Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
01/25/2008 03:00 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB101 | |
| SB147 | |
| SB107 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 101 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| = | SB 147 | ||
| = | SB 107 | ||
SB 107-NATUROPATHS
CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 107 to be up for consideration. [Before
the committee was CSSB 107(L&C) version E.] He said the CS had
addressed the labor and commerce issues, but Senator Bunde had a
concern about possibly adding another public member to the
board.
JENNIFER STRICKLER, Chief, Professional Licensing, Division of
Corporations, Business, and Professional Licensing, Department
of Commerce, Community & Economic Development, said she would
address the composition of the board. She said that licensing
boards that have five members usually have just one public
member. Currently 10 professional licensing boards have five
members where only one is a public member. If the board grows, a
public member is added.
CHAIR ELLIS said he thought the comfort level may increase with
more public members. But adding two public members instead of
the one would make the board even numbered, so ties could be a
problem, but maybe they could operate on consensus.
3:43:24 PM
SENATOR BUNDE said he had received some communications from
people supporting the bill that said the department of law could
do any enforcement, but his experience is that they would have
neither the time nor the people to do it. He thought that the
public, particularly in the area of health, needs to be
protected and he would be far more comfortable increasing the
number of public members by two. The three naturopaths would
dominate the board and make decisions in favor of naturopaths
that may not necessarily go in favor of the general public. The
committee was not given accurate information in the first place
and he still has reservations about the bill.
SENATOR BUNDE moved a conceptual amendment (Amendment 1) to
expand the public membership to include three public members,
adding two from what it is in the CS.
3:45:49 PM
CHAIR ELLIS objected for purposes of discussion.
MS. STRICKLER didn't object to that, but wanted to state that
currently there are only 44 naturopaths licensed by the state,
37 of them have Alaska addresses. This would be a large board
regulating a very small group.
3:46:21 PM
SENATOR DAVIS offered that one could be taken away from the
doctors and two could be public members; one of the public
members could be an MD.
SENATOR BUNDE noted the fifth member was a pharmacist.
3:46:58 PM
SENATOR DAVIS asked Ms. Strickler what she thought about having
the same number of doctors and public members.
MS. STRICKLER replied that she had no comment and she would
enforce whatever they decided to do.
SENATOR DAVIS asked to make that a friendly amendment.
SENATOR BUNDE said he didn't object.
SENATOR BUNDE summarized that they would continue to have a five
member board and two would be naturopaths, two would be from the
public and one would be the pharmacist. He moved to amend the
amendment saying if an MD chose to, he could be considered for
appointment as one of the public members. There were no
objections. Without further objections conceptual Amendment 1 am
was adopted.
3:48:28 PM
SENATOR HOFFMAN moved to report CSSB 107(L&C) from committee
with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s).
There being no objection, the motion carried.
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