This week We Sit Down with Speaker Brian Evans of Arkansas!!

[00:00:11] Welcome back to another episode of Political Life. Today Maggie and I are very excited, very excited to bring you the incoming speaker Brian Evans in the state of Arkansas. We wish we were in the state of Arkansas. Seems like a beautiful day down there.

[00:00:32] But we are in our various spots around the country, but we are very excited to have Representative Evans here. Representative, Speaker, Designate, welcome to the show. Thank you very much Jim and Maggie. It's an honor to be here with you today. And since Maggie is from your part of the country, I am going to hand it off to Maggie to start us off. Thank you, Jim. It's the only time I've ever wanted us actually to be on camera.

[00:01:02] The speaker designate is sitting in the chamber, it looks like, and it's such a shot. So I'm feeling very much like in the gallery getting ready to take in floor debate. But thank you, Mr. Speaker, for joining us. We always lead off with a question about where did you get your political bug? Where did your political life start?

[00:01:25] Well, I like to take it all the way back, really, and compare it more to public service than just political service. And I think that goes back to a young age in my life. My grandmother was a public school teacher for 40 to 50 years. And I can remember vividly sitting in her kitchen.

[00:01:55] She was a widow woman. She was elderly at the time. She was still teaching. And if you can picture the old schoolhouse teacher, she had the little round glasses that kind of sat on the end of her nose. And she was sitting there and she was doing all this work at the table. And I asked her, ma'am, what are you doing? And she said, well, I'm working on all my lesson plans. And I said, well, why do you do that? And she said to make a difference in the life of a child.

[00:02:24] And, you know, that told me at that age, I remember that day just like it was yesterday. But it's resonated with me through the years that, you know, she didn't do that for a paycheck. She didn't do it for retirement benefits. She was a widow, a single mother raising a child. But yet she got up and she went and she did what she did every day, hopefully to make a difference in the life of a child.

[00:02:50] And throughout my life, I have held on to that, that, you know, we have a greater calling in life than just to exist. And so any opportunity is through school, through college, you know, early married life that I had to just try to make a difference. I always did that. I was very blessed to have been chosen back in the early 80s to come to the state capitol and serve as a page in the House of Representatives.

[00:03:20] And sitting here today, I could point out the exact place and time where I sat in this House chamber and watched two old pioneers of the House at that time strenuously debate a particular item of policy. And they gave great reasons on both sides of that policy why it was critical to pass that legislation.

[00:03:49] And that spoke volumes to me about how you can be a strong advocate for someone who might not have a voice for themselves. And then a couple of years later, I was chosen to be a delegate to represent my high school at Arkansas Boys State, which was a pro week long program designed around civics and civil duty and statesmanship. And the lessons learned that we just continued to kind of stoke that fire in me.

[00:04:17] Since that time, I kind of became a political nerd, always followed the General Assembly, but most especially the House of Representatives. The House is the body that's closest to the people. In Arkansas, our districts make up about 31,000 people. And so that gives us an opportunity to, you know, as my mamaw said, make a difference in the life of someone every day. And your first elected position was for your local school board. Is that correct? That is correct.

[00:04:48] When we moved to our home for the last 23 years in the city of Cabot, instantly wanted to get involved in the community. So we started coaching youth sports and getting involved with civic organizations and nonprofits in our area. And then had the opportunity to run for the local public school board, where I was very blessed to hold a position there and serve that school district for 10 years.

[00:05:17] Learned a whole lot more about government and serving people. But always kind of had that underlying calling to serve at this level in the House. So what was that moment or decision-making process where you decided, you know, very active in your community, very close to the community, serving in that local school board position?

[00:05:41] What made you decide to seek the legislature in that next step of service? So in the House here in Arkansas, we served two-year terms. And a professional friend of mine was currently serving in the House at that time back in 2013. And he was term limited out. And he had talked to me about once he was reaching term limits to run for his seat.

[00:06:12] And so I'd visited with my wife about it. We had two young children at that time. And we spent a lot of time talking about it, praying about it. But just felt like at that point that the timing just wasn't right. Maggie, so many things in our lives. You know, we make decisions every day that, you know, ultimately we have no idea the impact that decision is going to make. And so many times it just has to do with timing. And the timing just wasn't right. We had young kids. We were growing our business.

[00:06:41] Just from a self-centered standpoint, I wanted to do it. But the reality was the timing wasn't perfect. 2015, the same thing. The situation presented itself. The timing just wasn't right. 2017, now our kids are four years older. The opportunity presented itself. We had a tremendous amount of local support from business leaders and civic leaders in the community that really pushed us to seek this.

[00:07:08] And we kind of all, we have a saying around our house when we always try to get our children to kind of step out of their comfort zones. And so we would always say, well, what's the worst possible thing that could happen? Let's try. And what's the worst possible thing that could happen? And so we brought the kids in one night and talked about me running for the House of Representatives. And kind of talked about some of the challenges that could come with that.

[00:07:34] And my youngest at that time, my son looked at me and he goes, well, dad, what's the worst possible thing that could happen? And I said, well, we could lose. And he said, well, then what would you do? And I said, well, I'd get up and go to work the next day. And he said, well, dad, I think we need to try this. And so, you know, we we stepped out at that time and threw our hat in the ring and was just very blessed with tremendous community support and been faithfully serving since then.

[00:08:05] One more question about entering the state legislature before I handed over to Jim. Entering in 2017 versus the freshman class that will be coming in this year under your leadership. What would you tell those freshmen on how to be successful in the chamber and serving their constituents?

[00:08:30] Well, I think one of the things that has helped me the most was I made a commitment early on to develop as many relationships as I possibly could. I think when you step out and you you enter into this arena, as I'm going to call it. And I think back to one of the first, you know, the day that you first enter this chamber and 99 of your colleagues are in there, you you tend to gravitate quickly to those people that are sitting around you.

[00:09:01] They're going to be your seatmates. They may end up being co-members of a committee that you serve on. And it's easy to find comfort in small numbers, especially when you develop a likeness between you. But I decided that I wanted to reach a much broader coalition in the House and develop as many relationships as I could possibly do.

[00:09:26] The key to anything in public service is networking communication. And if you can network across the entire chamber, most especially across the aisle, and you can build relationships and have a graceful respect towards one another to where you can have very productive communication, that will help you be the most successful.

[00:09:52] And so I've seen members who didn't do that, who gravitated to just a small circle. And while they were strong in their circle of combining their efforts together on key pieces of policy, the ones who really broaden out and develop broader relationships are most successful. And I think I would encourage our incoming freshmen to put focus on that. You rose to speaker quite quickly.

[00:10:22] Are there any advantages or disadvantages to rising to a leadership position so quickly? Arkansas has had been traditionally for generations of what we would refer to as a one term speaker. That went on for decades. And then Arkansas went to six-year term limits.

[00:10:50] And so you would come in as a freshman and you may be, you know, depending upon prior relationships or how quick of a network you might could build, the speaker may have appointed you as a vice chair of a committee, get you involved somewhere, get you plugged in. Your second term, you may rise to a committee chair position. And then someone from that class would typically rise and be the next speaker.

[00:11:14] And then that group, that class would rotate off due to term limits and a new group would come in and the cycle would start all over. And so there again, the body was used to just having a one term speaker. And then we went to 16-year term limits of either service in the House or service in the Senate or combined years of the two bodies.

[00:11:37] And that opened up opportunity then with support of the body for someone to potentially serve as a two-term speaker. And we had a couple of those. And then most recently, Speaker Shepard, who has served in the 92nd, 93rd and 94th, was the first three-term speaker in Arkansas.

[00:12:00] And so it's not uncommon for someone to rise as we traditionally did for years ago, where within your third term you were going to be. It's just not something that this body has seen for quite some time, as we've had two speakers now over the last 10 years. Given your experience with term limits, as you know, some states have them, some states do not. What are your thoughts on term limits and their effectiveness?

[00:12:31] We have a unique situation right now that as the incoming speaker that I'm faced with, and that is that the current class that will term limit out, this will be the first group to term limit out at 16 years of eight terms in the House. There is a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge there. And as speaker, I have the responsibility to appoint all committee chairs and committee vice chairs.

[00:13:00] And so I may have a current sitting committee chair who has been not only faithful in their service, but a subject matter expert. For instance, my budget chair has served as budget chair for five terms. So for 10 years, we have been blessed to have been led by someone who has a vast amount of knowledge in how our state budget works,

[00:13:27] the things to be mindful for and how to prepare for the next biennium. He's about to term limit out. And so you get faced with losing a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge by having a term limit. And I don't know where that arbitrary number is. There has to be a magic number of when is long enough.

[00:13:52] But I know that we have several members that are about to term limit out in various subject matter areas that will be a great loss to the House. And a big part of my responsibility coming into the 95th General Assembly is developing the bench to come behind them. Makes sense if you're a coach up for that challenge. Yes, ma'am.

[00:14:18] So one of your first acts I read is that you are hoping to create a new committee, the Military and Veterans Affairs. I believe it does not currently exist. What was behind that decision to put forth that legislation? And what do you hope that they tackle once they are installed? Thank you for asking that, as that is something very important to me coming in to the next General Assembly.

[00:14:46] We have a blessed population, both in the state of Arkansas, but in my district, especially in its proximity to the Little Rock Air Force Base. Our military population is per capita one of the highest in the nation. Also, our veteran population per capita exceeds that.

[00:15:11] But what we have found, because of the greatness of our state, is that we have people who come through one of our military institutions here in Arkansas as a stop at a base along the way in their career. And then when it comes time to retire, they want to move back here. They fall in love with the state. They fall in love with the support that they have received while they were in active duty.

[00:15:37] And so, for a couple of years now, it's just been something on my mind and on my heart that we have a responsibility as a legislature of making sure we're doing every possible thing that we can do to support our military and our veterans. And I think we've done a pretty good job of that, hence why so many come back here and retire. But I think there's a lot more work to be done.

[00:16:02] Secondly, we have a very large new installation going in in Fort Smith. It's an expansion of a wing there, a new program where we were going to have hundreds of military families from all over the world that's going to be coming in and training at our base there in Fort Smith. The Little Rock Air Force Base continues to grow. It is the only C-130 training installation in the nation.

[00:16:31] We have Camp Robinson that joins that. And then we have the former air base up in Blyville in the northeast part of the state that we're looking to do some repurposing. And there's a whole lot of military veterans that still live in that area. And as a state that's really focusing right now on workforce development, we know that there's a lot of veteran population out there that if we can just bring them in and help them get established, we're going to help our workforce.

[00:17:00] And so it's just it's a full cycle of responsibility that I feel like that we have for those that have sacrificed so much to serve us. And we just have never put an emphasis on that. So I envision forming a joint committee on military and veterans affairs and partnering that with the Senate and have received overwhelming support from from the Senate as well. And so we're putting the mechanical pieces in order.

[00:17:26] We kind of already have the the back work completed, but we'll need to do some some formal policy change in the first week or two of session to get that completed. And you were a major sponsor or author of the Learns Act in 2023, working with the governor on that in terms of your priorities, personal or for the chamber for 2024. What what do you hope to tackle next session?

[00:17:56] So we're going to continue. You know, the Learns Act for K through 12 was monumental. It was a major transformation in public education. And we are still kind of in the implementation phases of that. But it's not time to stop. It's time to build upon that. We know that the governor has has said multiple times that there's pieces of that. The Learns Act that are fluid. Some things that we know.

[00:18:25] I kind of like to attribute it to, you know, we we built the big football and then we handed it off to the coach and said, now go win the game. And that's kind of what we've done through implementation with our schools. We we built the foundation of the building blocks and we've handed that off through that implementation. We've we have seen things that we need to improve upon, things that we need to make better within, you know, the individual elements of the Learns Act. But we can't stop with that. We have to parlay that into higher education.

[00:18:55] And so we're going to be doing quite a bit of extensive work in higher education for Arkansas in the coming session.

[00:19:04] Again, looking at workforce development and how can how that we as a state through the funding model that we provide for higher education, just some areas of emphasis that we can put on some incentives for workforce development and getting folks trained, getting them out in the workforce and keeping them here in the state, capturing that talent and utilizing it for the betterment of the state.

[00:19:30] Any other major priorities outside of education that you want to preview for next session? A few things that that that I think are going to be kind of paramount as we move into the session. Maternal health is a big piece of that.

[00:19:49] That is a nonpartisan issue where we know that, you know, currently Arkansas is ranks highest in maternal maternal mortality rates in the nation. It makes it one of the riskiest places to have a baby in the state and then that postpartum care. So we are working both with our local entities on that, but also with our federal delegation on how we can increase some reimbursement rates.

[00:20:17] We continue to see labor and delivery facilities that have been closed in the state. And so that makes it farther than an expected mother has to go for care, but also for labor and delivery. And that increases that that risk when it comes to maternal health. For the last two months, I've been working with a small group that we were putting a whole lot of emphasis on mental health. We brought started a working group of stakeholders.

[00:20:45] We brought every possible niche of mental health and behavioral health sectors together over the last 18 to 24 months. And we've had continual meetings with them and looking at everything that we can possibly do to improve mental health and behavioral health in the state. Things such as licensure, barriers to workforce, facilities, reimbursement rates, anything that we can do to improve upon that we are doing.

[00:21:13] And then most recently, the governor rolled out kind of the concrete foundation of a new state pay plan. We, through the Learns Act, we saw how increasing that pay plan for our public school teachers took us from being 48th, 49th, 50th, depending upon what poll you wanted to look at in teacher compensation, to being ranked fourth nationally.

[00:21:39] And then if you factor in the cost of living, Arkansas now ranks the highest for starting teacher pay. And so we know through an extensive amount of market research, a lot of data-driven analysis of where we need to be for our state employees so that we can continue to recruit and retain the highest quality of state employees that we can across all agencies. And the governor put a lot of work in with her team to develop a new pay plan.

[00:22:08] We rolled kind of the high-level look at that a couple of weeks ago. That's something that we'll be working on during session. And then another key issue for me, back a couple of years ago, I was in Washington, D.C., doing some legislative visits with our Arkansas delegation and was spending an afternoon with Congressman Rick Crawford, former military. And he and I were talking a lot about national security issues at that time. And I said, so these are the things that keep you up at night.

[00:22:39] And he said, you know, he said, Representative Evans, he said, when I first came into Congress, he said, nothing really kept me up at night because he said, you don't know what you don't know. But he said, one of the things that really keeps me awake at night right now is water and water issues. And he said, when you look across the state of Arkansas right now, we are faced with a tremendous amount of water issues.

[00:23:02] County, city municipalities, who their infrastructure is very antiquated, has not been maintained. And so keeping that quality of water to those taxpaying citizens, making sure that wastewater is treated properly, but also in the fact that we are having great population shifts in the state.

[00:23:25] Over the last 10 years, 80 percent of the growth in the state has been in two counties in the northwest part of the state. And when you look at all the data, if the data trends continue on the path that they're on now, we're looking and trying to figure out exactly how we will be able to supply water to that growth between now and 2040.

[00:23:47] So we have population pockets whose water systems are failing, they're antiquated, they don't have the money and the revenue streams because of declining population to keep up with that. And then we have areas that are experiencing great growth and maybe just didn't plan for that growth and aren't prepared for the infrastructure that they're going to need to be able to supply that growth. And so water is going to be a big, big issue for us in the coming session.

[00:24:12] It's an important investment for any state. I was on the city council in my local community a long time ago, and I spent more time learning about water treatment plants than I would have ever imagined. And they were probably the most expensive piece of our budget, just the maintenance and reinvestment in them. It is. It's very expensive. And unfortunately, we like to say that water has become the new gold.

[00:24:41] Water is priceless. But water also several years ago became political. If you were looking at small town USA and you were a mayor and you started having a little bit of funding issues for your water system, you had to make a very difficult decision. And that was cut services somewhere so that you could backfill with revenue that water system or you had to raise water rates.

[00:25:09] And if you were a mayor in small town Arkansas and you raised the water rates, you probably just bought yourself an opponent and probably would not be reelected. And so politics got in the way of maintaining water systems properly. 100% accurate. Tim? In your new role, you're going to be spending a lot more time at the Capitol.

[00:25:39] You also have a very successful business. How will you manage that? Or how will your business manage with you being around a lot less? Tim? I have been very blessed that over the years we have put together an incredible team at our company.

[00:26:03] Our senior management team averages 15 plus years in experience with our company. They're not employees. They're just like family to us. And so back when we were faced with that tough decision, if the timing was right for me to make a run for the House of Representatives, after meeting with the family and getting the blessings from them,

[00:26:31] the next meeting was with my senior management team and talked to them about the opportunity that we were faced with. And they unanimously, quickly said, absolutely, 100%. Let's do this. And as I sat there later that afternoon, I began to think, you know, that was too easy. There wasn't even really a question of, you know, how much time is this going to take? Do they want me up at the Capitol more?

[00:26:59] It really made me question, do they really care whether I'm here or not? But they have done a tremendous job in all aspects of our business of managing the day-to-day operations. With technology, you know, there's nothing that goes on that I'm not aware of, whether it's through email or text messaging or we have a private messaging network that we've installed that they can get a hold of me 24-7 if needed.

[00:27:27] But thankfully, over the years, there hasn't been a single crisis that we couldn't overcome. They've done a great job. And I look forward to them being a part of our team for many years. Well, we usually wrap up our conversations with a couple of questions. I'm going to edit one to take us to Arkansas.

[00:27:53] But before we finish with those two capstone questions, I would just love to know what's your favorite part about Cabot? Like, what does home look like? What do you love about your hometown? And paint a picture for those around the country of where you call home. Cabot, Arkansas is a great place to move, put down roots, raise a family, prosper in business, and retire.

[00:28:23] We have a tremendous amount of amenities by being right outside the metro area of Little Rock. You're within 30 minutes of anything that you possibly want to do. I can leave Cabot and hit about anywhere in Little Rock that I want to hit in less than 30 minutes if I need to for things that we may not have.

[00:28:46] Our local government, our city council, our planning commission, our mayoral administration have done a great job over the last 23 years, continually listening to the folks back home of what their needs and wants and desires are, and meeting those and providing amenities and services and opportunities for our citizens. The outpouring of local support in Cabot, I think, is unique to a lot of communities.

[00:29:14] If there's a need, our community meets it. Whether it's the needs within our military and veterans that serve us so faithfully, and they need that community support wrapped around them to take care of their loved ones if they're deployed, or just be there as an encouragement to our senior citizens, we have a tremendous amount of opportunities and day-to-day activities for them.

[00:29:39] We have one of the top-ranked public school systems in the state. While Cabot is a community of roughly 30,000 within the population of the city limits, our reach is about 50,000 if you take the neighboring communities in that are within the school district. We have 10,500 students, and it's one of the highest-performing school districts in the state,

[00:30:06] and it's a reason why a lot of people want to move there. And so from the time that you move there and set your roots down because you want your children to grow up in a great community and a great school system until the time that you retire, Cabot is a place where all of your needs can be met. Thanks. You should do an ad for the chamber. Well, in your new role as speaker,

[00:30:32] you'll be traveling the state even more than you have before going out to seeing all of the districts and all of your members, and obviously probably seeing more of the business community throughout the state. We always ask our guests where you have traveled to last and what was the best meal you had. But for your final questions, I would love to hear what's the best restaurant in Arkansas? You know, folks are coming to the state. What is the must-go-to restaurant? And then where are you traveling,

[00:31:01] either in your personal or professional capacity, next, so that if someone wants to connect with you and make a friend, they could send you a restaurant tip for when you maybe head out of the state. Well, one of the real treasures in Arkansas for good Southern family-style barbecue actually is in my district. It's called the Mean Pig. And people travel from all over the country to come there.

[00:31:30] A lot of the Food Network shows that you watch on television have actually came to Arkansas, came to Cabot, set up at the Mean Pig, and did their shows there. So it's a hot spot for tourism. A family-owned business that started out as a really small little, not even a food truck. It was just a little trailer. And they've grown and multiplied and now passed on to the third generation of the family.

[00:31:58] And they continue to put up record numbers every year, serving people from all over the nation that come to eat there. And so that's one of our favorites. You know, when I entered into the race for speaker, one of the commitments that I made to the body was that I wanted to visit with every member that I could as their schedule and my schedule would match up. But I wanted to meet with them where they were. Yeah. I wanted to go to where they were.

[00:32:27] And I wanted to do that because I wanted to learn more about them personally. You know, when you get here in the General Assembly and you're in the House chamber and all the men are in their suits and ties and all the ladies are in their dress apparel, there is a real sense of equality. And I guess when it comes down to the fact that everyone has one vote on each issue, there is a sense, there is that sense of equality. But the reality is, is that we're not all equal because all of our districts are different.

[00:32:57] And so what it takes for one of my colleagues in Southwest Arkansas to serve their district and meet their needs is different than what it is for one of my colleagues in Northwest Arkansas and one of the fastest growing areas in the state. The needs are just different with the people. So I wanted to go to their districts, meet them and see where they were, meet them where they were, look at their local communities, get a better sense and idea of what may be some needs and key policy issues that they may be coming

[00:33:27] to the Capitol for in the session advocating for so that I could better help them and serve them as the Speaker of the House. That was a great decision, except for the fact that they always wanted to go eat. And so I had a lot of breakfast, a lot of lunch, a lot of dinners in a lot of places across the state. It was not good for the diet, but it was great for relationship building. And Arkansas is the natural state.

[00:33:56] It's an area of great tourism. There are a whole lot of just treasured hometown diners in a lot of our communities. It would be hard to just pick one. Nice. I do. I do think that there's tremendous value in knowing someone from where they come from and who they are, the community and people that made them. So I salute you for making that, making the rounds. What I found in that was

[00:34:23] it made those conversations even become more real. If I had just met with them in my office here at the Capitol, or if I'd met them in their office at the Capitol, or if we sat in the House chamber and visited for some period of time, that was a very professional conversation. But when we just put on our jeans and boots and rolled up our sleeves or showed up in the summer in a golf shirt and shorts and just got in their vehicle and drove around their community,

[00:34:51] those conversations became real personal then. And so you learned a whole lot more about who they were. And I think that will help me manage their individual needs, their individual personalities as we approach that time of session when emotions get strained and issues become more intense. And what I've heard from many speakers and Senate presidents in the past, maybe 10 years, is that the people management

[00:35:19] becomes the hardest part of the job. It's not so much of the policy anymore. And so by you investing that time, I think that you're starting off your first, your maiden season as speaker in a really good position. So we wish you all the best. Oh, thank you so much. And it is, you know, I have 99 members to think about every day. In some sense, it's kind of calling balls and strikes. But really it's management, managing their personalities,

[00:35:49] advocating on their behalf. I made it very clear to both caucuses that I'm not here just to represent the majority caucus of which I am a part of. I'm here to represent the House. I am the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Party. And so making sure I have an understanding of those personalities, their needs, their wants, their desires, their strengths, their shortcomings, as I place people in leadership positions, I hope that proves to be beneficial.

[00:36:19] Well, we're very excited to watch come session. And thank you for lending the time during this busy time as you lead up to the start of session and also this holiday season. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the holidays. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for including me in this. It's a great honor to be a part of this and just Merry Christmas to both of you and your teams back in your areas. And please let us know if the opportunity presents itself to come to Arkansas. We would love to host you here

[00:36:48] at the State Capitol. Or the Mean Pig. Or the Mean Pig. Yes, ma'am. Or the Mean Pig. Thank you, Speaker. Great. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.