Legislature(2019 - 2020)DAVIS 106
03/05/2020 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 5, 2020
8:05 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Tiffany Zulkosky, Chair
Representative Bryce Edgmon, Vice Chair
Representative John Lincoln
Representative Dan Ortiz
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Chuck Kopp
Representative Dave Talerico
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
03/03/20 (H) Heard & Held
03/03/20 (H) MINUTE(TRB)
03/05/20 (H) TRB AT 8:00 AM DAVIS 106
WITNESS REGISTER
KEN TRUITT, Staff
Representative Chuck Kopp
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented HB 287 on behalf of
Representative Kopp, prime sponsor.
MICHAEL NEMETH, Public Safety Coordinator
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information and answered questions
during the hearing of HB 287.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:05:44 AM
CHAIR TIFFANY ZULKOSKY called the House Special Committee on
Tribal Affairs meeting to order at 8:05 a.m. Representatives
Edgmon, Lincoln, Ortiz, and Zulkosky were present at the call to
order.
HB 287-VILLAGE PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER GRANTS
8:06:21 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."
8:07:02 AM
REPRESENTATIVE EDGMON moved to adopt the proposed committee
substitute (CS) for HB 287, Version 31-LS1486\G, Radford,
3/3/20, as the working document.
8:07:17 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY objected, for the purpose of discussion.
8:07:31 AM
The committee took a brief at-ease at 8:07 a.m.
8:07:52 AM
KEN TRUITT, Staff, Representative Chuck Kopp, Alaska State
Legislature, on behalf of Representative Kopp, prime sponsor of
HB 287, explained the changes that would be made under the
proposed CS. He explained how there came to be another
committee substitute in the committee packet, Version E, but
told the committee that it was identical to Version G [and
ensuing discussion refers to Version G]. He noted that another
document in the committee packet was from the work group's
report. In Appendix II were changes the Department of Public
Safety (DPS) had been intending to make but had decided to put
on hold.
MR. TRUITT directed the committee to the current statute for the
VPSO program, AS 18.65.670. He explained that the language that
would be deleted by Version G would be the duties and functions
listed in subsection (a), following "safety officers" on page 4,
line 3, of the original bill, through line 18. Those duties and
functions would be moved to a new statutory section on page 14.
The next change reflected the deletion of subsection (e), on
page 5, lines 17-23. He explained that the sponsor wanted to
remove overly prescriptive and pejorative language from
regulation and felt that grantee organizations can best
determine the kind of agreements want to have between themselves
and the villages.
8:13:58 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY said concerns she had expressed at the last
committee hearing on HB 287 had been addressed.
8:14:18 AM
MR. TRUITT clarified that subsection (f) was the new subsection
(e), which addressed the discussion that had been held at the
previous hearing. He said the staffing standard was one VPSO
per village, and appropriations would run out, which would also
be a limiting factor on how many VPSOs an organization might
get. He said that the "X" number of residents equals "Y" number
of VPSOs type of metric had not been seen, but HB 287 captured a
metric: if a village needed a VPSO, the request should specify
that in a grant application, and at some point the funding would
dictate how much staff goes to the regions. He said that in the
spirit of allowing the grantee organizations to have more
flexibility, HB 287 put forth a standard for staffing wherein if
a village needed more than one VPSO, "all you have to do is
ask."
8:18:05 AM
MR. TRUITT told the committee that the current VPSO statute
referred to "rural areas" but the term "villages" was used in
regulation. He added that for the sake of clarity the term
"rural areas" should be removed. He also said that subsection
(e) no longer existed [and thus should also be removed for the
sake of clarity].
8:19:00 AM
REPRESENTATIVE EDGMON asked whether changing "village" to "grant
recipient" would have any impact on consultation with tribes.
8:19:19 AM
MR. TRUITT replied that in terms of this specific provision, it
had been decided to keep terms at the "grant recipient" level to
avoid confusion with what make sound like "village law." On
line 24 of the same page, the consultation language is from the
existing statute, he explained. On the next page, the reference
to the commissioner of corrections is meant to mirror the
responsibility of the departments that are involved in the VPSO
program. On page 14, line 9, the language reinforces VPSO law
enforcement designation, he added, making peace officer status
the same.
8:22:43 AM
REPRESENTATIVE LINCOLN asked whether the description of the
scope of duties would include time spent in schools and
explaining they were a resource to village youth.
8:23:25 AM
MR. TRUITT said he thought so, and they would come back to that
question. He then moved onto the final new concept on line 26,
which was the same as in the trooper statute and referred to the
powers and duties of a VPSO. Something missing from HB 287 was
the power of VPSOs to enforce the Division of Motor Vehicles'
(DMV's) traffic laws, but that would be revisited, Mr. Truitt
told the committee.
8:25:04 AM
REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ asked whether the evaluation process
currently took place under the guidelines for VPSOs.
8:25:46 AM
MR. TRUITT replied that it was in the regulations but could be
verified by [Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association Public Safety
Coordinator] Michael Nemeth.
8:26:06 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY removed her objection to the motion to adopt the
proposed CS for HB 287, Version 31-LS1486\G, Radford, 3/3/20, as
a working document. There being no further objection, Version G
was before the committee.
8:26:17 AM
MICHAEL NEMETH, Public Safety Coordinator, Aleutian Pribilof
Islands Association, began by answering Representative
Lincoln's question that the community policing aspect, which
entailed visiting schools, the council office, the clinic, and
talking with people, is some of the most important work
conducted by VPSOs. One of the main reasons to have fire
prevention and suppression and emergency medical services
participating in search and rescue, Mr. Nemeth surmised, is that
the general public did not know what VPSOs did on a day-to-day
basis. There was also some confusion in the differentiation
between VPSOs, village police officers, and tribal police
officers, which the revised language might help to clear up, he
said.
8:29:05 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY repeated Representative Ortiz' questions as to
whether DPS was currently facilitating site visits to monitor
VPSO performance in compliance with state and federal law.
8:29:22 AM
MR. NEMETH replied that it varied from region to region, and if
there was an issue with a VPSO there was usually a visit to
discuss compliance. Mr. Nemeth said he had not had any such
visits in his region on the Aleutian chain, but he believed it
was within regulation that oversight troopers provide annual
visits, which happened in some regions and did not in others
because of factors such as weather and scheduling. Villages on
the road system such as Copper River, Bethel, and Kotzebue might
see more frequent visits, he added.
8:30:49 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY said she thought it underscored the necessity of
the VPSO program if an annual visit within regulation could not
be completed.
8:31:18 AM
MR. NEMETH returned to a question about capital projects and
whether they were required within the VPSO grant process itself
or separately. He said that for renovation or construction
projects related to the village public safety office, funding
could be requested within the grant process or by way of a
supplemental funding request coming from the grant budget or
capital funds. Mr. Nemeth then clarified confusion about VPSO
training hours, the minimum of which is 240 hours total. This
number is "woefully low," he said, as when he attended the VPSO
academy it lasted eight weeks, which was significantly over 240
hours. The "A-led" academy at 16 weeks is approximately 1,000
hours, he related. In 2016 it was 976 hours, and a few things
have been added, he explained. In recent past DPS decided a
transition from 16 weeks back to eight weeks would be
undertaken. He related that 826 training hours was the minimum
required for VPSOs to do their jobs: 650 hours for law
enforcement training; 40 hours for Emergency Trauma Technician
(ETT) training; 40 hours for search-and-rescue training; and 96
hours for rural fire protection specialist training were
required by the Alaska Police Standards Council (APSC).
8:35:34 AM
CHAIR ZULKOSKY confirmed that it was the desire of the VPSO
grantees to move forward with the additional amount of training
hours. She then asked whether there had been any challenges
with recruitment by increasing the training hours or whether the
increased training hours provided better certainty for
individuals applying to the VPSO program.
8:36:19 AM
MR. NEMETH said some believed the additional training would be
an issue as far as recruitment, which is why DPS [scaled the
hours back] after having had conversations with two of 10
entities. He had seen evidence during a recent presentation,
however, that showed there were more officers when the training
had been 16 weeks, he related. More training for VPSOs was
always better, he said.
[HB 287 was held over.]
8:38:56 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Tribal Affairs meeting was adjourned at
8:39 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB 287 Presentation.pdf |
HTRB 3/3/2020 8:00:00 AM HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| HB 287 Presentation Committee Member Version 3.2.2020.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| 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 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 |
| 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 |
| Fiscal Note Criminal Justice Information Systems Program.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| Fiscal Note CRA.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| Fiscal Note VPSO Program.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| Fiscal Note Training Academy.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |
| G.pdf |
HTRB 3/5/2020 8:00:00 AM |
HB 287 |