Legislature(2021 - 2022)ADAMS 519
03/29/2022 01:30 PM House FINANCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB33 | |
| HB265 | |
| HB296 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 265 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 296 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 291 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 33 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HOUSE BILL NO. 291
"An Act extending the termination date of the Council
on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault; and providing
for an effective date."
2:49:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GERAN TARR, SPONSOR, explained that the bill
would extend the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual
Assault (CDVSA) through June 30, 2028. The council was set
to sunset on June 30 of 2022 and action needed to be taken
quickly. She noted that there was a sunset provision in
statute that would trigger an audit, which members had
copies of in their bill packets.
Representative Tarr highlighted some of the audit report
conclusions. She read from the audit report (copy on file):
The audit concluded that the council generally
operated in the public's interest by funding and
monitoring Alaskan domestic violence and sexual
assault programs and prevention activities. The
council served as the central coordinator for related
services throughout the state, conducted meetings in
accordance with council bylaws, effectively met most
statutory duties, and did not duplicate the efforts of
other entities.
Representative Tarr referred to page 13 of the audit which
listed the audit findings. The audit recommended that the
council address its statutory responsibility to consult
with the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to
formulate standards and procedures, that the council's
executive director implement written procedures to ensure
that public notices were posted timely, and the director
should improve grant award and monitoring policies and
procedures. She relayed that the council was interested in
meeting the recommendations.
Representative Tarr indicated that the bill would add some
additional positions to the council. The council was
currently comprised of four public members and five state
members, and the bill would add a fifth public member. This
individual would be part of an Alaska Native organization.
The addition was recommended to ensure that Alaska Native
communities were represented. The bill also proposed that
the governor confer with the council and the Alaska Native
Women's Resource Center (ANWRC) to appropriately fill this
position. An additional government agency member would be
added to the council to balance the additional public
member. The issue of whether the Alaska Mental Health Trust
Authority (AMHTA) wanted to participate in the council came
up in the House State Affairs Committee. She relayed that
the executive director of AMHTA was very interested in the
trust having a seat on the council.
2:55:08 PM
Representative Rasmussen thanked the bill sponsor for
bringing the bill forward. There was funding that had been
secured to offset the rising cost of utilities for many of
the groups that belonged to AMHTA, and she thought that
funding would be irrelevant if the bill did not pass. She
hoped the legislation would be passed into law.
Co-Chair Merrick invited the Legislative Auditor to the
table.
2:55:49 PM
KRIS CURTIS, LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR, ALASKA DIVISION OF
LEGISLATIVE AUDIT, conveyed the conclusions of the audit.
She read from page 7 of the audit:
The audit concluded that the council generally
operated in the public's interest by funding and
monitoring Alaskan domestic violence and sexual
assault programs and prevention activities. The
council served as the central coordinator for related
services throughout the state, conducted meetings in
accordance with council bylaws, effectively met most
statutory duties, and did not duplicate the efforts of
other entities.
The audit also concluded that the council should
improve document retention, access to the Battering
Intervention Program (BIP) database, and timeliness of
annual report submission and regulation changes.
In accordance with AS 44.66.010(a)(5), the council is
scheduled to terminate June 30, 2022. We recommend the
legislature extend the council's termination date six
years, to June 30, 2028.
Ms. Curtis referred to the reports on page 9 that showed
financial information about the council's expenditures and
revenues. The grant funding increased substantially during
the audit period as a result of increasing federal funds.
She referred to page 25, which depicted the schedule of
grant payments. It showed which entities were receiving
funds in various locations in Alaska. There were four
recommendations beginning on page 14 of the audit:
Recommendation No. 1: The executive director should
allocate resources to ensure the annual report is
submitted in accordance with council bylaws.
Recommendation No. 2: The executive director should
improve training to help ensure document retention
procedures are followed.
Recommendation No. 3: The executive director should
work with the Department of Law (LAW) to expedite
regulatory updates.
Recommendation No. 4: The executive director should
continue to work with DPS and the Office of
Information Technology (OIT) to improve access to the
BIP database.
Ms. Curtis noted that the improvements under Recommendation
No. 4 would require that new users of the BIP database be
subject to a background check and fingerprinting. She
indicated that the new requirements would make the process
cumbersome to users. She relayed that management's response
to the audit began on page 29. The commissioner of the
Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the CDVSA chair both
agreed with the findings and recommendations of the audit.
Co-Chair Merrick moved to invited testimony.
2:59:46 PM
BRENDA STANFILL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA NETWORK ON
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT (ANDVSA), supported
the passage of HB 291 and adding two additional seats to
the council. She explained that ANDVSA was different than
CDVSA and that people often mistake one for the other. She
indicated that ANDVSA was made up of the membership of the
direct service providers within Alaska. The providers met
quarterly to discuss possible improvements in the field,
how to support one another, and to note potential
statistical trends. The network worked in tandem with the
council to ensure that issues were being worked on
throughout Alaska in a unified manner. Both entities worked
toward ending domestic violence in Alaska but had
distinctly different roles.
Ms. Stanfill indicated that ANDVSA members worked together
on the ground to provide support to victims while CDVSA
worked to ensure that funding was being dedicated to the
cause and was being spent in the way it was intended. The
network relied on the council to hold quarterly meetings to
allow space for individuals to speak about what was
happening in their communities. The council also
commissioned studies and ensured that the administration
was aware of the work that was being done on the ground.
She reiterated that the network strongly supported the
addition of two seats to the council. She shared that when
she began working in behavioral health 25 years ago, the
shelters in the state were being filled up with individuals
with substance abuse issues and it was unclear what should
be done to address the problem. The issue was just as
pervasive today, and there was still no appropriate
solution. Additionally, Alaska Native people were
overrepresented in every shelter in every situation in the
state. She thought it was important for there to be a
designated seat on the council for a representative from an
Alaska Native organization. It was also important for ANWRC
to have a voice in selecting the induvial who would get
appointed for the seat.
3:05:06 PM
DIANE CASTO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
thanked the committee for hearing the bill and
Representative Tarr for introducing it. She appreciated the
audits and reviews of the council because they brought
about improvements. She relayed that in FY 18 there was an
in-depth audit done through funding from the Victims of
Crime Act (VOCA). It was a long and complete audit and
there were 14 recommendations, which was a significant
amount. The audit was a catalyst for change and brought
about critical improvements in the council's process. For
example, the council began to require federal funding be
given to grantees as reimbursement, not an advance. The
changes improved the council's work, but also placed a
large strain on the agency's funding. Overall, it made the
council better. In FY 21, there was an audit of the chief
financial officer (CFO) of the Department of Justice (DOJ)
and the three federal grants from DOJ programs were
examined. She shared that there was only one recommendation
from that audit. She thought all the changes the council
had made were significant and overall improved the program.
3:08:56 PM
Ms. Casto relayed that CDVSA was created in 1981 to build a
sustainable structure to fund and support community-based
services and to address the needs of victims, survivors,
and others impacted by domestic and sexual violence.
Ultimately, CDVSA was created to accept federal money and
distribute it appropriately to address these needs. In
addition to the nine-member board, there were nine full-
time staff members at the council. The council funded 35
community-based agencies serving Alaskans impacted by
domestic violence and within the agencies, managed a total
of 101 grant awards. There were many grant types included
within the 101 grant awards. Another finding in the audit
in FY 18 was that the council was comingling its grant
awards, but when there were separate funding services,
there needed to be a separate grant award. The council
managed 26 victim services programs and 18 enhanced service
programs, which included child advocacy centers, legal
services, and mental health services for youth. There were
also 13 community prevention grants and a total of 10 BIPs
that were approved by the state.
3:12:02 PM
Ms. Casto indicated that the council had made progress on
the recommendations made in the most recent audit. She
spoke to the first recommendation, which was for the
executive director to allocate resources to ensure the
annual report was submitted in accordance with council
bylaws. There were a number of challenges in 2020 and 2021
due to the significant drop in federal funding during the
COVID-19 pandemic. There was also an 18-month period where
the council only had six to seven staff due to vacancies
and hiring difficulties during the pandemic. As of Monday,
April 4, 2022, the council would be fully staffed for the
first time in two years. She noted that there was a
perception that there was a lack of transparency in the
council, but all information and minutes from the quarterly
meetings was required to be posted on the state's website
for publicly noticed meetings. The council was not trying
to hide anything by not having an annual report available
on time. The following year's report would be on time and
would be released soon.
3:15:23 PM
Ms. Casto spoke about the second recommendation of the
audit which was to train staff to ensure document
retention. She indicated that the more important element
above training staff was to ensure that the many changes
that had been made were operationalized better. At the time
the audit had occurred, all staff were not yet up to speed
on the new operational changes. She thought that the
council was now "out of that forest" and that everything
would be well documented going forward.
Ms. Castro referred to recommendation 3, which was for the
executive director to work with the Department of Law (DOL)
to expedite regulatory updates. During the audit, DOL
appointed a regulatory lawyer for the council to have at
its disposal. Once legislative session was over, the
council would be in the queue to distribute regulatory
information to the public. Anything in current regulation
that was not in-line with federal requirements was covered
in special conditions for the grant awards. Although the
regulations were not up to speed, all of the grantees that
were receiving funds adhered to the federal requirements
due to the special conditions written into the grant
awards.
3:18:21 PM
Ms. Casto continued to the topic of recommendation 4, which
was for the executive director to work with DPS and OIT to
improve access to the BIP database. She felt strongly that
BIP was a critical piece of ending domestic and sexual
violence. The council needed to have strong prevention
programs, available services for victims, and services to
address the root causes of abusive behavior. All three
elements were vital to make progress. She explained that
when she first came to the council, she reviewed all of the
programs and one of the programs in particular horrified
her because it was not being properly managed. The
mismanagement was due to insufficient funding and the
person who had been managing the program resigned, and then
the position was removed altogether. She made it her
mission to tackle the issues with the BIP program.
Ms. Casto indicated that she started a work group in April
of 2021 to determine how to build successful programs that
would impact behavior. She needed data which she was told
was not available when she first joined the council. She
investigated and discovered that there was a database, but
that all OIT employees that were aware of the database had
since resigned. The council was currently working with OIT
and the IT program within DPS to move the database to a
different platform, such as a cloud-based platform, to make
it easier for grantees to access the database and enter
data. She reminded the committee that the process currently
required fingerprinting to access the database. The process
became so egregious that it was no longer deemed worthwhile
to submit data. She hoped that the new system would be
completed within the next six months and that it would
require everyone to submit data. The influx of data would
inform the council's decision on what needed to be added to
the BIP system.
3:22:38 PM
Representative Rasmussen asked if there was anything in the
database that would track offenders and the number of
victims they had abused. She thought recidivism would be
better if these numbers were provided.
Ms. Casto responded that the council did not track the
specific data Representative Rasmussen was looking for.
However, there was some data that looked at whether an
offender had prior victims and whether the offender
continued to be engaged with victims after an incident. She
thought the issue of recidivism was difficult because the
only way to tell if an offender had recidivated was if the
offender was caught again. The question was how to track
elements beyond recidivism. The council had been
researching other methods and looking at the ways in which
other states collected data. Researchers found that
Alaska's database was one of the best and included great
information; it was simply a matter of having access to it.
The database in Alaska looked at the Adverse Childhood
Experiences (ACEs) of offenders, which laid a great
foundation for discovering the root cause of abuse.
3:25:03 PM
Representative Rasmussen thought much of the conversation
was about modernizing domestic abuse policy. She spoke of a
video she saw on Facebook showing abuse without
repercussion. She thought there needed to be a broader
discussion that looked at childhood.
Ms. Casto agreed and stated that domestic violence and
child abuse were interconnected. Many children experienced
abuse in the home and a violent atmosphere created
tremendous trauma. She started her career in child abuse
and neglect prevention and the issue was important to her
as well.
3:27:03 PM
Representative LeBon asked for an example of the data
points that would be entered into the database.
Ms. Casto assumed Representative LeBon was talking about
the BIP database. She explained that arrest data was not
collected. She had a link that she could provide to the
committee that showed all collected data. It was also
important for victims to be served and protected in some
way. One of the things that was found was that when an
individual was going through a domestic violence class,
program, or treatment, the individual would often become
more aggressive because they were being challenged. Victim
safety was a key piece of the program.
Representative LeBon noted Ms. Casto had presented to the
Public Safety Finance Subcommittee on the same topic. He
was aware of a fiscal note and wondered if the fiscal note
would be addressed.
Co-Chair Merrick indicated she was not planning on
addressing it but would discuss it if Ms. Casto was
prepared.
Representative LeBon noted that in 2021, the reduction in
VOCA funding was consequential. He referred to the fiscal
note [by the Department of Public Safety, control code
PqrQf] and asked if Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal
Recovery Funds (CSLFRF) funding was used to back-fill the
council's budget. He asked whether she was confident in the
federal funding.
Ms. Casto was not confident in the federal funding. In the
prior year, the council received a 34 percent reduction in
VOCA funding from 2020 to 2021. It was a significant loss
of money and it had been dropping significantly in recent
years. It had dropped from almost $8 million in 2018 at the
time of the award to $2.8 million in 2021. The council was
unprepared for the substantial 34 percent reduction in one
year. She noted that one of the federal grants through DHSS
provided to the council three American Rescue Plan Act
(ARPA) grants. She relayed that the council was piecing
together one-time funding sources to build the FY 22 and FY
24 budgets. There were grants that the council hoped to be
awarded to help contribute to the budget. She had been told
that the crime victim fund, which was what supported the
VOCA funding, was at its lowest level ever. The council
would be seeking additional funding in FY 24 and FY 25.
3:35:32 PM
Representative LeBon pointed to the designated general fund
(DGF) money listed on the fiscal note. He asked where the
$2 million listed came from, whether it was predictable,
and whether it was subject to the sweep.
Ms. Castro responded that it was predictable now and had
also been predictable in the past. It was money that had
been given to CDVSA in FY 18 that came about due to SB 91
and came from the marijuana tax fund. So far, the funding
had been steady. She was worried when SB 91 was rescinded
but the money was not impacted. The money was specifically
designated to fund the 13 community-based prevention
programs.
Representative LeBon asked if the money was spent before
the sweep.
Ms. Casto responded that the money was spent and none was
left on the table.
3:37:13 PM
Representative Rasmussen asked if Ms. Casto knew if any of
the organizations that received funding qualified as non-
profits. She knew that some organizations were able to
qualify and receive money through avenues like pull-tabs.
Ms. Casto responded that she did not know. She had worked
for organizations in the past that were able to utilize
pull-tab money. She elaborated that normally the council
supplemented the budget with fundraising events, but the
pandemic had gotten in the way of those efforts.
Representative Rasmussen noted legislation in circulation
that would allow for the expansion of pull-tab
requirements. The addition of electronic pull-tabs invited
new participants and the amount of money was sizable. She
was open to working on the issue.
Co-Chair Merrick thanked the testifiers. She noted that in
House State Affairs Committee there was one "do not pass"
recommendation and wondered about the reason for the
opposition.
Representative Tarr responded that Representative Eastman
voted "do not pass" because he did not support the addition
of a member from an Alaska Native organization.
HB 291 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further
consideration.
Co-Chair Merrick relayed the agenda for the following day.