City, County & Local Affairs Committee- House

A little wild today and other, other committees, I think we've got people scattered out everywhere, so it may take a minute to get people in and out of here. We may have, have a few breaks in between, but we'll get started. Representative Wooton's bill. Representative Wootton, you were. Recognize, present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jim Wooton District 59. Um My bill is HB 1145. It's very simple, uh, we were attempting uh the mayor of Ward contacted me and asked me to. Oh how will this be able to run this bill. It just simply increases the uh uh aftermarket purchases for municipalities and for counties, uh, from, uh, 1200 and 600 up to $2000 for aftermarket purchases without soliciting a bid, um, the, um. Municipal League has reached out to me and said that they're in favor of it. They don't have any problem with it. I have not heard from uh the associate of counties, but I assume that they would have said something if they were for it or against it, so, um, I haven't had any contact with them, but, uh, it's a very simple, very simple bill that just an act to amend the law concerning purchase that do not require solicitation of bids for a county or municipality to increase the purchase amount authorized for additional aftermarket equipment for uh municipal and for other purposes for Callie, uh, by County or a municipality and for other purposes. Um, The, the, uh, light bars on police cars and other equipment on the law enforcement caller, The, the, uh, light bars on police cars and other equipment on the law enforcement call uh cost has increased and we all know what inflation has done and uh that's simply, that's, that's the bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions, Mr. Chairman, the committee has any. All right, thank you. Are there any questions about committee members? Anybody in the audience, I don't think we have anybody signed up to speak for, for or against this bill. Representative Wooten, you close for Bill? I'm closed for it. Representative Woottens closed for the bill. What's the will of the committee? I have a motion, motion to pass. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, Representative Wootton, you've passed your bill. Thank you. Thank you committee members. Appreciate it. Committee, we're gonna take things a little bit out of order off the agenda Representative Lundstrom without objection, you. From the committee you were recognized to present your bill. Thank you, colleagues. Robin Lundstrom District 18. This is basically to clean up an issue that's been going on in Arkansas for quite a while, um, cities of a second class keep their accounting, some of them on QuickBooks, some on Excel, some on paper, and this would require them to come up to uniform counting standards that the counties have been doing for the last 40 years that the state does, so that when we do an audit, we can actually have an apples to apples comparison, and they'll have 3 years to get caught up. So with that, I'll entertain any questions. Have any questions from committee members? Saying none. Does anybody, nobody signed up to speak for or against this. Alright, you close for your bill? Oh what? Hang on, we got one. Yes, come introduce yourself for the record. You're recognized. Uh, John Wilkerson, general counselor of Arkansas Municipal League. I talked to Representative Lindstrom yesterday and offered to come up here and have any explan a little bit of explanation. Uh first of all, I wanna say thank you to Leg Audit for working with us on this issue. This has been an issue that we have found across the the state for same class cities of the same class and incorporated towns. There's no uniform chart of accounts, which makes it hard for us to help cities when we walk into a new city or town and we don't quite know the chart of accounts. The league has for a long time advocated and offered suggestions on. For chart of accounts, this basically codifies our suggestions in a lot of ways. I don't have a formal position for the lead because our executive committee does not meet until next week, but we have shot this bill. I have a lot of folks saying this is a terrific idea. A lot of clerks from across the state who are helping other cities and towns say if we had this, it would help us, uh, help them. It would help with our training, uh, it helped, uh, like on its training, help leg audit. I'm seeing it for them a little bit, but it's overall, I, I think it's a very helpful bill for us and any issues. That we found so far, I've been able to take the leg audit and say, hey, I got a mayor that has this issue, and I, I've had one and leg on it even 5 minutes ago said, nope, nope, clarifying that's not what's happening. We're here to work together and so again, I don't have a formal y for this, but, um, we've shopped it around and we see a, a lot of value to this bill. So we thank Leg Audit Representative Lundstrom. OK, thank you for that. Do we have any questions? Um OK, seeing Representative lustrom, you ready to close for your bill. Alright. Any Of motion of motion do pass, uh, any discussion on the motion all in favor say aye, all opposed. Thank you, colleagues, appreciate it. OK, who, um, I think we have. Yeah, Representative Duffield. Full introduce yourself for the record you recognize to present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Matt Duffield, District 53, Russellville. Committee, I bring you a bill today that simply gives us an extra 7 days to sell fireworks each year. Our city council brought this bill to me, uh, we have several events that happened throughout Pope County, and they wanted to have a fireworks display with that and with the current sales dates in place, they did not have the time to get those fireworks to be able to uh. Do that event. I don't see any cons to this bill in my opinion, only pros, um, for each of your districts as well. Um Important to note this does not change any local. Ordinances regulating the use of fireworks. This would only affect the cell date by one week and. Put them on sale a week early. I'd be glad to take any questions. How many questions from committee members? Seeing no we. We have nobody signed up to speak for or against this bill. Representative Duffield, are you closed for your bill? Yes, sir, I'm closed. What's with the committee, I have a motion, motion to pass any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, you passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. committee, I don't think there's anybody else sitting here right now that's ready to run a bill, but we have a couple of people on their way if y'all don't mind. Hanging out for a little bit we will take about a 5 minute recess. That's what it does. It just allows them to separate those offices and I'd be glad to take any questions. Any questions from committee members? Seeing none. OK. I have a motion of do pass any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. I'll oppose I have it. Congratulations, you passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Have one more member who's wanting to run a bill this morning. I've texted him and hopefully we'll, we'll get him down here soon, so. Um, with that, we'll go back into recess for another 5-10 minutes. Um, one other thing while we're, while we're in recess, we, we will probably more than likely have a meeting tomorrow after session and I think we'll, we'll have, we'll be going in session at 1:30 tomorrow, so y'all just be prepared to not pack up and leave. Too quick, so we'll have have a little bit of business to take care of. Thank you. We've been waiting on, on one rep representative to come run his bill, but, um, in light of our possible meeting tomorrow, we're not going to wait any longer. We'll just give them a chance to do that tomorrow after session. So with that, see no further business we adjourned.