City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate

I'd like for us for the sake of the public and maybe those that don't know go around the table and introduce yourself and tell you what district you're from and kind of what you're, uh, uh, a little bit about your yourself, so we'll start with ladies first. Uh, my name is Brianne Davis. Uh, I live in Russellville. I represent Pope County, Conway County, and the city of Dardanelles. Good morning. My name is Joshua Bryant. I live in Rogers, Arkansas and represent the east part of Benton County in the northeast part of Washington County, spent 4 years on the Quorum Court of Benton County in 2016 to 2020. So I've, I've got a little experience local, local governments, and then elected to the House in 2020 for a 2021 session where I was on a house city, the county local and then moved over to the Senate last session. It was on this. as well, so I really enjoy um the issues that affect our cities and counties and look forward to it. Get more interior rice, uh, 16 years in legislature to start on the 17th, I think I've overextended my stay, uh, but if I lived long enough, I'm here 4 more years anyway, uh. I went to, came to City County when they Senate moved the gun bills over here and I will be over here if I'm breathing as long as the gun bills are over here. It's not that I'm not interested in cities and counties and City County local, but that that's one thing I'm going to try to affect our state, our freedoms and, and that includes the cities and counties and uh glad to listen to anything you have on any subject any time doesn't cost anything to listen. I make agree or not agree, but I always appreciate getting different perspectives because I learn something every day. And by the way, I'm from the east suburbs of Bates, Arkansas, dried up coal mine in town, 4 miles from Oklaba border, and it's a pretty good place to live. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And again, my name is Jim Petty, and I will normally be in the vice chair role, but uh uh I am actually uh from Crawford County. I cover District 29, which is all of Crawford County and southern and eastern portion of Washington County, and I, I too served, I served on the city council in Van Buren for about 8 years and I thought, you know, this will be an area that I'll know that that will allow me to have some subject matter knowledge and I get in here and find out it's all about drugs and alcohol and firearms, so. Uh, so much for that theory, but anyway, um, I'd like to introduce the staff, uh, without the staff, I would certainly be floundering right now, uh, starting with the, uh, uh, the sound system here, but Katie Hickman is the committee analyst. And I am so sorry. I cannot Yesenia, uh, is also committee assistant and then Sydney Sims is our committee attorney. So we, we thank you ladies for all you do for us here. Uh, we also have in the green packet our committee rules. They are the same as last year. And I would entertain a motion to approve those. motion by Senator I second by Senator Bryant. All those in favor, let it be known by I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, as we, as we leave the green folders will be here and prepared for us. If we could leave those in the room after each meeting. Let staff know if you need anything out of those. Uh, we plan to meet the Senate agency, state agencies and actually sent it to City County Local, uh, plans to meet on Tuesdays at 10 o'clock and Thursdays at 10 o'clock in this room 272, uh, sponsor notifications will be sent to members who have bills on the agenda 2 days before the committee meeting and sponsor notices are sent by email. I would also like to recognize and and allow anybody that's representing various agencies or organizations or associations that will be before us if you'd like to introduce yourselves and What you do, you're, you're welcome, uh, to do that as well at this time. Oh, do I need a microphone or just stay I would for the sake of the computer, uh. Oh I'll pay for that. Uh, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, Crystal lines, the director over at the Association of Arkansas Counties, and with me today behind me are Mark Whitmore, Taylor Hanford, and Josh Curtis, uh, not in this committee rooms, Lindsey French, and I just want to introduce him any of us may be in here to help with any county issues that that you have, we are subject matter experts on all that and happy to help out in any way that we can and Also, I wanted to take this chance since I don't see my friends from the municipal league in the room to go ahead and petition that we changed the name of the committee to county city local, if that'd be, if that'd be all right with you guys, but we look forward to working with you, uh, I know most of you, all of you on this group and really thank you for your service. Appreciate it. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and board members, our members committee. I'm Scott Bradley. I'm the director of the Arkansas Sheriff's Association. I've been in this role for about 7 years, was a sheriff before that for about 16 in Van Buren County up in Clinton, Arkansas. Uh, I just want to let you know I'm here for you. Um I think I've worked with most of you in the past, or at least talked to you, uh, if you have anything for the sheriffs you'd like for them to see or want their input. If you have cards with me, if you don't have my number, I'd love to give it to you. I will relay anything you give to me to my board, which is our, our committee who looks at those things and we'll, we'll give you our 2 cents for what it's worth and uh I'm looking forward to working with you. Thank you. Don't you have an event coming up here in Sure we do. Thank you for that. We're having our, um, we have our, our meetings, our uh our uh it's going to be down on the river, at the riverfront, and hopefully you got an invitation to come for an event that uh what is it? Tuesday evening, I'd come the day I had to look up the date, but you have an invitation. I hope you guys are able to come and Um, talk to the sheriffs a little bit and let them share some issues with you, so I appreciate y'all very much. Thank you for that. Yeah, thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'm Bill Pascal. I represent United Beverage Retailers of Arkansas. We have about 70 independent liquor stores around the state and as you know, there are always a plethora of uh alcohol bills that come through here and I'm expecting the same this session and I'll be down here multiple times, uh, trying to defend the industry. If you have any questions about retail liquor, uh, feel free to reach out to me or find me and I'll try to get an answer or have one of my members that's uh close to your district, reach out and touch you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, legislate audit, Joe Archer, deputy over at county cities and prosecuting attorney engagements. I have with me today, Charlie Kemp. He's manager overall special projects. Uh, we do engagements on, uh, all 75 counties and uh most all the cities, about 459 of the 99. So we're here to help any way we possibly can. uh, we're located directly below this room on the first floor. So look forward to the, to the meeting. Thank you Good morning, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee. I'm Noah Watson, Deputy Attorney General with the Attorney General, and I'm here with my colleagues Kelly Summerside, Jody Keener, and Will Olson, and we look forward to working with you all this session. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Will Hopkins. I'm the director of local affairs and rural development for Farm Bureau, and I look forward to working with you guys this session. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. I'm Jerry Cox. I'm the director of Family council and um I don't know if we're gonna have any bills in here or not, but there's a good possibility and uh I'm sure that um you know members of my staff, Luke McCoy, Aaron Hogan, Shari Dean, and uh we're looking forward to working with all of you. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee, my name's Josh Stewart. I'm with the governor's office. Uh, if you don't have my contact information, stop me after this. I'd love to get connected with all of you. I've got my cards and I look forward to this session with y'all. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Michael Grappe, Department of Energy and Environment. I'm here all the time. If you need me, just let me know, we'll be glad to help you out. Thank you. Anyone else OK, is there any more, uh, business that needs to come before the committee. Seeing none. We are adjourned.