ALC-Executive Subcommittee
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Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
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Speaker 2
3:00
thank you mr. chair Jill Thayer Bureau of legislative research so you should all have in your packets a copy of the 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.
Their current contract expires June 30th of this year, and this contract will extend that for an additional two-year period. The maximum contract amount has not increased over the current. 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. If you approve this today, the final approval will be by ALC at its meeting on May 22nd.
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
4:07
I'll take any questions. we have a second thank
all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed that passes moving to item C this is a committee fund allocations we have director Garrity and I think Andrea Barksdale
Speaker 11
4:42
thank you mr. chair Marty Garrity with the
Speaker 13
4:48
Bureau of Legislative Research Andrea Barksdale, Chief Fiscal
Speaker 15
4:53
Officer for the Bureau of Legislative Research. Thank you. Go ahead. Under item C, you have two documents before you. The first is the allocations and the expenditures of the interim committees through June 30th of this year. The second document are the allocations that have been made in the last several years for each of the interim committees.
This task was given to the policymaking subcommittee, but with the change in the rules, that responsibility now is with the executive subcommittee. These allocations that are set for each committee, the committees, if they get close to or need to exceed the allocation per fiscal year, in the past they have gone before the policymaking subcommittee to request more money. And this includes mileage and per diem as well as special expenses, which includes if there's an out-of-town meeting,
costs related to the room reservations or audiovisual needs, things like that. And those expenses have to be reported to this subcommittee on a monthly basis. One of the items for this subcommittee, well, two things. You will need to set 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 will need an allocation.
And for your reference, the joint energy committee's allocation, because in looking at our budgets over the years, The Joint Energy Committee was a special 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 close to $30,000. So this past session, our budget was reduced by those $30,000 for that joint budget 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
Speaker 14
7:20
right, members, any questions? Give me just a second. Hit it
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:25
again, Jack. I think I'm on. You're on? Okay. You're recognized. Thank you. Yeah, I did have a question. So we would set those allocations now.
Speaker 24
7:32
Is that the purpose? You will set the allocations for the fiscal year beginning July 1
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
7:41
of 2025 through June 30th of 2006. All right, I did have a question about the Energy Committee. Yes. And, you know, I was chair of policy last session, so I remember this. But 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 preliminary plans for an out-of-state trip.
Now, if I recall, there was a separate column on the old budget that
showed out-of-state travel. What was that change? So about two
Speaker 15
8:16
years ago, the Bureau coordinated with the House and the Senate that the House and the Senate would be taking over all out-of-state travel rather than going through the committee allocations. And therefore there was no longer that need to have that. Okay. So that's paid out of the house budget
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
8:34
or Senate budget. Okay All right. 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 right, members, we're going to need a motion to approve these committee fund allocations.
In addition to that, we need to include a fund allocation for the Joint Military Affairs Committee that we established in session, and the recommendation is that that be very similar to the amount that you see there in joint energy at the bottom of C on your list. So I'll give you a minute to look at that.
All right, Representative Lateman, 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 signify by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, Representative. That takes us to item D.
Speaker 2
10:13
Ms. Thayer is back up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jill Thayer, Bureau of Legislative Research. The Legislative Council draft council rules are in your packet, and I'm just going to go over the changes for this time, the proposed changes. The first one is on page three, and this is under the peer subcommittee.
You'll see a change from long-term reserve fund to catastrophic reserve fund. and that's just a naming change to match the law. We moved some, 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 has expired, so I've removed it. There is reference in this sub-B to an addendum A, so I'll go ahead 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. 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. This is to comply with Acts 560 and 779 that created the State Captive Insurance Program and directed Legislative Council to rename its subcommittee
to cover not only the EBD program but also all matters related to the SCIP. On page 10, there's a change regarding alternate members of legislative council. You'll see that in number 4 there that states that an alternate member shall not serve on the executive subcommittee. This change is just to bring in writing and the rules up to the practice that you've always had.
Speaker 2
12:34
there are a couple of changes under the review and approval of agency rules. The first one is to 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. And then the next provision that says effective August 5, 2025, is to comply with Act 614.
And so that one, 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 921, this is the moratoriums on watershed and states that this is 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.
And I believe that is the last change. I will take any questions. If these are approved, they will be emailed out to all members and alternates of legislative council to serve as their six days written notice of a change to the rules, and then they'll be finally adopted by council at its May 22nd meeting.
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
13:56
All right. Thank you. Members, any questions? All right. Representative
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
14:02
Leitman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I actually read all these last night,
because I want to know what the rules were since I was new to this, and 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 right. It needs an of. It should either of, I think. Is that correct? Yes, sir. I'll make that change. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Layman. Members, any other questions?
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
14:36
Seeing no other questions, we have a motion?
Have a motion to approve with those changes? Yep. Any of a second? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. This takes us to item E. This would be the Cooperative Purchasing Construction Services waiver request for the Lone Oak School District. We have Mr. Jeff Seen. Is that right? Seen? Seen? Come on down.
okay sir if you would just press your button there and then introduce yourself for the record then you can begin your testimony
Chair
Unverified
15:22
my name is jeff c and i'm the current superintendent at lone oak school District and we are here to request a waiver today. Is that it? Tell us what it's for.
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
15:37
What are you going to
Chair
Unverified
15:40
do? Go ahead and push your button again. Alright, I apologize. We are here requesting to use the Tips Taps organization to sponsor and fund our baseball softball complex. Currently we are finishing up a football renovation where we are using geo surfaces and we did bid all of those out geo surfaces won the bid they provide a 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 these this process out i do think that geoservices will win the the bidding process if we go through that again billy dawson is the project manager that will be project manager over this for us we're currently
playing at our city baseball fields we don't have our own facilities for that so that is what we're requesting is that that we be able to approve this project by June 9th board meeting so that we can get ready to start this in September all right thank you
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
17:15
members any questions Representative Leitman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So your request, does it include the alternates, funding the alternates?
Chair
Unverified
17:27
To give? Okay. All right. So if need be, now the only alternate that we're looking at possibly now is the $4,000 alternate. We're not going with the additional turf at this time. Okay. yes sir what classification are y'all in that triple a we are for a for a school for a yes sir we're the last school able to play on that field in their 5a so we're the last school in our
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
17:54
conference to have a turf it looks nice it looks good thank you
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
18:06
senator Gilmore you recognize thank you so just so I understand 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 give us
Chair
Unverified
18:24
a really good price uh for the baseball softball field okay okay that's what i was trying to get at thank you sir what's the what's different that
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
18:33
what do they provide that's different it's a new
Chair
Unverified
18:40
turf it's a new turf that they just come out with it sits on a grid where most turfs are on a concrete slab and they're rubber filled 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 it looks like sand inside of it which is a coolant and so this turf allows the turf to be 20 to 30 degrees cooler in the summer but it's not a it doesn't have the rubber fill-ins like
Speaker 66
19:11
it's a solid how does it compare price-wise to
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
19:17
the it's two hundred thousand dollars more gotcha yes sir
thank you for the information members any other questions all right seeing no other questions we have a motion senator rice you recognize I just
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
19:29
make a move that we accept the waiver request
for Lone Oak school district all right we have
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
19:34
a motion to motion to approve we have a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye 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 sir if you would when you get to the table
just your mic's already on just introduce yourself for the record and go ahead and tell us
Speaker 71
20:02
what you need thank you mr chairman my name is daniel fielding
Speaker 72
20:05
i'm superintendent of waldron schools and uh this may seem like deja vu because i was just here a couple of weeks back just to kind of catch you up on that situation i was requesting a waiver to put a new roof on our elementary school which was approved on march the 19th a couple of weeks
later on april the 4th we had another significant hailstorm that not only really finished off the elementary school but also our middle school two storm shelters and our alternative learning center so i'm coming back before the committee to ask for a waiver to contract again because of the time frame that's really why i'm here because i've got to get five roofs put on in really a matter of just one summer we're supposed to have a building walk tomorrow so 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 our 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 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 as soon as they might be able to start
at the middle school might be the first part of june so really only gives me about two months to get four additional buildings taken care of so i'm seeking a waiver to move forward
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
21:48
with that as quickly as possible all right thank you senator gilmore you recognize thank you and superintendent thank you for the explanation and just um i want to state 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 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
Speaker 72
22:21
superintendent yes sir the uh just by the way the dates fell with this subcommittee and then tomorrow we were actually going to have the walk so 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 a 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 i'm just based on the last time with the elementary school uh that took about two 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 another process and then i have to wait another two or three weeks 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 they're still being worked on yeah so that's why i'm trying to do this so so quickly yeah safe warm
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
23:30
and dry is important so yes sir thank you did you do you
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
23:36
mention uh hailstorm affected one of the buildings middle school i think it was
Speaker 72
23:40
well we we've had two we've had two events the elementary school which i sought the waiver for back on march the 19th was a previous
hail storm 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 buildings 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 leak 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 taken 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 know the best way to describe it turn my top of my building into swiss cheese so so you're still
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
24:47
working with insurance on that claim as well yes sir okay yes sir that is also the second incident
was much worse i think than the first incident correct yes yes okay thank you members uh senator rice you
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
25:00
recognize and i'd like to take just a moment 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'll say this about our community before they got professionals in there the community came and they helped with that as much as they were allowed to help teachers salvage whatever they
could and all but it is a major major deal and our kids are finishing school year on concrete floors nothing wrong concrete floors but they've got a few lakes they're putting a 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 our county. And I had damage in my business, too. But I appreciate Mr. Fielding and all the schools for pulling together.
And if there's not any more questions, I would make a motion to approve the waiver request. Members, any of the questions? We have
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
26:05
a motion. Second. All those in favor for this signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, sir, for coming down. and best wishes good luck to you thank you members that takes us down to item g the captive vendor contracts we have miss thayer
Speaker 2
26:27
again thank you mr chair jill thayer bureau of legislative
research 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 with our brokers Stevens and our captive manager Willis Towers Watson to secure the additional vendors that the captive needs in order to work towards the July 1 formation date and 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 provided us with an engagement letter that has the fees that I've set out for you here the TAA contract we are 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 as they do need both of these in place as soon as possible I've worked with the department of transformation and shared services on all of the contracts and 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 all right members any questions on this item i'm not seeing
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
28:00
none do we have a motion we have a motion to approve and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye opposed the ayes have it thank you that takes us down to item h this will be discussion of the
ebd fiscal impact statements process co-chair gilmore is going to give you guys some information regarding that so
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
28:33
you're recognized sir all right thank you co-chair eves members there was a lot of discussion during session and there was a lot of i think frustration related to the impacts that were being done for ebd related bills and policy some timeliness that was an issue with that
so i had a discussion today some of y'all were in that meeting this morning with chamber leaderships and members of the executive committee to sort of figure out a way to make this process a little better and what we settled on was basically taking the EBD process and mirroring it that with the scope of practice bills that we have so that there's some uniformity there and some 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 Ms. Uh, Director Garrity and Ms. Thayer can probably help with any questions you may have as well. So any questions with that? Thank you, sir. Members, any questions? Uh, I believe we recommend approval of the contract with
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
29:47
full ALC on approval. All right. There's no other questions. We have a motion to approve. All those, uh, need a second.
Got a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. and nay. The ayes have it. Members, 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 13
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