Legislature(2017 - 2018)Anch LIO Lg Conf Rm
06/26/2018 11:00 AM House LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
JUNE 26, 2018
11:00AM
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative David Guttenberg, Chair
Senator Bert Stedman, Vice Chair
Representative Matt Claman
Representative Bryce Edgmon
Representative Charisse Millett
Representative Dan Ortiz
Representative Louise Stutes
Representative Harriet Drummond, Majority Alternate
Representative David Eastman, Minority Alternate
Senator John Coghill
Senator Cathy Giessel
Senator Pete Kelly
Senator Peter Micciche
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Sam Kito
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Anna MacKinnon
Senator Mia Costello, Alternate
OTHER MEMBERS PRESENT
AGENDA
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
RATIFICATION OF CHARITABLE EVENTS
CONTRACT APPROVALS
LEGAL SERVICES UPDATE
EXECUTIVE SESSION
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
SPEAKER REGISTER
Jessica Geary, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs Agency
Tim Banaszak, Manager, Information Technology, Legislative
Affairs Agency
Doug Gardner, Director, Legal Services, Legislative Affairs
Agency
Jerry Luckhaupt, Revisor, Legal Services, Legislative Affairs
Agency
11:00:07 AM
I. CALL TO ORDER
CHAIR GUTTENBERG called the Legislative Council meeting to order
at 11:00a.m. in the Anchorage LIO Large Conference Room. Present
at the call were Representatives Claman, Edgmon, Millet, Ortiz,
Stutes, Eastman (alternate), and Guttenberg; Senators Coghill,
Giessel, Kelly, Micciche, and Stedman. Absent were Representative
Kito, Senators Hoffman, MacKinnon, and Costello (alternate).
Representative Drummond (alternate) joined at 11:33am.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG shared that we just lost one of our long term
legislative staff to Speaker Edgmon, Adam Berg. Our condolences
to the family and to you Mr. Speaker and your staff.
II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
11:03:02 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
agenda as presented.
The motion passed without objection.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
11:04:24 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
minutes dated April 23, 2018.
The motion passed without objection.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked members if the way we communicated with
members was adequate, did they get notice in time, are there
other ways they want us to communicate with them? Please let us
know, as it is to everyone's advantage that they have all the
information they need to make the right decision in a timely
manner. Everything is on BASIS at this point, that is public, and
we want to ensure we are reaching out to people the way they want
to receive information.
IV. RATIFICATION OF CHARITABLE EVENTS
11:05:49 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council ratify the
Chair's sanctioning of the following charitable events per AS
th
24.60.080(a)(2)(B): 26 Annual Coal Classic Golf Tournament.
The motion passed without objection.
V. CONTRACT APPROVALS
a. Microsoft Annual Agreement
Thank you Mr. Chairman, Vice-Chairman, members of the Council,
for the record my name is TIM BANASZAK and I am the Information
Technology Manager for the Alaska State Legislature. Today before
you for consideration is the annual Microsoft Enterprise Software
Agreement License. The State of Alaska has negotiated on behalf
of the Legislature, the Executive and Judicial branches a three
year contract with Software House International which provides
Microsoft products including Windows 10, Windows server operating
system, the office software suite which includes items most of us
are familiar with such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Skype
for Business, One Note, Publisher, Access database. This
agreement also provides licensing to operate critical
infrastructure systems including the Windows 10 pc operating
system, windows server, databases including those I previously
mentioned, our network drives, share point, web servers including
our intranet and extranet webservers are licensed through this as
well.
Part of this contract also includes secure email storage, up to
100 gigabytes per box. Some of you might remember the days we had
less than one, so that's improved in this as well.
Also, we have unlimited archiving as part of this contract and
protected one drive file sharing and software licensing
collaboration from full devices. It is a fairly comprehensive
contract and covers a lot of our services of goods.
Finally, one of the important areas that this provides is
software assurance, which safeguards the application of operating
systems and databases by providing the most current security
updates and software versions.
Mr. Chairman, this agreement which begins July 1, 2018, for a
period of one year with two annuals provides the benefits of
reduced volume pricing, enhanced technical support, regular
software upgrades, and training for both technical and non-
technical staff. The Legislature's portion of this agreement for
FY19 is $144,402.52, which is budgeted under the Administrative
Services component and requires Legislative Council's approval.
Just for the Council's information, the Executive branch is
actually in a business meeting right now hoping to negotiate a
few points down from what we're actually paying on top of this
right now. We're receiving government pricing at this point, but
at the outset of this meeting they were just going into their
business meeting and so we may be able to reduce it down a little
bit. But at this point, this is the pricing that we have. I would
be happy to answer any questions.
11:10:36 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
expenditure of not more than $144,402.52, the first of three
annual installments, to Software House International (SHI) that
licenses the Legislature to use Microsoft's software.
The motion passed without objection.
b. LexisNexis
11:12:05 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
two-year renewal with LexisNexis for the publication of our
statutes in the amount of an estimated annual average of $50,000.
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN objected for discussion.
My name is JERRY LUCKHAUPT, Revisor of Statues for the Alaska
State Legislature. As noted in the motion, this is a two year
renewal of the current contract that was entered into in 2012 for
a six year period. It provides, as noted in my letter to the
Council, terms very beneficial to the State at this time,
considering contracts that have been entered into by other states
and the size of Alaska. We have experienced some problems over
the last two years with LexisNexis moving to a new editorial
format that we are trying to work through those, we are also
hoping that as we an actual interim this year, we are going to be
able to resolve all of those issues and we have been working
diligently with them. If there are any questions, I am ready to
answer them. I would just ask the Council to do this two year
renewal because it is beneficial to the State under the terms
outlined.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked are there any states that are not printing
their statute books? Are there other alternatives? Looking into
the future, would there be a time when publicly available statute
books would not be needed or what is the perception of that world
changing?
JERRY LUCKHAUPT replied that eventually it will reach that point.
It is always going to be a problem in Alaska due to distance and
not everyone having a stable internet connection. I think books
are always going to be needed out there. The other aspect of
publishing statutes, is annotated statutes. The annotations that
LexisNexis provides, their editors provide, to the State and
Federal cases is helpful for people who have to deal with
government and can easily find cases that have interpreted our
statutes. So to that aspect, it is going to be difficult in
Alaska to completely do away with printed statutes. That said, a
few states have tried; Wisconsin is going with an official
version that is online and still printing statutes for those who
want them. Hopefully, we will reduce the amount of paper over
time and if we truly do go to an online only version it is
something that a number of states are taking that work in-house
and are basically deciding we are just going to publish an online
version and let everyone do what they want. So companies like
Lexis, West, or other companies that choose to issue a printed
version can. Again, with Alaska, it is problematic to say we are
going be able to go to a completely online version? because it is
Alaska.
SENATOR GIESSEL noted that online you can access our statutes,
but there is a disclaimer that says, "this may not be the most
current version of our statutes," so if we were to go online
there would have to be some fixes to that whole process. Thank
you.
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN removed his objection.
The motion passed without objection.
VI. LEGAL SERVICES UPDATE
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked members if they all had a copy of Mr.
Gardner's letter which was distributed to Council members and all
other members. Mr. Gardner, I texted you on Monday saying I had
not officially accepted this letter and you had an opportunity to
take whatever actions you wanted to, but here you are. Can you
please give your update on Legislative Legal Services?
DOUG GARDNER replied, CHAIR GUTTENBERG and members, it is a
pleasure to be seated before you one last time. Giving an update,
you and I did not discuss exactly what your thoughts were about
the update. I will give you a short, two to three minute
assessment of where I think things are. As you know, August 15
will be my last day as Director. I don't have any plans right now
and am your Director until the last minute of the last day that I
am here. After that I will look around, but I don't have any
plans right now.
I segway into the conversation about the office. I think the
office is in good shape right now. We have a lot of talented
folks that you have all worked with. I went out of my way this
year, and I think the Presiding Officers may have seen some of
this, I'm looking at Representative Millett, Representative
Edgmon, I recognize Senator Kelly is online, possibly the co-
chairs, saw a little more of me than typical. I brought some
staff with me periodically to meetings which was not an accident,
I was not wasting anyone's time. I wanted to give some exposure
to people who I think can probably do very well for you.
The office is in good shape. You are all very supportive. I came
around and did what I had never done before and I think it put
Pam and me in a slightly awkward spot, to come around and stump
for money. I did not want to do that, but thought we were at a
mission critical spot. I am looking at everyone here and those
online and I know there was a lot of support for the office. That
additional funding, like everything in life, there is not a lot
you are going to do with it in November to make a change in
January, but it is getting tapered into the system right now. We
are building out the editing area. When you are a Chair and you
are waiting for a CS, Senator Giessel right now, or you are the
Speaker or the President on the floor you are trying to get
things through the office. You know what they are. I know your
staff are like, "why can't this just get finished earlier so we
can have an extensive peer review process?" and the reality is
there were two choke points that we identified: one is the
editing staff, they are wonderful and they make sure we don't
screw things up at ten o'clock at night; the other end of the
process is the revising process that Mr. Luckhaupt handles on an
hour by hour, minute by minute basis. So we added an Attorney
there and we added a Deputy Editor which you approved and that
was the funding that we went with. I think that as we get into
the Thirty-first Legislature that is going to pay big dividends
in a variety of different ways. One, my goal always, as your
Director was to make you look good on the floor. I wanted it to
be true and I wanted it to be a smooth process. There are small
delays that are always going to occur, but I didn't want any of
the Chairs or Presiding Officers or anybody, minority members
waiting for amendments, I wanted that all to go as smoothly as
possible. I think this step will help in that, it's just that
this year we were at a place where Laura Duval was getting
snapped and we needed to roll with what we had.
I think it will also help with the retention in my office. I
don't know what the number is. I wish I had a number to tell you
how much we have invested in the Emily Naumans, Megan Wallace,
Hilary Martin, budget drafters, education attorneys, assistant
revisors, Jerry, myself, there is a lot invested in our
experience and time. Really it is such a small office that you
can't have significant turnover without losing enormous amounts
of efficiencies in place. I started my life in a private family
business, so I know every time you touch something it costs you
money and everything you do reflects on who you are and what your
goals are. I wanted the office to reflect what you all need to
bring to your constituents and what needs to get done for Alaska.
I am not a policy person or a political person, I just wanted to
make sure you had that resource. I think those changes are coming
online and I think that next session we will always be growing
and we will always be learning, but I think things are in good
shape.
I don't know how much you would like to talk to me in an
Executive Session and how much you would like to talk to me in a
Public Session, but I will answer any questions you have. I think
we are in good shape and that is part of the reason why I chose
to transition Mr. Chair.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG stated that Mr. Gardner will be back in
Executive Session.
REPRESENTATIVE MILLETT thanked Mr. Gardner. You have been the
Director almost the whole ten years I have served, I think I
served one year under Tam Cook. Your professionalism and your
staff and the way that you've run the Legislature's department of
law has been amazing. You came up with amendments on my minority
end, you were stellar in your performance in making sure our
voices were heard and I really appreciate that. You shepherded
Speaker Edgmon and I through some tough times and gave us good
advice and that is greatly appreciated. We know we put a lot of
pressure on the department of law with issues including: the oil
tax debate; Medicaid; defined benefits; budget bills; crime
bills; lawsuits; education. You became a public figure through
all that and I know there was a lot of criticism on you, but I
heartfully thank you and am sorry to see you go, but understand
that ability for you to go out into the private sector. You will
be missed. You have mentored a lot of people in the Legislature
and showed good compassion, kindness, and fairness. Thank you and
your staff. It did not go unnoticed. You were always at the end
of a cell phone, easy to get ahold of, and we had some wild hours
the last couple sessions, so I appreciate your professionalism
and wish you well. I hate to see you go Doug.
DOUG GARDNER Thank you, I enjoyed every minute of it. I enjoyed
the opportunity. Since you mentioned it, on occasion, I felt I
was walking a bit of a tightrope, but there were a couple
occasions where you and Representative Edgmon worked closely
together to deal with issues this session. Thank you both for
being statesmen.
SENATOR GIESSEL commented that as a substantial Committee Chair,
the Resources Committee handles lots time sensitive bills. The
work that your team has done, over the last two years
specifically, has just been outstanding. We really, really
appreciate it. I say that on behalf of my staff as well. Thank
you.
DOUG GARDNER Thank you.
REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN thank you Doug for all the fine work that
you did. I know that is part of the challenge when we have
diverse interests that you represent, and you must represent all
of us. All though sometimes we may forget that, you keep
reminding us. Lastly, at the end of this Session it was great to
hear those bagpipes.
DOUG GARDNER Thank you.
SENATOR KELLY Doug, when you first came in, I had fairly low
expectations of you. I do not even know why, but I did. As we
worked together, you blew away all my low expectations and my
expectations began to grow, and as they grew, you kept blowing
them away. You are one of the best staff people I have ever been
around, you are a hell of a lawyer, and I just really appreciate
what you did. If I can ever write a letter of recommendation,
just let me know. It will kind of embarrass you, but you are a
good one. Thank you.
DOUG GARDNER Thank you.
REPRESENTATIVE EDGMON Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to
echo the comments from the Senate President. As Speaker, I work
very closely with Doug and his staff, and like the Minority
Leader mentioned, you were there at virtually every turn? whether
it was late at night, early in the morning, or on weekends. I
know you remember that fondly by the smile on your face. Thank
you for the great job you have done. Mr. Chairman and I want to
commend you for giving the Council the opportunity to not only
have the Director come forward and speak publicly, but also in
Executive Session to give Council the opportunity to hear from
the Director in an atmosphere where you can perhaps speak more
candidly about things and for the Council to get a better
understanding of what actually is involved in being Legal
Director. It is a job with a lot of nuances that not only crosses
the legal profession into working with a political institution
and the public and all the other pieces that are attached to it.
Doug you have been fantastic and you are my favorite bagpipe
player too.
DOUG GARDNER Mr. Chairman, in the Thirtieth Legislature there
were a lot of significant issues for consideration by the
Legislature. There were a lot of challenging situations that came
up and the Legislature had to change some policies and otherwise
address those things. Maybe it was just because I was getting a
little bit more grey hair, but I felt a comfort level, and this
is a compliment to Representative Edgmon and Senator Kelly, and I
hope that it resonates with whoever holds those positions down
the road, but when I had a problem or we had a logistical issue,
and this goes for a lot of the Chairs too this year, I know there
was a lot of? if you look at Twitter and you see all the things
that are going on, you wonder, "how is this organization
functioning?", but behind the scenes it is the Heather Carpenters
and Amory Lelakes that represent you both on an hour by hour
basis with our office to try and make the floor work smoothly. I
can't say how much access I had to both you Representative Edgmon
and Senator Kelly through staff and if I needed to come down and
say, "We've got to do something here, this is not working." or
"We do not have the time to do this." or "We can do this, but we
cannot do that." Whatever it was, that access was huge and it
helped us squeeze... again, from a family business, private
sector person is where I got my start in life and it is all about
squeezing the most out of what you have. It is not about wanting
more, it's about what can you do with what you are given. I
really felt that you two Presiding Officers helped me do that
this last two years under some incredibly challenging
circumstances. As I said when we started the Session off with
training, we are all in this together. Yes, I respect you as
elected officers and representatives of the people, but at the
end of the day, we are all in this legislative process together
and nobody can do anything without the cooperation of all
minority, majority, independentwe all have to pull together to
make it work. You two gave me the opportunity to try to bob and
weave through some real high volume stuff and solve those
problems before they turned into more floor like situations. I
want to thank you both for that. I enjoyed working with both of
you. I want to say one thing that I hope Representative Edgmon
finds humorous, I believe that it may be that I am the only non-
member that ever called a Speaker on the floor and asked for an
At-ease. The Speaker went to a Call-of-the-chair for a few hours,
we solved those problems, and you all went on and looked very
smooth to the public. It's those kinds of things. Senator Kelly
always had a sense of humor in his office and so did you
Representative Edgmon, so thank you both gentlemen, the Presiding
Officers, both statesmen. I appreciate it. I know time is
limited, I would be happy to answer questions in an Executive
Session.
SENATOR MICCICHE I could go on for just as long about Doug. We
have asked him for some pretty extraordinary things over the last
four years and your department has always risen to the occasion.
The thing that I like the best is you actually will push back at
appropriate times when some of us are somewhat exuberant about a
particular approach in legislation and you have been
constructively assertive. I think that is the one thing that was
not mentioned. The only thing I wanted to say about Senator
Kelly, the humor in his office is that he does steal a lot of
material from me. I thought that was important to clarify. Thank
you Doug for all your hard work.
DOUG GARDNER As I said, I am one person sitting here who is
departing, but there a dozen or so Attorneys that are probably,
enjoying the interim imagine that, but one seated behind me and
the others that work for you all year round are the ones that
make this happen. It was my person as Director.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG stated that from my perspective, there are two
parts of what we dopart is policy and part is process. If you
cannot get through having a process, you will never get the
policy. That starts off with Rules and Masons and Legislative
Legal allows us that process to get the policy. I know if I went
to your office now and saw where they are doing all that work and
the space they have? it is just a tremendous amount of work and I
appreciate everything that you have done.
I was on Legislative Council when we hired you, but I was not on
the search committee. I am going to set up a search committee
that will mimic the same one that hired you that consists of the
Chair, the Executive Director, Presiding Officers, and the
Majority and Minority Leaders of both bodies. If one of those
members is not available I will look to the Presiding Officers to
take their place and we will get to that as soon as we can. I
know we have a memo from Skiff on what we can and cannot do, and
I will ask you to start that process by writing a job
description.
Legislative Council does not actually do the hiring, the
Executive Director does. But the two positions that are so
significant for the Legislature are Leg. Director and the
Division of Finance. I asked the Executive Director to come up
with the history of that and it boils down to if we hire you,
Leg. Director and the Finance Director, we are basically having
three separate divisions and three budgets and that would be
pretty inefficient. So Legislative Council on your position will
go through this process of a search, then narrow the window down
to a few candidates, whatever process they decide upon, and give
that name to the Executive Director. I think it is also
appropriate to have a policy statement that affirms that process
that we have one Legislative Affairs Agency and the Executive
Director makes that decision, but the hiring of those two
positions come from the recommendations of the Council. I think
that is the efficiency that has evolved over the years and I do
not see any reason to change it unless someone else does.
Before we go into Executive Session, I also want to thank you
Doug. I think you have a job that rides the rail and the edge of
a blade. You are always someone who self corrects and helps other
people stay there. Some people have an agenda and want an opinion
that says what they want it to say. Many times I have gotten an
opinion back and I do not like it, but that is the law. It is the
perception from you and your staff. I always thought it was the
right thing to do. Sometimes it was misread, intentionally or
otherwise, but I thought you guys always did a good job, so I
appreciate that.
VII. EXECUTIVE SESSION
11:38:44 AM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that that Legislative Council go into
executive session under uniform rule 22(b)(2)(3), discussion of
subjects and matters that may, by law, be required to be
confidential. Any Legislators not on Council are welcome to stay.
Will the following staff please stay in the room: Jessica Geary;
Doug Gardner; Crystal Koeneman; Tina Strong; Molly Kiesel;
Alliana Salanguit; Kate Burkhart; Skiff Lobaugh; Elisha Martin;
and Brian Meissner.
The motion passed without objection.
Legislative Council went into executive session.
12:55:20 PM
Council came out of executive session.
12:56:57 PM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve $160.0
rd
for the design of the 3 floor at 1500 West Benson Blvd.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Claman, Edgmon, Millett, Ortiz, Stutes, Coghill,
Micciche, Stedman, Guttenberg.
NAYS: None
The motion passed 9-0.
12:58:12 PM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve $150.0
rd
for the purchase of air handling equipment for the 3 floor at
1500 West Benson Blvd.
SENATOR MICCICHE do we have adequate support that we understand
what is needed before we spend the money? You know I've always
been hesitant to spend any money on that building until we know
what we are doing for sure. Do we documentation from engineering
that it is required and that we have the right equipment that we
are going to order and install?
For the record, my name is JESSICA GEARY, Executive Director of
the Legislative Affairs Agency. Senator Micciche, through the
Chair, we had our engineers here earlier discussing this with us
and this does need to be done regardless of what else is approved
on the project. This is an important thing that needs to be taken
care of.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG replied to Senator Micciche that I had a
discussion with them earlier concerning the nature of your
questions. The specifics, this is the air handlers dedicated to
the third floor and is a replacement for what is there now. They
are going to go on the roof which will require a crane. We will
get the specifications, but it is simply a replacement for what
is existing nownot to expand capabilities across the building.
Does that help?
SENATOR MICCICHE so it is sort of a safety requirement for
necessary air movement and HVAC on the third floor, is that how
you would define it?
CHAIR GUTTENBERG Yes, exactly Senator. We are not expanding
anything, we are just replacing what is there that it will be
required almost no matter what you do.
SENATOR MICCICHE Thank you.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Claman, Edgmon, Millett, Ortiz, Stutes, Coghill,
Micciche, Stedman, Guttenberg.
NAYS: None
The motion passed 9-0.
1:01:22 PM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
pressure washing and resealing of the building exterior for a
repainting of the first floor exterior in an amount not to exceed
208,000.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG said that we make sure the contract comes back
to us with a color, I thought it was going to be clear, so that
it is not something that doesn't work.
SENATOR MICCICHE said clearly the coating is failing and this
cost is to avoid much more costly repairs in the future. I just
think it is always healthy for the public to understand why we
are spending certain dollars on certain State assets.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG Thank you Senator.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Claman, Edgmon, Millett, Ortiz, Stutes, Coghill,
Micciche, Stedman, Guttenberg.
NAYS: None
The motion passed 9-0.
VIII. OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a. Annual Computer Refresh
1:03:39 PM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council approve the
FY19 hardware refresh expenditure of $146,846.
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN objected for discussion.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Council, for the record my name is
TIM BANASZAK and I am the Information Technology Manager for the
Alaska State Legislature. The request before you as the Vice
Chair just submitted is for the FY19 hardware refresh
recommendations. The IT subcommittee offers the following FY19
computer hardware refresh recommendations for consideration: 82
Computers that replaces the 2011 models for $91,020; 164 Monitors
which provide an integrated PC capability for $28,946; and
finally 20 Laser Printers to replace some the 2011 models for
$26,880. Total of which is $146,846.
The list is based on a five year computer refresh cycle, age of
equipment, upkeep costs, performance, and obsolescence. The
recommendations are also: consistent with the Three-Year
Technology Plan; integrated with the hardware used in our
recently adopted mobile workstation initiative that has been
implemented; a phased approach to standardizing a color printer
for each office, reducing toner replacement costs; and cost
efficient, through leveraging government contract volume discount
pricing.
With that Mr. Chairman, I would be happy to answer any questions.
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN removed his objection.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Claman, Edgmon, Millett, Ortiz, Stutes, Coghill,
Micciche, Stedman, Guttenberg.
NAYS: None
The motion passed 9-0.
b. Three-year Tech Plan
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked that TIM BANASZAK continue on this topic.
The Three Year Technology Plan covers the years 2018-2020. This
plan is reflected and required under AS 24.20.055. It has been
edited by the IT Subcommittee and is presented to Legislative
Council for consideration and adoption.
The guiding principles used to develop the 2018-2020 Technology
Plan are customer-focused, accessibility, reliability, value and
continuous improvement. It provides a guide for the Legislature
to follow IT best practices, forecasts critical system investment
requirements, and maintains IT service alignment with business
priorities.
Highlights include strategic technology issues facing the
Legislature, as well as critical IT infrastructure projects noted
earlier, importantly the adoption of the cyber security risk
management framework for the Legislature.
It is important to note that this plan does not bind the
Legislature to any expenditures, projects or timelines, rather it
serves as a technology roadmap for the next three years.
With that I would be happy to answer any questions Mr. Chairman.
1:07:38 PM
VICE CHAIR STEDMAN moved that Legislative Council adopt the
Legislature's 2018-2020 Three-year Tech Plan.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG let's talk about the cyber risk assessment a
little bit more. Although it is not under our purview, but it
does determine how we all get here. What is your assessment of
Division of Elections risk? Are you aware of that at all? Do you
participate? If not I am going to ask you to do that. I think we
all have an interest in that. Maybe I am overstepping our bounds,
but it is all how we get here and it is important to us.
TIM BANASZAK replied that Division of Elections is not managed
under the Legislative branch, so that is not certainly our
purview. However, I will say that as the State of Alaska, the
Executive and Legislative branches often look for opportunities
to work together. One of those areas is under the cyber security
environment. Part of this plan is actually taken from the
Executive branch approach to securing information systems. We
often are just behind the bad guys that are out there, so it is
important for us to have a framework where we can assess the data
that we have, we can select the level of controls and how we want
to protect that information. For instance, as an example, the
public website, that is public information out there, however it
is not very appropriate to find out that the website is
compromised. The example you brought up, Elections, those votes
must be protected and they must be accurate. So that level of
risk needs to have systems built around that. Finally when you
get into confidential types of information, whether it is
criminal justice information or HIPAA protected information,
there is a whole level of controls that need to go around that.
That is where is important to approach security from a risk
management stand pointwhat is the appropriate level of risk?
This approach we are taking for the Legislature and submitting in
this plan is to assess risk and with that risk, the information,
how we should protect that, set the appropriate amount of
controls around that, monitor those controls, and if there is a
breach of some type, remediate the issue, then how we move
forward and the continuous improvement process.
So I think the short answer Mr. Chairman is we work closely with
the Executive branch and will continue to do so.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked as part of that, say I get on my phone, my
computer, the State system, I get hacked. I get all kinds of
crazy requests. Some emails look perfectly legitimate or phone
calls offering a better credit card rate. From outside the
building but on the system, how are we legislative employees,
protected? I do not need the nuances, but how are they being
looked at and are you secure we are moving in the right
direction?
TIM BANASZAK stated that is a very good question. What you are
pointing out is that there are two facets to security. One is the
technical infrastructure to protect the systems from bad people
intentionally trying to get in, or people trying to do bad
things. We put as much as we can, as reasonable, to protect those
systems. The other great risk factor or exposure is our own
staff, our own people, it is us. It is constant security
awareness training and there are also some tools we can put in
place. For example, we recently made an investment when we went
to our new email system so that everyone of those emails is
scanned for viruses and we just turned on last week a technology
that looks at the links, it is called Safe Links, so that when
you get that email that looks legitimate and you feel it is
legitimate, and you click on that link, it has been inspected.
This is fairly new. Those are the kinds of technologies that are
out there and with ongoing assessments and frameworks we can
improve on that. It is important to stress it is managing it,
daily, weekly, and a framework will help us manage and assess, so
that when things do happen, we know where are risks are and we
remediate those.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG mentioned that at a technology center in
Fairbanks, on one of their monitors is the web assault around the
world. It is amazing to watch what goes back and forth and the
vulnerability.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Claman, Edgmon, Millett, Ortiz, Stutes, Coghill,
Micciche, Stedman, Guttenberg.
NAYS: None
The motion passed 9-0.
c. Upcoming Agenda Items
CHAIR GUTTENBERG asked Jessica Geary to come forward and stated
that on the agenda there are upcoming items on the horizon and I
want to ensure members are not surprised and can have input and
comments about some of the things we will be looking at in future
meetings, besides what we have done here.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Council, again for the record, my
name is JESSICA GEARY, Executive Director of the Legislative
Affairs Agency. You have received as part of your packet a memo.
I am not certain if you have had a chance to read it, so I will
just review the discussion items.
As you are probably aware the building that is almost attached to
the Terry Miller Legislative Office Building burned down last
fall. We have had all kinds of issues, and our security staff
have been keeping a close on what has been happening, but there
have been vagrants camping out in the building, it is a huge
liability, there is the potential for them starting a fire and if
it goes off again it could be catastrophic. The Juneau Community
Foundation approached us and said that if the Legislature has a
use for that building, they would purchase it and give it to us.
What we would be looking at is approving the demolition of the
building and it would be raw land until such a time that we want
to consider building on it, whether it be a parking lot or
whether it be our long term pipe dream, to build an onsite
storage facility to phase out of the Goldstein Building, which we
have been working on. Tina Strong has some information on what we
have done so far with that space. That is a long term goal. From
a risk management perspective it would be a good idea if the
Council wants to vote to accept the building. We are getting an
environmental hazards study now because that could increase the
cost of demolition. They estimate $150,000-$200,000 now and that
could climb substantially, so I do not want to bring it to
Council for a vote until we have all the answers to those
questions. I expect this issue will come up at some point in the
future.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG noted that in last meeting's minutes, Senator
MacKinnon asked questions about the Goldstein Building, which I
had previously asked very similar questions. Ms. Strong was going
to have an assessment, but we can put that off because we are
going to go as fast as we can now. But that is available to
members and we will get that distributed.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY explained briefly that we have been
working on consolidating, have an inventory of what is there, and
would be happy to distribute to members.
REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN noted with regard to the building adjacent
to the Terry Miller building. Obviously we do not have a decision
we have to make today, but I would want to make sure we get back
the environmental assessment before we make a decision, either
one way or the other. Thank you.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY explained that the four Capitol Columns
need to be shored and honed, they have some staining, the process
involves epoxy and sanding. It does need to be done and, again,
the Juneau Community Foundation has committed to match the
expense at 50%. The rough estimate is approximately $300,000
total. We are working on getting some engineering for that so we
can issue an RFP.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG explained that when I first saw this, I asked
why wasn't this part of the Capitol exterior remodel? You were
not in the position you are now. Why was it excluded, do you have
any history on that?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY Mr. Chairman, my understanding is that
it was initially discussed as being part of the seismic retrofit
project, but because of the sheer nature of some of the things
found while excavating beneath the Capitol, they ran out of
contingency funds to do that particular part. Everything else
ended up costing a bit more.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG Thank you.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY the next item is the Terry Miller
Building. Some of the windows in that building are original. They
have been replaced as needed. The building was built in 1929 and
we have gotten rid of most of the exterior windows that were
there at that time. But there are still some interestingly on the
inside. We have some 1960 windows, we have some 1986 windows, and
the most recent was on the North wall, we have some windows that
were replaced in 1998. So that project is important because of
energy efficiency issues and is a good thing to get done.
The next item is cladding for the building. Right now, it is
concrete and is old, exposed, and aging. It would be a good idea
to put some sort of protectant on there and we are getting
engineered drawings done and a cost estimate so we can do an RFP.
That will come up some time in the future, so we wanted to ensure
you had information. Are there any questions?
REPRESENTATIVE STUTES asked what is cladding?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY replied that is a great question.
Representative Stutes, through the Chair, cladding is like metal
siding that they affixed to the outside of the concrete which
would protect the concrete and also keep us from having to paint
it, which desperately needs to be done. The building is in rough
shape right now.
REPRESENTATIVE STUTES asked is it something that is necessary?
What purpose does it serve?
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY replied through the Chair,
Representative Stutes, the purpose it serves is to protect the
concrete from further degradation. When concrete is old, water
gets inside and expands and cracks, all kinds of issues that end
up happening with concrete upkeep. Putting the cladding on
extends the life and defers maintenance. Does that answer your
question?
REPRESENTATIVE STUTES replied yes it does, thank you.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG commented that it is either the continued
maintenance of very old concrete that is shedding, for lack of a
better term, or just covering it and not having to do that
periodically.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY replied that is correct Mr. Chair. It is
advantageous if both projects could be approved and done at the
same time, but the windows would take priority in those two
projects.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG noted he had a few things to discuss. At the
last meeting, one of the things Senator Micciche brought up is
having a Per Diem Committee to have a discussion on those things
and I will ask the members if there is a desire to do that and
who wants to serve.
Other than that, we will continue to keep you as informed as
possible as soon as we know that there are issues that are formal
enough to be discussed long before the next agenda. At this
point, there is not another meeting scheduled, but the next
meeting will probably be dealing with a new hiring situation as
soon as possible. Hopefully it will not be long, but it depends
on what process we go through.
Is there anything else anybody has on the agenda they would like
to discuss or anything they want Council to bring up in the
future?
REPRESENTATIVE EDGMON to clarify the directive on the sign and
the name is the Anchorage Legislative Information Office, is that
correct?
CHAIR GUTTENBERG replied yes.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY asked to go back to that and said that
would be Anchorage Legislative Information Office, which I think
we were trying avoid calling it the LIO because it is also
legislative offices, so I think the discussion, if I remember
from Anchorage Caucus last week, Anchorage Legislative Office
Building is what we landed on.
CHAIR GUTTENBERG yes.
IX. ADJOURNMENT
1:24:54 PM
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 180626 Agenda.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| JLEC 042318 426 PM.DOC |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| Sanctioning of a Charitable Event - Coal Classic Golf Tournament.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| Leg Council - IT FY19 SHI Microsoft Software Renewal Memo.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| 180612 LexisNexis Contract Memo.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| Leg Council - IT FY19 Hardware Refresh Memo.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| Leg Council - IT 2018 3-Year Tech Plan Memo.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |
|
| Future Items Memo.pdf |
JLEC 6/26/2018 11:00:00 AM |