ALC-Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee
Video
Transcript
4 documents
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
Speaker 3
3:00
Thank you.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you all for being here today.
Our first order of business after a call to order is comments by the co-chairs. I have no comments today, so we'll move on directly to a review of reports from our occupational authorization entities, and we'll start out with the Arkansas State Athletic Commission, which is Exhibit C1.
Speaker 31
4:30
If you all would identify yourselves Lacey Kirchner counsel for the Department of
Labor and Licensing Ralph Hudson director of labor Good to see you Ralph.
Speaker 36
4:54
Thank you all for being here and you all may proceed answered all of the questions that that y'all had provided the
basic information that that you needed and we're prepared obviously to answer any questions the committee may have
Members are there any questions of Secretary
Hudson I'll give you a moment to
look over this Senator English, you're recognized.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
5:40
Tell me, what kind of
Senator Jane English
Unverified
5:48
turn it off a second ago.
Speaker 38
5:53
Could you pull that microphone just a little bit closer to me? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So the Arkansas State Athletic Commission regulates combat sports in the state. So everything from professional boxers, amateur boxers, any competitive sport, MMA, those are all licensees. They also license the judges of these events.
It's a sanctioning body, so we've got to have judges. We license the referee. We license the physician per statute. There's no fee to the physician for the ringside doctor, things like that, everything related to the event itself. So is there someplace
Senator Jane English
Unverified
6:32
they go and get the skills training? Is there some – how
do they get a license? I mean, how do they take a license? Is there training
Speaker 38
6:44
for it? The Athletic Commission has certain training requirements for referees and judges,
Typically, the ABC and any other approved training, but it's pretty basic. They go once a year, get a day's worth of training, and then they're done. It's not like CEUs or anything like that for a normal profession. And the boxers, by the way, the professional fighters and even the amateur fighters, there's nothing for that. They're a fighter. people don't pay
Senator Jane English
Unverified
7:17
a fee for the license they
Speaker 38
7:20
all pay a fee with the exception of
the ringside physician everybody pays I think $15 for the fighters not forgotten now I think 24 the judges it's it's de minimis senator all right thank you yes Yes, ma'am. Senator Dees, sir, you
are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would you
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
7:46
refresh our memory about the commission itself? How many members are on the athletic commission, and what that makeup looks like?
Speaker 38
7:54
Sure. The athletic commission has seven available seats pursuant to the statute. It currently has four, which makes it complicated for us to get a quorum. It means we can't have one person missing, or we
Speaker 36
8:11
can't do business. They meet quarterly. Every current member, including the chair, is serving an unexpired -- I mean, an expired term. And they're all doing it
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
8:24
that answers your question. Yeah, that's helpful context.
Are they appointed by the governor, each member? They are, yes. Okay. And then the last question, if the statute allows, and legally and ethically, I would love for y'all to sponsor an event between the house and the senate um i i believe i believe uh representative nick burke said he would challenge me we might even be we might even find
Chair
Unverified
8:46
a way to waive the event fee for for that just to see it i think that might be good
good thank you you're welcome senator representative
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
8:59
richardson you're recognized sir thank you thank you mr chair so
So along those lines, though, I had a question. So you said that it's supposed to be seven
Speaker 38
9:12
people on the commission, and there's only four? Did I hear you correctly? Yeah, the statute allows for seven members, each meeting a certain category that the statute believes
Speaker 36
9:23
is critical to serve on a commission like that. And currently there are four
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
9:28
seated members. Yes, sir. Okay. Are you guys working
Speaker 36
9:31
to add three bodies to that? We've submitted the things to boards and commissions, and that's where we're at.
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
9:40
How long have you been only
Speaker 36
9:43
four members there? Well, I'm not a board member. I'm the director that has administrative oversight, but the current members have been, and I don't, unfortunately, and I'm happy to get them to you, but I think nobody is in a term. I think they all expired in 2022, and there may be one or two that expired earlier than that. So even the four seated members are in expired terms and haven't been officially reappointed,
but by statute they can continue to serve, of course, and they do. They all do. Okay. And,
Speaker 31
10:20
Representative, our office has been in contact with boards and commissions to try to get those, the to fill all of the positions to get make sure that we have current board members all the way across the board our chief of staff has reached out so they've reached out
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
10:34
but i guess you guys aren't getting much traction is what i'm hearing um i
Speaker 31
10:42
our chief of staff exactly what he has heard but i do know that he does he is in contact with boards
and commissions on a regular basis not only for the athletic commission but for some of our other boards
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
10:54
and commissions as well okay and then my my last question is I was looking at some of the licensing fees on some of these things have
Speaker 36
11:04
they ever been changed or looked at to increase not in the I think five years that they've been with with with me and the statute limits the inspector fees the max is 125 by rule it was set at 100 I'm unsure of the date that that was
With it, but that predates predates me all those fees predate me. Yeah,
Speaker 77
11:34
okay. Thank you. You're welcome, sir Thank you, mr. Chair and mr.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
11:38
Hudson yes, sir, and then Lacey Kirchner, yeah, Lacey I think I remember you sign up so mr. Hudson talk to me because I'm gonna pick up
on the fee conversation Now, I thought this session we actually changed. Did we not change where you all can begin to charge more fees?
Speaker 38
11:59
You did. You passed a bill that would allow the commission to invoice the promoter for actual costs. It doesn't have to do with fees, but actual costs associated with the event. So any out-of-pocket that the state has, that the taxpayer has to put these events on, inspector fees,
Speaker 36
12:27
hotel if it's necessary, meals, mileage, that's now invoiceable as of August the 5th.
So promoters moving forward, they'll get those reimbursable expenses, as opposed to fees, sir, back. You know, they'll recover that.
Speaker 84
12:42
Okay, so what is the commission gaining? Well, it ends up being a wash. It doesn't end up just sucking on the funds and not recovering what we're actually out. Because before we were out of that,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
13:00
if I'm not correct, give us a history and then why the change was necessary.
Speaker 36
13:06
Happily, happily. So several years ago, again predating me, professional scripted wrestling was removed from the statutory authority of the commission. And so the commission itself lost its revenue, and believe me, when it comes to any of the big ones, that was a huge part of their special revenue, a significant portion. It went away. When it did, that depleted what they had on board, and then it's just been kind of a slow bleed since then.
This helps the commission at least not be putting out more money for a promoter to put on an event than it actually recovers in fees. Because in the past, the legislature only authorized the inspector fee to be recoverable. So if we had five inspectors on site to run an event, or four, two, or three, it was $100 per inspector. But if they traveled, or they overnighted, or they had mileage, the commission had to eat that.
Well, that goes away now with the new legislation. Now, at least we can recover that as a reimbursable out-of-pocket expense on
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
14:25
the part of the commission. Okay, so then secondly, and I think Representative Richardson was talking about, so did we
Speaker 38
14:36
need to adjust the fee? I would leave that to the commission to answer
Speaker 36
14:43
for you. I'm not sure that fixes everything.
It would certainly help. The statute does allow for it. And I can't remember in the
Speaker 94
14:53
rules that we're getting ready to submit, can you remember, did we increase the ask to
Speaker 36
15:00
the $125? I just don't remember. We can get that to
Speaker 38
15:03
you. The statute allows us to charge as much as $125 as an inspector fee, separate that from the cost associated, reimbursable cost associated. And so it would allow us, the statute would allow us right now as it sits,
Speaker 36
15:18
to raise that fee to $125. It's just that our rules have not made that, have not made that move. And we're in the process of getting those rules submitted so that, you know, and certainly we'd entertain that. I mean, I just don't recall when we edited those rules if we included the additional, you know, that making up that extra $25. Okay, so where does the
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
15:41
commission's fund balance stand then? I mean, you all have excess, I mean, we have a lot of excess funds?
Speaker 84
15:49
no they long ago depleted that sir okay so
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
15:52
then it possibly needs to be uh the the fee needs to be updated i would say i i think that is a fair assessment
Speaker 38
16:00
do you have anything to add yes i'm not trying i'm not trying to ask you all to go on
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
16:07
fee is not if if the fee is not adequate it's just not adequate and then we need to do something about it so that's yes
Speaker 74
16:15
sir i mean we their finances are one of our boards that are
Speaker 31
16:21
struggling a little bit financially yes and i mean i'm happy to get you that their financial information as well but i mean as far as a fee increase i think that would be ultimately up to this body if you want to allow the commission to have a fee increase because i mean as always will come before you for rule increases you know for any rule changes so I think we would leave that into y'all's hands as to which
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
16:48
way you feel like it needs
to go okay and then lastly your your commissioners did I understand you correctly to say that you have seven slots
you only have four that are appointed in the their their appointments have expired yes sir so
Speaker 102
17:12
is it just it's just hard filling this
Speaker 31
17:15
board yes i believe there's been applications made but beyond that i we leave that up to the governor's office and their staff to determine who they want appoint to that board and how often
Speaker 96
17:32
believe believe they're they're all two
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
17:34
years okay all right thank you thank you mr. chair Thank
Speaker 104
17:40
you, sir member members. Are there any other questions?
Seeing none without objection this report stands as
reviewed And director Hudson, thank you for all you're doing and I especially want to thank you for what you've done
Helping me up in that Manila, Arkansas area. Yes, sir. I'm happy to do it. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Thank you You all
dismissed Next we're looking for the Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission
Aaron Howard
Unverified
18:38
If you would please introduce yourself sir My name is Aaron Howard.
Chair
Unverified
18:48
I'm the director of the Arkansas Manufacturing Commission. Thank you, sir, and proceed our division administers the federal program for manufactured housing in Arkansas under our cooperative agreement with HUD and we also are charged with administering the state manufactured housing program and we currently have approximately 430 licensees and one of which is our new manufacturer in Conway. It's
Speaker 113
19:06
our first in 23 years so we're excited about that.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:10
We'll take any questions. Members, are there any questions? Mr. English you recognize me okay so thank you I'm looking at this and I'm wondering are these individuals that are paying $250 for the initial training in
Speaker 116
19:41
the test its companies we licensed the company we license the companies
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:45
oh the companies okay so and they then they train the the people correct people ever
have to take a test or anything like that is there anything requirement
Chair
Unverified
19:57
yes the there is training and testing uh it's usually the owner of the company for for installers is what we're talking about manufacturers there's no test retailers there's no test so
Senator Jane English
Unverified
20:15
you didn't have these if you didn't have these people these licensees I guess the examples that of things that could go wrong if they weren't tested and trained
I guess I'm wondering where's the testing and training going on and
Chair
Unverified
20:35
what does that look like oh well our training program is fairly robust we do have a online version for for the entry piece but then we require continuing education at least every three years a lot of our installers though opt to do it
more often than that and we're one of the only states that I know of who offers on-site training so we will go to the sites that where the homes are being installed and actually set the homes up with them and show them hands-on how to do this so a lot of there's actually a lot of states around us that have asked us about that program and are very interested in what we're doing so it's
Senator Jane English
Unverified
21:12
an on on the site on job training type thing there is an
Senator Jane English
Unverified
21:19
do companies use that most of the time
Speaker 113
21:21
they they love they love to use that yes so are you doing
the training or they're doing the training i'm i'm out there every time doing the training yes that's my background i'm actually from the install side my i grew up in this industry this is about my
40th year in this industry all right thank you representative mcgrew sir
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
21:45
you're recognized thank you mr chairman on the recovery fund on each one of these latins is it a separate recovery fund for each one or is it all
Chair
Unverified
21:55
in one if i understand that each company uh has to pay
into the recovery fund it's a deposit into the recovery fund
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
22:02
but it is one recovery around whether it's an installer or whether it's a retailer? That is correct. What is the balance of that recovery
Speaker 122
22:11
fund, and when is the last time they had a payout? The
Chair
Unverified
22:16
current balance is around $1.78 million, and the payout we've just had. Well, it depends on what you mean by payout. We've had some claims. We had, who was it, Caprit Homes that went out of business.
We maxed out our payout for helping Arkansans through that. And then we also have refunds, reimbursements. So if an entity goes or ceases operation in Arkansas, we're able to refund every cent that they paid into that. That stays their money, unless they have claims. Then, of course, they don't get that back. Okay. All right.
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
22:53
And if there is a claim, is there a maximum
Chair
Unverified
22:57
claim amount? Yes, and it depends on the entity.
Let's see. I don't want to tell you you're wrong. max payouts per installers 12 500 per retailers 25 000 and per manufacturers 75 000 and caprit was a manufacturer and we maxed that out um when when they went out of business it was a little over a year ago all right thank you
and representative love sir you're recognized Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
23:32
So I guess just for my knowledge, when
we talk about claims, and you said that there could be installation claims? Yes. And then you said, what are the other two types of claims that you said? Well, manufacturers, there could be some
Speaker 116
23:48
manufacturing defects. Anything that affects the life of the home, the install of the home, that's what
Chair
Unverified
23:54
those funds are for in case someone – it's in lieu of a surety bond is what it is. we have we hold this money and so it's a lot more uh efficient and effective and that and the
licensees are not paying in a fee each year to for a charity bond this is a one-time fee
Speaker 113
24:11
that they can get back when they go out of business it stays their money unless there's a claim then they don't get
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:20
it back okay and you said so your fund balance is pretty healthy so
Speaker 113
24:25
i guess you're not well the fund balance in the recovery fund is 1.78 but our total liability there is about 6.4 million so there's a shortfall if if everybody went out of business we the it would be a 6.4 million dollar hit but highly unlikely we are looking for some ways to to uh cover that
but um yeah so so the fund is healthy and we're
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
24:49
doing well um but you said it's a one-time twenty five hundred dollar payment
Chair
Unverified
24:58
it's different payments okay um the installers paying twenty five hundred the retailers paying five thousand and the manufacturers paying ten thousand and then it's different payout caps as well on the home so the payout caps again are uh twelve thousand five hundred per installer twenty five thousand per
retailer and 75,000 per manufacturer, which it's the manufacturer 75,000 that we, we did cap out. We topped out when, when capper went out of
Speaker 104
25:25
business. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Love. Representative, Representative Lederman, sir, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm over
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
25:37
here. Yes. Uh, I just got a question. Uh, when I'm looking through here, it shows the different people and it talks about manufactured home manufacturer then on the next page it talks about modular home manufacturer that's right so
that's two different types of businesses
Speaker 126
25:56
yes what's the definition how those different so the the manufactured homes the typical what we all think of
Chair
Unverified
26:02
are going to be the have to have a red hud label on the back of it kind of like a vin number on a car okay and those are part of the the federal program the modulars are built to state and local codes and the enforcement of those is for local jurisdictions we are the kind of the one-stop shop for licensing to make it convenient for any mod or uh hud code manufacturer so they don't have to have multiple licenses they have
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
26:29
one license okay all right well uh when i'm looking at the modular home manufacturer you got three and then the modular home retailer there's zero individuals and salespersons there's three so you have zero people why
Speaker 126
26:49
do we need a license when nobody's getting them right and to be clear the threes
Chair
Unverified
26:57
and the zeros would be anyone who is solely a mod retailer installer but most but most
of the retailers and manufacturers they they do both but we only need one license we're not going to make them buy two licenses the the hud code uh covers both because they do put up the recovery fund money the modular side does not require a recovery fund deposit okay but we have as you noted only six total in companies that have mod only licensing it's just no one hardly does that just more they do both okay thank
you you bet senator english you're recognized
Senator Jane English
Unverified
27:39
ma'am so tell me what does a modular home look like
Chair
Unverified
27:42
similar to a manufactured home except they can be on frame like you can be what like they would have a metal frame some some of them have metal from some of them on the ground no they would be with with blocks and piers and things so it looks like your traditional manufactured home but some are off frame so they might have a a block foundation where these are craned or rolled off of the temporary chassis and then set and you might not be able to tell the difference between that and a site built home so the modulars are they come in a couple of different flavors
Okay, thank you Members are there any other questions Seeing none without objection this report stands as reviewed. Thank you, sir. It's a good report And you all are dismissed
And now we're coming to the Arkansas State Board of Registration for professional geologists And please introduce yourself My name is
Speaker 146
29:10
Kelly black I'm the director of the State Board of Professional Geologists Thank you, ma'am, you may proceed all right. I you've seen my report. I'm prepared to answer any questions that you may have
Members I'll give you a moment to
review the report representative ladyman sir you are
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
29:51
recognized thank you mr chairman well i answered my i see
the number now but i was going to ask you i didn't see how many registered geologists we have so it looks like we have over 400 yes sir that's correct so are those uh spread
around the state are they concentrated in certain areas they are within the state and outside of as well so some
Speaker 146
30:08
of them are outside the state with their license here that's correct okay thank you
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
30:11
yes sir members are there any other questions we're letting you off easy
today next time we're gonna make you bring a show-and-tell with some rocks to explain to us I have a
few yes sir members without objection this report stands as reviewed thank you thank you ma'am you
all are dismissed members are there any other business that you would like to bring forward today
Seeing none, we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by the Co-Chairs
C. Review of Reports from Occupational Authorization Entities:
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 5
Speaker 3
Speaker 9
Senator Dave Wallace Chair
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 36
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Speaker 35
Speaker 38
Senator Tyler Dees
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 74
Speaker 77
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 84
Speaker 94
Speaker 98
Speaker 102
Speaker 96
Speaker 104
Aaron Howard
Unverified
Speaker 113
Speaker 116
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 122
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 126
Speaker 146