Senate City, County & Local Affairs Committee adopts rules, holds organizational meeting

Chairman Flippo convened the Senate City, County & Local Affairs Committee for an organizational session and opened the meeting by introducing Senator Terry Rice as vice chair and asking members to introduce themselves and their districts.

The committee adopted its rules after a motion from Senator Terry Rice and a second from Senator Matt McKee. "All in favor of adopting the rules signify by saying aye," Chairman Flippo said; members responded and the chair announced, "Rules have been adopted." The motion was adopted by voice vote; no roll-call tallies were recorded.

The chair reviewed logistics for the session: members should leave committee folders in the room after meetings, the committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. in Room 272, and sponsor notifications will be sent by email two days before a meeting.

Lindsey Bailey French of the Association of Arkansas Counties introduced herself and three colleagues—Chris Belans, Josh Curtis and Mark Whitmore—and offered the association as a resource on county-related bills and questions. "The Association of Counties is an umbrella association that represents 9 individual associations of county elected officials," she said.

Tim Jones, deputy legislative auditor for cities and counties, told members the audit office performs audits of all 75 counties and approximately 460 of about 500 cities and is available to answer questions. "We do all 75 county audits by law, and we do approximately 460 of the 500 cities," Jones said, and noted the office is located on the first floor below the chamber.

Donald Powell, director of local affairs and rural development for the Arkansas Farm Bureau, described the Farm Bureau as a large grassroots organization with county offices and offered assistance to the committee. "We're a grassroots organization with over a 80,000 member families," Powell said.

During discussion, Senator Gary Stubblefield asked whether the committee's prohibition on verbal amendments would include emergency clauses. Chairman Flippo said that was his understanding but that he would check and confirm the handling of emergency clauses.

The chair said he will not call committee meetings until bills are assigned for consideration and asked staff to circulate meeting notices by email. With no further business, the committee was adjourned.

The committee did not take additional formal actions on bills during the session; staff will announce future meeting dates when agendas are available.