ALC-Executive Subcommittee
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- October 2, 2026
Speaker 2
3:15
Thank you, Mr. Chair, Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research. So you should all have in your packets a copy of the, um, contract between the bureau and Osborne Carrero and Associates. This is the actuary firm that's utilized by the Joint retirement Committee to provide the actuarial statements on bills. The current contract expires June 30th of this year, and this contract will, um, extend that for an additional two-year
period. The maximum contract amount has not increased over the current. Um, let's see. So the maximum contract amount is $175,000 and it's my understanding we've never reached that maximum amount in the years that we've been utilizing them. I'll add this, if you approve this today, the final approval will be by ALC at its meeting on May 22nd. I'll take any questions.
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
4:26
we have a second, all those in favor of 5 is
saying I opposed, right. That passes moving to item C. This is a committee fund allocations Director Gerty and I think Andrea Barksdale. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Marty Gerty with the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Speaker 11
4:48
Andrea Barksdale, Chief Fiscal Officer for the Bureau of Legislative Research. Thank you.
Speaker 15
4:56
Go ahead. Under item C, you have, um, two, documents before you. The first is the allocations and the expenditures of the interim committees through, um, June 30th of this year, the second document to air the allocations that have been made, um, in the last several years for each of the sub for each of the interim committees, um, this task was to the policymaking subcommittee, um, but with the change in the rules that
responsibility now is with the executive subcommittee. Um, these allocations that are set for each committee, um, the committees, if they get close to or, um, or need to exceed the allocation per fiscal year, um, in the past, they have come, they've gone before the policymaking subcommittee to request more money, um, and this includes mileage and per diem as well as special expenses, which includes if there's an out of town meeting, um, costs related
to the room reservations or audio visual needs. Um, things like that and those expenses have to be reported to the subcommittee, um. On a, on a monthly basis. Um, one of the items for this, uh, subcommittee, well, two things, then you, you will need to, um, set the The amounts for each subcommittee, each allocation for each of the interim committees, also new this year is the joint interim committee, the Joint Military Interim Committee. That we need an allocation.
And for your reference, the Joint Energy Committee's allocation, um, because in looking at our budgets over the years, the Joint Energy Committee was a special, um, line item in the bureau's budget wasn't grouped together with everybody else's and the expenditures were not, I think it was allocated for $60,000 and it never reached, um, close to 30,000. So this past session, our budget was reduced.
by those $30,000 for that joint budget, uh, for energy allocation. So that will need to be less than it has been in the past. I'm happy to answer any questions. All members, any questions? Hit it again, Jack. I think I'm on. You want?
Speaker 14
7:25
OK. You. Thank you. Yeah, I, I did have a question.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:31
So, We would set those allocations now is that the purpose? You will set the allocations for the fiscal
Speaker 24
7:39
year beginning July 1 of 2025 through June 30th of 2006. 26. I did have a
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:46
question about the, um. And, uh, you know, I was chair of policy last session, so I, I remember this, but, uh, It only shows that we spent 4%. Of that allocated funds for
joint energy and 30,000 may be enough, but I know we've already got uh preliminary plans for an out of state trip. Now, if I recall, Uh, there was a separate column on the old budget that showed out
of state travel is what what what was that change?
Speaker 15
8:21
So about 2 years ago, um, the bureau, um, coordinated with the House and the Senate that the House and the Senate they travel. Um, rather than going through
the committee allocations and therefore, there was no longer that need to have that out of the Senate budget. OK. All right,
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
8:39
thank you very much. All right, thank you, members. Any other questions? seeing none, do we have a motion to approve?
Members, give me just a second. All members, we're gonna need a motion to approve these committee fund allocations in addition to that, we need to include a um a uh Fund allocation for the joint military affairs Committee that we established in in um session and the recommendation is that that be very similar to the amount that you see there in joint energy at the bottom of, uh, C on your list. I'll give you a minute to look at that.
All right, Representative Ladyman, did you want to
make that motion? In what amount is your motion? All right. We have approval of the fund allocations you see listed here for fiscal year 2026 and also joint military affairs to have a fund balance of $30,000. All those in favor sign the public saying aye. Opposed the ayes have it. Thank you, Representative. That takes us to item D.
Speaker 2
10:27
Uh, Miss Thayer's backup. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research and the Legislative council, uh, draft council rules are in, in your packet and I'm just gonna go over the changes for this time, the proposed changes. The first one is on page 3. And this is under the peer subcommittee, you'll see a, uh, change from long-term reserve fund to catastrophic reserve fund, that's just a naming
change to match the law. We moved some, uh, the last time y'all adopted rules, we had two provisions due to an act that was passed, one that was up to a certain time point, that one is expired, so I've removed it. There is reference in this sub B to an addendum A, so I'll go ahead and and point out that the addendum A is attached at the back, and it is updated to include all of the new set asides that were adopted by this General Assembly.
Um, if you turn to page 6. On pages 6 and 7. This is the renaming of the EBD subcommittee to the state insurance program's oversight subcommittee. Uh, this is to comply with Acts 560 and 779 that created the state captive insurance program and uh directed legislative council to rename its subcommittee to cover, uh, not only the EBD program, but also all matters related to the skip.
On Page 10. There's a change to, uh, regarding alternate members of legislative council, you'll see that in number 4 there, that states that, uh, an alternate member shall not serve on the executive subcommittee. This change is just to bring in writing and the rules, um, up to the practice that you've always had.
Speaker 2
12:39
There are a couple of changes under the uh review and approval of agency rules. The first one. Is to, uh, under. Let's see, A1B6 is a new subdivision. This is to comply with Act 270. That act did have an emergency clause, so it is effective right now. Um, and then the next provision
that says effective August 5, 2025 is to comply with Act 614. And so that 1 August 5th is the 91st day after session because that provision, or that act did not have an emergency clause. If you look on page 19. Act 9:21. This is the uh moratoriums on watershed and states that this is uh one item that the legislative council does not have to state their grounds for not approving a rule. As you can see, that one had a specific effective date of
February 1st of next year, so we've included that in the rules. Um, and I believe. That is the last change. I will take any questions, um, if, if these are approved, they will be emailed out to all members and alternates of legislative council to serve as their 6 days written notice of a change to the rules, and then they'll be finally adopted by council at it's May 22nd meeting. Alright. Thank you. Members, any questions? Yeah Represented Ladyman.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
14:07
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I actually read all these last night because I want to know what the rules were since I was new to this, but I hate to be so picky about it, but on page 6, if you look at page 6 at the very bottom. Item F. I think there's a typo there that Maybe we should correct before we I think you're need should either of, I think, is that correct? Yes, sir. I'll make that change. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Layman M members, any other questions?
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
14:40
Seeing no other questions. We have a motion.
Have a motion to approve, um, approve with those changes. Yep, and you was second all those ever signified by saying I oppose, I have it. Thank you. This takes us to item E. This would be the ah cooperative purchasing construction services waiver requests for the Lone Oak School District. We have, ah, Mr. Jeff Se, is that right? See, seeing. Come on down. Uh
OK. So if you would just press your button there and then introduce yourself for the record, then you can begin your
Chair
Unverified
15:27
testimony. My name is Jeff. I'm the current superintendent at Lone Oak School District and uh we are here to request a waiver today. Is that it? Tell us what it's
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
15:41
for. What are you gonna do? Go ahead and push
Chair
Unverified
15:45
your button again. All right, I apologize. We are here requesting to use the tips, taps, uh, organization to sponsor and fund our, uh, baseball, softball complex. Currently, we are finishing up a football, uh, renovation where we are using geo surfaces, um, and we did bid all of those out, Geoservices won the bid. They
provide a uh specific turf that only their company makes. And so they actually won the bid, but they would have won it by default because they're the only company that does make that particular turf. They're finishing our football stadium up as we speak. We're requesting this waiver. This project is not due to start until September. So, but we wanted to apply for the waiver to give us enough time if rejected that we could bid this this process out. I do think that GeoServices will win the.
The bidding process if we go through that again, um, Billy Dawson is the, uh, project manager that will be project manager over this for us. We're currently playing at our city baseball fields. Uh, we don't have our own facilities for that, so that is what we're requesting is that that uh we be able to approve, uh, this project by June 9th board meeting, uh, so that we can get ready to, to start this in uh
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
17:11
September. All right, thank you, members, any questions? Layman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, uh, your, your request, does it include the alternates? Funding the alternates it. OK, all right. So,
Chair
Unverified
17:34
um, if, if need be now the only alternate that we're looking at possibly now is the $4000 alternate. We're not going with the
additional turf at this time. OK. Yes, sir. What, uh, classification are y'all in at AAA? Uh, we're 4A4A school, yes sir. We're the last school be able to play on that field and they're 5A, so we're the last school in our
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
17:59
conference to have a turf football. It looks good. Thank you Senator Gilmore.
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
18:14
Thank you. So just so I understand, I, I think you've touched on it, but I just want to make sure that what you meant to say, so this particular vendor is the only one that makes this particular surface, correct? For the football field. So that's why we chose them, but In doing so, they were going to
Chair
Unverified
18:29
give us a really good price, uh, for the baseball, softball field. OK, that's what I was trying to get at. Thank you. What's the, what's different that what do
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
18:38
they provide that's different from some term. It's a
Chair
Unverified
18:44
new turf that they just come out with. It sits on a grid where most turfs are, are on a, a concrete slab and they're rubber field, you see the black rubber pieces. This sits on a grid. It's a solid piece of turf that sits on a grid doesn't have the rubber, so and they put up a little white clear looks like sand inside of it, which is a coolant. And so this turf, uh, allows the turf to be 20 to 30 degrees. cooler in the summer, but it's not, it doesn't have the rubber
fillings like it's a solid it compare price wise to the it's $200,000
Speaker 66
19:18
more. Yes sir. Thank you for the information. Members,
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
19:22
any other questions? All right, seeing your other questions,
we have a motion. Senator Rice, you recognize I just make a move that we accept the, uh, waiver request for Lone Oak School District.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
19:34
All right, we have a motion to motion
to approve. We have a second. All those in
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
19:39
favor if I was saying aye, I opposed guys have it. Thank you for coming down, sir. Thank you, sir.
All right. Members, that takes us down to a similar request for uh Waldron School District cooperative purchasing with Mr. Daniel Fielding. So if you would when you get to the table, just your mic's already on.
Just introduce yourself for the record and you can go ahead and tell us what you need. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Speaker 71
20:07
My name is Daniel Fielding. I'm superintendent of Waldron schools and, uh, this may seem like
Speaker 72
20:10
deja vu because I was just here a couple of weeks back, uh, just to kind of catch you up on.
That situation I was requesting a waiver to, uh, Put a new roof on our elementary school, which was approved on March 19th, a couple of weeks later on April 4th we had another significant hail storm that not only really Finished off the elementary school but also our middle school two storm shelters and our uh alternative learning center. So I'm coming back before the committee to ask for a waiver
to, uh, contract again because of the time frame, that's really why I'm here because I've got to get 5 roofs put on and really a matter of just one summer we're supposed to have a building walk tomorrow, so I, I, I technically do have vendors coming to submit bids but to try to speed up this process, I would, I'm asking for a waiver, a waiver so that as soon as those bids get into me that I'm able to select a vendor to do the middle school or two safe
shelters and our alternative learning center we already have someone contracted for the elementary school, but in order to get all the materials and supplies and secure all that. I, I'm, I need to try to do this as fast as possible because what they're telling me is even if we start, even if I were to get somebody right now, the soonest they might be able to start at the middle school might be the first part of June. So really only gives me about 2 months to get. 4 additional buildings taken care of, so I'm seeking a waiver to move forward with that as
quickly as possible. All right, thank you, Senator Gilmore,
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
21:53
you recognize. Thank you. And Superintendent, thank you for the explanation and just, um, I, I want to stay just so members understand basically, we have an estimated cost because of trying to move expeditiously here and allow for the school district to handle their business, so there will be a, uh, a point in time where I think you come back to this committee to update them on the outcome of that just because of the little bit of flux here and,
and not having an actual, uh, final price. Is that correct, Superintendent? Yes, sir. The, uh, just by the way, the dates
Speaker 72
22:26
fail with this subcommittee and then tomorrow we were actually going to have the walk, so the, the days just didn't line up perfectly. So as soon as we have this building walk with these, these vendors so I am seeking bids we're using uh uh Omnia cooperative process where these contractors have already been vetted for for quality of product as well as, as, you know, price point, so, so there is a process.
taking place and they will be submitting bids, but um just based on the last time with the elementary school, uh, Uh, it took about 2 weeks to actually get the bids back from the vendors and then a couple of them actually requested an additional week. So I'm really trying to avoid that again because if we didn't get into uh another process and then I have to wait another 2 or 3 weeks. I'm, I'm afraid we're going to be backed up to middle of June, almost July before I can get this done. And of course,
obviously because of the nature of what the, the project is, I won't be comfortable putting students and teachers staff underneath these buildings while there's. still being worked on. So that's why I'm trying to do this so, so quickly, safe, warm and dry is important. So sir,
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
23:35
thank you. Did you, you mention, uh, hailstorm affected one of the building's
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
23:41
middle school, I think it was, well, we, we've had 2, we've had
Speaker 72
23:45
two events, the elementary school, which I sought the waiver for back on March 19th was a previous
hailstorm that had happened, really, really a couple of years ago, actually in 2023 was, was, um, I forget the name of the, the meteorological program that can tell when this hail event came over a building, but they have a program that can tell when the certain storm that would have produced the damage went over the building, so I had that evidence and we just had small penetrations we have one of those membrane flat panel, uh, membrane roofs, and it just
made little small divots well over time those tend to just hollow out, so to speak, and, and our building would just leave. and leak and leak, so, so that one was sort of a slower burn, but, but we were able to get things worked out with insurance and and taking care of but this this last event really just happened two weeks after I got this waiver. So, and it was, it was absolute, you know, just damage. I don't know the best way to describe it turn my turn top of my building into Swiss cheese, so so you're still working with insurance on
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
24:53
that claim as well. OK, sir. That is also second incident was
much worse, I think, than the first incident, correct? OK. Thank you. Members, uh, Senator Rice, you recognize? And I, I'd like to take just a
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
25:05
moment of personal privilege to thank Mr. Feeling for not throwing up his hands and going home because, uh, the school really been through it and I, I'll say this about our community. Before they got professionals in there, the community came. And they helped with that, uh, as much as they were allowed to,
uh, help teachers salvage whatever they could and you know, but it is a major, major deal and our kids are finishing school year on concrete floors, nothing wrong with concrete floors, but they've got a few lakes they're putting the bucket under, I think I heard over the weekend here and there, and they're, they're getting, getting a school year done, but we really do need to get on this. It was in my lifetime, we've never seen that severe hail damage in in our county and uh I had damaged my My business too, but it I
appreciate Mr. Fielding and all the school pulling together. And I, if there's not any more questions, uh, I would make a motion to approve
the waiver request. Remember any of the questions. We have a motion second all those in favor for this, signified by saying I
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
26:10
opposed it. Thank you, sir, for coming down and best wishes and good luck to you. Thank you. Members that takes us down to item G, the captive vendor contracts may have missed there again.
Speaker 2
26:32
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jill Thayer, Bureau of. Um, you should all have in your packets a table that shows a couple of the vendor, uh, captive vendor contracts I've been working, um, with our brokers, Stevens and our captive manager, Willis Towers Watson, uh, to secure the additional vendors that the captive needs in order to, uh, work towards the July 1 formation date, um, for you today, we have our actuary, the actuarial.
advantage and the outside legal counsel, which is the Mitchell Williams law firm, and the Mitchell Williams law firm, uh, provided us with an engagement letter that has the fees that I've set out for you here, the TAA contract we're still working through finalizing but wanted to go ahead and provide you with the vendor, the services that they're going to provide and the fees that they will charge, um, as they do need both of these in place as soon as possible. Um, I've worked with the Department of Transformation and Shared
Services on all of the contracts, um, so that they have, because they will be assigned to them on July 1st when they take over the captive and they have reviewed these and approved of what's in the contracts as well. So I think what we're asking today is for approval of these or authorization for the ALC co-chairs to approve them by emergency action, and I'll take any questions. Alright, members, any questions on this seeing none. Do we have a motion?
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
28:06
The motion to approve in a second, all those in favor signified by saying aye, opposed, I have it. Thank you. That takes us down to item H. and this will be discussion of the EBD fiscal impact statements process. Uh
Uh, co-chair Gilmore is gonna give you guys some information regarding that, so you
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
28:36
recognize, sir. All right. Thank you, Coach Chair Eaves. Members There was a lot of discussion during session and there was a lot of, I think, frustration related to, um, the impacts that were being done for, uh, EBD related bills and policy, um, some timeliness that was an issue with, with that, um, so had a discussion, uh, today some of y'all were in that meeting this morning with chamber leaderships, um, and members of the executive committee to sort of figure out a way to make this
process a little better, um, and what we settled on was basically, uh, taking the EBD process and mirroring it that with the, the scope of practice bills that we have, uh, so that there's some uniformity there and some, um, uh, you know, understanding of what to expect from, from member standpoint when they go into the next session. Um, so with that, uh, happy to take any questions if there are any, and I know miss, uh, Director Gerty and Ms. Thayer can probably help with any questions you may have as well, so any questions with that?
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
29:47
Thank you, sir. Members, any questions? Alright, there's no other questions. We have a motion to prove all those uh need a second. Got a
second all those in favor of signify saying aye, a nay. You guys have it. Remember that is all we have on the agenda. Appreciate your attendance and participation, we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration of the Osborn Carneiro Actuarial Services Contract
C. Consideration of Interim Committee Fund Allocations for Fiscal Year 2026
D. Consideration of Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC) Rules
E. Consideration of a Waiver Request for Cooperative Purchasing Construction Services - Lonoke School District
F. Consideration of a Waiver Request for Cooperative Purchasing Construction Services - Waldron School District
G. Consideration of the Captive Insurance Vendor Contracts
H. Discussion of EBD Fiscal Impact Statements Process
I. Other Business
J. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 15
Speaker 14
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 24
Speaker 38
Chair
Unverified
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 66
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 71
Speaker 72