Legislature(1997 - 1998)
02/05/1997 02:21 PM House JUD
| Audio | Topic |
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
February 5, 1997
2:21 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Joe Green, Chairman
Representative Con Bunde, Vice Chairman
Representative Brian Porter
Representative Jeannette James
Representative Norman Rokeberg
Representative Eric Croft
Representative Ethan Berkowitz
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members were present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 99
Transferring the Division of Motor Vehicles from the Department of
Public Safety to the Department of Administration.
- MOVED EO 99 OUT OF COMMITTEE
* HOUSE BILL NO. 91
"An Act extending the termination date of the Board of Parole; and
providing for an effective date."
- MOVED HB 91 OUT OF COMMITTEE
HOUSE BILL NO. 22
"An Act relating to civil liability for illegal sales of alcoholic
beverages; and providing for an effective date."
- BILL POSTPONED
(* First public hearing)
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 91
SHORT TITLE: EXTEND BOARD OF PAROLE
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) PORTER
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
01/29/97 164 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
01/29/97 164 (H) JUDICIARY
02/03/97 (H) JUD AT 1:00 PM CAPITOL 120
02/03/97 (H) MINUTE(JUD)
02/05/97 (H) JUD AT 1:00 PM CAPITOL 120
WITNESS REGISTER
RONALD L. OTTE, Commissioner
Department of Public Safety
P.O. Box 111200
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1200
Telephone: (907) 465-4322
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided department's position and answered
questions regarding EO 99.
MARK BOYER, Commissioner
Department of Administration
P.O. Box 110200
Juneau, Alaska 99811-0200
Telephone: (907) 465-2200
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided department's position and answered
questions regarding EO 99.
JUANITA HENSLEY, Chief
Driver Services
Division of Motor Vehicles
Department of Public Safety
P.O. Box 20020
Juneau, Alaska 99811-0020
Telephone: (907) 465-4361
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided department's position and answered
questions regarding EO 99.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 97-9, SIDE A
Number 001
VICE CHAIRMAN CON BUNDE called the House Judiciary Standing
Committee to order at 2:12 p.m. Members present at the call to
order were Representatives Bunde, Porter, James, Rokeberg, Croft
and Berkowitz. Chairman Green, who was attending another meeting,
arrived at 2:52 p.m.
EO 99 - TRANSFER DMV FROM PUBLIC SAFETY TO ADMINISTRATION
VICE CHAIRMAN BUNDE announced the first order of business was
Executive Order No. 99, transferring the Division of Motor Vehicles
(DMV) from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of
Administration. He noted that Commissioner Otte and Commissioner
Boyer were present to speak on EO 99.
Number 127
RONALD L. OTTE, Commissioner, Department of Public Safety ("Public
Safety"), provided a brief history conveying reasons Public Safety
believed EO 99 to be a positive move. He explained DMV was a
program with 3 million public contacts a year in Alaska, both at
the DMV counter and through mail-in transactions. He said, "When
you stop and think that everybody from the age of 15 on who is
trying to get a learner's permit or a driver's license, state ID
card, re-registering a vehicle, renewing a driver's license or all
of the other kinds of things that people go to the counters for in
terms of titling and those issues, it does literally affect most
every household and almost every Alaskan at some time within a one-
or two-year period."
Number 210
COMMISSIONER OTTE reported that over the last 13 or 14 years, 54
programs mandated by state and federal government had been added to
the basic counter service. Although the programs were well-
intentioned and many were important, DMV was unable to keep pace
with the growing list of responsibilities at the counter.
Commissioner Otte cited examples, including "IM types of things"
(emissions inspections) in Anchorage and Fairbanks; voter
registration; and federal mandates regarding commercial driver's
licensing and odometer issues that protected approximately $56
million in State of Alaska highway construction funds from the
federal government.
Number 281
COMMISSIONER OTTE continued: "It is a program also that is
collecting taxes for a variety of communities around the state.
And this last session, we did give communities the option of sort
of changing those tax rates. And DMV's in the process of trying to
work with each particular tax district in restructuring the
computer system and ... their mail-outs to ... reflect those kinds
of tax rates. They do collect $36 million a year. Right now, $7
[million] of that goes to local communities in the form of property
taxes; the other $29 million goes to the general fund, and we put
... a little over $8 million back into the program."
COMMISSIONER OTTE indicated during peak summer periods, which
lasted five to seven weeks, people had to wait to take driving
tests. There was a huge influx of people taking commercial driving
tests in order to obtain summer jobs in Alaska.
COMMISSIONER OTTE reported although DMV's workload had increased 20
percent over the last five years, staffing had decreased 14
percent. Alaskans were incredibly frustrated that they could not
walk into a DMV office and conduct a simple business transaction in
a timely manner. "I think they're frustrated that they can't pick
up the phone and call a DMV office and get a real person because
everybody is at the counter," Commissioner Otte stated. "I think
they are equally as frustrated that they see in the business
community and the business world a variety of technology-kinds of
solutions that make business transactions very easy between
financial institutions and other entities, but they don't see that
technology applied to the kind of business needs that they have
with the ... [Division] of Motor Vehicles."
Number 437
COMMISSIONER OTTE explained, "It is for some of those reasons that
I began discussions with Commissioner Boyer about transferring this
to an area where these kinds of resources, technologies and thought
processes really could be brought to bear to make a difference.
It's not that I'm not interested. It's not that Public Safety
historically has not been interested in this problem. They have
been. But when you have a program like [the Division of] Motor
Vehicles within Public Safety, given the challenges that we all
face with those various issues, the life/safety issues of Public
Safety always, always seem to take first priority over the
management time, over the resources and over any increments that --
that come into the department. Motor vehicle needs compete with
other kinds of needs within Public Safety, such as maintaining our
criminal history record system, such as our automated fingerprint
system. And there simply are not the personnel within my shop ...
to do what I consider `real life safety' data processing issues.
And we never seem to get to the motor vehicle issues."
Number 527
COMMISSIONER OTTE continued: "It's difficult for any commissioner
to sit here and tell you, `We don't think that our department or
our program is the best place for this to be fixed, because we've
not had a very successful at that over the years.' And maybe
that's why no commissioner has ... sat in front of these committees
and said, `We think it's time for a change.' It is a difficult
thing to do. But I'm convinced if we are going to make a change,
we need to do that."
COMMISSIONER OTTE referred to suspension of driver's licenses and
said, "As you know, in this last budget cycle, we eliminated 13
full-time positions from [the Division of] Motor Vehicles, which
was 9 percent of their total work force. We were not able to
continue suspending licenses as of July 1 for financial
responsibility. The four people doing that program went away from
Driver Services. Right now in that program, it takes 40 days to
suspend a driver's license for a DWI conviction. It takes 90 days
for them to suspend a driver's license for the mandatory insurance
violation. And those are up from a window of 12 or 13 days just a
few years ago. Commissioner Otte emphasized that merely adding
bodies was not what the legislature or the people of Alaska were
looking for as a solution, because that could go on forever.
Number 626
COMMISSIONER OTTE concluded by saying he had talked to Commissioner
Boyer, whose plan he commended. He indicated staff were rolling up
their sleeves, ready to take on the project.
VICE CHAIRMAN BUNDE asked if there were questions.
Number 645
REPRESENTATIVE JEANNETTE JAMES said having followed this issue
extensively, she understood the frustration. If there was one kind
of complaint legislators received most from constituents, it was
those relating to the DMV. Representative James expressed her
desire to hear from Commissioner Boyer as well. However, she
agreed that adding more employees would not solve the problem. "We
have to go to improved technology," she stated. "We can't have
people spending time on something that's an automatic entry, which
many of them are, and then not being able to take care of some of
those things that take more time, and not being to have the people
there."
Number 697
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES expressed appreciation for Commissioner Otte's
recognition of the problem. She said, "[A]nytime we've talked
about doing anything with DMV before, we've always met up with
strong opposition from the department to make any rash changes. So
I think we're moving in the right direction and I'm really happy to
see that."
VICE CHAIRMAN BUNDE called upon Commissioner Boyer to testify.
Number 729
MARK BOYER, Commissioner, Department of Administration, suggested
change was sometimes as simple as a new set of eyes looking for a
solution. "And the problems that present themselves in trying to
rethink the design and delivery of services to DMV is not an easy
task, but it is a design process environment," he said. "It's
largely ministerial. We charge DMV with being the gate-keeper, the
stopper, the cop for a whole bunch of other things. We've got
something that people need to exercise a privilege. We've got a
license or registration that people need to get on the highways, so
we use DMV as a tool, the leverage point, to make sure that people
are doing a whole host of other things like IMs."
COMMISSIONER BOYER stated, "And to rethink this whole design is
really what we're about in the Department of Administration. We're
in the middle of a number of redesign initiatives." He explained
that fundamentally the Department of Administration looked at ways
to enhance and enable departments, including their own at times, to
function faster, better, more cheaply and with advantage to the
customer. "It is from a customer perspective that I think all of
us bring our frustrations to bear on this problem," he added,
relating a personal incident. He said he was not unlike other DMV
customers. It was 13 miles each way, out and back, to DMV, with a
possible wait. "And it's a two-hour journey to update something,"
he stated. "Now, clearly you can update your address now by
telephone, but you still have other issues that you might want to
address."
COMMISSIONER BOYER referred to the competing higher-value issues
that Public Safety needed to address. "We don't have those same
competing sets of higher priorities," he advised. "What we do is
enable and look for ways to change business practices. And so what
I can do is bring things to bear that are normal parts of our day.
We're either working with some department to deliver ... something
better, faster, quicker, easier through a technology fix, so we're
using DIS, or we're using the Division of Finance to allow someone
to finance something a bit differently or refinance things
differently. We're using personnel to enable somebody to meet a
short-term need where they need a quick turnaround on a
reclassification of a position. We use those tools on a day-to-day
basis, helping people do their businesses better."
Number 962
COMMISSIONER BOYER said improvements would look different, feel
different and in fact would be different for the public. More
fundamentally, the public would be provided, in a "quicker
turnaround way," with tools that would fundamentally alter the
business transaction environment. For example, the Division of
Finance was working with the Division of Treasury to enable a
point-of-sale transaction to occur with credit cards at DMVs,
aboard ferries, and at Department of Fish and Game counters, much
as credit card transactions occurred in retail establishments.
COMMISSIONER BOYER explained using credit cards at the DMV would
result in faster moving lines and would be cheaper for the DMV.
Cash was expensive to handle. "But more fundamentally yet is that
once we've moved that financial environment to this credit card
acceptance environment, we can move into the interactive voice
response environment, we can move to an Internet interface
environment, a real transaction-based environment," he said,
emphasizing that these opportunities were real and available.
Number 1083
COMMISSIONER BOYER stated, "I would expect that by using the credit
card acceptance, itself a benefit, and the two other environments
that we can roll into ... by ... the ... early summer, we can
affect the people who go there and wait in line by 3 to 10 percent
would be my guess."
COMMISSIONER BOYER indicated the Department of Administration would
focus on partnerships with people, including automobile dealers,
who had major stakes in transactions. The department was rolling
out a pilot program with an automobile dealer in Fairbanks and one
in Anchorage to allow completion of the entire transaction at the
time of sale, including titling, registration and license plates.
It would be much like closing deals on houses.
COMMISSIONER BOYER said that was not the case today with DMV,
brokers and sales of new automobiles. "It takes as much as eight
weeks now for that transaction to be completed," he said. "We will
make it transparent to the customer. When you get your keys, you
don't know what happens in the background, when the dealer takes
the paperwork to DMV. You don't know why it takes you two weeks to
get your metal plates. But the dealer certainly knows because the
transaction, until it's completed with the exchange of tags and all
those other papers, ... the dealer doesn't get the money. So the
dealer is a vested stakeholder in our improvements."
COMMISSIONER BOYER advised that as a group, automobile dealers
supported the change and were eagerly involved in the roll-out of
the pilot project. There also would be a broader application to
dealers across the state in August or September. "What we have
done, then, is enhanced their satisfaction level," he added.
Number 1190
COMMISSIONER BOYER emphasized the potential for increased customer
satisfaction. "It'll be done in a backdrop of noncompetition with
other vital, higher priority initiatives of the state," he said.
"It will also allow us to liberate people who are doing lower-value
work." Clearly, the public did not want to pay for inefficiency
and excess paperwork, which existed today. By eliminating lower-
level, lower-value work for some employees, those at the counter
could perform more important work on complex titling issues, state
jurisdictional issues or other problems requiring a real person and
taking more than three to five minutes to handle.
Number 1250
COMMISSIONER BOYER cited an example of new eyes looking at a
situation. "Across the street, on the eighth floor of the State
Office Building, we opened, in a very slow, quiet way, on Monday,
something we are calling `Express DMV,'" he explained. One
employee had been moved, at no cost, and set up on the same
mainframe computer system she had been using. Express DMV handled
simple transactions such as vehicle registration renewals, driver's
license renewals, and renewals and original issues of state
identification cards.
COMMISSIONER BOYER revealed, "We're going to kind of unveil this in
a more public way on Friday. ... We want the general public to get
the message, after we've worked out, through three or four days,
the kinks in that process, that there are thousands of employees
working for lots of people in downtown Juneau who can walk there in
two or three minutes, come in and transact business in three to
five minutes in this environment, and take the rest of the 45
minutes left for their lunch and not take any time out of the
employer for something that's inefficient, the drive back and forth
all by itself and the wait in line."
Number 1386
COMMISSIONER BOYER believed this translated into real dollars. "I
had 12 people today who went downstairs and had their state IDs
made, the photograph taken there, in less than ten minutes, when
they were all going to consume about two hours driving out, driving
back and the wait in line. And they were tickled," he stated.
"And they're people who I've got focused on change. ... Not any
administration had thought about it. Simple. New set of eyes.
Change. And that's what we're all about in the Department of
Administration, and that's why I have a high degree ... of
confidence that we could be successful here."
Number 1412
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES indicated she had other, peripheral concerns.
Various agencies were not necessarily "plugged in" to related
agencies. "And that's a concern of mine, particularly as the need
for the information that you have from this process for the
Department of Public Safety, the licenses, suspensions of licenses,
all those things, that would be on the record," she stated. "And
my concern is, when we go into using this technology, will you have
a system that can be read by either? You know, one of the things
... I've said is we should have a seamless government instead of
these ... little groups ... of things working by themselves. Could
you respond as to how you would hope to address those concerns?"
Number 1470
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied, "We are going to make it absolutely
seamless in that respect. ... You have to run essentially two
systems for a short, short period of time. But you design your
outcome, and the outcome is it needs to feed his interests, his
officers who need the information when they need it, as they pull
up behind a vehicle or whenever they need that. It could be a
life-threatening situation. When they need it, they need it. And
it ought to be seamless to the officer wherever that occurs, and it
is literally a design problem."
COMMISSIONER BOYER continued: "We let this system churn, that we
don't think is very efficient right now, and that is data being
processed. And in the meantime, ... [m]aybe it takes six weeks to
design a system that will enable us to ... work in a different
environment with regard to data processing and processing of those
transactions and feed, by design, the information is into his
system, the APSIN system, seamlessly."
COMMISSIONER BOYER maintained there would be no disruption. It
would be seamless, accomplished concurrently instead of
sequentially. That technique was used frequently in the telephone
business, for instance, when switching over to a new system. There
would be no down time. The public would not be affected, nor would
a person doing business have problems because of it. Commissioner
Boyer pointed out his own familiarity with the process and with
planning for those "cut-overs." He concluded, "So it's that kind
of thing we'll plan for."
Number 1550
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES indicated she would follow up on that issue,
then said, "The other of this that's distressing, maybe, to me ...
is enforcement issues where there is the suspension of licenses and
for DWIs and all those other kinds of things. And is that
something that would be done, then, by ... the Department of
Administration, or would that be something that would continue to
be done by the Public Safety, or ... how does that fit into this
whole picture?"
Number 1567
COMMISSIONER OTTE responded, "The Driver Services is one of the
components of [the Division of] Motor Vehicles, and that would
follow the transfer right along with the other services ... that
the division provides. Nita Hensley's shop would continue to do
those kinds of things, the suspensions, the reinstatements, being
driven by a variety of actions, whether it's child support issues,
whether it's points or what it is. But those will follow DMV
because they are so -- we took a look at that, if it made any sense
to try to separate those out, and they are so connected that it
would create just some fairly significant problems to do that.
From my perspective, it's not at all problematic. What I hope that
eventually comes out of that, frankly, is the ability to complete
all the tasks that are mandated by law within Driver Services,
either a) do them all and b) make sure that they're done in a more
timely manner. And some of the things that Commissioner Boyer is
talking about in terms of technology and reducing paper flow is
going to be applied to the whole Driver Services portion of this
discussion."
Number 1629
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES explained, "What I'm struggling with in this
issue of enforcement is that we have people who are in the
Department of Public Safety, where it seems to me enforcement ought
to be. ... You say it's going to be the same people, they're just
going to move over and work for the Department of Administration.
It's really a struggle for me to understand that the Department of
Administration, ... as a[n] umbrella here, would be involved in
enforcement. So if there's no problem with that, I guess, and it's
only my problem, it's not a problem. But it just seems that the
public would expect those issues to be done by the Department of
Public Safety instead of the Department of Administration."
Number 1665
COMMISSIONER OTTE responded that in many jurisdictions around the
country, those kinds of functions were not necessarily placed with
a law enforcement agency. Although traditionally thought of in
terms of enforcement, they were administrative actions based on
some other instant or issue that had taken place, such as through
the courts. "So yes, I guess we can apply the enforcement kind of
terminology to it, but it really is an administrative action as a
result of some other activity," he explained.
COMMISSIONER OTTE continued: "Please be assured that it is a
function of [the Division of] Motor Vehicles that is absolutely
critical. And I'm not interested in seeing any degradation of the
service. I've had many, many discussions with Commissioner Boyer.
Both of the issues you've raised in terms of technology interface
and Nita Hensley's operation are things that I feel very strongly
about. And if I thought for a moment it was going to change, why,
we would continue to have those discussions."
Number 1716
REPRESENTATIVE BRIAN PORTER responded, "While I'm not, I guess,
perhaps, looking forward to Nita losing her badge, just for the
information of the committee, there has been a development over the
last 30 years of trying to `civilianize,' if you will, functions
that found their way into law enforcement and put them in the
proper environment, so that law enforcement can deal with law
enforcement and utilize the training and backgrounds that are
required for these kinds of positions in those pursuits, as opposed
to administrative types of pursuits or pursuits that can be done in
a more efficient manner. So I would see this move not as a
degradation. And certainly, as all agencies within this state,
there will be a certain amount of required cooperation because the
functions do interrelate. But to be able to let the Troopers
provide enforcement, and let the DMV provide the manipulation of
that particular set of regulations and administrative functions, is
pretty consistent with, I think, what efficiency requires."
Number 1783
REPRESENTATIVE NORMAN ROKEBERG asked why the Department of
Administration had been chosen, rather than the Department of
Revenue, the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, or
another agency.
Number 1801
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied it was difficult to get two people to
see eye-to-eye. With 14 commissioners, it was tough to reach
agreement on something like this. "It's a big move in state
government to move ... 150 people, 8 million dollars' worth of
resources, and to have people agreeing amicably to make it seamless
for themselves and seamless to the public," Commissioner Boyer
explained. "It's tough to do. We'll see. We think ... it's going
perfectly well now."
COMMISSIONER BOYER indicated that was one part of the problem.
"The other is that I was a willing supplicant, I guess," he said.
"You know, I was willing to take on the challenge." He believed
the Department of Administration was the place that administrative,
ministerial process work ought to be done. In large part, he was
a proponent of centralized ways of doing business. For one thing,
he believed economies of scale presented themselves by centralizing
services. Commissioner Boyer said the Department of Administration
fundamentally existed to have a centralized view, approach, way to
procurement, way of looking at information services and way of
handling State of Alaska employment.
Number 1859
COMMISSIONER BOYER suggested many centralized functions were
dysfunctional today in the Department of Administration because of
lack of attention. The previous administration had refocused their
thinking on centralized delivery. "And so we're committed to
looking at those centralized functions again ... and seeing where
they make sense to stabilize, to improve, to modernize,"
Commissioner Boyer explained.
COMMISSIONER BOYER continued: "Those areas where it doesn't make
sense to centralize, we're not ... interested in doing that. But
where we can find economies of scale and real efficiencies, and
change those ... delivery systems, whether or not they're in
procurement -- which the body helped us with last year, made the
first attempt at some major changes in procurement -- whether or
not it's bringing a good business sense to acquiring real estate,
either for lease or for purchase, where we can make ... changes
with the tools that you provide us, whether or not we can do that
is always a challenge. But we think that this is the right
department. And, frankly, no one else was interested in taking it
on. Treasury's function or Revenue's function, their key role is
not administrative, ministerial process work."
COMMISSIONER OTTE commented, "I think Revenue sent it over to
Public Safety about 20 years ago."
Number 1921
VICE CHAIRMAN BUNDE acknowledged Representative Green's arrival and
turned the gavel over to him.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG referred to page 9, lines 8 - 10, of EO 99
and noted there were deletions. He said, "Reading out of this
section, which is Section 24 of the EO here, this provides the
commissioner of Public Safety to do certain things. ... If you look
at Section 23 above, it provides for both departments to make
applicable regulations. But here, I'm curious, number one, about
... the activities relating to the commercial motor vehicles."
Representative Rokeberg suggested there were substantive changes
but a lack of clarity. He asked, "Are you leaving commercial motor
vehicle licensing somewhere, or basically, could you explain ...
the intent here ... and is there anything substantive in this?"
Number 1996
JUANITA HENSLEY, Chief, Driver Services, Division of Motor
Vehicles, Department of Public Safety, replied, "Page 9, actually
Section 24, basically gives the duty of the commissioner of Public
Safety the authority to adopt regulations that deal with the
commercial program and all of the other requirements that are
duties, like the rules, the road requirements of Alaska State
Troopers, things of this nature. Number 9 takes out the provisions
... and if you look at number 4, 5, 8 and on line 22, the
provisions of driver's licensing would be the authority of the
Department of Administration. The rest of it would stay within the
Department of Public Safety, meaning the rules of road, where-the-
rubber-meets-the-asphalt-type programs, traffic-enforcement-type
programs, the commercial-vehicle-and-its-safety-inspection-type
programs and ... those of that nature."
Number 2040
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG responded, "So the DMV will still maintain
responsibility for licensure of motor vehicles. Is that correct?"
MS. HENSLEY agreed that was correct.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG commented it was a "housekeeping thing."
He asked, "Is the Department of Administration going to have to
promulgate regulations to take over this, ... because you're taking
away some statutory authority here, apparently? Or what are you
going to do about that?"
Number 2058
MS. HENSLEY replied there were existing regulations in Title 13
that would just be transferred to the Department of Administration.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG declared there were no substantive changes,
then. He referred to Section 77, page 27 of EO 99, and said, "It
says that the contracts, rights, liabilities and obligations
created by or entered into will ... remain in effect. I believe
that the DMV has the leasehold obligations with the private
landlords, and as a point of `nit-pick,' ... you should say
`leases' there, 'cause they're not contracts. They are
obligations...." Representative Rokeberg asked, "For the record,
... you mean leases, is that right?"
Number 2101
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied, "It's an inclusive term, and in fact I
would probably guess that most of the leases we and the DOA already
hold, there are some, I think, that DMV ... has initiated, but we
own most of those pieces of paper in any event."
Number 2112
MS. HENSLEY added, "This is also talking about the contracts that
we have negotiated with, like the IM vendors that are doing the ...
titling or registration for us, the contracts that we've negotiated
through the licensing or the testing contractors that we have that
administer commercial driver license testing for us. Those would
continue (indisc.--coughing)."
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG said his point was that leasehold
agreements are not contracts.
Number 2134
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE stated, "Commissioner Otte had mentioned that
as it exists now, their main job, of course, is getting the bad
guy, and so as money comes in, DMV does not get its fair
allocation, or it's kind of a step-child or whatever." He asked,
"Commissioner Boyer, as you assume these duties, will there be,
then, some reallocation of resources required in the Department of
Administration? Because we're not getting where we want to be. A
10 percent increase would be welcomed, of course, but I think we'd
want to go more than that, and so what departments in your area
would have to then become less important?"
Number 2175
COMMISSIONER BOYER said that was an interesting question. "We have
agreed to the change -- I've made this point at every committee --
with the understanding that the legislature can change the playing
field," he explained. "The playing field I would hope you would
embrace is one that has status quo funding for the Division of
Motor Vehicles, and that is about $2.9 million worth of pure
general fund appropriations and then about 5.1 [million] and change
in general fund program receipts and a few dollars in ...
interagency receipts or transfers. If we have a level playing
field for this year, I don't have to cannibalize something
else...."
COMMISSIONER BOYER emphasized how lean the budget was. "And we
have about $11 million is all in centralized admin[istrative]
services," he stated, "The rest is a huge amount of money for
grants through the Longevity Bonus Program -- you ... wouldn't want
to allocate the Longevity Bonus grant monies, probably, to anybody
including the DMV. Pioneer Homes. There's not a lot of places
that are discretionary for us. So we are already lean to the point
that we wouldn't bring any new resource."
COMMISSIONER BOYER continued, "But I'm convinced that ... in an $8
million environment, that ... I can bring economies of scale
through purchasing, through staffing, through finance, through
information services, because I own those tools. I can use those
tools more aggressively, in an unimpeded way. For Ron [Otte] to
access that toolbox now is a cumbersome thing for him to do. His
department has to ... wind its way through the bureaucracy. I own
those tools. I can leverage them and use them to make economies.
If you leave the money alone, and I know that's a Finance Committee
decision, but ... if I'm given that $8.1 million, I can make this
work. And in 18 months or less, if you don't believe it, you have
your go at it again. But I'm convinced that if I have that pool of
resources, and I don't move a nickel out of DMV, we can make it
work."
Number 2270
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE said, "You'd mentioned the point of sale for
dealers issuing tags. It seems like a logical idea. Would this,
then, allow those people access to [the] DMV computer network?
Would they log on, basically?"
Number 2279
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied no. "We're initiating a new design of
a separate database system that will provide all the information
that Public Safety needs to assure the safety of officers in the
field and other needs that they have, but allow us to spin, I
think, quicker," he stated. "In a different database environment,
we think we can have quicker turnarounds, frankly, and the
integrity of their ... confidential information is not harmed or
jeopardized by ... any means. We want to make sure there's a clear
separation of any of those items."
Number 2309
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE said, "As the dealer does this, ... I'm sure
they will incur some cost. And you've mentioned, there, the pilot
program of using the credit card and the `swipe' environment, which
again is logical, but then there's a cost to that too, I think.
And retail outlets ... are charged back 6 percent or something like
that from the credit card company. What happens to the state? ...
I mean, is there ... some percentage that the state has to eat to
use this system? And have you talked to dealers about what -- now
they get $100 for a secretary taking five minutes to write out a
title. How much more are they going to get to issue the tags or
the plates?"
Number 2340
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied, "The point-of-sale transaction ...
that's enabled by credit card acceptance won't affect the dealer in
any way. We're not suggesting that you go in and buy a $35,000
pickup truck ... using your credit card. That's not the intent and
that won't be the financing technique."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE said, "Excuse me, I think I've probably
confused you, and I've asked two questions in combination. One is,
you can purchase your tags with a credit card.
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied, "Right."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE observed there was overhead involved in the
use of the credit card. He asked how that would affect the state.
He further asked how much dealers would charge the state for
issuing plates.
Number 2366
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied it was not intended that the dealer
would charge any fee for that kind of transaction. "The fee that
you pay to use a card is something that the purchaser pays, and
that won't be changed in this environment," he asserted. "So when
you use your credit card, you're paying some premium already. ...
There are discount fees built into that transaction environment.
So we don't shift it to the person you're doing transactions with.
... You don't go to ... a fish tackle place in Anchorage now and
buy a Fish and Game license using your credit card and the vendor
pay something. We pay the vendor a buck, I think, ... to do the
transaction...."
Number 2394
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE cited the example of going to a restaurant for
dinner. If the restaurant accepted the credit card, the credit
company charged the restaurant a percentage. Representative Bunde
asked, "And would they not charge the state a percentage for using
this?"
COMMISSIONER BOYER replied that was a different question. "And
that answer is yes," he said. "I mean, we're going to pay the
state at DMV, for instance, whether or not it's in a box, on the
Internet or at the counter, we're going to pay some discount fee.
... It will be hard to detect at first, but the costs of that
transaction, to handle cash or checks now, is more expensive than
the fees that we will be charged by the credit card company to
process the electronic commerce. It's in the neighborhood of,
let's say, about ... 1.75, certainly under 2 percentage points, to
process the credit card transaction. We hope it's actually
somewhere closer to 1.4 or [1.]5. ... The cost of handling cash is
about 3.5. The price of handling checks is about 3.03. The
transaction will be cheaper in a credit card environment for the
state than the other two alternatives right now."
Number 2444
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked, "To accomplish this, ... what kind of
new hard equipment are you going to need? ... What kind of new
technology are we looking at in new computers and that sort of
thing?"
COMMISSIONER BOYER said the great thing about the Internet was the
Department of Administration did not have to buy anything for the
world to access its home page and conduct a transaction. However,
the department did have to build that transaction page, for which
they had a "Web Master."
TAPE 97-9, SIDE B
Number 006
COMMISSIONER BOYER referred to bringing the driver's manual on-
line. The next big project for the person who was the "Web Master"
was to "design the interactive transaction environment for the
Internet transaction that's enabled by being able to use a credit
card number in a secure transaction environment," he said. "So
that's part of what I do bring ... to play here that doesn't cost
DMV anything nor the public."
COMMISSIONER BOYER continued: "Where we are looking at perhaps a
hardware application, though, is in the interactive voice response
environment. And the legislature has provided, in the budget, the
ability for a, essentially, I call it a `net-back,' although the
technical people will call it something else. It's a net-back
environment where you partner with someone who in this case owns
the box. They own the interactive voice response machine. And
let's say they're a banking institution. It's what I use in my
normal course of business. It could just as easily be their ATM
machines, though. But in this case, it's a black box that somebody
dials in with a 1-800 number, so we'll have to pay for 1-800
connection. They go into the black box, and the black box ...
says, you know, option A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and you take the
option. And in that environment, you probably don't want to see
... or touch a human being anyway, 'cause they're going to foul up
your time." In three minutes, a title could be renewed, seven days
a week, 24 hours a day, from anywhere.
COMMISSIONER BOYER pointed out the department would not own the
box, nor did they believe the legislature wanted them to. There
was no need to own the infrastructure because it was impossible to
keep up with technology shifts. "We're going to pay somebody a
fraction of some percent to transact business on their box," he
explained.
COMMISSIONER BOYER did not anticipate additional hardware or
software costs in those arenas. "We're going to be partnering, in
a very real way, with a banking institution would be my guess, and
we've been talking to them, with dealers, clearly, and we've been
talking to them and they're very excited and eager," he said. "So
... that's why we've not proposed a capital budget. You've given
us some tools. We want to leverage the tools to the maximum here."
Number 101
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES responded, "Commissioner Boyer, not to burst
your bubble on this looking at things with new eyes, but I think
there is an opportunity when you're at the right place at the right
time." She recounted how when she joined the legislature in 1993,
excited about available technology, she had sent a survey to the
legislature but received a small response indicating limited
interest in use of computers. "Things have moved a long ways in
four years," she observed.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES expressed excitement about existing
opportunities. "And you've confirmed some of the ideas that I've
had, that even when we're talking about investing in hardware and
software in the computer industry, ... we ought to be partnering
with somebody, because we can't possibly invest and keep up," she
said. "We would be buying and throwing out ... or else we'd be
using outdated equipment such as the Department of Public Safety
now has with their fingerprinting equipment, which needs to be
replaced and can't even be repaired anymore. So I think that we're
looking at something that's ... a real major step, and I'm excited
to see you bringing these in."
Number 163
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES acknowledged her own interest in regulations.
"And you may be well aware that I was proposing legislation that
would have made a centralized place in government to promulgate
regulations, so that we don't have these little fiefdoms out there
doing their little thing," she stated. "And it could be
coordinated to make a lot more sense. And I had suggested that it
go in the Department of Administration. So when you get your belt
around all of these DMV things and have it all perfected, would you
please think about that and see what your potential would be in
that area?"
Number 188
REPRESENTATIVE PORTER commented, "While I too look forward to some
of these changes creating better efficiencies, it's not to say that
everything that DMV was doing is necessarily bad. One of the
things that they, I think, were out-front on, in front of many
agencies of this state, was privatization. They have taken great
steps in that area, and I would like to think that that can
continue serving that mission that you're indicating."
Number 213
COMMISSIONER BOYER agreed less needed to be fixed than was
suggested by the clamor. "But it's that clamor, that extra 10, 15,
20 percent of improvement, that will be dynamic to the public," he
added.
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE expressed amazement at the amount of time
required to take a driver's test. "But how will all this whistles
and bells of paperwork speed up -- I mean, that's a hands-on sort
of thing, and ... we can't do that through a black box and calling
in," he said.
Number 238
COMMISSIONER BOYER indicated Ms. Hensley could respond. He
commented, "And this is one where it's serendipity that allows me
to take credit for something that they've been focused on. But
it's more of the private sector, privatization -- `partneringship'
really, though, is a better way to ... characterize what they're
already doing. And we hope to enhance it and speed that process
up...."
Number 261
MS. HENSLEY responded, "The division is already currently
contracting with one vocational school in the state to administer
our commercial driver license testing for us. They have so far
issued around 200 tests, and they just started in October. That is
actually a relief for our CDL examiners because we're able to bring
those individuals back and put them back on the counter or actually
administer regular basic skills testing for them."
MS. HENSLEY continued, "We are currently in the process of
expanding that program to basic driver training schools throughout
the state, so that they can test the people that they are training
for us, and that will actually, again, relieve some of the time
that it takes the examiners to be out there on the road examining,
so they can be there behind the counter, helping those individuals
that need to be there for the difficult title transactions and
things of this nature." Ms. Hensley noted several areas were being
looked at, such as dealer titling, which would help the department
and the public.
Number 310
CHAIRMAN JOE GREEN stated, "I don't know whether you've answered
this already, and I apologize for being late. But AS 28.20.270,
the -- I guess that's a ... suspension of a driver's license for
debts that they may owe. I understand currently ... that's a
problem because of funding. And will this efficiency, all these
things that we're hearing now, allow you to perhaps re-energize
that process?"
COMMISSIONER BOYER indicated Ms. Hensley could answer that. "But
I could preface it by saying that that's part of the deal walking
in the door, is that only with the status quo budget for a period
of time will we be able to, one, get the efficiencies up and going,
but then, more importantly is reallocate resources that are either
conducting driver's tests today or at the counter today. But now
getting to the issue that you're ... speaking of. It's only
through that that we'll be able to reallocate the resources to
those couple of areas that ... we're not doing because of lack of
resources. ... The changes here don't necessarily mean less money
to DMV, but by prioritizing bodies and reallocating resources, ...
once you gain some of the efficiencies, you'll get a full array of
services that we're not currently providing."
Number 368
MS. HENSLEY, speaking to Chairman Green, added, "You have a
particular bill that you have introduced that will also enhance the
program and that will allow us to hopefully reinstate that program
that was cut because of budget reductions last year. ... [I]n our
budget document last year, DMV deleted 13 positions. Four of those
were from the Driver Services unit that actually did the processing
of the financial responsibility suspensions. And that basically
compensated victims for the loss of their motor vehicle --
uninsured motor vehicle accident."
MS. HENSLEY concluded, "Providing ... that your bill that you have
passes this year, along with some of the other initiatives that we
have planned, we hope that it would (indisc.) an enabling tool that
will allow us to reinstate this program, that's still on the laws,
that will allow us to go through and do this program."
Number 408
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES believed service to the public was the primary
responsibility. With the public's needs met, they would be happier
and the legislature would receive less complaints. In the long
run, reduction in costs to provide these services would be likely.
However, service to the public should be "fixed" first.
Number 436
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked Commissioner Otte how many people
actually registered to vote via the DMV. He further asked, "Would
you please - and you have to do this about once every two years -
send a note to all the police departments in the state of Alaska
that legislative tags are issued to the legislator and they are
found on various vehicles, and they should not detain our wives and
husbands for hours at lunch while they're trying to figure this
out?"
COMMISSIONER OTTE replied, "Yes, that is a good point. ... I've
heard a couple of recent problematic stories about that, and we
certainly can do that."
CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there were further questions. He then
asked the wish of the committee.
Number 490
REPRESENTATIVE PORTER made a motion to move EO 99 from committee
with individual recommendations.
Number 497
CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there were objections. Hearing none, he
advised that EO 99 was moved from the House Judiciary Committee.
HB 91 - EXTEND BOARD OF PAROLE
Number 515
CHAIRMAN GREEN announced the next order of business was House Bill
No. 91, "An Act extending the termination date of the Board of
Parole; and providing for an effective date." He invited
Representative Porter to present the bill.
Number 519
REPRESENTATIVE PORTER, sponsor of HB 91, explained, "This bill
extends the existing parole board for four years. I think it
probably does not have to be articulated extensively what would
happen if we didn't extend the parole board. People otherwise
eligible for discretionary parole would not get out, and our
Corrections problems would be further exacerbated, and those on
mandatory parole would walk without any conditions, which isn't a
very healthy thing, either."
REPRESENTATIVE PORTER stated, "The only difference between the bill
and the recommendation of the legislative audit report is the time.
And they recommended a longer time. I wish we could make it the
longer time. This going through this every four years seems a
little bit silly, but it is a statutory requirement that it can
only be extended for four years at a time." Representative Porter
noted that Bill Parker, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of
Corrections, was available to answer questions.
Number 586
REPRESENTATIVE ETHAN BERKOWITZ said, "I'd just note the optimism of
putting a zero fiscal note on this in the expectation that we
probably won't have more criminals coursing through the system."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE advised there was a substantial fiscal note.
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ acknowledged he should have said
"unchanged."
Number 614
REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CROFT said he was curious why the time was four
years. He inquired whether the enabling statute had ever been
looked at in terms of change. He commented, "It did seem silly
that we couldn't at least go the additional two [years] that the
audit report recommended."
Number 621
REPRESENTATIVE PORTER responded, "I guess it's a balance of the
theory of not binding future legislatures and having the
opportunity to ask questions if issues do come up about programs in
a timely fashion. There's a balance between one and the other, and
four years seems to be statutorily what everybody arrived at for
just about everything."
CHAIRMAN GREEN commented it was a point well-made. He asked Donna
White, Acting Executive Director of the Board of Parole, if she
wished to testify; Ms. White indicated she would answer questions.
Number 645
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES said, "Maybe it's because I'm as old as I am
that I see great changes happening from year to year to year to
year. And when you put in something in place, and you don't change
it until you get here, you have a bigger change to address. And
so, if there's something that comes up in the system, or new modern
methods or new things, because we live in a changing world, that if
you make it too long, you close the door to looking at and making
those changes. ... It would be really nice if we had time to just
look at everything every year, but we don't. So every four years
to take a look at it is certainly wise. But we certainly need to
have an open mind, because there may be a better way of doing
business than this. We never know until we get there from here."
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ said Representative James's comments
seemed more the product of wisdom than age.
CHAIRMAN GREEN noted although Margot Knuth from the Department of
Corrections had signed up to testify, she had left. Bill Parker,
Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, and Donna
White, Acting Director of the Board of Parole, were present to
answer questions. Chairman Green asked if there were questions;
there were none.
Number 717
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE made a motion that HB 91 move from committee
with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note.
Number 727
CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there was any objection. There being none,
HB 91 moved from the House Judiciary Committee.
CHAIRMAN GREEN advised that, unfortunately, HB 22 was not yet
ready.
Number 733
ADJOURNMENT
CHAIRMAN GREEN adjourned the House Judiciary Committee meeting at
3:26 p.m.
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