Quorum Court - Regular Meeting

Where's the gamble? Will the Washington County Services Committee please come to order? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. Tonight we have Kyle Lions to lead in the prayer and the pledge. Will everybody stand in honor? Thank you, Justice Lions. Thank you,

please bow with me. God will guide you with wisdom when you seek me sincerely. God's word in James 15 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him as God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." You don't have to figure it out all out alone. Just ask and God will show you the way forward with clarity, patience, and peace. Lord, give us the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do it as we conduct business tonight. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Justice Lines. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? Second. I have a motion by Justice Ricker. Second by Justice Limming and Justice Dennis. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose. The agenda has been adopted. Before we get started on the chairman's report, I'd like to thank all of our citizens for joining us at this county services meeting. And as we all know, it's election time. And I will ask and be very firm that there be no campaigning for any side during this county services meeting because that is a violation of state law and it's unethical. With that, I will I thank you very much for your cooperation. The chairman's report. I join nearly 2,000 county leaders from across the country for the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference February 21st through the 24th. I'm going to wait till the citizens have all been seated. Everybody settled? Thank you. As I said, I joined over 2,000 county leaders from across the country for the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference this past February 21st through the 24th. We still have yet others coming in. The purpose of the conference is to shape NATO's legislative agenda, receive updates on key federal policies, and advocate for county priorities on Capitol Hill. Serving as Washington County and as a member of the NAO criminal justice and public safety policy steering committee was a distinct honor for me. The

committee's work is vital to advancing effective public policy in areas that impact the safety as well and the well-being of our communities. Discussions at the conference address critical issues impacting counties, including criminal justice, public safety reforms, federal disaster policies, property tax, and permitting. Making meaningful progress in these areas requires ongoing communication and collaboration with our federal office officials as well as a strong intergovernmental partnership along with councelor Lester and uh AAC associates that were at the conference. We had the distinct honor and p privilege to be invited to the green room by Congressman Westerman and we were able to have a nice private conversation and discuss much about what is going on with permitting. And just to let you know, in Arizona, they found a copper mine, and there was billions of dollars invested in this copper mine to mine this precious mineral from from the earth. And he talked about it takes 29 years to get a permit to mine. And the reasons that he gave were just ridiculous. And those are things that he is chairing. He's a chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. He says, "We have to do something about this." And there's other um industries that would like to do business, but they

can't because it takes 15 years, 10 years, 30 years to get things done. I didn't know it. So, I appreciate Congressman Westerman giving us the opportunity to talk to him privately and um share with us what he's going through on Capitol Hill and how he's fighting on behalf of the American people. With that said, we're moving on to item number five on the agenda and that is our juvenile detention director, Director Tinsley. Good evening.

Good evening, Madam Chair, and good evening to the county service committee members. Uh, I'd like to share our juvenile detention center monthly report for February 2026. This report covers 24 days of data. In February, we had 26 intakes and the average length of stay was about 12.51 days. Our average daily population came out to just over 9.75 residents per day. The most common charge, excuse [clears throat] me for intakes was domestic battery, third misdemeanor at four cases. Of the 26 intakes from Washington and Madison counties, 13 were from division 8 and 13 were from division 3. We also had five transports during the month of February. All five transport transport, excuse me, were handled by the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center. That concludes the February 2026 report. Are there any questions that I may answer at this time?

Does this court have any questions? I have Justice Koger. One moment, please. [cough] Justice Koger. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I do have a couple of questions. It looks like last month the high the highest number we had at any one time in the detention was 17 per day and this month it was down to 12 but the number it says if I'm reading this correctly uh for the la for the report days 24 days we had 463 days of detention.

Yes ma'am. So those are kids that are already come over from last month as well. Uh Justice Kogan. And so some are staying longer than others. So that's just a total of days in detention. Okay. Um let me see if I had I I think that was my only question. If I think of the other, I'll reach out to you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Are there any other questions for Director Tinsley? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Oh, I have one. Let me get this on. Justice Lopez. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, just very briefly, um, what is an LEO?

Law enforcement officer. Okay. I wanted to make sure. Um, was it like a student resource officer in the school or was this Well, uh, as much as I can talk about it is, um, this law enforcement officer went out to a, um, treatment facility and, uh, was, uh, assaulted by a, u resident and so that's what happened in that particular incident. Yes, sir. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, thank you, sir. Have a good evening. Thank you, Madam Chair. Moving on to item number six, we have the sheriff's office

with Sheriff Cantrol. Good evening, sir. How are you?

Good evening, Madam Chair and uh [clears throat] members of the committee. I'm doing well, thank you. this a this afternoon you've got your report in front of you uh with our uh enforcement and jail activities. Uh we can see that the cost for service for our enforcement divisions up less little less than 10% but that's not anything unusual. Um detention intakes are down. We sent fewer to prison. Um the prisons are are full and the county jails are backing up. So uh we're no exception to that with our with our numbers. uh currently at about 198 waiting to go to prison. Our average high counts down a little bit. U you can see the daily average daily population on our federal or our state prisoners. Federal prisoners was 85 compared to 77 this time last year, but they've uh removed some. So our federal numbers are now at 74. Pre-trial numbers are down and we're thankful for that. But [clears throat] any I'll be I'd be happy to answer any questions for the about this report or any other questions the committee might have.

I have Justice Koger. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Um Sheriff Cantrell, could you tell us h how many COVID pe how many COVID cases we have in the jail today? Uh no COVID today. And no one's in quarantine. No one's in quarantine today. Okay. How about the 309 prisoners? 309 count is still at 35. And uh when you said pre-trial was down, do you have a number for the number of pre-trials? Uh yes. Uh pre-trial total is uh today 402. 402. Yeah, that was this morning. 402. Okay. And what about how many were sleeping on the floor last night?

Uh last night at midnight there were 169 without a bunk. Okay. And do you have it broken down into how many men are in jail and how many women are in jail? Yes, I do. Uh we have uh well we have 7 whenever I printed this report 747 114 of those were female. So Okay. And you said we had uh federal 85. Uh that was the average of last month, but today we have 74.

Okay. Uh what about it says on your report it says state prisoner average daily population is 205. Is that about how many we have in the jail right now waiting to go to? Yeah. 198 this morning.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's all I had. I do have a question. If if someone is being incarcerated or serving out six to two years in the jail, do they have an email? Do they have access to communicate with those outside through email or is that e Can you explain that process to me? Because it was raised. I received a phone call about a church member wanting to reach out and encourage somebody that was in um being incarcerated or serving out their time. But the only way that he could email him is if he deposited money into his account. He goes, "I don't want to give him money. I just want to talk to him." and and it was just he didn't understand the process. I don't understand the process and could you share with me who either in your office could explain this to me further or or what?

Sure. Yeah, they do have access to an email service. However, it does come with a cost. It's 50 cents per email. That email can be two words or it can be up to eight pages uh for the for 50 cents. Uh but but there is a cost. They do have access to uh the US mail and they get two envelopes a week, the indigent package. They get two envelopes a week that they can mail out and then they can receive uh as much mail as someone wants to send them. That mail that mail is sent to a third party provider who scans that mail into a uh server and then it's downloaded onto a kiosk into this detaineees account. Uh we we started getting a lot of contraband in the mail. people would soak pages, letters uh in diluted meth and then they would eat the paper when it came in. So, so we've uh except for legal mail, we don't accept just regular letters from the post office. They go to that third party, they they're scanned in and then the detainee keeps them on their file as a PDF.

Okay. Regarding the emails, you you mentioned a kiosk account that [clears throat] do if somebody wants like the church member wants to communicate back and forth, does it have to be through depositing money into that account? Well, that's the only way they can uh receive emails because they cost 50 cents. So, they have to have some money uh on their inmate account. And how much is the the the kiosk just c charges, not a service? It's like if you go to an ATM, it's $2.50 per transaction. Is there a transaction fee that they charge?

Yes, if you use a credit card, there is a transaction fee, but I believe you can deposit cash. You can come to the jail and there's a machine that will accept cash. You can deposit cash without a transaction fee without any transa because he was saying I he said I didn't have a choice. I go to the kiosk outside, you know, put in $20 and $4 fee to send an email. And he was upset. And I said, "I don't know, but I'll find out. Believe me, there there's there's logic to this process." Right. Okay. But but but they can they can write a letter if they want to write [clears throat] a letter. Okay. Through US mail. Through the US mail. Yes.

That that still costs whatever the cost of a stamp is to do that. But the the inmate has to have money in their account to receive the email. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that and I will share that with that church member. And I have um Justice Dennis. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just like to take a minute and thank you and all the officers and the way they took good care of Eddie Gore. Uh it was above and beyond. That was a thank you for taking care of I appreciate that. That was a tragic situation and you know I've known Eddie for a lot of years and uh so have I. He's he's a good individual. Yes. Uh

thank you. Yeah,

that does remind me. I do want to point out one quick I know we've got a a crowd and I don't want to belabor my time here, but the Christian County Sheriff's Office in Missouri up in Ozark, Missouri, lost two deputies uh in a tragic event last week, may have been a week and a half ago in a in a shooting shootout with a bad guy and lost two deputies. They're a small department, don't have a lot of resources, but Northwest Arkansas stepped up uh for their funeral and for their visitation. Uh the sheriff the Washington County Sheriff's Office, we sent five honor guard members up there to help with that. The Benton County Sheriff's Office sent six honor guard members. The Fateville Police Department uh sent a team of honor guard up there to uh help honor those officers and their families. So u Northwest Arkansas uh rose to the occasion and went up and and helped our brothers and sisters in in Missouri is just a couple of counties away and assisted them with that uh tragedy up there. So, I was very proud of of uh our folks here in Washington County and and all of Northwest Arkansas.

Amen. Thank you, Justice Dennis, for bringing that to our attention. It still just grabs you when law enforcement men go down. Thank you. I have Justice Koger. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh Sheriff, what about you said 50 cents. What if someone doesn't have 50 cents and they need to talk to their lawyer or to a family member? Are they They can write They can write a letter. They get two letters a week that they can write a letter. They can talk to their lawyer. Uh the public defender we have a access that they can uh contact public defender at no charge.

But the internet just as is not that expensive. Could the county could we not just make some arrangements where people could have access to a certain number of emails with at free of charge if they didn't have the money? Well, we have to the service uh comes at a cost. It's not the county's email server. It's a third party provider. And so, you know, I don't I don't think they're interested in doing it for free. Okay. What about phone calls? Phone calls. Uh they're they're a charge for phone calls, too. They can call bondsmen. They can call uh the public defender uh at no charge, but they can't just uh call their family or call random people without it costing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other questions? I have Justice Lopez. So if someone uh in our jail Thank you chair I apologize. So someone is in the jail and they are deemed indigent they are provided two envelopes a week. Do they incur fees on the stampage that is has to go out to get those envelopes or that is provided by the county? Correct. Those are provided by the county. Perfect. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Seeing none. Thank you Sheriff.

Have a good madam chair. Next on the agenda, we have item number seven, the dark side of home care, exposing fraud in senior care. And we've invited um this is by Jacqueline Ryan. And I've invited Miss Ryan to educate and inform us about the legislative action she's fighting regarding senior care. Jackie is a successful realtor who specializes in commercial real estate, has faced the heart-wrenching time in her life when her parents were no longer able to care for themselves. She, like many of us, a professional that was thrown into the wormhole of senior health care without knowledge. She has written a book exposing the caregivers caregivers um information on senior care contract uh contracted wait a minute contracting established home health care agencies. She discovered that appearances can be deceiving, can't they? She learned that pitfalls and landmines of inappropriate and unscrupulous scare tactics. If you'll push your button right there, I'll turn on your mic.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I'd like to say thank you for being here and u sharing this information on senior care. Nobody knows what to ha what happens when a crisis happens with your loved one. My dad just fell and broke his hip. As the saying is nowadays, one fall does it all. And so I had no idea I was entering the wormhole of healthc care. My career, as chairman Ekki said, is real estate. I've done uh real estate in the state of Texas and Arkansas. I have been fingerprinted and background checked selling you a piece of dirt. Not even been in your home. I have been fingerprint and background checked in Texas and in Arkansas.

So, [snorts] Jackie, will you do me a favor and bring the mic a little bit closer to you? I know you've got a soft voice. Does that work? That works better. Thank you. Thank you.

So, I did a um I hoped only take about 13 minutes. I'm going to go really quick, but very effective, I hope. Um, regarding the state of Arkansas, elder financial abuse in the state is a costly crime. This is of uh July 20th, 2025, where the attorney general estimates losses at $3.7 million last year. This is in Arkansas alone. Um, elderly Americans lose more than 28 billion a year to financial exploitation and the results can be devastating. losing significant portions of their life savings or property etc. So there is a real crisis. The silver tsunami we call it is here. Silver tsunami. [laughter] So it's not coming. It's already here. It's been here for really 10 years. I authored this book uh five years ago. I'll get to that shortly. But I wanted to focus on uh the elder financial abuse in the state. This is uh scams, texts, fraud, u emails, all this. Uh my my husband probably got five today. We all get them every single day. Gee, here it is from JD Vance. Let me just talk to JD Vance, right? Or [laughter] you it's it's all of this. It's so tiring. And if I was over 75 or 80 years old and I've been told that, oh, okay, there's JD Vance. Let's let's click on that. So, it's a real problem, the elder financial abuse of fraud. Um, secondly, and this uh, Mike Maserson, which a lot of us knew and respected him as a journalist in Arkansas Democrat Gazette, um, he got a hold of my book and he wrote an article about vulnerable at risk scartakers

in which a nation is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable. A lot of attention's been placed on children, rightfully so, but not on our elderly. And I think it's because our elderly have already done their due. They've paid their way and now they're thrown into a nursing home or they're at home alone and isolated. But hey, let's take care of these kids. Let's put the laws in place for the kids, for the vulnerable. But whether it's the kids or the elderly, they're all vulnerable on a different spectrum. So Mike Mastersonson wrote an article. The next page is about my father, Jack Perry. He and another partner started Cramal Lot, which was uh Walmart was their first account um doing the trash compacting and bailing of trash here in Springdale. and he was uh you know prevalent in the community as well as my mother Joanne Perry who'd been the county treasurer here for over 20 years. And so what happened to my dad over a 7-year period after he had fallen and uh myself and my siblings had contacted a local home care agency here. We went through many different caregivers through the agency whether they would not show up or whatever the problems were until about four months later and Claire showed up. One, she showed up. Two, she showed up on time. Three, she had a great smile. She was engaging and we were so excited that Claire is finally somebody that we can work with. And dad liked her. We liked her. She didn't care that dad smoked. She didn't care that dad had a dog. and she didn't care that he had cattle and she really

uh we we welcome welcomed her into our family and this is what happens. We welcome these caregivers into our family. I felt like I made a new best friend because she's very engaging with me and everything until uh much later in the story that she disclosed about three years into it because it's about a seven-year period that she had been in jail for meth. She had been in jail for meth. And I went to the home care agency here in Springdale and they knew it. But they didn't want to lose my dad's $200,000 account. They didn't fire her and they knew it when they hired her from a different agency. Yeah. She'd been in jail for meth. Okay. So, long story short, there's a picture of my dad where he had fallen. this is why he was paying $25 an hour that he had fallen. He had stitches in his head, a black eye. He said he was okay. I called the DHS. They finally came out to look at him, but hey, he's not on Medicaid. So DHS didn't do anything. He said he was fine. They left. Later, a year or so, this is a year before he passed away. I took pictures of these three receipts. These three receipts cost me my dad's health POA. I didn't even have access to his financial POA. I was not as financial as health. I could see my dad's house from where I built my house. I moved here to be close to my parents. I didn't have a job relocation. I'm from here. I do commissiononly real estate. And I came here, I chose to come here because I was concerned about my parents aging. It's called agism nowadays. So, this uh I call it the scare taker. convinced my dad I was going to take his money and put him in a nursing home, which never crossed my mind. And actually, he had fallen [snorts] about 30 days after I was removed as his POA

for healthc care. Yeah, she accomplished that. She called up She probably had called up the attorney, hand the phone to my dad. My dad uh had me removed because he thought I was after his money. He fell. He called me. I was there like in four minutes. I sat there for over two hours waiting for my mother's son to show up and for somebody else from the home care agency to show up. And I asked my dad one question. I said, "Why did you remove me as your POA?" I said, "I would have had you at the doctor's 30 minutes ago, like at 7:30, 8 o'clock in the morning." He said, "You were after my money." I said, "I don't need your money." He says, "I know that." how do you argue with your elder who does have some dementia? So, I just shut up and I left. And that was the last time my father ever called me. He never stopped by to see me. that lasted for a year before he died. Because I promise you, this Claire probably chewed him out so bad for calling me that he never called me, his daughter, ever again. I would go down there on Sundays to take the Sunday paper. How you doing? Here's a paper. Okay. You had nothing to say to me. We never went out for breakfast or lunch or anything after that because she knew I was on to her and she stabbed me in the back. It happens to a lot of us. So [snorts] that caused me compelled me to write this book caregivers caretakers exposing

fraud in senior care because 30 pages is my data. It could have been 300, but who wants to read all that? My mother's pages are only about eight pages because when she got home from a perforated bowel from cancer, I had to call a different home care agency. I called a different home care agency, but hey, they sent somebody out and that person stole my mom's oxycottton hydrocodone the first week. Divorced parents 30 minutes away and this is going on at the same time. Anyway, but it's not only me. These are other people's stories here locally in the state of Arkansas. Couple in Texas because it's a real thing. When you're hiring a home care agency, you think you're getting a vetted caregiver. Well, what do you think you get when you pay a home care agency 20 $25 an hour and they pay the home care caregiver 10 or 14 an hour? maybe at his independent contractor, which is wrong. Should be W2. So, what are you going to get for somebody who wants to sit around with a old person watching TV all day getting $14 an hour as a $1099? [snorts] So, in my book, I say raising the bar on caregivers will raise the bar on the quality of care. So yes, [clears throat] um the last picture is when my dad had fallen again and broke his elbow that was not under the fraudulent caregiver, but a caregiver that obviously was busy texting on her phone down the hallway. So that leads me to what I'm doing. Um, and I came across this FBI ratback because I was sitting up here doing my broker, my Texas real estate broker renewal, uh, about 2019. It's like, what

is this FBI ratback? It's it's an ongoing real time background check. So, let me put it in this perspective. This is for the Texas Real Estate Commission has implemented this for the realtors in the state of Texas. It needs to be for the realtors nationwide and it needs to be for anybody who's caring for humanity. It can be implemented for and there's about maybe eight states that have implemented this in different professions but for school teachers for healthcare workers and stuff. Um so I did a print out of what it is, how it works, why it matters. And no, Arkansas doesn't have it. I have been working for the last five years uh to try to get better laws in the state of Arkansas to protect our seniors. So FBI ratback ongoing real time. A real quick example would be like if I say Missy Lou is over in Taloqua, Oklahoma for the weekend gets bested for doing meth dealing drugs. She gets bailed out. She comes back to work at the Meadows in Springdale. I'm just giving hypothesis. and the owners, the employer does not know, you know, she's bailed out, she's back to work, who knows? Who cares? Well, with FBI rat back, this would notify Oklahoma State Police would notify Arkansas State Police, who would notify the current employer, not that she's guilty, but just let the employer know that Missy was picked up for drug dealing a month ago. So, that's what the FBI ratback is about. federal background check ongoing which brings me next to the Alzheimer's Arkansas Alzheimer's Association over 60,000 Aransens over the age of 65 60,000 are living with Alzheimer's and the issue background um again consumer protection that we're

trying to take care of our seniors uh I'll be in Little Rock for the third year on Thursday talking with our legislators about trying to get more protection for our seniors. On the back side of this, this is the Senate Bill 120 was filed by Senator Clint Penzo and Representative Mark Johnson. This legislation would have established consistent lensure standards for all caregivers regardless of their payer type. Arkansas statute only requires lure and oversight for providers who participate in the state's Medicaid program does not include private pay. Home care agencies home care agencies are not licensed. Any of us can go slap on a sign tomorrow and start business caring for the elderly making money. There's no lure for home care agencies. Wow. [snorts] I'm going real quick here. So lastly, it brings me to secure our senior safety. This is a fellow I call her sister and care uh in the Dallas, Texas area. Taking care of those who once took care of us, increasing awareness of vulnerabilities in senior living establishments. So this evening I've talked about fraud, texting, scams, then I talk about home care agencies. Lastly, I'm talking about independent living or assisted living facilities, premises that take care of our loved ones that may pay 10,000 a month to live there. And so when you think about these senior places and they talk about all the wonderful social events and all the wonderful food and everything they do, they don't talk about the security there. So, the timeline for Shannon Dion's mother, who was one

of 22 that were murdered at independent living places there in North Dallas and in Plano, was from 2016 to over 2018, about a two and a half year period. Same guy going to these different places. He would just uh go in sit in the lunchroom, see what wonderful jewelry the women had on, go knock on the door, might say maintenance during the day. All of these were during the day. They'd open the door. He would smother them with his blue latex gloves with a pillow and take all their jewelry. went on for two and a half years because they didn't die of unnatural of natural causes. As the corner had said, this is kind of natural news. No, it needs to be in every senior living place. These are the faces that went with those 22 women that were murdered over a two and a half year period. Not after the third one. Not after the 10th one. This is a places they pay $10,000 a month for. Okay. So, what's that got to do with here? I'll tell you. On the last page, [snorts] uh, I did 2024, two years ago. Things might have changed or gotten better since then. I drag my wonderful husband Max Ryan to the places here in Washington County and to Benton County, but this is only Washington County. Butterfield Trail Village,

ranked F in security. Why is that? Okay, they closed the main gates at 10:00 uh back then. I haven't done it recently, but two different times I would drive onto their premises at 10:30 at night by the eastern gate that's not lit up and drive onto their premises, pull into a garage, driveway, and back out and leave. Nobody stopped me. That during the night and what do you do when you sign in? Do you sign in? Is it required? The sign says, "When you enter Butterfield Trail Village, kindly sign in. Kindly sign in." They're not checking your ID. I stopped over here. They call it Yellow Rock or Piney Ridge, whatever you want to call it, Juvenile Detention Center, to see a staff member. They want me to sign in. They take a picture of my ID and I get a badge about like you do to pick up anybody at school. None of these places in Washington County required us to sign in. [snorts] The threat's real. Oh, it happened here. It can happen here. It happened in Texas. It can happen here. So, I went through a lot in a very short of time. Um, Arkansas ranks 46 of the United States for senior abuse. We need to do better. We need to do better for our humanity. I know I'm at the county level. I'm working at the state and I realized this needs to be this is a federal problem. It's a national problem. So, I'm still working at it. Do I have any questions? Thank you for your time.

I do. Will you please share with us the legislative update that when this when Senator Penzo sponsored your bill to get background check and uh what happened the outcomes of that?

Okay. Thank you, chair. Um, so it passed the Senate committee. It was a learning experience. So we had a family committee which Senator Penzo's on and I spoke at the family committee and it passed at the family committee uh sen at the Senate committee family committee and then it went to the Senate floor. It passed the Senate floor and then it went to the House committee where Jeff Wardlaw was the House chair. Um, the DHS is Matthew Gilmore at DHS. He listened to me at the Senate floor at the Senate committee. I was not at the House committee and then the chair called on Matthew Gilmore and he stated he knew of no stories or cases and he didn't want to overburden the small businesses withorous uh red tape regulation. That's why this failed

by two votes. Correct. It failed by two votes. Actually, uh, Chairman Chair Wlaw called for a uh, yays and nays and there was not a individual call. So, and this bill, we're here to do it again. security background checks not overcoming I mean overburdening businesses

overburdening small businesses I can go start a home care business tomorrow and slap a sticker on my car and start getting clients there was a home care agency that um oh there was an article about me in the newspaper as well but a home care agency contacted me out of Bella Vista he was appalled called he uh moved here, relocated here from Maine and I'll say the name Comfort Keepers. And I'm really [snorts] happy to know Sean Weldon with Comfort Keepers in Bella Vista. He reached out to me regarding this and he couldn't believe what there's hardly any requirements to start a home care agency or to transfer a home care agency business in the state of Arkansas. when he came from Maine, there's like stacks of papers. Um there there's licensing agencies. There's hoops that go through. My god, you're caring for humanity here. So, I'm excited that I have a Benton County homeare agency who's taken this cause on with me and supposedly there's a couple more in Little Rock area.

Thank you. This is um when I heard about this, it's been what, two, three years. Um, it took a while for all of this information to really really sink in because you're going, "Oh my goodness, is this really happening to our elderly?" And uh, it is. So, are there any questions? I have Justice Lming.

I don't have a question. Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have a question, but I will say I was a fire chief for 18 years in Washington County in Lincoln. And [clears throat] it's sad when you find these elderly folks that's laying in their house and laying in feces and their families supposed to be taking care of them. And I I've had probably called the health department about six to 10 times to have to get elderly removed from their homes, not being taken care of. And it's it's a sad situation to see. And this is a very serious problem that we have all over the country. It's not It's here, too. I mean, it's you hear about it every day. And we do need to care better for our seniors. And the sad thing about a lot of these are they don't have no money. They don't they can't they don't have enough money to buy gallon of milk, let alone go to one of these places to stay.

So, it's something serious that really needs to be took care of and and we need to look at it a lot more. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Lenny. Thank you, Justice Lming. Are there any other comments? I want to thank you for coming here. This has been a long time in in the making, and I just want to say thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. Okay. Thank you very much for your consideration and time.

Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have an ordinance adopting the creation of the industrial development authority. This has been tabled from last month to the committee for this month for consideration. And we have Rob Maloney here to answer any of your questions. I have Justice Lions.

Thank you, Chair. [clears throat] The month was well spent. Additional research, additional discussions, getting information from a number of sources, including councelor Lester was very informing. I I I [clears throat] believe I am not in favor of the IDA at this point. I believe it provides too much power to a board whose members are appointed to the board and not elected by the citizens to the board. Understand those that are appointed could be elected because they include quorum court members from the county and other county officials. But the point of the election to the board does not exist. Gives them the power to provide imminent domain which I disagree with giving a board the board that power. gives them the power to negotiate payment in lie of taxes instead of that coming back to the quorum court which I disagree with. Um and we talked about guardrails and there's nothing as you do the research on on the state law etc that requires the board to pick up any guardrails that we put into this ordinance. They basically set up their own process, their own procedures, etc. after we end the ordinance, all that ordinance does is our intention to create the IDA. That's the only purpose in it. It doesn't provide any other capability. Uh gives us very little input, official input or control over that board uh to just go do what they do. Um with that, I'm I'm going to move that we do not send this to the C to the full court.

Second. [applause and cheering] Thank you for your input. [laughter] Um, I don't know if that is a proper motion. It's not a proper motion seeing that the motion um adopted by the agenda is an ordinance adopting the creation of the industrial development agency. So that would have to be either a vote yes or a vote no. And I believe councelor Lester would have like to talk a little bit about that. Thank you.

Yes. So I don't you can't you can't make a motion not to do something, right? So I think if you're wanting to end this tonight, uh there are two options here. One would be a motion to postpone indefinitely, which ultimately kills it. Uh the second would be a motion to remove this item from the agenda, and if that's voted on, then it's it's gone from there. But I I actually think that the best option is to postpone because we've already correct. So, I make a motion we postpone this indefinitely. [applause] Thank you, council. Hold on just a minute. I heard a motion, but I didn't hear the second. So y'all if y'all can please not second.

Okay. I have a motion by Justice Lines. I have a second by Justice Dean to postpone this agenda item indefinitely. Is it open for discussion? It is. It is open for discussion. Does anybody have I have Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Councilman. I believe under our normal rules, uh, when we have a motion to, uh, postpone something indefinitely, um, that means we don't have public comment on it. Is that correct? I I'd like to make a motion then to suspend our normal rules uh, and allow 12 minutes of public our normal 12 minutes of public comment uh, on this session before we go to a final vote.

Second. I have a motion and a second to allow normal p to suspend the rules allowing 12 minutes of public comment time. I will support that if it's 12 minutes because we have a room and if you were to give everybody three minutes to speak, we'll be here to tomorrow. It'd be great, but we think we already know how you all feel about the issue. And um just to show consideration for the time. Yeah, it'll be 12 minutes.

Now we have to vote on the motion to suspend the rules allowing public comment time. I have Justice Koger. Wait one moment, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm go I'm going to ask if attorney Lester could just briefly explain to the public what when we when we vote to postpone indefinitely that that what that means. Maybe there may be people here and online who do not know. Could you do that please?

So to postpone indefinitely would would mean that basically the corn court is is taking no action on this. They're not moving this forward and there will be it will not come back up again. uh for a vote. It's not going to be on an agenda unless it's represented at some point. And so effectively what it does is it kills this item from moving forward for consideration uh by the court. I have Justice Wilson. Thank you, Chair. I I just want to make sure that uh before the public was given the opportunity to speak that we could hear from have our normal discussion here. We're not bypassing that, are we? No, we are not.

Okay. Also, uh I'm not making a motion or anything. It's more of a question. Uh before we do anything, uh is our guest allowed to speak? Um before we proceed, I think to do our due diligence, um that uh he be afforded that opportunity as well. Is there any other discussion from the court? At this moment, we have a motion and a second on the floor that needs to be addressed and that is to suspend the rules allowing 12 minute of public comment time. All in favor say I. Can you raise your right hand so that we'll know how many

this is for suspending the rules and allowing 12 minutes of public comment time. Before the final vote. That motion passes. Now we have another motion on the floor to postpone the ordinance on number eight indefinitely.

Well, we that's what we going to have is discussion. That's where we are. That's where we're Is there any discussion from the court? Have Justice Stafford. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, in the month that we have uh postponed this from the last meeting and had time to consider it, we've heard a lot uh from the public and I've also heard uh from uh various folks like the city attorney of Fyville. um you know and other folks who who who've contacted me about some of the legal issues. We've also actually heard from uh one of our state representatives as well who I think is here in the audience um representative Chad Purier. Um and there's there's issues that have come up with this that we cannot fix um that the state legislature would have to fix. One is uh that folks are concerned um that this would be an unelected uh board with the power of imminent domain. Um that it would reduce uh the local control of not just our quorum court but the other quorum courts that we would potentially go into an agreement with. Um the problem that we uh once the IDA is created that it cannot be uncreated. uh that we do not have the power to uh remove board members uh who once again are are unelected. We do we would have the ability to appoint them but we would not have the ability any ability to remove remove a board member before their term is up or they step down is my understanding. Uh that we would have no say over the agreements that the IDA enters into. um that and which is concerning to some uh you know property owners in in the

county because again imminent domain um because the IDA uh can enter into pilot agreements uh which you know can reduce taxes to 35% of normal um without the approval of public bodies like ours um concerns about the bonds being repaid with property taxes under amendment 62. Um concerns that even if we tried to add amendments to our ordinance um that those would be non-binding under state law. Uh and so we we cannot necessarily guarantee um that the problems with the bill can be fixed in the next legislative session. Um, we've also heard concerns from the community about what kinds of industries um would be brought here by this unelected IDA board. Um, many folks in our community uh have expressed fears that under the wrong hands that, you know, we could be setting ourselves to be the backstory of the Terminator movies uh where we're, you know, we're we're doing ribbon cutting for companies that uh create autonomous AI Skynet style systems and Terminator style killer robots. Um, you know, I I personally think the IDA is a is a neutral uh vehicle for our region working together to attract businesses and industries here. Um you know, under the right hands, we could attract industries that that serve the common good. It even could be clean energy or electric cars or any one of a number of things. Um but under the current uh way the idea is set up,

we have our elected officials have no control over any of that. So because of these concerns like imminent domain power, reduced local control, and limited public oversight, uh I cannot support uh creating the IDA at this time. Thank you. Thank you. [applause and cheering]

I have Justice Koger. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um actually I want to say I agree with what JP Lines and JP Rio Stafford have said. That was a lot of what what I had in here. But I do want to point out that uh create I think creating a separate legal entity with such broad power powers like issuing bonds and taking property and making long-term financial commitments is uh not something that we should be doing. Uh, I think that would be giving up part of our power that we have here as a legislative body and I don't want to give that up. I don't want anyone making decisions about what happens in Washington County if they're not in Washington County. Um, if we're going to if we're going to offer tax breaks, this elected body should be the one openly debating and approving them, not a separate authority operating at arms length. Uh, and really when we're talking about building big warehouses for aerospace and defense facilities, to be real, that's going to impact the people in our beautiful rural Washington County. And once created, that authority operates independently. And that's a significant shift to power. For reasons of accountability, fiscal responsibility, and local control, I cannot support this ordinance. And I don't think that I'm being anti- business. I think that I'm being pro- taxpayer. Thank you.

[applause]

I HAVE JUSTICE BRUNS.

Thank you, Lady Chair. Um, I've been contacted by a lot of people. Most of them have uh 60 acres plus and I think those folks are the ones that are really concerned about what's going to surround them and you know I think the the thought process is you know if it's right next to Springdale Fayville you know and it's in that 2 acre uh area that we used to have before the legislators so brilliantly did it away with. Um I I think um that's where the thought process was is that well if it happened there that's not so bad but if you go out here and you've got 150 acres and all of a sudden you eminentate domain and or some acreage right in the middle of that. What have you given the land owner? You know, you've given them a lot of problems. What if you take and you put a business clear out into the county on on a piece of property that's got 20 acres and we've got um some of us have three 400 acres. and what's that going to do to our property, you know, and it's going to affect a lot of things. I I would like to see us, even if we ever brought this back, which it sounds like, um, we're not going to um, but even if we did bring it back at some point, um,

I think the first thing that has to happen is we have got to get this zoning um uh straightened out and by us and and decide what we want in Northwest Arkansas, Washington County and decide where we want things put before we ever take on a giant. And that's uh I'm not saying that they're not they don't have good intentions and I'm not saying their projects and I've looked at several of their projects and they're really nice. Okay. But it we're just not ready in my opinion. So I would I would vote no on this at this time.

Thank you, Justice Burns. [applause] I have Justice Hires.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, you know, when we first had the first um discussions around this whole idea, in the beginning, I was like, "Oh, this is a great idea." I thought it was a great idea. And since then, I'm glad we took this one month pause because um I've learned so much in that month. Um there are too many questions about where this could go. I did want to tell members of the public um that the I know a lot of you are here because of the um swarm arrow um situation out at Drakefield and I want you to know that that's like not under our jurisdiction. Um we don't have anything to do with that. But what we do have the power to do is to stop um any potential future projects like that happening if we maintain our control, which is what I intend to do tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Joseph. [applause] I will say I find fault in what the legislature passed. I don't like the language that it was written and signed by the governor. There's to me too many loopholes in that and the state legislature has to revisit that act. Um it it may be good for those economically depressed areas in Arkansas. In fact, I know it will be because they are suffering. They're not like Northwest Arkansas where we're prospering. They are truly they have abandoned land. And they need desperate help. And I do believe that that piece of legislation was written more with them in mind and not with us. And for what I was told, knowing that y'all are so independently minded that you'd probably say no anyway. But that doesn't help when we're a united we're a state and we should be united in policy and in processes. Um, I would like if Ron Maloney so chooses to be part of the public to speak three minutes to what the court is doing and and and your um

sure your understanding to everything if that would help with Justice Wilson giving you the respect that I do believe that he deserves and he does do it. We do need planning. We do need to be um strategic in our mindset of what are we going to do and not peace mill our county together um or our region together. But at this time, this particular um project doesn't seem to be what we need at this time. But if everybody has finished with their discussion and we're [clears throat] going to start with public comment time. Is that good?

We'll start with Mr. Maloney. Yes. Hold on just one moment, please. I have Justice Pawn first, please.

Yes, sir. Um, I was just going to say I can't disagree with anything folks around Horseshoe have have brought up. Uh, but to vote for this thing to come in, we would be uh relinquishing our our duties. We'd be handing them over to another entity that uh the voters the voters don't have any way of of giving any wouldn't have any control over what went on. We're not we're not concerned about losing control. We're what we're concerned about is the people we represent losing their stability, their peace of mind. It's a it's all it all needs to stay where the people living in the county have a voice. And not not to say that they just would have no voice at all. just be all government's local, but we we start removing that one step at a time away from local and we're not here. The public wouldn't be represented, the taxpayers, the the citizens of Washington County wouldn't be represented like they are with us. Where whether you're all happy with some of our decisions or not. Any decision we make on this is going to be somebody not happy with. But anyway, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Justice Pon. I have Justice Wilson, please. [applause] Thank you, Justice Wilson.

Thank you, Chair. I uh if I need to make uh small motion to suspend the rules in this instance, I will, but I don't really want um our guest speaking to this taking away time from the 12 minutes that we kind of verbally agreed that the public could have. Uh if I need to make a motion to give him three to five minutes to speak and then we go to public comments, I'm fine with that. Uh the reason I'm saying that is I don't want us to leave here tonight and people say um that the quorum court didn't all lot adequate time to the public and I don't want them to say that we didn't even listen to the main proponent of IDA. Um but we could solve both of those with just a simple uh 3 to five minutes allotted to him to speak to things thus far tonight before we move on. Allow me to just to interject. Anytime we do have public comment, usually according to Robert's rules of order, we have one that is for the argument and one who is against and you alternate for and against is is what the usual process is. However, if you if I'm here to do whatever you all

my motion is that he be given three to five minutes to speak before we proceed. I have a motion that Mr. Maloney be given how much time? I said three to five minutes. Five minutes.

Okay. We don't I've been advised that we don't need a motion on that. It's the chair's prerogative to either extend or not extend speaking time. Okay. So, we don't we don't need a motion on that. Very good. Thank you. I have Justice Pond.

One one other time saver as we go into this public comment time. thing that's that's helped a lot in the in the past when a a person does their p public comment time. You got a crowd of enthused people here that that want to applaud, express their their gratitude for the comment. A a a good way to make that go a little more smoothly is when a person gets through speaking, just simply before they instead of [clears throat] them applauding, ask for a show of hands from the the folks in the gallery where if they approve. That way we can all maybe get home before my bedtime. [laughter] If so, if you agree with the speaker, [clears throat] you can just simply just do this. If everybody can just abide by that. Um, out of respect for Mr. U Maloney, would you mind three minutes? Would that be okay?

Three minutes. All right. And then after that, we will start public comment time. But I will say line up now because your time starts as soon as somebody finishes speaking. Nobody is for it, but I will do. I I I'll mention that. I will. I will. Thank you. I thank you. Okay. Good evening. Are we good? We're good. Okay. Thank you. I am I'm glad to be back before you. Sh. So, public, please.

When we finished the last meeting, there were several concerns that the quorum court is uh raised and I said I would come back and address those. So that's what I'm going to do with my three minutes. So the first question, sure. So the first concern you all had last time was if on industrial revenue bonds a company should default, would it impact the taxpayers? And I told you no at that time. I've since gone back to our council and uh he's given me the citations and I actually updated him in your FAQ. But there is no statutory mechanism in the state of Arkansas that should a company uh default on their obligations in industrial revenue bonds that a city, county or any type of municipality would be then responsible for repaying those. Second, there was a question is does the IDA and I think this really gets to the heart of a little bit about what's been said tonight is this this idea that the uh and an an IDA anywhere in this country has this unlimited amount of power to do whatever it wants. You asked last time uh do we abide by whatever the planning and zoning that exists in any municipality or in the county and that is yes. So, there's been a lot of discussion about, well, are you losing your power? You only have three accepted zoning categories in this county right now that I'm aware of, and industrial is not one of them. So, if the IDA, which only exists to develop industrial property, it does not exist to bring clients as it's been proposed. We would have to come before your planning and zoning to have that approved. That is your first step. at saying yes or no to something. Now, there's been a lot uh of talk that's been made about I remember the first time I came before all of you made it

very clear, boy, we're not in favor of solar. We're not in favor of wind farms and companies that make that stuff. Now, in all fairness, if one of those was to come before you, your planning and zoning would know your wishes and probably stop it. But if you feel your power is being diminished, this quorum court I can imagine would simply say, "Well, we do not want a data center or we do not want this or we do not want that." And then you could have it instructed and written into your planning and zoning. So I would propose that you really aren't losing any any power. Okay? The power exists with you already. The IDA exists only to develop real estate. If you don't like that real estate development, you do with any other real estate developer that comes before your planning and zoning or before this quorum court and you say, "I like it. I do not, yes or no." I mean, it's just that simple. So, um, the last issue on eminent domain that law that or that

ability has been in Mr. Maloney, I'm sorry. You're That's fine. I appreciate that. I thank you very much for coming this evening. All right. Now we have public comment time. You need to state your name. Yep. And your address. Abel Tomlinson. Uh 60 West Smith Street. Do you know who your JP is? Arkansas. That's embarrassing, but I don't technically. But whoever they are, I want to say a huge thank you for representing my interests today. Um Commander, what's your address again? 60 West Smith Street, Fateville. Okay. technically Greenland right across from Swarmro's robot factory. That's why I was one of the first first ones to report this. All right. Thank you. Protested it.

Okay. Um at its core, the IDA is or was a naked power grab to centralized power by Northwest Arkansas's wealthiest few to control our future. It's an abdication of local authority. It was a giving up local power to Northwest Arkansas's big business lobby and its proponent, Mr. Maloney. It's also giving up more power to our federal government, which fails to represent us on issue after issue. Indeed, the IDA explicitly states the IDA can act as an agent for the US government and may transfer any and all of the property of IDA for use by the US government. This language is twice as troubling when combined with one of Maloney's top goals to bring the military-industrial complex to northwest Arkansas. He previously stated these intentions to build a massive a ARES autonomous drone weapons facility in was Madison County. And if you look at his online posts, a large number of his posts are about drone weapons and weapons testing. He travels all over the world to watch weapons tests. And he wrote explicitly on Twitter, "In Northwest Arkansas, we are creating an integrated ecosystem of defense, manufacturing, innovation, and testing anchored by technology proving grounds, testing grounds." He's especially interested in autonomous artificial intelligence robot killer killer robots. This is all very alarming in light of the new Swarm Arrow factory in Fateville, right across the street from me. And Swarm has said they may want to test the robots at Drake Field. I'm a little worried because these robots are very dangerous. They have the decision-making power to kill people. Um, and many major human rights organizations, 5,000 AI and robotics experts, the head of the UN, all say these weapons should be banned. There's a major international campaign to stop the killer robots. Uh, Congressman WAC was there at the ribbon cutting. He said the weapons are for freedom. But how free are we if even our grandkids are being shackled to pay off a $ 38 trillion national debt that's growing every year, caused in large part by spending trillions of dollars on the war complex, war profitering. No governments

want war with us. Overwhelmingly, it's our politicians starting wars, as just happened in Iran. in large part for war profiteeers. Highly decorated Marine Corps General Smemedley Butler once said, "If you want to end wars, you must take the profit out of war." We must recall President Eisenhower's warning, too. In the councils of government, like this government here, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex. The potential for disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. And finally, let me conclude with Eisenhower's cross of iron speech. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. Those who are cold and are not clothed.

Thank you. Almost done. Let me just the last sentence. Let me skip. It's all beautiful. Your time is expired. Um, this is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. It is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. Okay. Thank you. We got to be fair. [applause] Next, please. Your name and address is

My name is Greg Bachmann. Uh 20618 Carter Road. I'm out in the Strickler area. Mr. Ricker is my uh my justice of the peace. And uh Mr. Lemmings Company's delivered the gravel for my driveway and Ms. Koger and I have a mutual friend, Ray Town. And I mentioned that because as a resident of the county, I've got three points that I might be able to leverage if eminent domain or if um a uh a use permit is something that's going to affect my property or that around me. If we create a board, an appointed board, as a resident of the county, I have very little opportunity to have an impact on that or to make my voice heard. And so I beg of you, and it sounds like that's the direction we're headed. Please do not give up your authority. Um, I'm not against development. The swarm's already here. Out in my part of the county, uh, they are redeveloping the C4 site, the old uh the old uh reactor site. I'm not against development, but I like it when people that we vote for are the ones that have a decision or have the decision on what's to be done with property. So, I I thank you for your position tonight.

Thank you, sir. Next, please.

I have a very soft voice. Get close to the microphone. What is your name, your address, and who your JP is? My name is Cynthia Alexander. I live at 410 South College Avenue, Fagetville, Washington County, Arkansas. And Evelyn Ria Stanford Stafford is my JP. Um, I'm a homeowner, taxpayer, and voter. I'm also employed as a nurse in Fagetville. A lot of this goes away because you guys, you make me proud. I was going to say I find it difficult to understand how you might give someone else that power that that you stood up for our power. Thank you very much. Um, so I'm just going to skip over a lot of that. Uh, the citizens of this county would be giving up our rights to decide what happens in our county, to a corporation, the IDA, to manufacture weapons known as killer drones, and to test them here. Killer drones as large as school buses on South College Avenue next to Drake Field, three miles from my home at Swarm Arrow Manufacturing. Swarmro has already completed billions of dollars. Okay, my voice is I'm not a good speaker. Uh Swarmro has already completed billions of dollars in contracts with the Department of Defense. Yes, there would be jobs to make weapons to kill people across the globe that will be purchased by the DoD for billions of dollars. Purchased with our tax treasure, taxpayers would ultimately pay. Keep in mind as of 22626 the US debt was 38.79 trillion dollar for weapons manufacturers to make profits they need wars. It seems our politicians are all too eager to meet that demand. Politicians are lo lobbyed by the manufacturers and receive

donations from them. Bills are then written to purchase said weapons. Recent polls of both parties show constituents are against more wars and the trillions spent on them. I have lived and traveled all over the world, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and always I'm drawn back to the natural beauty of Arkansas, the mountains, rivers, lakes, biking and hiking trails. I want Arkansas in including Northwest Arkansas to continue to be known as the natural state, not the killer weapon state. Please say no to giving up our county's rights and to changing what our great state is known for.

Thank you so much all of you. Thank you. Next, please. Your name and address and who your JP is. My name is Anita Schne. I'm an attorney practicing in Fagetville. Yes. is I must say is there anybody for the proposal? Then you need to come up because it [clears throat] needs to be for and against and then we'll let this have her time if you don't mind. I apologize. Thank you, Justice. Um, thank you, Dennis.

Uh, good evening. My name is Bill Rogers. I'm president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I [clears throat] live at 1677 Windsor Avenue in Springdale. Uh JP Bruns is my deal. I really feel like uh Ron and the team at the council have provided you with adequate answers to legitimate questions, but you've made up your minds and and that is your prerogative. Uh I will keep my remarks very short tonight. I would say that I hope that when this issue comes back up, whether it's after further legislative action or not, uh that you'll give it your due consideration because the fact that Linton County Court has already endorsed and approved and is a part of this IDA. Uh your actions in opposing this tonight uh means that you will not have a seat at the table. You will not have a voice. uh all the positives and I I could sit and talk to you for about an hour about the positives of an IDA. Uh you're not going to be able to influence that. Uh not unlike if you didn't have a seat at the table uh on the XNA board. But u I won't take your time to to uh litigate the pros for this. I will tell you this is a an economic development play. The IDA IDA has nothing to do with any individual project. This is about jobs. This is about opportunity. It's about the opportunity of not your kids or your grandkids future employment but your grandkids grandkids future employment. We don't know what those

kids are going to be employed doing in the future. An IDA gives a region uh the ability to recruit major economic projects that none of the individual cities have an ability to do. We do it pretty well in Springdale, uh but not at this scale. So again, I hope in the future if you if you're given the opportunity to to consider this, I hope you'll give it serious thought because from as a as a a practitioner of economic development since 1998, I will tell you this is a positive for our residents and for uh the economy uh the future economy of Northwest Arkansas. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. You have a minute 35. Thank you. Oh, that's rude. I will have you all thrown out of this courtroom if you're going to misbehave that way. And I mean it. You may proceed. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I have a motion on the floor to suspend the rules and allow this young woman to have three full minutes to speak. I have a second from Justice Limming. All in favor say I.

I.

All oppose say no. You have three minutes. Thank you very much everyone. My name is Anita Schneay. I'm an attorney practicing in Fateville. My address is 2327 North Abbott Lane, Fagatville 72703. And I intend to find out who my um justice is immediately I get home. Okay. So, I just really want to profoundly thank you all for your careful consideration of this IDA. I came really concerned about how undemocratic the structure of this ordinance and the underlying bill in the legislature is. And I'm greatly greatly gratified to hear the thoughtful comments tonight and the really dignified consideration of this really important step. The things that concern me have already been addressed. the eminent domain um portion of it. I I just cannot believe that we could turn over local government power to unelected people as has already been discussed where we have no input and no possibility of knowing what's going to happen and speaking our mind about it. Please continue to hold this in obeyance. The the only other concern that I have based on what I'm hearing tonight is what's going on in the legislature. That Senate Bill 361 needs to be rethought from the ground up. And if there's any way that you have any sway in that, I would be very grateful if you would

exercise it. Thank you very much for your time and your service. [applause] I tell public comment time is now expired and now we have citizen comment. Well, we have to vote. We have to vote first. Thank you. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Just one moment, y'all. To postpone item number eight indefinitely. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say I.

All oppose say no and raise your right hand. The motion carries. It's done. We have 15 minutes. [applause] We have 12 minute public comment time. I mean citizen comments. the public, the citizens.

Uh, good evening. My name is Michael Maine, 1839 North Candles Drive, uh, Justice Rio Stafford. Um, and I am up here to proudly beat this dead horse. Um, I am here with my friends and neighbors standing in stark opposition to the Industrial Development Authority. The [snorts] leading export from the so-called natural state is no longer rice nor soybeans. It is weapons. From Camden and Pine Bluff to Rogers and Fagville, war profiteeers are trying to take over our state. The Industrial Development Authority was just the latest power grab. They were [snorts] eager to seal their work behind closed doors because they knew it would not survive the court of public opinion. We've seen that here tonight. [snorts] Their first order of business would have been to greenlight the Swarm Arrow facility to manufacture 41 ft AI powered killer drones larger than a school bus. The irony of placing said factory on a road called School Avenue speaks for itself. We refuse to let our city be a hub for war profiteering. Thank you.

Thank [applause and cheering] you. Citizens comment time. your name and address and who your JP is.

Hi, my name is Juniper Ramley. Uh my address is 1500 North Library Avenue and if I'm not mistaken, it's Miss Sandre Washington. And um I yeah, just want to thank you guys for voting to postpone indefinitely. I believe in the about the collective imagination and I think that Northwest Arkansas has so many beautiful opportunities that will come that will be greater than being able to build drones that harm people. I believe that we have the ability to bring jobs and opportunities to the area that continue to let people grow and thrive of all walks of life. And I'm glad that you guys made the choice to let those opportunities come and did not make a choice out of scarcity, but rather of opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. Your name and address and who your JP is.

Good evening. My name is Basil Brham. I live at 658 South Melbourne. And just like um the sweet older woman earlier, I do not know who my justice is, but I will research. Thank you. Um so, my name is Basil, and I want to thank you again for voting to table this indefinitely. Um I grew up um south of Fort Chaffy, which is of course the National Guard training area, and there's a ton of industrial development there. Um, and that directly impacted my childhood. So, um, I from the first time we moved to my farm out there, I was acclimated to the sound of shelling. Um, shelling that was so strong that it would shake the windows of our home, the sound of drones, the sound of fighter jets. They often used our farm as like practice basically. So, they would fly over and then really low duck down, frighten the horses, frighten the cows. Um, and no matter how many complaints you would file, they keep doing that to our own private property. Um, and that's a whole issue with military industry, but more so the fact that all of the concrete and all of the buildings there, they go straight into the waterways, right? And so I remember finding gross sludge in our streams that wasn't natural. Um, I remember, um, and this is still a case on days when there's not a lot of wind in Fort Chaffy, there's a gray haze that smells really odd. It's permanent. Um, and so this is what I was so fearful of. I dreamed of moving to Washington County as a kid, and now I'm here. I live in the complex I dreamed of. Um, and I did not want to see us hand over our power to control what industries are impacting our environment here to a board that I can't talk to. Um, so I'm so glad that you guys voted against this um to hand control over to boards of individuals

that could be severely impacting Washington County's legacy in Arkansas. Instead of being known for known for our agriculture, our amazing land grant university, our unique and incredibly diverse cities, Washington County could become known for our military industry, our drone, our missile factories, our data centers, our unfishable rivers and our wasted future. I don't want that to be our reality. And I think that with responsible development of industry and with consent from the impacted communities, we can have the jobs and the growth that we want and we need for the people that live here without casting a gray haze over everybody's childhoods, you know. So, I deeply appreciate your time and energy that you guys took to think about this and um and to stand up for us here in Washington County. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Helena Alexander. Um I live at 1493 North Hazeline Drive and Charles Dean is my JP. Um I just wanted to first off thank you um for voting down this industrial authority. I've grown up and lived in Northwest Arkansas for 20 years since I was 2 years old and I've seen how power has shaped our landscape in that time. I've experienced Washington County being shaped by wills of power and this authority would exacerbate that exponentially. So, as we've seen recently, NWA Council and Representative WAC are aiming to bend a knee to the Department of War betraying residents of Washington County and Arkansas, making Northwest Arkansas a hub of weapons manufacturing. This industrial authority would allow the Department of War to reshape Washington County without the voices of the people and elected officials as this board would be made up of non-elected officials. With the recent ribbon cutting of swarm arrow, we are already seeing the takeover of industries of war in Washington County. The culture of war mongering in our country is already bringing violence and we cannot allow that to be fueled in Washington County by the creation of this industrial authority. Um, and I thank you for standing up for yourselves and for the people of Washington County and voting no on this. Thank you.

Good evening. Will you bring the mic down so that way we can hear you? Definitely. Thank you. I'm glad it will reach short people as well. That's right. Okay. First, I want to thank everybody on the phone.

Your name and your address, please. My name is Laura Vijas. I live at 5005 Bonita Place in Springdale. And I believe you, sir, are my JP. Um, at least I think so. Okay. Um because uh a person from the Chamber of Commerce spoke, I wanted to mention that supporters uh of this IDA frame it uh as an economic uh development tool, but exactly who would this benefit? I'm pretty sure it would certainly benefit big business. I do not think it would benefit most small businesses, nor would it benefit area residents or taxpayers as a whole, including myself. And also because of what Mr. Maloney said when he came here uh to the podium, that this would not take away com. I think we all know better than that. I've heard people mention and uh at the very least it would have this IDA would have the ability to go around elected officials and of course those whom they represent uh uh for things like imminent domain which has been mentioned and local zoning regulations to bring but expressly to bring industries in like the department of war and aerospace to northwest Arkansas. The recent rib ribbon cutting of swarm arrow and sharing from the NWA council indicate an overwhelming desire to see our area become a part of the war machine with the stated wish stated out loud wish to make NWA the biggest industrial war weapons hub in the nation. Uh, I for one don't want to have

anything to do with that. I don't want to have anything to do with huge swarms of 40 foot AIdriven killer drones being built, tested, or flown anywhere near this area or me or anyone I know. Uh, this industry and its probable need for a large data center would only affect our environment and quality of life, which we're so proud of. you know, we used to be in the top 10. We wouldn't be there very long if we had this kind of industry coming here and making us that hub. Uh it would affect our quality of life in an extremely negative way. So, thank you again for voting against the creation and support of this IDA. Um uh we're going to love you for it. Thanks. [laughter]

Thank you. Unfortunately, citizen comment time has now expired. We already said that we were Is there two or three? Two. Two minutes in one. [clears throat] I have a motion by Justice Limming. Just one moment. And a second by Justice Lines to suspend the rules allowing these two gentlemen three minutes each to speak. All in favor say I. All opposed say no. The eyes have it. You have three minutes. State your name and your address, please.

Thank you. My name is Robert Maringer. I'm at 10624 Granite Road in West Fork and District 14 with Gary. Um, I came here to thank you for voting down everything that everybody's already been talking about. I want to bring up a couple other things. Um, the seph reactor that's been reopened on the land for Extremis Incorporated. Um, is there any kind of monitoring of possible radiation turnup from the the land there since they're actively building and moving dirt, stuff like that?

That we this is your time to make a comment. We cannot It's not an engagement time. The other thing I wanted to talk about was um I've worked in a couple aerospace factories building weapons of war. When I learned that the things I was building were killing people, it was really hard personally. So, I just wanted to say to consider the residents of Washington County that would be working at facilities like this once they learn they're killing people by the things they're creating can have hard effects on their life. Um, so just take that in consideration when you're approving businesses of war to come into this area. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [applause] Please just raise your hands. Thank you.

Good evening, sir. I'll be real quick. Okay.

My name is Josh Brown. Live at 2391 Abbott Lane, Fville, Arkansas 7703. And uh I would be quicker if I were from New York, but I'm a slow Arkansas talker anyway. Okay. So I feel this IDA with broad powers is not such a good idea. Um and here's the best way I can explain it. So imagine a person of sound body and mind and they have an ambitious kid who says, "Hey dad, just sign everything over to me. I'll make the right decisions. I'll do the right thing. Uh and I'll take care of you. And pretty soon you're a pulper in a nursing home. But anyway, uh I hear AI mentioned and all I know about AI is all my life AI meant artificial incimination.

[laughter] But now it means artificial intelligence. But either way, somebody's going to get screwed. [laughter] Thanks for your time and trouble. [cheering and applause] With that, this meeting is adjourned.