SB 24-LEGIS. ETHICS ACT: CONTRACTORS, INTERNS  9:36:55 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the final order of business would be CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 24(JUD) "An Act relating to the applicability of the Legislative Ethics Act to legislative interns, legislative volunteers, legislative consultants, legislative independent contractors, sole proprietorships, and other legal entities." 9:37:13 AM SENATOR BERTA GARDNER, Alaska State Legislature, presented SB 24 as prime sponsor. She stated that during the summer of 2014, the former administrator for the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics pointed out a problem. She explained that, currently, the ethics statute applies to legislators, staffers, interns, many people working in the [Capitol] Building, contractors, and consultants, and there is a requirement, under the statute, requiring them to attend training. However, she related, it is not necessary that bill drafting, for example, attend training related to newsletters, office accounts, and such. Senator Gardener said that the provisions that would be pulled out, under SB 24, do not benefit the state and are impediments to people who may want to respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs). She stated the statutes on the books are not being enforced, the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics does not have the resources to do it, and there is little benefit in enforcing provisions that do not make sense. She opined that it is poor public policy to ignore enforcement of statutes on the books; therefore, the right thing to do is simply pull out these provisions. 9:39:20 AM SENATOR GARDNER, in response to Chair Lynn, agreed the provisions should either be reinforced or removed from statute, or, she added, change them so they're appropriate. 9:40:01 AM JERRY ANDERSON, Administrator, Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, in response to Chair Lynn, noted that extensive efforts were made on the provisions of this bill from the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, Legislative Legal and Research Services, and the experienced public members on the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, who worked with Senator Gardner. 9:40:38 AM CHAIR LYNN asked whether there had been any activity directed to the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics regarding any contractor or anything similar. MR. ANDERSON answered that the committee had received requests from time to time for ethics training for specific contractors not in the state system, and online ethics training is made available to those particular individuals as they request it. CHAIR LYNN inquired as to whether there had been any ethics complaints against these types of individuals. MR. ANDERSON stated he was not aware of any. 9:41:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE STUTES moved to report CSSB 24(JUD), out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSB 24(JUD) was reported from the House State Affairs Standing Committee.