Arkansas Legislative Council: Administrative Rules and Regulations – September 15, 2009
Posted on September 15th, 2009
Date & Time: Friday, September 15, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Location: Room 151, State Capitol
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12107/I7762.pdf
Attachments: none
This committee reviews matters regarding administrative rules and regulations by state agencies, boards, and commissions for Legislative Council review, as required by A.C.A. 10-3-309; and such other matters pertaining to administrative organization, rules, regulations, and procedures as may be assigned to the committee by the Legislative Council.
9:02 am – The rules filed for the Arkansas Alternate Dispute Resolution on continuing mediation education requirements for Certified Mediators and also for the requirements for the Certification of Mediator for Arkansasas Circuit Courts were reviewed.
9:06 am – We skipped ahead on the agenda to accomodate Mr. George Hopkins to attend other state meetings. Item 15 – Reviewed rule changes for the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.
9:08 am – Mr. Bob Leslie is presenting rule changes for the Assessmanet Coordination Department. These changes concerned the changes in market value between reappraisals.
9:09 am – Mr. Jim Martin with the Arkansas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board presented rule changes related to the registration of Appraisal Management Companies.
9:10 am – Ms. Lane Anderson, Arkansas Development Finance Authority, is presenting the 2009 Guidance to Implement the Tax Credit Assistance (TCAP) and the Section 1602 Exchange Program. These were federal programs which are tax credits to raise equity for multifamily housing, but are now direct subsidies. Information about the 2009 Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Policies and Procedures Manual was presented. Senator Malone is asking why we are getting these rules approved AFTER the deadline for application. He makes the point that the government takes a year to put the rules in place, but the public and those affected by the rules only have 15 days. The agencies are notorious for doing this sort of thing. Senator Malone is dead on correct that these agencies need to stop pushing this for our (the state legislator) review to the last minute and rushing it in such a way that the States have no way to make corrections or represent our interests.
9:24 am – Ms. Susie Stormes of the State Board of Election Commissioners is reviewing a raft of rule changes. See item 5 of the agenda. These included a) reimbursement of expenses for state funded elections, b) election officials (poll workers) training, c) county election commissioners training, d) voter intent, e) provisional voting, f) nonpartisan judicial office filing fees, and g) citizen complaints of non-HAVA violations of election and voter regislation laws.
9:28 am – Many of the rule changes we review are going into place without any public comment whatsoever. Businesses and those impacted by these rules should be more diligent to place comments in the record. This is very important because legislators are not always as informed on these topics as someone professional working in a particular area may be. We key on the public comments to know if we should investigate the impact of a rule change later. Very often if there is no public comment, we assume that the rule change is not problematic.
9:36 am – Senator Kim Hendren is asking if rule changes were made to address problems with the voting and elections during the last cycle. Apparently that was fixed by laws during the last session.
9:37 am – [The legislature should consider changing the law to require agencies to formally schedule the legislative review of rule changes in the process calender just as they do a public comment section. These rule changes need to be submitted to the legislature in sufficient time to reviewed by the committee, changes made, and then approved during the next regularly scheduled meetings. It seems like every committee during the interim which provides government accountabilty and review is faced with agencies waiting until it is too late for the legislature to act in the best interests of their consituents.]
9:44 am – Sen. Faris is asking about improvements in compensating and rewarded for their time. Ms. Stormes said that is why they removed the rule that prevents people employed by the government or on a board/commission from being a poll worker. [I don't think that is such a good idea] This could present some serious conflicts of interest.
9:47 am – Racchael McGrew, State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, is presenting rule changes. They have reduced the requirements for CE from 8 to 6 hours and there are no requirements of “live” CE. Other professional boards should take note. Haha, Sen. Malone said the same thing!
9:51 am – The Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Adminstative Services presented rule changes concerning the State Administration of Justice Fund.
9:52 am – Tara Smith, Dept. of Higher Education Program is presenting rule changes related to a) Arkansas Health Education Grant Program, b) Higher Education Opportunies Grant Program, c) Law Enforcement Officers’ Dependents Scholarship Program, d) Military Dependents Scholarship Program, and the e) Arkansas Governors Scholars Program.
9:54 am – Sen. Bledsoe is asking if any of these programs are having a large amount of defaults. Apparently the professional degree programs have a very good track record with very few defaults.
9:55 am – Sen. Malone is asking how strong the requirements are for requiring grant recipients are indeed an Arkansas resident. The requirements are pretty strict, but they are currently drafting rules to formalize.
9:58 am – Sen Malone is making the point that each and every agency or program has a different definition of “Arkansas Resident.”
10:00 am – Former Rep. Jeff Wood, Department of Human Services, Children and Family Services, is presenting revisions to rules to comply with 2009 Legislative Enactments. He is presenting a 17 page “summary” of changes. I wonder if I can get a summary of the summary.
10:09 am – Cathy Rowe of the Department of Human Services, County Operations is presenting rule changes to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Block Grant for FFY 2010 and the State Plan for Fiscal Years 2010-2011 Community Services Block Grant Program. The funding payment for crisis intervention is increasing from $500 to $700.
10:12 am – Sen. Madision is asking about the reason why the state cannot provide weatherization assistance for HUD programs with more than four units. No response because that is a different agency, but Ms. Rowe agreed to find the answer from Senator Madison.
10:15 am – There is a request to move item 13 to the next meeting.
10:17 am – Fmr. Rep. Jeff Wood, Dept of Human Services is back presenting changes to rules for the Medical Services Division of the Dept. of Human Services. We covered item “g” first concerning reimbursement for a new type of ventilator to replace an obsoleting one. Other rule changes effect a) rehabilitative services for persons with mental illnesses (RSPMI), b) under 16 bed ICF/MR facilities rate adjustment, c) ICF/MR provider fee per diem adjustment, and d) ICF/MR provider fee administrative procedures.
10:34 am – Mr. Fred Knight, State Board of Nursing, is presenting rule changes to the Nursing Student Loan Program. This should speed up process to make more nurses availiable. Sen. Hendren asks if there needs to be some different priorities in how we are spending in this critical area.
10:38 am – Dr. Joe Alford, Arkansas Psychology Board is presenting rule changes for Annual Continuing Education Reporting, requiring them to report annually and change the time to match the fiscal year as is done for the licenses.
10:39 am – Adjourned
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