ALC Review: Aug. 12, 2025

Various Contracts

Senator Blake Johnson If everybody could get to their seats. ALC Review Subcommittee will come to order. So we’re going to begin. You got anything? Okay, so we got some stuff on the supplemental agenda. If I could get a motion to suspend– motion. And second. All in favor say aye. All opposed, like sign. Okay, we will take those in order in the calendar. So if you want to begin with the– we need to do B1 through 12. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, members. Katie Walden, Bureau of Legislative Research. Members, I do want to bring to your attention before we begin with the regular review Items, there is an Item A1. This is for the committee’s information only. This is the emergency action report. There were a few items that were found in July that needed to be reviewed in July. And so the chairs of this subcommittee and Legislative Council went ahead and approved those Items that were deemed to have immediate need. 

So that report is the first thing in this packet for your information only. On Item B, we have methods of finance. You’ll see in your packet, there is a letter from DFA Accounting stating the projects that are submitted this month for review. There are also two more that are added in the supplemental agenda. So I’ll review those for you now. Those are summarized on Item B Page 2. 

First, from ASU Beebe, they have a new MOF for $321,000 using institutional reserves for a Heber Springs boiler replacement. Number 2, also with ASU Beebe, this is adding funds to an existing method of finance using hired grant funding and university reserves for a precision agriculture training center construction. 

Number 3, with Arkansas Tech University, this is a new MOF for $3 million using facilities repair and renovation reserves for various auxiliary improvements around campus. Number 4, also with Arkansas Tech, this is another $3 million MOF using the same funding stream for educational and general improvements around their campus. Flipping to B, Page 3, we have number 5 with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. This is a $5 million MOF using reserve funding for minor repairs, including HVAC system repairs, roof replacements, and facade maintenance, among other things. 

Number 6 with UAMS. This is new MOF, using 100% university reserves for installing general electric equipment and preparing room for CT installation. Number 7, also with UAMS, this is also a new MOF for $380,000 using foundation funding for the Northwest Arkansas Schmeiding Center modifications. Number 8 with UAMS, this is a new MOF for new CT equipment. They’ve allocated $547,000 of university reserves. Number 9 with UAMS, this is a new MOF for $326,000 for a patient room roof garden installation. And this is funded with a private donation. 

Number 10 with UA Monticello, this is the new MOF valued at $1.2 million using private gift funding for the Steelman Fieldhouse renovation. Flipping to B4, we have project number 11 with UA Pulaski Tech. This is a new MOF for $425,000 using federal ARPA funds from a skills development grant for the Energy Simulation Lab. Number 12 with UA Pulaski Tech, this is revising an existing MOF using plant funds and foundation funding for the Grand Hall and Bistro Cafe renovation. 

And moving to your supplemental agenda packet, which is on the backside of your packet behind the golden rod sheet packet, you’ll find the other two methods of finance. And those are detailed on Page 4 of your supplemental agenda packet in the same manner as the other MOFs. The first supplemental project is with ASU Jonesboro. They’re revising an existing MOF for miscellaneous deferred maintenance on the president’s home using institutional reserves. And finally, there’s another MOF with UAMS also for deferred maintenance and minor projects. This is a new MOF valued at $7 million using university reserves. These are the methods of finance, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions from B1 through B12 or the two on the supplemental agenda? I’d take a motion to review those items. Motion by Senator McKee. Second by Representative Painter. All in favor say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you. We’ll go on to discretionary grants under C. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. C1 is the first section of grants submitted for your review this month. There are six discretionary grants from the Department of Health. The first one is with the Minority Health Commission with the Arkansas Human Development Corp. This is a state grant for Hispanic and Latin American populations health fairs, public forums, and awareness events throughout the year. 

Number 2, also with Minority Health. This is a state grant valued at $100,000 for community health workers for the purpose of health screenings, education, and outreach. Number 3 with Department of Health with their chronic disease division, there’s a grant for the Arkansas Cancer Coalition. This is a federal grant for implementing the state’s cancer plan. Moving to Item C, Page 2, Number 4 is with Department of Health and Stroudwater Associates. This is the federal grant for critical access hospitals and provider-based rural health clinics. 

Number 5, Department of Health with Philander Smith University. This $225,000 federal grant is for peer recovery support services in higher education. Number 6, Department of Health, is the NWA Crisis Intervention Center. This is a $200,000 dollar federal grant for evidence-based suicide prevention training throughout the state. Those are the grants for Department of Health. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any question on those six under the Department of Health? Representative Ladyman, you got a question? Seeing none, we’ll move on and do them all in one, if there’s no–

Katie Walden The next Page, Item C, Page 3. There are two DHS grants for your review this month. The first is with the Division of Aging, Adults, and Behavioral Health. This grant is going to Bridging the Gap of Arkansas. This is a federal grant for $342,000, and this is to operate their Partnership for Success program. This includes substance misuse prevention and mental health program services in a protected service area. 

Number 2, also the Division of Aging Adults and Behavioral Health, this grant goes to Family-Centered Treatment Foundation. It’s a $1 million federal grant, and it provides intensive in-home services to families going through addiction recovery. So those are the two grants for DHS this month. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions on C2? Seating none, going to C3.

Katie Walden On the next Page, C3, this grant is with UA Pine Bluff with the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program. This is actually a grant fund that was previously approved last month, but the agency has decided to award the grant to a different vendor, so they have resubmitted the grant proposal with the new selected vendor, Arts Absolutely. This is a $67,000 grant using Master Settlement Agreement dollars. And this is for coalitions to educate youth about tobacco use, the effects of secondhand smoke, and health disparities. So that’s the prevention cessation grant. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any question on any of those? Seeing none, let’s go on to discretionary grants, C4. 

Katie Walden C4 is on Page 5 of the C packet. These are the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program grants for the year. Funding is derived from real estate transfer tax funding. And these are the eligible awardees for the year. You can see there’s a list. And these were all projects that were submitted and approved by AHPP for various renovation and restoration projects around the state. There are 10 projects that are approved for this fiscal year. And you can see the list there for your reference. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions on C4? Seeing none, any questions on any of the Items C1 through C4? Seeing none, take a motion to review those discretionary grants. Motion and second by Representative Ferguson. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you, let’s go on to D. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving to the contract section of your agenda for this month, beginning in Item D, you’ll see a cover letter from the OSP Director, Ms. Jessica Patterson. As you see each month in this letter, she outlines that all of the contracts that are submitted for review this month were reviewed by her office and deemed to be sound and legally procured. She also notes in her letter that there are two ratification requests, which I’ll go over with you in detail here in a moment. And then finally in the letter you’ll see they call out, as requested by the Legislative Council, they call out the contracts that were procured and the traditional rfp method or the most advantageous proposal method. 

So under Item D1, we have the two ratification requests that are made for this month. The first one is with the Department of Health. They are requesting for the ratification of an expense that was made to a company called Gainwell Technologies in the amount of $310,000. Apparently there was a miscommunication about or delay in communication about the proper procurement method for which this agency or the company should be funded. 

The Department of Health requested that this contract be deemed sole source as provided in law, which requires a different procurement method. But upon review of the forms that were filled out by the Department of Health, the Office of State Procurement decided that it should be procured normally. However, the vendor was allowed to go ahead and begin work while this determination was being made. 

And so they do have one set of outstanding payments that need to be ratified today and they’ve listed that here in the letter. Also when we get into the contracts, you’ll see a new contract for this vendor. And this vendor provides for the online administration of the state WIC program for women and children. So that’s the first ratification for your review. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions on that ratification for review? Senator Hester. Hang on. Nothing? Okay.

UA Fort Smith contract oversight

Katie Walden The second ratification for your review today is with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. This is a vendor that they have been using for marketing strategies and services. That contract was inadvertently allowed to expire, but the vendor has continued to do work and has some outstanding expenses and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith would like to renew this contract for one final year. And so they have requested for a ratification of these services and to allow the vendor to continue in the last year of the contract. That’s the second ratification today. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on that ratification? Representative Cavenaugh. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Can I have that university come down please? 

Carey Tucker Carey Tucker, I’m the Vice Chancellor for Finance Administration at UA Fort Smith. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Thank you. I’m up here. I’m a chair, up here. All right. My question is you actually let this act contract go unnoticed that it was expired. How did that happen? 

Carey Tucker Ma’am, it was overlooked on our part. It was a mistake that we made. And I don’t have a good explanation, so I’m not going to lie to you. It was just a mistake we made on our part. We found the mistake and we’re trying to ratify that right now. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh And how long did it expire? 

Carey Tucker June 30th. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh You didn’t have any processes letting you know that this contract was expired and that you should have gone through the process to renew?

Carey Tucker We didn’t then. We do now. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay, can I ask why, as a state agency in a school, that you don’t have a process in place to know when your contracts expire? 

Carey Tucker Ma’am, I don’t have a good excuse for you. We had a lot going on. I’ve got fairly new people in some positions, and that was just one that went through. So in going through what we did wrong, we are making sure that we’re going to– in March, we’re going to have a meeting and go over every contract that we have to make sure that we don’t let this happen again. 

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay. And are there any other contracts that have gone through unnoticed that are expired or is this the only one? 

Carey Tucker This is the only one I’m aware of, ma’am.

Representative Frances Cavenaugh Okay, thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Are there any other questions? Seeing none, go on to OSP request for approvals. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item D2 in your packet begins on– and we have all of the Pages numbered for Item D in your bottom left-hand corner of each Page. So Item D, Page 6 begins the RFQ requests. There are two for you this month. The first one is with the Board of Nursing, and it is to contract with someone to conduct investigations regarding allegations of violating the Nurse Practice Act. The second one is on Page D8. Is with DHS. This RFQ is for intensive in-home services and transition support for young adult services. Those are the two RFQs for your review this month. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on RFQs? Seeing none, go on to construction related contracts. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. The construction contracts begin on Page 11 of your D packet, and I want to make a note for the committee. This morning, the Office of State Procurement contacted me, and they wanted to let us know that they are pulling contract number 1, which is with Division of Community Correction from consideration. They want to do some more work on this contract, so they’ve removed it from your review today. 

So beginning with Item 2. This contract is with the Division of Correction with McClelland Engineers. This is for on-call engineering services. And I did ask just on behalf of the committee of the correction staff if this was related to the construction of the new facility. And they stated that no, this is an ongoing on-call engineering contract that they have used and will continue to use just generally. So that’s for your information today. 

Number 3 through number 5 are all contracts with DHS with various engineering companies for on-call engineering design services. Item D, Page 13, number 6 is a contract with the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism with Allison & Partners. This is an amendment to an existing contract for improvements to the Delta Heritage Trail State Park and Pinnacle Mountain Visitor Center.

 Number 7 with Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, this contract is with Crafton Tull. It’s amending an existing contract for services for the Pinnacle Mountain State Park Highway 300 crossing study. Number 8, also Department of Park with Crafton Tull, this is amending an existing contract for services provided at Petit Jean State Park. Number 9, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Halff Associates. This amends an existing contact for services at Mount Magazine and Mount Nebo State Park. 

That gets us over to D, Page 16, Contract number 10, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, also with Halff Associates. This is amendment number 5 to an existing contract for the expansion of the campground at Crowley’s Ridge. Number 11 with Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with McClelland Consulting Engineers. This is Amendment 17 to an existent contract for services related to the Lake Catherine Marina and Lake Chicot Woodlands Trail. 

That takes us over to Item D, Page 18, Number 12, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Sno-Engineering. This amendment is related to services provided at the Mena Trails at the Queen Wilhelmina State Park. Number 13, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Tar & A. This is amendment 8 to an existing contract for improvements at the Petit Jean State Park Lodge. Number 14, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Taylor Kempke’s Architects. This is for services provided for the DeGray Lodge improvements, among others. 

On Page D20, you’ll see Item 15 with Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with Witsell Evans Rasco. This is for the Petit Jean State Park Museum of Automobiles roof replacement. On the next Page, we begin contracts with the University of Arkansas. The first one is with Bell Construction Company, and this is a new original contract for 1.6 million for the construction of a maintenance building and a wood shop on the ASMSA campus in Hot Springs. 

Number 17 with the University of Arkansas with Core Architects, this is for a development of a plan for a new zone-based parking system on campus. Number 18 with the University of Arkansas with Seale’s Construction Company. This is an original contract for the Little Pine parking lot and stairwell renovations in the academic building, also at ASMSA. Number 19 is with UA Litter Rock with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, this is a new original contract for the speech building renovation, among other projects at the UA Little Rock campus. These are the construction contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions on those 18 with that one pulled? Seeing no questions, Senator Love. 

Prison engineering on-call contract: Senator Love

Senator Fredrick Love Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to go back to the contract number 2 for the Division of Corrections. As I understand it, and I’m glad that you, staff did make the clarification that McClelland Consulting has nothing to do with the new facility being constructed. That means that McCelland is not doing anything on any of those projects at all, nothing to do.

Katie Walden We were told that this specific contract with McClelland is only related to ongoing on-call engineering services.

Senator Fredrick Love Has McClelland done any work there? If we can, Mr. Chair, if we can get the–

Senator Blake Johnson Corrections. Somebody with Corrections. Just introduce yourself and you’re recognized to answer the question. 

Chad Brown Chad Brown, Department of Corrections. Representative, I’m not going to say we’re not going to use McClelland for the new facility, but this on call is not for that. If we decide to use them for something that requires us to come back to you, then we’re definitely going to do that. So we’re trying to be transparent with our contracts. 

Senator Fredrick Love Okay, so, all right, so here’s what I’m hearing you say, because if this is on call and this is open, that means you all can pull McClelland to do work. Correct me if I’m wrong. 

Chad Brown That’s correct. 

Senator Fredrick Love Okay, do you all plan on using McClelland at all? 

Chad Brown I don’t have an answer for that. I’ll have to get with our maintenance construction department and get you those details, which I can do that. 

Senator Fredrick Love OK, can you get that before Friday? 

Chad Brown Sure. 

Senator Fredrick Love OK, thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any other questions from the department? Senator Tucker. 

Senator Clarke Tucker Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe a different way of asking the same question is: Is the department committed to not using any money from this contract on a Franklin County facility? 

Chad Brown Senator, I’m not sure I can answer that question at this moment in time, but let me go back and talk with leadership of the department and I can get you a better answer. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Mark Johnson. 

Senator Mark Johnson Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is for State Parks. 

Senator Blake Johnson There’s nobody else in the queue, so Parks can come up. All introduce themselves and then Senator Johnson can–

Marty Ryall Morty Ryall, Director of Legislative Affairs, Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. 

Jeff King Jeff King, Deputy Director for the Division of State Parks. 

Chris Meyers Chris Meyers, Manager of Planning and Development for State Parks. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Johnson, you’re recognized.

Senator Mark Johnson Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you for coming down here. I hope this is an easy one, quick. I’m always real observant of anything to do with Petit Jean. It’s no longer my district, but I get calls for it and I’m big time, it’s the jewel of the system. The Museum of Automobiles is another jewel of our state. 

A lot of people don’t think about it anymore, but it was brought to my attention by Will Rockefeller that there were roof problems. He was very concerned about it. And, of course, it was founded by his grandfather. And I’m just wondering, the Witsell Evans Rasco, where are they in solving the roof problem at the Museum of Automobiles?

Chris Meyers This amendment is adding that project to their contract. They just did a full facility review and this is the primary project to start with. So this is adding it to their contracts so we can begin design. 

Senator Mark Johnson Well, that answers my question. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any other members have questions for Tourism? Seeing none, thank you gentlemen. Go to the Intergovernmental Contracts, D4. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. The intergovernmental contracts begin on D23. Number 1 is with the Economic Development Commission with the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. This is for the World Trade Center of Arkansas expenses. Amendment 3 to an existing contract. 

Number 2 is with Division of Workforce Services, the Department of Commerce with the U of A Fayetteville. This is a new original contract for career counseling information and referral services. Number 3, Department of Health with UAMS. This is new original contracts funded with Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement dollars to begin a preventative health residency at UAMS. 

Number 4, Department of Health with UAMS. This is amendment 5 to an existing contract for mobile mammography services. Number 5 , DHS with UA Little Rock. This is Amendment 5 to existing contract for evidence-based trainings across the state, as well as a Mid-South Summer School Conference for Training for Behavioral Health. Number 6, on Item D, Page 26, DHS with U of A Little Rock. This is amendment 3 to an existing contract to extend a substance abuse block grant program. 

Number 7, DHS with University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This is amendment 6 to existing contract for the revision of performance indicators for adult female victims of domestic abuse in their children. Number 8 with DHS and UAMS, this is Amendment 2 to an existing contract to continue the operation of the Poison Control Drug Information Center. Number 9 with Arkansas State Police, this contract is with U of A Fayetteville, and this is for a highway safety survey. These are the intergovernmental contracts. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any questions of those nine under D4? 

Senator Terry Rice Mr. Chair, it’s not for D4. I’m sorry I didn’t hear you call for D3 reviewed. Were you just going to go on through?

Senator Blake Johnson I’m going to go through and–

Senator Terry Rice Okay, I do have something on a D3 I want to make a motion on. 

Senator Blake Johnson Anything on the D4? Seeing nothing, Representative Richardson. 

Representative Jay Richardson Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On this number 5, what’s this evidence base? Can you give some more information on that? Or maybe the– 

Senator Blake Johnson Department of Human Services? Is there anyone? There she comes. Introduce yourself and let Representative Richardson ask his question. 

Paula Stone Good afternoon, I’m Paula Stone. I’m with the Department of Human Service, Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. 

Representative Jay Richardson So could you just walk me through what this evidence-based training looks like? 

Paula Stone Yes, sir. For licensed counselors out in the field, we have to have continued education training. And so we have counselors out there that are providing substance abuse treatment services through this contract. And so, we’ve changed the contract a bit to make those services, those training services more accessible. We used to do an in Little Rock, all day, three day training. And so now we’ve moved to something that trains people how to do substance abuse interventions and different kinds of techniques to provide those counseling services. And we’ve moved that to two one-day online trainings that can be in person, some on demand trainings that are virtual and then two different six-hour trainings in Little Rock. But all of this is to train the people who are providing services to Arkansans who are seeking those services. 

Representative Jay Richardson So it went from a three-day training to multiple days and online. 

Paula Stone Yeah, we wanted to make that more accessible. It’s hard for counselors to come in from providing the services that they were and then spending three days in Little Rock. So we wanted it to make them more accessible. 

Representative Jay Richardson Okay, thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Is there any other questions? Seeing none, thank you very much. You’re dismissed. Go on to D5, the out of state contracts. 

Katie Walden Thank you Mr. Chair, moving to D29. This begins the out of state contracts. There are 34 out of state contracts for your review today. The first one is with Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System. This is a new original contract with Bank of America for banking services. And you’ll note that this is a special procurement and it’s a new original contract, so we always provide more documentation for your view. All that is provided in this golden rod packet. And I’ve listed them in order of the contract. 

So the first two, first three pages are the justification paperwork for this contract. Number 2 is with the Public Service Commission with Vantage Point Solutions. This amends an existing contract for the administration of the Arkansas High Cost Fund and the Extension of Telecommunications Facilities Fund. Number 3 with ASU and Honorlock. This is a new original contract for cloud-based test proctoring services for ASU. 

Number 4, Arkansas Tech University with Birdsall, Voss, and Associates. This is Amendment 1 to an existing contract for a multi-year strategic marketing campaign. This is designed to increase enrollment and brand awareness for ATU. Number 5, Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Commission with Northbridge Group Incorporated. This is amendment 3 to an existing contract for the engineering portion of the Clean Water Survey. Number 6, AEDC with Retail Strategies. This is amendment 1 to an existing contract for retail recruitment consulting services. 

Number 7, with Department of Corrections with CGL Management Services / JFA Associates. This is to increase funding for this contractor to provide an FY26 prison population projection, as well as they are expanding the scope of work for this provider to include a comprehensive study of the classification systems for all DOC facilities in conjunction with the Sentencing Commission. You all may have heard this was discussed in the meeting yesterday, reevaluation of the scoring system and the allocation of people who are receiving the Department of Corrections services. So this is related to that reevaluation study. 

Number 8 with Department of Corrections with WellPath. This contract is carried forward from last month. They’re requesting to change the scope of work of this contract. It’s exactly what you saw last month that was held. This is to right size the contract with the number of facilities and people who are being served within the Department of Corrections for Health Services. Number 9 with the Division of Environmental Quality with 2KB Energy Services. This is an original contract for a consultant to review and analyze documentation submitted by the energy service companies for the Energy Performance Contracting Program. 

Number 10, with ADEQ with Windsor Solutions. This is for a technological solution that will allow ADEE to fully support regulatory programs. This includes an online portal for the LIHEAP and Weatherization Assistance Program. Number 11 is with DFA Management Services. This is a contract with Computer Aid Incorporated. This amendment is to augment the staff to maintain the DFA IT systems. 

Number 12, Department of Health with Gainwell Technologies.You’re going to see two Items here, 12 and 13, will go together. Number 12 is the ratification that you all saw in the letter earlier for the $310,000. So this is to allow Department of Health to pay their outstanding invoices to GainWell Technologies for the services they provide for the WIC program. Then number 13 with the Department of Health is a new original contract also with GainWell Technologies and this is a sole source by justification so you’ll see the paperwork for this contract also provided in the golden Packet on Page 4 through 6. 

Number 14 is with Department of Health, Vital Interaction Incorporated. This is to allow for an online system to allow two-way email and short message services and voice response communications for patients. Number 15 is DHS with Computer Aid. This is to continue information technologies infrastructure support for DHS. Number 16 is with DHS and Deloitte Consulting. This is a $64 million original contract. And this is to administer information support services department-wide with DHS. You all see this is an original contract, but the agency has used this vendor in the past. And so they’re re-contracting with this vendor for the same purpose. 

Number 17 is DHS Division of Aging, Adults, and Behavioral Health with the Southwest Call Center. This is for telephone answering services. DHS DDS with Samaritan Integrative Solutions. This is to extend and add funding for psychiatric services for patients of the Southeast Arkansas Human Development Center. Number 19 is DHS with Milliman Incorporated and this is for actuarial services, including analyses of new and existing programs, Medicaid waiver assistance, rate development and verification, among other things. 

Number 20 is with DHS, Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance with public partnerships. This is to expand the scope of work, to provide counseling and financial management services for self-directed and independent choices programs. Number 21 and 22 are both with Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism with two vendors. They’re contracting with these vendors to provide for natural area vegetation management and plant community monitoring at the 18 natural areas across the state for the calendar year. The other vendor is the Nature Conservancy. 

Item 23 is with the State Crime Lab and National Medical Services. This is for comprehensive testing and identification of major drugs of abuse in post-mortem blood samples. Number 24 is Department of Veterans Affairs with Alpha Medical Laboratory. This is a new original contract and this is medical lab services, phlebotomy and courier services for the two veterans homes in the state. This is also one of our special procurements that’s in the golden rod packet. Number 25 is with the University of Arkansas with Campus Guard. This is an original contract for online security services and monitoring. 

Number 26, U of A with Choice Energy Services Retail. This is amendment to an existing contract and it’s for broker and consultant services for the U of a Fayetteville to help them with gas procurement. Number 27, University of Arkansas with Cornerstone Government Affairs. This amends an existing contact to add funding for the consultation services and expertise to assist them with finding and securing federal grant funding for the Division of Agriculture Resource Initiatives. Number 28, University of Arkansas with Huron Consulting. This is for IT assessment services for the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. 

Number 29, University of Arkansas, with Lena. This amendment 1 to an existing contract and it is for evidence-based coaching for early childhood professional development programs. Number 30 is with the University of Arkansas with Lexington Independence. This is a new original contract for 3.8 million for dining services and management for ASMSA. Number 31, University of Arkansas with PFM Asset Management. This is also a new contract for investment management of operating funds to advise the U of A system. 32 with U of A with VIP Special Services, this is washing services for various buildings on the U of A Fayetteville campus. 

Number 33, UA Fort Smith with VisionPoint Marketing. This is a marketing agency that will provide– this is actually the new extension of the ratification that we discussed previously to help U of A Fort Smith to strengthen their brand visibility and expand their market share. Number 34, with U of Little Rock with the Hanover Research Council. This is amendment 3 to an existing contract to help them with grant seeking and securing future grants. 

These are the out of state– pardon me, there’s one more. In your supplemental contract, this is the last out of state contract. It’s on the very last page. We received notification after we did the first download of all of the contracts and posted the agenda that the Division of Workforce Services also had one contract that needed to be reviewed this month. It is one original contract out of state for $300,000 with the Carasoft Technology Corporation. This contract is part of supportive services for the UI Modernization Project and they state that this contract is needed to help employees support users as they roll out the new unemployment insurance online program. These are the out of state contracts. 

Senator Blake Johnson Somebody with DHS come on down. Something’s happened– there, there. It just came back up. DHS, come down. Senator Love. 

Senator Fredrick Love Thank you Mr. Chair. Actually, I need DHS– not DHS. I need ADH. 

Senator Blake Johnson Okay, sorry, it lit up at the same time as DHS. 

Senator Fredrick Love Mr. Chair, I want to ask, I want to ask Katie a question before I– Katie, did you say this Gainwell technology contract, was that a new contract or is that an existing contract? Because it looks like it’s new but I just want to clarify. 

Katie Walden The vendor was chosen by the Department of Health, and while they were working out with the Office of State Procurement, kind of finalizing that process, they went ahead and allowed Gainwell to begin providing services. So that $310,000 is the payment of the outstanding services. And then you see the new contract that will allow them to begin and move forward in providing those services. 

Senator Fredrick Love Okay, so my question is that this is a sole source contract. Initially, Gainwell was a sole-source contract. Is that not correct? All right.

Senator Blake Johnson Go ahead. 

Don Adams Don Adams, Chief of Staff for the Department of Health. Senator Love, we have an existing contract with Gainwell. Gainwill is the company that supports our WIC electronic health record. We have an existing technical support maintenance contract with them and we have had for 18 years. 

Senator Fredrick Love Okay, all right. 

Don Adams And it’s exempt by law because it’s a maintenance contract. We started work to do modification to the system with that existing contract that was exempt by a law, and we were informed by OSP that we couldn’t do this work on that existing contract. Now, Gainwell is the only one that can do work on this system. It’s a proprietary system. And they developed the system. So we put–

Senator Fredrick Love Hold on for a second. Hold on. I understand that. I just wanted to know if it was a sole source contract and Gainwell was the one that was actually– it was a new contract or Gainwell was the first. So now I understand. I don’t have any further questions for them, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator Blake Johnson Anybody else have a question? Representative Ladyman. 

Representative Jack Ladyman Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve got a question on number 8 back on Page 31, D31. I don’t know whether we need the department to come down or whether staff could answer this.

Senator Blake Johnson There’s nothing else on the board if you guys want to– 

Representative Jack Ladyman That $235 million at the bottom of that Item, is that new or is that additional services for the same type of service? It talks about medical, dental, mental health, $235 million. And that’s an addition. Is that correct? 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Ladyman, the original contract is approved for the agency to spend $235 million total on this contract over the life of the contract. So that’s the total amount that you’ve approved. What you’re reviewing today is amendment 1 to this contract. And on the amendment, they are not adding any new funding. They’re just changing the scope of work on the contract, so the verbiage listed in the contract to allow them to adjust the staffing matrix due to the closing and addition of facilities and to right size the staffing to fit the Department of Corrections needs. So there’s no money added to that total today. 

Representative Jack Ladyman It just moves the 73 million? 

Katie Walden 73 million is the amount spent to date on that contract. But no funding added to this contract today. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Hester. 

Senator Bart Hester Yes, is somebody from Wellpath here on D8?

Senator Blake Johnson Introduce yourself.

Donna Gordon Donna Gordon, Regional Vice President for Wellpath. 

David Thompson David Thompson, president for Wellpath. 

Wellpath contract: No in-state hiring?

Senator Bart Hester Thank you. So first I want to applaud and say I very much appreciate these resources that coming at no additional cost, resources that are very much needed in our Department of Corrections. I mean, with our suicide rates and all of this, this is great. I’m glad we’re getting this added in. I appreciate that. and I look forward to voting for this contract in just a second. 

But I do have a concern that because you’re here I want to continue to reiterate. We asked last time you were here, could you look– it’s a billion dollar contract. You’re not using any in state people for any portion of it. Could you work on that? My understanding is, you did, you told us you would work on it and come back. There’s no one in the state of Arkansas working for you. That’s my understanding.

David Thompson No, what we did, Senator, was we undertook, as we promised, an internal RFP process, request for proposals. We reached out to about 70 different vendors in Arkansas, Arkansas-based vendors, various areas of expertise, and attempted to ask them to bid or propose for services working with us. We only ended up out of those 70 with three vendors, and that was for a pharmacy bid. So unfortunately, we couldn’t identify additional in state. But as we’ve said, roughly 69% of all costs on this contract stay within Arkansas. Whether that’s staffing, whether that’s subcontractors that currently work within Arkansas. 

Senator Blake Johnson Yeah, I understand pharmacy is part of this and there’s many others. I know it’s reoccurring, but it’s 10 one year contracts, ultimately. I hope before next year you found a way to find some vendors from Arkansas for some areas. But anyway, thank you again. I appreciate this amendment. Haven’t loved this contract overall, but this amendment is something very well needed. Thank you. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Gilmore. 

Senator Ben Gilmore Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you. I appreciate our conversations we’ve had. Again, I want to reiterate where I think a lot of the membership is in this. This contract has brought a lot of consternation with members for some of the reasons that you’ve heard him state. We appreciate what you’re doing here, but I hope you heed a lot of what you are hearing in trying to accommodate the requests that are being made. 

I have confidence that you’re going to try to do that because, again, we are doing business with you guys. And I just hope that, again, you hear that. And so look forward to this contract going through today because we need the services. We had a hearing yesterday that identified a lot of the issues with inmate deaths, a lot associated with suicides. So we need these services, we need to address those issues. But again, please listen. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Beaty. 

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you Mr Chairman, I’m over here. I just want to make the point that Wellpath is, what, an 11 or 12 year vendor with the state. So we have an established history here. I understood when you were asked by Senator Hester about the attempt and some of the requests that this body made of you to seek out Arkansas vendors to provide some of their services. Could you state how many actually that you reached out to and that responded back? Did you say 70? Could you clarify that number for us? 

Donna Gordon Four of those were pharmacy vendors. There were 50-something or 40-something optometry people that we reached out to, a couple of x-ray vendors. And I don’t have the list here with me today. But there was a dialysis company as well. 

Representative Howard Beaty So you had several Arkansas vendors that you reached out to that replied back that were interested in doing business. What was the greatest obstacle to them doing business with WellPath? Was it something that Wellpath, something with the company, or what was the biggest obstacle that you heard from those vendors? 

Donna Gordon The biggest obstacle was that the, especially with the optometrist, they either wanted to do a portion of the contract or they wanted us to bring the prisoners on site, which is really not an option for us because we provide roughly 600 eye exams a month. So getting all of those people, to keep them safe, we try to do that in-house. So anything that we can do inside the walls of the prison is for the safety of the community. And that was their biggest obstacle there. 

The pharmacy contract was put out to bid and so we put out an actual RFP for that. And that determination, I can let David speak more to that. But then there were several that just weren’t interested at all. They didn’t like the idea of going and dealing with our prison inmate population. 

Representative Howard Beaty So would you say, just I heard what you said, just to make certain that I understood what you say and members of this committee understand, the biggest obstacle to Arkansas vendors or businesses doing business with Wellpath to fulfill the contract needs were basically they didn’t want to come to the prison to fulfill those duties. Not a decision that Wellpath made, but a decision with these business and service providers in the state made evidently clear that they didn’t want to come to the prison to perform those duties. Am I correct in saying that? 

Donna Gordon Yes, sir. 

Senator Blake Johnson Are there any other questions? Seeing none, we’ll go on to the in-state contracts, D6. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item D, Page 43. You’ll see the beginning of the in state contracts. There are 45 contracts for your review. The first one is with ASU and The Communications Group. This is a sole source by justification contract. It is detailed on Page 9 of your Golden Rod packet. This contractor will provide website development and management for the Arkansas Better Beginnings website under the Office of Early Childhood with the Department of Ed.

Number two, ASU Three Rivers with Ouachita Nursery. This is for lawn care for five ASU locations. Number 3, Department of Agriculture with Custom Air. This is aerial fire suppression services. Amendment 2 to an existing contract. Number 4, Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services. This is sources for community independent planning services. This is benefits planning services. It’s an original contract. 

Contracts number 5 through number 7 are all with Department of Commerce, State Insurance Department, with different Area Agencies on Aging. And this is for services to Medicare recipients. That takes us over to Page 47 in your D packet. Number 8  is Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections with Cornerstone Ministry. This is for comprehensive community-based treatment services. It’s a 10-bed female transitional housing facility in Newport. 

Number 9, Department of Correction, Division of Community Corrections with Covenant Recovery. This is another community- based treatment service location. It is a five bed male transitional housing facility in Pine Bluff. Number 10, Division of Community Correction with Quality Living Center. This is for two transitional housing facilities in Little Rock that house 27 residents. Contracts number 11 through 14 are all with Division of Community Correction with different service providers for community based treatment services. And they provide transitional housing to recipients. 

That takes us over to Page D49 and contract number 15 with the Division of Correction. This is an amendment to an existing contract with Hill Services. This is for crop hauling services in East Arkansas. Number 16 with the Department of Education. The contract is with Umbrella Security Solutions. This is amendment 5 to an existent contract. This is armed security services for their offices at number 2 Capitol Mall, number 4 Capitol Mall and the Arkansas School for Deaf and Blind. Number 17 with the Department of Education, Arkansas School For the Deaf and Blind with A Plus Hearing Service Incorporated. This is audiology services for the students. 

Number 18 with the Division of Environmental Quality with Mechanical Service Company. This is an original contract for contract service repairs and unscheduled service calls for their HVAC systems. Number 19 is with DFA revenue services with Rock Dock LLC. This is for shredding services. That takes us to Item D Page 51. Contracts 20 and 21 are both with the Department of Health with the Arkansas Rural Water Association. These are both original contracts using EPA capitalization grant funds for small public water system development. And it’s to assist those water systems with meeting drinking water regulations. 

Number 22, Department of Health with Waste Services Incorporated. This is waste removal for the Arkansas Department of Health Public Laboratory. Number 23, DHS Division of Aging, Adults, Behavioral Health with Arisa Health. This is for comprehensive substance abuse treatment services. Number 24 is on the next page. Also DHS, Division of Aging, Adults and Behavioral Health with Arkansas Medical Staffing, LLC. This is for skilled nursing and other medical personnel for the state hospital and other agency facilities. 

This takes us to Page D53. And beginning on contract number 25, going to number 33, all of these contracts are amending existing contracts for substance abuse treatment services. That takes us all the way over to Page 57, contract number 34 with DHS Division of Aging, Adults and Behavioral Health with Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance. This is Amendment 5 to an existing contract for medical detoxification services. Page D58, contract number 35, Department of Human Services with Division of Children and Family Services. This contract is with Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. This is a new original contract. And it is to assist DCFS in compiling and completing foster care packets for clients in the foster care system statewide. 

Contracts 36 and 37 are both with DHS DCFS and these are both for substance abuse services to DCFS clients. Number 38, DHS, Division of Developmental Disability Services. This contract is an original contract with Baptist Health. And it is for occupational therapy and physical therapy at the Arkadelphia Human Development Center. Contract number 39 is with DHS DDS as well. It is with Dr. Lawrence Howe. This is dental services at the Conway Human Development Center. 

Contracts 40 through 42, all with the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism are with different vendors providing natural area vegetation management and plant community monitoring around the state. That takes us to Page 60 in Item D. Contract 43 is with Division of Arkansas State Police and Delta Dental of Arkansas. This amends an existing contract for the administration of the dental and vision insurance programs for the Arkansas State Police Uniformed Health Plan. 

Contract 44 is with U of A and Medical Waste Services. This is an original contract for the disposal of medical waste at the U of A Fayetteville. Contract 45, U of a Community College at Batesville with White River Health System. This amends an existing contract for mental health counseling services to UACCB students and employees. These are the in-state contracts, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Richardson, do you have a question for staff or the department? 

Representative Scott Richardson Probably for the department. Let me just give you my question. I’m looking at number one, specifically Communications Group, and I’m wondering that the justification for the sole source is associated with a website development. They’ve been doing business with for however many years, 14 years now. I’m just curious why website development, considering that’s a very open field, is necessary to have a sole source for a specific website. So I was just looking for more details, probably from the department. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative, they’re all–

Representative Scott Richardson Is Procurement here? Maybe they can answer. Procurement?

Senator Blake Johnson Procurement here? Greg, do you want to volunteer? No. Shane, come on down. You got here just in time. You can do something with this one, I think. 

Shane Broadway Shane Broadway, ASU System, my apologies. We just had the Secretary of Education leave the Saline County Career Center. 

Senator Blake Johnson So Representative Richardson has a question for you. 

Representative Scott Richardson Mr. Broadway, right here. So, yeah, my question revolves around sole sourcing for this Communications Group for a website development and why it requires a sole source for it. And I’ll tell you you’re kind of getting the brunt of a little bit of a build-up associated with sole source tickets and technology, or I should say contracts and technology, that we’ve seen today and we’ve seen in the past. 

I’m concerned that we get ourselves locked into these particular organizations through website development or application development, which oftentimes are fairly commonplace. And you would expect that, based on who they are, they would be able to provide us the best cost because they’ve been involved in it. 

Yet we still go with a sole source as if it’s not necessary for us to review anybody else. So why would we need, in this particular case, for this particular contract, why would we need to stay with a sole source for website development? 

Shane Broadway Representative Richardson, I’m probably going to need to get back with you on this one. This is through our early childhood or childhood services part of the university, which is a grant funded entity through the Department of Education. So I may need to have a conversation. And they’re all either, I don’t see anybody here in Saline County where I was. It’s separate from the university is what I’m trying to say, and it may be through the Department of Education as to why we’re doing that. So let me look into that and report back to you. 

Representative Scott Richardson You can get that back to us before Friday? 

Shane Broadway Yes, sir.

Representative Scott Richardson Excellent, I appreciate that. 

Shane Broadway Thank you for the question. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Bentley. 

Representative Mary Bentley Thank you, Mr. Chairman. DHS, I’d have this DHS come to the table about the foster care packets on that contract number 35. 

Senator Blake Johnson Introduce yourself. 

Tiffany Wright Hi, good afternoon. I’m Tiffany Wright and I’m the director for the Division of Children and Family Services. 

Representative Mary Bentley Could you just give us some more details on what this new contract is and what we’re going to do different with these packets that we’re needing? Anyway, just give a few more details on that contract for the foster care packets that we are doing. 

Tiffany Wright Yes, ma’am. So part of the work the division does in order to have permanency for children in foster care through adoption is we have to put together what we call adoption disclosure packets. And we had previously had this work in a different contract under DHS, but we had to pull this work out. 

And so in an effort to get upstream to be able to finalize adoption sooner, we are starting at adjudication when the children are remaining in foster care longer than 30 days. So we started it as a way to catch up and move children to permanency where we were delaying. And now we’re wanting to get further upstream in the foster care space and have these records together. And this is all of the medical records for a child for their life until they finalize adoptions. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay, so to give those folks more information actually ahead of time. 

Tiffany Wright Yes, ma’am. 

Representative Mary Bentley Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate that. 

Senator Blake Johnson Representative Beaty. Oh, dang it. Representative Beaty. 

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Department of Corrections, when we get a chance. 

Senator Blake Johnson Introduce yourselves. You’re recognized. 

Chad Brown Chad Brown, Department of Corrections. 

Jim Cheek Jim Cheek, Director, Division of Community Correction. 

Kris Honey Kris Honey, Community Correction, Deputy Director. 

Transition living facility costs

Representative Howard Beaty Thank you, gentlemen. My question is starting back at I guess contract 8 on Page 47 and following down there, there are several of these providers that are providing service for transitional housing and treatment facilities in the state. And most of them, they identify the number of beds and number of, I guess, inmates that can be serviced. 

I think the information that I would like to have is kind of maybe what the average– what’s the right word I’m looking for– occupancy or the average for each one of these programs. Because each of them are 100% state funded and as we heard some yesterday in committee that there were open beds in one of the reentry facilities. I’m just wondering, are we taking full advantage of the opportunities that we’re paying for here? 

So I’d like to know kind of what that average attendance has been in each of these, because these are all ongoing programs of the state, as well as if there are any savings for inmates to be housed at these facilities versus those inmates being housed behind the bars in one of our facilities. 

Jim Cheek Yes, sir. Representative Beatty, all these are transitional living beds. These are not reentry beds. 

Representative Howard Beaty I understand they’re not re-entry beds. 

Jim Cheek OK, so reentry beds, we have–

Representative Howard Beaty We’re not talking about re-entry. I’m wanting to know about these here. 

Jim Cheek Well, these stay full. We allot approximately $2.5 million up to $2.75 million. So if you do the math, it’s $25 a day that we pay the facilities. Now, there’s rules that they have. If they get employed after two weeks, we don’t pay anymore. So it’s approximately $300 a day throughout the state if you do the math throughout the year, and it comes out to about $2.7 million. 

Representative Howard Beaty Okay, so these stay full at 100% occupancy. 

Jim Cheek Yes, sir. We have a waiting list on these beds. 

Representative Howard Beaty A waiting list on these? We’re working on a waiting list on re-entry. Now we’re talking about reentry. Thank you, sir. 

Senator Blake Johnson Senator Hester. 

Prison engineering on-call contract: Senators Hester / Wallace

Senator Bart Hester Yes, Chad, you were asked a question earlier about the McClelland contract. You said you weren’t sure if it had anything to do with the new prison. Can you affirm that now? Hopefully you checked on that in the 15 or 20 minutes. If I ask the question, is any part of this contract going to fund one dollar towards a new prison, what’s the answer to that question? 

Chad Brown Senator, this is one of two or three on calls that we have in the department that we’ve had for years and years, long before I got here. We use this for regular upkeep needs that arise within the department. We have over 28 facilities around the state. So these contracts are really geared towards those facilities and those needs that we have. So when it comes to the new prison, I just can’t answer that. If that need comes up, we’ll address it when the need comes up. But as of right now, the needs for these on-calls or this on-call are for the 28 facilities that have needs that need to be addressed. 

Senator Bart Hester So this contract is for the 28 existing facilities? 

Chad Brown Correct. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any other questions? Got nothing in the queue. Thank you, gentlemen. Senator Rice, do you want to make a motion or are you good with the answer that was just given? 

Senator Terry Rice Mr. Chair, I would still, with what I heard, I heard something about intent. And in the last deal, was it’s going to be used for the 28. I would still ask this be held in light of other members’ questions until Friday. And I’m going to try to get with the department and talk to them. 

Senator Blake Johnson Without objection,we will hold D3, Number 2, and ask for a motion to review all others. All right, motion by Representative Painter. Second by Representative Ferguson. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you. Motion passes. So let’s go on to E1. 

Katie Walden Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members, next you have your monthly report section. I want to call your attention to Item E1. This is a new monthly report that you’ll be seeing. It is provided by the Office of State Procurement and it’s in compliance with Act 782 of 2025. Under this act, you all have required that the Office of State Procurement provide a monthly report on their activities and implementing their rules relating to new procurement processes. 

This includes reporting how they are modifying their training and certification programs and training agency staff on these new procurement process. So here you’ll see a list or a report on their activities so far. On the first page, and then on the second page, you will see the agencies that have enrolled in the trainings on their new procurement processes. So this is the first of a monthly report that you will read from here on out. The remainder of the reports are what you’re used to seeing. They include service contracts, amendments without material changes, and executed contracts. These are the reports, Mr. Chair. 

Senator Blake Johnson Any questions on the reports? Seeing none, all right, I’ll accept a motion to review E1 through 3. Second by Representative Ferguson. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, like sign. Thank you, members. See you next month.