Legislature(2001 - 2002)
05/07/2002 03:50 PM Senate STA
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
May 7, 2002
3:50 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gene Therriault, Chair
Senator Randy Phillips, Vice Chair
Senator Ben Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Rick Halford
Senator Bettye Davis
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CONFIRMATION HEARINGS:
Alaska Public Offices Commission
John Dapcevich
Sheila Gallagher
Alaska National Guard
Colonel James K. Robinson
Colonel Timothy W. Scott
Colonel Gene L. Ramsay
Space and Missile Defense
Colonel James L. Welch
Human Rights Commission
Kathy Keisor Wisthoff
HOUSE BILL NO. 526
"An Act relating to the deadline for filing financial disclosure
statements for public members and public member nominees of the
Select Committee on Legislative Ethics."
MOVED HB 526 OUT OF COMMITTEE
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 517(STA)
"An Act relating to the disposition of obsolete or surplus state
property."
MOVED CSHB 517(STA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 312(CRA)
"An Act relating to enterprise zones."
MOVED CS SB 312 (CRA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 165(RES)
"An Act relating to the Kenai River Special Management Area; and
providing for an effective date."
MOVED SCS CHHB 165(STA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
HB 526 - No previous action to record.
HB 517 - No previous action to record.
SB 312 - See CRA minutes dated 3/27/02 and 5/3/02.
HB 165 - See State Affairs minutes dated 5/2/02.
WITNESS REGISTER
John Dapcevich
No address provided
Juneau, AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: APOC confirmation nominee
Sheila Gallagher
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: APOC confirmation nominee
Colonel James K. Robinson
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: Alaska National Guard confirmation nominee
Colonel Timothy W. Scott
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: Alaska National Guard confirmation nominee
Colonel Gene L. Ramsay
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: Alaska National Guard confirmation nominee
Colonel James L. Welch
No address provided
POSITION STATEMENT: Space & Missile Defense confirmation nominee
Major General Phil Oates
Adjutant General/Commissioner
Department of Military &
Veterans Affairs
PO Box 5800
Ft Richardson, AK 99505-0800
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on Alaska Air National Guard
confirmations
Tom Wright
Staff to Representative Brian Porter
Alaska State Capitol, Room 208
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
Joyce Anderson, Administrator
Ethics Committee
P.O. Box 101468
Anchorage, AK 99510-1468
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on HB 526
Bill Lawrence
Staff to Representative Carl Morgan
Alaska State Capitol, Room 434
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced HB 517
Chris Parce
Director of General Services
Department of Administration
PO Box 110200
Juneau, AK 99811-0200
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on HB 517
Zach Warwick
Staff to Senator Gene Therriault
Alaska State Capitol, Room 121
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced SB 312
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 02-02-29, SIDE A
CHAIRMAN GENE THERRIAULT called the Senate State Affairs
Committee meeting to order at 3:50 p.m. Present were Senators
Phillips, Stevens and Chairman Therriault.
He announced Governor's Confirmations would be the first order of
business. Information on the individuals up for consideration was
in member's packets. If there were no problems, members would
sign a letter to forward the names to the full Legislature for
consideration.
JOHN DAPCEVICH, Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC)
appointee, said he has served every elected Governor on many
boards, commissions and committees since statehood. He served six
terms as mayor in Sitka and on their borough assembly and city
council. He was appointed to APOC one year ago for an unexpired
term that expired this year and the Governor submitted his name
for reappointment.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked how many times the commission met since
he was asked to serve.
MR. DAPCEVICH replied they had four face-to-face meetings and two
teleconferenced meetings.
SENATOR STEVENS asked for the term of the appointment.
MR. DAPCEVICH replied this was a five year term.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT announced the next appointee was Sheila
Gallagher and she was not available on short notice. He asked
members whether they'd had the opportunity to look over her
background information and if there was any desire to carry her
name forward to a future meeting when she could be available to
answer questions.
SENATOR STEVENS asked whether hers was a new appointment or a
reappointment. He also asked what the appointment term was and
the total number of APOC directors.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said Ms. Gallagher's was a reappointment for
a five year term and there are five appointed APOC members.
SENATOR STEVENS asked how many positions were up for appointment.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said Mr. Dapcevich and Ms. Gallagher were the
two APOC appointments.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to forward a letter to the joint
Legislature stating no objection to the APOC appointments of John
Dapcevich and Sheila Gallagher.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said the Alaska National Guard appointments
would be considered next. He asked Colonel James K. Robinson if
there was anything he would like to add to his biographical
information.
COLONEL JAMES K. ROBINSON testified via teleconference that he
has been in the Alaska Air National Guard for about 24 years and
has attained the rank of Colonel. He currently works with the
Adjutant General, Major General Phil Oates as the director of
operations.
SENATOR STEVENS asked for the term of the appointment.
MAJOR GENERAL PHIL OATES, Adjutant General/Commissioner with the
Department of Military & Veterans Affairs, said these
appointments are indefinite. Every general officer in the Alaska
National Guard must receive confirmation from both the state
Legislature and the U.S. Congress.
SENATOR STEVENS asked whether the four individuals were being
nominated as general officers.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES said he was changing the process a bit
because they require both state and national confirmation. He
wanted to establish the process whereby everyone would be
confirmed on the state level first and then go on for federal
confirmation. He chose this order because federal confirmations
take more than a year and he didn't want to wait that long then
find an appointment might not be acceptable on the state level.
SENATOR STEVENS asked how many general officers there were in the
Alaska National Guard.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES replied there are six counting himself.
SENATOR STEVENS noted four of the six offices were up for
confirmation.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES said, assuming he is confirmed, Colonel Gene
Ramsay will have his change of command for the 176 Wing at
Eielson Air Force Base in July. Colonel Tim Scott will be groomed
to replace Colonel Ramsay and assuming he is confirmed at the
state level, his name will be submitted at the federal level.
"Three of these will actually be going directly into positions
and the fourth will be the next in line."
MAJOR GENERAL OATES said Colonel Robinson is a traditional
guardsman, which means he participates in National Guard work on
a part time basis and at the same time is a pilot for Alaska
Airlines.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT announced Colonel Timothy W. Scott was next
on the confirmation list and he was unable to attend.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES said he was currently deployed and is the
th
Base. He was a War College graduate and he put four tankers in
the air on no notice and handled all the aero refueling support
in Alaska on September 11, 2001.
There were no questions from committee members.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT announced Colonel Gene L. Ramsay was the next
on the confirmation list. He asked if there was anything he would
like to add to his biographical information.
COLONEL GENE L. RAMSAY testified via teleconference that he was
th
ready to take over the 176Wing at Kulis Air National Guard Base
at the Anchorage International Airport. They are generally busy
rescuing Alaskans and have been particularly busy since September
11, 2001. He received federal confirmation on September 26, 2001.
There were no questions from committee members.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES added that Colonel Ramsay is the Vice-
Commander of the Wing and is well prepared to assume command of
the Wing based on the quality of his past performances.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion and asked unanimous consent for
the Alaska Air National Guard nominees, Colonel Robinson, Colonel
Scott and Colonel Ramsay to be forwarded with no objections.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT announced Space and Missile Defense Brigadier
General, Colonel James L. Welch, Retired would be considered. He
asked if there was anything he would like to add to his
biographical information.
COLONEL JAMES L. WELCH testified via teleconference and pointed
out that this was a new position for the State of Alaska and a
unique position throughout the country. It is a key role and
shows that Alaska is ready to assume its role to ensure that the
Alaska National Guard is ready to assume its role.
MAJOR GENERAL OATES added Colonel Welch brings a strong industry
background in large project management from his work with British
Petroleum and the oil industry. That in combination with his
strong military background made him an excellent choice.
There were no questions from committee members.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to forward Colonel Welch's name to
the joint Legislature for confirmation.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT announced Kathy Keisor Wisthoff as the
confirmation nominee from the Human Rights Commission. Because
she was unable to attend the meeting, he asked if members had any
desire to hold her name until she could attend. If there was no
objection he asked for a motion.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to recommend Human Rights
Commission nominee, Kathy Keisor Wisthoff, to the full
Legislature.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
HB 526-DISCLOSURE BY ETHICS COMMITTEE MEMBERS
TOM WRIGHT, staff to Representative Brian Porter, said the bill
was introduced on behalf of the Legislative Ethics Committee. It
requires the public nominee to the Ethics Committee to file his
or her financial disclosure on or before the second Monday of
January.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if it was an issue of disclosure in
general or the timing of the disclosure.
MR. WRIGHT replied it was the timing of the disclosure. There was
a nominee who went through the process then found out how much
financial information had to be disclosed and withdrew. With
passage of this legislation, they would know beforehand what
would be required of them as far as financial disclosure. It also
gives Legislators an opportunity to look at the financial
information disclosed by that person along with their resume when
they are looking at confirmation.
JOYCE ANDERSON, Ethics Committee Administrator, said the Ethics
Committee thought this was a good change to the ethics code
because of their experience with the nominee that Mr. Wright
mentioned.
There were no questions and no further testimony.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said he had not prepared a CS and no
amendments were offered. There was one zero fiscal note. He asked
for the will of the committee.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to move HB 526 and attached fiscal
note from committee with individual recommendations.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
HB 517-SURPLUS/OBSOLETE STATE PROPERTY
BILL LAWRENCE, staff to Representative Carl Morgan, introduced HB
517 as a bill to fix a problem dealing with surplus property.
Specifically, it was written to address surplus fax machines and
require that all electronic identifiers be removed before a fax
machine is sent to surplus. There are instances where the
electronic identifiers have not been removed so they decided it
would be in the best interest of the state to place the
requirement in statute. It will prevent the appearance of
impropriety and should prevent a party from intentionally faxing
material identified as from the State of Alaska. Federal law
requires that all faxes be identified with a phone number and the
name of the sender. When the state surpluses a machine all
headers should be removed so the new owner receives a clean
machine.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked why the owner's manuals aren't with the
machines when they go to surplus.
CHRIS PARCE, Director of General Services, replied the state
doesn't generally buy owner's manuals to go with all the machines
because they are expensive. Most machines the state buys are put
onto servers, which are networked to serve multiple stations, and
they don't come with full manuals, just basic "cheat sheet"
instructions.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked if this couldn't be done internally.
MS. PARCE said they do this internally. They have a property
control handbook that instructs employees to remove all programs
and accompanying data, and delete all headers.
SENATOR PHILLIPS interjected, "Then why are we here."
MS. PARCE replied she didn't know who introduced the bill. Their
surplus handbook instructs employees to remove the electronic
headers from machines before they are sent to surplus but they
don't always follow all the rules. She said it probably doesn't
hurt for this to be a law.
SENATOR PHILLIPS didn't think individuals that don't follow the
rules could be expected to follow the law.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said it probably doesn't hurt, but he
understood his questions.
SENATOR PHILLIPS commented this constitutes minutia management.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT noted the one zero fiscal note. He had no
prepared CS and there were no amendments offered. He asked for
the will of the committee.
SENATOR STEVENS made a motion to move HB 517 and attached fiscal
note from committee with individual recommendations.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
SB 312-ENTERPRISE ZONES
ZACH WARWICK, staff to the bill sponsor, Senator Gene Therriault,
explained that SB 312 authorizes the Governor to declare up to
four areas of the state as enterprise zones every year. Zones
would be designated due to economic distress and each designation
could last up to 20 years. This is designed to encourage and
authorize local municipalities to offer incentives within the
zone. Such incentives could include a reduction of permit or user
fees, credit toward exemptions in property taxes, and flexibility
in regulations such as zoning, leasing or sale of municipal
properties.
There are two state incentives that are included. First, 15
percent of the initial investment put into the area would count
as credit toward state corporate income taxes for that first
year. The credit may not be carried forward. Second, there would
be a $500.00 corporate income tax credit for each new employee
hired every year. One of the major reasons behind the bill is to
help communities to produce proposals and qualify for federal
grants and federal tax credits that are offered by HUD (Health
and Urban Development) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There were amendments made in the Community and Regional Affairs
Committee to make the language clear.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said there was language that was problematic
in terms of whether the federal government or the state
government acted first. He asked whether that language was
clarified.
MR. WARWICK said that language was deleted. The second issue
dealt with cities within a borough. Original language said a city
within a borough is not eligible to make a proposal for an
enterprise zone, which would exempt many of the cities in the
state. The third amendment was to change the language regarding
size of the areas that would be called enterprise zones.
Originally the areas were census tracts, which is about a 10,000
person area. That was changed to one or more continuous block
groups in the U.S. census or a compact geographic area. Senator
Lincoln requested that change because original language excluded
rural Alaska.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether there were any other issues
brought up that were not addressed.
MR. WARWICK replied all issues were addressed.
There was no further testimony.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said he had no prepared CS and members
offered no amendments. There were two fiscal notes. He asked for
the will of the committee.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to move SB 312 and accompanying
fiscal notes from committee with individual recommendations.
There being on objection, it was so ordered.
HB 165-KENAI RIVER SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked Representative Lancaster whether he had
gotten together with Senator Halford because he had concerns he
wanted to address, but he was unable to attend the meeting. He
noted Senator Halford is on the Resources Committee, which is the
next committee of referral. There was a proposed CS that reduces
the acreage.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether the CS triggered a change in
the fiscal notes.
REPRESENTATIVE KEN LANCASTER, bill sponsor, replied there was no
fiscal note he was aware of. [Zero fiscal notes.]
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked whether all the legal descriptions were
correct to the best of his knowledge.
REPRESENTATIVE LANCASTER replied all the descriptions were
checked and checked again.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said they had the \J proposed CS and needed
to adopt it as the working document.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to move committee substitute \J
5/1/02 version of SCS CSHB 165(STA) as the working document.
There being no objection, it was adopted as the working document.
SENATOR PHILLIPS made a motion to move SCS CSHB 165(STA) \J
version dated 5/1/02 and attached fiscal notes from committee
with individual recommendations.
There being no objection, it was so ordered.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the Senate
State Affairs Committee meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|