Arkansas Legislative Council – Review – September 2, 2009
Posted on September 2nd, 2009
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 171, State Capitol
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12072/I7754.pdf
Attachments: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/MeetingAttachments.aspx?ItemId=12072&CalType=ME&List=Meetings&btnok=nook
This committee reviews Agency requests for professional services contracts and consultant services contracts. (A.C.A. 19-11-1006). Proposed methods of financing for capital expenditures in excess of $250,000 which have not been approved by the General Assembly (A.C.A. 22-9-104) are reviewed by this committee. Requests of state agencies for leasing of motor vehicles (for more than 30 days) prior to final approval of said lease by this state purchasing administrator (A.C.A. 22-8-102) are approved by this committee. Also, other matters may be referred to this committee by the Legislative Council.
1:32 pm – Meeting called to order by Senator Barbara Horn.
1:34 pm – Arkansas Military Department and CDI Contractors of the Northwest Arkansas Armed Forces Reserve Center contract review was held over from last meeting because no one was present to answer legislative questions. Rep. Glidewell asked why the estimated cost per square foot was so high. (He is concerned because this was a negotiated contract.) The response is because there is additional site work, particularly parking for heavy military equipment.
1:40 pm – There is alot of questions about the furniture cost per square foot of $8/sq. ft. Apparently the Federal Government requires new furniture for construction projects of a certain size.
1:42 pm – Rep. Pritchard said that he hoped that just because this is Federal money that we were not tricking ourselves to believe it is free money. He said that he remembers April 15 and believes in being good stewards of the taxpayers dollars.
1:44 pm – Rep. Dunn is making the point that if everything is considered in the cost of the project, then almost every project meets the threshhold for negotiated contracts. Rep. Dunn has long been suspicious of negotiated contracts. [I think he has a feel that "hinky" things are going on with some of the negotiated contracts. I generally believe that negotiated contracts can save tax payer dollars, limit change orders, and improve quality. However, Mr. Dunn is correct that the nature of the method requires careful oversight to avoid potential abuses.]
2:02 pm – Rep. Glidewell is asking who would recieve the “mark-up” on those parts the different parts of the contract, like the furniture. The answer was that the estimate is currently for funding purposes only and that the military department would retain any surpluses, probably to be used for other parts of the project.
2:07 pm – Senator Jimmy Jeffress asked all the representatives for the Review of Methods of Finance for ASU – Newport, Arkansas Tech University, Pulaski Technical College, Southern Arkansas University, and the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.
2:09 pm – Sen. Jeffress is concerned that the even though we are putting alot of money into the system from the lottery that the cost to the students will still go up. These new contracts currently under review are reported to be paid by tuition and fees.
2:11 pm – Sen. Jeffress is asking, “Did you increase tuition and fees?”, “Are you going to increase tuition and fees?, and “If you are not going to increase tuition and fees, what is rolling off the budget to account to finance these new bonds?” ASU Newport and Arkansas Tech did not increase tuition and fees. The others did, but all claim that none of those increases were driven to fund the aforementioned bonds.
2:15 pm – Sen Jeffress emphasized that he would be watching to make sure that the cost of college attendence goes down and stays down in light of the lottery scholarships. [I agree with Sen. Jeffress's fears, a free market has a definite price point at what people will pay for college... not in absolute terms... but in consumer's out of pocket expenses. The lottery funds create a "slush" in the free market that the colleges and universities could exploit.
2:20 pm - Rep. Reep after questioning SAU represenative determined that a project with a large increase in the revised total projected cost was actually a very different project entirely. He suggested that the method of reporting to us (the legislature) needs to change.
2:24 pm - Rep. Clark Hall is inquiring about the cost per square foot of each of the colleges for construction projects under review. [I am wondering if we need to establish some guidelines for the method of finance (MOF) and what is allowed. ]
2:28 pm – Reperesenatative Ray Kidd is taking up for the university in his district – ASU. He is asking leading questions to point out the successes of Arkansas State University. Everyone is humorously laughing about the transparency of his line of questions. Good for him, he is taking up for his constituents.
2:32 pm – As required by Arkansas Code 19-4-2201, we are reviewing discretionary grants by the Dept. of Health, Dept. of Human Services, and the DHS – ARRA Grants.
2:34 pm – Sen. Key is asking if the grant submissions have to include on how the funds are being used and if they are broken down? Is there a minimum amount of the grants that is supposed to go directly to patient care? The response from Mary Leif was that yes, that information has to be reported and the funds are supposed to provide additional direct assistance. [However, this does not determine how much is being used for equipment, staffing, or administration.] I think Sen. Key is concerned that more than is reasonable may end up in going to administration rather than direct service to those in need.
2:41 pm – The CHC Grants that will serve my District are for River Valley Primary Care and St. Francis House. River Valley reports that no large equipment items, no lease, expenses, and no contracted services will be funded by grant. However, new full time employees will be added, but I see no increases for current employees. St. Francis House reports that no funds will be used to fund salaries of current employees, but additional will probably be added, and they are devoting some to building lease.
2:46 pm – Sen. Percy Malone makes the point that we are funding both the expenses of care, and we are paying the CHCs to fund additional employees. He seems to be concerned that this is somewhat double funding. He also expressed concerned that we need to be careful not to drive the free enterprise out of the market. Some legitimate concerns. [It is my opinion that it will drive out private health providers that current provide those services.]
2:50 pm – Grant funding review approved.
2:51 pm – Committee speed is accelerating. This is the point when bad stuff happens. Things are happening faster than I can record, but you can look at the agenda and know that we just approved everything in agenda items for Items 4 and 5.
2:55 pm – 2,740,000 is in the Arkansas Economic Development Commission contracts for the “Cash for Clunker Refrigerators”. Look at page 42 of the attachments.
2:57 pm – Sen. Malone is asking informational questions about a PBM transparency due to a recent law that was passed.
3:02 pm – Sen. Madison is asking why we are paying UALR to pay a private firm to do research at the Kennedy Space center? A very good question. This question concerns nanotechology research at UALR.
3:05 pm – Sen. Jeffress is pointing out another contract that will be paid for by student tuition and fees.
3:06 pm – I have splitting headache. If I were not live-blogging this meeting I would be in a dark quiet room trying to go to sleep. Come rain come, I am tired of all of this allergenic crap floating around in the air.
3:07 pm – Sen. Jeffress is asking why there are two contracts for educational audits each for a single school district. He asked if they are duplicating services. They are not. They serve different areas of the educational system. Sen. Jeffress pointed out that he recognized some of the names on the contracts and asked how they could provide expert audits in another school district when their own school district is not meeting AYP. He points out that he even sees husbands and wives on the lists. He believes there are some things about this because their are teachers and superindents are going out earning income when they need to be back at their own district. The response is that they have to take a vacation. Sen. Jeffress said that would probably be something to follow up on.
3:19 pm – Sen. Madison is asking about the personnel being used to perform audit are the same people than needs to be audited, and felt that it seem audited. One of the assistance directors at the department of education rudely interuptted Senator Sue Madison and said, “If you would allow me, Maam!” as Sen. Madison was asking an extended question. [Ten years ago, before the agencies filled the power vacuum caused by term limits, she would have been sent out of the room. That response is not the level of respect that should be extended to a senator in a committee meeting.]
3:20 pm – When Senator Horn, who is chairing the committee asked the will of the committee, no one made a motion to approve the review. Sen. Jeffress expressed concerned that the fox may be guarding the hen house and asked that we get a list of schools for which audits were done for the last four years and what the outcomes of this particular program is.
3:24 pm – Rep. Reep is asking if we are going to hold up this work if we fail to approve this contract. It is claimed it will. [This is not the legislators fault. If this stuff needs to be before the committee in sufficient time for legitimate review by the legislature.]
3:30 pm – Sen. Malone is asking why these contracts were signed and committed too and this was submitted to the legislature at the last minute. The representative said it was not her fault that her part of it was accomplished in a timely manner.
3:34 pm – We are the point where any person could ask for a call of the quorum or roll call and stop this. Sen. Malone is asking for a consideration of going ahead review, but to have a follow-up. Sen. Jeffress is asking for her to bring back information both on metrics of success and failure of the program AND a copy of the laws that she claims would be violated if we failed to approve today.
3:43 pm – The failure of an agency to plan ahead does not constitute an emergency on the legislature’s part. This report is being allowed to proceed, but I believe that there will be finally be done to correct the abuse of the generosity of the legislature by the agencies.
3:46 pm – Remainder of the reports are progressing rapidly again. None require committee action, but are simple informational reports.
3:48 pm – Meeting adjourned.
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