Legislature(1997 - 1998)
04/07/1997 03:26 PM House L&C
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 208 - ALASKA AEROSPACE DEVELOPMENT CORP. BOARD CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG announced the next order of business was House Bill No. 208, "An Act relating to the board of directors of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation." Number 0568 REPRESENTATIVE ALAN AUSTERMAN, sponsor, asked whether this was on teleconference. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG said no. Number 0616 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN explained that he has been serving as an ex officio member on the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation (AADC) board of directors for the last two and a half years. During the first few months on the board, he became concerned over the lack of business people on the board, as well as with business practices within the corporation. This led to introduction of the previous year's HB 533, which passed the House and is identical to HB 208. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN referred to a break-down included in committee packets showing the existing board and proposed changes. The current board has four University of Alaska personnel. When they started the AADC, it was proper to have four university members who could study aerospace in Alaska as a science. However, they are past that point. They have determined this is feasible, scientifically sound and should be done. Adding business members will provide a broader business sense for running the corporation and the business of launching rockets in Alaska. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN advised that the AADC has projects that include more than the university, such as the ground stations in Fairbanks and the proposed Challenger Learning Center. They are also working with the Alyeska Pipeline Service to monitor pressure valves, for example, through use of satellites. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said as the chart shows, they want to add two business people and another "commercial space" person. Currently, one board member is the executive director of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), and one is the commissioner of the Department of Commerce and Economic Development (DCED) or the commissioner's designee; one reason for dropping the ASTF member is that the DCED has plenty of coverage. In fact, the commissioner could appoint the ASTF executive director as the designee. Number 0884 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN referred to page 2, lines 27 and 28, and advised that according to statute, the university president is a board member and is appointed as chairman. This bill changes it so that the board selects its own chair and vice-chair. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN discussed transitional provisions, listing expiration dates for several members' terms. Some positions being eliminated have already expired. He suggested the Governor make those appointments right away. Number 1003 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG suggested other members would be allowed to serve out their terms and there would be an orderly transition. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN concurred. Number 1023 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked whether Representative Austerman thinks there will be any difficulty in attracting aerospace or commercial space members. Number 1046 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said no. He had talked to Pat Ladner, executive director of the AADC, and to others (such as board member Courtney Stadd) who believe there is enough interest in the rocket launch facility that finding members would not be a problem. Number 1077 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG advised that a copy of committee minutes from the previous year's HB 533 was in the packet. That bill passed the House by a vote of 37 to 1. Number 1103 REPRESENTATIVE GENE KUBINA said he recently sent the sponsor a memo asking that he consider replacing the public member with a "K-12 educator" in order to get children involved in high technology science. Number 1154 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN advised that he had no problem with the public member. There are two business people; two from the university; the commissioner of DCED; and two from the aerospace or commercial space industry plus one from commercial space. He suggested that the committee decide whether to replace the public member with someone from the school system. Number 1188 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked whether the Challenger Learning Center in Kenai was involved under the title of this bill. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN replied that it is a separate entity. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG said there had been discussions in the past about some relationship with that. Number 1217 REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA said if someone is interested and has a background in the education community, children may become interested through the schools. It is a good way to get information out to the community and generate support. He suggested making it a public board member "and/or K-12 educator." That would make a statement but still leave the Governor the option of going a different way. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he had no problem with it. Number 1302 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked Representative Austerman whether he knew of anybody that would not support the legislation as written. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said the AADC is not necessarily happy with this. The university regents are not happy about being removed from the board. Additionally, the executive director is not happy with having the board changed. Number 1368 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG said the fiscal note was for increased travel and honorarium expenses. He expressed concern about not having testimony from the executive director. However, the bill, which he believes is a good one, would go to the House Finance Committee. Number 1415 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said the fiscal note is arguable. It is there because of adding a third commercial space member, who will likely come from outside the state. He suggested adding an Alaska school teacher and eliminating the third commercial space member would result in a zero fiscal note. Number 1467 REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA made a motion to delete one "aerospace or commercial space" and insert one "Alaska K-12 educator". That would eliminate the out-of-state person and thus the $10,000 fiscal note. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG closed public testimony. He expressed concern because this is a business enterprise. He agrees with Representative Kubina's idea conceptually and that the more public input, the better. He noted that this had already created a little "flap" on Kodiak Island. However, this is rocket science. The corporation is moving from an incubation period into a business period. He believes hard and fast decisions need to be made on the board by business-related people. He said, however, he was certainly willing to listen to compromise suggestions if the sponsor is willing. Number 1566 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he had already spoken to the executive director. He referred to the "flap" on Kodiak and said that occurred because all the business of the AADC has been done in Anchorage. Nobody is directly interacting with the people of Kodiak regarding a new rocket launch facility going in there. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN stated, "We've been on AADC's case for three years now to hire somebody to do the PR work in Kodiak, to be the front person, to do the kind of things that naturally would be done. If you're putting a business into a new community, you go in and do your PR work and do all the stuff that's necessary as a business entity. But you don't ignore them." He suggested that even with a school teacher member, the way it is structured with two new business people plus the two aerospace or commercial space members, that board should have the ability to do what it needs to. Number 1620 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked about the ex officio board members. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said there is a Senate member and a House member. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked whether an educator could be made an ex officio member rather than a voting member. He suggested that educator could be from Kodiak. Number 1653 REPRESENTATIVE RYAN questioned whether they would get a person with expertise in this field. He discussed having a K-12 local teacher who knew little about space versus someone living elsewhere in the state who was knowledgeable and excited about it. He said he had no problem with replacing the public member with a K-12 educator. Number 1693 REPRESENTATIVE TOM BRICE said while he understands the need for the board to have a high level of attention paid to it from the business end, he believes it still falls under the guise of state government. By putting an educator on the board, there is a large potential for dissemination of information. Instead of everything going into the board, something would come out of it. He suggested the teacher did not need to be from the math or science field but could teach economics or business, for example. He cited the board of regents, where 95 percent of members come from business backgrounds but there is a student regent with equal authority as far as voting. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked whether there were strong feelings about this member being ex officio or replacing someone else. Number 1793 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN referred to the fiscal note. He said when the bill passed the previous year with the exact same make-up as in this bill, the AADC did not come forward with a $10,000 fiscal note. He again stated that the AADC is the one opposing this bill. Number 1820 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked whether an ex officio member would have the same ability as a full-fledged member to travel to board meetings and participate, but only be unable to vote. If that is the case, to him it is a toss-up. However, if an ex officio member does not get the same information everyone else does or is not allowed to participate in executive sessions, for example, he believes that is a concern. Number 1872 REPRESENTATIVE BILL HUDSON, who had recently joined the meeting, asked whether there was an amendment before the committee. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG said they were talking conceptually about it. Number 1887 REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA offered a written amendment, which read: Page 2, line 16: delete "public member" and insert "public school educator" Number 1907 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN referred to Representative Brice's question and said currently in statute for AADC, it spells out that two members of the legislature shall be ex officio members. It also says voting and nonvoting members of the board are entitled to per diem and travel expenses authorized. Therefore, ex officio members would be covered. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked whether there was access to executive meetings as well. He said he would assume that. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he would assume that also. However, it does not specify executive sessions in statute; they would need to look at the bylaws. REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA asked whether adding another person would increase the fiscal note. Number 1946 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN restated that the previous year's bill carried no fiscal note. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG said he had been leaning towards an ex officio member. However, by doing that, it would create a fiscal note, so he was withdrawing that idea. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN reiterated that he had no problem with replacing the public member. If they felt it necessary to replace one space member, he would argue against it a bit but would not oppose it. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG concurred. He reminded them that the business of this business is to launch rockets. The three aerospace and commercial space members are fundamentally a de facto sales staff for the corporation because of their worldwide connections within that industry. That is why they are on the board and why their numbers are being increased. Number 2006 REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said there is also a good possibility the Governor might look at placing a school teacher as the public member anyway. All this would do is designate a school teacher instead of leaving it open-ended. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG suggested making the amendment permissive. Number 2023 REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA said if the committee does not want to specify that, he would suggest saying "public school educator or public member". That would send a message indicating the desire for a public educator but leave it open. Number 2069 CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG stated that the amendment to the amendment is to put the words "public school educator or" before "public member". He asked if there were any objections. Hearing none, he advised that the amendment to the amendment was adopted. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked if there was any objection to the amendment as amended. There being none, the amendment was adopted. Number 2085 REPRESENTATIVE KUBINA made a motion to move HB 208, as amended, from committee with individual recommendations and a zero fiscal note. CHAIRMAN ROKEBERG asked if there was any objection. There being none, CSHB 208(L&C) moved from the House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee with a zero fiscal note.
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