Panel OKs spending to ready for session

LITTLE ROCK — A legislative panel on Thursday authorized the Bureau of Legislative Research to spend more than $170,000 to make a conference room on the fourth floor of the Multi-Agency Complex — immediately west of the state Capitol — suitable for a House committee to use in next year’s regular session, in the event the covid-19 pandemic continues.

The panel also authorized the bureau spend nearly $400,000 to upgrade the bureau’s audio and visual systems for two rooms on the fifth floor of the Multi-Agency Complex.

It appears as if many of the state House of Representatives’ committee rooms aren’t large enough in terms of seating to accommodate the committees’ members and social distancing needs, as well as members of the public, based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health guidance, said Marty Garrity, director of the Bureau of Legislative Research.

House leaders are looking at using committee Rooms A and B on the fifth floor of the complex and a conference room on the fourth floor — which some officials call Room C — of that building, as well as Room 151 in the state Capitol as much as possible for committee meetings in the session to allow for social distancing, said House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado.

Garrity said the fourthfloor conference room needs to be outfitted with video streaming equipment, a video production system, microphones, projectors and speakers in order to provide for transparency to the public.

This project would cost $176,302 through Jay Stanley & Associates of North Little Rock, she told the council’s Executive Subcommittee. In addition, the bureau would purchase streaming services through Sliq for $3,750.

The House Management Committee asked to tap the bureau’s $205,000 annual allocation for committee room expenses to cover the cost of converting the fourth-floor room, Garrity said before the subcommittee authorizing the expenditure with conditions proposed by a council co-chairman, Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage.

Wardlaw said he wants to limit the elevators to only lawmakers or staff between the fifth and fourth floors, and for the conference room entrance for the public and lobbyists to be on the fourth floor, “so they walk straight in.”

The roughly 2,600-square -foot conference room is “sandwiched” between space used by a state agency, and has been booked by numerous people ranging from the Department of Education to the Bureau of Legislative Research, according to Department of Transformation and Shared Services spokeswoman Alex Johnston.

The state’s Division of Building Authority has sent out notice it won’t be taking reservations on that room after Thanksgiving until the session ends because the Bureau of Legislative will be using the room, Johnston said.

The bureau also plans to have plexiglass partitions installed in Room A before budget hearings start Oct. 11, Garrity said.

If Room B in the complex “were to be used as an overflow room” for lawmakers from Room A, “there is not interaction between the microphones, so we were requested to look at the possibility of getting the microphone systems to be integrated so any members, who were sitting in committee Room B, could use their microphones and ask questions and hear everything that comes from committee Room A,” she said.

That option would cost about $25,163 through Jay Stanley & Associates, Garrity said.

The subcommittee also authorized spending about $22,000 to purchase 86 plexiglass partitions, or three-sided cubicles, to safeguard lawmakers in Room A of the complex.

Garrity said bureau officials realized there had been some miscommunication with Southern Office Services in North Little Rock and the firm came back with a revised quote of $34,978 instead its original $23,000 through “no fault of theirs” to provide the partitions.

“However in the meantime, Ace Glass came and provided us with a quote for the same work … and they have come in at $22,470, which is a difference of about $12,000,” she said. “I wanted to bring to this body the clarification on the two quotes that we now have received and request that we are authorized to move forward with Ace Glass rather than Southern Offices Services.”

Last week, the House Management Committee authorized House staff to buy plexiglass partitions to protect representatives and employees in the chamber and to buy a system allowing remote voting within the complex.

The Senate Efficiency Committee is exploring buying plexiglass partitions in the chamber.

In other action, the subcommittee authorized the bureau to spend nearly $400,000 to upgrade its audio and visual systems in Rooms A and B in the complex.

Garrity said the complex’s fifth floor was renovated for committee rooms about 10 years ago.

“We are having a hard time getting replacement parts [and] service is becoming more difficult and after 10 years, it’s in my opinion, refresh the system,” she said.

Jay Stanley & Associates provided a quote of $398,675 and the firm did the same work a decade ago, Garrity said.

“This is to retrofit the system, bring it up to date with 2020 technologies, new televisions. It encompasses everything.”

Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, asked if there are any other companies providing similar systems.

Garrity said there might be three providers in the country.

“I know that when the Senate looked at renovating their rooms recently, we looked again at any other providers,” she said.

“This is a very niche business. They are local here in North Little Rock which is nice. They are very responsive to our service requests and needs, but it’s very difficult to find companies to do this kind of work.,” Garrity said.

Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, who is the Senate president pro tempore-designate, said, “We have been working … for months, just trying to make sure we are going to have a session that is smooth and we have thought through everything that we can, and we have everything in writing.”

Legislative leaders want to make sure lawmakers are going to be safe and the public is going to be allowed to participate in the regular session, he said.