Panel gets single bid for study of Transportation Department

Only one consultant submitted a proposal to help a legislative panel study the state Department of Transportation, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said Wednesday.

Dismang, who is a co-chairman of the Legislative Council’s Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee, disclosed the consultant’s name — Virginia-based Guidehouse — to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter after the panel’s meeting.

The subcommittee — without naming the company or giving its proposed cost — decided to consider Guidehouse’s proposal rather than try again to see if more consultants would submit bids.

Act 298 of 2019 requires the Legislative Council, the body of lawmakers that meets between legislative sessions, to hire a consultant to assist in studying the Transportation Department’s processes and functions, including procurement, projects, expenditures and appeals.

Also in this year’s legislative session, Act 416 was approved to raise more money for state and local roads through fuel tax increases, higher license fees for hybrid and electric vehicles, and fund transfers. The Legislature also referred to voters in the 2020 election a proposal to permanently extend a half-cent sales tax that raises money for highways.

Act 298 requires the Legislative Council to recommend legislation based on the study results. The council must file a final report by Dec. 1, 2020, with the governor and House and Senate leaders ahead of the 2021 regular session.

Last month, the Legislative Council approved rules assigning the study to its Highway Commission subcommittee, co-chaired by Rep. Ron McNair, R-Alpena, and Dismang. The council also authorized the Bureau of Legislative Research to issue a request for proposals May 20 and open the proposals June 14.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Dismang said Legislative Research staff reached out to multiple vendors that might be interested in submitting a proposal.

“The question before this subcommittee is, really, it is not so much even on the vendor itself. … Are we comfortable as the subcommittee moving forward only having one applicant or is it something that we want to resubmit the RFP [request for proposal] and try to get additional folks to respond?” he said.

If the subcommittee decides to consider the proposal it has, it needs to meet in July with the consultant, go over the proposal and eventually have the full Legislative Council vote on the proposed contract, Dismang said.

Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, asked, “Do we have an estimated cost?”

Dismang said he wants to decide whether to issue a request for proposals again first.

“Releasing that cost and then turning around and resubmitting the full RFP [request for proposal] for other applicants would put that [initial] applicant at a disadvantage,” he said.

Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, questioned whether it is realistic to expect more proposals.

Jill Thayer, the bureau’s legal counsel to Bureau of Legislative Research Director Marty Garrity, said the bureau posted the request for proposal on the Office of State Procurement website. She also emailed the request to 11 nationally known companies that she was told do that type of work.

“I heard back from four telling me that … it didn’t meet their schedule or the type work that they do or the personnel that they had available during our timeframe and then I did get one response that submitted a proposal,” Thayer said.

Dismang said the bureau’s staff checked whether any other state conducted a similar study, but “the reality is there haven’t been.

“It was very surprising to me,” he said. “No other state has really done a deep dive to look into the functions of their department or how they are spending their money and processes.”

Guidehouse was formerly the public sector arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Garrity said in an email to this newspaper after the meeting.

Garrity declined this newspaper’s request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act to disclose the cost of Guidehouse’s proposal.

The “unpublished memoranda, working papers, and correspondence of … members of the General Assembly” are exempt from disclosure under Arkansas Code Annotated 25-19-105(b)(7), she said in an email.

She said that until the information is released to subcommittee members June 26, the proposal is considered to be a working paper of the subcommittee co-chairmen.