Public Transportation- House

yourself. And then, uh, uh, Representative Womack, we'll start with you, go around the table, come back this way, and everyone just tell the district, uh, kind of where you're at just to briefly so uh last year. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I'm Representative John Milligan. I'm from District 33, which is part of Craighead County, Mississippi County up Northeast Arkansas. Uh, it's my first, uh, my 3rd, start my 3rd term, but this is my first time on transportation. I look forward to working with The Chairman and the committee and everybody that uh we'll be working with uh move Arkansas forward and and move in a better direction, a better place. Thank you. There we are. Hey, I'm, I'm Richard Womack. I am, uh, currently reside in Arkadelphia, which is, uh, in District 90, which, uh, includes parts of Clark, uh, Hot Spring, and, uh, Garland County, um, in my starting my 6th term and I look forward to getting the session underway. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Representative David Whittaker from District 22. Uh, this is my 7th term in the House and I was away for a short while a ways back, but I, a long time ago, I decided I needed to be here, uh, mostly because my district straddles Interstate 49 from mile marker 60 up to almost 67. So you can imagine all the joy I get in a day's work. But, uh, I can also tell you that I've had an incredibly good Uh, relationship with our dot and the work we're seeing done on those exits and interchanges is incredible, and I just want to see, be here to make sure we continue to have great roads and safe bridges. I'm Marcus Richmond, District 52, that's uh all Scott County, most of Yale County and a little bit of Southern Sebastian County. Uh, this is my 3rd time to be on here. The 1st 2 terms that I was here, I served, and even served as vice chair. Uh, one term with Mike and, uh, decided I wanted to circle back to it. I just think there's too much money being spent and David Whittaker's district and it needs to be spent in mine. So here I am. Hello, I'm Stan Berry. I live at, uh, Dover, and my, my district is district 44 and basically runs from Interstate 40 at Russellville and he goes north into a little bit of Van Buren County. I've never served on this, uh, committee. I look forward to it. We've got a good chairman and, uh, And it's good to be here. Harlem, I'm Harlan bro. I live in Holiday Island, I mean my 4th term right now and I'm glad to be on this committee, uh, my district, like I say, is 6, but Northwest Arkansas have just about all the Carroll County and, uh, portion of northern Boone County. Look forward to working with you. Thank you. Uh, I'm Mark McIlroy, uh, I'm District 62, which is one of the largest representative district. He goes from Arkansas City to pass bricky. So, I'm very interested in the roads because I put 18,000 miles on my truck trying to campaign. But, uh, uh, my district tech in part of the Shay County, part of Arkansas County, part of Monroe County, part of Saint Francis County, all of Lee County. All of Phillips County and half of Bolivar County, Mississippi, I think. Do not vote against the governor's budget during redistricting. I found that out. And I, I'm glad to work with the former county judge, uh, in our chair. He's do a great job. The vice chair just so, so, all right. Representative Hall Good morning. My name's uh Brad Hall, and I'm from, uh, Crawford County, uh, Rudy, I'm a freshman. This is my first term. Uh, I'm where I-49 will eventually meet I-40. So our growth there is expected to grow, you know, tremendously. So I'm, I'm looking forward to serving on this committee and thank you for having me. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Nick Burks. I represent District 14, which is Southwest Bentonville and Centerton. I'm also a freshman, so I'm excited to learn about public transportation. Good morning, Randy Torres. If you see me here with Kleenex, it's because I'm pretty emotional being on this committee here, uh, no, I'm uh actually fighting some allergies, so I apologize for that. Um, I am district 17, which encompasses Solon Springs, gentry, and Springtown, so Southwestern Benton County, uh, we've got a lot of traffic there. So I'm looking forward to being on this committee and learning and Good morning. I'm Alissa Brown, uh, I'm from Beautiful Heber Springs grow very Lake, but my district is just 41, so it's Cleburne and Stone County and it's my first term and excited to be on public transportation and learn how to serve my district and serve Arkansas. Were you in transportation in this committee. Right, you said public education, so public transportation I said education we're gonna mess with you, you know, you have to go through the initiation process, so we're glad you're here the tape on that because I think it was transportation. Thank you, Paul. Paul Childress District 83, freshman, which is, uh, Benton Sling County, and I have the newest interstate in the state of Arkansas running through, uh, my district. So I'm glad that's finished and it's excellent if you've not been through it, it's great. So thank you. RJ Representative RJ Hogg District 81, also from Saline County, I've got portions of Benton, Bryant, Alexander, Mapleville, um, and I think it needs to be said, while Paul didn't mention it, uh, we also have the newest director of our dot that lives in Saline County, Jared Wiley, uh, which we're very proud of, uh, so, uh, anyways, this is my 2nd term on transportation, 2nd term in the house. So looking forward to, uh, getting some more good work done, uh, for our roads, for our, our trains, our airports, and, uh, this is a great committee to be on. Joey Carr, District 34, which is the eastern portion of Mississippi County. Uh, this is my 2nd term and, uh, 2nd run here with the transportation committee, uh, my location, uh, we have all fours, 4 modes. We have water, rail, uh, uh, the Arkansas Aeropplex, which is a Uh, it's the largest landing strip in North America. It's over 2 miles long. And then I-55. And so, uh, uh, interest of, of uh of that infrastructure and I wanna say thanks to our dot for having us out yesterday. They went over their, uh, Their, their new electronic equipment and uh they uh they have a lot of great, great things going on out there and I look forward to working with Mr. Wiley. Uh, Chad Perrier, House District 25, that's Eastern Washington County, Crawford County, and a little bit of Franklin County. Um, if you drove through the tunnel heading to Fayetteville, you have been in District 25. Uh, Representative Matt Duffield, I represent Russellville in a handful of homes in, uh, Pottsville, um, 4th generation sand gravel, asphalt, uh, look forward to working with this committee and, um, if I can ever be of service to any of you, uh, you need to reach me, you can call me at 888-WINMATT. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm Representative Tara Shepherd, and I represent parts of Little Rock, Mapleville, and Alexander, um, I'm excited to be here. This is my 2nd term and this is my 2nd time on this committee, um, and I also have the luxury of having our dot in my district and just for record, uh, I think that Jesse Jones is absolutely amazing. Represent is that it? All right, thank you. First, let me introduce the staff for you. We are glad Jessica Whittaker is here with us. This is her 2nd or 3rd 2nd session to be with us, so, uh, I'm gonna give you her phone number and you're probably gonna need it, so when you, you, you, you usually come to me and say I've got a bill. I want to run and I'm gonna say call Jessica and get it on the agenda so her number is 501-425-4059. 501-425-4059. We also have uh Marissa White is that did I say that right? No, I would tell me again, Marisa, I knew I would do it wrong. Marisa White is our committee secretary and Zach Campbell, who will do the drafting for the committee. He's not here with us today, uh, so just a few quick announcements during the session we will always meet him and MacB in this room. We will usually meet on a Tuesday or Thursday at 10 a.m., uh, we're scheduled where we can meet twice a week. We need to, however, uh, I won't call you over here if we only have one bill unless you come to me and say, hey, this, I really need to get this through. I've got something going, got people gonna be here, uh, uh, so if not, we will wait, uh, one day a week if we can get by with that. There may be occasions where we have to meet Tuesday and Thursday, uh, also, uh, Uh, I, I run a pretty consistent committee. I, I try to be consistent and do it the same way every time, uh, if you have questions, we're gonna allow you to ask a couple of questions and if you know you need to lead up to 1/3 of that, uh, we're not gonna press you too much and say, you know, I'm not gonna ask you to turn around and say, you know, follow up every time. However, if we've got a lot of people uh lit up that need to talk. I may say, can we move on and come back to you, but. I'll try to let you finish your line of questioning. Uh, we don't argue in this committee. We debate if you disagree, uh, that's fine we'll, we'll give you that time to talk, but, uh, uh, we don't, we, we try to respect each other and, and, and, uh, we always wanna remember that when we're doing committee, uh. Also, uh, the agendas are prepared to 2 days in advance, uh, sponsor notification will be sent by email. Uh, I want you to remember that after a bill has appeared on the committee agenda and it's been uh called up for Kaut racing, the sponsor is not present. The item will be placed on the bottom of the agenda, uh, of the active agenda. If uh Bill has been uh call up for consideration 3 times, it will automatically be dropped to the deferred list. Now if the sponsor wants to move the bill from the deferred list back to the active agenda, uh, that request must be made to the staff by 2:30, 2 days prior to the scheduled committee meeting. Uh Amendment should always be in writing, and uh please let staff know before the meeting that you have an amendment so they can say can have that prepared. We're gonna try to have our, our uh scheduled committee photograph next Thursday at 10 o'clock. So if you can, we, we thought we would go ahead and do it early before everyone gets busy because once we start meeting there'll be some of you that'll be in other committees running committee or testify and trying to do that. So let's try to go ahead and get the committee uh photo next Thursday at 10 o'clock, get that out of the way. We have several agencies that uh meet with us and, and, uh, they have sometimes have just uh. Changes they want to make within their department that requires our approval, uh, sometimes it's new laws, sometimes it's a, a variety of, of different uh aspects, but today we've got several of those uh those organizations with us and we've got today first of all we're gonna recognize the Department of Transportation, uh, so, uh, we're gonna ask the director, Jared Wiley, if he'll come to the table, introduce himself and any of your people you want to come to the table or stand up and introduce. Uh, go right ahead and Jared, it's good to have you. We, uh, you've got some big shoes to fill, but I know that uh you're well respected and people have a lot of confidence in you. We're excited about seeing you here. Uh, you're not as good looking as the last director, but, but but I'm sure you'll be just as efficient. You're right about that. Yes, sir. I got some big shoes to fill. Laurie, we miss her already. I'm in my first week on the job here as director. Uh, being with the agency almost 20 years now, and I've had the pleasure of working with many of you, and I look forward to working with the rest of you here on the committee today beside me I want to introduce Mr. Gil Rogers, and I'll let you talk about yourself in a minute, Gil, and Miss Hannah Wright. They will be down here at the Capitol, um, during the session in room 7 in the basement, right, you, on the house side, so they'll be here. Uh, you, you want to tell them about your experience with the department. Uh, I've been with the Department of Transportation for Excuse me, 11 years, um, I continue to learn something every year. It's, uh, uh, there's a lot that goes on, as many of you who showed up yesterday, now, uh, from having uh uh archaeologists to divers to uh engineers on site, so, uh, if you have any questions or you need anything, you can find me. I'll be wandering around. I'm petite, so I'm difficult to see, but if you let me know, you can text me or call or come by 07 and I'll uh be able to help. you out. Uh, Gil, could we, could, can we have your phone number because you're, you're the guy we usually call. I, you know, the director's busy everyone else he's our kind of our liaison y'all, so if you would give her, I have it, but there's others some of our freshmen might not so if you would do that, it would make it a lot easier when they they they need to uh connect with uh our do. Sure, it's uh 501920-3172. And uh if I don't answer I'll get back with you as quick as I can and, and, uh. A text always works as well. And Mr. Chair, we have some contact cards too that have all of our key staff members on there. I'll make sure the group has those soon. Appreciate that. Thank you. My name is Hannah Wright. Um, I'm Ardot's external information coordinator and have been given the opportunity to serve in this role, uh, for the session. So I'll be working with Gill. I've been with Ardo for a year and a half, and I'm looking forward to working with you all. OK. Thank you. All right, we appreciate y'all coming, showing up today. Take your time out to be here. Uh Trey, I'm gonna give you a chance. You, you were coming in a few minutes later. I'm gonna go ahead and let you introduce yourself where you're from, your district. Yeah, absolutely. Uh thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. Trey Steinwell District 2, Northeast Arkansas, parts of Randolph Sharpe and Fulton County, uh, second, uh, session being on transportation, looking forward to working with everyone here. And, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. OK, uh, Jeff Holmes, Jeff here? Jeff, you wanna step up for just a minute or you do wherever you want to, uh, Jeff is the chief of police for the Arkansas Highway Police. And uh We've had several conversations over the year, some of them good, some of them bad, but uh we, we always got it worked out, hadn't we, Jeff, thus far so. I'm Jeff Holmes. I'm the chief Thank you. OK, now we have the Arkansas State Police and I don't know who Colonel Hager sent today, but come on up, introduce yourself and good morning, sir. Good morning. Introduce myself. I'm Lieutenant Alan Johnson currently tasked with being overall fleet operations within our department. Uh, if y'all watch the YouTube videos, that's, that's a pretty tough job sometimes, but, uh, I was asked to come by Colonel Hager, uh, wanted each one of the members here to just get a better understanding of what our department is. We're not just the blue car or the white car with the blue stripe that you have to slow down for, uh, our agency has a lot of different aspects to it, so you just wanted me to kind of give a quick brief if that's possible. Um, we're composed of 5 different divisions. The highway patrol was obviously our most visible division. That's the ones, the guys out there on the roads, working our crashes, uh, trying to stop our speed. trying to lower our fatality rates within the state. Our criminal investigation division, uh, is a large division I'll pull that mic down just a little bit. I'm sorry. There you go. Thank you. OK. Our criminal investigations division is one of our unseen divisions, but they're very busy. It consists of 101 commissioned troopers that uh conduct investigations for both the state and assist other agencies within the state. If a department calls and asks for our assistance, we will assist them in any major case if they don't have the resources, their manpower to make a proper investigation. We also consists of a regulatory division that oversees our licensing, such as our public, uh, security officers, uh, they also handle concealed carry permits and then crimes against children. It's the hotline that we have within the agency, uh, this allows for somebody to make a report of any crime that could be committed against a child or a child that's in danger, they'll take that initial investigation, determine whether there is the potential for a crime to have been committed and whether a further investigation needs to happen and if so, that would be passed on to a criminal investigations division. And that's. Something a lot of people don't know that we do. We're trying to combat, uh, crimes against our children in state. And then our administrative division, uh, again, often unseen, but it consists of 400, approximately 400 full-time and part-time civilian employees that help support our agency and our overall mission, um. In addition to those divisions, we also have canines, we have a bomb squad, our emergency response team, SWAT teams, etc. We feel like we play a significant role and not only traffic investigations, criminal investigations, but also in emergency disaster response, uh, both within our state and outside of our state, uh, we help with evacuations during natural disasters, uh, insuring public safety on a large scale event. Our organization currently as of yesterday, could change, but as of yesterday, we have 479 commissioned officers. Again, 101 of those being in criminal investigations, the rest being within highway patrol. You know, our mission and it's been set by Colonel Hager honor, integrity, and loyalty that truly embodies what we're, we strive for in our agency. We strive to be, uh, a sense of pride for our state. Obviously, we're seeing a lot on YouTube. That's what I keep hearing about, but there's a lot that we do outside of that that needs to be recognized and again, if there's anything that you need from us or have any questions for us, we're always here for you. OK, thank you, Alan. I appreciate it. Chief Holmes just for a little clarity, would you? Tell, tell everyone what to what the responsibility of the highway police is what their main duty is, uh, I forgot to ask you that when you were up here, so they get confused with the state police sometime. Absolutely, uh, we're, we're tasked with uh enforcing size and weight regulations, um. Of state law and routing oversized permits throughout the state and also enforcing federal motor carry regulations on trucks, truck and equipment. Thank you. Just just wanted them to know what, what actually was right, next we have the Department of Finance Administration, so someone from there would Come up Mr. Collins, you You may perceive. Thank you very much. You know you know the ropes around here are pretty good, uh, well, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Uh, it's, it's amazing how quickly the faces are changing, um, so obviously, I had a chance to serve with many of you, but, uh, some others, uh, not yet, uh, although Representative Duffield, we get to work on the AI committee together. So, so that's been a real pleasure. Uh, my name is, uh, Charlie Collins, and I'm the commissioner of revenue for the state of Arkansas, uh, under Secretary Jim Hudson, who is, Uh, the head of DFNA and the easiest way to think about my role is we, uh, I manage the folks that touch all of your constituents every day, and there's a couple of big buckets. One big bucket is taxes. So you've got businesses and taxes, you've got individuals and taxes, you've got corporations and taxes, you've got lots of miscellaneous taxes. Another big bucket is that the DMVs as people will call them in Arkansas we call them SROs, state revenue offices. That's where the folks go to get renewed registrations and, uh, uh, registered vehicles, etc. and then we've also got, um, the Office of Child Support Enforcement, so if people are not having their child. support payments, um, and then, uh, we've also got a group called the assessment Coordination Division, which works with your counties with regard to values for things like personal property and, uh, real property. Obviously, the counties are responsible for administering the property taxes, but we provide training and other things. I told, uh, there are about 2000 people, uh, between Little Rock and 200 offices out in all your districts, uh, that serve people. So I'll give you my cell phone. number and if it's any of what I'm gonna call the normal daily things, uh, that you have a constituent issue with, you can feel free to send me a text, uh, if, if we're kind of new, please put your name just so I kind of understand that, and then what I'll do is have one of my administrators, that's our word for the leader or the head manager of one of these areas, um, contact your constituent and then uh after they've resolved or worked through whatever the issue is, then we'll let you know, uh, so it can be pretty efficient for you. So here's my cell phone number. Area 479 2839303. Again, that's area 479 2839303. Uh, next, what I'd like to do is, is talk about the part that's most uh germane to this committee. Um, we have, uh, a group that is responsible for managing the driver services. And vehicle motor vehicle registration, uh, boats, many different types of, of things implementing the laws that you're passing and getting those to operate inside the state of Arkansas. And, um, we basically have that broken into two main groups that process those things, the driver services side, the motor vehicle side, and the leader of that business we call it DSMV driver Services motor Vehicles is. Hamrick Wayne, if you'd stand up, um, I think my boss would say there's no public servant anywhere in America. that is more responsive from a customer service standpoint than than Wayne Hamrick. So I'll put that on the table and, uh, you guys can beat me later if, if, if we don't deliver on that front. If you get in touch with Wayne, um, you won't have a better customer service experience. Wayne has managers under him, um, one for driver services, and that's Christy Earnhardt. Christy, would you? Uh, Christie's been with the state for 30 years, so she knows things inside and out, and then we have another manager over motor vehicles. That's Marla McHughes. Marla too has been with us for many, many decades, so she knows things in and out. So when it comes to driver services, motor vehicles, those are the three managers that we have. There are no others, just those three. I've also brought autumn Hemphill here today. Autumn, do you wanna, you wanna wait autumn is, uh, our leader, our administrator over sales taxes, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, all of the miscellaneous taxes, one of the things she does. Is, is what we call tax credits. So if one of your constituents purchases a vehicle and then sells a vehicle, they're entitled if they follow all the rules and do it within a certain time period, etc. etc. to get a sales tax credit for the vehicle they sold against the sales tax due on the vehicle they purchase, so one of the Autumn's team's responsibility is processing those and, and working through those. A lot of times those are simple if you go to a dealer, purchase a car and trade it in. It's simple process, but if you're selling one car individually and you're buying it somewhere else, there are lots of rules to follow. And sometimes people will do things that don't comport with the rules. I've done this myself. For example, I purchased a car registered it, did all those things, and then my daughter said, Dad, I'd like to buy that car. And so I said, OK, and I sold it to her a week later before I even drew it. Well, I didn't know we have a law that the legislature passed that says nobody is allowed to get a used tax credit on a vehicle on the same vehicle, so I found out that yes, I paid the sales tax and then a week later my daughter paid it. Yeah. So following the laws and the rules is something that we're we're pretty, um, rigorous about because that's what you've charged us to do. And if you talk to us first, if you're doing something complicated, uh, we can sometimes help. I'll give you one example. There are some states that will collect sales tax if you purchase a car there and will not give you a refund when you register it in Arkansas. So Florida is an example where we have a lot of people that go to Florida because cars are cheaper. they'll buy them, they'll pay the sales tax there. But, but that's not how it's done in Arkansas, we're going to collect the, the sales tax when you register the vehicle with us. So don't pay the sales tax to another state when you purchase a vehicle because you're going to pay it when you come to Arkansas, and we have no ability or agreements or anything like that or other states are mailing us sales taxes paid by our Kansans in those states. So that's just one type of an example. Next, what I'd like to do is turn it over to Paul Geering who is the chief legal counsel for the revenue division in Department of Finance and Administration. Thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner Collins. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, Paul Geering, I'm the Assistant Revenue commissioner for the Department of Finance Administration. I've been with DFA since 2007. Uh, it's a pleasure to be working with the transportation committee. I've been coming to these meetings, I think since. 2011, possibly, uh, to talk about legislation that we are, uh, that we review that is going to be heard in this committee if the, uh, legislation affects, um, the administration of driver's licenses or motor vehicle titling and registration, we will prepare a fiscal impact statement. Um, usually that takes, it takes time for us to review the bill and then assign the bill to our administrators that, uh, Commissioner Collins, um, introduced, um, to do their analysis. Uh, we try to work on those bills in the order that they are filed over at the General Assembly. As soon as the fiscal impact statement is prepared, it is transmitted electronically and the Bureau of Legislative Research, uh, and their staff are on that distribution list, uh, if you receive a fiscal impact statement for your bill, and if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. My email address, um, as well as my direct contact information will be on the email that's generated, but if anybody would like my uh cell phone number, 501-352-4480, uh, in addition to all the members of, of. Commissioner Collins' team that works on the fiscal impact statements. We also have, uh, in, um, The meeting room today are members of Revenue Legal council, um, so on the, um, first row on the right is Keith Linder. He is one of our attorneys and revenue legal counsel and uh to his um right is Alicia Austin Smith. She is the revenue chief legal counsel and then also Joel Joel De Pippa, one of our attorneys, he's also been with DFA for, uh, same amount of time as I have. I think he joined our office in 2008. So, um, we, it's a pleasure to work with this committee and if you have any questions about uh. DFA or any um of our work that we do for in conjunction with the committee, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate you being here. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and I'll leave some business cards with the email address with your staff before I go, so if anybody does want that, feel free to grab one. OK. Thank you, sir. Alright, is anyone here from Division of Aeronautics. OK, no flying this year. Uh Motor vehicle commission. Punch it. My name is Daniel Daniel. To the tab there. Oh, still didn't work. Push it again. OK, you're automatic. Go ahead. My name is Daniel Pace, and there we go. I am the director of the Motor Vehicle Commission. I have two investigators on staff as well, they're both out in the field today doing an investigation, and I have a licensed supervisor on staff. Uh, I've been with the Motor Vehicle commission for 4 years, my second year as director and before that, uh, I was with the Attorney General's office for about 8.5 years in consumer protection. Uh, for a bit of background for what the motor Vehicle commission does. If you don't know, we're licensed and regulate the new motor vehicle industry in Arkansas. So that would include all new franchise dealers that sell automobiles, commercial trucks, RVs, uh, motorcycles, and then we have our off-road products, ATVs, UTVs, any other off-road products. And that also means that we license and regulate the manufacturers and distributors that manufacture, sell and distribute those products as well. Um, so for an example, Polaris, Kawasaki, and your off-road products, Ford, GMC, uh, any of those type of manufacturers and distributors, and we also license and regulate lessors in the state. Um, so enterprise budget, Avis, all of those folks. Um, And we, uh Or my investigators were complaints, we take complaints from the public. Uh, we investigate fraud, uh, we investigate warranty claims, reimbursement claims for consumers. We investigate title issues and, and work with dealers to resolve those, but we also take complaints from dealers, uh, when they have an issue with manufacturers and distributors, uh, to do with their franchise agreement. We get a lot of, of warranty reimbursements, uh, in parts reimbursement issues we help them with. Uh, we also have some termination issues we helped them. with and uh we oftentimes have disputes that we have to try to help them resolve with manufacturers and distributors sometimes over inventory, uh, and sometimes it's just a matter of trying to help them help one of their customers too, so that gives you a pretty good overview and My direct number uh if anyone here on the committee ever needs to contact me is 501. 682-5571. Always happy to talk to any of you and help you out. Representative Holcomb has, has always been helpful to us, uh, in the past, and Jessica, you have as well. I appreciate you. Thank you, Daniel. Appreciate it. Appreciate your time. Anyone here from Toying and recovery. I see Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to introduce myself. My name is Paul Burnett. I'm the director of the Arkansas To Recovery Board. I was given this opportunity, uh, April of 22, and that's, I've been with the Department of Labor and Licensing. A little bit about our agency is we, uh, we issue license and permits to tow companies. Uh, we also regulate any consumer complaints that come in on excessive pricing or overcharges and for predator towing. I have, uh, have one permit and licensing specialists, and then I have one investigator right now, and we do a pretty good job of taking care of when the stuff comes in. Uh, I retired from law enforcement with 28 years of service in 21, and I'm here now. I'm also new to the process and I'm Eager to learn and and work with everybody. Thank you. OK. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. Anyone here from Waterways commission. OK, uh, Shannon, chucking association. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Uh, my name is Shannon Newton. I'm the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, and I've heard others from this table talk about their decades of experience and unfortunately, I've also have decades of experience. I've been with the tracking Association 21 years. Um, so if you have issues, most of our members are over the road, long haul interstate commerce, um, that's the industry that I primarily represent, um, so issues that are pertinent to us obviously include road safety and infrastructure investment. And so those are the primary things that will be before. you, hopefully talking about making the road safer and making sure that they're adequate to, um, deliver the commerce for our, for our state. Thank you. Thanks, Shannon. Uh Arkansas Railway Association, James I guess James is here, yeah. Thank you, Chairman and committee. Uh, my name's James Miller, and, um, I represent the Arkansas Railroad Association, so I handle everything class one railroads. So if you have any questions or comments, Please let me know. Thank you, James, uh, Arkansas Transit Association. Anyone here? creating Good morning. My name is Anne Gilbert. I'm director of the Transit Association. We represent the 16 urban and rural transit agencies in the state and all of your nonprofit senior centers and developmental disability schools that get vans or vehicles from Ardot. Thank you. And the governor's office. Uh They had, they, they had to look really hard to get someone to come over. Jack, go ahead. Thank you, Chairman Holcomb. Uh, it is a pleasure to be here representing the governor's office and, uh, to put your mind at ease, Miss Rachel Smith will normally be here doing this, and I am her backup. I think I'm everybody's back up and uh it's good to hear, uh, everybody's longevity. Uh, I have been on the job 4 days. OK and is is it extreme pleasure to be here and. Representative Collins leave. Uh, oh, well. Brian and I were seatmates for years and years, and we determined because of our vast navy knowledge that we were the two smartest guys in the house. I believe y'all did that. I will leave it to you to decide which was the smartest because one of us can say it in less words, but the governor, uh, looking forward to working with you and Miss Rachel will be here. Thank you. Thank you very much, uh, I wanna say thank you to all of you for being here today. I know you have a very busy schedules, but we appreciate. I want to remind the committee that Thursday will be our photo next Thursday. We'll do a photo also any bills that are on the agenda, we'll try to get those out of the way. So if there's no other business to come before the committee today, thank you for being here. We stand adjourned.