ALC-Executive Subcommittee
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Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
4:00
all right members calling executive subcommittee to order thank you all for being here comments from my coach here I'll take that as a no all right perfect first order of business is the consideration of the waiver request I I think we have both school districts here. We'll start with Jackson County.
If you would come to the
Chester Shannon
Unverified
4:43
table, please. State your name for the record and please present. My name is Chester Shannon. I'm superintendent, Jackson County School District, northeast Arkansas. We're about a district of probably 40 minutes from Jonesboro. you may oh let me make my president please i'm i'm submitting this waiver um for the tips taps
i have two partnership projects plus some other school safety type things and uh um and so 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 number it uh first thing is that uh 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 amount 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 about forty six thousand 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 agree 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 an electrician if something went wrong I don't have to chase down a plumber he bonds to me and they bond to him and so that works that works very well so um uh you know and and i don't think i fully understand everything because there there's part of this project that uh 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 come
Speaker 6
7:05
back to you guys and or if it's maintenance is it a part of it or is anything to do with tips
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
7:12
tap so anyway well uh 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 perhaps jill can put you and miss thayer can put you in contact with the department and discuss that process but um mr speaker give me one second here you're recognized thank you
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
7:31
mr shannon thank you for being here today and uh 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 staff member stephen french is that correct yes i do was mr french involved with this in any manner putting this
Speaker 11
7:51
presentation together or no no no no it's uh um it was uh
Speaker 7
7:57
did this myself and i 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 uh but uh no stephen wasn't involved okay are you related steven no sir no sir not
Representative Brian S. Evans
Unverified
8:10
at all just wanted to just want to make make sure that was on record okay thank you very much and uh motion at the proper time okay all right any
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
8:19
other questions Seeing no other questions, we'll hear your motion. Motion approved. All right, a motion to approve.
Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion on this? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Go ahead and call up the Queens School District, Mr. Sanders. Good afternoon.
If you would, hit your button, introduce yourself for the record, and then give us a brief presentation.
Jason Sanders
Unverified
8:55
Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Jason Sanders, Superintendent at Dequeen Schools.
Speaker 17
8:59
I appreciate your consideration today or our proposal. We're requesting a waiver of 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, our middle school, that we had the same type issue,
couldn't get the builder back, and they went out of business as well. About 10 years ago, we did a rear roof on our middle school with Brian Kurt Roofing, the vendor. He did a great job. We've been in that building now for seven years, haven'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 knew we had problems that were elementary.
We applied for partnership funding. We were granted that. The scope is $1.8 million for that roof. It's roughly about 55,000, 56,000 square foot. And so we then went, and we had a relationship with Kirk Roofing. We asked for 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 want to stay 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 would 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 any questions all
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
11:14
right co-chair use thank you you mentioned you had a problem with your was it new elementary school roof yes 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 sir we've
Speaker 17
11:28
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 have it fixed now or it is it is fixed yes sir but we've run the life of
that building and we would really like to put a new roof on that facility yes sir so this i
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
11:44
guess it's kirk construction is going to are they going to re-roof 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
Speaker 17
12:00
know that that was built previous to me i've been the superintendent now for seven years and you know in the seven years i've been there we've just been trying to keep it going as we've got three different wings three
different grades in that building and just trying to patch it and get it down the road but i would imagine there would be a timeline of legal action you know that that's passed on
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
12:22
the front end all right any other questions seeing 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 any opposed eyes have it thank you sir thank you so much okay all right members going
Going to item C, consideration of the Georgia Center for Opportunity Incorporated Contract. I think we have Representative Bentley and Senator English, are you, she's going to do it? Okay. Miss Thayer, if y'all would
introduce yourself for the record. Representative Mary Bentley, District 54. Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
13:03
Okay. You would proceed. All right. Thank you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
13:14
As you know, 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, 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, and they have the highest reputation rate in the nation. They have been on top of rich states and 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 own BLR, our own audit, could get the information that Louisiana did through their audit, their legislative audit, but our audit cannot do that, nor can BLR. So we wanted to find someone that could get us this information quickly. We have a very short timeline due next year to get the report that we need
and the recommendations that we need, and 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 excited to move forward, but we're going to need the data and audit from somebody that's outstanding, somebody that's 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 a couple of details on the contract we had before us.
Speaker 35
14:51
Okay. Ms. Thayer. 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 assigned this study to the Hospital Medicaid Developmental Disabilities Subcommittee. The contract is with the Georgia Center for Opportunity. The Bureau will be the signing entity and paying entity. The contract would go into effect if Legislative Council approves it effective tomorrow and would terminate January 31st.
We do have a provision in here to extend it for an additional six months if the subcommittee continues to need the work of this consultant. The max contract amount is $55,000. They will, as always with our contracts, bill us based on hourly rates and actual expenses, and we will pay up to that $55,000. The rest of the contract is our regular terms. There's an attachment A to the contract that shows their fee rates, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
15:55
Okay. 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. Yes, sir. What was the vote? Was it unanimous? Unanimous was no. Okay. No one against it. All
Chair
Unverified
16:17
right. Members, questions? Senator Rice, you're recognized. Thank you. Not just for this company, but
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:22
just with what went on with another entity.
On these estimated travel deals, do we have them document their travel and stay cost? Yes, sir. They have
Speaker 41
16:34
to provide us with receipts and their actual expenses. Thank you. Okay.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
16:45
Any other questions? All right. Any questions for the individuals joining us via Teams or
Zoom or whatever that is? All right. Seeing none, what's the will of the committee?
I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, committee.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
17:11
I really appreciate it. We look forward to bringing you something transformative next year. Thanks. Thank you. Okay,
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
17:16
and I think the folks joining us can probably hop off unless there are questions. Thank you for having us.
Thank you. Okay, going to item D, consideration of the XL Services Corporation contract. Representative Ladyman, are you? Okay.
Speaker 35
17:44
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research. You should all also have in your packet a copy of the Nuclear Energy Consulting Services Agreement. The Joint Energy Committee approved this contract at its meeting yesterday. This is between the Bureau and Excel Services.
The contract is based off of Act 707 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 Joint Energy Committee 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 max contract amount for this one is $305,000. 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 the Energy Committee. And I would
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
19:19
be happy to answer any questions. Representative Blademan,
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
19:22
you're recognized. Yeah, just to add to that, this study's 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 know that there's a lot of interest in that.
Many other states 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 the Energy Committee. So that's my input. Okay. Thank you, Representative I.C., Senator Hester. has
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
19:58
a question you're recognized sir you know i'm going to be
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
20:02
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
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
20:24
recognize representative 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 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?
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
20:51
Maybe I'm off base. Question from what I'm understanding, you 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's just, this seems to be the type
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
21:03
of thing that the AEDC already has. Okay. 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 do the people think?
So when someone comes in and requests us to come to Arkansas and build a plant, we would have all of that information for them. They would still do their review, but if we're competing with Texas and Tennessee and other states, we need this information available for them when they come here. Okay. Co-Chair Eves. Okay, this
may be a question for Jill or Representative Leibniz.
There was some talk yesterday about Section 3.2, 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 evaluator part in currently, Well, and that's,
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
22:16
I guess, not part of the $305,000. Is that right? Correct.
Speaker 35
22:20
The energy 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, it would
Speaker 61
22:41
be a separate contract from this one. Okay. But is this
Speaker 35
22:48
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 contracted with,
Excel would then review that report from the independent evaluator before they provide the written report. I'm just trying to follow how that
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
23:06
would work. they get through the process of all the data findings and then come to us and say, okay, uh, we're now down to section 3.2. Do you want, are they going to come to us and say, do you want an independent evaluator or do we need to find one or? All
right. Representative Ladyman, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I think I can add, add to that.
We had quite a discussion in the energy committee about this because there was a number of ways we could go uh 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 energy committee that would have to come back to joint energy be discussed to be funded and then come to this body okay i see what you're doing thank
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
24:28
you All right, any additional questions? Seeing none, what's the will of the committee?
I have a motion by Representative Bladyman. Do I have a second? I have a second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. 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. Thank you.
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
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 29
Speaker 35
Chair
Unverified
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 41
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Speaker 61