Week one: 270 ideas flow in to state 'box'

Comments range from pay to beer

Gov Asa Hutchinson is shown in this photo.
Gov Asa Hutchinson is shown in this photo.

Arkansans submitted hundreds of ideas to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's virtual suggestion box in its first week, asking for changes affecting everything from beer sales to foster children.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Mischa Martin director of the Division of Children and Family Services.

Responses ranged from thoughtful (putting a single state government office in each county to save money and tie services together) to frustrated: "Gov. Asa Hutchinson should resign." In total, more than 270 suggestions have been submitted.

Popular submissions included legalizing recreational marijuana, improving the foster care experience for children and foster parents, ending executions and blocking the Ten Commandments monument that's set to go up on the Capitol grounds.

Hutchinson and Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, were the officials most named in the citizen inquiries.

Two people asked the governor to keep Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge off national television.

People who identified themselves as state employees highlighted wasteful spending, asked for cost-of-living raises and said they wanted officials to make smarter hires.

And one man -- who said he moved from New York state to Arkansas -- said all he wanted was to be able to buy beer on Sundays.

"My final goal is to walk to the store on a beautiful, Fall, Sunday morning, followed by walking home with beer to enjoy the National Football League," Henry Belding wrote.

Hutchinson announced the online suggestion box on May 18. Anyone wishing to submit an idea can go to myidea.arkansas.gov or call (884) 769-4332.

"The MyIdea line is a means for Arkansans -- citizens, taxpayers -- to submit ideas from their perspective on how we can improve state services and find efficiencies throughout state government to make their lives easier," Amy Fecher, the governor's chief transformation officer, said Friday.

Foster care

Multiple ideas were submitted regarding the foster care system in Arkansas.

"As a foster child in the system, I have experienced extreme frustration along the way as there seems to be few case workers and too much load on those case workers, which in turn causes them to focus on one child rather than multiple families in the system," 17-year-old Dylan Johnston of Cabot wrote.

"There needs to be a better system in managing the cases in the state and better standards for doing so rather than just pushing a case off to the side until someone can answer your questions."

In an interview, Johnston said he's been in the foster care system since February 2016. In that time, he's had two caseworkers.

"For the longest time, they couldn't figure out who my caseworker was," he said.

A 7-month delay in getting auto insurance through a program offered through the Department of Human Services also was a headache. He had to ask for rides to get to his job.

Johnston said after trying for months to handle the situation through his local office, a call to the main office in Little Rock finally resolved his situation.

"I didn't think much of it," he said of his submission to the MyIdea website. "I thought I might as well give it a shot and see if anybody sees it."

Another person said the Division of Children and Family Services can be too quick to return children to the homes from which they were removed.

"Too many times I've seen children put back into parents' homes when they still don't have the capacity to care for them," wrote one person. "Then, they return back into care with more harm done than before! It is ridiculous that a child protective service agency's primary focus is not actually protecting children and giving them the best chance at life."

A former foster parent wrote that he quit because it was too frustrating working with the state.

"Provide more funding, training or anything else that will improve foster care, thus resulting in an increase of willing foster parents," he wrote.

"We quit fostering years ago due to such a broken system. We had case workers who weren't checking on the kids we had in our home. We had DHS employees lying to a judge about the kids getting visitations and medical/dental care. Nearly 5 years after we stopped fostering, we get a bill for $900 for overpayment!"

Mischa Martin became director of the Division of Children and Family Services last year. She has touted changes to improve relations with foster parents and the organizations that recruit them.

Also, Hutchinson has made division funding a priority. Lawmakers have approved a nearly $27 million increase for the division. More caseworkers are being hired, and those at the division are to receive a pay increase to combat high turnover.

In an email Friday, Amy Webb, a spokesman for the Division of Children and Family Services, listed 11 steps taken to support and retain foster parents.

They include: reorganizing the central office so there is a foster parent manager to address complaints and attend foster parent conferences in Arkansas; creating foster parent surveys and focus groups; pushing legislative changes to allow foster parents more access to information about children; and streamlining the application process.

A review of recent state reports indicates that the number of foster families is increasing after several years of stagnation.

State employees

Some commenters who identified themselves as state employees welcomed a new state pay plan, which will increase many employees' salaries, but they complained about lazy employees and inconsistent application of cost-of-living pay raises.

"In order to improve state government, the focus should be to hire and retain qualified employees," wrote one anonymous person who claimed to be a former state employee.

"The new pay plan is on the right track; however, the state must begin to [focus] on hiring the best applicants. Many state employees are lazy and depend on others to complete tasks. The knowledgeable and hardworking employees leave due to burnout and carrying the weight of the work."

Others suggested that leaders think about state government more holistically. One Office of Child Support Enforcement employee said the state could save money by combining county offices.

"DHS, Revenue, child support should be in one location. DHS clients must visit [Office of Child Support Enforcement] for info, then drive across town to provide income verification for benefits," Kelly Wooten wrote. "Why waste rent money and travel between agencies instead of putting everything in one place?"

Multiple people wrote that government officials should use online tools, like GoToMeeting, instead of driving around the state to attend meetings in person.

Matthew Ramsey, a grants analyst with the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said the state should use independent ombudsman offices to resolve disputes and reduce costly litigation, lost productivity and low morale.

It's a job he personally would be interested in, he said in an interview.

Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, a member of the Transformation Advisory Board, said he was not surprised that state employees were a source of cost-saving ideas. He said he often asks what could be done to save money as he travels around the state, and they offer good responses.

He said, "I totally agree with that" when asked about consolidating state services into single county offices. He added that offices are structured in that manner in some counties.

For Griffin, transformation is about finding ways to provide government services for less money.

"We can deliver the services better, and here's the beauty, we can do it cheaper," he said in an interview Friday. "We will do it for less money, which means we can lower taxes. We can invest in infrastructure and highways.

Comments on firearms

Multiple people commented about guns, particularly pertaining to college campuses in the state.

Some said they fear the new law that allows a person who, with enhanced training provided by Arkansas State Police, can legally carry a concealed weapon on a university campus.

"I was considering taking a summer course at UALR, but I'm afraid to, with guns allowed on campus," Jane Rampona of Little Rock wrote. "I have several professors, who are personal friends, who are now looking for jobs at other campuses as a result of this new law. A few years ago I was in a graduate class with a student who was shot in the leg with a BB gun returning to her car after class."

Rampona said in an interview that she is over 60, so she qualifies for free tuition.

During this year's regular legislative session, lawmakers approved Act 562, which creates an "enhanced" concealed-carry license that would allow gun owners with extra training to take their weapons onto college grounds, into bars and churches, and at most publicly funded facilities, including the state Capitol.

Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, who was the bill's sponsor, has said the law is aimed at dissuading would-be murderers from areas where law-abiding citizens could have guns.

Other suggestion submitters said they wanted officials to "acknowledge" that Arkansas is a "constitutional carry" state where permits are not required for carrying weapons.

"Publicly announce we are a constitutional carry state and that there is no AR statute that prohibits open or conceal carry without a permit," one person wrote.

More than half a dozen Arkansans submitted similar requests.

Some open-carry advocates have cited a 2015 opinion on Act 746 of 2013, in which Rutledge wrote: "While I do not encourage 'open carry,' it is my opinion that if a person does not have the intent to 'attempt to unlawfully employ a handgun ... as a weapon against another,' he or she may possess a handgun ... readily available for use ... without violating [state law]."

Judd Deere, a spokesman for the attorney general, said the office has never written an opinion on "constitutional carry."

SundayMonday on 05/28/2017

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