Review Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council – June 10, 2009

Posted on June 10th, 2009

Date & Time: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 01:00 PM
Location: Room 171, State Capitol Little Rock, Arkansas
Agenda: http://tr.im/o3yv
Attachments: http://tr.im/o3xT

1:00 pm – Meeting called to order. A follow-up response from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission was quickly reviewed.

1:05 pm – As required by AR Code 22-9-104, Reviewing Methods of Finance for various state agencies.

1:07 pm – Represenative Reep asking questions about U of A Fayetteville renovation of Peabody Hall. He is concerned about the listed funding source called “University Reserves.”

1:08 pm – Senator Jimmy Jeffers asking about if fee increases to fund bonds. Response is that the bonds are funded from regular tuition and no tuition increases have gone to the bond requirement. Representative Hutchinson is following up asking about fee and tuition increases to fund bonds. She points out that funding is fungible, so even if the increases are not directly attributed to bonds does not mean that they are not causative.

1:13 pm – Rep. Gaskill asking about successes of the Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cession Program. He points out that it is a lot of money to invest if the program is not effective. He doubts the success of the program. Rep. Reep is asking a follow up question about source of funding. It is from the Tobacco Settlement. He is asking for clarification about how the non-profits apply to the AR Health Department for funding.

1:18 pm – Chairman Dunn asking for amount of expenditures on the programs. Answer:
$2,000,160 dollars spent on Tobacco Cessation Program
$14,000,692 dollars on Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program

1:20 pm – Rep. Pennartz are asking for a list of funding grantees to determine who is continually recieving money. She is making the point that a “grant” is not intended to be a long term stable funding source. The list will be provided as a follow-up. Rep. Pennartz makes the point that this committee has not received information on effectiveness of these programs and cannot decide if these perpetual fundees desire

1:24 pm – Rep Lovell asking what percentage of the Tobacco Settlement is spent on administrative functions. The AR Dept of Health agreed to provide that number.

1:27 pm – Senator Madison asked if there are multiple providers in some communities that could recieve grants. Answer was no.

1:28 pm – Representative Billy Gaskill asked what the amount in dollars per person served. The question was avoided, no promise of answering that question in follow-up was made.

1:30 pm – Rep. Maxwell asked if we could get a report on the rate of success of the cessation program. This will be provided in follow-up. Mr. McGrew, CFO at AR Dept. of Health claims the “Quit Line” has a success rate of 35%.

1:34 pm – Rep. Cook points out there are no grantees from Northeast Arkansas. The response is that there were not applications. Rep. Stewart follows up with the fact that the rural areas are very under represented in the grantees.

1:36 pm – Senator Pritchard reports that the Senate Health Committee has also been having difficulty getting information from the Cessation and Prevention Programs. They have formed a subcommittee that will perform an intensive evaluation.

1:38 pm – There is a lot of frustration among legislators about the evasiveness and stubborn resistance to provide information about the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program.

1:41 pm – Senator Terry Smith points out that rate of decrease of smokers in the state does not match the claims to success of the cessation programs.

1:44 pm – Rep. Martin (me) asked that when the success statistics are provided to the committee in follow-up that they also provide the rate of decline in smoking in Arkansas to the rate of decline in states that do have this program.

1:47 pm – Rep. Hutchinson asked what percentage of the legislature would be required to pass a bill to change or end this program. The answer is two-thirds.

1:49 pm – Currently reviewing the Minority Initiative Grants from the Tobacco Settlement. The amount going to this program is $2,200,000. Senator Pritchard is asking about the distribution of the money and how much goes to U of A, Pine Bluff. He also asked what this program does that is not duplicated by the Minority Health Commission.

1:54 pm – Rep. Pennartz asking how many grant recipient programs are are first time programs. Answer is 8 of 17. She asked how much goes to Masters Program at UAPB. Answer is about 20%. Rep Pennartz asked for positions and salaries for the program in a follow-up report.

1:58 pm – Rep. Hutchinson asked about distribution of Minority Initiative Grants to serve the Native American Population. Apparantly there are currenty none.

2:00 pm – State CASE Grants reviewed without comment.

2:01 pm – Representative Dunn asking about why Forrest City got less than requested from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Grant while all other applicants got the entire amounts requested. The answer will be provided in follow-up.

2:03 pm – Arkansas Dept. of Human Services Grants review. Some clarification for personal understanding asked by several members, no notable issues raised. AAFA (Stimulus) Grants and Dept. of Workforce Services reviewed without comment.

2:09 pm – Out of State Professional/Consultant Services Contracts being reviewed so fast I can’t keep up. There are 50 contracts adding up untold millions being passed over very quickly. This part of the job always makes me terribly uncomfortable.

2:17 pm – Rep. Cook is asking if the switch to an augmented testing benchmark was completed. It has. Rep. Cook is asking about reduced “seat time” for testing. Legislators were led to believe that the switch was supposed to reduce “seat time.” Apparently that “hype” of reduced seat time never happened.

2:22 pm – Senator Terry Smith asking about the testing date. Pointed out that as soon as testing was over, it seems like all “teaching” stops. He feels like the students are missing out on a month and a half of the required intensity demanded by the frameworks. The representative for the AR Dept of Education reluctantly agreed. Apparently the amount of homework drops drastically after testing as well.

2:27 pm – Rep. Webb asked about funds of two and four year colleges spend to lobby in Washington D.C. This information will be provided in a follow-up.

2:28 pm – Rep. Pennartz is asking why a contract for distance learning is being filled by an out of state firm. Apparently the initial procurement happened in 2003, at that time only out of state firms applied. The contract allowed seven 1-year extensions. Rep. Pennartz is asking why the contract was not reissued periodically. The response is that due to the complexity and need for continuity, they opted to do the extensions.

2:32 pm – Rep. Pennartz asking about G4S Youth Services contract extension and discussed some of the issues encountered in the last year. Rep. Cook followed up with question about improvement of educaton in Youth Services. It was pointed out that this company received a bad situation from a company that was fired a couple of years ago.

2:40 pm – In-State Contracts are currently being reviewed. There are 251 contracts, again worth millions of dollars.

2:53 pm – Sen. Pritchard is asking about the Correction Department contract for nearly $37,000.00 “to write religious and medical diets.” Response claims that they cannot do that in-house.

2:55 pm -

Rep. Tracy Pennartz admiring my Netbook

2:56 pm – Wow, the bureaucrats and lobbyists just left en-mass. We must have covered whatever it was they were all here to see.

3:01 pm – We are currently reviewing the monthly reports and communications from the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. It is actually quite impressive how many of your legislators are here sitting through this mind numbingly boring ordeal.

3:04 pm – Meeting adjourned.

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One Response to “Review Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council – June 10, 2009”

1. The Statesman Says:
   June 11th, 2009 at 10:26 am

   You are shattering the illusions people have about what an exciting and glamorous job state legislator is!