Katie Walden — Presented the methods of finance items for review.
Dan Brasser — Identified as being from the DFA Office of Accounting and presenting the projects.
Jeff Weaver — Jeff Weaver introduced himself and identified his role as Director of Government Affairs for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
Matt Brown — Identified as CFO for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
Terry Rice — Pressed for a specific explanation of why the project cost increased from $35 million to $62 million.
Terry Rice — Requested the specific cost drivers behind the project increase and asked for the answers to be provided.
Terry Rice — Requested a Division of Youth Services representative and indicated he had a question about the youth age breakdown.
Terry Rice — Asked for numbers on youth ages 10 to 21 and a breakdown of ages 18 to 21 for upcoming Judiciary meetings.
Terry Rice — Terry Rice is involved in a brief exchange with DHS about item 11, asking whether the proposed new contract replaces an existing service or contract and whether it results in savings. The discussion concludes with a short acknowledgment to the chair.
Matt McKee — A second was made by Senator McKee on the motion to accept the construction contracts.
Mary Franklin — Mary Franklin of the Division of County Operations identified herself and explained that the contract is for cloud hosting for the ARIES eligibility system, which has been cloud hosted since its inception. She clarified that this is a new contract intended to continue those cloud-hosting services.
Jack Ladyman — Representative Jack Ladyman was called on to ask questions during a budget/contract discussion, first about a DHS staffing contract—whether it was for hiring people and whether it was ongoing—and then about a Department of Education tutoring contract, questioning why a California company was being hired instead of an Arkansas provider. The responses thanked him for the questions and indicated there was additional information to follow.
DHS representative — Explained that the contract supports Medicaid eligibility processing and backlog management.
Courtney Salas — Courtney Salas is identified as representing the Department of Education.
Greg Rogers — Greg Rogers is identified as being with the Department of Education.
Kenneth Ferguson — Kenneth Ferguson is not clearly mentioned in the spoken content in this segment; the extracted references are mostly omissions or duplicates, and the only nearby spoken name is an uncertain 'Senator Irvin' reference that may be a misიდენტification.
Wade Hodge — Wade Hodge, Chief of Staff for the Department of Corrections, explained that the department’s request is for authority only, not additional appropriations. He clarified that the department already has the money and is asking for one more month of authority to spend funds that have already been appropriated.
Wade Hodge — Identified himself as Chief of Staff for the Department of Correction.
Jim Cheek — Identified himself as Director of the Division of Community Correction.
Jennifer Brisei — Identified herself as Director of the Division of Developmental Disability Services at DHS and responded to questions about the nursing and medical care contract.
Katie — Referenced as having answered the question about the time frame for the projected total.