Legislative committee votes to investigate purchase of lectern by governor

members folks in the audience thank you for being here today our first uh order of business is the adoption of the minutes of the September 7th 2023 meeting I have a motion I have a second all in favor say I I any opposed that has passed members our new business today is a request by Senator hickey a request for special audit and procedures and Senator hickey you're welcome to come to the and Sir if you would identify yourself he thank you Mr chair you want me to begin yes sir you're welcome to started but please identify yourself first I'm I'm Jimmy hickey Arkansas State Senate thank you sir okay give me just a moment please Mr chair sorry about that all right members what I'm going to do is just uh uh I'm going to I'm going to read what I had sent to uh the chairs of this committee and also legislative audit uh I'm going to do that first and uh then we'll kind of proceed from there so what I had sent to them is just dear chairman Wallace and chairman gazaway pursuant to the rules of the legislative joint audit committee I request one or more audits regarding the following matters number one is the purchase of a Podium or elran uh I would hope within this meeting we'll use those terms synonymous uh from Becket events LLC for the use of the governor's office and all matters involving the governor and number two is all matters involving the governor are the governor's office made confidential by section 4A of Act 7 of the first extraordinary session of 2023 just to go one step further with that I've had a couple questions about that you know where it says all matters my intent with that would be uh all matters where uh there's been a uh a spend of taxpayer dollars so in other words uh we made that retroactive back to June 1st of 2022 uh my intent would be that that would be if there's been dollars spent that leg leg audit would go in and look at those those expenditures of that and then further I request that Arkansas legislative audit develop procedures for reporting my request number two above and any similar future and any similar request in the future in compliance with existing law and section five of Act 7 the first extraordinary session 2023 okay my reason for the the last is this as you all know whenever we were in the special session with the uh uh dealing with the fo foil law uh recently what what had transpired is there had been I believe three or four separate drafts and in the end what we did of course was just made the security of the Constitutional officers in this case we're talking about the governor's office uh so that they would be exempt from foia however there was a there was a request that we make that retroactive back to the uh June 1st of 2022 and there was a lot of members just House and Senate that had some issues with that and what we did to compensate for that is we did add a clause in there that said that legislate that this would not preclude legislative audit from being able to go in and look at it and if there was a finding that those could be reported to the legislature so that was a clause that we added in there to just further explain that we put that in the non-codified section of the statute uh that does carry the full weight uh of the law even though it was in the non-codified section however not as it just relates to this but for anything for the next however long this uh statute is in place in my opinion we need a procedure that has been discussed publicly uh has been out in the open on how that will be done so in other words as we know leg audit whenever they normally go in to do their standard audits they uh they go in do those independently basically of the legislature and then what they do is they prepare a report uh some of those reports have no findings and then some have if they do have findings those are presented to the sub Committees of uh of Lego audit and then that's all uh discussed and disseminated out publicly I want to make sure and I know it was the intent of the Senate whenever we did this and the house joined in that our procedure as it relates to that particular law is what we're used to where that would be dissed if there is a finding only if there's a finding within the security that that would be sent to the appropriate sub Committee of this body so with that you know my hope would be that you would uh pass this without any questions but I've prepared and uh uh there's a lot of there's a lot of information that's been disseminated and I want to go ahead and say this on the front end uh if you approve this audit a lot of that information that's been disseminated by the public legislative audit will also have to go in and verify the accuracy uh of all that to make sure you know that everything is uh uh that's been put out is exactly what is transpired you know through emails text conversation or otherwise so Mr chair I'll attempt to answer any questions thank you Senator hickey members we're going to break this into three parts so that we can discuss and analyze each each part carefully the first part is going to be paragraph one deals with the purchase of the podium or lecture and with that we are open for questions for the for the first part Senator Selvin so open for questions do we are we questioning Senator hickey or are we questioning the committee well well you're welcome to question me any want that you yeah you it was for you to ask questions cator hickey you made the point that that information has been disseminated and that um leg audit will verify whether that's all partial uh or complete list of everything that's out there so would you see that's the purpose of this audit is to make sure we have full and accurate information even though a lot of information has been put out there already yes sir and that's my from my request that's my sole purpose uh I will have to say that there's some information that's been put out that's substantial however uh some of that I may have verified some of it may have just been uh that was sent to me that supposedly was done through foi request like AIT is going to have a large job because they're going to have to go through that but they do this all the time uh make sure everything is accurate from our state computer systems or however else they do it but then in addition to that you know I want to make sure too that there's nothing that has not been released yet I would hope so at this at this point you know but if there's other documents that contradict things uh if there's other emails then that will be up to leg audit so that they can get those so that this body can have all the information in a detailed written report that'll be done in a public meeting where we can uh look at it and make some informed decisions so do you have any of that information that's not been made public are you aware of that that you can here now I'm not saying there is I'm just saying if they get in when they're doing their investigation that uh that then they would be able to to put that into the report so that we would have both sides for La I'm sure that people who are publishing this information would never withhold anything or keep anything back and the media just doesn't do that and I think that's the importance of having an independent audit by leg audit is to make sure that all the information is out there whichever site it comes out on uh so I appreciate you asking that question thank you thank you Mr chair members are there additional questions Senator thank you Mr chair so I guess my question would be for Mr Norman uh whether or not leg audit has all the statutory Authority that they need and and resources available to uh accomplish this task yes sir we do we have broad statutory authority to look at anything and everything as as far as the public documents also seek from uh private entities that deal with transactions with the state so and we also have subpoena power so I do think that we have the authority and the manpower to look at this thank you because that was going to be the second half of my question you do have some authority to look into the Becket events LLC side of the equation is that correct yes sir we do I mean they are out of state entity so there there may be some issues that arise there there but U uh uh I I do do not anticipate having any issues and getting documentation okay thank you thank you Mr chair members are there any additional questions from representative Lam I think this is more for Mr Norman but I need a calendar question um the governor's office is up for an audit for the last part of Hutchinson's um term and the first part of Huckabee or standers term um and we would be doing that audit at the beginning of January February or March of next year is that correct yes ma'am right now we're in the process of doing the afer and the Statewide single audit most of our state resources our state a audit resources are are trying to get those because there's some uh U time restraints on those so it will be after the first of the year before we would begin our our regular audit of the governor's office Okay so this would be in addition to that and that audit would be inclusive or when would this audit take place well this this audit if it's approved by the committee today and tomorrow it we will start tomorrow okay thank you members are there any additional questions Senator hickey on this first portion do you have any comments anything you'd like to say no sir just at the appropriate time I would appreciate a good vote all right sir members again we're specifically voting or accepting a motion to vote for the purchase of a Podium or lecturing from Becket events LLC for the use of the governor's office that's all we're doing this time Senator San thank you so so just again to kind of repeat or be very clear uh there is an already an audit planned that will happen in first of the year and really really breaking that audit up into three parts and this first part that we're voting on now is kind of Expediting what would have already been done later in the year is that accurate yes sir we as as far as everything that that's been out in the press and everything we would look as part of our normal audit procedures uh at the purchase of the of the podium um but what this would do is expedite that at least that portion of the report right thank you and members I'm going very soon be accepting a motion I would suggest in this motion if we would have the word expedite in there on this first part and with that do I have a motion I have a motion do I have a second I have a second all in favor say I I it has passed and now we will move on to the second part the second part I'm going to read it to you all matters involving the governor or the governor's office made confidential by section 4A of act a of the first extraordinary session of 2023 that's what we're discussing now and with that gentlemen I welcome your questions cator BR thank you Mr chair I was I was looking at section one uh which is mostly existing language I don't know I didn't go back to research how long ago section one or of that statute was was placed in the in the code but we we've never done this because it's it's been exempt from foia because it is directly related to the governor's security of the Mansion so this is this is asking for all matters made confidential by section 4A which 4 a refers to section one which is a different section of code so is your intent to to pull all that forward cuz we added the word Communications to security footage to uh data records surveillance footage security footage emergency plans is is the goal for leg audit to actually Harvest all that information back to January or about back to June of 2022 if yes well if if it had a fin Financial impact if there has been uh and you know I think there has to be a little bit of discretion which we've always given to leg audit if there's you know a $6 item that could possibly be excluded on that I mean you know that I don't think that we we believe that but if there's a substantial monetary expense uh with taxpayer dollars that's been done because we made that retroactive within that within that last statute uh be happy to go into my reasoning for that if if you want me to Sir yeah I guess to to expand on my question is if if as a new governor comes in any governor and they upgrade the entire security system for cameras to a new system new security IP addresses vpns all that stuff that's obviously a large expense I guess my question would be would would that have otherwise been um exposed to either this body or to the general public prior to this this act passing I'm not and and just to be clear and that's and that's really my last part down there I'm not asking for that to be exposed what what what I'm asking for that if there was to be a finding if there was to be an inconsistency that audit that audit would see within that purchase possibly if uh if they see something where you know a vendor was not done correctly or things to that nature that part would be what was disclosed if they have no finding then you know that disclosure would be it would never be made to this body again that will go along with what you know with what we have right there my reasoning and I'll get into it a little bit you know my reasoning for this is uh uh right or wrong you know that uh this uh issue with the uh uh lectron Podium whatever anybody wants to call it uh it's been it's been convoluted that it that it goes along with what happened in the special session with Foya and I think you all have probably heard the same thing that I've heard you know well could that have possibly been made uh uh a security uh type issue because it contains Kevlar and it's bulletproof or whatever so then of course we've got all of the timeline that has to deal with you know when the Republican party you know reimbursed and all that which leg audit needs needs to look at but what further you know what I believe further does where we need to look at everything that we made uh you know back to the retroactive date is the fact that on that Podium P purchase whether it was a coincidence or whether it was not that I know that the Senate that we adjourned on 10 10:02 on the 14th of September we had a bill signing that was somewhere probably close to noon and then I found out you know even this this week that that reimbursement was actually done the same day that we left uh we left after out of here so uh you know that reimbursement needs to be looked at uh you know there's there's other questions out there just to go ahead and kind of put it out you know that in my opinion that leg AIT needs to look at is you know if if State funds were expended you know although there may been a reimbursement you know who actually who actually would own that item uh because there is a process in place of how you dispose of uh State assets and of course we all know that this institution only runs as good as uh as good as all of our procedures are in place and that we make sure that they're followed so you know they're there is even some things like that that I believe need to be looked at I hope it answer your question sir you did Mr chair if I can have one followup to Mr Norman um is section section one of the statute that's referred to in section in Act 7 is that normally on the review process at the governor's office or is do we do something different most of those fitures would be I think under the state police when they Tom and and and so when we do our our uh testing on the state police obviously we don't look at 100% of the items but some of those could fall within our testing uh that we do so I I can't really say for sure that we've looked at in the past I can't say that we haven't but obviously under under this request we would go back and look at those type of expenditures representative R you recognizer thank you thank you Mr chairman uh Senator Jim uh let me ask you this sir would would this audit have a two-part to this in other words if the governor actually had money in her funding do you wouldn't would we be here today if that hadn't been transferred over to another entity to pay for sir I I believe I I believe representative R Ry and of course this is a lot of information that's been disseminated that I am going to go back to the accuracy has to be be proven and just to let y'all know I spent you know six seven hours myself personally going through line by line uh making some detail getting some notes you know I think the thing is is that uh I believe that the things that have been disseminated out there actually show that it was going to be that it was purchased as a state asset and that state funds were were to be used uh According to some emails uh according to a whole bunch of emails so if your question to me is is is whether or not if if and again I am a member of the Republican party but uh if the Republican Party had uh actually made this purchase themselves then no sir we would not be here it's just that a state credit card was used some emails that are out there seem to elude or indicate that uh that state funds were were going to be used and again I'm going to go back to what I what I said earlier that by doing this audit if there is additional information out there that is contradictory to what we've seen and things like that then that'll be what leg audit goes through and finds and uh you know allows the governor's office to give it to them or or however that works so does that answer your question sir follow up please yes sir you have a follow Senator Jim is the can I ask you this sir is the cost that's involved being a $1,000 or whatever it may be is that a a is that a part of this situation sir well I want to I want to be since you said 19,000 I want to be very you know exact you know from looking at the invoice and everything you know the the cost of the podium itself was1 18,47 75 and then you had a case and some taxes and some shipping that were adding on there so I want to make sure that we do that plus there was a credit card fee of 554 so whenever we say the cost of that I also want to make sure that everybody that we're clear here that there were additional expense items that were in that I believe to answer your question directly though uh from the public standpoint it it appears that that that that is an issue that they believe is out there again I will kind of defer a leg audit you know if uh again I had the I had the uh opportunity to chair this committee for four years such as your gentleman up there and you know whenever we did these special audits uh you know the way that I always did it is once this committee uh uh approved that uh they've been doing this for years and years and just kind of they're I looked at them as more or less independent which they are and what whatever they decided was significant that they needed to go in and and do and then put in a report was up to them and I would hope and expect that would be done the same way with this thank you Senator Jimmy thank you Mr chairman representative hod you recogniz sir thank you Senator hickey I'm trying to understand um the second part a little bit my initial understanding was this was we were mainly just talking about the selector in our podium um so here on the second item you know kind of back to Senator Bryant his question about this you know as we're asking about the second item and even representative rise questions you kind of keep going back to the podium which was already covered in the first item so I guess my question is you know what are you looking for what are you wanting audit to look for that's not already covered by what we've already voted to allow them to do any expense item and representative Hodges is I as I said earlier you know with the since all of this has transpired at the exact time uh of our special session with the with the foer law and how we Exempted that again I believe that there's a a lot of reason or a lot of feel that people have out there that they are inclusive of each other uh as we know during the special session since we made that retroactive since we made the made all of those items retroactive acve there was a whole lot of people within the public that did not like that and I know that myself and others that you know that we've Justified that uh We've publicly Justified that we've done that that we said that if there was ever an issue uh if there was ever an issue with that that leg audit would have the ability to go in and then make that public through the legislature and with the timing of all of this and with that happening like I say even for the payment on the same day that we left the items that I stated earlier about could that possibly have been a security item I just believe that it's going to be prudent for this body if we go ahead and try to clean it up for a lack of words not only with the podium but that we go ahead uh with everything that was of such controversy during the special session that we go ahead and have a leg audit look at that so that we can kind of start with a clean slate and get this behind us representative cator selon you recognize her and I agree with representative hajes a lot of the conversation has been about the lecan and we've already made that a part of this body would you agree with that Senator that's that's what we're going to do expedited yes sir but my request is for the other because I feel that's that's what my question is because you know we as you stated we've seen a lot of emails foyers text M messages newspaper articles all about the lectr uh and I feel confident that people um would were foiling other information also but I haven't seen anything or heard anything to that would justify an expedited audit on item two is there anything specific that you have that where people have published information found information shared information outside of what our expedited portion of this audit would be from a micro standpoint no sir but from a macro standpoint as it relates to the special session uh again I think that's significant enough to do it okay thank you thank you Mr chair representative H did I cut you off too soon well I have a few questions but as long as you'll let me go um so I guess kind of back to what I was saying so it seems like there's nothing in particular that that you're looking for other than the podium if I understand correctly what we Exempted in the special session was basically the governor's personal security detail information so what you're requesting is that legislative audit go back and look at all all of this encompassed and what you're requesting as it relates to the governor's personal security no sir and as I stated before only only if there had been a substantial or significant monetary span of taxpayer money with that but it is related to her the the governor's Security on on well I mean if if there's some plan that uh they've sat down and developed and there was no State taxpayer dollar spent on that then no sir I wouldn't think that that would be included however if there have been uh uh other items and there was a suggestion about cameras which I know is only used in his example you know if leg audit gets in there and there there there was a an expense for cameras of some larger amount like that uh as they would normally do in their regular audit that they would look at that and uh make sure that there was no inconsistencies that they seen and again if there's no if there's no finding there if there's no red flag there then that would not be reported back to us okay so as some other members have pointed out we have the the legislative audit already does audits of all constitutional officers including the governor every year every other year and then my understanding was the legislation we passed the governor's office and state police will report to ALC any expenses that are covered in what you're asking for so if we're already going to be getting those reports to ALC then what are you asking for again it it it's all it's all based on everything that's happened and everything that's been in the Republic out in the public to try to start with a clean slate uh I just think that that's the most prudent thing for us to do to uh to be able to go forward thank you thank you sir Senator pton sir did you have a question yes thank you Mr chair um may have trouble putting this into words but uh first of all on item number two where where it starts off and says all matters are you saying that you want to change that to say all expenditures well yes all all matters that are related to an expenditure but I also want to be very careful and again back to my to my th with with leg audit that would be what I would I would see that they would look at however if there is a inconsistency whenever they're looking at a at an item that uh money had been spent on at that I would not want to impair or bar them by something we do in here by saying they would still have the ability to look at to look at something else that may have not have had that if it was directly or indirectly related and I think they do that all the time so you know I know they're very thorough and uh I just want to make that point that although we say monetary if they were were to find that inconsistency there they they would they would see it all the way through okay and so basically during the special session we changed the fo you law to exempt retroactively and going forward several things um and one of the things that we did in that process was to Grant the legislator legislature through legislative audit more oversight in into these expenditures um do you think it's important to demonstrate to the public that we're willing to do that oversight I think yes sir uh and as I said before uh I think we all know that the public you know there there was a large part of the public although they thought well the security you know they understood the security part and some of the family part and things to that nature I think that there was a I don't think I know that you know there was a a a big question with the retroactivity part uh so I think you're 100% right with what you've said if I could have one more yes sir go ahead so basically I think the report that was supposed to happen quarterly uh would basically be categoric spending spending and not itemized um in what and what you perceive legislative audit doing under this second part of your request do you see any um reason that they would the legislative audit would need to expose confidential information that would put the governor at risk no sir unless unless there was a finding within that specific item and that was the next part of my request is I wanted this body to go ahead and develop that uh when I know we'll talk about that but that will be uh my next uh next part of this request so we need to discuss the process yes sir okay thank you thank you Mr chair members are there any other questions on this portion representative L I understand you're wanting to have the audit of those issues immediately following the session I'm still a little bit confused if we're going to be doing an audit anyway just as we do a regular audit of all the executive officers how is this different because we're going to go through and look at everything so I I'm just confused how is this different and Senator hickey let let uh Mr Norman speak to that first well number one this would be retroactive we would not look at those generally because we'd be looking it depends on how far they go back and we it would focus specifically on certain items generally we go in and we look at the entity which in this case most most of the records are going to be of State Police and so we would be doing an audit of the State Police as a whole so this would be changing up what our normal audit process would be uh now if the committee approves that we could look at it at that time or we could do another Special Report uh on on this but without some direction from the the committee unless we become aware of something when we do our uh normal audit of State Police we probably would not spend as extensive time looking at these items Senator hicky go ahead sir um unless there's another question I'll just wait on that sir members are there any other questions on this issue I see representative R thank you Mr chairman uh Roger let me ask you this under normal circumstances when a claim goes through for the governor for the legislature or you know Senator house usually is there only one step involved in that or are are there two like this situation has and would that throw up a red flag for us to look at something sir well the the state has internal control set up dealing with purchasing and dispersement of funds so all of those need to be followed and if we're aware that they're not followed then we would look at that does that answer your question Senator pton you a recognizer thank you and this would be for Mr Norman so the audits that you do on a regular basis are eneral audits where I assume you do samplings or testings it's not anything that is specific in nature to look at a certain category or anything like that well it again it depends it depends generally we go in if we find something when we go in and when we expand our sample if we find issues or if they're uh let's say if we're aware of issues such as this but uh this this is a little bit unusual so you know if we could get get some direction from the uh committee as far as what their wishes are I think obviously either way we will spend some additional time looking at these um U expenditures uh we do have access to all of those type of expenditures so so we will spend some time looking at them okay thank you thank you Mr chair Senator Bry do you have a question sir we just Mo motion if this gets a if this gets a motion I would like to have discussion on the motion thank you sir members are there any other questions concerning item two representative hodj just a question on the process are we going to vote on two before we go to the next item or yes sir we're voting simply on item two now I'm going to read that to us just to make sure what members what we're going to vote on if we have a motion is item two all matters involving the governor or the governor's office made confidential by section 4A of act of Act 7 of the first extraordinary session of 2023 that's what we're working on right now is there a motion regarding this I'm I refer to my co- counil Co co-chair thank you Mr chairman I I do think there needs to be a point of clarification before we take that up as the motion because the way I understood Senator hickey uh his explanation was that uh he he clarified his request on section two to be all matters and I heard two different things one I heard all matters related to an expenditure and then at another time you said a significant spend of taxpayer money this is really kind of what you're interested in as opposed to all matters made confidential because as I think the committee's discussed that would include everything from thousands of hours of security footage at the governor's mansion to every bullet included in a state troopers Arsenal to gas that's put in uh executive protection detail gas tanks so you know at some point you have to try to narrow that down a little bit because I just don't think legislative audit has the time to audit everything in its entirety uh and so the way I understood Senator hickey was going to limit that was to all matters related to and you might say a significant expenditure uh involving the governor's office that was made confidential now I don't want to put words in your mouth but is that is that more accurate as to what you're requesting Senator hickey you said it better than I could that would be what it would be thank you Mr chair M um can I make a substitute mo one second one second members are there any questions on the exchange that just happened with that if not I'm going to go to representative Grant I'm going to make a substitute motion that we table this until our meeting next month members we have a motion is there a second okay I saw a second members disc is there discussion yeah all I want to say related to my motion as I still think as I said my initial understanding was this was primarily about the podium I've only recently kind of learned that this you know this second Point seems really Broad in scope to me it's to me I still don't exactly know you know what would be you know what's the object of you know what are we looking for um on this second Point um so I think I need more clarity U maybe from Senator hickey or others we can take another month maybe narrow the focus of this a little bit and see exactly what are we looking for um with this what are we asking legislative audit exactly to look into because I still don't feel like I have a good understanding of that and to me as I'm reading this it seems seems like we would sort of be undoing what we did in the in the special session related to Foya which was to protect the governor and her family and their their security and I think there was broad consensus in the legislature that we wanted to protect that information and I still want to protect that information so if there's something specific like this lect Turner Podium you know I think I'm happy to vote for something like that um but just to say you know we're just going to look into anything to see if we find anything else that to me is not really clear enough and just too broad seems a bit like a fishing expedition to me so I'm asking that we table it get a little more clarity a little more Focus about what the ask is on this I can work with Senator hickey and the other members of the committee and we can come back next month and maybe narrow the focus a bit on this Senator pton thank you Mr chair and I appreciate what representative Haj just said I don't see it the same way I mean I I think that during the special session we passed legislation to to guard this confidential information from for you but in doing so we saw the need to keep that information available for legislative oversight through legislative audit and so I I don't see this section two is doing anything other than exercising the oversight that was spelled out in that legislation we're not undoing what was done in the special session by implementing what was done in the special session well and the reason is I think the governor's office has called for an expedited audit uh to make reprentative Grant if if you if I need you to make want to talk talk so if the if the public was concerned about what we did by shielding this confidential information from for you I think it's important we demonstrate that we're willing to do the oversight that we put in the legislation represent H you're welcome to respond to that okay sir and Senator Bryan you were recognize sir yeah I just so back to what Senator pton was saying is we we we work with Foya during the session and not audit audit was never affected and I I assume audit of the State Police for fiscal 22 to 23 is uh in the works or because that that's behind us the second part of governor and no sir it is one of those audits that'll start after the first of the year also so it's it's already already moving forward so I I think I'm I'm in supportive of represent H's motion just because the very next action we're going to look at is to develop procedures dealing with request to above so I think we're to me we're going down a path that maybe we haven't gone down before so we got to we got to give leg AIT some some guidelines but we're going to also ask them to go ahead and and you know work on the issue so I'm supportive of the table at least do we determine what those procedures and guidelines are of Senator hickey's next request dealing with section two of the request members are there any other discussion yes sir representative will Ma so just just for clarity I think I know the answer but I'd just like to be sure we're about to take a vote on representative Hodge's subsequent motion yes sir and I'm going to ask him to restate that and it pertains to item two okay thank you sir in representative Hodge I'll quit calling you representative grant grant uh whatever you will restate your motion yes um not you know killing this or anything my motion was only that we table this until our meeting next month so we can get some more information more clarity and take this up at our November meeting that's my motion table till next meeting members is there a second I see a second all in favor say I I any opposed say nay no members we're going to do a roll call Representative wac no representative lundstrom yes representative [Music] Ry representative Hodes yes representative gazaway Senator Bry Center Sullivan Center pton no Center Wallace representative Grant representative Hodge your motion fails now members is there any further discussion on item two yes sir Mr chair I I make a motion that we honor centor Hick's request and item number two with the caveat about it being limited to expenditures members we have a motion is there a second I see a second we're going to do a voice call the first time all in favor say I I any opposed the eyes have it members we are moving on to item three which starts with the words further I requested Arkansas legislative audit develops procedures for reporting my request above and any similar request in the future in compliance with existing laws in section five of Act 7 of the first extraordinary session of 2023 and with that do you have any questions members representative Hodge your recognizer maybe a question for Roger um it says develop procedures I guess when are we going to see those procedures will we have to vote to approve the procedures yes sir I would so what what we would do is is uh work with the committee and try to come up with some some ideas and present that at our next executive meeting in November so we'll vote next month on proced well if if we are of able to get that uh a draft together as far as how that would happen uh but I for I don't foresee any issues in having it then okay so the committee will vote on those I guess is my question yes sir okay thank you Senator Payton your recognizer so Mr Norman would anything any results of the uh audit that that starts based on our first two actions will any of those results be released prior to these uh procedures being developed well I I think that uh this this third action really deals with those that are confidential now and so I mean obviously if if it depends on when it's voted on by the full committee as far as the procedures uh if it if it doesn't happen till after we finish the podium audit then yes I mean it could but we would not uh present in there things that are subject or are not open under foi and we have items all the time and aits where portion may be exempt but we find a way we summarize things so it depends upon the nature of the documents it depends upon the nature of what is exempt from disclosure okay are some ways around that you're confident that procedures exist they'll protect the the Exempted material until we consider sir the third part yes sir thank you members are there any other questions seeing no questions do I have a motion have a motion do I have a second I have a second members all in favor of adopting item three say I I any opposed and that has passed Senator hickey thank you for your time sir you're welcome to stay there or you can have a seat no sir I'm going I'm going to leave on out of here I do want to thank the committee for all the discussion uh this is what the legislature is about uh and we serve the public well today and I do thank each and every one of you for that thank you

Channel: Arkansas PBS

Views: 5,817

Keywords: Arkansas, Arkansas PBS, Public Media, AETN, PBS

Id: iwcZsjJ-bRA

Length: 48min 38sec (2918 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 12 2023