant private club. A permit holder is not allowed to advertise this would actually allow them to advertise in however they do it whether it's on line and are. The social are in print it's got a you will have the wording for members only. And that is that's the the gist of the bill. To a question from committee. Senator Solomon you're recognized. You may not know the answer but who stopped him from advertised you never was in the bill in the original law that was passed two years ago it never was put in there. To allow so it was never available this is something relatively new because you have very few the state you get very few areas that are the fund drive. Districts there it's a defunct District inside of a dry county in a wet. I see a man will be a different question I would assume that when we pass a law that something would be permissive not restrictive so if we pass a law to allow it why do you have to have a law to permit someone to do something initially and you may not know the answer I'm just that may be a director Chandler question. Thanks Mr chairman I'm just interested why we gotta have permit restrictive bills if we assume that the restrictions are there this is the Director gonna. Charlie challenger Act of alcoholic beverage control ministration. The original bill that passed the advertisers directions are in place for proper club microbreweries because they tie into the original. Private club. Permitted requirements and so in the. Statutory scheme that covers private clubs. They do they prohibit advertising in dry counties is who they being the statutory language and those those statutes were enacted before my time so I can't tell you the justification for why it's there yeah I'm fine with the bill I was wonder how that came about thank you thank you Mr. All right any other questions committee. If not we do not have anyone signed up for against the. Represent per year recognized oppose the bill our hi I'm closed appreciate the question it's it goes way back in fact the more research I've done it's like almost my dad's eighty three I thank. It started back when he was born to. What will committee. I have a motion to pass Senator Solomon. I second Senator Hendren all in favor aye. Post. Congratulations represent per you have passed eighteen forty five thanks. And if you will turn at my call for the Mister Jenner use you will want to be tornado. Get some feedback sometime thank you. Only use what judiciary chair says anybody got a one or two minute bill. that Senator Hester your right now distant Dismang is coming your next. Okay we're going ghost Senator Hester will go down the list and. You're recognized to present to the Senate bill six twenty eight. Remember this is a simple is brought to me by cigar retailer Northwest Arkansas that on the pandemic realize they got to have they got to figure out of better ways to diversify it just allows them to sell online and of the one question or concern that I have that have been reached out to me is how we can you know control of minor ordering cigars and that would be upon the tobacco control board to promulgate rules to to deal with that this is just permissive that would allow a retailer to sell online the retailer would still be buying to the normal cell process. Happy to answer any questions. Question medical center server you're recognized. It just so I understand so This the bill doesn't. Direct how that correction how that contact will be done over the oversight that sale and that's up to which board the tobacco control board I would assume yes there and they're they're okay with doing that I have not I have not heard from them on on the issue okay we fell bill couple weeks ago Senator servers you would you like somebody to come out yes please we got somebody here that can. Enter Senator seven questions. Please recognize yourself thank. Hello channeler Arkansas tobacco control board administration. So. Are you planning to write those rules to prevent minors from purchasing online yes where it would draft rules to oversight the require that you have documentation and do come do checks make sure that those that are ordering and purchasing paying for those kind of liability with alcohol yes Sir more years current promulgate similar rules to make sure they're delivered how that goes yes Sir okay all right thank you thank you Mr. The question committee. Seeing no other questions the team on here speak for against. Seeing no one Senator Hester you're recognized close for you bill I'm closed. What will committee. Do pass through center Johnson. Second from center Hendren all in favor I. Opposed. Congradulations Senator Hester you pass Senate bill six to eight. Hello. Representive run the house house bill seventeen oh four. And just is reminder when Senator Dismang gets over from another committee will put him back in line. Regenerate you're recognized to present to House Bill seventeen oh four okay thank you Mr chairman and members of the committee house bill seventeen No four is very similar to the bill you'll hurt a couple weeks ago from Senator Solomon and I it was just the Senate version we decided to go with the house version and and we amended that bill following the committee to include the concerns that were raised by the Municipal League pertaining to entertainment districts and pertaining to litter litter control we certainly didn't want to do anything in the bill that would unintentionally impact either of those areas the bill is not designed to to affected one of those so I just think there's somebody here to speak against the bill so I will briefly just explain what it does and why we're doing it the bill is really about uniformity in commerce I'm sure everyone's familiar with the trend in cities and counties around the country to ban plastic bags ban plastic straws prohibit styrofoam cups things of that nature and this bill would just ensure that any regulation taxing or or banning of those products would occur at the state level rather than the local level and the reason is because of the uniformity ecommerce you know if we end up with a. A situation where some counties banned plastic bags some counties allow plastic bags other counties allowing but tax amid ten cents apiece we sort of have a chaotic framework of regulatory environment that's that's not really conducive for business and consumer suffer as a result. So there's twenty four states that already provide for this sort of uniformity of commerce around the country including every state that borders us The bill has a very broad coalition of support from the grocers and retail merchants association will marketers association hospitality association beverage association and national federation of independent businesses I think it's a good bill that reduces government red tape is pro consumer and improves our business climate so if anybody has any any questions about the bill be happy to try and answer questions from committee. We do have a for and against the sun the. No committee questions for we have a. Peter and I can't pronounce that last name. You come up. You senator sotto. This is against yes you're recognized for sale yes Sir thank you very much my name is Peter near garden on the environmental director from the city of Fayetteville first I want to thank a representative or a for the amendments that are included in the bill including the changes on entertainment districts and letter I think that I remove some ambiguity in and some confusion also related to composting and and the change their that would impact our compost program I really important changes to the bill I think make it better we are still opposed to the bill and previously not in committee today but fate bill has been identified as one of the cities in Arkansas that was considering bag legislation and this is true we were in the process of drafting a bag legislation ordinance to address letter and water quality issues and Fay Advil prior to the pandemic but that that legislation was put on pause back in March of twenty twenty so wanted to spend just a few minutes I'm talking about the reasons why we drafted that ordinance and and why some of the provisions we included that ordinance would have covered the the reasons I think that are being pointed to as why this bill is necessary so first why would any city want to regulate single use disposable bags litter is the primary reason because plastic bags are lightweight if they're not disposed of properly they can become roadside litter or waterway letter plastic bags are the number one leader item that we do pull out of our streams in Fayetteville and I'm sure you've all seen plastic bags hanging from a tree or tumbling down the road like a tumbleweed that this letter is expensive and difficult for cities to clean up that if it's not cleaned up a a plastic bag can take up to five hundred years to break down when it's out in the environment and that's only after a twenty minute useful life I'm so those are the reasons what the bill drafted that ordinance but and. And then I want to point out some of the items we had included in that ordinance that I think are some of the reasons being pointed to for this bill so the first is uniformity of commerce when we began discussions about a bag bill in Fayetteville we engaged early on with our two largest retailers harps and Walmart in Fayetteville FOR two large grocers it what we heard from them loud and clear is that uniformity of commerce across the city was very important for competitive purposes they wanted any legislation to be equally applied to all grocers across the city of Fayetteville colluding the smaller grocers such as hot Walgreens and CVS so we responded by including a a requirement in the ordinance that would apply to all stores greater than in size than ten thousand square foot and so that would impact and equally applied ordinance to all of the grocers across Fay Advil we also heard loud and clear from both parties and Walmart that a bag fee was much preferred over a bag ban and so we included we responded with a ten cent fee rather than a bag ban and we further specified that the retailer would actually get to keep a portion of that fee to offset the cost in dealing with the ordinance and their offset the cost for for their bags so now the retailers would be able to recruit a portion of the cost for the bags that previously they've just been giving away we also engage with stakeholders early on and we heard concerns about an impact the fee would have on low income families in Fayetteville and so we added exemption language in our drafted ordinance that folks who are on snap or wick for food stamps would be exempt from having to pay the ten cent fee and we work with grocers to ensure that that exemption could be effectively executed at checkout and finally twenty four states have similar language well just because something is right for some other State doesn't necessarily mean that it's a roll. Eight for Arkansas what is Arkansas need to be like our surrounding states where the natural state we're unique and we're beautiful and if there cities in Arkansas they're proactively trying to reduce roadside litter and clean up our streams why would we want to try and stop that so for these reasons we believe this bill is unnecessary and we would encourage you to please vote no thank you very much. Your. That is that you said that was five hundred years. Before a plastic bag would degrade. Is that what I heard you say well yes Sir. I have to do some more reading. Any questions for the committee. Senator Hendren recognized. Thank you Mr chairman after your discussions with the retailers did they support the ordinance or they just say you're going to do it this is what we would ask that a day agreed to remain neutral on the ordinance and and yes they said if you're going to do this this is what we would prefer we we would prefer a fee over a ban on plastic bags in one the reasons for that particularly that we heard from Walmart is if you're in there you know they have that turn style that the plastic bags hang on if you were to require them to change the material of the bag that be a major disruption for their check out lines across several stores inside the city and so that's why they they encouraged us to go with the fee rather than the the plastic bag ban did your denture including any requirement about what the fees would be used for it did the language specified that again a ten cent fee a portion of that fee would go to the retailer offset their costs and then the remaining the retail actually kept the entire ten cent fee a portion to offset the cost and then the remaining portion would go to a community environmental benefit and the retailer would have the ability to specify what the environmental benefit would be it could be two litter abatement it could be to provide free reusable bags to customers they they just had to tell us what that how they would define that community environmental benefit thank you. Johnson you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman. A. When you say committee of our mental benefit there's collects the money and it's going to go to some. Program I can see some ostensibly nonprofit group stepping forward and say I'll give it to us give it to us will run this program for you is that what the intent of this is if you were to have implemented such an ordinance that that could be an option that the retailer could choose to pursue yes Sir so the consumer could potentially be funding some of. And I put in air quotes nonprofit organization that might. Pursue an agenda that's contrary to their interest if if the city if you got a majority of the city council to implement such a thing would that be correct. I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm following we're going with that but will just that without and I'll be provocative just to the second extreme situation let's say that Planned Parenthood wants to help clean up litter this is one of the a lot organizations that have a different primary function they they go pick up trash on the road or whatever they did but the and it's a a do gooder thank it's a publicity thanks see we're good folks we help pick up litter whatever and they can apply for grant of this this up public money because it's really what it is I'm just that's concerning to me I'm just wondered if you had a response to that. We hadn't considered that as a as a possibility we had envisioned it going to keep Fayetteville beautiful type organization whose primary mission and focuses on a litter abatement and clean up in our on our roads and our streams in the community well I think you know it's not due respect that's one of the reasons we we. Like to keep a little tighter rein on things that affect all the municipalities in the state and not allow gosh I hate this word here's too much local control of something that affects the entire state I mean you've if that plastic bag is unfortunately blown away in Springdale and winds coming from the north in that plastic bag would come into salable so it's not like we can keep plastic bags from crossing city lines especially in your area where. It municipalities are all bumped up next to each other so I I just I'm. I just don't believe this is something we can can let be done on a individual city basis it needs to have some regardless of how you feel about it I'm for the bill but even if you're against it you would want a Hodge podge of different to ordinances in different areas so I I just want to point that out but I do appreciate your testimony thank you for coming that thank you Mr Senator Clark you're recognized. Yes applaud the of the ideas. The was there any thought given to I mean Walmart law the grocery stores have the. The circle with the plastic bags of the hell that changes that. And the and the and what was our price that was it was. The. Of potentially for for the bags. yes Sir so the the drafted ordinance had a ten cent fee per bag and the we went with the fee because of the feedback we received from Walmart that that said yeah we would prefer that you not banned the plastic bag because that impacts the turnstile in the set up in the fee is something we can easily executed check out so The so for my normal customer you're not talking about ten cents you're talking about fifty cents and was there loading the bag and turning it load the bag interment will follow back and turn it the. The with the data that you have what does the data show where the bags are out there because I mean you know my wife. The on the road that we live on goes out every couple months and picks up the trash and build it's annoying that people throw trash out but so what's your data show where the trash coming from for those backs are coming from yeah that's it it's very able sometimes it it blows out of the back of a pickup truck trucks that the majority ACT I don't I don't have data that tells us where the majority of it comes from but what we do know is that if there are in the in the design of the ordinances to incentivize the consumer to take less plastic bags at checkout so they're less plastic bags leaving the store in the data supports that they would be less plastic bags that would ultimately end up as as letter but if we were going to stop it. The the plastic bags out for you don't want them did it would behoove us to figure out where they were coming from and I would think that that data would exist. Because I you know I know it's not me. it's not most of my friends. And so I wonder of about your exemption. I wonder that if you didn't leave a big hole. Of that kept the couple right back out there Regardless that I pay fifty cents and yet the bags are still out there anyway. Is that possible. It is possible and again I don't have data to to to tell us where where the bags are coming from thank you. It is a question for the committee. If not thank you for your testimony we next admission Steve good speak for review. Recognize yourself who you're with you're recognized president yes Sir thank you Mr chairman and members of the committee my name is Steve good I represent the Arkansas grocers and retail merchants association I'll be very brief job we are this just a couple weeks ago representative race point again from a grocers emergent standpoint we are for this gentleman before he spoke to the Walmart and hark's were were in favor of the bill that. The reality that is they work their way to a comply in a neutral they were for afraid of a ban and so they work their way to where they were at least neutral on a tax and so not in favor of but just work their way to that grocers emergency across the state or looking for uniformity something we feel like we need and so You know. West Virginia just this past week passes so now we're up to twenty five states that uniformity I would I would take any questions at this point I've heard all of our testimony before. The questions from committee. Not saying it thank you very much for your time this morning here. Representative ray you're recognized close for your bill. Okay thank you Mr chairman and committee members I appreciate your your time and attention to this bill I'll just close will make a couple of points you know this bill doesn't just impact grocery stores it impacts convenience stores it impacts our restaurants that serve straws all sorts of things and and a point that I didn't make when I presented it is our businesses by these products in extremely large quantities to take advantage of economies of scale and so having a patchwork of regulatory framework impedes their ability to do that and one thing I'll say also is as I've thought to this issue is the the the impact of the regulations like the gentleman for faith bills explaining on poor people and he talked about how their ordinance included an exemption for people on staff but there's a lot of people who are living paycheck to paycheck that are not on snap and I calculated the cost of what a ten cent bag tax would do for my family you know husband wife and two kids it's over a hundred dollars a year that's that's a that's a week's worth of groceries for a lot of family since maybe two months worth of utility bills in some cases so and and and a lot of I hear a lot of times people complain about food desert's about how difficult it is to get a grocery store to move into a rural area or into it to inner city in some cases and you know if you wanna talk about making it more difficult to get grocery stores to move into those places you know start layering on regulation after regulation so I think this is a good bill as we come out of the pandemic we ought to be laser focused on ways we can improve our economy do great jobs for people to go back to work at and I think this is a good a good bill that improves commerce in our state some. Thank you for your time thank you which is of the committee. We do pass Senator Solomon second center Johnson. Any discussion on the motion. favor I. The post. Your bill passes thank you Commission representative right. Next we have a representative Lanny Fite H. B. eighteen sixty. The gentleman will recognize yourself. There your. Lanny Fite twenty three. Crystallize association of Arkansas counties you're recognized to present thank you Mr. house bill eighteen sixty what it does it allows the counties when a when they're doing their budgeting they anticipate the revenue and then after that by law they are allowed only to appropriate ninety percent of that and there's some changes in those laws right that we would like to present to the an alternate over to the to crystallize to make those. Thank you represented by Mister chair members of the committee this so the ninety percent rule for counties is a really good safeguard for budgeting process it only allows us as as representative Fite said to appropriate ninety percent of our expected income for the following year there are some exceptions to that some pools of money that can be as budgeted at a hundred percent for instance federal grant money can be budgeted at a hundred percent we're we're merely a pass through for that this bill adds three different types of income for a county that can be budgeted at a hundred percent two of them are very minor no walk through those the first is the money fund up from a private benefactor not something that happens often in counties but sometimes we have people that will leave money in a will sometimes we have groups that want to provide money for a K. nine officer for the county so this this provision would allow us to expand a hundred percent of that money from a benefactor as it comes in the second one is reimbursements that come out of revenues that have already been calculated this is very limited as well this is for errors in billing basically where we may have double paid something in money comes back in the big reason we need this bill is in subsection F. and that is the money that is slowing down the counties from the federal government right now is not classified as federal grant it's classified as federal financial assistance and so without adding the provision where that can be expanded at a hundred percent we would be subject to a ninety percent budgeting rule on that money what we're talking about is the care tax money that we recently received and the America rescue plan my. Ninety that will be coming in this year so with that said I'd be happy to answer any questions. Questions from committee Senator Clark you're recognized. And why shouldn't counties be subject to the ninety but it's for ninety percent role not money so it's good questions Senator so most of that money is going to be expanded out to the communities it's going to have a detailed plan associated with it we have to turn that into the federal government department of treasury that money is is intended to flow through the county and out to the community as quickly as possible. Thank you. The question. Senator Clark. This does not affect the other the rest of the budget in the ninety percent anyway no Sir no Sir we're happy to have that rule in place it really protects us so it doesn't affect you. Thank you. The questions. We have anybody signed up to speak for against a representative fight you are recognized because the bill. I am close for the bill. Which is a committee. Have a do pass Senator Hendren second from Senator Clark all in favor aye. Post graduation representative fight you passed your bill. Okay I was told that the. Read the center Dismang we're not going to come you wanna hold Senator Clark since you're here anyway you have to go somewhere else. The news that can be pretty short. We've been waiting for okay. Preciado we'll go to representative hawks H. B. fourteen sixty three you're recognized president. Thank you Mr chair thank committee this is a fairly easy bill I as far as what it's doing it's a clean up from last year to actually go online with the author's intent what this bill does is it allows cities in certain districts at to make something less restrictive in the far regulation and it's just going to help those cities do that easier so as somebody has been in developing and growing up and that is good for developers and good for cities both and if anybody has any questions I'd like to invite John Wilkerson or Mister James Walton with the city Conway up to answer some questions. Senator Johnson do you have a question. And let me let this gentleman if you're recognized yourself within the table yes in I'm James all over the city of Conway thank you for being here senator John you're recognized thank you Mr chairman representative Hawks can you give me a for instance I read it but I'm trying to get a example my mind either of you have it with arms and yes a great example the city of Bryant they have some regulations which I would call it's kind of like a historic district light but it's not it is not it per se exactly historic district so got is owning called the heart of Bryant. Well when the the Bill pass it grandfathered in their regulations and so they have a situation where they've got some some things about those regulations they're not real workable and they wanted to change of well as soon as they changed and they got they got a letter from one of the local home builder groups as well you know ACT four four six of twenty nineteen prohibited this and essentially what the city was wanting to do was relaxed the regulations they had a regulation on where garages could go and they said we want we want to be a little bit more permissive with garages so the intent of this bill is in those cities so bright Scott those regulations we've got sort of those types of regulations in Conway as well and what it does is it allows us to take a step back kind of roll it back a little bit but not get rid of it because if if I were to go to go to my counsel say Hey you know there's some things about this ordinance that we don't really like to either keep it or do we roll it back entirely in their their choice is going to be well let's let's keep it and so we just have to live with the problems what I what we want to do is have some sort of road in between the says let's roll back some of these provisions that don't necessarily make sense selecting Conway you know we're wanting to essentially speed up the approval process on certain things so it's changed some of those ordinances the twenty nineteen ACT you referred to is that the one Senator Hester and on yes Sir yeah and then there's no there's nothing about this is an attempt to act right after I seem to see how if it's absolutely construed one way it would work against giving some basically flexibility to individual cities do that so yes Sir okay thank you very much for your answer thank you Mr chairman Senator Clark you're recognized. The way I read this is doesn't seem to be. Rolling back regulations it seems to be and how regulations are applied. In my reading it wrong. So what what it is relating to is that that grandfather clause that that was placed in there is basically allowing modification to those existing regulations. Okay it's allowing modification to the regulations because again it the. The. Looks different from that. So it does not result them and developer hawks. being able to get different roles from developer Clark. Correct the uniform rules and double uniformly and again as far as the. The primary question there so yes I could change in but that section B. as a result in a less restrictive regulations so again it's just making sure that they're not going to go in and make it more difficult for developer or they're not going to add more ballot bells and whistles to these districts but if they've got somebody wants to come in and they say you know this would be great for this district you know they would be able to roll it back and make it less restrictive the. Comment or thank you. Senator Solomon you're recognized. So it seems like. If someone doesn't like the rule they can bypass the city council with this law is that what we're doing. Now what what this does is enables the the city council to pass an ordinance to relax those regulations and council. Can't pass on record now now that that's that's what this law this laws enabling the city council to be able to do that because the the law that was passed in twenty nineteen basically said. You know you've got you've got these design regulations it can it can exist in the form that it existed on February twenty eighth twenty nineteen and then so you either have a choice to have it as it as it existed then or get rid of it and so this is basically allowing sort of in between for that for that city to pass an ordinance that basically says Hey let's take a few things out let's take let's take some scalpel here and remove some of the things that don't make our thank you thank you Mr. Any other questions from committee. If not no one signed up to speak for against. Not representative Hawks you're. Recognized close for you bill. Thank you Mr chair of the committee again there's not been any opposition to this all the way through it's been sitting out there for a while developers are forwarded to good bill for cities to help deregulate and creates an activity in areas it may be difficult to create activity in. I'll close. DO president Senator Clark second center Johnson indiscretion all in favor aye. Post graduation thank Mr thank you thank you bill. The representative would occur like your last House Bill so far today the tone current schedule then we'll go to Senate bill. You're recognized president. House Bill. Seventeen forty eight. Thank you Mr chairman thank you committee for the opportunity to present house bill seventeen forty eight it is an incredibly short and direct piece of legislation it amends the current law. On placing Sunday sales questions on the ballot. Which currently and requires that citizens wishing to have it on the ballot President petitions and the formula is the total number of folks voting for the immigrants are election in that in that went district in the previous thing fifteen percent of that. what this bill does is permissive Lee grants city council's city boards and Quorum court's the authority to place such an election on the ballot it still remains. A local option ballot issue that the people vote on so the city council or the quorum court cannot establish Sunday sales they can simply place it on the ballot and during the during the House process we tightened up some of the language original language simply was a they could place it on with the a resolution passed by simple majority during the process of going through the house some folks felt it was enough of a change that they would be more comfortable having a supermajority requirements so we amended the bill to require that in order for that resolution to pass to place the question on the ballot for the people it has to get two thirds majority of a quorum court or the governing body of the city. With the. Special with the election be a special election or choice of whatever they chose the general election primary election or special election like many are Mister chair this bill doesn't change any of the election methods in the Senate it does it's simply as you probably are aware there's several bills that have run through I know at least the house and and very possibly have finished up over here that changes the language on how things are referred to this bill doesn't change the current method of placing and and when it would occur does not change with this bill okay. Questions from committee. The mayor speak for against will everyone signed up. If not to what is will committee. Read. Whitaker you're recognized close I'm close for the bill and I would appreciate a good vote thank you so much what is will of committee. We're not saying a motion are your bill is fail. Thank you. Next we have a Senator Eads Senate bill six three one. You're recognized president. Thank you Mr chair and committee Senate bill six thirty one is a bill proposing to benefit of the manufacturer of cider and spring Dale being one of a kind in the state of Arkansas they often get left out of things in this happening in this session we had a bill go through currently is part of the emergency proclamation they're able to to make deliveries to homes within the region this would just extend that for them to be able to do that once to the pandemic emergency is over and the unfortunately just got left out of that bill which happens often often for them since they're the only manufacturer like that in the State of Arkansas that passed through this through the earlier in the session and fact that a representative earlier said that should change the name of the bill to know cider you left behind so they kinda get left off that and this would just hopefully correct that mistake. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Any questions or euphemisms from the Committee. If not no one here to speak for against. Senator The juror recognized oppose the bill I am closer and I appreciate a good vote will Committee do pass center Johnson. Checker Senator Flippo. In discussion. All in favor aye. Post graduation center eight thank you Mister Mister chair of the committee. Senator Johnson field present Senate bill three seventy seven and then we'll go to Senator Clark presenting Senate bill six forty seven next. You're recognized thank you Mr chairman mark Johnson senate district fifteen of. This is very simple bill this the first amendment bill of. I have found much to my consternation that some communities and some a property owners association or or horizontal property regimes have and people having Yard signs or whatever and they are based on content in other words you can have a sign that says for sale by Jones real estate but you can have a sign that says make America great again or you know go to church on Sunday or whatever so this simply enforces the first amendment and somewhat entity that claims they have the opportunity and and and legal right to violate someone's first amendment rights And it puts a fine for that such a violation at five hundred dollars if it's a. Property owners association H. away Blake whatever. This section he actually had a real situation a lady who many of you know won't name her but she her daughter put a sign in your yard supporting a particular candidate for governor is governor Hutchinson arisen making big deal but it and her her P. away came after her and saw her daughter put the signed in her bedroom window which is facing the front of the house and they came after city had removed that too so this is to me. An absolute first amendment rights you and there's lots of case law about the size of things there are cases where signs can be restricted but you can't do it on the basis of the content switches censorship and and violates the first amendment so that is the long sure the bill I'll be happy to answer any questions. Senator Hendren your first. Thank you Mr chairman so what about signs it put up. Indecent material or profane material or. Senator I look at that and this wouldn't affect that particular thing but certainly a local ordinances based on community standards could be enforced and able to get into a fine line when we start you know you're you're obscenity might not be my obscenity or vice versa but the Supreme Court has ruled that that's a community standard argument the intent of the bill is not to interfere with that type of thing and certainly that's a good that's a legitimate consideration but it would also there are people that think that one thing it's put out is provocative but permissible in other cases it's you know obscenity is certainly something that is defined by a community standards under the under current case law but I'm sensitive to that but I don't think this is specifically approaching it has to do with a content being that the the actual enforcement of any rule or law is content neutral. I I mean. I agree that the we should not be regulating first amendment and the freedom of speech and political signs and such but to. Somebody puts pictures with nudity out in their front yard under this is you can't prohibit that because this property based on content it. That something could be challenged under the obscenity local obscenity laws not to just a sign that doesn't state law supersedes local law and we had that discussion in here time and time again. Very good point Senator I just believe this would be a cleaner if you just kept it the way it is I would certainly consider amendment that would to Take the. Basically say anything it's obscene or whatever should be subject to the local I mean I think it has to because that right now this is you can put whatever you want with no limitation by state law on your front yard and I think that would be obviously I don't think that your intent but I think that's what it says center if we had a additional amendment to the bill that would specifically say use the word obscenity or something I'll that would it be acceptable timing that that so again to me yeah I I just think it needs to be clarified that were not going to impose on decency laws and obscenity laws and I don't know exactly where that standard is and I agree with you it's hard to define like the Supreme Court said about **** but we all know what we see it and I mean certainly if somebody put some signs out that weren't political signs that used graphic profanity about somebody I don't think I think we would still like the ability to say no we're not going to allow that under decency laws or something so I don't I'm exactly happy word of it I just concerned is concerned it took we do have some on re people who would use this in the wrong way Senator Hendren I will agree to pull bill down and come up the amendment that addresses that I think you make an excellent point and certainly that's not the intent but we need to we're talking about something like this it needs to be more clearly defined thank you for the question the chairman I will send you would you take other questions I'll certainly take questions maybe someone has an even better in another person about to happen yes right so Senator Clark you're recognized no it's I just I love the bill of and your would it make a motion in the way it is but Senator Hendren Trott think the probe of the but something that the signs of exceptions for profanity. Of and whatever the word that Senator Hendren you have sent the and and possibly even something that's I hate to say libelous because that's a civil matter that's between two individuals you know that because between two individuals but don't know how to get the staff but one of the bill get admitted fast because we need to get through here okay thank you senator Clark and Mister Mister chairman at that point I will pull this bill down and hopefully by our next meeting will have an amendment that will make everybody happy without objection that's allowed thank you for presenting thank you Mr Johnson see Senator Dismang here we're going to go back to the top DISMANG you're recognized to present Senate bill six four seven thank you Mr chairman members this bills actually has an idea an idea or a thought of mine from a constituent that's a CPA answer see he actually does some of the work for water folks it we we address both that was at the direction of audit legislative audit but what can what he told me he's got a you know he he services or you know help with the financial aspect for into that serves a hundred different meters this is based on meters and so essentially because they meet that threshold they they're not allowed to utilize the degree to procedures which is a much cheaper things that might cost fifteen hundred dollars for him to do in an ultimately has to provide an audit that might cost as much as ten thousand dollars and so you're you're really expanding the costs for those folks no what he told me was on this particular entity he could go in three days and look at every single transaction but because you're conducting an audit there's a higher cost because of assurances are provided with that in talking to audit reached out to Roger Norman and we kind of went through the bill they're the ones provided the guidance at the two thousand level they thought they we were all looking water systems he felt as though that they could do it for the seat server to and one thing I want to keep in mind to keep you for you to keep in mind this is not. Eliminate you know they're the you know the requirement that someone take a look at make sure something fraudulence not happening these agree to procedures they audited said that they might beat those up that you know a little bit higher level than they are right now again the cost is just tremendous markets my buddy. Why are you doing this amendment you went from making you know ten thousand dollars in this particular project the fifteen hundred and insert is the right thing to do I think it is two nine that's why bring the bill but today and we have to take any questions. Question from the Committee. If not the I have no one signed up the one here speak for against. If not Senator Dismang you're recognized close I'm close thank you for your time. A motion to pass Senator Clark second Senator Flippo all in favor say aye opposed. Congratulations introduced when the faster things chairman thank you for the motion Senator Clark. We thought we might have had one more the. Could have been if we suspended rules I do not see them here so