Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.

Hello, I'm Christina Munoz.

For Arkansas Week.

The state is preparing to spend more than $1 billion in federal funding to expand broadband service and improve the digital skills of residents.

We'll talk with an official leading that later in the program.

But first, the fight over a proposed casino in Pope County has escalated to the point that Arkansas legislators are asking law enforcement to investigate.

During a meeting of the Joint Performance Review Committee, allegations were detailed about threats of violence and intimidation between rival entities vying for gamblers business.

Joining me to discuss the situation are two members of the committee, Representative Aaron Pilkington, a Republican from Knoxville, and Representative Carlton Wing, a Republican from North Little Rock.

Now before we delve into what led to the call for an investigation.

Let's give our viewers some background.

In 2018, voters approved an amendment allowing 4 casinos, one in each quarter of the state.

3 have since opened in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff and West Memphis, but the 4th to be located in Russellville remains in limbo.

3 years ago, the Arkansas Racing Commission awarded the Pope County license to Gulfside Casino Partnership, which operates casinos in Mississippi.

But that was challenged by Cherokee Nation businesses, with the state Supreme Court eventually pulling the license.

Then in 2021, the Racing Commission voted to award the license to Cherokee Nation businesses.

Last year, a group called Fair Play for Arkansas with the backing of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Sought to put a proposal before voters to remove Pope County as a casino location, but a lack of valid signatures kept that off the ballot.

Then in January, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox reversed the 2021 Racing Commission decision granting the license to Cherokee Nation businesses, which has filed an appeal.

That brings us to why we're here today.

There's obviously a lot of money at stake.

And during your meeting earlier this month, you both heard testimony about threats, intimidation, money being paid to stop canvassers from collecting signatures, and even an allegation of arson.

This is a highly complex situation we're talking about.

And before we move forward, I do want to mention that we should note that Cherokee Nation is a financial supporter of Arkansas PBS.

So first I want to say thank you to both of you for joining us here.

Today, thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Appreciate it very much because this is a complex and confusing situation we have going on.

So first I'm going to go to Representative Wing, tell us a little bit about this committee meeting that happened when it was, how long it was and what your take away was as committee took place a couple of weeks ago, it lasted about 3 hours and it's all live streamed.

Anybody can log on and and watch what took place.

But I think you gave a great detailed summary, but it can be very confusing as to the the players in and out and all that.

The I think one way to condense it is the citizens of Polk County voted against that initiative back in 2018.

They did not want the casino in their county and So what they were doing was trying to raise enough signatures to put a petition on the ballot so that the rest of Arkansas could exempt Pope County from what they didn't want.

So in essence, 74 counties voted to put a casino in Polk County.

Then the citizens of Polk County did not want that casino I believe.

By the largest margin of nose of any of the other 75 counties represented, Pilkington represents part of Polk County.

He he can speak to that.

So that's a good way to kind of initiate what the problem was initially.

And so that was the petition that was being sought was to get enough signatures.

They needed about 90,000 signatures to be able to say we want to put this to the state, please exempt Pope County from this casino, put it somewhere else, but don't put it in our backyard.

And Speaking of your backyard, Representative Pilkington, talk about from your perspective what this has been like for you to kind of watch.

Well, I always say if you want to ruin a dinner party in Pope County, bring up the casino.

It's it's really has been an issue that's divided the community.

I represent Johnson County and a portion of Pope County you know which even Johnson County approved it.

Pope County didn't.

You know I would knock on doors and they, you know Pope County they say we don't want it and then people in Johnson County say I can't wait for it to open up.

So it's it's definitely a fraud issue here.

Obviously it's it's dragged on.

I think casino fatigue is a real issue in Pope County where you know you have some people just say I just I just wanted to be done courts rule please get it over with.

But I think, you know the reason why we have this committee meeting was because you had a lot of people, a lot of earnest people who were trying to go out and say, you know, we want to make sure that there is, that we're getting the casino part of we want, but also making sure that if we don't or do not want to casino that the will the people's reflected in that.

And so and unfortunately what you saw was a lot of people who say they claim to care about democracy and the ballot process, you know, all these shady actors descending upon, you know, this quiet town of Russellville.

And and causing this kind of havoc and chaos And so you know, that was kind of the reason why we had this committee meeting because it is a, you know, it's a sacrosanct thing here in Arkansas, our ballot process, it's, you know, we've got over 100 amendments to our state constitution.

So I just think to to know that these kind of things are happening, I think it's a it's a black eye for the area which didn't like represented wingset, didn't didn't necessarily want it to begin with but are now having to deal with the fallout of this so.

It's a it's a contentious issue in the area and unfortunately I I really feel for my constituents for all Pope count even the part I don't represent because it is just dragged on and on and then we've had these kind of allegations of things going on that's pitted neighbor against neighbor and it's just you just do not want to see that absolutely like he's the old saying goes don't talk about politics don't talk about casinos I guess that's it.

That's, that's the new rule where you guys are.

So Representative Wing, when we're talking about the legalities of everything that's going on here, is this unique as it's been an issue before, talk about those legal ramifications of what we're seeing?

Well, and you're touching on something that I think is very important in this issue because this is not just a Pope County issue.

All 75 counties need to be paying attention to this process because right now this particular issue is affecting Pope County.

It can come to any of the counties because what we're talking about, and one of the reasons why this committee was taking place was to bring and just shed light on the entire process of what happened to the petition gathering process for amending the Constitution to the state of Arkansas.

Representative Filkington aptly mentioned this.

Our Constitution has been amended 100 times.

It's only been in place since 1877.

Now.

the US Constitution has been around for 100 years longer and has only been amended 27 times.

So we have a history of really changing things a lot constitutionally in the state of Arkansas.

We need to look at that process and then what has happened as we look at this particular issue has shed light on the fact that outofstate actors come in.

And So what was taking place was a group of citizens of Pope County and citizens of Arkansas who have to file and do everything legally.

They're raising trying to get that signature qualification.

There's a group of people trying to block that.

They are not under the same scrutiny.

They don't have to file the same reports.

They don't have to do the same things that the petition gatherers do.

And we found out, alarmingly, that it's not even illegal for someone to buy the the, the petitions that have been gathered.

Somebody can say I'll give you money to throw those away.

It was not illegal until recently.

We passed that law in the last session.

Now it is, but we were all shocked that it wasn't illegal before.

Sometimes you have to have these situations arise, right?

You can make adjustments and changes.

So now we have that in place.

And in that same law, we also put the petition blockers under the same scrutiny as the petition gatherers, so that there's fairness on both sides of an issue.

And that's important.

Very good, very good.

So.

Talk about the investigation, Representative Pilkington, about what's been asked for and why in this particular case, Sure.

So what we have is a situation in which a woman who's a petition gatherer was offered money to throw away the signatures, which was not illegal at the time, not illegal at the time.

But, you know, and I would say this, I think most of all our Kansans would think I signed my name on a ballot measure.

It's going to, it's going to go and get submitted and and be part of the process.

I mean, if you, especially if something you support, I think you'd be horrified if you realize someone sold your signature, essentially.

I mean that's that's horrible.

But so this one was doing that.

She was offered money.

There's a recording of her being offered money.

She refused.

She believed in what she was doing good on her.

And then lo and behold, her trailer was later set on fire.

She had to throw her children out the back window, heard her husband got out.

I think the family dog died.

And then of course, you know, it could have been an accident, but there was an investigation because she had been harassed, because these things had occurred, because you have these shady Outofstate individuals who have come into Arkansas to try to block this, this, this measure.

And lo and behold, the private investigators showed that there was actually arson.

Our evidence that arson occurred, there was a accelerant around the door over the fire started.

So those things are extremely concerning.

I think when we think about democracy here in Arkansas that is like a third world Banana Republic kind of democracy, not the level that we hold ourselves to, right.

So and I think that's why we need investigate and and then say that, you know, we're not going to let these kind of shady actions go without.

Consequences.

And so that's that I'm happy that we are proceeding with the investigation.

Excellent.

And I think also it's it's important to note did this alter an outcome, I think that's that's a fair question to ask.

And so we throw out again this group was gathering petitions, there were 2000 signatures away of getting to the next milestone which grants them extra time to gather more signatures.

There were two thousand votes short.

So how many?

And I and I've got the transcript.

If it's Okay, I'd let me, let me let me just share with you.

This is an actual transcript.

This was in the committee.

It was evidence C2 in our committee.

It's public record.

The person approaches, the canvasser says throw your petitions in the trash and don't collect another signature.

We've done this with other canvassers.

The big thing today is that as long as those petitions don't get turned in, I'll keep in mind this person offered this Canvasser $1000.

For what she was asking her to do and $700.00 a week thereafter.

And then don't get these turned in if there's just any you have at home.

Like we don't want them, we don't want to see them, we don't nothing.

Just throw them in the trash.

So what?

Representative Filkin pointed out, these people signed.

A ballot initiative, thinking my voice is going to count.

We are going to bring this petition to the voters to be able to decide what to do with, in this case, the Pope County casino situation.

We don't know which signatures didn't and and did they get more than 2000?

We know from this, she she testified right there.

She said we've done this with other canvassers.

So did it affect an outcome?

Incredibly, we could say probably so and so that thwarts the entire process.

We are all about having the people have a voice and we have a process to do this.

But in this case, this was done.

While it technically it wasn't illegal, it is now, right?

But back then it wasn't illegal, it was certainly unethical.

And again, that is a transcript of the recording of that conversation.

OK.

So sticking with this case and the casino issue in Pope County, what are the next steps that will happen and do you think it will be quote UN quote fair with the casino fatigue that you've mentioned and and how do we move forward in this particular case?

Well, I think on the casino part, I mean obviously the court is going through the process.

I think the license will eventually be given to to one of the one of the operators and I think that's going to happen.

I think on this though, it's just holding these, these, you know, ballot question committees responsible.

You know, obviously I think there's they're going to investigate, see if people are liable and try to hold them responsible if they are.

What I'd say too though is it also I think for us as legislators is we need to go and look at legislation to improve this process.

You know, we talked about some of the legislation we already passed, but one of the things I thought was interesting in the committee, the committee we had was you had it to where they would just hire these companies, they'd pay them $600,000 and that's one line item.

On the report, well, where's all that money going to?

That's a lot of money.

You know, if they said, oh, we spent it all on billboards, OK, that's fine.

You can trace and track that.

But we don't know where that was going, what they were paying for it.

There's nothing in the report that says they spend $1000 to destroy signatures.

But clearly in that 600,000, that's probably where some of that money was going to.

We can, you know, make that assumption.

And so and I would say even both sides during the debate said, you know, yeah, we agree there should be more transparency on this and.

You know, and I think that's something we as a legislator needs to do is to make sure that there is an ethical standard.

We're holding these ballot committees too because they don't really, you know, we have caps on how much money we can take in from certain individuals.

They don't.

That's crazy, you know.

And so and unfortunately I what scares me is you have these Outofstate groups come in and say, oh man, we can just write a check for $2,000,000 and get ourselves put into the Arkansas Constitution.

And that's not right.

And that means our democracy is for sale and that is the last thing we want here in Arkansas.

So.

I think by putting caps on donations, making sure that there's itemized expenses of what you're spending things on, if it's for a contractor, for so, so large.

And then of course too, I think a process, you know, we heard things about ballot blockers, you know, harassing people, you know, is there's no internal investigation within those committees to make sure that they're holding their people responsible so they can go do whatever.

And, you know, and they said, well, we investigated it.

We asked them about it, you know, after a police report was filed.

And it it's like okay, well did you take that person off the street did you think oh they said they didn't do it.

So we were fine.

And this I just think that's just that's we're literally putting people out into our community to stand out in front of Walmart, to go to parks, to go by schools to be around our mothers, children, wives, husbands, whoever.

And we don't and we don't know what these people are saying people are what they're saying or threatening and obviously there was some violence that occurred when this happened and we just we need process in place where if people are getting hired.

We know that they are doing the work of the people and not doing the bidding of shady out of state entities.

Well, sad Will, Representative Pilkington and Representative Wing, thank you so much for joining us today.

We appreciate you contributing to this very complex and very confusing situation and we thank you for all of that you do as you are leading our state.

So thank you very much for your time.

We appreciate you and stick around.

We'll be right back after this.

Arkansas is to receive just over a billion dollars next year from the federal government to expand broadband services.

Since the pandemic three years ago showed the importance of people being connected, multiple grants have been awarded to the state, but this could be the last significant funding opportunity to build out the infrastructure, especially to connect rural parts of Arkansas.

Overseeing the state's role in this is Glenn Howie, director of.

Arkansas State broadband office, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Oh, thanks for having me.

We very much appreciate all of your insight.

So first is a little bit about this money.

When did you kind of know that this is going to be coming to the state of Arkansas?

Yeah, this is something that's been building for quite a while.

You go back to 21 when the original infrastructure bill was passed in Congress.

So we've known for quite a while now, the last several years that this money was coming.

And as part of the preparations for what we've had to do, especially these last several months from February to June our office hit the road.

I went out and visited all 75 counties and actually encouraged all of our counties in preparation for this dollar amount to form their own broadband committees and work in collaboration and in partnership with our office.

To date we've had just under 40 counties form broadband committees officially with their office were very.

Happy with that number and look forward to working with those stakeholders.

Wonderful.

And so let's talk about how big of a problem this is.

Many of us are constantly digitally connected phones, computers it's everywhere.

But when you get into the rural parts of the state that's not always the case.

So how bad is the problem and how do we know that that's the problem.

Yeah look you know it's it's Governor Sanders is vision and our office is mandate to eliminate a digital divide in Arkansas by 2028 and.

It's really, it's an access issue.

It's also an affordability issue and it's a digital skills issue as well.

Now we know the access piece or infrastructure piece is foundational to everything that we do.

If you look at the latest release of the FCC's National Broadband Map, there are still about 215,000 locations, homes and businesses across Arkansas that we still need to connect for the very first time.

Or upgrade because the service that they have is just not standards.

We have a lot of work to do there and it's our number one priority in the administration as it's foundational to everything that we do.

Looking beyond that, again affordability is an issue.

So we have to try as best we can through our grant program and other mechanisms to use free market principles to encourage and foster an environment of affordability and broadband in the state.

And lastly, if you look at the digital skills piece or the third pillar of broadband as we like to frame it now in Arkansas, you know, we think between the traditional working ages of 18 and 64 that there approximately 274,000 of our fellow Arkansans that may lack basic digital skills.

So again, yeah, we're not talking about coding or creating websites.

We're saying take the mouse, go to Google and apply for a job, right.

So we have a lot of work to do as a state across all three pillars, the access piece.

The affordability piece and the digital skills component, but of course infrastructure and access will always remain the top #1 priority.

Gosh, it's something when you you really almost forget how important it is when we have it because we know how to use a mouse, we know how to use a computer.

But when you don't, it can be really limiting in what people in certain areas are able to do.

Absolutely look that it affects everything.

It's really kitchen table issues.

So whether it's it's a grandmother down in hope who needs to see.

Our cancer specialist and will utilize telehealth access to do that or the rice farmer over in Stuttgart who needs to utilize broadband to increase his crop yields with precision technology or the student in Paragould who no longer has to go to McDonald's right to complete his homework and the Wi-Fi there.

This touches every aspect of life and we know it is critically important for our state.

And just kind of speaking along those lines, we had one example that Arkansas business shared about earlier this week in Green Forest.

In North Arkansas, where 65% of students do not have Internet at home compared to students in urban districts.

And that could really create an educational disadvantage.

Sure.

And look, there's been recent studies that have come out in the last, you know, several months that indicate even post the pandemic.

How there's a, there's been a gap in sort of a drop in the educational attainment around the country.

And so we know in in a coordination with that digital access is critical.

It can either set the stage for success or potentially limit the ability to make successful endeavors depending on if you have or do not have connectivity.

Absolutely.

Now nationally, $42 billion is to be spent through this broadband equity access and deployment program.

So how is your office assessing the needs here in Arkansas and the best way to spend the billion dollars that is actually given to that whole state?

How are you going to assess the needs and break it out?

Yeah, absolutely.

That's one of the reasons that.

We, we kicked off this county tour that we did across the state and and realizing kind of adjusting the conversation just a little bit in the state to think about all three components of broadband, not just the access piece, but also the affordability issue and the digital skills.

So we don't have the $1 billion yet.

You're correct.

We have to do a couple of things to to get that money and one of the things that we have to do to unlock the $1 billion is produce a very robust set of plans for the state of Arkansas.

So first.

We have to create what's called a digital opportunity plan.

If you think about programming and other items that are not infrastructure related.

So anything extra if we think about affordability outreach or digital skills training or device program.

So we have to produce a very robust digital opportunity plan by midnovember and then by the end of the year, the Arkansas State broadband office in conjunction with the General Assembly and the administration and our county committees has to produce what's called an initial proposal and really.

That describes in very, very detailed language the plan for infrastructure build out over the next several years and how we finish this up once and for all.

So the rest of 23 is essentially a lot of planning for us to be able to unlock those dollars and then put them into action.

And anytime, you know, with Guard with regard to state or federal funding, it's a process and there's a lot of oversight as there should be.

So do you, does this plan have to be then approved before funds actually get moved?

It does, yeah.

Both plans have to be approved.

They'll go to US Commerce and their agency, NTIA.

Who's responsible for that?

We will need to have approval of those plans before we have access to the dollars.

Now US Commerce is not committed to a specific approval timeline, but we in the Arkansas broadband office really anticipate having access to those funds potentially sometime in 24 and be able to begin to run those next infrastructure grant rounds across the state.

So we've talked a lot about the three major pillars, but I'm curious when it comes to the skills, the actual residents using these services.

How do you teach and educate those people to help them out?

That's a great question.

Everyone's you know, Skill level as it relates to digital skills is different.

It depends on the person you know.

Some lack basic digital skills and simply need help.

Taking the mouse, going to Google, applying for a job.

You know my dad would have trouble locating emails and and game tickets on his phone right?

So it all it depends on the individual person.

So ideally.

And the things that we're looking at as a state moving forward is to have very sort of flexible digital skills programming that will not only adjust to the location that we're trying to teach digital skills.

So the what you try to do in one part of the state may not be what you try to do in another part of the state, just depending upon your population and who you're working with and their interests.

So not only being having flexibility in the programming geography and demographically.

But also with the skill set of the individual student as well.

So flexibility is going to play a big role in our digital skills programming.

And I'm curious if you had generational divides, is it mostly the older, our Kansans or not?

That'd be the assumption.

But is that what you've been finding?

It really spans the whole demographic and all the age groups.

You know, you would think that it would sort of only be our oldest residents and and those folks really it does span.

The entire group, when you look at folks that typically have gone because they really are existing digital skills programming efforts already happening across the state through many stakeholders, you look at some of those programs, typically there is a large percentage of attendees from the sort of 30 and under group and there's also a large amount of attendees with the 60 and over groups.

We're still missing sort of that middle, middle gap of 30 to 60 year olds which we know that that exists as well.

So really as we move forward having a more holistic approach to the digital skills effort will be key and and along those lines assistance is available.

But one report said of 72,000 households that are eligible, only 21,000 have enrolled.

So that getting the word out there has got to be part of that struggle as well.

How do you kind of plan to yeah that and you know the state had done a very good job in in early 2022 with some master planning.

That went on as part of that process.

There was a large survey that happened and there were 15,000 respondents to that survey.

And sometimes one of the often overlooked aspects of some of that data I was that only one in 10 individuals responded.

They would be even interested in attending sort of an in person digital skills training class.

So we're going to have to be innovative and think about these things a little differently, whether it's.

Working with our high school students who need to get some community service hours and working with them to perhaps work with our elderly and more older populations at their at their homes or in assisted living facilities and perhaps taking some of this training that needs to happen and go to people where they are, we may have to look at some of that as well.

I think that's a very good option and the people can get more information at the website.

Www.broadband.arkansasgov And we've got it up on the screen for you.

Thank you so much for sharing your time today with us and telling us all about this.

It is a big deal and people need to know about it.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

And thank you for watching Arkansas week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.