Legislature(2005 - 2006)CAPITOL 106
01/26/2006 08:00 AM House STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB349 | |
| HB273 | |
| Confirmation Hearing(s): || Commissioner, Department of Administration | |
| Lieutenant Governor Designee | |
| Alaska Public Offices Commission (apoc) | |
| HB278 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 349 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 273 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | HB 278 | ||
HB 349-COMMISSION ON LEG. COMP. & ALLOWANCES CHAIR SEATON announced that the first order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 349, "An Act relating to legislator salary and benefits; establishing the Citizens' Commission on Legislative Salary and Benefits and defining its powers and duties and abolishing the State Officers Compensation Commission; and providing for an effective date by repealing secs. 9 and 12, ch. 124, SLA 1986." 8:06:50 AM REPRESENTATIVE BRUCE WEYHRAUCH, Alaska State Legislature, introduced HB 349, as sponsor. He paraphrased part of his sponsor statement [included in the committee packet], which read: House Bill 349 creates a commission that will make recommendations regarding legislative pay. It does not raise salaries of legislators, but does provide an increase for the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate from $500 per year to $500 per month. REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH indicated which version of the bill he would like the committee to work with. 8:08:50 AM REPRESENTATIVE LYNN moved to adopt committee substitute (CS) for HB 349, Version 24-LS1391\L, Wayne, 1/25/06, as a work draft. There being no objection, Version L was before the committee. 8:09:41 AM JACQUELINE TUPOU, Staff to Representative Bruce Weyhrauch, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Weyhrauch, sponsor, reviewed the changes made in Version L of HB 349. She said most of the changes were just a matter of semantics and logistical problems. One substantive change was to the timeframe of the bill, making it "a little more indefinite." She said that will allow the commission to flesh out what it wants its process to be. 8:10:30 AM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER said until HB 349, she wasn't aware that current statute already provides a commission to review legislative salaries, and that that commission includes a business executive, a representative from a nonpartisan voters' organization, a person with public administration experience, and a representative of a labor organization appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature. Under the new plan, she noted, the members of the commission would be appointed by the President of the Senate and the [Speaker] of the House and there would be no provision to have those appointees confirmed by the legislature. She stated that she is uncomfortable with potentially removing all public participation. 8:11:18 AM MS. TUPOU explained that the legislature currently has the power to set its own pay and can't delegate that to someone else; therefore, "for that citizens' commission currently on the statutes book to be implemented there would have to be a constitutional change." 8:12:03 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH noted that attorneys said delegating the authority to set legislative pay to the executive branch seems to a cause a problem between separation of powers. Regarding Representative Gardner's concern about public notice, he said, "... You can bet that if the legislature's going to raise its pay, there better be a public process or there'll be heck to pay from the public." REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER stated for clarification, "That's not in this bill; that's a decision that could be made down the road one way or the other ...." 8:13:12 AM MS. TUPOU directed attention to page 4, beginning on line 5 of Version L, which read: The commission shall give reasonable public notice of its preliminary findings and recommendations, solicit public comments, and give due regard to the public comments, before submitting a final report under (d) of this section. 8:13:26 AM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER said, "I'll stand corrected." 8:13:32 AM REPRESENTATIVE LYNN asked if there is anything in the bill that relates to "office allowance." He said that has not been changed for several years. 8:13:46 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH replied, "No, that per diem - none of that - is addressed. All this does is set a salary." MS. TUPOU, in response to a comment by Representative Weyhrauch, noted that legislators are currently paid at a range 7. REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH surmised, "Per diem, I suppose, as part of ... pay to a legislator would be considered, but that's up to the commission and the legislature. All this does is really set up the mechanism for determining all this." 8:14:41 AM REPRESENTATIVE LYNN concluded, "So, ... they could look at office lounge, or per diem, or anything else." 8:14:54 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH said, "There's no restriction on what they would look at." 8:15:08 AM MS. TUPOU, in response to a follow-up question from Representative Lynn, surmised that a legislative page is paid at least at a Range 10. 8:15:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO said, "Separate from this group is the $500. My first impression is ... we're making a decision on just two members. Wouldn't the committee be a better group to make the determination of $500, whether it's a month or a year ...?" 8:16:05 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH responded as follows: When I read through the statute in preparing for the bill, I saw that those positions were already segregated out, and it already said "$500 per year" for the [Senate] President and the Speaker [of the House]. And so, ... just in the process of drafting the bill ... with the drafter, I said, "Well, change the ... word 'year' to 'month'." So, the statute had already segregated those offices out and ... I don't remember the year that that was implemented - decades ago. And again, just knowing how much work the Speaker [of the House] and the [Senate] President do throughout the year, every day, I just thought $500 per month, ... even that, seemed (indisc.) compared to the workload. 8:16:50 AM MS. TUPOU noted that the Alaska State Constitution shows that segregation. 8:17:10 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO asked if Legislative Council is currently authorized to change "our salary." 8:17:24 AM MS. TUPOU responded that the legislative body, as a whole, has the authority to set their own pay. 8:17:46 AM MS. TUPOU, in response to a follow-up question from Representative Gatto, said HB 349 provides that the commission would release [its preliminary findings]. Ninety days from the release date, if Legislative Council does not take any action, the report of those preliminary findings would be adopted in the policies therein by Legislative Council. 8:18:07 AM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER stated her concern regarding the lack of public process. Even though the language, as previously discussed, would require the commission to report to Legislative Council, the language on page 4, line 17, shows that Legislative Council "may publish the final report". She emphasized the word "may" and said it makes her a little uncomfortable that there would be no requirement that the report be made available to the public. MS. TUPOU surmised that the reason for the use of the permissive "may" is because the commission would have already printed a report and distributed it to the public. If Legislative Council doesn't make any changes, she suggested, it would be redundant to publish the report again. 8:19:38 AM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER asked, "If [Legislative] Council doesn't act, and the recommendations become public, then there isn't necessarily any report or announcement of that. Is that correct?" 8:19:58 AM MS. TUPOU replied, "Not past the commission's report." She explained that if Legislative Council accepts the report from the commission by doing nothing, then that becomes "the report" at that point. 8:20:37 AM MS. TUPOU, in response to a request for clarification from Chair Seaton, said the language in the bill regarding public notice [is on page 4, lines 5-8] and follows the previously noted language about the commission's preliminary findings. She reiterated that if Legislative Council does nothing, the final report that was provided by the commission becomes policy. 8:21:30 AM CHAIR SEATON pointed out that there is nothing in the language that says the final report is given to the public. He remarked that the final report could be significantly different than the preliminary report. He asked, "Was it the intent to not make that public?" 8:22:02 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH suggested the concern stated by both Representative Gardner and Chair Seaton is in reference to the use of the word "may" on page 4, line 17. He mentioned changing "may" to "shall" to ensure that the report is made public. He said there is no desire to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. He added, "Ultimately the truth will out." He asked if the committee would like a conceptual amendment to change "may" to "shall". 8:22:57 AM CHAIR SEATON answered in the affirmative. He said the committee would probably offer a conceptual amendment to require that the final report be sent to Legislative Council and to the public. 8:23:16 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG mentioned the "Madison amendment," which he said provided that U.S. Congress may not raise its own salary. He explained that this means no salary increase can become effective until after the next Congress convenes. He said when he served [in the legislature] in the past, he introduced a ratification of the Madison Amendment, which was not adopted. He stated he thinks it would be a good idea to add that provision to HB 349. He clarified that the language would provide that no legislative pay raise can become effective until after the next election. That way, he said, people will have a chance to vote "if they don't like the way this is going to take place." 8:24:44 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH stated that he is not in favor of adding that language at this point, but would like to have a chance to consider that issue separately. 8:25:11 AM CHAIR SEATON clarified that no amendments had been made yet and won't be until after public testimony has been taken. 8:25:38 AM REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER turned to [the last sentence] of Section 13 [on page 4], which read as follows: Any part of the commission's report not rejected or amended by the Alaska Legislative Council and any amendment to the report made by the Alaska Legislative Council under AS 24.10.130 take effect on the first day of the first full month following the last day of the legislative session in which the final report is issued or the amendment is passed. REPRESENTATIVE GARDNER asked if that means that if the commission recommends that legislators are paid $100,000, for example, and Legislative Council amends that to $120,000, that would automatically become law without any other review, debate, or discussion. 8:26:10 AM MS. TUPOU suggested that Mr. Wayne, the attorney who drafted the bill, would be better suited to answer questions regarding wording. 8:27:14 AM CHAIR WEYHRAUCH, in response to follow-up questions from Representative Gardner, reiterated that there is no intent to "sneak one past anyone," and he would not object to a conceptual amendment that would include some sort of discussion or review "by somebody else." 8:27:56 AM MS. TUPOU said it's important to note that the legislature has the power to set its own pay and cannot delegate that job to someone else. She said, "... What we've tried to do is put the public in the process, because they currently aren't." 8:28:12 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH recognized that unfortunately many amendments are adopted without any public comment or testimony whatsoever and become law without people knowing the effect or meaning of them. 8:28:30 AM CHAIR SEATON directed attention to Section 8 of Version L, which read as follows: *Sec.8.AS 39.23.210 is amended to read: A member of the commission shall meet the qualifications of AS 39.05.100 and may not be employed by the state, including the University of Alaska, serve as a member of another state board, commission, or authority, or hold elective state or municipal office during membership on the commission. CHAIR SEATON indicated that that language shows a significant change in the bill. 8:29:48 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG directed attention to page 4, line 19 and said potentially [the commission] could give the report five days before the end of the session without giving anyone a chance for anyone to do anything, and it would take effect immediately. He questioned why the phrase, "[DURING THE FIRST 10 DAYS OF A LEGISLATIVE SESSION]" was deleted. 8:30:46 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH said he views that decision as "wanting to give some more leeway to both the legislature and the commission in reporting, as opposed to restricting it to providing it within the first 10 or 15 days and [putting] some arbitrary number on it." 8:31:20 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he thinks it would do just the opposite. He explained that that effective date would remain the same, which would be after session ended. By allowing the report to be given later, less time is being given for public scrutiny, he said. 8:31:50 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH said he thought 15 days would be too restrictive. 8:32:07 AM MS. TUPOU pointed out that if Legislative Council does not take action, there would always be a 90-day review period "before it would take effect." In response to request a from Representative Gruenberg, she offered to find where that language is in the bill. 8:33:01 AM CHAIR SEATON said he wanted to clarify that the report published by Legislative Council would be the final report issued. 8:33:16 AM REPRESENTATIVE WEYHRAUCH added that Legislative Council serves as a conduit for the commission's report. In response to Chair Seaton, he confirmed that the dates that are being discussed are in regard to the issuance of the Legislative Council report. 8:33:41 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said the only reference to "90 days" that he could find in the bill is on page 5, line 24. He stated that lots of commissions make their reports on the first day of the session. He asked the sponsor to consider that, and said he would be inclined to offer such an amendment. 8:34:33 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO turned to page 4, line 22, and suggested the word "take" should have an "s" at the end. 8:35:11 AM CHAIR SEATON, after ascertaining that there was no one to testify, closed public testimony. CHAIR SEATON announced that HB 349 was heard and held.
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