MINUTES OF ARKANSAS STATE POLICE COMMISSION MEETING January 12, 2012

Transcription

1 MINUTES OF ARKANSAS STATE POLICE COMMISSION MEETING January 12, 2012 The Arkansas State Police Commission met on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at Arkansas State Police Headquarters, Little Rock, Arkansas. CALL TO ORDER AND OPENING: Commission Chairman Allison called the meeting to order at 10:10 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Commissioner John Allison, Chairman Commissioner Steve Smith, Vice-Chairman Commissioner Jane Christenson, Secretary Commissioner Woody Futrell Commissioner Wallace Fowler Commissioner Frank Guinn Commissioner Dr. Lewis Shepherd STATE POLICE PERSONNEL ATTENDING: Colonel JR Howard Major Cleve Barfield Captain Stan Witt Sergeant Mark Johnson Captain Rick Dickinson Karen Perry Lieutenant Cora Gentry Donna Humphries Lieutenant Ron Stayton Sergeant Stuart Woodward Debbie Roark Lieutenant Lindsey Williams Sergeant Wanda James Lieutenant Steve Coppinger Lt. Colonel Tim K'Nuckles Major J. R. Hankins Captain Jeff Jester Lieutenant Shawn Garner Emma French Debbie Kirk Lieutenant Mark Blankenship Lieutenant Brant Tosh Captain Henry La Mar Lieutenant Bill Beach Gary Glisson Bridget White Corporal Darwin Adams OTHERS PRESENT: Joe Thielke, ASP Foundation Dick Cisne, ASP Foundation Tracy Horne, ASP Foundation Brooks Jackson, ASP Foundation Michael Krenn, DFA Randy Lann, ASP Foundation Bob Burns, ASP Foundation PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Lieutenant Ron Stayton led the pledge of allegiance. NOTIFICATION OF MEDIA: The media was notified of this meeting on January 3, Commission Chairman Allison stated, It s been my pleasure serving as your chairman for the past year. It seems like just yesterday I was appointed to this position as Arkansas State Police Commissioner. It took me two or three years to find out where the bathrooms were. I finally found out, and I m still showing Mr. Fowler, he hasn t learned yet, we re working on that. But it has been a real pleasure for me. I hope I ve added a little bit to the Arkansas State Police. It really is an honor to do what I ve done. It s an honor to work with this great group of people. I think sometimes that when you look at chaos in the world and in our country, the only thing between chaoses sometimes is the blue uniforms, and I mean that sincerely. Sometimes what would happen if we didn t have law enforcement, and what would happen if we didn t have this great organization?

2 January 12, Page 2 So it truly has been my honor. The Governor has, at the banquet, reappointed me, so I guess I m reappointed officially. So I ll be around to harass the troops and you guys for another seven years, and that s an honor so, at this point in time we will hold elections of officers and for chairman, the nomination is open for chairman. ELECTION OF ASPC OFFICERS FOR 2011: Commissioner Fowler made a motion that Commissioner Smith be elected Chairman of the ASP Commission for Commissioner Futrell seconded and the motion carried. Commission Chairman Allison advised this will not be new to Chairman Smith, he s done it before. He ll do a great job as he did in the past. Commissioner Shepherd made a motion that Commissioner Christenson be elected Vice Chairman of the ASP Commission for Commissioner Futrell seconded and the motion carried. Commissioner Shepherd made a motion that Commissioner Futrell be elected Secretary of the ASP Commission for Commissioner Christenson seconded and the motion carried. PASSING THE GAVEL: Commissioner Allison said it will be his pleasure to turn the gavel over to Chairman Smith. Colonel Howard asked Chairman Smith if he could say a few words. He said first of all he d like to welcome Commissioner Smith as the new chairman of the committee. He said he looks forward to working with him. He also addressed Commissioner Allison by saying thank you for your service. It s been a pleasure working with you as the chairman and I was pleased to hear, during the banquet, the Governor reappoint you, and as far as I know he hasn t changed his mind. Colonel Howard announced he has a presentation to make. He assured Commissioner Allison that he has made a difference, and we are glad to have you and in honor of your service as the chairman of the State Police Commission I would like to present to you this gavel and plaque. It s a pleasure to work with you. Commission Chairman Smith stated he wanted to say a few words, and he continued by saying, It s been an honor to serve on the Commission these past thirteen years. I have gained a tremendous amount of respect from the dedicated men and women of the Arkansas State Police. You're the best of the best. It s a privilege to serve under Governor Beebe who is a tremendous supporter of the State Police. I appreciate the excellent legal representation and support that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel provides State Police. It s an honor to serve with the commissioners here today. They are always interested in doing what s best for State Police. It s a pleasure to work with Colonel Howard and his entire staff of professionals. I ll always try to do what is right and best for the men and women of the Arkansas State Police. I am proud to be a part of the State Police family. MINUTES: Commissioner Fowler made a motion to approve the minutes of the December 9, 2011 Arkansas State Police Commission meeting and Commissioner Christenson seconded the motion. The minutes were accepted and approved. WEAPON RESOLUTION: Major J.R. Hankins presented the below resolutions for consideration by the ASP Commission.

3 January 12, Page 3 R E S O L U T I O N Corporal Dale Donham efficiently and effectively served the Arkansas State Police for a period of thirty-three years, six months, and sixteen days; Corporal Dale Donham retired from this department November 30, 2011; His departure creates a vacancy that will be most difficult to fill, which is recognized by each and every member of the Arkansas State Police Commission; Corporal Dale Donham has made formal request that his service weapon be retired with him and remain in his possession; BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED: The Arkansas State Police Commission, in its regular meeting at Arkansas State Police Headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas on Thursday, January 12, 2012, in accordance with Act 547 of 2003, awards him his Glock, Serial Number PKS488, as a token of their esteem and appreciation for service devoted to the Arkansas State Police. Commissioner Allison moved that the foregoing motion be approved, Commissioner Christenson seconded and the motion passed. R E S O L U T I O N Corporal Dale Donham efficiently and effectively served the Arkansas State Police for a period of thirty-three years, six months, and sixteen days; Corporal Dale Donham retired from this department November 30, 2011; His departure creates a vacancy that will be most difficult to fill, which is recognized by each and every member of the Arkansas State Police Commission; Corporal Dale Donham has made formal request that his shotgun be retired with him and remain in his possession; BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED: The Arkansas State Police Commission, in its regular meeting at Arkansas State Police Headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas on Thursday, January 12, 2012 in accordance with Act 547 of 2003, determines the fair market value of the Remington shotgun, serial number PC535469, that Corporal Dale Donham has carried be affixed at $100.00, and that Corporal Dale Donham be permitted to purchase the shotgun for his personal use. Commissioner Fowler moved that the foregoing motion be approved, Commissioner Futrell seconded and the motion passed. Fiscal Report Emma French Ms. French presented an oral summary of the written report distributed to the Commission. She advised we should be at about 50%, and we are right about where we need to be. The only other news that I have is that we did put out the bid for the $2 million for the Health Plan CD s. That bid will be opened on the 17 th of January.

4 January 12, Page 4 Commissioner Allison asked if we were just rocking right along, and Ms. French advised we are watching everything closely. Commissioner Futrell asked what fuel had been budgeted for in FY12, and Ms. French stated it had been budgeted at $4.00 a gallon. Commissioner Allison asked what we are paying for fuel, if it was $3.20 s or $3.10 s. Ms. French advised it is something like that. She said she thought the last bulk fuel was purchased at $2.96 a gallon. Commissioner Allison asked if we have specific gas up points, specific service stations we use. Ms. French explained there are four bulk fuel tanks around the state at different troops and then we have the one here at headquarters. Everyone with a vehicle is issued a Voyager fuel card that can be used at various locations around the state. Commissioner Allison asked if they offered a discount, and Ms. French explained there is a Voyager card rebate that we get at the end of each year, but we pay the price at the pump when we use our credit cards. Commissioner Allison asked where the bulk fuel tanks are around the state, and he was told they are at Troop J, Clarksville, Troop B, Newport, Troop G, Hope, and Troop C, Jonesboro. Commissioner Allison asked why we didn t have them at all troops. Ms. French explained since she s been here two troops have had them removed because of the expense of maintaining them and the failure to pass the environmental testing for the tanks. Administrative Services Captain Stan Witt Captain Witt presented an oral summary of the written report distributed to the Commission. He stated on our Personnel Actions for the month of December, we had one commissioned volunteer resignation, one civilian volunteer resignation, two civilian new hires, four commissioned retirements, two civilian retirements, and 17 commissioned promotions which were Trooper First Class being promoted to Corporal. And we had one disciplinary hearing the month of December. In our training section during the month of December we sent our Drill Instructors to the Fit Force Coordination Class. The Fit Force is the model that we are going to use in our physical assessment testing when that begins and it s also going to be the model that we do during the 2012 Troop School. So we had our Drill Instructors certified in that class to be certified instructors in Fit Force. As you know we are trying to prepare for Troop School, and we sent out over 3,300 applicant letters for testing, and as a result about 15% or 16% response is all we received. Going through that process of the applicants who showed up for testing, we have lost several. In meeting with Colonel Howard and Lt. Colonel K Nuckles about running so thin in applicants, we did not believe we were going to have enough qualified applicants to even consider hiring 35 for Troop School, besides having any alternates. We decided any new applicants who have applied online prior to our cutoff would be notified and we would extend our testing for an additional 130 or so applicants. It s been quite a challenge to get all this crunched into this timeline we have scheduled. We are still scheduled to begin Troop School on the 26 th of February. As a result of our extended testing, this year we are going to have to have two conference calls with the Commission to go over the eligibility list for approval. We have two scheduled dates for these calls and hopefully you will be available on that day, so at least we can have a quorum. The first call is scheduled for January 20 th at 1:00 o'clock. The second phone conference is scheduled for February 6 th at 1:00 o'clock.

5 January 12, Page 5 Captain Witt then went over the Health Insurance for the month of December. He reported the claims were higher by about $260,000 and the fund balance was lower by about $520,000. He reported the total medical, pharmacy, dental and vision claims for the month of December was $1,091,000. He stated that was the first time this year it went over the million dollar mark. The total fund balance at the end of December is higher compared to last December by $1,043,000. Our fund balance in 2010 was up $1.66 million, so over the last two-year period our health insurance fund balance has increased by $2.78 million. That is directly attributed to the health care discounts we are now getting. Our discounts and our health care with United Health Care is running around anywhere from 48% to 61% depending on what procedure a person has. When we were with CoreSource our discounts averaged about 30%, so you can see there s quite a bit of difference with United Health Care. Captain Witt explained the minority report for the department for the month of December shows Arkansas s workforce is still at 14.4%; our commissioned minority is at 15%, and civilian is at 17.5%. Colonel Howard asked Captain Witt to go over the Legislative Council Sub-Committee Meeting they attended the day before regarding the health plan. He stated they had been over there in September or October and one of the representatives had asked for a comparison study of our health plan based on the State Employees Insurance Health Plan to see how they compared. We worked on that to get it ready for this particular meeting yesterday and worked with Paul Atkins in Legislative Audit who made the presentation to the Sub-committee, but the gist of it is that our health plan compared to the State Employees health plan is very similar and in some cases better. So after the presentation yesterday, everything went well and there was no discussion over issues brought up after that, so we hope that from this point on it s a moot issue. Commissioner Allison asked about the improvement of the health plan and if there are any indications now as before that we might have to start charging for the health insurance. He said it looks like we have had marked improvements. He asked if he thinks this is the results of the increased discounts totally. Captain Witt stated it is a direct result of that without question. He advised we had issues with United Health Care or UMR when we first transferred over to them. We were not getting the service we were accustomed to, but their representatives from Texas came up last Monday to meet with us to discuss all the issues we have. We were assured those issues would be corrected, and I think things are moving in the right direction now to where if we have a member call in they will get immediate results. Commissioner Allison asked if we had not hired the claims representative from the former third party, and Captain Witt advised we had hired Ms. Sherry Woods who had been with CoreSource for 30 years. She knows our health plan inside and out. In fact when they were our third party administrator she was our go to person that we went to every time we had issues, so she became very familiar with our plan, and we were fortunate enough to hire her over here. She is making great strides and correcting issues in our favor. Commissioner Allison asked if Ms. Woods had attended the Sub-committee meeting with them and Captain Witt advised that she had not attended. Those attending included the Colonel, Lt. Colonel, Wayne Eddy, and myself who had appeared before the committee. Commissioner Allison told Captain Witt he hopes he does as good a job in his new position as Major Sparks did and that he suspects he will. Captain Witt said he did not realize all the things that go on in Administrative Services, and that it has been a real eye-opening experience. He said he also realizes that a lot of Major Sparks knowledge was gained by experience, and that s the only way he s going to get it. He said you can learn just so much, but a lot of it has to be through experiencing it.

6 January 12, Page 6 Commissioner Futrell asked if most of the retirees are making a transition to Medicare and Medipak. Captain Witt advised they are staying with our insurance until they reach 65, and then they will go to Medicare which will be their primary insurance. Commissioner Futrell asked if they are moving to Part D or Part F as discussed in one of our past meetings. Captain Witt advised we are looking to do that, get the Part F, but we have run into a contract issue with State Procurement and awarding on those. We are expecting to get to those maybe in April. NEW BUSINESS: Commission Chairman Smith asked for a motion to approve the stipend of $60.00 per meeting. Commissioner Christenson made the motion to approve the stipend payment and it was seconded by Commissioner Fowler. The motion passed. Commission Chairman Smith asked for a motion to approve the mileage reimbursement per meeting. Commissioner Allison made the motion to approve mileage payments, and it was seconded by Commissioner Futrell. The motion passed. APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES: Commission Chairman Smith asked if the Commission was inclined to leave the committees as they were in Commissioner Allison made a motion to that effect. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Fowler and it carried. Commission Chairman Smith asked Colonel Howard if there is a need for an Executive Session. Commissioner Allison asked if they could hear from Counsel before going into Executive Session on the appeal hearing for Don Johnson. Greg Downs then addressed the Commission advising they should have in their package, an appeal request from Don Johnson on his transfer to Troop G and demotion. That transfer happened on December 7 th. Also in the packet from his attorney, Robert Newcomb, is his motion to stay that transfer. You also have my response to the motion. I believe today you need to set the appeal date. You're probably going to want another hearing officer. I don t think the appeal will take a long time, at least on my part. He admitted all the charges against him before the Command Staff Review Board. I think you could probably do it after the next Commission meeting if you wanted to or the one in March, either way. Some of that may depend on getting a hearing officer from the Attorney General s Office. The motion to stay, it s in your packet, Mr. Newcomb has asked to stay the transfer, and my response, also in the packet, advises the transfer happened back on December 7 th, so I d say that s a moot point now. He s already been down there. He hasn t been forced to buy housing yet, so he can move back if you reverse the Colonel s decision. You can also enhance the Colonel s decision and terminate him. You can do what you want in that appeal hearing. But I ve also argued that the Commission itself under both law and the Commission rules does not have the power to stay the Colonel s disciplinary decision. Under law, he has the responsibility and duty to impose discipline. Now after a hearing, you can reverse that decision, you can enhance that decision, or you can just affirm that decision. So today, I believe you should probably set the appeal hearing and then consider the motion and come back into session and vote on that motion to stay. If you have any other questions, if that doesn t explain it, I will be happy to answer any questions. I ll also point out that your liaison, Meredith Rebsamen, could not be here today. On the hearing itself you could also hold a separate hearing, like we did a telephonic hearing like we did for Rhew and address this motion with Mr. Newcomb if he wants to be there. That s another option if you don t want to decide the motion today.

7 January 12, Page 7 Commissioner Allison asked if we as a Commission decide to support the Colonel and his disciplinary action, we come out and vote in favor of that? Mr. Downs advised that they will have to have the hearing first, but today they can vote on Mr. Newcomb s motion to stay the transfer, which of course has already happened. What that would do is pull him back from Troop G where he s assigned to Lafayette County and put him back here where one of the six issues, at least two or three of those involve him being around his ex-wife and his family. But if you approve his motion to stay, you grant it. Then he comes back here until the hearing. Commissioner Allison asked what would happen if the Commission does nothing, Mr. Downs said he stays there. Commissioner Futrell stated we basically have to have a hearing. Mr. Downs advised the Commission should probably grant it or deny it either way at some point. He said the Commission rules do not address that, but they do address the setting of the appeal hearing within a reasonable time. He did not submit correctly the first time under the commission rules, his notice of appeal. He did to us, but his motion to stay, when he finally did, we responded and now it s back on the agenda. I do believe the appeal hearing should definitely be set today. EXECUTIVE SESSION: With no new business to come before the Commission at 10:47 a.m. Commission Chairman Smith announced the Commission would retire into Executive Session to discuss personnel matter. The open session resumed at 11:27 a.m. with no action taken. Commissioner Allison made a motion to deny the stay request. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Fowler. The motion passed. Commissioner Allison then made the motion to have the hearing immediately following the next commission meeting on February 9, 2012 with the appeal hearing beginning at 11:00. Commissioner Futrell asked if Mr. Downs had checked with Counsel yet, and he advised he has not, but they have talked on the phone about the motion. When Mr. Newcomb gets notice of the hearing, if he has problems with the timing he can raise it directly. I just want to emphasize under the rules that he needs to send things to the executive secretary, and the executive secretary will disseminate any kind of motions from either party. I have made him aware of that, and that way it gives the Commission an opportunity to review these things ahead of time so you are not blindsided the day of the Commission Meeting. Commissioner Futrell asked Mr. Downs if there is a conflict in date if he will check with the chairman and we ll set another date. Mr. Downs asked if the Commission would like for him to contact the Attorney General s Office to get a hearing officer. The Commission asked that he do that. Commission Chairman Smith asked if you called that an Administrative Law Judge and Mr. Downs said it is a type of Administrative Law Judge, but he s a hearing officer that you can ask for under the rules, because obviously I represent the Colonel so you need some kind of impartial person to kind of rule on evidence or whatever.

8 January 12, Page 8 Commission Chairman Smith asked if it will be Charlie Moulton, and Mr. Downs advised he had seen him in the hall at the Attorney General s Office this week, and he will be glad to do it again. He is familiar with the Commission and the rules and everything. I would suggest I ask him. Commission Chairman Smith asked Mr. Downs to see if Mr. Moulton can do it. Commissioner Allison moved that all Members of the Commission be members of the Foundation. Commissioner Futrell seconded the motion, and it carried. NEXT MEETING: Commissioner Fowler asked if it were going to be in the minutes that Commission meetings for 2012 would be set for the second Thursday in each month. The February meeting of the Arkansas State Police Commission will be held February 9, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. with the appeal hearing to follow at 11:00 a.m. Commissioner Shepherd moved the meeting be adjourned. Commissioner Futrell seconded it, and the motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 11:32 a.m. Commission Chairman Commission Secretary