City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate
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Transcript
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Bills discussed (13)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1983
Act 1026
· 7 mentions in transcript, chapter
Matched: “…e have uh If you want to come to the end of the table on uh House Bill 1983. And introduce yourself, tell us who you're with, and he ex…”
|
TO AMEND ACTS 1973, NO. 167, § 4, CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN PROPERTY TO … | Eubanks | Notification that HB1983 is now Act 1026 |
|
SB374
Act 751
· 6 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…ua Bryant CONCUR IN HOUSE AMENDMENT Number Sponsor Subtitle SB374 B. Davis TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYST…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM. | B. Davis | Notification that SB374 is now Act 751 |
|
HB1976
Act 883
· 3 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…PROFIT ORGANIZATION. REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1976 Nazarenko CONCERNING VERTIPORTS; AND TO CREATE THE OPEN ACC…”
|
CONCERNING VERTIPORTS; AND TO CREATE THE OPEN ACCESS TO PUBLIC-USE VERTIPORTS ACT. | Nazarenko | Notification that HB1976 is now Act 883 |
|
HB1686
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CTRIC GRID BY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS AND DIGITAL ASSET MINING. HB1686 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CON…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS. | Childress | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB10
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…RADIUS OF A MILITARY FACILITY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB10 B. King TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND TO REGULATE THE IMPACT ON … | B. King | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB399
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB399 G. Stubblefield TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; A…”
|
TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT THE PROVISION OF MATERIAL AID AND … | G. Stubblefield | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB518
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. SB518 Hester TO PROHIBIT A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FROM ENACTING REGULAT…”
|
TO PROHIBIT A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FROM ENACTING REGULATIONS IN A FLOOD-PRONE AREA THAT ARE MORE … | Hester | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB523
Act 762
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…Davis TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM. SB523 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND T…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PRIVATE … | Irvin | Notification that SB523 is now Act 762 |
|
SB531
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB531 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; AND TO ALLOW A MUNICIPALITY TO CONTRACT WITH … | K. Hammer | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB588
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB588 C. Penzo TO ESTABLISH A WINERY PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT.”
|
TO ESTABLISH A WINERY PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT. | C. Penzo | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB60
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY OR AN INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY. SB60 Hill TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING…”
|
TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING LOCATED WITHIN A THIRTY-MILE RADIUS OF … | Hill | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB635
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB635 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO AUTHORIZE BOTTLE LOCKERS IN CERTAIN RESTAURANTS. | C. Penzo | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB69
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB69 A. Clark CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR…”
|
CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR OTHER INSTRUMENT THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY … | A. Clark | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
Machine transcript
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- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
0:00
the record, you will be recognized. Thank
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
0:04
you, Mr. Chair, committee. My name is Jason Azarenko, representative for House District 4. That's all Marion County and then parts of Baxter County. Thanks for letting me be here today to present House Bill 1976. You should remember it easier because this was the year I was born. It's pretty exciting. So if you've read over the bill, the VertiPort Open Access Bill may have kind of caught you by surprise. You may be thinking of Jetsons or Total Recall, something like that when you're looking at it, but I want to kind of
warn you this is closer than we may think. So as you read through the bill, there's some exciting things on here, and one of the key things that I want to focus on is this. This is a fair market and a open competition bill. So this fosters open competition. It makes sure that we don't allow any monopolies on the vertiports here in the state, and I'm going to get into some descriptions. We'll go through some definitions on what a vertiport is because I may use some other words like VTOL or eVTOL and I want to make sure everybody understands what that is before we really go any
farther. So a vertiport, to explain what a vertiport is, is if you think of an airport or a heliport. Airport obviously dealing mostly with airplanes, has a larger footprint. Heliport, generally smaller, dealing with just helicopters. A vertiport, similar to a heliport, but it's dealing with e-VTOLs. So an e-VTOL is an electronic vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. So think of helicopter, but electronically powered. It could be manned or it could be unmanned. So it doesn't
necessarily have to be an unmanned drone, but it can be manned and unmanned. These are still in conception. They're not 100% out there, but what they're looking at right now building is e-VTOLs that can be capable of carrying cargo as well as people. So the people side of that, we'll talk about that a little bit. If we had a vertiport, say, in a place such as Fayetteville, you could look at that as a taxiway, you know, drive up, jump in this eVTOL, and then fly over to Bentonville, getting you out of the traffic of the hills or anything like that. You could also go Fayetteville
to Bentonville. You could go to Harrison to Fayetteville, skipping quite a bit of that drive time and making it a lot easier. Also with cargo as well. Cargo can be moved. We know that some of our larger corporations are already using drones to move some small items around, nothing big at this time, but that industry is kind of looking forward at growth. Some of those industry leaders, Hyundai is one of them, that is in this space kind of developing different eVTOLs are working on that right now, which is exciting because when we look at Hyundai in the future, they've already
agreed over $20 billion to be invested in the United States. So what this does, and kind of back to what this bill does before we get too confused with anything there. What this bill does is it just restricts monopolization or restricts a agreement with cities and municipalities going into an agreement that would create a monopoly and which would then limit growth and then limit or increase costs for us as users. So when we make sure that there's no monopolization,
There's no commitments made to just one certain company. We allow multiple companies to come in and compete, and we know competition drives the prices down, produces something better for our consumers. So with that, a couple things that I want to mention you can see in the bill. All FAA regulations have to be complied by. So if somebody just can't come in, build a vertiport, and say, hey, here's my vertiport, or here's the plan for the vertiport, it has to be done with FAA regulations. this bill doesn't create vertiports at all this bill just sets the groundwork and makes sure that
we have open access and there's not going to be any any stifling of that growth so really it's a growth oriented and it's a future futuristic obviously but it is setting arkansas up to be in that path to growth and there's a lot of opportunity there so i mentioned kind of a good example that, you know, Harrison to Fayetteville or Fayetteville to Bentonville. When I look at that, I look at Arkansas could be on the leading edge. We have the possibility to be sitting there and being one of the first places where this could be tested. When I think of Harrison to Fayetteville,
I think of rural area where those eVTOLs could be going back and forth as they're training and practicing figuring out without going through the cities, without going over densely populated areas. So I do see a great possibility. Again, futuristic, so this is in the future, and we do have to continue to look at that. I'll stop there. Happy to answer any questions because I'm sure there's some questions. I know we had some great discussion on the House side and had great support
Speaker 6
4:53
on the House floor as well. So this is a free
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
4:58
market bill. Do we currently have any of the
vertiports at all in Arkansas? No, sir. And
Speaker 11
5:04
there's actually not a vertiport anywhere in the United States right now. What we can expect
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
5:12
when eVTOLs, when the electronic vertical takeoff and landing aircraft do start to come out, when they actually move into that space, we can expect that they'll be at airports and heliports first before they make a vertiport, which would be strictly for those eVTOLs because the footprint would be much smaller.
It would just have battery capabilities, recharging, quick recharge, and things like that. So good questions there. All right.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
5:43
Any other questions from the committee? Y'all know all
about vertiports. We do now. All right. Does anyone in the audience want to speak for or against the bill? Saying none, you're close for you, Bill?
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
6:02
I appreciate everyone considering. I do definitely appreciate the motion to do pass. Excitingly, we already have airports in Arkansas that are looking at vertiports. Drake Field, the airport manager there, is already looking ahead because they see this is the future. So it's very exciting. So thank you very much, Senator English, for that motion to pass. Okay,
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
6:21
we have a motion to do pass. in a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing done. Yeah.
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
6:38
than me, in aviation. He flew with the Night Stalkers, that's the elite Aviation unit in the Army, and he still flies with... Baxter, County Sheriff, sir, yes, sir. So if anybody knows about aviation, it's going to be that gentleman right down there.
Speaker 31
7:06
That's a committee from the head... From an old helicopter... The expert. I
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
7:15
would consider Senator Wallace as the expert in the room. All right. We have a motion
on the floor and a second. Any more discussion?
Speaker 32
7:26
Seeing none. All those in favor? All opposed? Your bill passes. Thank you very much. Committee, I appreciate it.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
7:31
Have a great day. You're well. Thank you. All right. We have 81. Senator English, you want to do the amendments for Senator Irvin?
Senator Jane English
Unverified
7:44
Senator Jane English from District 13, and I'm here to concur in an amendment to House, I mean, Senate Bill 374 from the House.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
8:14
Okay, this is a motion to do pass to concur on the House Amendment? Right. All right. Any discussion on the
motion? Wait, which one is it?
Senator Jane English
Unverified
8:31
You're doing Senator Irvin's? Yes. It's 374. That's Senator
Davis. That's Senator Davis. Oh, I'm sorry. That's 523. I'm sorry. Okay. That's okay. 523. Just got papers mixed up.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
8:49
they're both the same. They're both the
Speaker 48
8:53
same. This is concurring in the House Amendment. Okay. All those
Speaker 15
8:59
in favor? It passes, Senator English. Senator Hester. And Senator
Speaker 51
9:07
Petty seconded. All right. If you want to go ahead
Senator Jane English
Unverified
9:12
and present the other. Yes. Now the bill, House bill, I mean, Senate bill 374.
This is a concurred and a House amendment. All right, members, you've heard the amendment. Any
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
9:23
discussion? All those in favor? Motion to pass. May I have a motion to pass? Have a second? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Amendment passes. Thank you, Senator English. Thank you so much. Okay, we have a – if you want to come to the end of the table on House Bill 1983
and introduce yourself and tell
us who you're with
Shanna Richardson
Unverified
10:11
and explain House Bill 1983.
Shanna Richardson
Unverified
10:19
name is Shanna Richardson. I'm the CEO
Speaker 63
10:34
state of Arkansas, and I'm here to talk about House
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
10:38
Bill 1983. Representative Jason Azranco, House District 4, Marion County, and parts of Baxter County, and I'm on the board
Shanna Richardson
Unverified
10:48
of directors for the Boy Scouts as well. Okay, you're recognized. All right, so House Bill 1983 is
Speaker 63
10:54
really mostly just focused on cleanup. We purchased a piece of land from the tuberculosis sanatorium in 1974 for just under $70,000. It's roughly 2,800 acres where we created a scout camp out there in Boonville, Arkansas.
The deed, however, has a reversionary clause that creates a problem for us to lease out some of the land for timbering or scenic easements, et cetera, for us to create additional income to invest back into that property or other properties. In 1991, a bill passed through trying to clean up that language, but it's still slightly vague. So this is really a cleanup bill to correct that reversionary clause and amend the bill of, I think it's 167, just to correct that reversionary clause in the bill.
Speaker 17
11:42
Okay. All right. Anyone in committee have any questions? Seeing none,
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
11:50
anyone in the audience wish to speak for against the bill? St.
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
11:58
Dillon, you're recognized closed. And I can close for him. So Representative Eubanks, he has been a huge part of this the whole time, too. So he did a wonderful job over on our side presenting. I know his boys had gone to this camp, had multiple times been used the Boy Scout areas camps.
So this is going to allow the Natural State Council to be able to utilize this land a lot better and kind of freeze up what they need to do with it. Yeah,
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
12:24
I've been to this camp, and it's a, you know, they've got a shooting range in a place down at the lake, so it's a good thing for young boys. All right, seeing no other comments, you're closed for you, Bill? Yes, sir. Chair, we'll entertain a motion. We have a motion from Senator Wallace, do pass, and a second from Senator English.
Any discussion on the bill? All those in
Speaker 32
12:49
favor say aye. Opposed? The bill passes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 70
12:55
Thank you, committee. Thank you, guys. We have a
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
13:01
bill from Senator Penzo. He's not here. So, it's going
to be the last meeting as far as I'm concerned.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
13:20
I wouldn't go on last night, but. Mr. Chair, can we take a short recess? I know Senator Penzo has like 10 bills in House of Public
Health that he's running this morning. And he's got some in here. He's got these in here. He's got just the one in here. Can we just make
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
13:38
sure he's. Sure, we can take a recess. If you want to take a 10-minute recess, is everybody
okay with that? All right, we'll just take a 10-minute recess. When he gets done, he can fly down here and do it.
Unknown speaker
13:50
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Speaker 83
29:50
A hundred—80, I think 81 or two. Are you kidding me? I think you've run 80-something. I'm sorry. It is for me, I wouldn't know.
Unknown speaker
30:20
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I'm going to run it just in the interest of efficiency. And if he doesn't want to run it on the floor, then that's up to him. Okay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair, State Senator Jim Petty, District 29.
Members, this is a relatively simple bill. It allows you to have bottle lockers for your alcohol in a restaurant that's already serving alcoholic beverages, so in a wet county, in a wet area there. And as long as they've had an on-premises consumption permit to sell and serve alcoholic beverages, they can offer this guest locker rental.
And that's basically all of the bill. All right. Committee, you've
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
44:58
heard an explanation of the bill. Any questions? Anyone in the audience would speak for a guest? All right, saying
Speaker 48
45:08
none, you're closed for your bill. I'm closed for Senator Penzo's bill. All right,
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
45:13
we have a motion to do pass. Second, in discussion, all those in favor say aye. Aye.
Speaker 93
45:19
All opposed, bill passes, Senator Penzo. Thank you. On behalf of Senator Penzo, I think.
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
CONCUR IN HOUSE AMENDMENT
SB374 B. Davis TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM.
SB523 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PRIVATE CLUB BE A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.
REGULAR AGENDA
HB1976 Nazarenko CONCERNING VERTIPORTS; AND TO CREATE THE OPEN ACCESS TO PUBLICUSE VERTIPORTS ACT.
HB1983 Eubanks TO AMEND ACTS 1973, NO. 167, § 4, CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN PROPERTY TO THE WESTARK AREA COUNCIL, INC., BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA.
RECESS
RECONVENE
SB635 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO AUTHORIZE BOTTLE LOCKERS IN CERTAIN RESTAURANTS.
DEFERRED BILLS
SB69 A. Clark CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR OTHER INSTRUMENT THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY OR AN INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY.
SB60 Hill TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING LOCATED WITHIN A THIRTY-MILE RADIUS OF A MILITARY FACILITY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB10 B. King TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND TO REGULATE THE IMPACT ON WATER USAGE AND THE ELECTRIC GRID BY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS AND DIGITAL ASSET MINING.
HB1686 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS.
SB399 G. Stubblefield TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT THE PROVISION OF MATERIAL AID AND SUPPORT FOR ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL FIREARMS LAWS.
SB518 Hester TO PROHIBIT A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FROM ENACTING REGULATIONS IN A FLOOD-PRONE AREA THAT ARE MORE RESTRICTIVE THAN THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM IN CERTAIN INSTANCES.
SB531 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; AND TO ALLOW A MUNICIPALITY TO CONTRACT WITH A PROPERTY OWNER OUTSIDE THE MUNICIPAL BOUNDARY FOR MUNICIPAL SERVICES IN CERTAIN INSTANCES.
SB588 C. Penzo TO ESTABLISH A WINERY PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT.
ADJOURNED
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — CITY, COUNTY & LOCAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE, Apr 10, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Jason Azarenko
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 11
Speaker 21
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 32
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Speaker 47
Speaker 48
Speaker 15
Speaker 51
Shanna Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 19
Speaker 60
Speaker 63
Speaker 17
Speaker 70
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Speaker 77
Speaker 81
Speaker 20
Speaker 83
Senator Jim Petty Chair
Unverified
Speaker 93