House City County Local Committee
February 5, 2025
Representative Justin Gonzales Chair sees a quorum. Call the meeting to order. Members, things are kind of a little wild today in other committees. I think we've got people scattered out everywhere. So it may take a minute to get people in and out of here. We may have a few breaks in between, but we'll get started. Representative Wooten, you're recognized to present your bill.
Representative Jim Wooten Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jim Wooten, District 59. My bill is HB 1145. It's very simple. The mayor of Ward contacted me and asked me to handle this bill, to run this bill. It just simply increases the after market purchases for municipalities and for counties from $1,200 and $600 up to $2,000 for aftermarket purchases without soliciting a bid.
The Municipal League has reached out to me and said that they're in favor of it, don't have any problem with it. I have not heard from the Association of Counties, but I assume that they would have said something if they were for or against it. So I haven't had any contact with them. But it's a very simple, very simple bill.
It's just an act to amend the law concerning purchases that do not require solicitation of bids for a county or municipality to increase the purchase amount authorized for additional aftermarket equipment for other purposes by a county or a municipality and for other purposes. The light bars on police cars and other equipment on the law enforcement car cost has increased and we all know what inflation has done. And that's simply the bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions, Mr. Chair, if the committee has any.
Representative Justin Gonzales All right. Thank you. Are there any questions by committee members? Anybody in the audience? I don't think we have anybody signed up to speak for or against this. Representative Wooten, are you closed for the bill?
Representative Jim Wooten I'm closed for it.
Representative Justin Gonzales Representative Wooten is closed for the bill. What's the will of the committee? I have a motion do pass. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, say aye. All opposed? Congratulations, Representative Wooten. You have passed your bill.
Representative Jim Wooten Thank you. Thank you, committee members. Appreciate it.
Representative Justin Gonzales Committee, we're going to take things a little bit out of order off the agenda. Representative Lundstrum, without objection, you're recognized to present your bill.
Representative Robin Lundstrum Thank you. Colleagues, Robin Lundstrum, District 18. This is basically to clean up an issue that's been going on in Arkansas for quite a while. Cities of a second class keep their accounting, some of them on QuickBooks, some on Excel, some on paper. And this would require them to come up to uniform accounting standards that the counties have been doing for the last 40 years that the state does, so that when we do an audit, we can actually have an apples to apples comparison. And they'll have three years to get caught up. So with that, I'll entertain any questions.
Representative Justin Gonzales Have any questions from committee members? Seeing none, nobody signed up to speak for or against this. Are you closed for your bill?
Representative Robin Lundstrum Yes, sir.
Representative Justin Gonzales Hang on, we got one. Come introduce yourself for the record. You're recognized.
John Wilkerson John Wilkerson, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League. I talked to Representative Lundstrum yesterday and offered to come up here and have a little bit of explanation. First of all, want to say thank you to Leg Audit for working with us on this issue. This has been an issue that we have found across the state for cities in the second class and incorporated towns. There's no uniform chart of accounts, which makes it hard for us to help cities when we walk into a new city or town and we don't quite know their chart of accounts.
The league has for a long time advocated and offered suggestions on a uniform chart of accounts. This basically codifies our suggestions in a lot of ways. I don't have a formal position from the league because our executive committee does not meet till next week, but we have shopped this bill. Have a lot of folks saying this is a terrific idea.
A lot of clerks from across the state who are helping other cities and towns say, if we had this, it would help us help them. It would help with our training. It will help Leg Audit's training. I'm speaking for them a little bit. But overall, I think it's a very helpful bill for us and any issues that we found so far, I've been able to take to Leg Audit and say, hey, I got a mayor that has this issue. And I've had one. And Leg Audit, even five minutes ago said, no, no, clarifying that's not what's happening. We're here to work together. And so again, I don't have a formal yea for this. But we have shopped it around and we see a lot of value to this bill. So we thank Leg Audit and Representative Lundstrum for bringing it.
Representative Justin Gonzales Thank you for that. Do we have any questions? Seeing none, Representative Lundstrum you ready to close for your bill? All right. I have a motion do pass. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, you have passed your bill.
Representative Robin Lundstrum Thank you, colleagues. Appreciate it.
Representative Justin Gonzales Okay. I think we have Representative Duffield. Are you ready to present your bill? Come introduce yourself for the record, you're recognized to present your bill.
Representative Matt Duffield Thank you, Mr. Chair. Matt Duffield, District 53, Russellville. Committee, I bring you a bill today that simply gives us an extra seven days to sell fireworks each year. Our city council brought this bill to me. We have several events that happen throughout Pope County, and they wanted to have a fireworks display with that.
And with the current sales dates in place, they did not have the time to get those fireworks to be able to do that event. I don't see any cons to this bill. In my opinion, only pros for each of your districts as well. Important to note, this does not change any local ordinances regulating the use of fireworks. This would only affect the sale date by one week and put them on sale a week early. I'd be glad to take any questions.
Representative Justin Gonzales Do we have questions from committee members? Seeing none, we have nobody signed up to speak for or against this bill. Representative Duffield, are you closed for your bill?
Representative Matt Duffield Yes, sir. I'm closed.
Representative Justin Gonzales What's the will of the committee? I have a motion do pass. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, say aye. All opposed? Congratulations, you passed your bill.
Representative Matt Duffield Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee.
Representative Justin Gonzales Committee, I don't think there's anybody else sitting here right now that's ready to run a bill, but we have a couple people on their way. If you don't mind hanging out for a little bit, we will take about a five minute recess.
[Recess]
Representative John Maddox That's what it does. It just allows them to separate those offices. And I'd be glad to take any questions.
Representative Justin Gonzales Any questions from committee members? Seeing none. Okay. Have motion do pass. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, say aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. Congratulations. You passed your bill. Committee, we have one more member who's wanting to run a bill this morning? I've texted him and hopefully we'll get him down here soon. So with that, we'll go back into recess for another five, ten minutes.
One other thing while we're in recess, we will more than likely have a meeting tomorrow after session. And I think we'll be going in session at 1"30 tomorrow. So y'all just be prepared to not pack up and leave too quick. So we'll have a little bit of business to take care of. Thank you. We've been waiting on one representative to come run his bill but, in light of our possible meeting tomorrow, we're not going to wait any longer. We'll just give him a chance to do that tomorrow after session. So with that, seeing no further business, we are adjourned.
