ALC-Executive Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
4:17
right members calling executive subcommittee to order. thank you all for being here. comments from my coachchair I'll take that as a name. right perfect. first order of business is the consideration of the waiver request. I think we have both school districts here we'll start with Jackson County if you would come to the table please state your name for the record and please present.
Chester Shannon
Unverified
4:49
my name's Chesterannnon. I'm superintendent Jackson County School District northeast Arkansas. we're about district of probably40 minutes from Jonesboro. when me to make my present right I'm I'm submitting this waiver for the tips taps. I have two partnership projects plus some other school safety type things and
and so I've I've got a a contractor that I've used on some of this and and the reason I like the tips taps so well. first thing is that I know what he makes it's not hidden it's not a it's not a a bid where his costs are put in with others and so when we we agree on the mount the size of the project what he will make because he's not tied to any type of percentage he's just a
flat rate then then he helps us to reduce the other cost on this project right now we've we've had about46,000 dollars worth of plumbing and some electrical that's been reduced because it was put together by somebody who works on a percentage and so so that has been a benefit to us and so you know we would like to do that I know now you know if I agreed to some things
like quick turnaround on our payments you know for these subs and people working on it they all bond to him and I've only got one bond to the school district. I don't have to chase down the electrician if something's went wrong I don't have to cha chase down a plumber he bonds to me and they bond to him and so that works that works very well so you know and and I don't think I fully understand everything because there there's part of this project that
is not included with an architect that that will also run some cost up so I think I need to speak with Jill before I leave or in an email about some of the particulars about you know going forward. I mean if once this project's over and I go forward what do I do after that? Do I
Speaker 6
7:10
come back to you guys and or if it's maintenance, is it a part of it or is anything to do with
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
7:17
tips tap so anyway well appreciate your presentation we'll go ahead and see if there's any questions from the committee at this point
and I'm sure the I'm sure the department perhapsjill can put you inshay can put you in contact with the department and and discuss that process but Mrpeaker, give me one second here. you're recognized. Thank you. Miss
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
7:36
Shannon, thank you for being here today and with the presentation that you put together very well detailed and this is exactly what we were looking for in this project just a question for you you have a a staff member Stteen French, is that correct? Wa Mr French involved with this in any manner putting this presentation
Speaker 11
7:56
together or no no no no it's it was I did this myself
Speaker 7
8:01
and had the ladies in my office pull some some records you know what we've done and which is good for me you know and but no Sttephen wasn't involved. Are are you related to Sttephen? sir no sir not at all just
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
8:15
wanted to just want to make make sure that was on record thank you very much and motion at the proper time all right any other questions
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
8:28
seeing other questions we'll hear your motion right a motion approve. Do I have a second? have second, any discussion on this seeing none all in favor sayy aye any opposed? hearing none thank you thank you very much right go ahead and call up the Queen school district, Mr. Sanders if
you would hit your button, introduce yourself for the
Jason Sanders
Unverified
8:59
record and then give us a brief presentation. good afternoon my name
Speaker 17
9:03
is Jason Sanders superintendent deueen schools I appreciate your consideration today or our proposal we're we're requesting a waiver over the million dollars we've applied for a new roof on our elementary school our rationale and reason for coming to your group today is we've had an issue in the past with some buildings that we've done bid on we built an elementary school in 2007 that we've had a lot of issues with going that route that company has actually went
bankrupt we have another school or middle school that we had the same type issue couldn't get the the the the builder back and we had they went out of business as well about 10 years ago we started we did a rear roof on our middle school with Brian Kurtoofing the vendor he did a great job. we've been in that building now for7 years havenn't had any issues we built a new high school several years ago and we did the construction management model and they were chosen as well to do that roof. they did a great job. they're
well known across the state and so we we knew we had problems with our elementary we applied for partnership funding. we were granted that the scope is 1.8 million for that roof it's roughly about55,0056,000 square foot and so we then went and we had a relationship with Kurk Ruing. we asked for a a a quote it's a little over 1.7 million I believe you have all those documents I can give you the exact number if you need but we were funded state partnership of almost $1.4 million on this project and
because of the money amount I needed to come to you. I did go to our board of directors last month and I presented essentially the same proposal I'm due now and the board of directors because like I said the past history that we've had we we want to stay with a with a vendor that we have faith in that's taking care of us and we'd like to proceed immediately when I asked for their guidance they said we really like just to move forward with the tips taps if we could and me come here today before you and then also it just allows us to get the project started if
approved today so that we can get started so it doesn't linger another several months when we start running into bad weather this year so with that being said that's that's the gist of our proposal and I would certainly entertain any questions that you may have all right thank you
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
11:19
sir. Any questions right coach Chair Eaves thank you you mentioned you had a a problem with your was it a new elementary school roof sir has that been corrected with the previous vendor I know you said they're out of business but do you have any recourse on that? what's the status? No
Speaker 17
11:33
sir we've just been passing it the best we
can you know with with our maintenance upkeep and then doing the best we can to keep it up you had it fixed now or it it is it is fixed yes sir but we've run the life of that building and and we really like to put a new roof on that facility yes sir so this I
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
11:49
guess it's kirk struction is gonna or they're gonna reroof that building they're the vendor that yes sir that we're requesting that that we move forward with do you have any recourse to the previous contractor that went out of business that did the the bad job you know that that was built
Speaker 17
12:07
previous to me I've been the superintendent now for7 years and you know in the se years I've been there we've we've just been trying to keep it going as we've got three different wings,3 different grades in that building and just trying to patch it and get it down the road but I I would imagine there would be a timeline of legal
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
12:27
action, you know that that's passed on the front end right any other questions say none what's the will of the committee ? I have a motion to approve if
I have a second. I have a second. any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor say aye and you opposed have it. thank you sir thank you so much all right members go into item C consideration of the Georgia Center for Opportunity incorporatedrac I think we have p re s ent ative Bentley and Senator English, are you she's going
to do it? OK. Miss there if y'all would introduce yourself for the record.
Speaker 29
13:09
Representative Mary Bentley district54. ha re au Legislative Research.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
13:16
you would proceed all right thank you all so much for the opportunity today as you know we Senator English and I are co-chairing a subcommittee that's been tasked with a pretty big legislative task to make sure next year we have some recommendations and legislation ready to make some real changes in Arkansas for workforce. although Arkansas has a low unemployment rate. we have one of the highest lowest excuse me work participation rates in the nation so we have more than our as reports we've been given we
have up to a million Arkansans that are not working although we're spending millions of dollars on workforce. and we want to make some transformative things and do what some other states have done so Senator English and I have looked at Louisiana and Utah, some states that are making some real changes. Utah did some changes three decades ago when they have the highest reputation rate in the nation they have been on top of rich states poor states for decades and so we had looked to see what they were doing and in doing so came across the George Institute what they were doing to make sure we could get a good audit. so we actually looked at Louisiana thought maybe our
ownbR or our own audit could get the information that Louisiana did through their audit audit their legislative audit but our audit cannot do that nor can belr so we wanted to find someone that could get us this information quickly we have a a very short timeline due next year to give the report that we need and the recommendations that we need in in in order to do that we need some information pretty quickly. so this is a company that's able to get that information for us very quickly given the data here from our state and I think do some transformative things in our state. I'm I'm excited to move forward but we're going to need the data and audit from some of
this outstanding some as a third party to make this happen. so that's kind of a quick rundown of what we're doing and why we want to use this company. they're here, those are the two folks up there if everybody has any questions for them specifically we can ask them for questions I want jill to get
Speaker 35
14:58
a couple of details on the contract we had before us. what's there thank you Mr Chair. everybody should have a copy of the contract in your meeting folder. this was Act 145 that representative Bentley was referencing that as some this study to the hospital Medicaidvelopmental dissil
subcommittee and the contract is with the Georgia Center for Opportunity and the bureau will be the signing entity and paying entity. This the contract will go into effect if legislative council approves it, effective tomorrow and would terminate January 31 s t . we do have a provision in here to extend it for an additional6 months if the subcommittee continues to need the work of this consultant the maxxx contract amount is55,000 dollars. they will as
always with our contracts bill us based on hourly rates and actual expenses and we will pay up to that55,000. The rest of the contract is our our regular terms. there's an attachment A to the contract that shows their fee rates and I'd be happy to answer
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
16:00
any questions. OK. and I will point out we have the consultants on Zoom so we can take questions there. this went through the subcommittee was approved yesterday as I understand was there what was the vote wass it
unanimous unanimous was no no one members questions en
Chair
Unverified
16:22
to rice you're recognized thank you not just for this company but just with what
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:27
went on with with another entity on these estimated travel you do we have them document or travel and stay cost Yes sir they have to
Speaker 41
16:39
provide us with receipts and they're actual expenses.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
16:47
any other questions ? all right any questions for the individuals joining us via Teams or Zoom
or whatever that is all right see none what's the will of the committee I have a motion to motion to approve Do I have a second? I have a second any discussion on the motion? hearing none all in favor say aye in your post eyes have it. thank you thank you chairman thank you committee
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
17:18
I really appreciate it. look forward to bringing you something transformative
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
17:21
next year thanks. Thank you . OK and think the folks joining us can probably hop off unless there are questions. thank you for having us thank you going to item d side ration that xcll Services Corporation contract umpresentative Ladyderman are you
Speaker 35
17:50
Thank you Mr Chair Jill Thayer bureau of legislative Research. you should also have in your packet a copy of the nuclearnergy consulting Services agreement the Joint Energy Committee approved this contract at its meeting yesterday. This is between the bureau and excelervices the contract is based off of Act707 that was passed during this legislative session that act required that a feasibility study regarding a nuclear energy in
the state be conducted by the department of Energy and Environment if they had the funding to hire the consultant. The department informed the committee that they did not have that funding and the jointnergyittee has made the decision to move forward and conduct the study on their own. excel would be the entity that would actually conduct the feasibility study and report back to the committee. so the scope of work that's listed here starting on page two of the contract is the scope that's included in the act.
we also have on page three the maxxx contract amount for this 1 is305,000 dollars. Again that would be based on actual fees billed those fees are included in this contract. and any actual travel expenses. this one is for a one year time period. the consultant has stated that it would be about 10 months from the effective date of the contract for the final report to be provided back to thenergy committee and I would be happy to answer any questions
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
19:25
umpresentativeladyman you're recognized. Yeah just to add to that this study is bottom line is to prepare us to be ready for new nuclear the advancements in nuclear and all the interest that's in nuclear unless you've been under a rock you have you know that there's a lot of interest in that. Many other states have have done similar things and we need to do this to be competitive with them and you know the cost of this came in quite a bit under the initial estimate
we got no negative votes in thenergy committee so that's my input thank youpresentative
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
20:03
see Senator Hester has a question you're recognized sir you know I'm I'm
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
20:07
gonna be supportive of this contract because the legislature did vote and say this is what we
required the whole body said this but is this not a lot of this basic information that the AEDC should already have like if we've got power
in places or if we've got roads that are adequate those types of senator let me recognize
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
20:28
Representativeladyman yeah, I think that's a question for me Senator Hester yeah there's a number of ways you could do this but energy did not want to they they didn't feel like they had it in their budget to be able to do it that's why we did it this way was that your question? I'm sorry would you repeat your question maybe I'm off base. question from what I'm understanding you
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
20:56
know if we're looking at you know a particular
site what the workforce maybe is what the land is if there's roads, if there's power it it's just this seems to be the type of thing
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
21:08
that the AEDC already has. OK yeah those things would be in this study but also there would be other a lot of other things in there like looking at communities that could accept this you know what's the lay of the land what's the what what the people think so when someone comes in and request s us to to come to Arkansas and build a plant we would have all
of that information for them they would still do their their review but if we're competing with Texas and Tennessee and other states we we need this information available for
them when they come here coachcheries and this may be a question for Jill or Representativeladyman there was some talk yesterday about section3.2 and the way that
reads now is that once the draft is prepared excel shall prepare a draft written report of its findings and recommendations and then upon receipt of the draft from an independent evaluator so we're leaving the independent
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
22:21
evaluator part in currently and that's I guess not part of
Speaker 35
22:25
the35,000 dollars, is that right?rrect Thenergy committee decided to keep the contract as is. if they decide they want an independent evaluator that
was required under the act when this was going to be conducted by the department. so it's not required anymore but if they decide they do want to do that
Speaker 61
22:46
it would be a separate contract from this one. OK, but yes it
Speaker 35
22:53
is this language currently requiring us to have an independent evaluator? it doesn't require us to have one. It does read that I would say if one is is contracted with excel would then review that
report from the independent evaluator before they provide the written report'm just trying to
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
23:11
follow how that would work they get through the process of the of all the data findings and then come to us and say ok we're now down to section3.2. do you want are are they gonna come to us and say do you want an independent evaluator or do we need to find one or rightpresentative ladyman
you're recognized thank you Mr Chairman. Yeah, I think I can add add to that we had quite a
discussion in thenergy committee about this because there was a number of ways we could go but what the committee decided was we could leave that in and at the point if we if we did not need the review then we we could take it out that that's an option that's available to us so we felt like it was better to leave it in there than to take it out and then have to put it back so that was kind of the discussion so if we don't want to do the
review we can not do the review because funds would have to
be approved. would would that be would that decision on whether we decide to use an independent evaluator or not
be directed by the joint Energyittee that would have to come back to joingy be discussed be funded and then come to this body. OK I see what you're doing.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
24:33
thank you. right any additional questions? see none what's the will of the committee?
I have a motion by Representative ladyman. Do I have a second? I have a second. any discussion on the motion? hearing none all in favor say aye. any opposed ayes have it thank you and I think that's all the business we have for this meeting. thank you for being here with that we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration of Waiver Requests for Cooperative Purchasing Construction Services:
C. Consideration of the Georgia Center for Opportunity, Inc. (GCO) Contract
D. Consideration of the EXCEL Services Corporation Contract
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Chester Shannon
Unverified
Speaker 6
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 7
Jason Sanders
Unverified
Speaker 17
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
Speaker 29
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 35
Chair
Unverified
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 41
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Speaker 61