Legislature(1997 - 1998)
04/27/1998 03:50 PM Senate RES
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SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE
April 27, 1998
3:50 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Rick Halford, Chairman
Senator Lyda Green, Vice Chairman
Senator Loren Leman
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator John Torgerson
Senator Georgianna Lincoln
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Bert Sharp
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 252
"An Act relating to paternity establishment and child support;
relating to the crimes of criminal nonsupport and aiding the
nonpayment of child support; and amending Rule 37(b)(2)(D), Alaska
Rules of Civil Procedure; and providing for an effective date."
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 204(RES)
"An Act revising the procedures and authority of the Alaska
Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, the Board of Fisheries, and
the Department of Fish and Game to establish a moratorium on
participants or vessels, or both, participating in certain
fisheries; and providing for an effective date."
- SCHEDULED BUT NOT HEARD
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 252 - See HESS minutes dated 3/2/98, 3/4/98 & 3/20/98 and
Resources Committee minutes dated 4/22/98.
HB 204 - See Resources Committee minutes dated 4/22/98.
WITNESS REGISTER
Ms. Juli Lucky, Staff to Senator Rick Halford
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 252
Dan Branch, Assistant Attorney General
Human Services Section
Department of Law
P.O. Box 110300
Juneau, AK 99811-0300
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 252
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 98-35, SIDE A
Number 001
SB 252 - PATERNITY/CHILD SUPPORT/NONSUPPORT CRIMES
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to
order at 3:50 p.m., and noted the presence of Senators Leman,
Green, Taylor, Torgerson and Lincoln.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD brought SB 252 before the committee as the first
order of business. He noted the committee had adopted CSSB
2452(RES) on 4/22/98, and that there was a proposed amendment on
arbitration by Senator Green, as well as a series of other proposed
amendments to the bill before the committee for its consideration.
SENATOR GREEN moved adoption of the following Amendment No. 1:
Amendment No. 1
TITLE CHANGE: Page 1, line 2: After "nonsupport;" add:
"requiring a court to order parties involved in child custody or
visitation matters to attend an educational presentation about
mediation;"
ADD A NEW SECTION:
As 25.20 is amended by adding a new section to read:
Mandatory attendance at education course relating to
mediation. (a) After a petition for child custody or visitation
is filed under AS 25.20.060, a petition to modify an award of
custody or visitation is filed under AS 25.20.110, or an action for
damages for failure to permit visitation is filed under AS
25.20.140, the court shall order the parties to attend an
educational presentation approved by the court that explains the
concept of mediation.
(b) When implementing (a) of this section, the court may not
require that the parties attend the educational presentation at the
same time.
(c) An educational presentation approved by the court under
this section must be a video cassette, audio cassette, or vocal
presentation that includes an explanation that
(1) education is a conflict resolution process, usually
engaged in voluntarily, in which a trained impartial third party
assists the parties to negotiate a consensual and informed
settlement;
(2) mediation is based on principles of problem solving
that focus on the needs and interests of the participants,
fairness, safety, confidentiality, self-determination, and the best
interests of all parties and other persons who the parties agree
are affected; and
(3) the role of a mediator is not to make decisions for
the parties or to report to a court about the medication process
but does include reducing the obstacles to communication,
maximizing the exploration of alternatives, and addressing the
needs of the persons who the parties agree are affected.
SENATOR TORGERSON objected to the adoption of Amendment No. 1 for
the purpose of an explanation of the amendment.
SENATOR GREEN explained she had been approached and asked to put
forward language that would strengthen the mediation standard in
the state. People on all sides of the issue got together and
adopted what she thinks is a fairly soft solution. It is basically
a video cassette, audio cassette, or vocal presentation that
includes an explanation about mediation and how it is a conflict
resolution process based on problem solving. The role of the
mediator, if it's facilitated by an actual person, is to help
people to resolve the problems they've agreed to without having to
have this fight in court.
SENATOR LEMAN pointed out that there are other technologies now
that are comparable to video cassettes and audio cassettes, and he
suggested that perhaps the language should be drafted to include
those possibilities.
SENATOR TORGERSON removed his objection to the adoption of
Amendment No. 1, and there being no further objection, CHAIRMAN
HALFORD stated the amendment would be incorporated into CSSB
252(RES), version "F."
CHAIRMAN HALFORD directed attention to a letter to Barbara Miklos,
Director of the Child Support Enforcement Division, from the
Department of Health & Human Services, relating to sections in the
draft committee substitute that are not in compliance with federal
requirements.
JULI LUCKY, staff to Senator Halford, explained the first area of
concern relates to recreational or sporting licenses. She said the
main objection to having the sport and fishing licenses classified
as occupational or recreational or sporting is that people need the
sport fishing license and hunting license in order to subsistence
and personal use hunt and fish. An amendment has been drafted with
language that will allow people who rely on sport fishing and
hunting licenses to still be able to get their food for subsistence
or personal use. That was accomplished by changing the statute to
allow revocation or suspension of recreational licenses, and then
defining "recreational licenses."
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said sport fishing licenses and sport hunting
licenses are required for subsistence and personal use activities,
so we're indirectly saying the same thing. However, he said there
needs to be a mechanism that provides that if somebody certifies
that they are engaged in either subsistence hunting or fishing or
personal use fishing, they can get the license outside of the
prohibition contained in the federal act, and those activities are
neither occupational or sport recreational activities. He said we
need language that does that, and he is not sure that this language
accomplishes that.
DAN BRANCH, Assistant Attorney General, Human Services Section,
Department of Law, explained the language would fit into a scheme
whereby these sporting licenses would be subject to revocation by
a court in a contempt of court proceeding. He envisions that the
court would denote by either marking on the license itself, or
issuing an order, or both, that it finds the individual in contempt
of court for failing to honor a child support obligation, suspends
the individual's hunting license for a period of one year, and it
may not be used for anything other than subsistence activities. In
the case of a fishing license, the court could suspend the
individual's fishing license for a period of one year, and it may
not be used for anything other than personal use fishing. He added
that subsistence fishing may be carried out without a sport
license.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked Mr. Branch if he thinks the language will
work, and MR. BRANCH acknowledged that he thinks it will.
SENATOR TORGERSON said he still has concern with tieing in a
hunting license or fishing license into subsistence use when we
can't even define what subsistence hunting is. He asked what
happens when an individual has another family to feed and he is
told that he can't go out and feed his family because he doesn't
live in a subsistence area or somebody else is defining
subsistence. MR. BRANCH explained that the court will only have
the authority to revoke one of these licenses if the court finds
an individual is in contempt, and a person can only be found in
contempt of court if the court finds they have the ability to
satisfy the court child support order and they choose not to. So
a person who doesn't have the ability to pay a child support debt
will not be looking at a loss of his license under this provision.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD commented that he thinks subsistence, in this
term, is the broad generic term, that an individual can engage in
subsistence harvest without a subsistence area, without any
subsistence preference.
Number 245
SENATOR TORGERSON asked Mr. Branch how many Alaskans he thought
would be affected by this legislation. MR. BRANCH didn't think
there would be too many, but he didn't know for sure. CHAIRMAN
HALFORD added that it is going to affect everybody because it is
going to endanger their social security number and numerous other
things.
SENATOR TAYLOR expressed his concern that every single social
security number is going to have to be turned in by the Department
of Fish and Game to the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSED),
CSED then is the agency which will bring each of these actions, and
whether they pay or not, nobody is going to know that until they
get them into court. He said we will have the full weight of state
government coming in here on one side of the issue and nothing on
the other side.
Number 347
SENATOR GREEN asked if the information that is given on the
licensing for hunting and fishing only used by request, that only
specific names go to as a request to Fish and Game, not every
vendor across the state who is collecting names. BARBARA MIKLOS,
Director, Child Support Enforcement Division, acknowledged that was
correct. She said it is not that the agency will be asking for all
the social security numbers from Fish and Game, only specific
names.
SENATOR TORGERSON asked why they couldn't set up a system that
would just track driver's license numbers. MS. MIKLOS responded
that driver's license is one of the items that Welfare Reform
legislation requires that those social security numbers also be
available to CSED in the same way that the hunting and fishing
licenses would be.
SENATOR GREEN asked if a drivers license has always required a
social security number. MR. MIKLOS replied that she didn't know
that it is required by statute, however, when a person applies for
a driver's license, they ask for a social security number and then
the driver has the option to either have it on the license or to
not have it on the license.
SENATOR TORGERSON commented if they could track through DMV instead
of having each one of these folks have their own tracking system.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD pointed out the federal law has very specific
provisions that essentially requires the social security number on
everything.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked what the state would lose in federal funding
if it were found to be out of compliance. CHAIRMAN HALFORD
informed his the state would lose $15 million in CSED money and $63
million in welfare money.
Number 396
SENATOR TORGERSON moved the adoption of the following Amendment No.
2. MS. LUCKY pointed out there was a small technical problem with
the amendment and it should read "page 1, line 13.
Amendment No. 2
Page 1, line 13: Delete "or a license, as defined in AS
25.27.24(s), or both," and replace with "a license, as defined in
AS 25.27.244(s), or a recreational license as defined in this
section, or an combination of the licenses,"
Page 2, following line 6 insert: "(c) In this section,
"recreational licenses" means a recreational fishing license or
recreational hunting license. For purposes of this subsection,
(1) "recreational fishing license" means a sport fishing
license under AS 16.05.340, unless that license is required for
participation in personal use fishing as that term is defined in AS
16.05.940 or subsistence fishing, as that term is defined in AS
16.05.940 and modified by decisions of the Alaska Supreme Court.
(2) "recreational hunting license" means a hunting
license under AS 16.05.340, unless that license is required for
participation in subsistence hunting, as that term is defined in AS
16.05.940 and modified by decisions of the Alaska Supreme Court.
SENATOR TAYLOR voiced objeciton to the amendment, and questioned
who would know among the enforcement personnel that someone is a
subsistence user if they are from downtown Anchorage, they've got
a contempt order against them, and they can't get a hunting or
fishing license.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said the State Supreme Court has clearly said that
any resident of the state has a right to engage in subsistence
harvest, aside from all the preference arguments, definitions of
location in every area.
SENATOR LINCOLN noted that AS 16.59.040 says that "subsistence
hunting" means the taking of hunting for or possession of game by
a resident domiciled in a rural area of the state for subsistence
uses by means defined by the Board of Game. CHAIRMAN HALFORD
pointed out that the word "rural" was taken out by the Supreme
Court. MS. LUCKY commented that's why the language "and modified
by decisions of the Alaska Supreme Court" was recommended and put
in by the drafter of the bill. She said the statutes have never
been changed by legislative action, although it is not enforceable
as a rural preference. SENATOR LINCOLN said she just wants to
make sure that when talking about this particular provision that we
are talking about people being able to provide food for their
families.
SENATOR TAYLOR concluded that the only licenses to be taken away by
the court would be recreational licenses not needed for gathering
food for personal or family use. CHAIRMAN HALFORD agreed with his
conclusion.
Number 455
SENATOR TORGERSON inquired if the one year suspension of the
license is federal law. MR. BRANCH replied that it is not a
federal requirement that there be a one-year revocation, however,
he thinks the one-year provision is reasonable.
SENATOR GREEN suggested using the words "or restrict" which, she
said, would give greater flexibility. She then moved on page 1,
line 12 to insert ",restrict," between the words "suspend" and "or
revoke." Hearing no objection, the amendment was adopted.
SENATOR TORGERSON moved that on page 1, line 13, replace "one year"
with "six months."
CHAIRMAN HALFORD inquired if the federal statutes specify a time
period. MR. BRANCH responded that they do not, but he thinks the
federal government, when determining whether the state is in
compliance with this statute, is going to look at whether or not
the state has a provision that is realistic and that it aids in the
enforcement of child support. He also said he thinks the feds
would have a lot more flexibility with the sport fishing and
recreational licenses provisions than they would with occupational
and driver's licenses which has a tremendous impact in improving
child support collection.
SENATOR LINCOLN objected to Senator Torgerson's amendment. She
said the court has to find a preponderance of evidence that
contempt, related to a failure to pay this money for child support,
is there, and, if a court finds that an individual just has not
paid their child support for good cause, she is not so sure that
suspending one's drivers license or a recreational hunting and
fishing license of up to a year is that much to pay because of that
preponderance of evidence that would have to be established.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called for a show of hands on the adoption of
changing one year to six months. By a vote of 5-1, the amendment
was adopted.
The committee returned to Senator Torgerson's motion to adopt
Amendment No. 2, and hearing no objection, CHAIRMAN HALFORD stated
the amendment was adopted.
SENATOR GREEN restated her amendment on page 1, line 12, to add the
words "or restrict." There being no objection, CHAIRMAN HALFORD
stated the amendment was adopted.
TAPE 98-35, SIDE B
CHAIRMAN HALFORD directed attention to page 8, line 8 of the
committee substitute where he had drafted a subsection providing an
exemption for employers of less than five employees. This is a
section that was objected to in the letter from the Department of
Health and Human Services, saying specifically that it is not in
compliance. New hire reporting by employers applies virtually to
anyone who has to file a W4 form for any employee. He added that
he strongly disagrees with the requirement.
SENATOR TORGERSON wondered if it would be possible to just change
the reporting requirements on small employees to make them
quarterly instead of weekly, which would lessen the impact.
SENATOR LINCOLN proposed an amendment to page 6, line 4, to delete
"shall immediately send" and replace it with "may enforce the order
by sending."
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said Senator Lincoln's proposed amendment would be
noted and the committee would come back to it at the next hearing
on the legislation. He then adjourned the meeting at 4:46 p.m.
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