City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate
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Transcript
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Bills discussed (9)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB297
Act 283
· 3 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…D CANDIDATES TO THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS. SB297 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPALITIES CHOOSI…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPALITIES CHOOSING TO ELECT COUNCIL MEMBERS; AND TO REQUIRE FILING … | K. Hammer | Notification that SB297 is now Act 283 |
|
SB91
Act 459
· 3 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “SB91 C. Penzo TO PROVIDE THAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL UNITS SHALL HAV…”
|
TO PROVIDE THAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL UNITS SHALL HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO REGULATE OR CONTROL THE … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB91 is now Act 459 |
|
SB252
Act 590
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB252 J. Dismang TO INFORM THE PUBLIC OF HEALTH RISKS CAUSED BY V…”
|
TO INFORM THE PUBLIC OF HEALTH RISKS CAUSED BY VAPOR PRODUCTS AND E-LIQUID PRODUCTS; AND … | J. Dismang | Notification that SB252 is now Act 590 |
|
SB254
Act 359
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…r Sen. Joshua Bryant REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB254 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RURAL COMMUNITY PROJECTS;…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RURAL COMMUNITY PROJECTS; TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "PROPERTY IN … | Irvin | Notification that SB254 is now Act 359 |
|
SB270
Act 360
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TAL DEPOSIT FOR PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL OR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY. SB270 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE FILING PERIODS OF C…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE FILING PERIODS OF CERTAIN NONPARTISAN SCHOOL BOARD AND MUNICIPAL … | Crowell | Notification that SB270 is now Act 360 |
|
SB271
Act 460
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…CERTAIN NONPARTISAN SCHOOL BOARD AND MUNICIPAL CANDIDATES. SB271 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIF…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIFICATION OF SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES TO THE … | Crowell | Notification that SB271 is now Act 460 |
|
SB10
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. 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. |
|
SB60
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CTRIC GRID BY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS AND DIGITAL ASSET MINING. 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. |
|
SB69
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ECLARE AN EMERGENCY. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle 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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- October 2, 2026
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
0:07
water Uh, Senator Rice will be first one up. Uh, presenting Senate
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
0:12
bill. So Bill 25454. So Contrast, you'll recognize yourself Terry Rice from District 5, this is Senator
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
0:28
Irvin's bill, um, she asked me to run and I'll let my uh
Speaker 6
0:38
Copart from uh Department of Commerce introduce him
Jake Wuinley
Unverified
0:43
to, if you'll introduce yourself. Yes, sir. Good morning, Chair. My name is Jake Wuinley, director of
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
0:50
Legislative affairs for the Department of Commerce. Jack, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, again, Senator Irvin asked me to run this. I looked at it. It is a good rural community grant program bill. Uh, the rural community grant program is a matching grant program run by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission that allows rural communities to
request up to $15,000 per project so long as they match it, the amount fifty-fifty, uh, Arkansas law currently requires that the match had, uh, had to be with either real or personal property. This is a barrier to rural communities that might not have sufficient liquid assets or land to meet the match requirements, what these communities do have though, are skilled laborers who are willing to donate their time, labor, and
equipment in order to realize a community project. This bill would amend the law and allowed their donated labor to be counted as an in-kind donation. To count towards their matching requirement. Opening this program up to many more communities that are willing to invest in themselves. And for FY 24, this program awarded $604,000878.21 to 61 communities. Examples of funded
projects included baseball, softball fields, community centers, walking tracks, park and playground equipment, pavilions, picnic tables. library shelving and needed upgrades for fire stations, so I'd be happy to take any
Speaker 8
2:26
questions. questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Probably
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
2:31
for commerce. How do we ensure that labor
And services are captured appropriately. If I said I could donate 100 hours of my time, but I value my time at $100 but the, the going rate for that typical service or labor is $50 and they're just trying to increase their value to get up to the matching point to ensure the acquire all the fees, who, who or how monitors that just to make sure. Sure. So that's a great question on monitoring for this would
Speaker 11
3:03
be with Becca Caldwell, the director of our rural Services division who oversees this grant program. What we would do is we would
check this in the same way we would, for example, checking the value of the land, we would want to see a reliable appraiser for labor rates. We'd want to make sure that this matched industry norms, we'd want to see bids in other projects to make sure it was in line with other bids that have been put forward. Excellent.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
3:32
Thank you for the answer. Any other question? You want the audience that like big or with. Uh, on behalf of Senator Irvin,
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
3:41
I would appreciate a good vote and I
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
3:45
would make a motion that do pass. discussion. Although I say I.
Part of state your name and Affiliation and
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
4:29
you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Joshua Bryant, Senate District 32. Committee members Senate Bill 91 just adds clarity to an existing section of code that local governments cannot regulate. The, the application fees or deposits for landlords or property owners, property managers, tenants, prospective tenants or real estate companies doing business in the state of Arkansas.
Um, it is identified in a separate section of code and calling these services that some of our municipalities, local authorities don't, there's questionability about whether or not rental fees or applications are considered services. The opinion that came out of the AG's office was that is inclusive, so really this language is just more clarity of the situation. There is a a statute already in Title 18 that deals with security deposits, and so with the exception of what that says, which is 1816304, which caps it
already in code at 2 months of the of the lease rate, um. Outside of that, They
can't have any any local legislation that deals with rental application fees or deposits
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
5:40
or rent. Or heard an explanation of the bill, anyone, uh, Senator English you have a question. So is
Senator Jane English
Unverified
5:48
this, is this have to do with short term rentals like Airbnb or Airbnb or whatever they are. No, ma'am.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
5:58
What is this, this is just if you're going to enter into negotiated a contract to lease a property and I want to charge you $200 as a uh application fee. That is a consumer relationship, the local government cannot say that $200 is too much. So this is combating this, the service part of the, the process to rent. They can't say that's too much. That is a consumer relationship. That is a service.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
6:33
Senator. Like you can, can you address any of the
uh Negative side that they've said on this all I've seen and you've explained. Uh, it's just there, I guess that don't think the. The free market and we don't do everything free market, I understand, but they They think it's all right for the city to Control your contractual agreements with that. Is that? That simple. Yeah, that's, that's the angle that the local
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
7:04
authorities want to take. My answer to that was, if there's something that
is being done improperly or deceptively. We've got laws that deal with that through deceptive trade practices. We've got an attorney general that's very aggressive in handling those issues, so some of the issues were, they were charging fees for security deposit or not not security deposits on the rental, but fees for applications, and there was no unit available. And so this companies were making lots of money. On On application fees for nothing available, and that is a
deceptive trade practice, and I think the angle was, well, if we cap that at $25. Obviously, the deception is still happening, but they think it's, it'll limit their willingness to to participate in that deception when I'm, yeah, in my opinion, it is a contractual obligation between two private parties and if you think the application deposit is too high or the unit is not available, you should pursue deceptive trade practices or do your own research. before paying that fee. Thank you.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
8:07
Senator Petty, you recognize. Senator
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
8:11
Bryant. So in in this, I think there's some misinformation that that it's just additional fees charged, but there usually is a corresponding cost to the background checks either through a service or through a staff person that does that, correct? That is correct. And, and then as far as the accepting an application fee for uh maybe there's not anything available, uh,
having been in the business. myself, we constantly keep a wait list and there is high demand, especially in Northwest Arkansas, so people might be pre-approved through the clearance of a of a background check and go on a waitlist, they wouldn't charge that application fee again when something opened up in 4 months or 6 months, correct? I mean, that would be up to the terms
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
9:00
and agreements of when before you pay that, that fee to have that understanding. Typically, what I
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
9:07
have seen in my experiences is that that no, if you pay the fee, knowing that there's not anything available currently, you're asking to be put on the waitlist and keep your spot for the next available unit OK, thank you. Or any
Speaker 37
9:17
other questions from the committee? Anyone in the audience wish to speak for or against the bill. It's not you're
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
9:25
that clothes for your bill. I'm closed, Mr. Chair. I'd make the motion to pass. All right, we have a
motion 4 to pass and a
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
9:41
second discussion. The motion Saying none, all those factors say a, all opposed. Congratulations Sen Bryant. Uh Senator Crow.
You are, if you will come
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
9:56
to the front and uh state your name and The district
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
10:03
you're from, you're present Senate bill.
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
10:11
270 70, yes. Senator Kroll, District 3, Miss Miss French, if you want to sit down just in case they have questions. This bill there was actually no designated time for the filing period for school boards and so uh Some were open in 8. Some are opening at 10, some are opening at 120. So there was lots of confusion, the county clerks Association have come to us, school board Association and State Board of Elections are all great with the language on this. This just simply unifies the
filing time across all All the counties. So with that, I will attempt to answer any questions. So, so
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
10:52
in essence, it's, uh, makes it more consistent across the, absolutely, sir. Any other, any questions from committee? Anyone
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
10:59
in the audience wish to speak for against the bill? none, uh, Senator Crow, you are
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
11:13
a recognized closely. I just ask for a good vote, please. We have a motion to pass. And the second in a discussion on the motion.
Seeing down all the favor say aye, all opposed.
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
11:31
Congratulations. You are recognized now to Senate bill 271271. OK, OK. Or is very No.
Senator Hester. Yes. You recognize And if you state
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
12:00
your name and So, uh Senate Bill 297, Senator Bart Hester, I'm running this at the request of
Senator Hammer this morning. He's held up in state agencies with a few other election integrity bills, uh, but this is, this is, this is
fairly simple, but I'm gonna ask uh Waylon Cooper, uh, legal counsel, the State Board of Elections, if he
Speaker 54
12:23
would help me here. Prince Waylon Cooper, I'm the legal counsel
Representative Steve Hollowell
Unverified
12:27
for the State Board of Election commissioners, um, Senators, the board want us to want to propose this legislation, we've discovered a, uh, some confusion, uh, through our investigation processes. Uh, currently, the Arkansas law is that cities are the 1st and 2nd
class can elect their city council members by either uh Ward or by at large or a combination of the two. the default, if they don't elect one or the other, the default is at large. If they pass an ordinance to elect their, their council members by ward or a combination. That We've discovered that that ordinance is not being filed with the county clerk, so that
it can be transmitted to the County Board of Election Commissioners so they can set the ballot up correctly. And this just requires that if, if a city passes an ordinance to change from at large to either, uh, by ward or a combination of the two, they have to file that ordinance with the county court. That's all this legislation does. So, so, uh,
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
13:38
a council member that was selected at large before hasn't been registered with the county clerk. Or wasn't required to be
registered with county clerk. Can you restate the question. A council member that was elected at large. How were they doing the restoration then. OK. So yeah, you're
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
14:02
asking about the individual elected person. This is the this is the process. When the city council sets up the process, the process has to be filed, not, not, not, uh, clearly everyone that wins the election that get their, gets filed. But this is just about
the process. If the city, if the city council changes the process, meaning, uh, by ward rather than at large. They have to notify, they have to file it so the county Board of Elections knows they did it. It's, I know it seems so common sense, but it hasn't been happening.
Yeah. All right. Any other questions from
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
14:39
the committee, Senator Bryant. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm, I'm just
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
14:43
curious, several places in the code you, you identify just no later than, say, August 31st, but then you
don't, you include a year, January 1st, 2026 in several spots of 2026, 2026, so when that passes, do we have to come back and amend that for every Every year, every 2 years, or was that? Is that meant to be 2026 because it seems like you do it by no later than January
1st of the year past the August of which you did the ordinance. We
Sir, I'm not example would be like on page 1 line 35. Or 33 through 35, a city the first class has an ordinance enacted under subdivision B1 of this section, which is I assume is just a given date.all file the ordinance with the county clerk no later than January 1st, 2026. Would it be Just January 1st Of the following year 2026 appropriate because we're trying to capture all these at once.
Representative Steve Hollowell
Unverified
15:58
If I understand your question, Senator, I believe that's just to get a date certain, so like going forward, these have to be filed. It doesn't mean anything retroactively or anything like that, but in the, so from that day forward, They have to file it in order that the that the county clerk knows about it so they can transmit it to the, to the. the County Board of
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
16:21
Election. OK. So it's appropriate to be in there and remain in code. OK. And, and, and I would, I would
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
16:30
say to follow up on that, we'll look on that and make sure that they, they agree with that before I present on the floor or before Hammer presents on the floor. I think that's a good question because what happens if something comes back in 2027, right, they clearly couldn't file it before 2026. So we'll, we'll verify that, that, that clarify before we run on the
floor. If not, we'll, we'll lament. Alright, Senator Davis, you have a question. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
16:56
had a comment. I mean, the way I read it, it's
Because many have not submitted or maybe none have submitted the 2026 is to get everyone to submit. So something is on record with the county clerk, and then above it, moving forward, um, if you change it, you've got to submit it by August 31st of, of the calendar year before the election. So I think both are both can be accurate. All right. Any other questions from the committee? Anyone in the
Speaker 61
17:27
audience that wishes to speak for against the bill.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
17:38
Signal of you recognized close members, I'm closed and I make a motion to pass. We have a motion to pass. We have a second, uh, any discussion on the motion. Seeing none,
all those in favor say aye, all opposed. Bill passes Sanchester members I would say it was Mr.
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
17:55
Cooper's first time in front of a committee and I should have notified you earlier. We took it way too easy. Yes
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
18:10
All right, that's uh saying no other uh bills to be run today, we are adjourned. Have a good weekend.
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
SB254 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING RURAL COMMUNITY PROJECTS; TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "PROPERTY IN KIND"; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
SB91 C. Penzo TO PROVIDE THAT LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL UNITS SHALL HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO REGULATE OR CONTROL THE AMOUNT CHARGED FOR A RENTAL APPLICATION FEE OR RENTAL DEPOSIT FOR PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL OR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY.
SB270 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE FILING PERIODS OF CERTAIN NONPARTISAN SCHOOL BOARD AND MUNICIPAL CANDIDATES.
SB271 Crowell TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A COUNTY CLERK'S CERTIFICATION OF SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES TO THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS.
SB297 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPALITIES CHOOSING TO ELECT COUNCIL MEMBERS; AND TO REQUIRE FILING OF THE ORDINANCE DESCRIBING THE ELECTION OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS WITH THE COUNTY CLERK.
SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS – Tuesday, March 4, 2025
SB252 J. Dismang TO INFORM THE PUBLIC OF HEALTH RISKS CAUSED BY VAPOR PRODUCTS AND E-LIQUID PRODUCTS; TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF ARKANSAS YOUTH; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
ADJOURNED
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — CITY, COUNTY & LOCAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE, Feb 27, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 6
Jake Wuinley
Unverified
Speaker 8
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Speaker 11
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
Speaker 37
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
Speaker 54
Representative Steve Hollowell
Unverified
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 61