House State Agencies
January 15, 2025
Representative Jimmy Gazaway ...give him the opportunity to introduce himself, and then we'll go to each member of the committee and give each of you the opportunity to introduce yourself, talk about what district you represent, what you do professionally, a little bit about your background, how long you've served in the House, and we'll go from there. But Representative Beck, you're recognized.
Representative Rick Beck Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, this is my third time that I've served on this committee. And I will tell you that this is one of the funnest committees, that the topics are very interesting. As much as it is fun, it's important. We cover a lot of very important issues here. We'll get a lot done. I'm sure that Chairman Gazaway will do a great job and keeping us focused on those issues. So I will tell all the new members, you are going to be surprised with the breadth of the topics that we cover in this committee. But we're going to have a lot of fun and get a lot of things done. And with that, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway I'm encouraged by his optimism that we're going to have a lot of fun. I hope that is true. And so at this time, I want to introduce the staff. Carly Cooper is our committee analyst. Kristi Hutchinson is the committee assistant and Liz Lee is the committee attorney. Ms. Cooper, would you like to say a few words? She does not want to say a few words, which is just fine.
As Representative Beck said, this committee handles a lot of very important issues. Specifically, constitutional amendments come through this committee. Other types of legislation that you'll see in this committee include FOIA legislation. There's another really important topic that is escaping me right now that comes through this committee- elections, law. And generally just the general description of the committee is that this committee reviews matters pertaining to state government and State Agencies except for the subject matter that relates more appropriately to another committee - proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State of Arkansas or the federal government, election laws and procedures, federal and interstate relations, similar legislation and resolutions germane to the subject matter of this committee.
And so, as I discussed earlier, we're going to go to each member and give you the opportunity to introduce yourselves. Let me begin by saying, Representative Jimmy Gazaway, this is my fifth term in the Arkansas House, my third time to serve on this committee. And so, of course, I look forward to that. I also serve on the Judiciary Committee. I represent District 31, which is geographically a very small district in northeast Arkansas, which is essentially just the city of Paragould. The City of Paragould has 30,000 people. And as you know, each district has approximately 30,000 people. And so when they drew my district, they just traced the city limits of the city of Paragould. So that is my district.
Professionally, I'm a practicing attorney. I've been practicing law for 18 years. I practice with a private law firm in Jonesboro, Snelgrove, Langley, Culpeper, Williams and Mulally. As I've said many times during my service in the state legislature, I formerly served as a deputy prosecutor for nine years before I was elected. And again, I've been fortunate now to serve four terms, and this is my fifth. So that's a little about me. I look forward to chairing this committee, and I would be remiss if I did not say that I will miss Chairman Tosh, who was chair of this committee for the last three sessions and done an excellent job chairing this committee and did fine work. And, again, I will miss having him here. Big shoes for me to fill.
So with that, Representative Meeks, I think you are the senior member. So you're recognized, sir.
Representative Stephen Meeks Thank you Mr. Chairman. So again, Representative Stephen Meeks. I represent District 42, which is Greenbrier up through Fairfield Bay. This is also my third time serving on this committee and looking forward to all the great things we're going to do. Professionally, I'm an astronomy educator on the side. I travel to schools all over Arkansas and our surrounding states trying to inspire the next generation in STEM education. And the term that I'm entering in, which makes me a lame duck, so I can get in all sorts of trouble this go around. Right?
Representative Stan Berry I'm Stan Berry. My home is Dover, Arkansas, of course. And this will be my seventh term to serve District 44, which basically just from the interstate at Russellville goes north and a little bit of Van Buren County. And I've never served on this committee and I'm looking forward to it and excited about it. But I guess that's about all. I guess you can call me retired. I retired about three different times, but it seems like another door opens. But I'm happy to be here and happy to serve my constituents.
Representative Cindy Crawford Hi there, Cindy Crawford. I'm from Fort Smith. I cover the south and east part of Fort Smith, which I think is the better part. I know my counterparts would argue with that. We do have the F-16, F-35 mission coming into Fort Smith. That's my district, foreign sales mission. We're excited about that. We'll bring in over 800 families. So, Fayetteville, watch out. You took over second largest city. We are taking it back. So here we go. I am in my fourth term. This is the second time for me to serve on State Agencies. And I thoroughly enjoy the debate that we have here and look forward to this year.
Representative Andrew Collins I'm Andrew Collins. I represent District 73, which is mostly here in Little Rock, the north and northwest parts of the city. It's my fourth term and my second term on State Agencies. It's been a while. It was my first term in 2019, and now I'm back and I look forward to serving with you all.
Representative Denise Ennett Good Morning, committee. I am State Representative Denise Ennett. I represent District 80 here in Pulaski County. I have parts of downtown Little Rock in Pulaski County. This is my third term and this is my first term on this committee. So I'm really excited to be serving with all of you. Thank you.
Representative David Ray Good morning, everyone. My name is David Ray. I'm state representative for District 69, which is Northern Pulaski County and Southern Faulkner County. I live in Maumelle. This is my third term in the House. This is my first term on State Agencies. Some of you remarked that you thought I was already on this committee, but that's just because I've run bills in here before. I'm excited to be here and work with all of you this session. Thank you.
Representative John Carr So I'm John Carr, state representative of House District 15, which is Central Rogers in northwest Arkansas. I'm in my third term enjoying serving my people. So I definitely enjoy this committee. Great debate, Great people. What I do professionally is I'm a substitute teacher and I also work concerts at the Walmart AMP.
Representative Wayne Long I'm Wayne Long. I represent District 39, which is parts of White County, Jackson County and Independence County. This is my second term, first term to be on this committee, and I'm really excited about it because I hear it's a really fun committee.
Representative Ryan Rose Ryan Rose, District 48, Van Buren, Fort Smith. It's my second term, first on State Agencies. I'm looking forward to all the fun Representative Beck said we're going to have in here.
Representative Julie Mayberry State Representative Julie Mayberry, District 92. This is my fifth term, but the very first term on State Agencies. Looking forward to being here. Been around since 2011. Many may remember my husband Andy served before me. We've kind of gone back and forth and tag teamed a few times. I have four children. They are now all college age and up now. So my background, what brought me to Arkansas back in 1996 was to work at Channel 7 doing their morning show, started with journalism, met my husband, decided to make Arkansas home. I choose to live here. Beautiful state. Very happy to be serving. Thank you.
Representative Nicole Clowney This is my first time using this mic. Okay. I'm Nicole Clowney. I represent District 21, which is Fayetteville, the middle of Fayetteville. That's part of Fayetteville. Go Hogs. This is my fourth term, my third time on this committee. And it is a lot of fun. I look forward to a lot of the debates that we have in here are super passionate and not necessarily along party lines, which are my favorite in both ways. So anyway, I'm looking forward to serving with you.
Representative Brian Evans Representative Brian Evans, District 68. I have all of the city of Cabot and just a little bit of Lonoke County. Going into my fourth term. First time on State Agencies. The past three terms I've been on Insurance and Commerce, but was just looking to do something a little different this time. And I'm really interested in a lot of the subject matter that's going to come through this committee and looking forward to serving under the guidance of Chairman Gazaway and Vice Chairman Beck. Happy to be here.
Representative Mark McElroy I'm representing Mark McElroy. I am District 62 and I'm a little different from the rest. So I am the only one so far they know that I have served as a Democrat, an independent and a Republican. And I told them I was going to be a libertarian and a vegetarian before I left here. But this is my sixth term and I represent parts of Desha county, parts of Arkansas County, part of Monroe County, parts of Saint Francis County, all of Lee County, all of Phillips County and part of Bolivar County, Mississippi, I think. But I learned an important lesson. Do not vote against the governor's budget before redistricting. I'm looking forward to working with you.
Representative Howard Beaty Representative Howard Beaty. I represent District 95, which is all of Ashley and Chicot County in south east Arkansas. Third term in the House, first time on this committee, although I spent a lot of time in here. And so I kind of feel at home in this room. Looking forward to serving with all of you on State Agencies. Fun has been mentioned by a lot of folks. So I hope that we can deal with issues and still make it entertaining and deal with some serious subject matter here for the state. So I'm looking forward to serving part time outside of the legislature, do bank consulting and work in economic development in Southeast Arkansas.
Representative Kendon Underwood Kendon Underwood. This is my third term in the House, my second term on this committee. I represent a portion of Benton County, mostly Cave Springs, Highfill, a portion of Rogers and Lowell. Outside of the legislature, I'm an attorney. I work at J.B. Hunt, which also sits in my district, and then I own a small business as well. Looking forward to working with you guys.
Representative RJ Hawk Representative RJ Hawk, District 81, which is Saline County, 95% Bryant, Benton, I have a small portion of that, Alexander and Mabelvale. This is my second term in the House, first time on this. I was on Ag and Transportation last go around. Professionally, I'm a real estate broker and then also a real estate developer. So it's been 14 years, much like Representative Mayberry, spent 14 years on the radio here in central Arkansas. So I'm glad to be here.
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge Good morning. Jeremy Wooldridge, District 1. Starting my second term, first term on State Agencies. Happy to serve on this committee with all my friends and under the leadership of Representative Gazaway, who I border a district with. We split part of Green County. I have all of Clay and then split part of Randolph County also. And just happy to be here.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway All right. Thank you. Next on the agenda, I have to recognize various agencies and organizations that are here that typically have business before this committee. I haven't spoken to anyone, but I see a number of you out here that I know represent, again, various organizations, State Agencies and other entities that will have regular business for this committee. So I want to give you the opportunity, if you'd like to go to the end of the table, introduce yourselves, talk about the type of work that you do and typically the issues that you have before this committee. I'm looking first at the Association of Counties, which I see here to my left. So I'd like to start with you guys and then we'll go from there.
Lindsey French The first one of the session. It may be the last one of the session too. I hope not. My name is Lindsey French and I work for the Association of Arkansas Counties. Specifically, I represent the County Clerks Association, which will have a lot of business before you regarding elections. Also representing counties we're very interested in any legislation that would affect the Freedom of Information Act. So we'll be here for that as well. This is my law clerk. This is the association's law clerk, and I'll let her introduce herself.
Caroline Cole Hello. This is my first time using the microphone. My name is Caroline Cole. I am a law clerk for AC, and I just started last week, so I'm learning the ropes. I'm from Hot Springs and I'm in law school and I will graduate in a year. I'm just happy to be here and soak it all in.
Lindsey French I do also represent assessors and circuit clerks and JP's. So anything you have that would affect them, please reach out to us. We love to work on bills ahead of time before they get into committee, so I'm looking forward to working with you all.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway Thank you. We're going to keep going down to my left here. Is there anyone here in the second group of seats who would like to address the committee? Everybody is shy today. All right. There we go.
Kenny Hall Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Kenny Hall with the State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas. I was just counting it up, this is my 14th session, and I'm kind of tired. We represent businesses of all shapes and sizes all over the state, and we work very closely with all the local chambers and many, many business associations. We have primary interest in this committee on the proposals for constitutional amendments and then other things we'll be watching. So thank you very much for the opportunity.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway All right. We're going to keep going. Sir, you're recognized.
Tom Bullington Hi. Good morning. I know many of you. I'm Tom Bullington with Arkansas Legislative Audit. So we work for you guys. I've been with it for about 30 years and I'm the deputy over state agencies. So we are interested in all of the subject matter of this committee. Thank you very much.
Ben Beaumont Good morning. I'm Ben Beaumont with the University of Arkansas system. As you know, we have 20 campuses, divisions and units across the state, many of which touch your districts. And we have a number of issues that are of interest in this committee and we will be here. If you need anything, please feel free to reach out. Thank you.
Doralee Chandler Good morning. Doralee Chandler. I'm with the attorney general's office. I am the deputy attorney general over the state agencies division. I have with me today two of our state agency attorneys that will also be in this committee. Every time you all meet, if you have any questions, that's my senior assistant, Michael Lewis and assistant Sarah Debesque. So feel free to ask us any questions if you need anything.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway Gregg Parish. I'm not going to let you get out of here without introducing yourself. You are recognized.
Gregg Parish Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gregg Parish, Arkansas Public Defender Commission. I'll be between here and Judiciary. Also attending will be attorneys with my office Tina Lee, David Roup, Charlotte Bogn or Brent Gaspar. Look forward to an enjoyable session with each of you. Thank you very much.
Lori McDonald Hey, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity for introduction. Lori McDonald, Chief of Staff with DHS. New role. Been with DHS for a little bit. It's been an honor and a privilege working with most of you.
Tiffany Wright And good morning. I'm Tiffany Wright and I'm the director for the Division of Children and Family Services.
Lori McDonald Yeah, we look forward to working with you through the session.
Katherine Hindsley I'm Katherine Hindsley. I'm here representing the governor's office and excited to work with everybody.
Luke McCoy Chairman Members. Luke McCoy with Family Council. I think everyone here, no freshmen legislators, but Jerry had to step out, take a phone call. But I think all of you are familiar with most of our staff, Sharice Dean, Aaron Hogan and two of the people, Kaylee Hogan there and sister and Kay Daniels will be up here a little bit with us. Excited about this committee, looking to get some good things done and looking forward to working with you all. Appreciate it.
Marty Ryall Hi, everyone. Marty Ryall. I'm the director of legislative affairs for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. I'm also the director of the Heritage Division. Tourism is the number two industry in the state behind agriculture. Parks, we have state parks around the state that I think are in a lot of your districts or touch them or near them. And in the division of Heritage, we have eight divisions there, our agencies there, we have four museums, Historic Arkansas Museum, Old State House Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Delta Cultural Center over in Representative McElroy's district. Then we have the Arkansas State Archives, Arkansas Arts Council, the Natural Heritage Commission, and the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. We're all in the Heritage Division. So we have a lot of activity in our department. I think I've worked with all of you at some point or another and look forward to working with you on another legislative session and please reach out to me if I can ever be of assistance. Thanks so much.
Jim Hudson Hi. Good morning, Committee. Jim Hudson, secretary of DFA. First of all, congratulations on your elections and congratulations on getting appointed to this committee, this great committee. You'll see DFA in here from time to time. Anything that touches State Agencies is going to touch the budget. So you'll see DFA providing support here. We will be in JBC as well. Obviously Rev and Tax too. So the whole team will be available to you to help you and assist you have a successful session session. So let me know personally what I can do to help you as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Bob McMahon I'm Bob McMahon. I'm the prosecutor coordinator. I will be representing my office, which is a state agency, the prosecutor Coordinator's Office, on various issues out here before you. I also am the executive director of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association. We do most of our work in the Judiciary Committee, but there are a handful of bills where we will appear before this committee as well. But my deputy, I will introduce her. She stepped up for a phone call. Lori Kumpuris. She's a deputy prosecutor coordinator. She'll be representing us a lot over here. And she informed me a few minutes ago this was my 19th legislative session. So I did not have gray hair or need reading glasses when I started. But both of those are not true anymore.
Daniel Shue Good morning, Mr. Chairman, committee. My name is Daniel Shue. I'm the elected prosecuting attorney for Sebastian County, the 12th Judicial District. I am also the legislative chairman for the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney's Association. This is my fifth session to serve in that capacity. Also this term, I'm president of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney's Association. My father, I will never forget his words to me, he said, Dan, the world is divided between big wheels and slobs. Just try to be a helpful slob. So I'll try to be a helpful slob.
Will Jones Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of committee. I'm Will Jones, the prosecuting attorney for the Sixth Judicial District, which is Pulaski and Perry County. Thank you.
Andy Davis Morning committee. My name is Andy Davis. I'm with the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences. And I'm not sure I'm a state agency or not, but Representative Bryant told me that I needed to come up here and make sure you knew who I was. And if you need anything at all, we'll be here to help.
Sharon Strong Good morning. I'm Sharon Strong and I'm the executive director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. This will be my first session in this role, so I'm excited to work with you all and meet you all. I know some of you, but not all of you. The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery is a part of DFA, but we also have issues that touch and affect ADHE, higher ed, obviously. So if you have any questions or need anything for me, I'll be in these meetings. Thank you.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway All right. Thank you all so much. That looks like everyone that's here in attendance today, although I know there are several other organizations and governmental entities that typically will appear before this committee, whether that's State Police, Game & Fish, many others that may not be here today, but that everyone needs to know and I'm sure we'll have some contact with over the course of the session.
I have some announcements that I want to make before we adjourn. First is that during the session, this committee is scheduled to meet in this room 151 on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. and on Fridays at 10 a.m. or at the call of the chair. So those are our regularly scheduled meetings. Now, I expect and I know I haven't talked to Speaker Evans about this, but in previous sessions we've adjourned on Thursday afternoons and not met on Fridays. I will say as the session progresses, depending on the workload that this committee has, we may have to meet on a Friday. We may have to meet on a Wednesday afternoon.
I expect that this committee will have a pretty heavy workload and and I'm committed to doing the work. I don't want to rush through anything. I've been on those committees where we've rushed through things and have meetings that we've not maybe had the full opportunity to have a real discussion about very important issues. And I don't want that to be the case here. As far as I'm concerned, we're going to meet as might be required, which may include some Fridays occasionally, so that we can do the work, vet all the issues that will be before this committee thoroughly and fully consider all the legislation that's before this committee.
Next is, of course, a quorum must be present to start each meeting. 11 committee members constitute a quorum and it's important that members be on time to meetings so that the chairman can see a quorum and start the meeting. And I want to say that that applies just as equally to me as it does anyone else. Next, agendas are prepared in advance, according with House rules, and the agendas are prepared two days in advance. Sponsor notifications will be sent to members who have bills on the agenda two days before the committee meeting. Sponsor notices are sent by email. That is important so that as a committee we know what is on the agenda for us to be considering so that we can be prepared in advance of the meeting. And we'll try to make sure everybody knows what they need to read and what they need to prepare for in advance of the meeting.
Next, after a bill or resolution has appeared on the committee agenda and has been called for consideration and the sponsor is not present, the item will be placed at the bottom of the active agenda. And if a bill or resolution has been called up for consideration three times, it will automatically drop to the deferred list unless the sponsor notifies staff. Requests to move bills from the deferred list to the active agenda must be made by 2:30 p.m. two days prior to the scheduled committee meeting.
And I just want to say, you know, to the extent that I have some discretion and some leeway there, I will work with you. Having presented many bills in many different committees before, I know how busy it can get. Sometimes you're still working on a bill, sometimes you know that there's going to be amendments to the bill, you want it to remain on the agenda, you're just not ready to present it at the moment. And so I understand if you're not ready to go on a particular day, but you want that item to remain on the active agenda. I'm sure we can work on that. And then if a bill does go to the deferred list but it needs to come off the deferred list because it wasn't ready but now it's ready for presentation again, I'll work with you on that, certainly. But hopefully I don't anticipate any problems there.
Next, amendments should always be in writing. Please let staff know before the meeting if you have an amendment. We don't have any freshmen on this committee, so I think you all know how that works. You got an amendment to your bill, BLR will send that over. Typically it needs to be in writing. We need to know that in advance of the meeting, be passed out to the members. The last minute amendments, which I've probably done myself at various times, these things happen. This is part of the legislative process. But to the extent that that can be avoided and people can have their amendments in advance, that is of course always helpful.
Special orders of business. This is set at the call of the chair and done when the sponsor of the bill requests a special meeting date or time for the committee to hear this bill. We may do this from time to time. If we have a particularly important issue that we know is going to require extra attention, we may set that as a special order of business. And all of you, I'm sure, are familiar with that concept. This is used when there's a controversial bill, and not necessarily controversial, but one that deserves, again, time and attention of this committee, that will have a lot of people testifying either for or against or when the sponsor has people coming from out of town to speak on his or her bill. So just be aware that we will have special orders of business likely from time to time.
I will just say in terms of conducting the meeting, as was talked about yesterday in our chairs meeting, in the past, there has been this kind of policy of, you asked a question and then you request permission for a follow up. I've never been a fan of that model because allowing two questions is not practical in my mind. When you are dealing with an issue that may require a line of questioning and to think that you only get two questions and then have to pass it off, that doesn't make for a productive discussion and really limits your ability to kind of flesh out the issues.
And so what I will say to you is, You're recognized for questions on a particular bill. I'm going to give you some leeway and the opportunity to ask as many questions as you feel necessary within reason. If at some point it appears that it's going on a little too long, we've got other members in the queue that need to ask questions, then I may tell you that we're going to have to limit that for the moment, can come back to you, but we've got other members in the queue. And so I guess what I would say to you is just don't abuse that. And I think all of you here have been here long enough to know when you're maybe abusing it and going too long and when you're not. So but if that happens, we'll deal with that as it occurs.
So that's all I have. Representative Beck, do you have anything else? All right. Well, with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much.
