City, County & Local Affairs Committee- House
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Speaker 2
0:00
Okay. My first time on the committee. Honored to
Speaker 1
0:07
be here. Representative Keith Slate. First time on the committee. I'm representative district 83 and I'm glad the AAC brought Lindsay down to help out with the intelligence of the crew that Chris sent in. Thank you, sir. Representative Megan Godfrey.
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
0:22
I represent Springdale district 89. It's my second term, but first time on the committee. Glad to be here.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
0:30
I'm Andrew Collins. I represent Little Rock in parts of Pulaski County, and it's my first time on this committee
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
0:41
and second term overall. I'm Representative Richard McGrew, District 22. I'm a freshman, first time.
Speaker 9
0:48
Joshua Bryant, District 96 up in Benton County. It's a first-time legislator. Representative Kendon
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
0:55
Underwood. I'm from Cave Springs, District 90, first time on the committee. I'm a freshman.
Speaker 14
1:02
I'm Representative John Carr from Rogers. I represent House District 94, and this is my
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
1:10
first time as well. Representative Howard Beatty, District 9, first time on the committee, and
Speaker 19
1:18
I'm a freshman. Representative David Tallett, first time on the committee, first year
Speaker 21
1:26
in the legislature. and i am laddie fight district 23 this is uh going
Speaker 22
1:31
to be a little bit different than we're used to uh everybody has their back
to me so if it takes me a second to recognize you uh just tolerate that if you would uh and also i've got something unique this time i'm i got a shut off button so i can shut you off when. All right, let's get started here. First, let me introduce Barbara Brown here, our analyst right here, our staff, and she does an outstanding job. And Kendra down there, Kendra Drone does an outstanding job for us. And you'll see that as we go along. Is Carrie Locke here? Okay.
Carrie is the attorney, and I'm sure you all get to meet her later on here. Today we have some organizations here. They have a virtual meeting going on right now, and so we need to get them in and out quickly as we can this morning, or this afternoon, should I say. Up first will be John Wilkerson and Jack Creature from Municipal League, and also Blake, would you come up too? are we short a chair
Speaker 25
2:50
up there okay oh no no no no no we're violating rules right there
Speaker 25
3:00
may go ahead please state your name for the record john wilkerson i'm the
Speaker 30
3:05
ark with arkansas municipal league i'm general counsel out there To my left here is Jack Critcher,
Speaker 31
3:10
and then back there is Blake Gary. I've been with the league for 15 years, and I'll tell you a little bit about what I've done just so you can help understand what the league does. I've litigated for cities for the last, really the better part of the 15 years before I became general counsel and replaced Mark Hayes, which some of you may know.
I like to say I'm the shorter but better looking version of Mark Hayes. By the laugh, I see that you all agree. So obviously the league, we represent all 500 cities and towns across Arkansas. we come up here obviously to to represent their interest but the league does obviously more than that as you all know so even off session let us know how we can help um with any city any city town issue that we can we're certainly here to help in any way we can we have our own sort of our health health benefit trust fund we have a workers comp program we have property and vehicle
programs so we we offer a full range of services to cities and towns so we end up getting our fingers into a lot of pies up here, and proudly so. We love local government, love government as a whole, but we love local government because it's where the rubber meets the road, and we really, we like to try to fix potholes is sort of our old adage, and that's what we're really proud to do. So Jack here has been here for about the same amount of time as I have been, and Jack, anything Anything else to add? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Speaker 34
4:33
Yeah, I served 14 years in the legislature, and when I was in the legislature of City County, I was always on City County, and it was one of my favorite committees, but for the last 10 years, I've been with the Municipal League, and now City County is hands down my favorite committee by far. Here, here. But I really do appreciate what you all do and appreciate the challenge that you're dealing with right now, and would echo what John said. Anything that we can do to help you all with what you do in your cities,
don't hesitate to let us know. And again, just thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here. Thank
Speaker 37
5:14
you very much. Okay. Does anybody have any questions of them? All right. Well,
Speaker 36
5:22
thank you all very much. Thank you. And we
Speaker 39
5:29
do apologize. We've got a virtual conference we've got to get back to. So thank you very much.
Speaker 22
5:46
Okay. At this time, we have Josh Curtis, Lindsay French, and also Mark Whitmore. And you all can decide which one doesn't get to come up.
Speaker 48
5:59
You're welcome. Ken, I don't want to talk on the side. I'm Mark
Speaker 50
6:03
Whitmore. I'm with the Association of Arkansas Counties. Lindsey and Bailey French and Josh
Speaker 52
6:08
Curtis, they'll introduce themselves, too. But much like in this league, we have a big array of services. We, of course, Association of Counties represent all the different county officials,
and we handle different groups among them. So it is helpful to know that I happen to deal with the sheriffs, the county judges, and the coroners and they have their respective groups to talk about too uh but we basically try to help y'all too y'all get questions about your local things going on and we can help y'all entertain or find out what's going on locally how things happen locally and we really appreciate the intertwined between county government state government because we're connected by law by the constitution the state fulfills a lot of its obligations through county government
But anyway, if y'all ever do anything, y'all can contact all of us. Chris is our director. Chris couldn't be here, and he is on with a thing with the Municipal League, some kind of meeting day scheduled. Apparently, there was a conflict.
Speaker 53
7:12
If I can, I'll toss it over to Lindsay and then Josh. Thanks, Mark. My
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
7:19
name is Lindsay Bailey French. I'm legal counsel with the Association of Arkansas Counties.
I've been with the AAC since 2012. And I recognize some of you from state agencies committee last year. I work with county clerks closely, so I've helped them get some elections legislation either passed or not passed. So I recognize some of you from there. And then, of course, some of you from city, county, local, and previous sessions. and it's great to see all the new faces as well. I also work with assessors, so any
local property tax issues that you have, I'm your person to talk to for that. We're always striving to maintain the integrity of the property tax system here in the state that a lot of people don't know is administered and collected locally. The state really doesn't have much to do with it, So I'm happy to talk with you about any of that. I also work with quorum courts, and I help Josh with circuit clerks. Thank you, Lindsay.
Speaker 56
8:28
I'm Josh Curtis. I've been with the Association of Counties since 2015. Like Lindsay said, there's a lot of fresh faces on here, but a lot of new faces that have been in county government before. As Mark mentioned, Sheriff Slave, we've got several new JPs on here. I was fortunate, I'm still fortunate enough to be on the Quorum Court in Saline County, as well as work at the Association of Counties. My first term as Quorum Court member, I served with Mr. Chairman Lanny Fyatt back there, and that was a good learning experience to learn from somebody that's been there for a while.
As Mark said, we work with several different associations, so if y'all have any kind of questions, any constituent questions about county government, we're your go-to. Now that the Municipal League is out of here, we can talk a little bit of trash about them. The only disagreements that we may have, I think since they're not here, we can go ahead and make a motion and make this the county-city local instead of city-county local. No, but in all fairness, we've worked extremely well with the Municipal League.
Many of you can remember last year we passed a monumental bill that came out of this committee, which was the 9-1-1 bill that's a life-saving bill that's very important to a lot of people. It supports local law enforcement, and we thank you all for passing that out. We look forward to the fruits of that coming up. Again, Chris is participating in the Municipal League, another partnership. They're participating in the Municipal League virtual conference, and anything we can do for you all. We also provide risk management services to all 75 counties as well as workers' comp as well,
and we provide education, advocacy, and just any kind of information, legal advice. I'm not an attorney, so I always pitch it over to them. When they don't want a legal answer, they pitch it to me, so we work well together. But we're here for you guys, and you'll see a lot of us in this committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee. Okay, we appreciate y'all being
Speaker 22
10:31
here today and look forward to working with you.
Okay, Representative Hawke, you were out and while we were doing introductions and we would like you to go ahead and introduce yourself
Speaker 58
10:44
and what district you're from. Thank you. Delia Hawke from District 91
Speaker 59
10:49
in Northwest Arkansas. It's in Benton County. It includes part of Rogers, Centerton, Cave Springs, Highfill, Gentry, and Siloam Springs. So I'm very excited to be on this committee. I think there are seven mayors in my district,
but a large part of the county also with our county judge. And I lived there 41 years, and I live out in the county, but I have worked in all of those cities. And this is an honor to be on this
Speaker 22
11:19
committee. Thank you, Chairman. And Representative McCullough, would you introduce yourself, please? Thank you,
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
11:25
Mr. Chair. tippy mccullough state rep for district 33 here in little rock downtown pretty much up through the middle of little rock thank you all right i think we'll
Speaker 22
11:39
different uh session this time and and uh our committee will not be meeting the normal times that we have in the past we'll be meeting on on mondays and wednesdays at 2 p.m max c in this room right here. And this coming week's going to be a little different because we'll be off Martin Luther King birthday. We'll be off on Monday. And then inauguration is Wednesday. And so we'll be off Wednesday. So our next scheduled meeting would be the 25th of January in here. So we're a little
ways off. And by then we should have an agenda to start on. And the agenda will be a little different and I'll touch on that here and here in a few minutes let me let me go over a few things there's there's 20 members here and for us to to conduct business we have to have a quorum of 11 people here so be sure to be here and if you can't let me know and and but we won't probably have much of a problem starting off but when people start running bills and have to be in other
communities a lot of times it may run short. Also for the public health and safety I think everybody's going to know this but I'll go over it again. The mask must be worn over the nose and the mouth and the only exception to that is if you're speaking then you can take the mask off at that time or if you're drinking water or something like that you can do that.
We must maintain a six-foot distance between each other. We'll be limited on room out there for the gallery, and I'll address that here in a minute. Also, trash. We're going to take our own trash, whether you be whoever's in this room at that time. If you create trash, you take it out with you and dispose of it properly. And any paperwork that you're issued out there, I would ask that you take that.
If you don't want to keep it, you take it and put it in the trash. Be sure to put your bottles, cups, and your agenda. If you're not going to use that after this, throw it away also. okay uh and let me go over how the bills are going to work it's going to be a little different this time than it has been in the past
on the regular agenda when we consider a bill the sponsor will need to let us know that they're willing they're ready to run that bill and we'll put that on the agenda at that time and we'll also have what we call a consent agenda And a consent agenda means that if there's a bill that nobody objects to, we'll put that on the agenda also.
And, for instance, if we've got something that's controversial or something and we have enough time, then we'll move to that consent agenda unless somebody objects to it being on that agenda. And that'll be fine. That's no problem if you do. And we'll move it off. But we'll all have to agree that it goes on that agenda. And there will be a deferred agenda, and it will be, if the sponsor fails to be here when they're supposed to, it will be moved there, or if the sponsor requests that it go to the referred agenda.
The purpose of all this is we're trying to keep the traffic down in here, Because in the past, an agenda would be printed, and we might never get to that bill, but people who had an interest in all these bills would fill the place up. And so we're going to try to do this to keep it down. And it's the responsibility of the sponsor to let me know or staff know that they're ready to run their bill.
and then we can have it placed on the agenda at that time. Okay, we're just about through here, I think. Okay, the committee has to have to have at least 18 hours before the meeting. Yes,
Speaker 64
16:31
Representative Collins. I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Chairman. I just had a question.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
16:39
My understanding in talking with the speaker is that the consent agenda items are still heard and presented in the same manner. It's just a flexibility about scheduling. Is that correct? Yes, yes. Yeah.
Speaker 22
16:53
And example, if we place it on that agenda, then I will notify the sponsors. if they want to be here to present it. They may or may not get that opportunity to present it.
And last time, we met once a week last time, and we were able to take care of the business without much problems. So I think with the ability to meet twice a week, we should be able to accommodate everyone. Okay, concerning the public, There will be a public sign-in sheet, and it will be located out on the fourth floor holding area.
And the public can sign up at that location. And also, you can sign up online. The individual whose name is appearing on the public comment sign-in sheet doesn't guarantee that the individual will have the opportunity to speak at the meeting. But we have failed yet, never failed to let them speak if they sign up and desire to speak. Okay, the lobbyists, they'll be treated just like members of the public in this.
Your seating out there that you see out in front of you there, to your far left, that will be members' holding area. That would be where Representative Speaks is sitting right now. If she had a bill to present, that's where she would be right there. The agencies will be where Ms. French is sitting right now, that area right there. And then over here where Mr. Curtis and Mr. Whitmore are sitting will be the public.
And the media will have the two seats in the center out there. uh represent dry you're recognized
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
19:01
yes sir mr chairman normally we meet in max uh b yes but are we going to continue through this session to meet here in this room sir or is it the fourth floor
Speaker 22
19:13
of the capitol now my understanding is that we're going to keep this pattern all the way through the session okay sir even if even if uh everyone wants to get a shot and everything was
to clear up it would be too much confusing they felt like that is my understanding if that changes i will let you know representative
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
19:34
dalby yes thank you mr chair uh i know our meeting is at two o'clock will we be
allowed to meet like 10 minutes upon adjournment or do we just schedule the two
Speaker 22
19:44
o'clock yes yes let me back up and i apologize for today but i announced it at two o'clock and it was published at two o'clock from now on when i announce it it will be 10 minutes of bone adjournment. So you won't have to wait around that long. I appreciate that.
All right. Let me say one thing. Everything will be a voice vote unless somebody requests a roll call. And if you think I made a bad call on the yeas or the nays, then with two hands, you can put it up and there will be a roll call uh keep in mind in a roll call uh during the session you're going to have a lot of people missing so
as i say i i think i'm fair on the roll calls but if i feel like i can't tell i will ask for a roll call at this point i'll say does anybody have any questions I believe everybody will enjoy this committee I have and we do a lot of good work for the local people back home you will I think this committee touches the person on the street more than any other committee all right is if anybody else doesn't have anything else Miss Brown is there
Anything I have forgotten I need to go over? Okay,
Speaker 37
21:16
that's a wonder, isn't it? All right. This meeting is adjourned.
Agenda
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
Note: All exhibits for this meeting are available by electronic means and are accessible on the General Assembly's website at www.arkleg.state.ar.us
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — CITY, COUNTY & LOCAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE- HOUSE, Jan 13, 2021 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 1
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 9
Representative Kendon Underwood
Unverified
Speaker 14
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
Speaker 19
Speaker 21
Speaker 22
Speaker 25
Speaker 28
Speaker 30
Speaker 31
Speaker 34
Speaker 37
Speaker 36
Speaker 39
Speaker 48
Speaker 50
Speaker 52
Speaker 53
Lindsay Bailey
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 58
Speaker 59
Representative Carol Dalby
Unverified
Speaker 64
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified