State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs-Senate
Video
Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (9)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1216
Act 64
· 5 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1216 Dotson TO REVISE CERTAIN ARKANSAS LAWS APPLICABLE TO ADMINI…”
|
TO REVISE CERTAIN ARKANSAS LAWS APPLICABLE TO ADMINISTRATIVE RULES TO ALLOW FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF … | Dotson | Notification that HB1216 is now Act 64 |
|
HB1217
Act 65
· 4 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1217 Dotson CONCERNING THE EXTENSION AND REPEAL OF ADMINISTRATIV…”
|
CONCERNING THE EXTENSION AND REPEAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE RULES. | Dotson | Notification that HB1217 is now Act 65 |
|
SB78
Act 135
· 4 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB78 Hill TO ESTABLISH ARKANSAS OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING OF UNIFOR…”
|
TO ESTABLISH ARKANSAS OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING OF UNIFORMED SERVICE MEMBERS, VETERANS, AND SPOUSES ACT OF 2021; … | Hill | Notification that SB78 is now Act 135 |
|
HB1013
Act 59
· 3 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1013 Rye TO AMEND ARKANSAS MUSIC APPRECIATION DAY.”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS MUSIC APPRECIATION DAY. | Rye | Notification that HB1013 is now Act 59 |
|
HB1051
Act 61
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1051 Eubanks CONCERNING ADVERTISING FOR LICENSEES REGULATED UNDE…”
|
CONCERNING ADVERTISING FOR LICENSEES REGULATED UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITY AGENCY, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, AND SCHOOL SECURITY … | Eubanks | Notification that HB1051 is now Act 61 |
|
HB1056
Act 56
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 1/27/21 @ 4:50 PM) Added HB1056, HCR1004, SB183, SB172, & HB1051 Senate Committee on State…”
|
TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; TO ALLOW ELECTRONIC PUBLIC MEETINGS DURING … | L. Fite | Notification that HB1056 is now Act 56 |
|
HCR1004
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 1/27/21 @ 4:50 PM) Added HB1056, HCR1004, SB183, SB172, & HB1051 Senate Committee on State Agencies…”
|
CONCERNING THE CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY VESTED IN THE PEOPLE, THE STATES, AND THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. | Bentley | Approved by the Governor |
|
SB172
Act 151
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…A (Revised 1/27/21 @ 4:50 PM) Added HB1056, HCR1004, SB183, SB172, & HB1051 Senate Committee on State Agencies and Government…”
|
CONCERNING RECORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS KEPT BY THE STATE CRIME LABORATORY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. | G. Leding | Notification that SB172 is now Act 151 |
|
SB183
Act 324
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 1/27/21 @ 4:50 PM) Added HB1056, HCR1004, SB183, SB172, & HB1051 Senate Committee on State Agencies and Gov…”
|
TO AMEND CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW; TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF CAMPAIGN FUNDS OR CARRYOVER FUNDS … | K. Ingram | Notification that SB183 is now Act 324 |
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
meeting will come to order meeting will come to order appreciate everybody uh respect keep your conversations down at this point so thank you uh chair recognizes a
quorum and uh i think we've got i know senator english will be just a little bit late not sure about Senator Bledsoe and Senator Davis, but we're going to proceed.
Members, do you all have any questions before we get started? Seeing no questions, I will go ahead and make mention. We made an announcement, but if anybody happened to be watching this, if you have not already done so, Shelby Johnson with GIS would like members to reach out to them specifically with their home addresses to make sure that they have the proper addresses for the purposes of mapping, for redistricting. I know that I sent all of the members a message last night
that we've been informed that there's going to be a delay in some of the information from the Census Bureau. Some of the information, we're told, may not come in until April 30th, and then another good portion of it may not come in until July 30th, which is a significant problem. So we're supposed to be getting more information and hopefully have a meeting with the Bureau and with those involved in redistricting. so just be aware of that. First bill that we have on the agenda is Senate Bill 78. Senator Hill, I believe if you would come on up and
state your name for the record and then you're recognized for presentation of Senate Bill 78. thank you mr. chair ricky hill center district 29 i'd like
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:53
to i'm going to go through this bill but i'd like to ask uh don barry to come on up with me in case we have any questions in a minute if that's okay mr chair that'd be great uh mr barry i'll go ahead and get started on this bill this bill is basically a continuation of a bill that missy irvin ran last year we voted for in
Senate. It's a military bill. It's the licensure part of it. It's to expand the licensing from just a military member itself to the spouse of the military member coming to the state of Arkansas along with a widowed spouse. If someone gets killed in line of duty, it covers them as well to move back to the state of Arkansas and so as you all know the air base for here in
Central Arkansas is a major contributor to our economy so this is very vital and very important to us as far as Central Arkansas area goes and this bill is actually being pushed by the DOD and so we're looking at expanding this thing trying to go on because we are graded based off of how we treat our military families and so we'd like a good positive vote on this and at that time I'll take any questions. Members, there is quite a bit of language
here that's for place so hopefully you've had a chance to take a look at it. Do you have
any questions on the bill for
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
3:26
Senator Hill? I see no questions. Senator, I do want to expand one more thing. This
bill is another expansion of this bill is it will cover not only active duty military members. It's going to cover the National
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
3:40
Guard, Reserve, and other military members and their families. Senator Garner. Thank you. On page six, line 34, the Donner, Senator Hill, page six, line
34. I'm 100% behind this. I'm
a sponsor of it, but I'd prefer to be as strong as possible that the
license be given. How much discretion are we giving to the boards in that section there to actually deny a license
automatically. That's the only thing that worries me. I doubt they would, but just, could you read that and give me your opinion
Speaker 14
4:21
on it? Senator Donberry with the Arkansas Veterans Coalition.
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
4:25
You're going to need to pull that
Speaker 18
4:27
really close, Don, because people are watching. So there you go. do that.
Speaker 19
4:33
Thank you. Go ahead. Don Berry, Arkansas Veterans Coalition. Senator, in response to your question, this language was in the the preceding bill, Act 820 from 2019. The process established, ALC's subcommittee that's actually worked. Senator Irvin has been heading and has been very effective in bringing about automatic licensure which was the purpose of Act D20 so to answer
Speaker 16
5:01
your question that there there is some provisions that allow you to have an expedited license but you have to go through and get your rules approved before you can promulgate them so in addition to the normal administrative rules process there's an additional clearance requirement for an agency that it wants to bypass the
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
5:24
automatic and go to an expedited. Yeah, it looks like the old language is substantially equivalent occupational license, and the new language is similar scope of practice.
I guess my instinct would be that probably be less restrictive. Within
Speaker 19
5:37
the state of Arkansas, there was no question that substantially equivalent related to the practice itself as opposed to the credentials or the training or whatnot. but it was not viewed that way in other places and it caused some issues with both the Department of Labor as well as the Department of Defense. I just want to make sure
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
5:57
that some veteran or veteran spouse comes here and they just say, well, this isn't scope of practice close enough. I'd rather have it as expansive as possible
so the boards have less say on that if they make sense. I doubt that would happen, but I think this is a better language
now that I'm looking at it, thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Members, any other questions on this bill? We do have someone else that signed up to speak for the bill. I don't know, Senator Hill, if you know who that is, but I do have someone named Alex, and the last name I'm not sure on the pronunciation, but it's K-A-N-O-D-E, Canode.
All right. Senator, do you have anything further before we take for and against? Okay. One of y'all may have to clear the area there, so Mr. Canote, if you want
Speaker 28
7:11
to come up. Alex Connode, I'm an Occupational Licensing Policy Analyst over at Arkansas Center for Research and Economics.
Speaker 29
7:17
Okay, could you pull that up because I couldn't even really hear you through
Speaker 28
7:24
your mask there, sir. Go ahead. I'm Alex Connode and I'm an economic policy analyst at the University of Central Arkansas, the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics. My views do not necessarily reflect those of UCAs, but I wanted to talk a bit more about the occupational licensing side of things and the improvements that they make with reciprocity here. Senator Garner hit on it a bit, but the change of the language from equivalent occupational
license to similar scope of practice really helps get rid of some of the muddy language there where it wasn't so clear to boards what they could and couldn't deny people off of. Similar scope of practice makes it so that instead of them denying somebody off of three years of education versus two years of education it uh it's more about that they have a similar scope of practice that they don't practice outside of the scope that they were in the state they were before um occupational licenses uh there's been a lot of research that's shown from Kleiner and
Johnson that uh it reduces interstate mobility it makes it harder for people to get licenses in from one state to another and uh there's no reason why people going across state borders would lose their training or education. I just wanted to speak in favor of the changes that they made for uniformed service members and their spouses and I'm happy to take any questions. Okay, members, do you have any questions?
Seeing no questions, we appreciate your presentation, sir. Thank you for coming. Members, any other questions for Senator Hill? Senator Hill, are you
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
9:09
closed for your bill, sir? In closing, I'd like to say the reason this bill is personal to me, I have a daughter-in-law. She's a Texas state trooper for three years. My son is military, got transferred. I'm not going to say the state that he got transferred to. They moved there. She was a state trooper for three years. She was personal security for the governor of Texas, Governor Abbott,
for almost a year. And when she moved to the other states she went to, she couldn't even get a job on base without getting extra training. and so the local police would not even consider her with all the extensive training she had and she could not even get hired on at the base what did they require her to take more classes more training so she would have had to take more law enforcement training and what she already had was more than they required anyway but it was not in their state interesting so that's why this is
so important to me because it does affect us daily. So with that said,
I close. Members, what's the pleasure? I have a motion do pass from Senator
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
10:10
Garner, a second from Senator Bledsoe. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Bill passes. Thank you for bringing the bill, Senator Hill.
Thank you all. All right, members. I have not been able to see over my shoulder who all is here, but I see that Representative Rye is here. He's next on the list, and we'll now take up HB 1013.
Yes, Representative Ryan, we've called for you,
sir. Good to see you, sir. If you would, please state your
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
10:56
name for the record. Representative Johnny, right, District 54. All
right. Thank you for being here, and you're recognized for presentation of your bill, sir.
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
11:04
Thank you, Senator Rayford, and it's a pleasure to be with you all. A couple of years ago, y'all, we noticed, Senator David and I, that we did not have a day of music in the state of Arkansas.
And we have some great, great musicians, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Glen Campbell, Charlie Rich, Al Green, Conway Twitty, and Floyd Kramer. All these folks came from Arkansas. But as time has went on, we feel like we need to upgrade this list with names of people that we left off the list. And this year we found that we had Jim Dandy from Black Oak, Arkansas, Buddy Jewel, which has done great in Nashville, and also LaVon Helm, which was with the band.
The same with Bob Dylan. And basically what we're trying to do, Senators, is to add these names in to our Arkansas Day of Music Appreciation, which occurs on September 1 of every year by proclamation of the governor. Okay. Are you able to sing any
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
12:12
particular lines of these songs from any of these three? Well, I'm a little scared on that Jim Dandy
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
12:18
part. I can almost hear it
in my head. I just can't quite catch it all.
Well, first of all, I appreciate you bringing it forth. I definitely appreciate music, and it's been a big part of my life, and enjoy the fact that we've got so many great musicians from the state of Arkansas. In fact, I'm sitting here thinking of all these other folks that probably need to be on your list, but maybe you can do
that in the future. But, members, is there any questions at all on this bill from Representative Rye? And, by the way, Representative Rye, I want to state on here, I don't see that you've got anybody carrying this,
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
12:58
so make sure that you've got somebody lined up to do this on the floor. Otherwise, it'll just sit idle. Is somebody there going to do it? Right. Yeah. Well, we need somebody to step up and at least run it
Speaker 46
13:13
on the floor for you, Representative Rice. Senator, oh, okay. Well,
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
13:16
just make sure you work that out. You don't have to do it right now. Clark, I love your desk, but
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
13:22
I promised Senator Dave I would a couple of days ago. There you go. So
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
13:26
Senator Wallace is going to carry it for you?
Yes, sir. Wonderful. Members, I don't see any other questions out here.
Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Senator Ballinger and a second from Senator Tucker. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
13:42
All opposed, no. Bill passes. Thank you very much. And thank you all for being
here. You all are a great bunch of folks. Appreciate you. Yes, sir. Members, we're now to HB 1216. Representative Dotson, and Representative Dotson,
you've got two bills on here, so I don't know if you're gonna handle both, okay? So we'll be prepared for House Bill 1216 first, but 17's coming on deck. If you would both go ahead and state your names and who you
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:21
are for the record. Jim Dotson, State Representative.
Speaker 50
14:24
Larnie Garrity with the Bureau of Legislative
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
14:27
Research. Thank you. Representative Dotson, you're recognized.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:31
Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. HB 1216, if you'll recall, a couple years ago, we set up the Code of Arkansas Rules and Task BLR with the codification of all the rules, creation of an online searchable database for our regulatory code. and that is a monumental task that they've been diligently working toward over the last couple of years with over a thousand rules in the state representing about 45,000 pages to review.
This averages over 1,200 pages a month and it's a monumental task, like I said, that's going to take, especially with COVID slowing things down, a little bit longer than what we gave them. So this extends that, and then I'm going to let Ms. Garrity go through some of the
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
15:27
this bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just going to go through the bill itself. The first section amends the respectful language.
Currently, the Arkansas Code Revision Commission has the authority to change language that is used in bills to respectful language. This is words and phrases that have been approved by the General Assembly for the laws. We're asking that ability for the rules. If there are any rules that have terms that have not been deemed acceptable by the General Assembly, You can see that on page two, lines one through 10.
Any of those terms would be changed by our staff for the rules. Section two concerns exemptions to what is defined as a rule under the Administrative Procedures Act. This regards formatting rules for the creation of handbooks, pamphlets, or similar publications by adding a cover letter or cover or title page, table of contents, And so what this provision does in section two is says that that title page isn't a rule or the table of contents isn't a rule or the index.
So if that changes, it doesn't have to go through the rulemaking process. Also affects technical corrections, which I'll get into section three, and provides that forms are not rules unless the language is derived from the law rule. and the citation of law or the citation of the existing law rule is included in the form. Section three is the authority to make technical corrections. Again, this is something that's given to the Code Revision Commission, but in this case,
there are rules that include an email address or a phone number, a contact person's name within an agency. And so if that person leaves, the agency, what they have to do is promulgate a new rule to change that person's contact name, name, what have you. And so this allows our staff to make those changes for those technical corrections. And the last section, as Representative Dotson indicated, with COVID, we've been a bit delayed.
And so this extends the completion date for the codification date to January 1 of 2024. But it does allow, if for whatever reason, and we hope not to need any extension. The extension could be granted by legislative council. And Marty, is
this, and forgive me, is this done by the Code Revision Commission as well, or is this gonna
be a separate entity? I just. It's a separate entity.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
18:17
It's, we've hired staff. We've hired a couple of permanent persons, and then we're hiring between four to six temporary staff that will work for about three years to help us accomplish this process. Members, any questions? Senator
Ballinger. Thank you, I appreciate it. This is good work,
Speaker 69
18:38
good bill. One thing I'm a little bit concerned about is that I'm a member of the Code Revision Commission and we'll go through each one of these things
and then a lot of times we'll say, clearly it was probably just an error, something left off, needs to be fixed, but because of the fact that it could be interpreted as substantive, then we'll push it off and then it'll require legislative change. I'm a little bit concerned, and I'm not concerned enough that I'm not voting for this, I support it, but maybe it's something we need to think about and consider is like, in this case, what we're talking about is you making these changes without having any real public oversight or input or anything like that. So it may be something we need to talk about,
like how these be at least posted somewhere or provided as a report to the legislature before their change, or even when you make the change, report it just to make sure that it's not seen as, that you don't give the ability to,
Speaker 71
19:32
even if you don't think it's a substantive change, a change that may end up being substantive.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
19:39
I completely understand. Just want to also advise you. I think in the original act, if there are, if an agency wants to make a change or we want to make a change
that the agency doesn't agree with, the appeal does go to the legislative council for kind of the final determination on that matter. But we'd be more than happy to entertain something like that. So, and that's, I mean, honestly, that's something we can work on later.
Speaker 69
20:01
It's not enough to not do the rest of what this bill does, but probably something we need to talk about to try to make it where it is public, what's happening. Thank you. Members, any other questions? Seeing that, is there anything else on this bill?
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:20
Representative Dotson. I think we're we're closed for it. If anybody has any questions I'm
unaware of any opposition to it. All right. Representative Dotson is closed for the bill. Is there a motion? If a motion do pass, Senator Davis have a second from Senator Ballinger. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed, no. Bill passes. Thank you, sir. And that brings
up 1217, HB 1217. Representative Dotson, you're recognized, sir.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:52
HB 1217 has another component in it, which I'll get to in a minute, that BLR has brought to us also related to the Code of Rules. That's in Section 3 of this. Before we get to that, HB 1217, if you recall several years ago, we set up a consistent review of rules process in the state where all the rules would come up for a renewal or a look at on a four-year rotating cycle. Initially, before that
got done, we went through the entire code or the entire set of rules and cleaned house, getting rid of about 15,000 pages of rules in two years. That process was completed in 2018. Many of you participated in that and I thank you for for going through those and and and helping out with that. Obviously if we got through the entire amount within two years after that happened, that law
provided for the the rules to be divided into six roughly equal sized groups, the remaining rules, and then for those groups, one of those to come up for renewal every four years for us to look at that process. We learned a lot in that process and this basically cleans that up. Section one of the bill is mostly moving the language out of section two of the bill, so if you look at section two it's a lot of deleted language from that original act. Section one is kind of
putting it all into a little bit more streamlined approach with a few more instructions for the Legislative Council from some of the things that we learned as we went through that original process and shortens the time from four years for each of those groups to come up to a two-year cycle. That's the main change overall in the bill and then if Ms. Garrity, if you can cover section 3 of what
that what that covers. Thank you. Section 3 is an expedited repeal of
current rules that again do not meet the definition of a rule under the Administrative Procedures Act. This is what we have found already in our review of rules is some agencies will include their personnel manual, their dress policy, how to handle you know grievances within their their agency. These aren't rules under the definition of the APA and so what this provides is that the The agency can ask for an expedited repeal so they don't have to go through the Administrative
Procedures Act, the notice and the rulemaking process and the notice of public to repeal rules that they promulgated that shouldn't have been promulgated because they don't really meet the definition of a rule. This will go to Legislative Council for final authority to repeal the rule without going through the APA process. And then finally, section
four of the bill is temporary language that simply lays out the timeline of when each of these groups would come up, once one group every two years.
We've already done group one, so it actually begins with group two moving forward, group three, group four, group five, and at the end of it, group one will be, will start the new cycle over again, so it continues to come one group every two years in a 12-year cycle. So that's the bill, kind of a large nutshell.
More than happy today, try to answer any questions. All right. Members, any questions?
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
24:41
Seeing no questions at all. Anything further, Representative Dotson? No. All right. What's the pleasure of the committee? Motion do pass from Senator Ballinger, second from Senator Bledsoe. All those in favor say aye. All opposed, no. The bill passes. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I appreciate your work on that. I do not see unless, is somebody carrying Representative Bentley's legislation from the Senate, anybody?
Okay, and what about HB 1056 for Lanny Fite? Okay, Senator Eads, if you'll come on up for HB 1056.
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
25:22
and I don't know if Representative Eubanks would like to help me maybe see if Ms. Bentley is Representative Bentley might want to come in and do her bill I don't know if y'all are out down there or not but have you got it? Okay okay all right no problem
no problem I just want to make
sure we got them in here if they needed to be. Senator Eads you're recognized
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
25:54
for presentation of House Bill 1056. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
25:59
Lance Eads, Senate for District 7. This is House Bill 1056. This is part of the Association of Arkansas County's package on behalf of the Quorum Court Association. And what this bill does, it continues the temporary emergency opportunity that we provided for public meetings that we did last year.
It actually expired on December 31st. So this allows them to continue that option if they so choose. It's permissive language, not mandatory. So if a quorum court or another organization like that wants to be able to hold a virtual or hybrid type meeting that gives them the option to do so. It has been unanimously approved by the FOIA task force, so they are okay with this. And the emergency clause is set in there just so that we have the continuity of this going forward since it did technically expire December 31st. If somebody still wants
to be able to utilize that, we want to get it completed as quickly as possible. And I'd be happy
to answer any questions. All right. Members, any questions on
Chair
Unverified
27:05
the bill? Senator Garner, you're recognized. What is
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
27:08
the method of notice to the public? Whatever the traditional method is that the organization puts out their notice of meeting is that that
will not change. I guess what I'm asking is because typically you would say city Council member at 7 p.m. at City Hall, but since this is a Zoom or a telephone call or something
like that, wouldn't the method for notice require new information? Yes, what I mean,
it would require that they put out, that they give the public the ability to participate. Whatever method they choose to utilize for that particular meeting, the public would have to have the opportunity to participate in the same manner.
Second question, I understand we passed this before but in the senate as i learned yesterday whenever we actually vote on things we're required to be on the video and i imagine that's so that i can't hand my phone to somebody or somebody walk
in and approve different things on this you can do it by a telephone call which wouldn't have the video confirmation of the person actually voting or participate in a meeting is there a conflict with that i'd be happy to bring somebody from the county if you want to answer that question If
you would, please state your name and who you represent for the record, please.
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
28:38
Lindsay French, Association of Arkansas Counties. Since this amends the FOIA definition of public meetings, Senator Garner, that's not been interpreted to apply to the General Assembly or yours, so it would not. No, ma'am. Let me rephrase. I understand we have our own rules, and I can't be touched
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
28:54
by this. I understand that. My question is, if, say, I live in El Dorado and they held a city council meeting, the way we have to do it without us is you have to actually show up on the video, like I did yesterday, to vote.
so you know me as the elected official. If you have a telephone, that is audio. Obviously, you may recognize somebody's voice, but couldn't that allow somebody to vote without having confirmation who they actually are? Is there any kind of checks and balances to make sure that that doesn't happen? I mean, in theory, anybody could call in and say they're the representative, but then vote
for official matters for that reason. At least with video, you can confirm that
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
29:39
person is that person speaking. That's just a thought. I do understand your concern. At this time, we've not quite caught up in the county technology-wise
to be able to have those methods yet. So yes, someone could call in and be on a phone call and not have a video confirmation. Like you said, we know each other's voices. You're typically going to know whether or not it is the person who is who they
ma'am. All right. Senator Hester, did you have a question? Okay. Well, they were wrong
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
30:14
about that. Senator Davis? I was just curious on the telephone specifically,
how have counties handled that in letting constituents speak or ask questions or be engaged in the meeting? How do we make sure the
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
30:29
citizens are included in their government? Sure, Senator Davis. and most of these have not taken place by telephone only most most every county that I'm aware of has adapted to and adopted the zoom version where people can join by a link I'll also start off by saying that by now most counties are
doing the majority of their meeting in person and you may have a zoom or a virtual option if someone say is quarantined and can't join then they can join in that way. At the top of page two, line two, notice of the method the public may attend the meeting shall be published with the notice of the open public meeting. So there's no specific direction. It can be done locally how they allow the public to participate, whether it's submitting
a comment in writing ahead of time, whether it's being allowed to call in, but the public has to be notified ahead of
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
31:29
time of how they can do that. And I'm also wondering if there is maybe a disaster emergency in some counties, but not others in the future, maybe for flooding or tornado or something like that, if this will still apply to all 75 counties, not just the ones that are declared a disaster
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
31:48
or emergency? No, Senator, it would not apply in that case. On line 21, page 1, line 27, only if the governor declares a statewide emergency under that specific code section.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
32:00
So local emergencies would not qualify. Okay, thank you. All
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
32:04
right. Senators, any other questions on this bill? Looks like we do have one
person that signed up here. Is that right, Maddie? Okay. We've got one person signed up that is looking to speak against the bill. And so thank you very much for your presentation. Paul Calvert.
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
32:46
All right, sir, if you would please state
Paul Calvert
Unverified
32:53
your name. for the record and who you represent? Yes, my name is Paul Calvert. I'm not representing anyone other than myself today. Excuse me. So I have several concerns about this bill, but I'm only going to really address one today. So I believe this could have a negative impact on property owners
under the jurisdiction of city governments city council meetings are sometimes used to hold hearings for imposing liens on property I don't know if you're familiar with this but some of you may be familiar with the process that allows city governments to file liens against properties when the property owners violate certain city ordinances and those ordinances would result in city taking action to correct these violations this might come up come in the form of mowing or trash cleanup. However, the city is not required to get these liens approved in a court of law. They merely have to allow a hearing with the property owner and then vote
to approve the lien. If the property owners want to exercise their right to due process, they must turn around and file a lawsuit or appeal in circuit court within a relatively short time frame. I think it's 45 days. If these liens are not appealed, they are placed on the books and the county tax collector is required to collect the liens as delinquent taxes. Unless a property owner has the resources and skills to file a lawsuit or appeal to challenge these liens, this hearing might be the only opportunity they have to defend themselves.
In fact, I have been the victim of this type of action by the city of Conway. I say victim because the liens were illegally imposed due to the fact that the alleged code violations were committed by my tenants. Code enforcement knew the alleged violations were committed by my tenants, but they chose to hold me responsible instead of holding the tenants responsible. Under Arkansas state law, it is clearly unlawful to hold property owners responsible for the actions of their tenants. You can read this state in the state code 8-6-406A3B. Due to these unlawful proceedings
by the city council and subsequent foolishness in the county tax collector's office when they refuse to accept payments from me as the law requires, two of my properties have been forced into tax delinquent status, and now it looks like my properties will actually be sent to the land commissioner's office sometime this year. So my concern is that if a property owner is not allowed to have this hearing in person in front of the city council, this bill will further reduce the ability of property owners to have a meaningful hearing in these cases where liens are being filed against our properties. I mean, I'm upset about this, I'm sorry.
But this has been a mess for basically two years. It started during the last legislative session and they have been harassing me and it's a mess. And they started again this year. I don't know if it's because I'm involved in the legislative session, but it has started. I just got a notice in the mail yesterday from them. I'm afraid they're gonna start this foolishness again and it needs
to stop. I'm frustrated. Thank you for listening. We can appreciate your own personal situation there. Trying to make sure that we stay on this particular topic.
Yes, sir. So appreciate your testimony, obviously. Is there any questions for Mr. Calvert on his presentation and his concerns? Senator Ballinger? Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 69
36:15
Chair. All I would say is that the legislation still provides for the mechanism. Now, it's absolutely an inferior way to do it, meaning to do it, especially if it's only by telephone, but even if it's by audio video, it's not as good. It's good that it's getting recorded,
which is a useful tool, but essentially that it wouldn't mitigate or wouldn't change your right. I think to me, my biggest concern is because this is a worse way to do it, it's not as good for public involvement, all that stuff, but it may be the best way to do it when you have a legitimate emergency. My concern would be we should just make sure the emergency is a legitimate emergency and doesn't last forever if we can. then when you're faced with a hard time,
then you may have to limp through this and some people will have an inferior access to their government. But if we were faced with really the numbers like they had in Italy at first, which we thought very well that could be what we were facing, in that type of situation with that type of emergency, it probably would make sense that people weren't forced to gather together. And then if you're not, if you're not gathering together in one place, there's really no way to create public access. And I agree with you there.
Paul Calvert
Unverified
37:35
And so I think a reasonable solution there would just be to hold off on some of
Speaker 69
37:40
these things because it's not an emergency. Well, I mean, honestly, if you see a city government who is utilizing this to abuse their, you know, I'd say let your legislator know because I'd jump all over that. Not that I'm saying people wouldn't be above that because they may, but I'd say most of them are conscientious and they're probably not going to do
Speaker 105
37:59
that. One of these cleanups occurred during the flooding when the Arkansas River was so high.
Paul Calvert
Unverified
38:06
I think I spent maybe 50 or 60 hours in the sandbag filling operation there at Beaver Fork Fire Department. I spent a lot of time, and I think I really helped them out there as far as productivity. I brought some equipment out there and such and helped quite a bit with that. And I think it was the last day I got a notice in the mail. They filed a $400 lien against one of my properties. I never, it was even a witness to the so-called mess they cleaned up. Right. I mean, I was busy.
I was, for crying out loud, the Arkansas River was flooding.
Speaker 69
38:41
I think you have a fundamentally legitimate complaint. I just don't know. I mean, I totally can see what you're saying is this bill would make it easier to do it without having more public scrutiny. However, I don't know that there's a better way to do it when you're faced with a legitimate emergency. This kind of would be my position on it.
Speaker 72
38:55
Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Calvert. Members, any other questions?
I don't have anybody else signed up for or against. Thank you, Mr. Calvert. You're dismissed. Senator
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
39:14
Eads, anything else? I'm closed, and I would appreciate a good vote. All right. Members, what's the will of committee? I have a motion to do pass from Senator Tucker. Do I have a second? I have a second from Senator Davis. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed, no. I have one no recorded, but the bill passes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, committee. All right. Members, I do not see Senator Ingram in here, and Senator, what bill are you in here to present today? Okay, I see there. Is there anyone here for Senate Bill 172 for Senator Letty?
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
40:08
Okay, all right. Senator, I don't know if Representative Eubanks is going to join you or not, but he's here, he might
as well. Members, we're on the last bill on the agenda, House Bill 1051, and would you gentlemen care to state your name for the record, please? Senator
Gary Stubblefield. John Eubanks, State Representative, District 74. Thank you both. Good to have you here.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
40:39
Senator, you're recognized for presentation of the bill. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee. Senate Bill 1051 deals with companies that deal specifically with private security systems, home security systems, deals with how the information is disclosed concerning those entities. And it also deals with, in fact, when you read the bill, and when I read the bill last night,
And I realize this bill brings a lot of continuity to the entire industry as far as being equal. But it also is a very business-friendly bill in the way that they disclose this information. Let me give you an example of that. I know most of you have heard on TV whenever somebody reads an ad and they start reading it at warp speed. and you cannot hear the last, well, this would help people to know
as far as putting a 1-800 number or putting up a website where they can get in contact with that particular company concerning a license or any other information, any details,
Speaker 115
41:58
I would like Representative Eubanks. All right. Speak to them. Have
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
42:04
anything further, Representative Eubanks? No, sir. Senator Stubblefield explained it. is it's a very simple bill. It does, it is industry friendly. They are wanting just to be able to have a standard
system and available that where people can get that information and it's easily understandable, whether it's on radio or television, it still requires all printed material and everything to disclose their licenses and et cetera, so. All right. Members, any questions on the bill? Is that a hand
up, Senator Garner? Why? Why do
Speaker 25
42:39
we need this? Is there a problem where? Well,
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
42:49
pardon me, Senator Garner. Well, there's always someone out there that may have a nefarious motive
to do some of these security systems that doesn't have a license. If they don't
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
43:00
have a license, can they actually advertise and would that stop them from advertising in the first place?
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
43:06
Well, it certainly would help the people that enforce these laws to be able to recognize those if they don't have a license on a van or
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
43:17
a vehicle they're driving to install these type of systems. If I may, Senator Angela DeLille is here from Cox if they can answer any questions from the industry,
if you would like, if you want her to
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
43:29
answer any questions. I mean, we can, but I mean, it seems for like the big providers, this won't be much of an issue and they'll prefer it versus somebody who may have a license who's a little smaller, who may have to pay additional advertising costs to redo things of that nature, correct? I mean, I'm just not seeing if it's a huge problem in Arkansas where people are getting scammed. I might be supportive of this. If there's no cases of that, if there is cases, tell me about it. If there's not, I don't see the need to add additional advertising requirements on top of that.
Maybe Cox can speak of 10 different examples. I guess that's my only hiccup in the thing.
Do you want to have somebody come answer for you,
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
44:11
Senator? If they feel like they would be able to adequately answer that, I would prefer
it. All right, ma'am, if you would please state your name and who you represent for the record,
Speaker 121
44:34
please. Hi, good afternoon. I'm Angela DeLille. I'm the Manager of Government Affairs with Cox Communications. So, Senator, companies are currently required to disclose licensing information, so this doesn't add a requirement to disclose licensing information on the advertising materials. It is permissive. What it does is says instead of reading the licensing information, we can read like cox.com backslash licensing. So it's actually less restrictive where
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
45:02
it will allow me either to put the license
or a website where you can get the information. Correct. That's what
I need to know. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions, members? Thank you for your participation. Senator, anything further? We're closed. All right. Senator's closed. What's the pleasure of the
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
45:27
committee? I have a motion to pass from Senator Garner, a second from Senator Bledsoe. All those in favor say aye. All
opposed, no. Thank you, Senator. Members, I do perceive that probably we're going to have several bills coming up next week that weren't quite ready.
So we will continue to meet at scheduled times. Thank you. Have a good weekend. We're adjourned. You
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER - Senator Rapert
SB78 Hill TO ESTABLISH ARKANSAS OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING OF UNIFORMED SERVICE MEMBERS, VETERANS, AND SPOUSES ACT OF 2021; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1013 Rye TO AMEND ARKANSAS MUSIC APPRECIATION DAY.
HB1216 Dotson TO REVISE CERTAIN ARKANSAS LAWS APPLICABLE TO ADMINISTRATIVE RULES TO ALLOW FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CODE OF ARKANSAS RULES.
HB1217 Dotson CONCERNING THE EXTENSION AND REPEAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE RULES.
HB1056 L. Fite TO AMEND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1967; TO ALLOW ELECTRONIC PUBLIC MEETINGS DURING A DECLARED STATE EMERGENCY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1051 Eubanks CONCERNING ADVERTISING FOR LICENSEES REGULATED UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITY AGENCY, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, AND SCHOOL SECURITY LICENSING AND CREDENTIAL ACT; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
ADJOURNMENT - Senator Rapert
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — STATE AGENCIES & GOVT'L AFFAIRS-SENATE, Jan 28, 2021 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jason Rapert Chair
Unverified
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
Speaker 14
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
Speaker 18
Speaker 19
Speaker 16
Speaker 28
Speaker 29
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 46
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 54
Speaker 69
Speaker 71
Chair
Unverified
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
Speaker 25
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Paul Calvert
Unverified
Speaker 105
Speaker 72
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Speaker 115
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 121