Legislature(2015 - 2016)SENATE FINANCE 532
01/27/2015 05:00 PM House LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
JANUARY 27, 2015
4:55 PM
Approved February 10, 2015
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gary Stevens, Chair
Representative Bob Herron, Vice Chair
Senator John Coghill
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Charlie Huggins
Senator Anna MacKinnon
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Peter Micciche
Representative Mike Chenault
Representative Mike Hawker
Representative Craig Johnson
Representative Sam Kito
Representative Mark Neuman
Representative Lora Reinbold
Representative Steve Thompson, Alternate
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lesil McGuire, Alternate
AGENDA
COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION
COMMITTEE POLICIES
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
SPEAKER REGISTER
Jerry Luckhaupt, Revisor of Statutes, Legal Services,
Legislative Affairs Agency
Lisa Kirsch, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, Legal Services,
Legislative Affairs Agency
Pam Varni, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs Agency
5:01:00 PM
I. CHAIR MIKE HAWKER called the Legislative Council meeting of
th
the 29 Alaska State Legislature to order at 5:00 p.m. in
Room 532 (Senate Finance) of the State Capitol. Present at
the call were Senators Meyer, Hoffman, Huggins, MacKinnon,
Micciche and Stevens, and Representatives Chenault, Hawker,
Johnson, Kito, Reinbold, Herron and alternate member
Thompson. Representative Neuman joined the meeting right
after the roll call. Senator Coghill joined the meeting
during the testimony on the Manual of Legislative Drafting
(Item V-a.).
Absent was alternate member Senator McGuire.
II. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION
a. Election of the Chair
b. Election of the Vice Chair
a. Election of the Chair
CHAIR HAWKER said this was the organizational meeting of
the committee and the formal passing of the gavel from the
thth
House in the 28 Legislature to the Senate in the 29
Legislature.
5:02:24 PM
SENATE PRESIDENT MEYER nominated Senator Gary Stevens as
the Chair of Legislative Council and asked for unanimous
consent and that the nominations be closed.
The motion passed with unanimous consent.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER said that Senator Stevens was now
nominated and that a motion to elect Senator Stevens as
Chair was in order.
5:03:06 PM
SENATE PRESIDENT MEYER moved that Legislative Council elect
Senator Gary Stevens as the Chair of Legislative Council
and asked for unanimous consent.
The motion passed with unanimous consent.
CHAIR STEVENS stated that members had been asked by
Governor Walker to attend a reception at the Governor's
House this evening after this meeting had been scheduled.
He said there were some things that needed to be done, but
that they could be done quickly so members could attend the
reception. He thanked members for the nomination and
election.
b. Election of the Vice Chair
5:04:02 PM
SPEAKER CHENAULT nominated Representative Bob Herron as the
Vice Chair of Legislative Council and asked for unanimous
consent and that the nominations be closed.
The motion passed with unanimous consent.
CHAIR STEVENS asked for a motion to elect the Vice Chair in
keeping with the motion for the election of the Chair.
SPEAKER CHENAULT moved to elect Representative Bob Herron
as the Vice Chair of Legislative Council and asked for
unanimous consent and that the nominations be closed.
The motion passed with unanimous consent.
III. COMMITTEE POLICIES
a. Quorum and Voting Requirements
b. Alternate Members
c. Sanctioning Charitable Events
d. Subcommittees
· Information Technology
· Security
· Office Allowance
a. Quorum and Voting Requirements
CHAIR STEVENS said he wanted to discuss policies for
Legislative Council. The first one regarded what
constitutes a quorum and voting requirements. It takes
eight members to have a quorum and eight members to approve
a motion; because there are seven members of the House and
seven members of the Senate on Legislative Council, that
requirement ensured at least one member of each body will
have voted on an issue. This is the existing policy and he
asked that if there was no objection, Council would
continue with that policy.
There was no objection to maintaining the existing policy
on quorum and voting requirements for Legislative Council.
b. Alternate Members
Chair Stevens said he was asking members to approve a
change to a policy regarding alternate members. In 2011,
the House and the Senate started appointing alternate
members to the Council. For 2015 and 2016, the alternate
members are Senator Lesil McGuire and Representative Steve
Thompson. He said he would like to establish the policy
that alternate members are welcome to sit at the table as
members, to comment, to speak, to debate any issue; when it
comes to voting, only seven members of the House and seven
members of the Senate can vote. So, if a member is absent
from their respective body, the alternate member of that
body will be asked to vote. If all seven members are
present, the alternate will not be asked to vote. He noted
that this is a change and asked that if there was no
objection, he would like to establish that as a policy for
Legislative Council.
There was no objection to the proposed policy establishing
the conditions for voting as an alternate member.
c. Sanctioning Charitable Events
Chair Stevens said the third policy issue dealt with
charitable events. Per AS 24.60.080(a)(2)(B), Legislative
Council sanctions charitable events that have 501(c)(3) tax
free status. The policy in place since 2003 is that the
Committee granted the Chair the ability to sanction these
charitable events and at the next Council meeting the
Committee would ratify the Chair's action. Unless there is
objection, he would like to maintain the existing policy.
There was no objection to maintaining the existing policy
for sanctioning charitable events.
d. Subcommittees
· Information Technology
· Security
· Office Allowance
CHAIR STEVENS announced he will be forming three
subcommittees and anyone interested should contact his
office. The first is the Information Technology
subcommittee, which has been primarily made up of
legislative staff in the past; so if a member has staff
interested in serving, please contact him or Katrina
Matheny of his office. The second committee is a Security
subcommittee to continue to look at the security needs of
the Capitol, the conditions of the building and report to
Council at a later date. The third is an Office Allowance
subcommittee; as members know, a poll was conducted and it
was decided that the Legislature would have a fully
accountable office account plan. He said the subcommittee
would be tasked to make specific recommendations or provide
information relating to the inventory and disposal of items
purchased, such as tangible items like an office chair or a
picture, and what to do with those items once a Legislator
leaves office. He said he wanted very clear recommendations
from the subcommittee on how to proceed under a fully
accountable plan so everyone knows the rules and there are
no questions about it.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. November 12, 2014
b. December 17, 2014
CHAIR STEVENS asked if there were any proposed changes to
or any discussion about the minutes of November 12, 2014
and December 17, 2014.
5:08:24 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council approve
the minutes of the November 12, 2014 and December 17, 2014
meetings as presented.
The motion passed with no objections.
SENATOR MACKINNON noted for the record that she wasn't at
the meetings for the minutes that were just approved for
November 12 and December 17, 2014.
V. OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a. 2015 Manual of Legislative Drafting
b. 2015 Revisor's Bill
c. FY 14 Legislature Audit
CHAIR STEVENS said he thought Council could deal with these
three issues expeditiously and asked that Jerry Luckhaupt
as well as Lisa Kirsch come forward to speak to the first
two items.
a. 2015 Manual of Legislative Drafting
JERRY LUCKHAUPT, Revisor of Statutes for Legal Services
Division in the Legislative Affairs Agency, put himself on
the record and noted that Lisa Kirsch, Assistant Revisor of
Statutes, was sitting next to him.
Mr. Luckhaupt said that each Legislature adopts its own
drafting manual. The manual this year is pretty similar to
the 2011 and 2013 manuals. His memo, which all members
have, outlines the changes that have been made. Besides the
normal clerical changes made every year with regard to
thth
changing the 28 Legislature to the 29 Legislature as well
as changing the years, there are seven changes that could
be considered substantive; two of them are recent cases
from the Alaska Supreme Court which are helpful to people
when they are reviewing the Legislative Drafting Manual and
considering issues like retroactivity or single subject.
The others are issues related to practice; one in
particular was recommended by Pam Finley who was the
Revisor of Statutes in 2012, dealing with line item vetoes.
The Legislature has done that probably three or four
different ways over the years; there was one process
followed in the 1980s and, in 2009, the way the Clerk
handled those line item vetoes changed and it was not
reflected anywhere - that change was made on page 122. All
the changes in the bill have been reviewed by the Attorney
General's Office and they have no objections. Any other
changes have been referred to the Chief Clerk and the
Senate Secretary for their review; several of the changes
were suggested by the Chief Clerk and Senate Secretary to
reflect current practice and those are outlined in the
memo.
SPEAKER CHENAULT asked if the Drafting Manual could be
changed at any time by actions of Legislative Council.
MR. LUCKHAUPT responded that, in theory, Legislative
Council could if this Legislature decided they wanted to
change the Drafting Manual next year. Traditionally, the
Uniform Rules provide that each Legislature will adopt its
own drafting manual and that has happened at the beginning
of the first session. There's nothing to stop the
Legislature from making a change during the legislative
session.
SENATOR MACKINNON said that on the Legal Services draft
document dated January 21, 2015, it states on page 42,
under Appropriations, that there has been a change to the
appropriations for capital projects and that language has
been re-worked. Since she is new to the committee, she
noted that it was a capital budget language change and
wanted to know if it had been discussed by Legislative
Council.
MR. LUCKHAUPT responded that it was a recent change the
Legislature made last year and so to avoid any problems,
the Manual needed to be updated to reflect that change. In
the past, the general rule was that capital budget
appropriations never lapsed. Last year, the Legislature
changed the Appropriations statute to provide that if
"substantial, ongoing work" has not begun within five
years, then the appropriation would lapse. The new language
is merely reflecting the statutory change the Legislature
made last year.
5:14:48 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council approve
the 2015 Legislative Drafting Manual.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Meyer, Coghill, Hoffman, Huggins, MacKinnon,
Micciche, Chenault, Hawker, Johnson, Kito, Neuman,
Reinbold, Herron, Stevens
NAYS: None
The motion passed 14-0.
b. 2015 Revisor's Bill
Lisa Kirsch, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, said that the
Revisor's Bill is primarily designed to correct errors
found in statute. The changes aren't meant to change the
meaning or substance of the law but would be to make a
provision more readable or to reorganize sections that need
to be placed in another part of the statutes. This year
there are many changes that are similar to past changes;
for example, there are several instances of the phrase "but
not limited to" that have been deleted as the statutory
provision in Title I allows the word "including," which is
presumed to include the phrase "but not limited to."
Ms. Kirsch said that, in general, there were also some
citations of federal law that were erroneous, either the
numbers had been inverted or a change in federal law had
changed the numbering of a particular provision, so those
are corrected. There were some court rules where the
citation form was slightly amended; punctuation errors; and
various and sundry things that are controlled by the
Drafting Manual that needed to be changed to reflect the
correct form. Specific information is available in the
Revisor's Bill and accompanying analysis, a copy of which
each member should have.
SENATOR COGHILL asked for the record about the reason for
the effective date of a particular section, which is
unusual to this bill.
MS. KIRSCH said that what Senator Coghill was referring to
was the effective date that turns up in Section 62 at the
very tail end of the bill and is a special effective date
for Section 35. Section 35 is a long listing in Title 44
that lists approximately 44 state boards and commissions;
the final entry is paragraph 45 which shows up in page 22
of the draft bill and had a delayed effective date of July
1, 2015. The changes that were made within the list made
the list consistent by removing several instances of "the"
in front of a particular board or commission; Ms. Kirsch
said she made the effective date of those small changes the
same as the effective date of the paragraph so it didn't
have to be changed twice.
5:19:24 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council approve
the 2015 Revisor's bill version 29-LS0330\W and request the
Senate Rules Committee to introduce it.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Meyer, Coghill, Hoffman, Huggins, MacKinnon,
Micciche, Chenault, Hawker, Johnson, Kito, Neuman,
Reinbold, Herron, Stevens
NAYS: None
The motion passed 14-0.
c. FY 14 LEGISLATURE AUDIT
CHAIR STEVENS noted that this item did not require a vote
and was simply a report for the Fiscal Year 14 Legislative
Audit.
PAM VARNI, Executive Director of the Legislative Affairs
Agency, stated that LAA goes out to bid for an independent
auditor. The last time the Agency went out to bid was in
2014 and Elgee, Rehfeld, Mertz, LLC was selected as the
auditor. They conducted an audit for the entire Legislative
Branch, both the operating and the capital funds, and it is
a clean audit with no audit exceptions.
There were no questions and no further action needed on
this item.
CHAIR STEVENS gave considerable thanks to Representative
Hawker; he said he has been tremendous to work with in the
transition, particularly with the new Anchorage building as
they move to assign offices and move into the new space. He
said he really appreciated Representative Hawker keeping
him involved for the last several months. As much as he
appreciated Representative Hawker, he said he appreciated
even more Juli Lucky of his staff who had just been
tremendous to work with and who will continue to help with
the transition in the Anchorage office.
There being no further business before the committee, the
Legislative Council meeting was adjourned at 5:22 p.m.
5:21:44 PM
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|