Legislature(2003 - 2004)
05/13/2003 02:20 PM Senate L&C
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
May 13, 2003
2:20 p.m.
TAPE(S) 03-32
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Con Bunde, Chair
Senator Ralph Seekins, Vice Chair
Senator Gary Stevens
Senator Bettye Davis
Senator Hollis French
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Confirmation Hearings
Colleen Scanlon - Alaska Labor Relations Agency
Charlotte Lushin - Board of Barbers and Hairdressers
Joylene A. Marrs - Board of Barbers and Hairdressers
Dr. David Mulholland - Board of Chiropractic Examiners
Brad J. Fluetsch - Real Estate Commission
Barbara Parker-Ramsey - Real Estate Commission
David B. Somers - Real Estate Commission
Z. Kent Sullivan, Esq. - Real Estate Commission
Steven Torrence - Board of Veterinary Examiners
Mr. John Abshire - Workers Compensation Board
Mr. Richard Behrends - Workers Compensation Board
Mr. Andrew Piekarski - Workers Compensation Board
Mr. Marc Stemp - Workers Compensation Board
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 135(HES)
"An Act relating to marital and family therapists."
MOVED SCS CSHB 135(HES) OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE BILL NO. 218
"An Act authorizing a pilot program relating to state
procurement and the use of electronic commerce tools; and
providing for an effective date."
MOVED SB 218 OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 14
Relating to requesting the Governor to negotiate a 40-hour
workweek with state employees.
MOVED SCR 14 OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE CS FOR CS FOR HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 21(FIN)
Relating to establishing the Alaska Energy Policy Task Force.
MOVED SCS CSHCR 21(FIN) OUT OF COMMITTEE
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 234(RLS) am
"An Act extending the termination date of the Alcoholic Beverage
Control Board; relating to the sale of beer manufactured at a
brewpub; and providing for an effective date."
MOVED SCS CSHB 234(L&C) OUT OF COMMITTEE
HOUSE BILL NO. 83
"An Act adopting a version of the Revised Uniform Arbitration
Act; relating to the state's existing Uniform Arbitration Act;
amending Rules 3, 18, 19, 20, and 21, Alaska Rules of Civil
Procedure, Rule 601, Alaska Rules of Evidence, and Rule 402,
Alaska Rules of Appellate Procedure; and providing for an
effective date."
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS ACTION
HB 135 - See HESS minutes dated 4/23/03. See Labor and Commerce
minutes dated 5/8/03.
SB 218 - No previous action to record.
SCR 14 - No previous action to record.
HCR 21 - No previous action to record.
HB 234 - No previous action to record.
HB 83 - No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
CONFIRMATION HEARINGS
Ms. Colleen Scanlon - Alaska Labor Relations Agency
Ms. Charlotte Lushin and Ms. Joylene Marrs - Board of Barbers
and Hairdressers
Mr. Steve Torrence - Board of Veterinary Examiners
Mr. Richard Behrends and Mr. Andrew Piekarski - Worker's
Compensation Board
Mr. David Jacobs
Staff to Representative Peggy Wilson
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on HB 135 for the sponsor.
Mr. Scott Hawkins, General Manager
Alaska Supply Chain Integrators
Anchorage AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 218.
Mr. Vern Jones, Chief Procurement Officer
Department of Administration
PO Box 110200
Juneau AK 99811-0200
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 218.
Mr. Lynn Johnson, President
Dowland-Bach Corporation
6130 Tuttle Place
Anchorage AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 218.
Mr. Don Etheridge
AFL-CIO
710 W. 10 St.
Juneau AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SCR 14.
Mr. Tom Wright
Staff to Representative John Harris
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on HCR 21.
Mr. Eric Yould, Executive Director
Alaska Rural Electric Cooperative Association (ARECA)
703 West Tudor Road Number 200
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported HCR 21.
Ms. Pat Davidson
Division of Legislative Budget and Audit
Legislative Affairs Agency
PO Box 113300
Juneau AK 99811-3300
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on HB 234.
Mr. Matt Jones, Founder
Moose's Tooth
Anchorage AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported HB 234.
Ms. Lisa Weissler
Staff to Representative Ethan Berkowitz
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on HB 83 for the sponsor.
Mr. Grant Callow, Attorney
Alaska Commissioner
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
Anchorage AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported HB 83.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 03-32, SIDE A
CHAIR CON BUNDE called the Senate Labor and Commerce Standing
Committee meeting to order at 2:20 p.m. Present were SENATORS
STEVENS, DAVIS and BUNDE. The Chair announced the committee
would first take up the confirmation hearings.
^CONFIRMATION HEARINGS
^Alaska Labor Relations Agency
MS. COLLEEN SCANLON, Alaska Labor Relations Agency nominee, said
she was honored to serve. For the last 11 years, she has managed
her family art gallery business in Ketchikan and has been on
both the Visitors Task Force and the Chamber of Commerce Task
Force. She has a lot of involvement with state regulations and
labor laws and has taken a class in human resource management.
CHAIR BUNDE thanked her for her comments and said they would
move her name forward to the joint session.
CHAIR BUNDE turned the gavel over to Senator Stevens for the
Board of Barbers and Hairdressers as he had a conflict.
^Board of Barbers and Hairdressers
MS. CHARLOTTE LUSHIN, nominee for the Board of Barbers and
Hairdressers, said she had been in the field since 1979 and
feels that she has the experience to represent barbers.
SENATOR FRENCH arrived at 2:23 p.m.
SENATOR STEVENS thanked her and asked Joylene Marrs to comment
on her nomination.
MS. JOYLENE MARRS, nominee for the Board of Barbers and
Hairdressers, said she feels that she can add a lot to the board
as the public member. She said that barbers and hairdressers
have been mandated, on a trial basis for one year, to give a
standardized test for certification and she looks forward to
working with that issue.
SENATOR STEVENS thanked her for her comments and said they would
forward her name to the joint session for consideration.
^Board of Chiropractic Examiners
CHAIR BUNDE announced that the nominee to the Board of
Chiropractic Examiners, Dr. Mulholland, had to leave and that
the nominees to the Real Estate Commission, Brad Fluetsch,
Barbara Parker-Ramsey, David Sommers and Z. Kent Sullivan, Esq.,
had a teleconference conflict. He announced the committee would
take up consideration of nominee Steve Torrence to the Board of
Veterinary Examiners.
^Board of Veterinary Examiners
DR. STEVE TORRENCE, nominee to the Board of Veterinary
Examiners, said he primarily practices small animal medicine in
Fairbanks and that he was recently asked to serve on the board.
He thought this will be a good opportunity to serve his
profession and his state.
^Worker's Compensation Board
CHAIR BUNDE thanked him on behalf of the committee for his
willingness to serve and forwarded his name to the joint session
for consideration. He announced the committee would next take up
the nominees to the Worker's Compensation Board and that Mr.
John Abshire was not present.
MR. RICHARD BEHRENDS, nominee to the Workers Compensation Board,
said he was planning on doing his civil responsibility by
serving on the board.
CHAIR BUNDE thanked him for being here and said the committee
would forward his name to the joint session for confirmation.
MR. ANDREW PIEKARSKI and MR. MARC STEMP, nominees for the
Workers Compensation Board, were not present and the chair asked
if there were any objections to their confirmations. None were
indicated.
SENATOR STEVENS moved to forward the nominations to the joint
session. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
CSHB 135(HES)-MARITAL & FAMILY THERAPISTS
CHAIR BUNDE announced CSHB 135(HES) to be up for consideration
and said the last discussion the committee had was about the
words "and/or".
MR. DAVID JACOBS, staff to Representative Peggy Wilson, sponsor,
offered to answer questions.
CHAIR BUNDE said that committee members have a letter from Mr.
Holman who suggested that it wasn't necessary to add "and"
rather than "or" to allow a practitioner to use discretion and
asked if there was any more public discussion. None was
indicated.
SENATOR FRENCH moved to pass SCS CSHB 135(L&C) from committee
with attached fiscal notes and individual recommendations.
SENATORS STEVENS, FRENCH, DAVIS, and BUNDE voted yea and the
motion carried.
SB 218-STATE PROCUREMENT PILOT PROGRAM
CHAIR BUNDE announced SB 218 to be up for consideration. He said
folks had talked to him about the idea of creating a pilot
program for the state procurement program that might save some
money. The procurement procedures to be used in the pilot
program have promoted efficiency and cost savings in private
enterprise. The bill has a zero fiscal note.
MR. SCOTT HAWKINS, General Manager, Alaska Supply Chain
Integrators, said his company has a great deal of interest in
the general concept of cost savings through automation and
process excellence around supply chain management. The company
is four years old and employs 160 people. They provide
procurement, requisitioning, receiving, warehouse management and
a whole host of other services that support large purchasing
institutions. Their tool of choice for automation efficiency is
e-commerce and they have quietly become one of the largest
business-to-business Internet e-commerce sites in the country,
transacting several million dollars a year in purchase orders
and tens of thousands of purchase orders per year. He has been
able to deliver savings of 35 to 50% in the overhead cost of
transactions. Typically, he has been able to deliver another 5
to 10% in the cost of items that are being procured.
CHAIR BUNDE said he thought the potential savings could be $5 to
$20 million.
MR. HAWKINS said he thought that was a conservative estimate.
SENATOR SEEKINS arrived at 2:35 p.m.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if the state is engaged in e-commerce now.
MR. HAWKINS said his understanding is that the state uses some
e-commerce tools, such as ordering from websites.
SENATOR FRENCH noted this bill is exempt from AS 36.30 and asked
for a description of that statute.
MR. HAWKINS replied AS 36.30 is the state procurement code and
the exemption is for the purposes of the pilot program.
MR. VERN JONES, Chief Procurement Officer, told members:
SB 218 would allow the Department of Administration to
establish the pilot program that includes a privatized
procurement model with technological advancements.
Under the bill, a private sector contractor would take
over a governmental unit's procurement activities with
the goal of achieving savings on both the cost of
goods and services purchased as well as savings on
acquisitions costs. The department believes that there
is potential for cost savings. The administration is
interested in exploring just how significant those
savings could be.
Any changes to our current procurement operations,
even for a pilot project, would require the
administration to do several things. First, we would
have to study the organizational structure, the mix of
goods and services procured by various state entities
in order to select an appropriate unit for the pilot.
We would also have to conduct a feasibility study as
required by union bargaining agreements. Any time we
are displacing state employees we need to do that
under our various contracts. If that feasibility study
indicates that there are substantial savings, we would
then likely develop policies and procedures that would
govern the privatized procurement process.
Just exempting the contractor from our state
procurement code, I think, would create a void. We
would probably have to have some policies and
procedures that people had some confidence, insured
fairness and some sort of due process since we are
spending government money. We would then have to
select a private sector provider to operate the pilot
program. We would intend to do that through our state
procurement process that's in place now. If the bill
becomes law, those are the steps that we intend to
follow.
CHAIR BUNDE asked if the agencies that would participate have
been chosen yet, and whether the commissioner of the Department
of Administration in collaboration with Mr. Jones will decide
who will participate.
MR. JONES replied the selection of the Department of
Administration implies that the agencies are going to be from
the executive branch.
SENATOR STEVENS asked Mr. Jones to explain a little about the
state procurement process and whether a bid process is used. He
also noted the sunset date of 2006 and asked if the procurement
bid will be awarded for a three-year period.
MR. JONES replied:
Yes, the selection of any contractor would be subject
to our procurement code. The bill does not exempt the
selection of the contractor, but rather the
procurement activities done by the contractor.
Would we do a bid? We would probably not do a bid. We
would probably do a request for proposals [RFP]
whereby we select the contractor based on a number of
factors including cost. I'm not confident that we
could write bid specifications sufficiently tight in
order to make a selection based on low cost alone. So
we would probably use an RFP.
The process that I've outlined would likely take a
number of months to accomplish. I'm not certain how.
It's been a long time since we've conducted a
feasibility study and there's a give and take with the
unions and there's the developing procedures and the
procurement process, itself...The bill allows for a
pilot no longer than three years and we feel with a
sunset date of 2006 - that's possible, at least.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if the executive branch is involved in all
electronic purchasing now and, if so, how this program would
differ.
MR. JONES replied that the executive branch has a limited
involvement in electronic commerce, mostly on the reconciliation
and payment side. He told members:
It would be a stretch, though, to say that we had any
kind of a procurement system really, and it's
definitely not an automated procurement system. It's
more of a manual system. That's one of the inherent
problems we have with efficiency in state procurement
right now. The Department of Administration is trying
to address that through a larger project.
MR. LYNN JOHNSON, President, Dowland-Bach Corporation, said his
company is 28 years old and headquartered in Anchorage. It is a
main supplier of control systems, UL panels and process control
systems, instrumentation products, stainless steel piping and
sheet metal fabrication. They have other business interests in
Alaska including manufacturing and exporting. They are also a
minor affiliate of Alaska Supply Chain Integrators. He testified
that SB 218 is a great idea and has the potential to save the
state a great deal of money by reducing costs and automating the
procurement process.
SENATOR FRENCH thanked Mr. Johnson for taking the time to
testify today. He moved to pass SB 218 from committee with the
attached fiscal note. SENATORS DAVIS, STEVENS, SEEKINS, FRENCH
and BUNDE voted yea; and SB 218 was moved from committee.
SCR 14-40-HOUR WORK WEEK FOR STATE EMPLOYEES
CHAIR BUNDE announced SCR 40 to be up for consideration. He said
that state workers negotiated shorter hours when the state was
in different fiscal circumstances and that he had heard unfair
criticism of state workers. He frequently asks people to address
the realities of our fiscal situation and to also consider
paying a state income tax. The answer he gets is that no one
wants to pay taxes until state workers start working a 40-hour
workweek. This resolution encourages the administration in their
negotiations with the various public employee unions to move
toward a 40-hour workweek. He maintained, "It increases
productivity and, I think, increases public confidence in the
efficiency of state employees."
MR. DON ETHERIDGE, AFL-CIO, said the AFL-CIO has negotiated this
issue several times in the past. It was ratified by the
memberships but rejected by the legislature nine years ago. This
administration asked the unions if they were interested, and
they were, but then the administration said they weren't
interested any more. The reason they are on a 37.5-hour workweek
is because hours were reduced years ago as an additional pay
increase. He explained:
Our memberships and our leaderships feel that if we do
go back to the 40-hour workweek, we should be looking
at being paid for those additional hours that we put
in, which would be only right. If you're expected to
work more, you should be paid for those hours.
In the past, the contracts that we did negotiate, we
negotiated a straight 40 hours at the current rate, no
increases for I think the one Local 71, did. There
were no increases for a three-year period if we went
on the 40-hour workweek and that was one of the
contracts that was rejected....
SENATOR STEVENS asked how many labor unions he represents and
how many the state is dealing with.
MR. ETHERIDGE replied that the state bargaining unit is made up
of 12 units. Some of them are at the table right now and others
will be negotiating later this year. Not all 12 are under the
37.5-hour workweek. Some work 40 hours; some work 80 hours, such
as the marine units.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if some employees work for a straight
hourly wage and submit a time sheet for hours worked.
MR. ETHERIDGE replied yes, the majority of employees are in that
category.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if the work hours are increased to 40, the
employees would just get that many more hours on their paychecks
every two weeks.
MR. ETHERIDGE said that is right.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if some employees are salaried but also get
overtime.
MR. ETHERIDGE replied that some are, but he isn't familiar with
which ones.
SENATOR FRENCH said it sounds like most employees are hourly and
salaried with no overtime.
MR. ETHERIDGE agreed.
SENATOR STEVENS asked if overtime is paid for hours worked
between 37.5 and 40 hours.
MR. ETHERIDGE replied that some are, but the majority work up to
40 hours at the straight time rate.
SENATOR SEEKINS moved to pass SCR 14 out of committee with
individual recommendations and its attached zero fiscal note.
SENATOR STEVENS, DAVIS, SEEKINS and BUNDE voted yea; SENATOR
FRENCH voted nay; and SCR 14 moved out of committee.
HCR 21-ALASKA ENERGY POLICY TASK FORCE
CHAIR BUNDE announced HCR 21 to be up for consideration.
MR. TOM WRIGHT, staff to Representative John Harris, said the
Representative introduced this resolution because he saw the
need for the state to come up with a comprehensive long-term
energy plan. A long-term plan would help the state promote more
economic development, technological advancement and create an
energy plan so the legislature has some guidelines.
CHAIR BUNDE asked how the task force would be established.
MR. WRIGHT replied it would have a member from the Board of
Directors of the Alaska Energy Authority, the commissioner of
the Department of Revenue, two members chosen by the governor,
two members chosen by the Speaker of House, three members by the
Senate President, one who would be selected by the minority
members from the House and Senate from a list of three names in
consultation with the speaker. The task force would elect its
own chair from the membership.
CHAIR BUNDE noted the fiscal note of $78,000.
MR. WRIGHT responded they want to staff the task force because
it will get technical assistance from AIDEA and the Alaska
Energy Authority. They feel the task force will be undertaking
two comprehensive plans - one being the Railbelt portion (to be
submitted to the legislature by December 31) and the other being
the non-Railbelt portion (to be submitted by March 31), so
fiscal note needs to cover staff time.
SENATOR STEVENS said in the case of the Salmon Task Force, it
was nice to have a legislator on it that could shepherd the bill
through the legislature. He wanted to know why a legislator
would not be involved in this.
MR. WRIGHT replied that the reason Representative Harris wanted
to keep this within the industry is because there would be a lot
of discussions around the technical aspects and he didn't want
to see a lot of politics involved. He added there is nothing to
preclude anyone from the legislature from participating in the
task force.
CHAIR BUNDE asked since the task force will focus mostly on
electrical energy, it would be more appropriate to rename the
task force the "Electrical Energy Task Force."
MR. WRIGHT agreed that it is focused on electrical needs and
said, "It could go one way or the other, Mr. Chairman..."
CHAIR BUNDE stated, for the record, that this will be an
electrical task force that will not be involved in
petrochemicals.
SENATOR FRENCH asked for an example of a state-owned Railbelt
energy asset.
MR. WRIGHT replied Healy and possibly Bradley Lake, because the
state financed half of that project. He didn't know if the state
was an owner in it, though.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if this obligates any legislature to adopt
any plan that is presented.
MR. WRIGHT replied, "No, it does not."
MR. ERIC YOULD, Executive Director, ARECA, said his members
generate about 90% of the electricity around the state and feel
this resolution has merit. Some large projects on Alaska's
horizon are beyond the abilities of the individual utilities to
pursue - for instance, a transmission line from Nenana to
Dominion Creek and the Intertie from Anchorage to Fairbanks and
Kenai. There is a transmission line that could go from Delta to
Tok, through Glennallen and back into the Anchorage area that
would be very important considering that there might be a gas
line terminal facility in the Valdez area in the future. In
order to liquefy that gas, put it in barges and ship it to
market, tremendous amounts of waste heat would be generated and
that heat alone could generate up to 300 megawatts of capacity
that could be fed back into the Railbelt area.
TAPE 03-32, SIDE B
MR. YOULD thought a task force would be much more effective than
an interdepartmental study by a state agency, which would take a
long time.
SENATOR SEEKINS moved to pass CSHCR 21(FIN), version H, from
committee with individual recommendations and the attached
fiscal note. SENATORS FRENCH, SEEKINS, STEVENS, DAVIS and BUNDE
voted yea and HCR 21 passed from committee.
CHAIR BUNDE noted that Mr. Kent Sullivan, nominee for the Real
Estate Commission, just showed up and that the committee had
already forwarded his name to the joint session. He asked Mr.
Sullivan to introduce himself and comment on his qualifications
for this appointment.
MR. KENT SULLIVAN, nominee for the Real Estate Commission, said
he is currently a litigation attorney and has lived in Juneau
for 2.5 years. He came from Montana and was a lawyer with a firm
that specialized primarily in real estate and property law,
including transaction work, lobbying, legislation and
litigation. He is anxious to serve on the commission, give a
little back to the state and to work in an area that is his
primary interest.
CHAIR BUNDE thanked him for his willingness to serve.
HB 234-BREWPUBS; ABC BOARD
CHAIR BUNDE announced HB 234 to be up for consideration.
MR. KEITH HILLIARD, staff to Representative Lesil McGuire,
sponsor of HB 234, said it does basically three things and that
there was a blank CS before the committee.
SENATOR SEEKINS moved to adopt SCSCSHB234 (L&C), version B, as
the working document. There were no objections and it was so
ordered.
MR. HILLIARD explained that the committee substitute they just
adopted establishes that the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC)
Board under the Department of Public Safety for administration.
The department felt that the investigative responsibilities of
the ABC Board needed to be under their direction rather than the
Department of Revenue.
Second, it addresses current inconsistencies in Alaska
statute found in AS 04.111.135(d) regarding the sales
of beer by brewpubs in quantities of not more than
five gallons per day, so-called growlers.
Under current statutory language, sales of growlers
are limited to brewpubs that brew their beer on the
premises, but this restriction unfairly disadvantages
Alaskan brewpub operators who may brew their product
in one location of the state and dispense it at
another. So, we're going to remove that arbitrary
restriction. Lastly, SCSCSHB 234(L&C) extends the life
to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to June 30,
2007.
MS. PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor, said their report
contained eight recommendations and two of them were for
legislative changes; five were operational improvements; one was
to the Governor's Office recommending that they move faster in
keeping the board filled. There was general concurrence by the
ABC staff with the recommended operational improvements.
MS. DAVIDSON said she recommended a three-year rather than a
four-year extension that would provide for timely follow-up of
issues identified during the course of the audit. The two
statutory recommendations are first to have the ABC Board
determine the need to get investigative responsibilities for
gambling and prostitution. While the idea that when the
investigators are in the bars, they be looking for other illegal
activity is appealing from a synergistic standpoint, anytime
there is an investigation, it takes time and energy. Right now,
there was more than enough work for the ABC investigators
focusing on issues critical to the state for controlling
alcohol. Investigating prostitution and gambling expands the
scope of the work assigned to the ABC investigators, but there
was no additional funding for additional investigators and no
more time to do their job. The audit recommended that the
legislature refocus any violations on the alcohol laws of the
state.
The second recommendation was to consider whether or not the ABC
Board should be given the authority to do summary suspensions.
Those are powers that are allowed on a great many boards, like
occupational boards. In recommending that, she recognizes that
there needs to be a clear presence of an emergency, because a
summary suspension has significant economic impact on the owners
and employees of the establishment. Careful consideration would
have to be given to what constituted the emergency and be put in
regulation.
SENATOR STEVENS asked if she had seen the letter from Homer
Brewing Company.
MS. DAVIDSON answered that she had not.
SENATOR STEVENS said his concern was over verbiage regarding
brewpubs.
CHAIR BUNDE commented that the turf battles would continue on.
MR. MATT JONES, Moose's Tooth in Anchorage, said this bill seeks
to amend a drafting oversight that was made in the 1999 bill
that singled them out as the one brewpub that cannot sell
growlers.
All other brewpubs are allowed to sell growlers, but
because our brewing facility is not co-located with
our restaurant facility and the language of the 1999
bill said that growlers had to be sold where the beer
is manufactured...
All other brewpubs that are covered under a separate
section were allowed to sell their growlers where a
customer was present on the licensed premises in the
retail area. We have been the one brewpub that can't
sell their growlers to a person who is present at the
restaurant...
Representative Rokeberg said this was never the
intended consequence when he drafted this legislation
back in 1999.
2:21 p.m.
SENATOR STEVENS said he was sure Mr. Jones didn't have the
letter from Homer Brewing that said this legislation would widen
the gap between brewpub licensees and brewery licensees and
would hurt present and future breweries. He asked if he had any
comments on that issue.
MR. JONES responded said he didn't think this legislation would
change the position between brewpubs and breweries. "All it
would do is put us back in having the same bundle of rights as
all other brewpubs currently have..."
CHAIR BUNDE asked if there was a maximum gallonage he could use
off premise.
MR. JONES replied yes, that they have a total production cap and
a [indisc.] cap.
CHAIR BUNDE asked if that cap wouldn't exist for a brewery.
MR. JONES replied there is no cap for a brewery.
SENATOR SEEKINS moved to pass SCS CSHB 234(L&C), version B, from
committee with attached fiscal note and individual
recommendations. SENATORS DAVIS, FRENCH, SEEKINS, STEVENS and
BUNDE voted yea and the motion carried.
HB 83-REVISED UNIFORM ARBITRATION ACT
CHAIR BUNDE announced HB 83 to be up for consideration.
MS. LISA WEISSLER, staff to Representative Berkowitz, said the
Revised Uniform Arbitration Act was adopted in 1968. She
explained that arbitration is essentially private resolution of
a dispute; it's a voluntary process and provides a relatively
speedier, lower cost and more efficient means of resolving
disputes. The uniform acts around the entire country need to be
revised because there is an increasing use of arbitration and a
variety of issues have come up that were not addressed by the
original act. The revised act seeks to address some of those
issues.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
drafted the act that is the basis for this legislation and HB 83
essentially follows what they have recommended. Grant Callow is
the Alaska representative on the Conference and can provide
testimony on this issue. Representative Berkowitz is bringing
this forward on behalf of the Commission.
MR. GRANT CALLOW, Alaskan member, National Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, said he practices law in
Anchorage. This act was drafted by the Commission and is a
revision of the original act that was created in 1955. It is an
update of the Uniform Arbitration Act, because of changes in
procedure. It also takes into account certain court decisions
and other issues that came up over the years and need to be
addressed. Those can best be addressed in a revision that will
make revisions uniform across the states.
He explained that new procedures have been incorporated that
allow more flexibility in terms of how arbitrations are
conducted - for instance, when multiple arbitrations are going
on involving similar issues arriving from similar events like
contract interpretations, the revised act, among other things,
allows all those to be consolidated. This is important because
the number of disputes to be resolved by arbitration seems to be
growing yearly by significant amounts. If more disputes can be
resolved privately through arbitration instead of in the courts,
the reduction in the caseload will have a positive fiscal impact
on the state.
He highlighted one of the revisions that provides that [the
uniform act] is a default act and that most of its provisions
may be waived by contract, but there are some provisions that
may not be waived or varied. Those include the basic rule that
any agreement to submit a dispute to arbitration is valid and
that the rules that govern disclosure of facts by a neutral
arbitrator are in place. In addition, rules guaranteeing
enforcement of an appeal of the act cannot be waived and an
arbitration decision in a court cannot be waived.
MR. CALLOW said it also sets forth standards for when awards can
be vacated and allows the court to order provisional remedies
during the course of arbitration before an arbitrator is
selected. That is important because it prevents parties from
delaying the selection of an arbitrator in order to delay the
proceedings and somehow dissipate the effect of an arbitration
award.
MR. CALLOW explained this bill also addresses the issue of
arbitrators' immunity to civil liability. Judges, unless they
perpetrate some kind of fraud, are immune from civil liability
for their decision-making and that wasn't made clear in the 1955
act. The upshot of that is in some circumstances, arbitrators
have been sued for no good reason. In most cases those suits
don't go anywhere, but having a provision in the act that says
that arbitrators are immune from civil liability will insure a
supply of arbitrators. It also prevents a situation where a
person who had arbitration would have to have another proceeding
in court on the same issue.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if this bill was modeled on a uniform act
that is being adopted in other states.
MR. CALLOW replied yes; this has already been enacted in 12
other states and was just approved by the Commission and the
AVA.
SENATOR FRENCH asked if all the stakeholders had an opportunity
to provide input into the uniform act.
MR. CALLOW replied yes, absolutely.
CHAIR BUNDE said they were running out of time today and held
the bill for further work.
SB 32-INSURANCE FOR MOTOR VEHICLE REPAIRS
CHAIR BUNDE announced that SB 32 needs more work. He appointed
Senator Seekins as the chair of a subcommittee and extended an
invitation to join the subcommittee to any committee members who
might want to work with Senator Seekins and the bill's sponsor
over the interim to come up with a compromise solution for next
session.
CHAIR BUNDE adjourned the meeting at 3:35 p.m.
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