Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Representative Rodgers Stays On Road Helping Area Residents

Sandra Rodgers has been on the road since being elected as state representative.

Recently, Rodgers was part of a delegation of legislators to visit the Arkansas Department of Correction's diagnostic unit in Tucker. Here, she and the others heard about the Department of Youth Services (DYS) ideas on the juvenile program.

Rodgers said the DYS wants to expand juvenile facilities because the state is running out of places to house juvenile offenders. Currently, she said, it costs $95 per child per day to house a juvenile offender. Those offenders suffering mental problems are a bigger financial burden on the state coffers as they must be sent out of Arkansas for treatment and incarceration.

In addition, the delegation was informed the male sex offender program currently treats 50 patients. It is hoped to increase this number to 100 or 125 in the near future.

Rodgers has been traveling from her district to Little Rock as often as she can attending as many committee meetings from the different committees in the legislature. This is because 50 members of the State House of Representatives will be gone due to term limits at the end of their terms next year.

"We'll be losing a lot of knowledge and experience," she said, "and those coming in will be looking to us for leadership. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can."

Rodgers said with the term limit laws in effect bureaucrats will soon be running the state government. In fact, she's already seen evidence of this occurring.

Under the term limit laws, Rodgers can only serve two more terms, should she be elected.

"People don't realize the tremendous amount of knowledge you need to do this job," she said. "You have to learn as much as possible on the front end. You can't wait like you used to."

On the other hand, the Arkansas Senate has yet to experience the term limit losses it will suffer. This, Rodgers said, will change next year when several members of the senate are up for election and many won't be able to run again.

While working in the district and traveling to Little Rock as often as possible, Rodgers has also been trying to make time for her family. Her son is leaving for basic training for the Arkansas National Guard this week and will be in Fort Benning, Ga. for three months. Her daughter is preparing to enter the 10th grade when school starts Aug. 18.

Still, helping the people of Arkansas is what Rodgers said she would do when running for office. In working for others, she signed onto the disaster relief bill to help victims of disasters, such as the March 1 tornadoes, get money they desperately need.

She sponsored legislation to deny a driver's license to anyone in the state illegally or who is not a U.S. citizen.

Rodgers was also involved with the bill to give motorcycle riders the choice on wearing helmets. She said if a person is 21-years-old they are old enough to make their own decisions on wearing helmets.

One vote she cast and regrets is the Equine Infection Anemia (EIA) bill. EIA is the equine equivalent of AIDS in humans. Under the bill, any horse, mule or donkey testing positive for EIA must be quarantined and kept at least 400 yards from other animals.

Once the quarantine period ends, the animal is tested again. Should it test positive a second time it must, by law, be destroyed.

This has raised hackles of horse owners around the state. Rodgers said she has gotten more than 200 calls, letters and cards with people stating their opposition to the measure.

Many horse people argue the animal will die of old age before being killed by the EIA virus.

The bill is also costly to those with animals to be tested. Rodgers said it costs $20 to $25 per animal for testing.

"It's been a controversial bill," she said. "I may sponsor legislation to repeal it next time. It wasn't well put together and there are a lot of questions needing to be answered.

Other legislation Rodgers has been involved with includes welfare reform. She said there was a problem with the state's method of dealing with federal regulations on the Directory of New Hires.

The state had placed the directory under the Office of Child Support Enforcement, she said. This caused problems and raised her ire because it gave the Office of Child Support Enforcement access to people's work records.

Under the federal regulations, employers must send information contained on W4 forms to the directory within 20 days of hiring a person.

This makes employment information more accessible to more people and easier for wages to be garnished.

Rodgers spent three days reading the federal regulations and learned the directory was not supposed to be placed in the Office of Child Support Enforcement. She worked to get it transferred to the Employment Security Division where it belongs.

Should there be a match in social security numbers with a person trying to skip out on child support payments, then the OCSE will get involved.

In addition, the directory was originally set up so hearings would only be held in Little Rock. This made it inconvenient for anyone living in the outlying portions of the state. Because of this, Rodgers worked to get the location of hearings changed where they will be handled on a more local basis.