sabrina n. lewellen, jd deputy director, arkansas senate ... · deputy director, arkansas senate...

Sabrina N. Lewellen, JD Deputy Director, Arkansas Senate Assistant Secretary of the Senate

ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

There are 35 members of the Senate and 100 members of the House of Representatives.

The Lieutenant Governor presides over the Senate. The Speaker of the House presides over the House.

Senators represent approximately 83,312 Arkansans and Representatives represent approximately 29,159.

ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE LEADERSHIP President Pro Tempore

One Majority Leader One Minority Leader One Majority Whip One Minority Whip

Four Assistant Pro Tempore (One per Congressional district)

ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HOUSE LEADERSHIP

Speaker of the House

Speaker Pro Tem

Four Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore (One per Congressional district)

One Majority Leader

One Minority Leader

ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

A Senate candidates must be at least 25 years old, a resident of Arkansas for two years and a resident of his or her senatorial district for one year before being eligible to serve in the Senate. Senators serve staggered four-year terms with one half of the Senate membership being elected every two years. Senators are limited to two four-year terms.

A House candidate must be at least 21 years old, a resident of Arkansas for two years and a resident of his or her district for one year. Members of the House serve two-year terms. They are limited to three two-year terms.

ARKANSAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Constitutional Amendment 86, approved by voters in 2008, requires the General Assembly to meet in annual sessions. Regular sessions are held in odd-numbered years to address regular legislation as well as the budget. Regular sessions are limited to 60 days but may be extended by a two-thirds vote of the membership of both chambers. Extending the session beyond 75 days requires a three-fourths vote.

Fiscal Sessions are held in even-numbered years to address fiscal matters. Fiscal sessions are 30 days and can only be extended up to 45 days bye two-thirds vote of both chambers.

ARKANSAS SENATE

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

13

21

6 3

Democrats Republicans Women Minorities

Statistical Information

CURRENT SENATE DISTRICTS

ARKANSAS SENATE 2012 RACES AT A GLANCE

Number of Seats up for

Election

Number of Term Limited

Senators

Number of Incumbent Senators

Running for Re-Election

Number of Incumbent Senators

without an Opponent

Number of Incumbents Challenged

after Redistricting

11 13 24 11 35

ARKANSAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

0

20

40

60

80

100

48 51

17 12

1

Democrats Republicans Women

Minorities Green

Statistical Information

2013 HOUSE DISTRICTS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2012 GENERAL ELECTION

26 = Races with Non-Incumbents & opponents 12 = Non-Incumbents elected in the May Primary

Number of Seats up for

Election

Number of Term Limited

Representatives

Number of Incumbent

Representatives Running for Re-Election

Number of Incumbent

Representatives Without an Opponent

Number of Incumbents Challenged

After Redistricting

100 62 33 29 24

All nonpartisan staff

Senate Chamber – 13 permanent

House Chamber – 21 permanent

Bureau of Legislative Research – 119 permanent

No structured personal staff/or leadership staff

The Arkansas Senate Constituency Services Office is a nonpartisan entity charged with

assisting all 35 State Senators in investigating and resolving constituent

questions, problems and concerns through the provision of professional and

comprehensive casework, limited legal research, administrative support and other

necessary methods.

Provide prompt and thorough professional product to Senators and their constituents

Promote Senators to their constituents

Protect Senators

Preserve work product through record retention

Types of Cases

Correspondence

Letters of Support (LOS)

Letters of Recommendation (LOR)

Letters of Character (CL)

Letters of Inquiry (LOI)

Letters of Congratulations (LOC)

Thank you letters

Mass Mailings (more than 10 letters)

Attorney General Opinion submissions Flag requests Assistance with legislative, local, state & federal agencies in Arkansas and across the United States Organizing/scheduling meetings (Capitol) Miscellaneous casework Miscellaneous Senatorial requests

EXTENSIVE DATABASE

1,500 - 2,500 CASES/INTAKES ANNUALLY

GENERATE WEEKLY CASE REPORTS SENATORS CHOOSE EMAIL OR HARD

COPY

ORIGINAL DATABASE CREATED IN 1996 REDESIGNED 2012-2013 BUILT IN-HOUSE (BUREAU IT STAFF) USES OFFICE 2007 DATA STORED IN MICROSOFT SQL USES OUTLOOK FOR EMAIL AS OF AUGUST 1, 2013 = 22,261 CASES

ARKANSAS SENATE I-PADS

Senate iPads for general use. Not mandated by the Chamber.

Paper Distribution = 8 Senators, 2 staffers & sponsor

In the 2013 Regular Session, two Senate Committee Chairs decided to go paperless

Members can open the agenda on the iPad and click on link for desired bill

Senate has wireless printers for use with iPads

ARKANSAS HOUSE TABLETSAll 10 House Standing Committees went paperless this past session. This eliminated:

Copying and collating 23 copies of each bill, amendment, fiscal impact statement, and other materials (20 Representatives, 2 staffers and a bill sponsor)

Handling each member’s folder daily to ensure all bills are included, in numerical order, and are the most recent version

Copying engrossed bills and replacing older version

Distributing newly received amendments

ARKANSAS HOUSE TABLETS

Tablets contained latest version of all bills and all amendments processed by attorneys

Listed all bills on the committee agenda – in numerical order for ease in locating

Amendments “hidden” by staff until sponsor ready to present

Committee staff populates an amendment or fiscal impact statement to all tablets during the meeting, as needed

Members could print copies in meeting rooms

Can only view one document at a time – now a hard copy of the agenda is provided

Agenda must be republished before a meeting to link amendments/fiscal impacts processed after agenda was posted on the web or manually add the amendment. Then, staff must remember to “re-hide” items to keep confusion at bay as to which item is under consideration

It takes more time to remove tablets and bases from the safe and set them up. It was faster placing a paper packet at each seat

Decided committees would be paperless, but Leadership conceded to allow committee chairs to decide on paper agendas. Some allowed a couple of members to have a packet

Accommodating members that object to paperless – some very vocal during meeting

Members who are not tech-savvy are not accessing bills/amendments during the meetings

Senators and Representatives balance political, professional and personal lives every day. We want to positively add to the balance.

We try to meet legislators where they are

“We do…so you do”

Constant state of readiness – “be ready so you don’t have to get ready”

Sabrina N. Lewellen, JD

Deputy Director, Arkansas Senate Assistant Secretary of the Senate State Capitol Building, Room 320

Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 501-682-5608

sabrina.lewellen@senate.ar.gov