Legislature(1995 - 1996)
01/26/1995 01:05 PM House CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
STANDING COMMITTEE
January 26, 1995
1:05 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Ivan Ivan, Co-Chairman
Representative Alan Austerman, Co-Chairman
Representative Al Vezey
Representative Pete Kott
Representative Kim Elton
Representative Jerry Mackie
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Irene Nicholia
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Organization Meeting
Overview of the Department of Community and Regional Affairs by
Commissioner-Designate Mike Irwin
WITNESS REGISTER
MIKE IRWIN, Commissioner-Designate
Department of Community and Regional Affairs
Community Building, Room 217
Juneau, AK 99811-2100
Telephone: 465-4700
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented overview of the Department of
Community and Regional Affairs
REMOND HENDERSON, Director
Division of Administrative Services
Department of Community and Regional Affairs
Community Building, Room 216
Juneau, AK 99811-2100
Telephone: 465-4708
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on the Department of Community
and Regional Affairs
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 95-1, SIDE A
Number 000
CO-CHAIRMAN Ivan called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. He noted
for the record that Representatives Austerman, Vezey, Kott, Elton
and Mackie were present. Representative Nicholia was absent.
CO-CHAIR IVAN noted rules and regulations and introduced committee
staff members: Tom Wright, committee aide; Cliff Stone, committee
aide; and Vera Griffin, committee secretary.
CO-CHAIR IVAN went on to explain that he will be chairing the
committee this session and hand it over to Representative Alan
Austerman, Co-Chair, during the next legislative session. He also
stated the weekly schedule for the Community and Regional Affairs
committee meetings would be Tuesdays and Thursdays, respectively at
1:00 p.m. ending at 3:00 p.m. and at 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays, if
necessary.
CO-CHAIR IVAN requested that committee members remain present in
the committee room upon the signing of committee reports to save on
the hassles of having to be tracked down. The rules dictated that
a quorum is necessary to vote to take any final committee action
and declared that a quorum of four members is necessary for the
Community and Regional Affairs (C&RA) committee. Requests for a
hearing by the committee must be submitted before noon on Thursday
and all packet material must be submitted by 9:00 a.m. of the day
before a scheduled hearing. Packets will be available for viewing
by noon, but if the packet materials are delivered late, between 9
a.m. and noon, then ten copies of the packet must be delivered to
Co-Chair Ivan's committee aide. However, if the packets are not
ready for viewing by noon, the bill in question will be rescheduled
until the next date allowed under the notification rules.
CO-CHAIR IVAN then went on to disclose items that needed to be
included in the packets: Sponsor statement; section analysis, if
necessary, due to length and complexity; fiscal note(s); position
papers from effected agencies or departments; any additional
supporting material; committee substitutes will be requested
through the co-chairs only. Substantive amendments will require an
additional public hearing and major amendments must be submitted to
the chair at least 24 hours before the bill is scheduled to be
heard. Teleconferences will be scheduled upon the request of
committee members or from the public, if enough interest is
presented in regards to a particular bill. The committee aide
should be contacted for teleconference requests.
CO-CHAIR IVAN said committee packets will be available at least 24
hours prior to a hearing. For each committee member, a file drawer
is available in the C&RA committee file cabinet located at the back
of the committee meeting room. Co-Chair Ivan also mentioned that
bills will be heard in the order scheduled and bills may be
requested to be scheduled for a specific time. Notice requirements
would follow the Uniform Rules of which the 5-day rule applies and
the previous 3rd rule also applies. Subcommittees would be
assigned by the chair as needed and the sponsor of a bill would NOT
be the chair of a subcommittee on that individual bill. Co-Chair
Ivan noted that questions should be directed to Tom Wright,
legislative staff to Co-Chair Ivan and C&RA Committee aide at
extension 4942. Co-Chair Ivan then invited all the committee
members to introduce themselves and provide comments.
Number 098
CO-CHAIR ALAN AUSTERMAN introduced himself as the Representative of
District 6, Kodiak Island, and again reiterated that Co-Chair Ivan
will lead the committee meetings during this first session and he
would chair during the second session. He requested all inquiries
pertaining to the C&RA committee be directed to Representative Ivan
and his staff during this session while Representative Austerman
would assume the role of just another committee member. Co-Chair
Austerman then proceeded to explain that he had no perceived plans
or agenda items that he's looking at other than the fact that he
would like to see privatization take place in the state of Alaska
and to get the government out of some of what the C&RA committee
would be doing and where the committee was at on several issues.
Co-Chair Austerman then described the rural location that he
represents and he stated that many of the issues that the committee
will be facing pertain to rural areas and he's pleased to be a part
of this committee.
Number 125
REPRESENTATIVE AL VEZEY took the floor next and introduced himself
and expressed his pleasure at being part of the committee.
Number 128
REPRESENTATIVE PETE KOTT, District 24, presented himself as being
from the area including the south part of Eagle River and east
Anchorage. Representative Kott also stated that he had no
particular agenda, and he's confident that the committee will offer
some great opportunities to address some of the controversial and
much needed ideas and issues that the committee has faced over the
past few years. He said he was aware that there are a lot of
problems out there.
Number 142
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN introduced another member from his staff, Sandy
Perry-Provost.
Number 144
REPRESENTATIVE KIM ELTON, from District 3, described his district
which encompasses the metropolitan Juneau area and the rural
Douglas area. He said he was looking forward to working with the
other committee members and the issues that will invariably crop up
during the rest of the session.
REPRESENTATIVE JERRY MACKIE described his district which
encompasses the 37 small communities in the Southeast.
Representative Mackie also stated that during his first two years
with the legislature, he chaired the C&RA committee and was quite
familiar with the types of issues that will be discussed. He also
stated that the Department of Community and Regional Affairs (DCRA)
is one of the most important agencies and departments in all of the
state government as it related to his constituents and to rural
Alaska. He said there is always talk about the C&RA being
expendable, but he is definitely not one that believed this. In
his opinion, the programs, opportunities, and services that the
program provided to municipalities statewide is one of the most
important things that this committee could do. Representative
Mackie said he was on the committee to participate and offer any
services he can.
Number 168
CO-CHAIR IVAN recognized Mike Irwin, commissioner-designate for the
Department of Community and Regional Affairs.
Number 172
MIKE IRWIN, COMMISSIONER-DESIGNATE, DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND
REGIONAL AFFAIRS, introduced himself and explained how Governor
Knowles had selected him as the commissioner of the DCRA.
Commissioner Irwin went on to introduce two people that he'd
brought with him: Remond Henderson, director of the DCRA
Administrative Services Division; and Kim Metcalfe Helmar, Mike
Irwin's special assistant who would be acting as his legislative
liaison throughout the session. Commissioner Irwin confirmed that
this meeting was an opportunity for him to give a Department of
Community and Regional Affairs overview, but that other overviews
of the smaller divisions were scheduled for upcoming meetings,
giving the members more of an opportunity to get to know more about
the specifics of the four divisions. He referred to the comments
made by Representative Mackie, also confirming that the DCRA is
looked at as a department that oversees a lot of rural issues, but
that it wasn't the only thing done by the department. The
Department of Community and Regional Affairs has about a $150
million budget and approximately 200 employees statewide including:
Anchorage, Juneau, Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel, Fairbanks and
Dillingham. Another duty Commissioner Irwin said Remond Henderson
would be involved with would be as the department historian,
helping to fill in the blanks for Commissioner Irwin.
COMMISSIONER IRWIN then proceeded to comment on each of the four
divisions, beginning with the Division of Administrative Services,
which Remond Henderson oversees. This division covers finance,
budgeting and ensures the protocol of the DCRA in terms of their
expenditure of state dollars. He then listed the three divisions
which deliver services. The first being the Division of Energy.
According to Commissioner Irwin, this division is the rural
component of the old Alaska Energy Authority (AEA). It currently
employs about 32 people. Its purpose is to oversee the management
and disbursement of the power cost equalization (PCE) dollars
throughout rural Alaska. This AEA component also provides rural
technical and engineering assistance in order to keep power going
in the villages. It was the understanding of Commissioner Irwin,
that it hasn't necessarily been an easy fit getting the Division of
Energy moved into the bureaucratic structure of state government.
Over the past year, however, Commissioner Irwin has done a bit of
research and talked with several people, noticing that the division
has settled down into the DCRA family and is now focusing on what
it needs to be doing.
COMMISSIONER IRWIN discussed the Division of Municipal and Regional
Assistance (MRA) which is charged with the technical aspects of
Title 29, helping municipalities, especially the rural ones, with
their technical difficulties. This service is provided through the
local governments and through specialists who travel to the
villages on kind of a circuit rider basis, helping with basic
administration within the municipality. This division also
conducts and oversees the municipal assistance and revenue sharing
programs where state dollars are shared back with the
municipalities. Irwin said this was probably an issue everyone is
hearing about and will continue to do so, since the municipalities
have taken roughly a 55 percent cut in their municipal assistance
and revenue sharing since 1986. Commissioner Irwin stated there
wasn't a firm administration position on this, but the DCRA heard
quite a bit about it. Within the MRA Division, the local boundary
commission is also run, mainly dealing with municipalities and
corporations in which several municipalities were attempting to
unincorporate.
COMMISSIONER IRWIN thought the most interesting division was the
Division of Community and Rural Development. This is one place
that he believed he brought some particular background knowledge.
He also said this division would allow the Knowles Administration
to go forward with its goals of economic development, creating jobs
within the state and could be an important development of welfare
reform. This division has state training programs, as well as
child care and real economic development programs for rural small
businesses. Commissioner Irwin said this will help start attacking
the chronic problem of lack of jobs in rural Alaska and the lack of
good paying jobs in all of Alaska, allowing the welfare recipients
to move off of welfare through training, child care support and
headstart programs. Commissioner Irwin asked Remond Henderson if
he had anything more he would like to add.
Number 307
REMOND HENDERSON, Director of Administrative Services, Department
of Community and Regional Affairs, stated there hadn't been any
significant restructures within the department. He said once
Commissioner Irwin has had an opportunity to really get in depth
into Governor Knowles' programs agenda, then we would see some
changes.
COMMISSIONER IRWIN stated that as far as the budget goes, the DCRA
was participating in helping the Administration put together a
supplemental budget. The department didn't have very much in the
way of DCRA requests. The department was also doing its share in
constructing the Knowles budget for 1996. Commissioner Irwin
welcomed any specific questions from the committee concerning the
department or what the roles and objectives might be.
Number 330
REPRESENTATIVE KOTT asked about the budget and specifically what
percentage of the budget was derived from federal monies.
Number 334
COMMISSIONER IRWIN responded that he had no idea, but he indicated
that Mr. Henderson would be the person to ask.
Number 337
CO-CHAIR IVAN requested Remond Henderson to move to the witness
table.
Number 340
MR. HENDERSON answered the federal funds budgeted for FY 96 are
about $27 million out of the $150 million budget.
Number 347
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN expressed his appreciation at the presentation
by Commissioner Irwin and his aides, recognizing that it's not easy
to be "the new kid on the block" and that one could get easily
frustrated. He again indicated that privatization is one of the
big issues that he's going to continue to push, not only in the CRA
committee, but in several other committees as well, hoping to get
government out of some of the things the legislature was doing and
getting the private sector in, which he believed would do it
cheaper and probably better. He stated one of the biggest problems
the DCRA is faced with is bulk fuel tanks and fuel storage out in
the rest of the state. Co-Chair Austerman said he would appreciate
a separate meeting regarding his hopes for growing
telecommunication systems. He stated that monitoring bulk fuel
tanks from regional areas such as Anchorage or Fairbanks can be
accomplished and this system could solve continuing spillage into
the ground if the private sector were to take over an operation
like this. The DCRA would have some responsibility in terms of
having to go back and clean up some of the existing problems, but
if the DCRA were to react properly, with the private sector, the
DCRA could stop the majority of the problems that are continuing to
be generated by the leakage of fuel tanks. Co-Chair Austerman
hoped this topic will appear on the agenda soon and that this
committee can look toward the future.
COMMISSIONER IRWIN expressed his appreciation at the remarks of Co-
Chair Austerman and confirmed that it was an issue that has been
facing him the past few weeks since he began his role as
commissioner. He said he has been actively talking with several
people including a meeting with the Coast Guard on this particular
subject. Commissioner Irwin also related that he's met with one
private corporation that has been looking to get into the business
of consolidation of tank farms in specific communities. He stated
it was not only looking at the long term goal of environmental
safety, but also at how it can better become a money making
business bringing affordable fuel to many of the communities.
Commissioner Irwin explained that he was planning on meeting with
a major fuel supplier on the Yukon River to find out the
bargeline's views on this particular subject. The DCRA was
contacting people and Commissioner Irwin met with the chairperson
of the Bulk Fuel Task Force to get her ideas on this issue.
Commissioner Irwin said the DCRA was working on it and agreed that
it was a big, expensive problem that was going to take a lot of
participation from the private sector.
Number 407
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN also stated that it didn't have to be an
expensive proposition for the state of Alaska if the private sector
was willing to go in and help do some of this and solve some of the
immediate problems. He again reiterated CRA's responsibility of
having to go back to clean up the present mess. He agreed that it
didn't have to be a big state problem or financial burden on the
state, if the DCRA invites the private sector in to help with this
issue.
CO-CHAIR IVAN encouraged innovative ideas and public/private
partnership solutions to address some of these issues. His example
concerned the point brought up by Commissioner Irwin and the bulk
fuel tank problem. He informed the committee that it was a $200+
million solution and that there are ways and means to get this
solved. He encouraged the DCRA to come up with a way to solve it.
Number 422
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN commented on power cost equalization tied with
the circuit rider program in reference to repairing the generator
sites in villages. He said he looked into this and talked with a
few people involved in this program. He confirmed that he has two
or three villages on Kodiak Island involved with this program and
he met two of the villages during his campaign for election. Both
these villages had nothing but absolute raves for how well this
program worked. Karluk village had been having problems for years,
with the Coast Guard flying barrels of oil in, and now has had no
fuel problems thanks to the new circuit rider program. For the
past two years, they have been able to claim that they have not
been without electricity. Part of the program Karluk and Akhiok
were involved in is called Powerstat, which is basically credit
card electricity where you go buy electricity and punch it into a
credit card first. When the credit card runs out then one is out
of electricity. At that point, the card has to be renewed. This
program has helped put these villages on more of a financial
program than they've been on before. It made them more responsible
for themselves and that was another positive aspect of the
Powerstat program that Co-Chair Austerman suggested the DCRA take
a look at. He again reiterated the slow workings of the AEA in the
past; in terms of getting fuel, repairs and help out to the
villages. The circuit rider program along with the private sector,
things should become quite a bit more economical and convenient in
terms of their reaction time.
Number 460
REPRESENTATIVE KOTT spoke toward a comment made by Commissioner
Irwin, that he brought expertise and knowledge to the table in
response to looking at rural economic development programs. He
asked Commissioner Irwin if he had any thoughts on how the
department could create or instill job opportunities in the private
sector in rural Alaska.
Number 467
COMMISSIONER IRWIN replied that there was no easy answer, otherwise
it would have been found a long time ago. The Alaska Native
Commission (ANC) was asked by Congress to take a look at Alaska
Native and rural issues and come up with some innovative means to
address some of the longstanding problems. The ANC looked at all
different areas and aspects of rural existence and of Native life
in the 1990s and found that economic development was the toughest
issue. Commissioner Irwin didn't know if he felt comfortable that
the ANC even approached being able to come up with some good
answers. Subsistence and some of the tribal governments and some
other hot issues caused so much conflict within the state and was
difficult to grasp and understand. Those, according to
Commissioner Irwin, became fairly easy issues as compared to
economic development. He stated that the Community Development
Quota (CDQ) program, for which the DCRA is the lead agency,
provided important economic development for the first time in the
areas that really need the economic help the most. The DCRA was
seeing economic infrastructure being put into place with a base
around a resource extraction industry. Commissioner Irwin didn't
know how applicable this program would be to industries and areas,
but he thinks it might help the DCRA to find answers as modeling
for other areas of the state. Commissioner Irwin said that jobs
had to be looked at one at a time, at economic development one
community at a time to the extent that the DCRA possibly could. He
stated that rural Alaska is quite different once you start
realizing the potential for economic development and the DCRA is
trying to be more strategic in the resources available to the DCRA
rather than sending off shotgun blasts all over rural Alaska. The
department has been trying to look at those places where the rural
communities have particular strengths and is trying to fashion its
assets to meet those particular circumstances, whether it be
tourism in some areas or resource development in other areas or
possibly small businesses or cottage industries. It could be a
combination of any number of approaches and it had to be focused on
communities or clusters of them.
Number 514
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN made an observation regarding economic
development, in that he saw a little bit of duplicity in some of
the economic development plans going on in the state government
between the Department of Commerce and Economic Development and the
DCRA. Co-Chair Austerman stated the tourism industry, as an
example, was something that was probably going to grow at a much
faster rate in the rural areas than in the urban areas because the
urban areas have already pretty much developed. Co-Chair Austerman
questioned whether the effort that the DCRA would be putting into
tourism would be duplicated to some degree as to what is going on
in the Division of Tourism. He said he was unsure as to whether or
not the committee should look into this or whether the committee
should ask the third floor to take a look to see if there wasn't
something that couldn't be tied together that wouldn't create a
duplicate effort.
Number 530
COMMISSIONER IRWIN replied that the DCRA has been looking at this
problem and it was one of the first charges that Governor Knowles
gave Commissioner Irwin upon his appointment. He said he was to
start working with the Commissioner of Commerce and Economic
Development, Mr. Hensley, to see if there was the kind of situation
described by Co-Chair Austerman. He said many people feel there is
a problem with duplicity. They want to see what can be done to
bring efficiencies to the programs and that perhaps there are
reductions that could also happen, if the DCRA had better
coordination, and by even combining some of those programs.
Commissioner Irwin used the example of tourism by Co-Chair
Austerman. He stated it was his understanding that the Department
of Commerce and their tourism efforts are aimed more at marketing
Alaska as a destination rather than helping in any kind of large
way. Commissioner Irwin said that it might be good to get involved
in the development of tourist destinations outside of the urban
areas. He knew at one time, the DCRA had a plan they gave to
communities for tourism development. He stated things can always
be done better and more efficiently, and he has had two meetings
with Commissioner Hensley to discuss this situation to try to
resolve it because this issue has been longstanding. He didn't
know from the research he has been doing that there is not so much
duplication as there was a lack of coordination and cooperation.
Commissioner Irwin stated this is where it needed to be attacked
first and if there is duplication, those would be areas for savings
in the state budget.
Number 554
CO-CHAIR IVAN remarked on tourism and the DCRA's oversight. In his
district, he cited Kwethluk as an example. The community was given
an opportunity by the federal government where outside businesses
could come in and raft down the river. However, this community was
not prepared to deal with this proposal. Co-Chair Ivan said
tourism is coming but the federal government cannot come in and
shove this down a community's throat. He stated that on the other
hand, his community of Akiak is looking at tourism and bringing in
fishermen for a fee. Marketing is problem though. Akiak needs
marketing assistance and to hook up with other lodges without the
government infringing with the exception of providing marketing
assistance, even for a fee if necessary.
Number 579
COMMISSIONER IRWIN commented on another difficulty which was rural
Alaska didn't all come under one definition. From the smallest,
most traditional communities to larger, rural centers such as
Kodiak, there were a lot of differences. The smaller the
community, the greater the potential for lack of expertise,
infrastructure, leadership and economic savvy and to be able to get
it into those small businesses. He confirmed saying there are
local issues, as in the Kwethluk situation, where people are torn
between knowing they need to have a jobs-based economy, but at the
same time, fearful of what development might do to their way of
living and way of life. They knew what their current life stands
for and not quite sure what changes or what ill effects changes
through development might bring. People will be resistant to some
of these ideas, even though they know that economic development
means jobs for their children and better futures for their
children. Commissioner Irwin said it was a real tricky balancing
act that the local people have to play and the DCRA was there to
assist.
Number 600
CO-CHAIR IVAN invited the rest of the committee to ask questions or
comment.
Number 602
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE commented that there will be a confirmation
hearing scheduled sometime for Commissioner Irwin. He also wanted
to say for the record that he appreciated the Commissioner on the
fact that he's here and that he understood anytime you take on a
new responsibility, especially a new department, that it does take
some time to get familiar with all the programs. Representative
Mackie stated there are good people in the DCRA. He was also
appreciative of the fact that the committee has taken on this
challenge and he looked forward to working with the Commissioner.
Representative Mackie said many of the problems in rural Alaska is
due to the fact some of the communities are so small and there is
no market or ability for private companies to come in and take
over, especially with the cleaning up of the old, deteriorating
fuel tanks with their constant fuel leakage. He understood that
there are a number of communities that the Coast Guard had
threatened by saying they couldn't have their fuel delivered
anymore due to the lack of facilities. However, Representative
Mackie said there isn't a big enough market in those communities
for a company to come in and make an investment in new tanks and
all the regulations required, so it really is incumbent upon the
DCRA to try to find a way to assist these small communities and
give them what we all take for granted. He hoped that the DCRA
would be mindful of many of these concerns. In the larger areas,
many things could be sustained by private enterprise, such as in
his home community of Craig. He reemphasized the help of the state
in making such fuel trips to rural places like Akiak possible,
because the cost of the transportation is quite high. Without this
help, small communities could be without even the essentials.
These are things that Representative Mackie said are really crucial
and the job of the DCRA to continue to look after.
Number 637
CO-CHAIR IVAN said he was sure that Commissioner Irwin and the CRA
committee would grow together and he hoped that within several
weeks, the committee will have a grasp of the issues in the
different departments. He hoped the committee would progress at
this level and was anxious to get a handle on the various programs
and departments. He said he was confident the committee would get
there at its own pace. The committee has a lot of work on its
hands and will touch on issues that affect different parts of
Alaska, be they big or small communities. He asked the committee
members if there were any more questions or comments.
Number 650
CO-CHAIR AUSTERMAN referred to Representative Mackie's comment,
saying that he was not totally pushing privatization on every small
community or issue since there was obviously going to be a lot of
different places that just didn't fit into programs as far as
privatization is concerned. He said the state should be helping
but he said privatization isn't the only answer. In some cases it
did work, as with the community of Karluk where they solved their
problems.
Number 658
CO-CHAIR IVAN announced the next scheduled committee meeting as
well as the proposed agenda for Tuesday, January 31. HB 80 and HB
86 would be read and discussed. In the meeting scheduled for
February 2, HB 20 would be heard and further hearings of bills
would take place when necessary. Co-Chair Ivan announced that the
next two meetings would be on teleconference and invited committee
members to ask their district communities to participate.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the House Standing Committee
on Community and Regional Affairs, Co-Chair Ivan adjourned the
meeting at 1:49 p.m.
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