Legislature(2019 - 2020)DAVIS 106
03/03/2020 08:00 AM House TRIBAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB287 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 287 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON TRIBAL AFFAIRS
March 3, 2020
8:06 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky, Chair
Representative Bryce Edgmon, Vice Chair
Representative John Lincoln
Representative Chuck Kopp
Representative Dan Ortiz
Representative Dave Talerico
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Sarah Vance
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE BILL NO. 287, "An Act requiring background investigations
of village public safety officer applicants by the Department of
Public Safety; relating to the village public safety officer
program; and providing for an effective date."
- HEARD & HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HB 287
SHORT TITLE: VILLAGE PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER GRANTS
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) KOPP
02/24/20 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/24/20 (H) TRB, JUD, FIN
02/26/20 (H) JUD AT 1:00 PM GRUENBERG 120
02/26/20 (H) <Bill Hearing Canceled>
03/03/20 (H) TRB AT 8:00 AM DAVIS 106
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE CHUCK KOPP
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: As prime sponsor, introduced HB 287.
MICHAEL NEMITH
Public Safety Coordinator
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information and answered questions
during the hearing on HB 287.
KEN TRUITT, Staff
Representative Chuck Kopp
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented a sectional analysis for HB 287
on behalf of Representative Kopp, prime sponsor.
WILL MAYO, Chair
Village Public Safety Officer Tribal Grantee Caucus
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of HB 287.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:06:21 AM
CHAIR TIFFANY ZULKOSKY called the House Special Committee on
Tribal Affairs meeting to order at 8:06 a.m. Representatives
Talerico, Edgmon, Lincoln, Ortiz, Kopp, and Zulkosky were
present at the call to order.
HB 287-VILLAGE PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER GRANTS
8:07:12 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY announced that the only order of business would
be HOUSE BILL NO. 287, "An Act requiring background
investigations of village public safety officer applicants by
the Department of Public Safety; relating to the village public
safety officer program; and providing for an effective date."
8:07:49 AM
REPRESENTATIVE CHUCK KOPP, Alaska State Legislature, as prime
sponsor, presented HB 287 with a PowerPoint presentation,
entitled "HB 287 Village Public Safety Officer Program Updates."
As shown on slide 3, he said the proposed legislation began in
2019, based on the efforts of a Village Public Safety Officer
(VPSO) work group ("work group") created on May 9, 2019, by
Representative Edgmon, Speaker of the House, and Senator
Giessel, Senate President, in response to the recruitment and
retention crisis of VPSOs in rural Alaska. Shortly after the
VPSO work group was formed, Representative Kopp imparted, U.S.
Attorney General William Barr issued his public safety crisis
declaration for rural Alaska. Representative Kopp listed others
in the work group: Co-chair Senator Olson, Senator Shower,
Senator Bishop, Representative Rauscher, Representative Edgmon,
and himself, and stated that there had been community meetings
from Bethel to Kotzebue, including a community listening session
in the Northwest Arctic Borough hosted by Representative
Lincoln. He said U.S. Attorney General Schroder also joined the
work group in Bethel. There were listening sessions at the
Tanana Chiefs Conference, at the Tribal Unity Conference, and
others, as well as a meeting with the Department of Public
Safety (DPS) leadership team, in which Kelly Howell was present.
Representative Kopp said that DPS had made it clear the mission
for the program must be laid out by the legislature.
8:11:44 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP related that the VSPO program ("the
program") was created in the 1970s for the protection of life
and property and has evolved into a primary public safety role.
He said the program has 10 entities that operate VPSO grants.
Those entities, [as shown on slide 2], are: Chugachmiut, Copper
River Native Association, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association,
Kodiak Area Native Association, Kawerak Northwest Arctic Borough
Association of Village Council Presidents, Bristol Bay Native
Association, Tanana Chiefs Association, and Central Council of
Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Representative Kopp
noted that eight of those entities are regionally based non-
profit corporations whose missions are to cultivate self-
determination among their tribal citizens as they deliver public
safety services; one is a federally recognized tribe; and the
Northwest Arctic Borough - a home rule regional government
seated in Kotzebue, Alaska, is the only grantee organization
that is also a municipal government.
8:12:52 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP reported that "the past decade has seen
shrinking numbers of VPSOs," with significant difficulty in
recruitment and retention. He said in response, recommendations
were made, [shown on slides 6-10]. He talked about activities
[shown on slides 4 and 5]. There was a listening session with
DPS; a listening session with the VPSO grantee organizations
management personnel; the Northwest Arctic Borough's Public
Safety Commission meeting; the Tribal Unity Caucus' annual
meeting; a meeting at the Anchorage Legislative Information
Office (LIO) to review the draft report; and, finally, the
adoption of the report at a meeting in Juneau. Co-chair
activities included an Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)
Council for the Advancement of Alaska Natives committee pre-
convention planning meeting; an AFN annual convention panel
focusing on rural public safety; a U.S. Department of Interior
(DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) rural public safety
listening session in Nome; and a meeting with grantee
organizations and VPSO management personnel.
8:14:54 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP moved on to slide 6 on VPSO working group
long-term recommendations. Regarding the work group's continued
work with federal partners, and especially with regard to
training, with formal recognition tribes may be able to access
federal law enforcement training programs; also, federal
partners can create greater recurring funds for public safety.
Representative Kopp related that another long-term
recommendation of the work group was the passing of a state
version of the Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act (ISDEAA). If the ISDEAA were to be passed, he
continued, the state could formally compact with tribes and
offer the maximum amount of program design/redesign/financial
flexibility for the various VPSO grantees. The third
recommendation was to consider upward mobility for VPSO
positions, either through compacting or state statutory changes
or both, for the purpose of providing for different levels of
VPSO personnel related to levels of training, the highest VPSO
level being equivalent in function, training, and pay to an
Alaska State Trooper ("trooper"). The last recommendation
listed by Representative Kopp was to work to define the true
cost of providing operational public safety services throughout
rural Alaska.
8:19:04 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP addressed slides 7-10, the short-term work
group recommendations, of which there were nine. Recommendation
1 was to update the VPSO statutes to provide a clear law
enforcement and public safety vision and mission for the program
and to provide VPSO personnel clear law enforcement duties and
powers. This recommendation exists due to how the VPSO program
has evolved, he explained, from a life safety program that
emphasized search and rescue and Emergency Medical Technician
(EMT)-type functions and support, to an agency that handles
everything up to violent assaults, sexual assaults, drownings,
and homicides. The VPSO, or "boots on the ground," is often on
the scene days before a trooper is able to arrive, a function of
Alaska's massive size, Representative Kopp added. He also
brought up the fact that two VPSOs from Representative Edgmon's
district were killed in the line of duty while performing "gun
calls," integral acts of public safety, reinforcing the
importance of VPSOs' job duties.
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP informed the committee that recommendation 2
of the work group's short-term recommendations was to create
more financial flexibility for the VPSO grantee organizations in
the updated VPSO statutes. With the grants at times being very
restrictive in language regarding what money was available for
which public safety mission, he explained that delivering a
public safety service is not only just pay, and the labor to do
the job, but about training, travel, fuel to heat homes, fuel
for transportation, equipment needed, and housing. The
interpretation of how the grant funds had been distributed had
been restrictive, and a lot of funding had been left unspent
because it was deemed to be not directly related to the mission
as spelled out in statute.
8:23:19 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP went on to recommendation 3, restoring VPSO
funding to fiscal year 2018 (FY 18) levels: $3 million was
vetoed out of the VPSO program for the reason that the money was
unspent. Through committee meetings and meeting with grantee
organizations and all partnerships involved, the work group
realized that the reason the funds were unspent was that there
were so many denials of requests to utilize money in the public
safety mission.
8:24:00 AM
REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ asked what those amounts would be if
funding were to be restored to FY 18 levels.
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP replied that he thought the entire program
was at $11 million, and he reminded Representative Ortiz that
the VPSO program was a line item in the DPS budget. He said
that he thought $8 or $9 million went to grantees. He added
that because of the work group, the money appropriated would be
more fully utilized and there will not be such large carryover
expenses unauthorized.
8:26:19 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY confirmed that the funding levels were still
roughly $2 million short of restoring to the FY 18 levels and
funds had been misspent because there had been so many denials
from DPS in issuing the funds to the grantees.
8:28:00 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP continued with slide 8, regarding the work
group's short-term recommendations. Funding unfunded mandates
is key in a partnership that provides public safety services
because municipalities [which also provide public safety
services] have human resources departments, information
technology (IT) support, mechanic shops for municipal vehicles,
and other such support. All costs are much more indirect when
considering VPSO program unfunded mandates because it must be
determined how to provide all these supports. He added that it
is great that the state is able to partner with communities, and
that it is the communities' desire that they have local
government and local delivery of public safety services. The
state's taking over and putting troopers in these positions
would be a significant expenditure for the state in terms of
benefits and retirement for employees, in addition to all of the
indirect costs that the grantees support, while their
partnership saves "untold millions of dollars."
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP related that recommendation 4, to fund the
unfunded mandates, states that as much as possible, restrictive
chains that say money cannot be appropriated for the services
that are necessary to deliver the public safety mission must be
removed. Recommendation 5, he continued, calls for updating the
statutes so grant awards pay grantee organizations their full
indirect costs, currently at 35 percent. Recommendation 6 of
the work group's short-term recommendations, Representative Kopp
continued, is to move financial grant management to the
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
(DCCED). The working group met with Commissioner Julie Anderson
and Sandra Moller, who would oversee the grant. During the
meeting, it was made known that the VPSO program would be able
to be managed; there would be a learning curve, but the friction
involved with the grants management portion would be lessened.
8:32:33 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP admitted that the legislature might be to
blame for not updating VPSO statute to clearly define the role's
function. The question was whether the program could receive
funding if acting outside the scope of statute. There was a
"mission collision" of VPSOs being desperately needed to do what
they do but working outside of the statutory authority, and
troopers managing the grants and asking honest questions about
whether they were authorized to fund certain expenditures. One
public safety mission conflicted with another, and the
relationship was harmed over time. The idea was not to cast
blame, but to fix the problem, he added. Transparency was
needed in grant management, he continued, as applicants did not
have a sense of how much money was available to them, what would
be appropriated, or why one applicant was authorized an
expenditure while another was denied.
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP informed the committee that DCCED had a much
more transparent grants management process, including notifying
legislators when unexpanded block grant funds were in their
area. He stated that the fact the financial grant management
piece would be moved to DCCED is not indicative of grantees'
unwillingness to partner with DPS; when it came to money
management, DCCED is just a better entity.
8:35:03 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY asked, with regard to restoring funding to FY 18
levels, about the significant amount of money that appeared to
be unspent in the VPSO line item annually, and whether some of
it was related to funding denials to VPSO grantees.
8:35:54 AM
MICHAEL NEMITH, Public Safety Coordinator, Aleutian Pribilof
Islands Association, replied by saying that mid-year in a
program such as the VPSO program, when the initial $3 million
was taken from the program, the budget would not have
necessarily been at 50 percent spent. In the Aleutian Pribilof
Islands Association (APIA), it is most important that he hold
money aside to ensure he is able to pay officers throughout the
year. There have been denials in the past, he said, and there
have been extremely late approvals. Central Council Tlingit &
Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) had requested
supplemental funding for public safety office repair in one of
their communities, and the request remained unanswered by DPS
for four months before it was approved on the last day of the
fiscal year. At that time Tlingit & Haida was told to "do what
[it could]." Mr. Nemith reminded the committee that renovations
in Alaska, not to mention rural Alaska, are a timely process, so
an approval on the last day of the fiscal year was unacceptable.
8:38:08 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP imparted that short-term recommendation 7
was to maintain operational advisory, training, and experience
requirement oversight at DPS. The troopers are a statewide
public safety agency and the VPSO program is a subset of that
agency; the strong partnership needs to continue, Representative
Kopp said. Recommendation 8 would call for the need within
statute to create a tribal/grantee organization consultation
process before DPS can significantly change training and
experience requirements for the VPSOs, he stated. Remembering
that all grantees are functioning tribal governments that have
formed these non-profits to partner with the state to provide
public safety, a concern is when significant changes would be
introduced without speaking with them first, because the group
is used to working together, checking in monthly and even
weekly. Recommendation 9, finally, would make required
revisions and place them in statute to operationalize the VPSO
program and facilitate the grant management piece going to
DCCED. Representative Kopp dismissed the criticism put forth
that the VPSO program as a non-profit may not have capacity to
follow through; he added that all that is needed is structural
support.
8:42:36 AM
REPRESENTATIVE EDGMON added that the work group was structured
initially to come back with a set of recommendations and then
throughout the process realized that it was not going to be just
one set of recommendations but an incremental process; that the
program, which has been languishing, would need to be
restructured.
8:43:50 AM
KEN TRUITT, Staff, Representative Chuck Kopp, Alaska State
Legislature, on behalf of Representative Kopp, prime sponsor of
HB 287, indicated that the grantee organizations recommended
changes with the overall intent to create financial and program
flexibility, design and redesign authority, and more localized
solutions.
MR. TRUITT gave a sectional analysis. He referenced HB 287,
Section 1, which relates to recommendation 8, the consultation
process, and addresses a change that was made without consenting
any of the organizations. Section 2 also relates to background
checks having once been conducted by DPS, which unilaterally
stopped with no notice given to grantee organizations. Sections
1 and 2 put into place the mechanism by which background checks
can be done by DPS for the VPSO program. Any state program that
requires national background checks can be found in the statute
in Section 1, he added. Section 2 is the requirement that DPS
authorize and pay for background check recommendations.
8:47:26 AM
MR. TRUITT continued his analysis with page 3, Section 3. It
has been proposed that the existing VPSO statute be repealed and
reenacted, he related, and contain all nine of the
aforementioned recommendations, but specifically recommendation
9 itself, which was to take the existing regulations that DPS
has for the program and use them as a starting point for the
legislation. One may compare the existing statute for the VPSO
duties (on the left hand side of the chart in members' packets),
which were highly limited when compared with the state trooper
duties, which were much more specific actions and powers, as
outlined in statute (on right side of chart). One could be
flexible with VPSO program management, or very restrictive.
With the passage of HB 287, duties and functions of VPSO
coordinators would be laid out much more clearly and distinctly.
He said VPSOs are listed in statute as being peace officers
alongside state troopers, but more of a mirroring of state
trooper functions is desired when describing the functions of
VPSOs.
8:51:01 AM
MR. TRUITT moved on to page 4, subsection (b), which mostly
mirrors the existing subsection (b) of the current VPSO statute,
the difference being that the reference to the commissioner of
DCCED is there, as well as specific references to federally
recognized tribes. He explained that this is an acknowledgment
that the statute is an artificial creation; that the grantee
organizations are "non-profits"; and specific references to
recognized tribes make the statute reflect reality.
8:52:58 AM
MR. TRUITT said that subsection (d) on page 5, line 9, is from
existing DPS regulation 13 AAC 96.030. With regard to funding
unfunded mandates, Mr. Truitt related that the regulations
specifically had an indemnification provision that required the
grantee organizations to indemnify the state. Furthermore, he
said he used to have to sign the agreement when he had been
Chief Operating Officer at Tlingit & Haida and thought it
"backwards" that the state had to be indemnified during the
performance of a state public safety function.
MR. TRUITT continued with subsection (e), which comes from
existing regulations 13 AAC 96.040 and 050. This is still being
looked at, he stated, and more recommendations may come in the
next version of HB 287. Subsection (f) comes from 13 AAC
96.040, and the intent is to expand as to not be so prescriptive
that there is only one VPSO per village but to give flexibility
for the organizations to receive funding and put in villages as
many VPSOs as they deem appropriate. He added that subsection
(g) addressed these concerns as well.
MR. TRUITT addressed page 6, subsection (i), which is nearly
identical to subsection (c) of the existing statute, the
difference being on line 19 the rulemaking or regulation
adopting authority will be in consultation with the grant
recipients. Lines 23 and 24 are highlighted because this is the
only place in statute where it is delineated DPS and trooper
interaction will continue as it has been.
8:57:18 AM
MR. TRUITT moved on to page 7, subsection (k), which, as he
pointed out, is a brand new concept relating to short-term
recommendation 2, providing more flexibility. The negotiated
contract language therein is that approvals will not be
unreasonably withheld. Requests for funding will not be held
back unless they do not in any way conform to the program. A
grant recipient may use funding for anything reasonably related
to public safety and VPSO duties, under the suite of statutes.
Subsections (l) and (m) are the consultation recommendations,
which will be very familiar to tribes as they come from orders
and memorandums ("memos") from the executive branch of the
federal government with which tribes are familiar.
MR. TRUITT moved on to Section 4, on page 8, which comes from
the current VPSO qualifications and regulations. On page 8,
lines 17-21, in terms of qualifications, felonies were a
lifetime ban. As it currently stands, he pointed out, the
lifetime ban is only a felony against a person. Other felonies,
such as controlled substances, have a 10-year window.
9:00:27 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP pointed out that there is a recruitment and
retention crisis in rural Alaska, where the incidents of
domestic violence per capita is very high. The question the
working group faced was whether to consider a lifetime ban on
someone who had committed a misdemeanor but whom community
leaders trusted and deemed qualified to do the job and whom
village elders and tribal councils considered a person
rehabilitated, having demonstrated good conduct, lack of
criminal behavior, good community service, and to be of sound
character. If a person has had no convictions within 10 years,
HB 287 states, and the nature of the conviction happened to have
been drug- or alcohol-related in nature, a person would still be
eligible for consideration. Representative Kopp stressed the
importance of returning power to local communities as well as
allowing folks to "redeem their past and secure their futures."
The heart of HB 287, he added, is to allow villages and tribes
to recognize their people who have meaningfully pursued a new
path forward.
9:03:43 AM
MR. TRUITT continued with page 9, section 25, pertaining to
background investigations, which came directly from DPS
regulation 13 AAC 96.090, and also reflects a unilateral change
that was made by DPS regarding hours worked. In line 30, 650
hours represented going through the trooper academy. The rest
of the training reflects all of the functions men and women are
currently doing, and recognizes the training that they have.
Mr. Truitt related that when he had been in charge of Tlingit &
Haida all VPSOs had received the same amount of training as
troopers.
MR. TRUITT continued with page 11, firearms training, DPS
regulation 13 AAC 96.100. He added that VPSO certification on
line 4 and denial revocation on line 15 are also from the
regulations. Closing out by speaking on the transition
provisions, he said: Section 5 is the authority DCCED needs to
manage the grant; Section 6 is the grandfather provision for
existing VPSO personnel that might be in the field without the
training in HB 287 but with different training from when they
were first hired; and Section 7 is specific instruction to DPS
that the current interactions that happen between DPS and
troopers would continue to happen. The bill proposes that
grants management takes effect July 1, 2020, and the rest take
effect immediately.
9:07:12 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY asked, regarding page 5, lines 23-26, whether Mr.
Truitt could address the functionality of how the provision's
language would work in practice for VPSO programs in terms of
creating standards for the number of eligible positions within a
particular region.
9:07:50 AM
MR. TRUITT deferred to the department to answer the question.
Notwithstanding that, he said, "I don't know that it's clear to
the VPSO organizations." He said that currently it is not clear
how many VPSOs will be granted based on how many are requested
through an application.
9:08:40 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP reiterated the intent of HB 287 is to create
more flexibility so that recipients could use the VPSO for other
villages also in their region, whether it is to support another
VPSO or respond to an incident outside of the immediate village.
One could receive a grant tying a VPSO to more than one village,
he added. It could be that villages are ultimately named in
grants, he stated. Northwest Arctic Borough has 10 villages
served by grants, he stated, so maybe every grant would have all
10 named, and that way the VPSO would be able to be deployed
where needed. VPSOs have gone from Southeast to Northwest
Arctic Borough to help, which is one reason HB 287 wants to make
clear VPSOs have commonly recognized peace officer powers in
statute.
9:11:16 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY added that there seemed to be a values clash
between the grantees that were operating the VPSO program on the
ground and how it was being managed on the DPS level, and that
it would be a shame to create more ambiguity that could
potentially restrain the addition of staff in communities that
are larger. In her district, she added, there are villages of
300 and villages of 700 or 1000 people, which may require
additional VPSO staffing. She wanted to make sure the passage
of HB 287 would not unintentionally limit or restrain programs
to one individual per community.
9:12:26 AM
MR. TRUITT replied that more flexible language for that
particular provision was in the works and would give grantee
organizations the ability to move personnel.
9:13:33 AM
REPRESENTATIVE TALERICO asked for an explanation of the budget,
including administrative costs, on page 5, line 4, and whether
it needed to be expanded to ensure a clear definition thereof.
9:14:43 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KOPP replied that the intent behind HB 287 is to
provide maximum flexibility, because each region has different
needs. He said DCCED has one-size-fits-all grant application
forms outlining what is and is not permitted, and it is
certainly the intent of HB 287 that every need be identified
within the budget.
9:17:29 AM
WILL MAYO, Chair, Village Public Safety Officer Tribal Grantee
Caucus, said that after meeting for two and a half years the
VPSO Tribal Caucus always came back to the same problem of the
law being too restrictive. At times, the caucus had been
permitted to try things out, and things were working, but they
would be brought back on a short leash because of the law. Mr.
Mayo added that he also served as executive director for the
Alaska Tribal Unity Caucus, a statewide intertribal advocacy
organization that has also submitted a resolution in support of
HB 287.
MR. MAYO told the committee that he was a citizen of the Native
village of Tanana, a former Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
(ANCSA) Corporation Chief Executive Officer, and a tribal chief.
The duties of tribal chief often dealt with issues of public
safety, he said. Mr. Mayo was employed as a school janitor and
served as a volunteer search and rescue pilot. As a community
leader, he often had to pinch hit with regard to law
enforcement. He imparted that he has been called into active
shooter situations in the early hours of the morning, has
confronted burglaries in progress, and has dealt with issues
that would come up in the absence of law enforcement. Mr. Mayo
was able to confront the active shooter and talk him down
unharmed, convincing him to hand over both his rifle and his
children. Mr. Mayo delivered the shooter's children to their
grandmother and took possession of the rifle that had been
pointed at him. He informed the committee that these types of
occurrences were "all too common."
9:21:24 AM
MR. MAYO has been involved with the VPSO program from the
beginning, he stated. He said he remembered troopers, and then
constables, coming out, and then the VPSO program around 1980.
A lot of local men and a few local women, Native members of the
village, hired on, he said. It made sense to have local people
who had their own homes and transportation, and in the 1980s
there were 17 officers, almost all Native community members, he
related. There were one or two outsiders at first, he
continued, who were greatly esteemed by the community, but soon
all local folks were burned out by the job's stresses and they
could not continue.
MR. MAYO said that advertisements were put out for outside
recruits, but those recruits had to be told there was no housing
except for temporary places not big enough for families, and
there would be no running water or sewer, only an oil stove.
Outside recruits would also have to be informed that there was
no holding cell available and no backup. Pay was not
competitive with the Anchorage Police Force or the Alaska State
Troopers. In the Tanana Chiefs Conference region, there are 34
communities. Currently four officers are employed with one more
in the works, he added. Four villages have a house, a holding
cell, and an office space, and that is where the four VPSOs
currently are, he explained. This is not a coincidence, he
added.
9:25:36 AM
MR. MAYO related that there are 28 villages with no available
housing, 10 of which have offices. Ten have holding cells; 14
do not, he related. When someone is arrested and there is no
home, office, or holding cell, a place must be found in which
the prisoner may be supervised, not left alone for more than 15
minutes. The troopers will know but they may be called away, so
the person holding the prisoner may be tasked with keeping the
prisoner and him/herself safe for days. The prisoner may be
secured to a bench, he offered, and must be fed, given water,
and given bathroom breaks, all while the person holding the
prisoner cannot sleep, because you have a prisoner and you are
responsible.
MR. MAYO explained that some volunteers in the village may bring
food or otherwise help, and the person responsible for the
prisoner could get some sleep when the trooper came in with a
plane to get the prisoner. There might be another call right at
that moment, however, he stated, leading to extreme fatigue and
exhaustion. Mr. Mayo related that the villages do not have even
the rudimentary depictions of police in cowboy movies, and that
even as a child he knew what basic law enforcement facilities
would look like. He stated that that needed to be improved
upon.
9:28:27 AM
MR. MAYO told the committee that if someone shows interest in
the position from the Lower 48, and due diligence is done to
ensure that person is not bringing unnecessary problems to the
villages, and the person is hired on, it has happened that the
person has turned and walked away upon seeing the conditions.
One VPSO, after training, quit to work with the University of
Fairbanks because he got a better deal, and it is likewise very
hard to retain VPSOs to the point where money given to the
program is turned away because it is so difficult to determine
what to do with it, Mr. Mayo said. He asked committee members
rhetorically what they would do [if dealt] these cards. The
program is structured so rovers could move around, which DPS
allowed for a while, until someone realized the law did not
permit it, and the VPSO was yanked back. Mr. Mayo reiterated
that there were 34 villages with no facilities.
MR. MAYO told the committee that if he could, he would take HB
287 and put it under his pillow so he could sleep well. When he
read HB 287 and realized there could be flexibility in the
program and how money was spent, he said he was able to
determine right then that it would be manageable. He added that
there are key aspects therein that have made compacting a
glowing success for tribes and tribal organizations all over the
nation, but especially in Alaska, where public safety is even
more of a challenge than other places. Mr. Mayo urged the
committee to support HB 287.
[HB 287 was held over.]
9:33:01 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Tribal Affairs meeting was adjourned at
9:33 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB 287 Sectional Analysis ver K.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| HB 287 Sponsor Statement v. K 3.3.2020.pdf |
HJUD 3/11/2020 1:00:00 PM HJUD 3/13/2020 1:00:00 PM HJUD 3/16/2020 1:00:00 PM HJUD 3/18/2020 1:00:00 PM HJUD 3/20/2020 1:00:00 PM HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| ATU Resolution 2019-06.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |
|
| ATU HB287 Support letter.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| HB 287 Presentation.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| ADOPTED VPSO Working Group Report Recommendations & Findings.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Fiscal Note CRA.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Fiscal Note Training Academy.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Fiscal Note VPSO Program.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Fiscal Note Criminal Justice Information Systems Program.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM |