City, County & Local Affairs Committee- House

I'm Glenn Barnes, state representative sixty-fifth district, Jefferson County. Ken Ferguson District 64, Jefferson Lincoln and Deschey counties. You may present your bill. OK. The Senate Bill 182 is designed to in the event that the county judge and the quorum Court cannot come to a decision on the budget, this bill will have them to continue to pay the staff and bills, according to the previous year budget until that budget is in place. It's also a punitive side to this budget that until they um come up with a budget, the quorum cut judge will lose his wages and the court will lose their. Until they come up with the budget. Reason for that is, uh, In Jefferson County at this moment, it has been a month past employees have not been paid, uh, churches and other uh organizations are trying to get food to give to the workers and uh give them gift cards to help them get gas and things like that, and we have over 300 workers who have not been paid for a whole month. You finished presenting your bill? Do we have any questions from committee? Representative Pilkington, you're recognized for a question. So thank you, Chair. um, so I just want to make sure I'm understanding this bill correctly. This applies to all 75 counties. I mean, we keep on hearing it referred to as a Phillips County, um, not Phillips, sorry, uh, Jeff's. I'm sorry, um. fixed anyways, but it would apply to all 75 counties, correct? OK, so if Johnson, my county had the same issue, we wouldn't have to come and run another bill. It'd be for everybody. OK, I just wanted to clarify that. OK, we have any more questions from? Committee members. Representative Holcomb, you're recognized. Motion is the proper time. OK. Yeah, we'll hold off on that. We have anybody in the audience that nobody signed up to speak for against this bill. Anybody in the audience want to speak for or against the bill. Seeing none. Are you closed for your bill? Yes. All right, um, Representative Holcomb. I told you I would let you make a motion on this so you're recognized for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move for a due pass. I, I have a motion to do pass, any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye all opposed. I have it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. Committee, real quick, we're gonna hear, uh, Representative Cooper's bill. I told him yes yesterday that he could run that this afternoon, House Bill 1387. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you committee. I'll try to make this quick. HB 1387 is a constituent driven bill. It required the members of a water authority board of directors to have their names and phone numbers displayed on the water authority's website. Water authorities are created. Under the Arkansas Water Authority Act and when formed to become political subdivisions of the state oversights provided by the, by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. These board members are either chosen by the sitting members of the board or some are elected by the members or customers of the water district. So that makes these board members elected officials, so you may be asking why do I want to make this change? Why do I want their contact information on the website. Well, as I mentioned, this is a constituent driven bill. Last winter, a water authority in my district had issues with their system shutting down. Which resulted in its customers having no water. Constituents didn't know what was going on when they tried to call the water authority's office number. The phone was just ringing or the voicemail was full. Citizens began trying to contact me and one of the state senators as well as the mayor of a small town in the area. And asking us what was going on, but we couldn't answer these questions because we didn't know what was fully going on either. I started looking for contact information on the board members for the water authority and couldn't find any. The board members were the ones who could answer these questions and address these concerns for our constituents, but unfortunately our constituents were unable to contact them. I've looked at several of the water authority's websites, and it appears there's no consistency when it comes to available contact information. So already list the names and phone numbers of board members, some list only the names but no contact info and some don't say anything about the board members at all. Change I'm trying to accomplish with this bill will simply ensure that these board members' contact information will be accessible to the people they represent. This bill is about transparency and good efficient government. It's also about making government accessible and accountable to the people. I know of no opposition to this bill. I'd be glad to answer any questions. Any questions from committee members? Yes, you're recognized for a question. Let me get your mic on. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chair. uh, Representative Cooper. Love Bill got for. What happens if the, you know, water authority association doesn't have a website because uh there's several in my area who uh. Like the, the water system I'm on, they don't only have online bill pay. Like I got to go read the meter myself and turn it in, and they're pretty. Backwards Are, are they a water authority that's organized under the Natural Resources Commission. Because there are some, there are some different designations. There's a, uh, independent water association, I believe is the other designation that, but they're not organized under the Water Authority Act. I don't, so it wouldn't apply to those organizations. This is only going to reply to apply to the ones, yeah. They don't have a website at all so everyone that I'm familiar with actually has a website and it's, it's a standard website that's, it might be managed by the uh the waste or the uh water authority listed on one main website. It's, well, they each have an individual website, but it's the same template. It's it's hosted by the same, and, and it's got every one of those has a link for board members. When you click that, some of them do have the contact information listed. Some just have names, some don't have anything on there at all. So we're just, I'm just trying to make it consistent across the board. Representative Holcomb, you were recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank you for bringing this legislation to the committee, uh, seems like we forget and put water on the back burner. Uh, I could do, God forbid, I'd never have to live without my sheriff's department or without a good road department or without garbage pickup, but I could live without those things. The thing I can't live without that with is water and so people forget that and we can live anywhere we want to. We can't live where there's not water and I appreciate someone moving forward and uh I think that's a that's an area that people are gonna be reaching out as we see the needs in Arkansas, especially for rural water. Thank you very much. Uh, do you agree? I do agree. Any other questions from committee members? See and none. We have nobody signed up to speak for or against this bill. Anybody in the audience want to speak for or against. So you know what's the will of the committee. I'm sorry. Would you like to close for your bill? I'm close for my bill. Moving, moving a little quicker, sorry. Have a motion to pass all in favor say aye. All opposed. I have it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. With