ALC Review: Nov. 18, 2025

Senator Blake Johnson If everybody would find their place, we got about a minute. All right. Members, take your seats. Review Subcommittee, come to order. Co-chair Cavenaugh, do you have anything? All right. Thank you all for attending. And if we can just go to the method of finance, if you would. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Katie Walden, Bureau of Legislative Research, Fiscal Division. Good afternoon, members. Beginning on item B for Methods of Finance, you’ll see the letter that we received from Mr. Daniel Brasaert from DFA Accounting. They are presenting 5 methods of finance for your review today. 

Methods of Finance

On the next page, you’ll see a detailed schedule of those requests. I’ll go over them with you now. Number one is from ASU Jonesboro. This is an increase to an existing MOF for clock tower and audio upgrades. They’re increasing this MOF by $42,000 and they use all university reserves. Number 2, also with ASU Jonesboro. This is a new MOF valued at $10.5 million. They’re using a combination of hired grants and university reserves funding. And this is for the Careers Research Education and Skills Training Center. Number 3 with ASU Jonesboro, this is the A State Meat Lab Snackstick line. This is a new MOF for $750,000 using a grant they received from the Office of Skills Development. 

Number 4 is with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This is a $1.7 million MOF. They’re going to use UAMS revenues. And this is related to expenses for the separation of their retail pharmacy and specialty pharmacy. They want to enclose the specialty pharmacy into a closed door facility of approximately 6,500 square feet. Number 5 is with UA Monticello. This is a new MOF valued at $496,000 using private gifts for the installation of new scoreboards. These are the methods of finance, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Rice. 

Senator Terry Rice Now I’m on. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t have any opposition to this. Could staff tell me what that number 3 was again? I wanted to hear that one more time. 

Katie Walden This is the A State Meat Lab Snack Stick Line. 

Senator Terry Rice Thank you. That’s good.

Senator Blake Johnson Anybody else have any questions on B1, B2, B3, B4, B5? Seeing no questions, without objection, these items are reviewed. C, discretionary grants. C1. 

Discretionary Grants

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. This takes us to the discretionary grants in item C of your packet. Item C1 are 2 grants that we received from the Department of Health. These are 2, both federal funded grants. One is to the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership, and the other is to Engaging Arkansas Communities. The first one is for coverage and services relating to hypertension and high cholesterol prevalent areas in the state and service provision in that area. And the second one is for quality improvement and performance improvement support and expertise by participating in the AR primary care registry program, which is the state portal for the American Board of Family Medicine Prime Registry. These are the grants for Department of Health. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions from members on C1? Seeing none, without objection, we’ll consider that reviewed. Go to C3, Department of Human Services. 

DHS Subgrants

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. C2 are the DHS subgrants. There are quite a few, but I will try to group them for like purpose. Beginning on item C, page 2, you’ll see there are grants number one through number 6. Are all with DHS, Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health Services, to various service providers around the state to provide for the implementation of the Partnership for Success program. And these are all to help reduce the onset and progression of substance abuse in the state, as well as providing mental health promotion services. 

So that takes us over to page 4 in item C. Grant number 7 is also with DHS Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health. This is a grant to Centers for Youth and Families. I’ll also mention grants number 8 and number 9 are also to other service providers in the state. All three of these are for assisting homeless individuals who have serious mental illness to obtain adequate housing. Takes us over to item C page 5, number 10, DHS Division Aging Adults and Behavioral Health. This is a $2.5 million grant for intensive in-home services to families going through addiction recovery. 

Number 11, Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health, with the Alcoholism and Drug Counselors Incorporated. This is to work towards Medicaid billing for peer support, ethics, testing, and certification of drug counselors and alcohol counselors. Number 11, Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health. This is an increase of a $200,000 grant to the Arkansas Alliance of Recovery Residence. This is for houses, building infrastructure for families with hard to reach populations. Number 13 is a grant to the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, and this is for Government Performance and Results Act Survey Implementation. 

Number 14 is a grant to Chess Mobile Health. This is an increase in a grant for technology based services and access to rural health and recovery partnerships. Number 15, Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health with River Valley Medical Wellness. This is to increase an agreement to address the opioid crisis at the local community level through evidence-based strategies. 

And I will group the next few grants together. These are number 16 through number 19. These are all with DHS Division of Youth Services. These are various grants ranging from $12,000 to $20,000, and they are aimed at helping youth through community service projects, sports programs, life skills training, and other non traditional learning experiences throughout the state, as well as job training. 

And finally that takes us to number 21, Division of Youth Services. This is also an increase to an existing grant. It’s federal, for the relevant education and life skills program. These are the grants for DHS, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions on C2? Seeing none, without objection, we’ll consider those reviewed. C3, the Department of Agriculture Promotion Board, Beef Council. 

Agriculture Grants

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. C3 are four discretionary grants that we receive from the Department of Agriculture, Arkansas Beef Council. All four of these grants are funded with special revenues and they are aimed at the promotion of the beef industry in schools through providing youth programs, educational training. They sponsor the Beef in the Classroom program, Arkansas Ag in the Classroom program, and the Ag Learning Center. These are the discretionary grants for the Beef Council, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on any of those under C3? Seeing none, without objection, we’ll consider those reviewed. Go to D1. 

Contracts

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. This takes us to the contract section of our meeting. In item D of your packet, you’ll see a cover letter from the Office of State Procurement Director, Jessica Patterson. In this letter, she lets the committee know of a few things. First, she states that all of the contracts that are presented for your review today were found to be procured properly, with the exception of one. You will have one ratification that you will review here shortly, and I’ll go over that in greater detail. 

She also provides the list as requested in the September 2024 ALC meeting of all the contracts that were procured using the MAP method or the traditional RFP method. And then on the second page of that letter, you will see an update on the rule promulgation. You’ll remember OSP is going about updating the procurement law to be in conjunction with recent legislation that was passed. They state that they are just about finished with that promulgation process and it will go before the governor’s office for review. And then it will come before this subcommittee before going to the Rules subcommittee. 

Finally, you’ll see their quarterly training and certification report. Also, as part of the overhaul of the procurement process, this committee tasks OSP with reporting how they are doing with establishing agency trainings in their new procurement process and also giving you all a report of participation. So you’ll see that information there of their progress so far and setting those training programs up, as well as the agencies that have participated in these training programs. So that’s the letter. 

Next, item D1 is on page D4. This is the ratification letter that we received from the Department of Public Safety. In this letter, the Department of Emergency Management states that they were previously engaged with a contract with COMPSYS for IT services. And the old contract was properly procured, and they were under the impression that it was exempt by law. 

And so they engaged with COMPSYS again to renew their services as well as to expand some of the services provided. And so they’re asking for this committee to ratify the contract and to review all of the parts of the contract today. So that is the ratification, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions? Seeing none, I’ll entertain a motion. Motion. Motion by Representative Ladyman. Second by Senator McKee. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you. Go on to D2. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. D2 is on page D5. This is a request for qualifications from the Department of Human Services Office of Procurement. This is an RFQ valued at $83.8 million over 3 years for Community Mental Health Center services. DHS states that the Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health seeked approval to issue a multiple award request for qualifications. This will identify qualified community mental health centers interested in providing mental health treatment services for individuals who have no payer. That’s the RFQ for today. 

Senator Blake Johnson Thank you. Representative Rose. 

Representative Ryan Rose Just wanted to ask a question to somebody from the department of how this compares to previous, whether annual amounts or 3 year budgets, how it stacks compared to the previous times. 

Senator Blake Johnson Someone from the department here? Please introduce yourself and be recognized. 

$83 million Substance Abuse / Mental Health services

Paula Stone My name is Paula Stone. I’m with the Department of Human Services Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. Could you all ask that question again? I heard it, but I was kind of getting my stuff together. 

Representative Ryan Rose No, that’s just fine. Thank you. It says 83 million and change over 3 years, just shy of 28 million a year. Is that the way that’s extrapolated out? Is it 28, roughly 28 million a year? Or is there something that it’s a front loaded for or back loaded for? And how does this compare to the previous 3 years? 

Paula Stone So the contract is coming, it’s been a 7-year contract. It’s coming to an end. The only real fluctuation in any funding going to the community mental health centers has been we’ve received some federal funding. It’s in the form of a block grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

And so some years we get a little more money, some years we get a little less. And so that would be the only fluctuations that happen. But it is standard, about $28 million a year, has been for the last 7 years. And it would be for the next 3. 

Representative Ryan Rose Okay, because that was what I was going to ask. You said something about it being a 7 year contract. So is it actually a 10 year contract then? 

Paula Stone So we are ending that 7 years. We’re at the end of our 7 years. We’ll be at the end of our 7 years in July or the end of June of 26. So this is a new procurement for the same types of services. There’ll be some adjustments. 

Representative Ryan Rose So is it a new 7 year contract and we’re just looking at the first 3 years? Or is it a 3 year contract? 

Paula Stone It is a 3 year contract this go round. 

Representative Ryan Rose And you’re saying it’s roughly the same amount of money? You’re not needing to pull from or have pulled from other areas in order to fund this? 

Paula Stone No, sir. This is the money that’s always been going, has always gone to our community mental health centers for our safety net providers for mental health services. 

Representative Ryan Rose I was going to say, just for the lay people in the room like myself, could you summarize it briefly, kind of what this program serves? 

Paula Stone Sure, so we have our state divided into 12 catchment areas across, covering all 75 counties. And so they have traditionally served individuals who are uninsured. And that shifts. Through the years, it’s shifted a bit. Big focus of this service this go-round is going to be our individuals who are in jail. 

As everyone knows, when you are arrested and in jail, your Medicaid turns off, your commercial insurance turns off. And so there’s no way to provide services, particularly for our individuals who have had a forensic evaluation and have been found unfit to proceed. So we provide a lot of treatment services. We provide services for those individuals, assessments, helping them become fit to stand trial unless they’re going to, or until they go into the Arkansas State Hospital, or they may be able to be restored in a jail setting. So we do a lot of that work with that, those individuals being the primary group that is uninsured. 

There’s also some crisis work that is done with the community mental health centers for seriously mentally ill adults in communities. And so they have some funding that goes for the purchase of acute crisis beds if individuals are uninsured. 

And then some services going just to provide infrastructure in those particularly rural areas for hard-to-serve populations. And the seriously mentally ill adults, there are so few in some of those very rural areas, it makes it very difficult for anyone to start a business and really serve them all adequately. They have to be pursued to some degree. 

They don’t exactly come to a clinic, and so that’s the other piece of the funding. So those are our main buckets of funding that we send out and ask for them to perform those kinds of services. 

Representative Ryan Rose All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Ferguson. 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson Thank you Mr. Chair. Just two quick questions. You’ve answered most of my questions that Representative Rose had asked you. But the $83 million over the past three years, is that the same figure six years ago? Has the figure increased or decreased? 

Paula Stone The figure has stayed pretty much the same annually. Again, so sometimes we get a little bit more money from our substance abuse and mental health services administration. So some of the source of this funding is federal. And when we get those changes, sometimes we get a little bit more money. Then that money might change in any given year, but it has remained pretty much the same over the– 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson So three years ago it could have been down or it could have been up? 

Paula Stone And we can absolutely look back to see if there was any fluctuations in that funding. 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson And then the other question, in terms of the grants going to the different regions, is that based on their population or is that based on the number of participants they’re currently serving maybe the previous year? Or how does that work? 

Paula Stone Yeah, so in the past it has been based strictly on population. But one of the things that we have learned in this go round is that in looking at that is that it doesn’t quite help our individuals in rural areas with serious mental illness. As I was talking about, that makes it much more difficult. They’re a difficult to population to begin with, and then the difficulty in building a business in a rural area to serve a very few individuals. 

You know, if you have 10 people with serious mental illness that you need to serve, and some of them are in one of our 72 jails, and then some of them are spread across 100 miles, it makes it very difficult. So we looked at a new formulary this year and worked really hard on it. That formulary being we would adjust for the rural nature. 

We also adjusted for the number of seriously mentally ill adults in any area. So it’s a little bit more complicated than just census. So we’ve come up with a new way to divide those funds. 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson I asked that question. One final question, Mr. Chair, if you please. I have a larger community health center in my area. And then in the rural part of my district, there’s a little bitty one. And so that little bitty one is not receiving kind of support. So what you’re telling me is that with this new formula it may help them a little bit more? 

Paula Stone That  is what we’re seeing, and we can share that with you. We worked really hard to say, okay, how do we divide this money in a way that does exactly what you’re saying, supports our very small agencies that are serving a very few people and would never have the volume of population to really be able to stand up a large business. 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson Mr. Chair, if it would be all right, if she could share that with the staff and they send it to the members so I can see that information. 

Senator Blake Johnson Yes. 

Representative Kenneth Ferguson Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Vaught.

Representative DeAnn Vaught Thank you, Mr Chair. Can you remind me how many centers there are? 

Paula Stone There are 12 organizations, and they have some facilities or a clinic in each of their areas. We just did some work this last year of if they have one. We don’t have them having one in each and every county, but if they have something within a certain mile radius. I can get you the number of clinics they have in each of the counties as well if that’s what’s needed. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Yeah, I would like to know each county. 

Paula Stone Sure. 

Representative DeAnn Vaught Thank you, Mr Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Rose. 

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a quick follow-up. It’s page 6, but I think it’s the second page from you guys on D2. ‘Providers shall serve the following populations in the delivery of crisis services.’ Item B on there. 

It talks about all persons in the custody of DCFS who are not a member of a PASSE. It says the community setting includes, without limitation, a home or foster home, school, or DCFS office. How does this intertwine with working with like the MDTs and local CACs? How does this incorporate with that? 

Paula Stone So, generally, this is around a mental health crisis. And so those kind of crises are that the child is displaying symptoms, maybe suicidal, or perhaps that they are having behaviors that are extreme, which would put them in a psychiatric hospital. So generally it’s kind of separate from those we call out the DCFS population because they need some special services. So they have mental health conditions probably at a much higher rate than the general population, so it’s separate from the MDT work. 

Representative Ryan Rose So following an incident, some type of abuse, something awful in the life of a child. A lot of times this comes out through an interview like at a local CAC. If that is discovered and a break or something like that happens in the care of like a CAC, are you guys not looped in? Would this not be a service in that situation? 

Paula Stone So, like, you’re saying if they’ve identified that somebody while at the CAC has become suicidal or needs immediate psychiatric care, then we could do that? I don’t know. I need to go back and make sure that there’s a direct call that can be made. But, yes, if there’s something that’s identified while being interviewed by the CAC and there’s suicidality or something that is very concerning which would indicate a need for psychiatric, immediate psychiatric care in a hospital, they could go out. 

Representative Ryan Rose I know that this encompasses a lot of very important work, life saving situations. I wonder if it’d be possible for you to provide us at your earliest convenience just like a ratio or percentages of where you guys get the referrals for these, where it’s talking about the children who are not on a PASSE, like how do they come into your care in this situation. Is it a CAC? Is it law enforcement? Is it a hospital? I’d like to know how that’s happening. 

Paula Stone Absolutely. 

Representative Ryan Rose That’s something you think you could provide? 

Paula Stone We can. I can. I do have reports on the number of screenings they do and then the number of beds they purchase for uninsured individuals. 

Representative Ryan Rose And where do you guys get them from, kind of how they’re referring to the other thing? 

Paula Stone And the referrals that come in. Mm-hmm. 

Representative Ryan Rose Thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Thank you. Members, seeing no other questions, with that information being provided to Representative Ferguson and Representative Rose, I would entertain a motion. Motion. Motion. And a second by Representative Rose. Motion by Representative Painter. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you, members. Go on to D3. 

Construction Contracts

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. D3 is on 8 of item D. These are the construction related contracts for your review today. There are 11. Contracts number 1 and 2 are both with Arkansas Tech University for on-call architectural services with AMR Architects and Witsell Evans and Rosco, both valued at $900,000. 

Contract 3, 4, and 5 are all with Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, State Parks and Tourism Divisions. Also, all three of these are for on-call architectural services for the agency. Contract number 6 is with Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Wittenberg, Deloney and Davidson. This is for architectural services for the renovation of War Memorial Stadium. 

Number 7 is with DPS Division of Emergency Management with Vertical Structures. This is Amendment 2 to an existing contract. And this is engineering design services for the refurbishment of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network AWIN towers across the state. Number 8 is with Henderson State University with Riley Hays Roofing. This is for roofing services for the university for $1 million. 

Number 9 is with SAU Tech. This is amending an existing contract for new construction planning and design services relating to the forthcoming emergency medical services building and restroom facility located at the Arkansas Fire Training Academy. 

Number 10 is with University of Arkansas and Architecture Plus. This is amendment 1 to an existing contract. This contract is for architectural services related to the maintenance building and wood shop construction project for the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and Arts. 

Number 11, University of Arkansas with Building & Earth Geotechnical, Environmental & Materials Engineers. This is for on-call geotech engineering services. These are the construction contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on those 1 through 11? Representative Cavenaugh. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this is– 

Senator Blake Johnson I don’t know what I did.

Representative Frances Cavenaugh This is really for staff. On item number 10, this morning we held until Friday U of A and Mathematics School. Does this contract need to be held also? I would like to include both of these to Friday until we figure out what’s going on in Peer also, if we can for those. 

Senator Blake Johnson Without objection, we’ll consider reviewed 1 through 9 and number 11. And hold number 10 until Friday, without objection. All right. We’ll go on to D4. 

Intergovernmental Contracts

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item D4, the intergovernmental contracts for your review today. There are four. Number 1 is a contract between the Department of Health and UAMS. This is an original contract valued at $549,000. This is for the UAMS Division of Family and Preventative Medicine to offer quality improvement and performance improvement support and expertise by participating in the AR Primary Care Registry, the state portal for the American Board of Family Medicine. 

Number 2 is with DHS Division of Medical Services, also with UAMS. This is for an extension and to revise performance indicators to continue the antenatal and neonatal guidelines, education and learning system and stroke assistance through virtual emergency support. Number 3 with UA Little Rock and ASU Jonesboro. 

3 and 4 are both between UA Little Rock and ASU Jonesboro. Both are original contracts, and both are for the provision of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center programs. This is federally funded through a grant from the US Small Business Administration. And this is for the provision of entrepreneurial and small business services within two geographic territories. These are the intergovernmental contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on D4? Any of those four? Seeing none, without objection, those are reviewed. Go to D5, out of state contracts. 

Out of State Contracts

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Contracts for out-of-state contracts begin on item D, page 14. There are 24 contracts in this section. Number 1 is with the Public Service Commission with Daymark Energy Advisors. This is amending an existing contract for analysis and evaluation of the technical and economic issues related to the utility industry. 

Number 2 is with Department of Commerce, AEDC. They’re amending an existing contract with the Boston Consulting Group. And this increases this contract by $29.7 million and is for the execution of the BEAD program and support of ARConnect, which is the broadband program. 

Number 3, Department of Corrections with WellPath. This is amendment 2 to the existing contract. And this changes the scope of the contract to add specialized care for female offenders housed at the Women’s Health Unit. 

Number 4, Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality, with Deloitte Consulting. This is an original contract for services related to the E&E Mining Reclamation program. 

Number 5, Department of Energy Environment, Oil and Gas Commission, also with Deloitte Consulting. This is to execute the Davis Bacon Compliance Monitoring Program to monitor contractor and subcontractor wages throughout the state. 

On the next page, contract number 6 with Department of Health and Information Management Services. This amends an existing contract for hosting and maintenance services for the SEER DMS, which stands for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Database Management System. And this is for the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry. 

Number 7 with Department of Health. This is an existing contract amended for WESTAT Incorporated. This is for services relating to continue the certified tumor registry, quality assurance services, and the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry. 

Number 8, DHS DCFS with Evident Change. This is an amendment to an existing contract to provide and to continue quality improvement reviews of cases. Number 9, DHS DDS with EGA Associates. This is for Psychological Examiner Services for the Conway Human Development Center. 

Number 10, DHS DDS with Samaritan Integrative. This is Amendment 4 for an existing contract for psychiatric services at the Arkadelphia Human Development Center. On the next page, number 11, DHS DMS with Keystone Peer Review Organization. This is a new contract. It is a special procurement. So you will find in your packet the yellow letters. There is a letter from OSP describing the reason for this special procurement. And this is to administer prior authorization and retrospective review services for behavioral health developmental disabilities in aging and adult Medicaid population statewide. 

Number 12, Department of the Military with SHI International Corp. This is for Info-Tech Research Group services relating to IT research, advisory services, and diagnostic tools to support IT leadership. Number 13, DTSS Building Authority with Republic Services. This amends an existing contract for waste disposal services. 

Number 14, DTSS with the Building Authority. This contract is with S&S Management. It amends an existing contract for unarmed guard services at the three division of building authority locations in Little Rock. 

Number 15, DTSS with DIS with Ondaro LLC. This is an original contract, and it is for the state Office of Technology to have a multi-phased implementation of the ServiceNow Enterprise platform for cabinet level executive branch departments. And it is related to digital transformation for state agencies. 

Number 16, Southeast Arkansas College with Bernhard MCC LLC. This is for energy cost reduction measures at the college. On the next page, number 17, DDSSA with Trinity Tree. This is a $298,000 original contract for medical consultant services for the agency. 

Number 18, University of Arkansas with Carahsoft. This is an original contract for $914,000. This is for the facilitation of the budget development process as well as the creation of forecasting and commitment models for U of A. 

Number 19, University of Arkansas with Presidio Network Solutions. This is a $1 million contract for the UA Fayetteville Wireless Network Refresh Project. Number 20, University of Arkansas with PTO Inc. DBA PTO Exchange. This is to allow U of A to access a self-service service portal relating to the administration of the university’s leave exchange program established by Board Policy 420.8. 

Number 21, University of Arkansas with VIA TRM. This is an original contract to provide a platform to facilitate and manage as well as provide oversight and compliance for the study abroad participants and international students visiting scholars. Number 22, U of A with VIP Special Services. This is amending an existing contract for window washing at the University of Arkansas. 

Number 23, UA Little Rock with Jeffry Skiba. This is a new contract for $50,000, and this gentleman will provide guidance to the UA Little Rock Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Services, so just providing professional oversight services for this integration. Number 24, UAPB with Ecolab. This is for pest control services to the university. These are the out of state contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Richardson. 

Representative Scott Richardson Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. I just would like to talk to someone with the Office of State Technology, number 15. 

Jay Harton Jay Harton, director of Office of State Technology and State Chief Information Officer. 

James Caldwell James Caldwell, CFO, Shared Administrative Services. 

Representative Scott Richardson Thank you two for being here. Nice to see you again, Jay. So my question really revolves around a couple of different pieces. I did notice that this contract is still in a Division of Information Systems as opposed to a State Office of State Technology, rather. So is this ongoing? I know we’ve talked about it several times, and I’m just sort of looking for where we are in this. Is this finished or just starting or–?

Jay Harton No, this is just starting. So this is taking us from our existing ITSM, our IT service management tool, that is the end of life of December 2026. So this will be the implementation of service now to replace that. 

Representative Scott Richardson So this is a full rework of the existing environment? 

Jay Harton Correct. 

Representative Scott Richardson And we’re just at the beginning stages. So this contract is for the full amount?

Jay Harton Yes. 

Representative Scott Richardson And Service Now is doing the implementation or a third party? 

Jay Harton Third party. We did an RFP and Ondaro scored the highest on that. 

Representative Scott Richardson So how long is this contract expected to go? 

Jay Harton We’re hoping to have it– well, so we’re going to do it in phases. So the ITSM module, which is the primary module that goes out of support in December of 2026, we should be completed with that by May of 2026. And then the next phase will also include the cybersecurity governance risk and compliance module along with the strategic portfolio management piece. 

Representative Scott Richardson Okay. Good. And then overall, the entire contract, you expect to complete by–? 

Jay Harton At the end of December 2026. 

Representative Scott Richardson 2026. Fabulous. Okay, thank you very much. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Cavenaugh.  

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is going to be for the Department of Commerce on item number 2, broadband. 

Senator Blake Johnson Introduce yourselves and you’re recognized.

Allison Hatfield Good afternoon. Allison Hatfield, chief of staff, Commerce. 

Glen Howie Glen Howie, State Broadband Director. 

State Broadband Coverage Update

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank y’all for being here. We’re asking to increase this by almost $30 million. I’m up here. Prior, it was 8.8 million, almost 8.9 million. Why such a substantial increase? 

Glen Howie Yeah, thank you, Representative. Great question. So the one year that we just ran through was 8.85 million. This is a 4-year term for this renewal/amendment. So it’ll be 4 years, so 8.85 for years one and year two, and then 6 for years three and years four. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh And what are you getting for this $30 million? 

Glen Howie Yeah, great question. Really, it’s structured around five different work streams over the four-year period. One is project oversight and grant management with our team, policy compliance at both the federal and state levels, enhanced technical assistance for our ISPs throughout the grant performance period, proactive risk mitigation and issue resolution, and, lastly, reporting and communications. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay. How much money have we spent on broadband in the state? 

Glen Howie Yeah, to date, if we take out the BEAD program, because we’re still working through that process right now, it’s over $500 million. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay. With the BEAD program, how much have we spent? 

Glen Howie The current preliminary grant selections in the BEAD program are 305 million, so totaling it would be over 800. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay, so we’re nearing a billion dollars. 

Glen Howie Almost. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh How much of the state is covered? 

Glen Howie As of today, there are 79,228 which are subject to our BEAD program. So at the high level, there’s about 1.36 million locations across the state, and the BEAD program itself is intended to take care of the last remaining locations. And there’s 79,228 that are part of the BEAD program that to date do not have broadband access and have not been issued a grant to date. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh How much of the state of Arkansas in percentage is covered with broadband service? 

Glen Howie What I would say is, because it’s a nuanced– and I know it seems like a very simple question, but it’s nuanced in that there’s over 200,000 locations that have been awarded a grant today that are not administered by our team. And so we don’t have insight into the exact construction timelines as far as getting things done on those other projects. But there’s less than 80,000 locations left that have not been built to and not had a grant yet, and those are the ones that are being taken care of in the BEAD program. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh They may be built to it, but how much of the state is not covered? I mean, bottom line is I want to know how much of the state is not covered by broadband because we’ve been throwing money at this now forever. And I understand we’ve had ability, we’ve had some opportunity, but I also understand we’ve had some trouble with providers. 

So my question is, we’re spending all this money, I can never get an answer whenever I ask this question because I repeatedly ask it: How much of the state of Arkansas is now covered with broadband service? Because I can tell you there’s some that’s not covered because it’s in my district. Okay. 

So that’s a question I want answered is how much of the state is covered, and I want to know how much money we’ve spent to get this state– I don’t care what program it is– how much money have we spent to get this coverage of broadband to the state? And what problems are we having with providers? Because I’m hearing that we’ve had to stop some of them because of issues with providers. 

And I want to know what guidelines that we’re doing that if we have a provider who is not doing what they’re supposed to do, how are we getting that money back from that provider? And are we going to have to spend money with another provider to finish up what that provider did not do? 

There’s a lot of issues going on in the broadband, and we’re not getting the full picture of what’s happening with that. So I guess I’m asking for transparency because there is none. And we’re spending $30 million with someone to help us with that. It’s mind boggling. So with that, Mr. Chair, I’m going to ask that we hold this to Friday so y’all can get that information together for me. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any other questions on number 2? No other questions. Representative Eubanks. 

Representative Jon Eubanks Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like us to hold contract number 1 with the Arkansas Public Service Commission. There’s a meeting this afternoon with Chairman Webb and I’d like to see what comes out of that meeting before we take action on this contract. 

Senator Blake Johnson All right. Let’s go on through and we’ll just put them all together. Representative Cavenaugh, do you have another? 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Yes, thank you, Mr Chair. My last question is for item number 16 with Southeast Arkansas College. 

Senator Blake Johnson Just whenever you get situated, just introduce yourself and let Representative Cavenaugh ask a question. 

Debbie Wallace Debbie Wallace. Debbie Wallace, Vice President for Fiscal Affairs, Southeast Arkansas College. 

Alison Huntrop Alison Hunthrop, purchasing specialist for Southeast Arkansas College. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank y’all. My question is this, and you may not be able to answer it, but if you can just get the information for me, is on this energy program, is there an amount that we’ve actually saved? Because that was one of the things this was going to do was going to help us recoup some energy cost. Is there anything that y’all have that shows how much we’ve been able to recoup or what you’ve been able to do? 

Debbie Wallace Thank you for the question. We have– that’s part of what we’re here today to continue with the measurement and verification part of the contract. And to date, I believe we’ve saved close to $86,000 over the last year in our energy cost. 

And I can share those reports with you if you would like. They do generate a report. I brought the last one that I have available with me today, but it shows a savings of $86,000 over the last. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh  Okay. I’m really looking for the cost over the whole project. So if you could get that information, that would be great because we started it in 22. So I’d kind of like to know how it’s been progressing now that we’ve had several years under our belt to see if we’re actually getting a return on the investment with them. 

Debbie Wallace Sure. We can get that to you. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh I appreciate it. Thank you. 

Debbie Wallace Thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any other questions on item 16? Seeing none, do you want to allow that one to go on or–? Okay. So we’re going to consider all reviewed except for 1 and 2, and we’ll hold those until Friday without objection. No objection. All items but 1 and 2 are reviewed. Go on to D6. 

In-state Contracts

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item D6 is on page 24 of your D packet. This is the in-state contracts for your review today. There are 17. The first one is Department of Corrections Division of Community Correction with Renew Life Center. This is for community-based treatment services for a 74-bed re-entry facility in Little Rock. 

Number 2, Department of Corrections Division of Community Correction with Wings to Recover. Also an existing contract for a 24-bed male re-entry facility located in El Dorado. Number 3, Department of Corrections Division of Correction with ARG Aviation. This is Amendment 8 to an existing contract for aerial application services for the East Arkansas Regional Farm.

On the next page, number 4, Department of Corrections Division of Correction with Methvin Sanitation. This is Amendment 7 to an existing contract for waste disposal services for the North Central Unit located at Calico Rock. 

Number 5, Department of Corrections Division of Correction with Waste Pro USA. This is Amendment 6 to an existing contract for waste disposal services in Newport, Arkansas, at the Grimes and McPherson units. 

Number 6, Department of Health with the Arkansas Hospital Association. This is a new contract. It is a sole source by justification. So you will see the letter in your yellow packet for Goldenrod. This new contract is for the office to allow the Office of Health Information Technology to access proprietary dashboards that utilize hospital discharge data for the purpose of data analysis. 

Number 7, DHS Division of County Operations with Arkansas Mailing Services. This amends an existing contract for mail processing services statewide for DCO. Number 8, DHS DDS with Alexander Tyler. This is Amendment 3 to an existing contract for the medical director position at the Conway Human Development Center. 

Number 9, DHS DDS with Ms. Karen A. Byers. This is Amendment 4 to an existing contract, and she will provide psychiatric services at the Conway Human Development Center. 

Number 10, Department of Public Safety, Arkansas State Police with HMO Partners. This amends and increases an existing contract. This increases the member count to 1,575 in this program. It also increases pricing from $52.70 to $54.80 for the Health Plan Administration program for state police. 

Number 11, DPS Division of Emergency Management with Compsys. This is a new contract. This goes with the ratification that you saw earlier. This is a new contract valued at $70,332. This is for IT support services for the Department of Emergency Management, including computer security, monitoring, support and maintenance, as well as Microsoft Exchange and Skype services for up to 220 users. 

Number 12, DTSS with Building Authority with International Business Machines. This is for the implementation of the Maximo Real Estate and Facilities Management System and Related Software. Number 13, University of Arkansas with Cushman and Wakefield. This is Amendment 1 to an existing contract for real estate advisory services for the university. 

Number 14, UA Little Rock with Mangan Holcomb Partners. This is Amendment 7 to an existing contract. And this is for Mangan Holcomb to provide all kinds of public relations and marketing services, including graphic design, video and radio commercial production, copywriting, editing, media buying, broadcast, print, digital, outdoor, etc. 

That takes us over to item D, page 31, UA Little Rock with Southern Lawn Services. This is for landscaping services at the UA Little Rock campus. Number 16 with UAMS and Miracle Window Cleaning. This is an original contract for window cleaning services at multiple locations on the UA campus. 

And number 17 with the University of Central Arkansas with Startup Junkie, also known as The Conductor. This is an original contract for $495,000 to become UCA’s strategic partner for innovation and entrepreneurship. Deliverables will include technology transfer and innovation ecosystem development, programming and events, applied learning, and a student pipeline development for faculty, staff, and community impact building. These are the in state contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on those 16 items under D6? Seeing no questions, without objection, those are reviewed. Go to E1. Yeah. Let’s go to other business under F1. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are four items under other business for your review today. The first one is a member disclosure that we received from Arkansas Development Finance Finance Authority. This disclosure was submitted on behalf of Senator Jim Petty. Senator Petty has partial ownership in a construction company that is currently working on a project called Patriot Park in Fayetteville. 

This project is ongoing, and so the length of the project has been extended, and so we will continue to see disclosures as long as his interest in that project construction continues. The project has been delayed due to heavy rain and bad weather, and so we are receiving this disclosure again just stating his involvement in the project. This is the member disclosure, Mr. Chair, for approval. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions? All right. Like a motion for approval. Accept a motion for approval. Representative Ladyman. Second. Second by Representative Ferguson. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you. Let’s go on to 2 under F. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Next is item F2. This is a vehicle lease approval request from Black River Technical College. You’ll see on item F2, page 2, they submitted a letter to the committee. 

They state that they have received a federal grant valued at $1.6 million, and they hope with this federal grant to lease two 15-passenger transit vans over the course of 2 to 3 years, and they will use those vans to bus students from local school districts around to their career and technical center for those students to receive training. So they are requesting your approval of their motor lease of those two vans. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any question on F2? Seeing none, accept a motion. Motion by Representative Ladyman, second by Representative Ferguson. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you, members. Go to F3. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. F3 are some additional discretionary grants that we added to our agenda. They are from the Arkansas Arts Council. These are the arts council grants that you all see every year from the Division of Heritage. And you will find a schedule of all of the grants, including the area served, the amount requested, and the amount awarded. 

These grants are funded through general revenues, special revenue, and conservation tax funding. And the total award for this year is on page 8 of 8 or item F3, page 9. And the amount awarded is $1.1 million for the year. And there’s a number of them also at the end that are federally funded. These are the Arts Council grants for your review today, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Cavenaugh. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank you, Mr Chair. Is there someone from the Arts Council here? 

Marty Ryall Marty Ryall, Director of the Division of Heritage. 

Brazier Watts Brazier Watts, Acting Director of the Arts Council. 

Lack of Arts Grants in NE Arkansas

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank you for being here. My question is, when I look through this, when I’m going to look at Northeast Arkansas, there’s one grant for Northeast Arkansas. And I think we’ve had this question numerous times, and we’ve spoken about this, is that, these grants don’t seem to go equally to all parts of the state. 

And I understand there’s bigger populations in some area, but what is the Art Council doing to reach out to these underserved areas and making sure organizations know that they can apply for these grants? Because it’s been an ongoing battle as long as I’ve been here. 

I mean, it’s pretty bad when Northeast Arkansas gets one grant. One for $18,000. If I went and added up how much Northwest got, or Central Arkansas got, it’s a lot more. And although we might not be Northwest Arkansas and we might not be Central, but we do have some arts up there. And so does the South Arkansas and there’s no representation there. 

So I guess I get a little frustrated when this comes to us every time because it’s the same outcome every time. I mean, what do we need to do to make sure these organizations in other parts of the state are allowed to get some of this money? Because it’s their tax dollars you’re using. 

Marty Ryall Yes, ma’am. And I know we’ve had this– sorry. You’d think as many times I’ve been up here, I’d know to push that button. Sorry about that. We’ve had that discussion. And it was a couple of years ago that we implemented where we have teams in the Arts Council go out into rural areas and conduct sessions to try to get more involvement. Brazier, I don’t know if you can or elaborate on that, but I know that’s a program that we implemented a couple of years ago. 

Brazier Watts Yes, so we did implement our Lunch and Learn series programs that’s part of our Get Smart series that we go out into these communities that we’ve already targeted that we have low interest, it seems, in our grant opportunities. Of course, our grant opportunities are open to everyone, but we do have low interest in areas. 

And so we have started touring those areas as a group, introducing those areas to our grant offerings and to what we do as the Arkansas Arts Council. Some areas are not as familiar with us and what we offer. And so we’ve been going actually into those communities. And we have had some results in some of the areas. But yes, of course, we still have a lot of grant action coming from Northwest Arkansas. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh So what communities have you gone out to and did outreach to and say, Hey, we have these opportunities available for you? 

Brazier Watts This particular year we specifically targeted Southeast when we also specifically targeted the Delta area. And so, oh, my goodness, we’ve gone from Marion to Helena to several cities in those areas. And we’ve had good attendance, but we still haven’t had as much action as we would love for people to actually apply. 

We are going to attempt to follow a model that we have been studying out of Ohio, where they not only specifically go in and do workshops, but they target the mayors and elected officials in those areas to kind of help connect us with the right community leaders and individuals that would really apply for those groups. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh You know, from being from Northeast Arkansas and being involved in the arts community up there, I’m telling you there’s a lot more in northeast Arkansas than the Foundation of Arts. I’m not being disparaging of the Foundation of Arts. I’m glad they’re there. We got a granddaughter doing Nutcracker with them. 

But there’s a lot more opportunity there. But nobody ever reaches out to these nonprofits and lets them know that this ability’s out there. And we seem to give these grants to these same organizations year after year after year. And we’re not making any progress into getting it to other parts. 

And so that’s something I really want to urge you to do is because you’re using Northeast Arkansas’ money and we’re not getting it back. And it needs to go back to Northeast Arkansas because we need the assistance as much as Northwest Arkansas does, probably more so in the Delta, more so in part of the rural part of Arkansas than Northwest has. 

They have the ability to raise money up there where the more rural parts of the area do not. And so I really urge you to find a way that you have a more diverse group that you’re giving these grants to because it’s the same ones over and over and over. And I appreciate it. Thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson I’ll add to that. In a lot of the small areas, the school does that. The rural schools will do a lot of that training in arts and then it bleeds over into the community and then you’ll create a foundation or something like that. So it may be something where you can touch in the school systems in rural Arkansas and South Arkansas and northeast Arkansas. So that might be a good place to where, if there is something in place in the community, the schools have that knowledge because that’s the first place your kids are going to be introduced to art programming. 

Marty Ryall Yes, Senator. Since the last year, the focus on the Delta, we’ll make a point this coming year to make sure we get up to northeast Arkansas and provide some of these lunch and learn educational activities up there to get more activity up there. 

Senator Blake Johnson I just think the school is a good place, whenever you’re going into the community to have the invitation go out to administrators and things like that. Thank y’all. 

Brazier Watts Thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any other questions? Seeing none, on F3, without objection– or do we need a motion on that? Without objection, we’ll consider that taken care of. F4. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. F4 is an alternative delivery method construction project that was added after the agenda was posted to the web. This is from the University of Central Arkansas. It is a campus district loop and hydronics refresh project. That’s the name of the project. 

The description states they want to spend up to $10 million using capital reserves for the construction of a new North Chiller plant and upgrade to the existing South Chiller plant at the University of Central Arkansas campus. They have chosen Kinko construction as their contractor. The design professional is AMR architects, and they estimate they will complete this project in June of 2027. This is the alternative delivery method construction project, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any question? Seeing none, without objection, that’ll be approved. Item E is the reports. Give you a minute to review those reports. Any questions on E? Seeing none, without objection, we’ll consider those approved or reviewed. Any other business to come before the committee? We are adjourned.