Arkansas Legislative Council: Adminstrative Rules and Regulations – January 11, 2010
Posted on January 11th, 2010
Date & Time: Monday, January 11, 2010 at 9:00 PM
Location: Room 151, State Capitol
Committee Information: Members on Committee
Agenda
Last meeting
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.
9:04 am – The meeting was called to order by Sen. Percy Malone.
9:05 am – Item B on the agenda was passed over.
9:07 am – Revisions to the Rules and Regulations for the Arkansas Auctioneers Licensing Board were presented by Ms. Kristy Arnold. Sen. Malone asked if there were any fee increases. The response was that there were not. These new rules primarily deal with electronic auctions.
9:08 am – Mr. Bill Trice with the State Board of Dental Examiners presented Article XVIII; Mobile Dental Facility Regulations. Rep. Billy Gaskill, who is a retired dentist, asked several questions about who is served primarily and if all people could be served. The primarily group targeted are those under financial distress, but may serve all people. Senator Malone is asking about the regulation and limits on the type of care to provided with reference to anesthesia. Mr. Trice explained that those regulations are in these new regulation. Sen. Malone asked for a specific reference to that limitation. Mr. Trice explained that it is not in this particular regulation, but is the result of other regulation and works with this one. Rep. Gaskill provided explainatory commentary and praised this type of work for children.
9:16 am – Rep. Johnnie Roebuck asked about how follow-up care is provided. Mr. Trice said they have to have follow-up care arranged, either by another local dentist, Childrens Hospital, or a scheduled return visit and they have to provide that information to the board.
9:18 am – Sen. Malone is making alot of pushback to Mr. Trice about the need to provide a prearrangement with a local dentist for follow-up treatment. Rep. Johnnie Roebuck is also asking alot of questions asking about what work was done with the Dental Association to create this rule. Rep. Roebuck’s husband is a dentist. [I don't know if I understand what Sen. Malone is going after with his questions, but I suspect he has had some negative reaction from his consituents who are rural local dentists.] Mr. Trice said that the Dental Association was “on-board” with these rule changes.
9:23 am – We returned to item B on the agenda to review of the report on the promulgation process for rulemaking by the State Board of Public Accountancy on the board’s proposed amendments to Rules 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, and Rule 1. This was held up due to a fee increase put in place. Apparently they have now removed the fee increase. Sen Malone is lecturing the the board representatives about the rule making procedure and the need to contact the press when a meeting between board members occur.
9:30 am – The representative for the State Board of Public Accountancy is being questioned about her previous testimony in the last meeting. There is apparently some conflict in her testimony from the previous meeting about he procedure that was followed. Sen. Malone actually had her previously transcribed and read back to her. Apparently there was only one board member at the time due to a vacancy on the board. Therefore, apparently there were not two or more (required for press notification) board members were not present when the discussion of the public comments for the new rules were handled.
9:36 am – Sen. Malone asked for information about the responsibility of board members once there term has expired from the Attorney General’s office. We were informed that one a person’s term has expired they are not and often to not continue attending the meetings until their replacement is appointed.
9:38 am – We are currently covering the rules related to the rules from the Dept. of Education about the access to public school information on comprehensive school improvement plans. Apparently, in the public comments it was requested that the rules be amended to require a link to the most recent version of the information. The report stated that, “No changes were made as a result of this comment.” Apparently, changes were, in fact, made and the change was made to the proposed rules.
9:43 am – We are currently discussing the rules related to professional development. This covers teacher training related to accomodate lottery scholarships and the use of AEDs.
9:46 am – Representative Randy Stewart is asking about a rule change related to the requirement to get a “sworn statement” from a doctor to miss a training. She says that it means just a doctors excuse. There is a definite difference from a legal standpoint. [This is one way the bureacracy creeps in it's power. They put into place oppressive rules that go further than the law created by the legislature, when they testify before the legislators about rules implemented they claim that certain terms mean the same thing, but the legal meaning in actually goes far beyond legislative intent.]
9:51 am – Sen Percy Malone voiced his displeasure saying that he didn’t care for them making law over there and that they should stick to their knitting. [Situations such as this is why one of the most important duty of legislators is to oversee the rules created by the agencies.]
9:55 am – As a member of the Education Committee, I specifically remember this coming through. The law never intended anything other requiring the total number of 60 hours of professional development hours. There was never any intent to require anything but a teacher demostrate an extended period of illness if they could not get the professional development over the year. The local school district should have the ability to wave or make up missed training.
10:01 am – Rep. George Overby asked if they would take control from the local school board. The Dept. of Education response was “no”. I get the feeling that most of the legislators feels like the Dept. of Ed is being rather non-responsive and dismissive of the legislators concerns.
10:03 am – Sen. Kim Hendren voiced the result of un-intended consequences in the creation of these rules and regulations.
10:04 am – The attorney for the Dept. of Ed voiced that they would adjust the rule to reflect the preferences of the legislators.
10;07 am – We are now covering the methods of calculations of school miscellaneous funds.
10:08 am – Off topic… whisper moving through the committee room that the Governor is recommending an $106 million cut to the the state budget.
10:11 am – Paul Stricklin is reporting on the rules for the Arkansas Emergency Telephone Services Board. This board is the one that administers the 65 cent fee on cell phone to provide 911 services to cell phones.
10:13 am – Karen Bassett from the Dept. of Enviromental Quality is back concerning Regulation 33; Motor Vehicle Racing Facility Regulations. This was held until staff could determine if anyone was inadvertantly affected by that regulation. There was not.
10:15 am – Regulation 18; Air Pollution Control Code was reviewed. This related to open burning. Regulation stands reviewed.
10:16 am – Things are moving faster than I can keep up with now. This often happens toward the end of committee meetings.
10:17 am – Ryan Benefield of ADEQ presented Regulation No. 23; 2009 Hazardous Waste Management Annual Update. Rule stands reviewed.
10:18 am – We passed over item 8 on the agenda.
10:19 am – Robert Hart with the Dept. of Health, Center for Local Public Health, Engineering Section is presenting a new rule related to backup power for Public Water Systems. Sen. Malone asked if there were deficiencies that prompted this rule. Mr. Hart denied that there were. Sen. Malone replied, “Then why are you making a new rule then if the existing one is working?” [Darn good question] Mr. Hart claimed that just makes the rule clearer. He is explaining that the language became outdated since it was created in the 1990s. The rule changes are supposedly just clean up language.
10:26 am – Apparently this new regulation requires that the water systems has stand-by power or other means for maintain water pressure during a power outage. The rule stand reviewed.
10:28 am – We are returning to item 8 on the agenda. Byron Freeland with the Dept. of Finance and Administration; Arkansas Racing Commission is presenting a raft of rule changes. See the agenda.
10:30 am There is a ton of stuff left on the agenda, but I have to head over the the Board of Directors meeting for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Education Coalition. The stuff toward the end of the agenda is usually routine, so it probably would have been pretty boring anyway.
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