Arkansas legislator files 2 more bills on state agencies' realignment

Rep. Andy Davis (top left), R-Little Rock, is shown in this Thursday, March 8, 2018, file photo at the State Capitol in Little Rock.
Rep. Andy Davis (top left), R-Little Rock, is shown in this Thursday, March 8, 2018, file photo at the State Capitol in Little Rock.

Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, on Tuesday filed bills that would provide details for the establishment of the Department of Energy and Environment and the Department of Public Safety, both part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plan to reorganize state government.

Hutchinson wants to cut the number of agencies that report to him from 42 to 15.

Also Tuesday, a Senate committee began reviewing legislation to enact the Republican governor's proposed reorganization. Senators asked for a financial impact statement on the bills and details on estimated cost savings.

House Bill 1215 by Davis would create the Department of Energy and Environment as a Cabinet-level department and transfer to it the administrative functions of the Division of Environmental Quality, Geological Survey, Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, Public Service Commission and Oil and Gas Commission.

The 252-page measure also would transfer to the department the administrative functions of the Advisory Committee on Petroleum Storage Tanks, Liquefied Petroleum Gas Board and Nutrient Water Quality Trading Advisory Panel.

House Bill 1216 by Davis would create the Department of Public Safety as a Cabinet-level department. It would be given the administrative functions of 17 state entities, including the Arkansas State Police, Crime Information Center, Department of Emergency Management, Crime Laboratory and Commission on Law Enforcement Standards. The bill is 102 pages.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

These two bills increase to 11 the pieces of legislation that Davis has introduced on the reorganization plan. He said he hopes to file the other five bills by the end of this week. Lawmakers and others will be given a chance to comment. Then, he said, he plans to withdraw the 16 bills from further consideration, at least a week after the last bill is filed, and introduce one consolidated bill that's more than 1,500 pages.

Meanwhile, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee members raised questions for more than a half-hour about House Bill 1070 by Davis that would create 15 Cabinet-level departments. It's an eight-page bill.

The other Cabinet-level departments are: Agriculture; Commerce; Corrections; Education; Finance and Administration; Health; Human Services; Inspector General; Labor and Licensing; Military; Parks, Heritage and Tourism; Transformation and Shared Services; and Veteran Affairs.

Davis said HB1070 contains "the general provisions" for the governor's proposed reorganization. It includes transfer mechanisms and some language allowing the Code Revision Commission "additional technical corrections over what would be normally allowed" under state law. The commission revises state statutes when new laws are passed.

Each of the 15 departments will have a secretary supervising them, divisions operating underneath them and heads of the divisions to be known as directors, he said.

"In the 15 departments, all the employees existing in that department will be employees of the secretary," Davis said. "The reason for that is that as efficiencies are found and as attrition occurs, the secretary needs to have the ability to have employees perhaps serve a dual role between the two different divisions."

For example, if division A and division B each have a human resources director today and the human resource director for Division B leaves two years from now, the secretary of the department would have the ability to assign the human resources staffer for Division A to also serve the same function for Division B, Davis said.

After asking several questions about language in the bill, Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said that suggestions that "I am not for the transformation bill" could not "be any further from the truth.

"I just want to make sure that everybody has a chance to come forward, if they want to," said Hickey. "We are doing this over things that have happened over the last 50 years. There possibly may be some institutional knowledge out there that maybe one of these [state entities] should stand alone and should be independent so that I can bring that forward."

Hutchinson's proposal would be the most sweeping overhaul of state government since 1971 when then-Gov. Dale Bumpers, a Democrat, led reducing the number of agencies reporting to him from 60 to 13 under Act 38 of 1971.

Amy Fecher, the chief transformation officer for Hutchinson, said that based on figures from the state Department of Finance and Administration, the proposal would save about $15 million a year starting in fiscal 2021, which begins July 1, 2020.

Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, said, "I think everybody in here is all for saving money the best we can, but I would like to see how [the finance department] calculated that."

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, who is the Senate sponsor of Davis' bill, said,"I think the $15 million is probably very, very conservative.

"But no one is going to lose their job, unless attrition takes place," he said.

Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, said he wants a financial impact statement on each bill.

"Since these 15 secretaries, at least in my review of the initial bill, are going to be pretty powerful, do y'all want to give the Senate confirmation over these secretary positions?" Bond asked.

Fecher said the other bills include language that allow for Senate confirmation of the department secretaries.

"I guess I missed that in all these [bills]," said Hickey.

Davis said he will ensure there are provisions requiring Senate confirmation all 15 secretaries.

A Section on 01/23/2019

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