HB 55-PEACE OFFICER/FIREFIGHTER RETIRE BENEFITS  4:33:39 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 55, "An Act relating to participation of certain peace officers and firefighters in the defined benefit and defined contribution plans of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Alaska; relating to eligibility of peace officers and firefighters for medical, disability, and death benefits; relating to liability of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Alaska; and providing for an effective date." 4:34:01 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS opened public testimony on HB 55. 4:34:36 PM ANGELINA FRAIZE, Communications Officer, Anchorage Police Department Employees Association, informed the committee that this was her twentieth year working in Alaska law enforcement. She noted that she was grandfathered into PERS Tier III, which provided a twenty-year pension. She reported that her 2017 Anchorage Police Department academy started with 21 officers of which only two were still with the department in 2021. She recounted her experience training officers and watching them leave after five years to work in other states. She said Alaska had many great selling points but lacked a pension. She expressed concern for the future of the Anchorage Police Department, as officers were being recruited by other departments after receiving expensive training in Alaska. In conclusion, she opined that money was being wasted to train individuals who ended up leaving. 4:38:58 PM DOUG SCHRAGE, University Fire Department, spoke in support of HB 55. He informed committee members that as a 39-year practitioner in Alaska fire departments, the goal of his testimony was to share his observations on the outmigration of Alaska's firefighters. He indicated that municipal fire departments in Alaska had become revolving doors and essentially training grounds for fire departments in other states. He explained that firefighters in Alaska were receiving training and serving out their probationary periods; subsequently, some were being recruited by fire departments in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Those recruitments were through lateral hires, indicating that those out-of-state departments saved the cost of recruiting and training. Meanwhile, Alaska's fire departments were recruiting, training, and equipping firefighters at significant expense on a perpetual basis. He suggested that the outmigration "blossomed" following the implementation of Tier IV. He recalled that prior to 2008, firefighters leaving for other states was "virtually unheard of." Furthermore, he noticed that fewer Alaskans were applying for firefighting jobs in Alaska, which he assumed was also due to Tier IV. He urged committee members to recommend a "do pass" for the proposed legislation. 4:40:55 PM JACOB WILSON, Business Agent, Alaska Correctional Officers Association (ACOA), expressed his support for HB 55. He noted that during the 10 years he represented correctional officers in Alaska he had spoken with hundreds if not thousands of officers concerning their retirement, as well as their reasons for coming to/leaving the Department of Corrections (DOC). He indicated that Alaska was facing a significant recruitment and retention crisis. One of the root causes of this crisis, he said, was the defined contribution retirement system and its inability to compete with the benefits offered by other law enforcement agencies around the country. He reported that between January 2015 and January 2021, 652 correctional officers had left ACOA's bargaining unit, which was just under 70 percent of the total workforce. He explained that every time DOC lost an experienced officer, the department was forced to backfill that position with an inexperienced recruit, which costed the state money. Further, when the department was forced to hire over 100 new recruits per year, it systematically compromised safety and security in the state. In summary, he asserted that Alaska needed to address its recruitment and retention problems. He concluded that HB 55 would be a huge step in the right direction. 4:43:37 PM COREY LUCK, Firefighter/EMT, Capital City Fire/Rescue ("CCFR") stated his support for HB 55. He reported that 25 percent of CCFR's staff was hired prior to 2006; 50 percent were currently eligible for retirement and 40 percent would be eligible to retire within the next two years. Additionally, 50 percent of CCFR's staff had less than five years on the job and 30 percent of CCFR's Tier IV employees planned on leaving in the next five years. He included himself in the latter group, explaining that he had been recently offered a position with a fire department in Washington with a defined benefit plan. He said, "to be quite honest, it would be hard to turn that [down] at this point." He encouraged the committee to move the proposed legislation forward, later adding his belief that public safety in Alaska depended on it. 4:45:32 PM GERARD ASSELIN, Deputy Chief of Operations, Anchorage Police Department, stated his support for HB 55 and provided a brief description of his work experience within APD. He relayed that demands on the policing profession had increased, which made it harder to recruit and caused officers to reevaluate their desire to stay. He recounted that police officers had been leaving every month for departments across the nation and emphasized the loss of productivity that occurred, as well as the decrease in proficiency that came with lack of experience. Further, patrol sergeants reported that in addition to recruitment and retention, the biggest problem was the age of officers, as the workforce was skewing younger. He indicated that the proposed legislation presented an opportunity to put Alaska in a competitive posture to maintain the best public safety professionals. He urged the committee to support the bill and thanked them for their efforts on this issue. 4:49:23 PM JUSTIN MACK, Alaska Professional Fire Fighters Association (APFFA), indicated that there was widespread support for HB 55 within APFFA. He explained that since 2006 when Alaska began placing all new state and municipal employees into the defined contribution system known as Tier IV, Alaska had experienced many unintended consequences. He said the clearest consequence was the competitive disadvantage in recruiting and retaining public safety employees. He stated that there was a significant cost to doing nothing and reported that too many public safety employees had cited "lack of retirement" as the primary reason for leaving the state. Further, departments across Alaska were hiring and training officers that had no long-term plans to stay in the state. Alaska was becoming a training ground, he said. He explained that recruitment and retention dollars were having to be reinvested several times over, which was wreaking havoc on public safety budgets. Not only was it financially impacting municipalities and the state but a widening gap in experience was being noticed as well, as the most talented public safety workers were leaving. He reiterated APFFA's strong support for the bill. 4:52:22 PM LIZ JONES, read the following prepared remarks on behalf of her husband, Jeffrey Jones: I am a fire medic and have been with the department since July of 2007 making it 14 years in a few months. A return to a DB plan can help the state and municipalities mitigate the costs associated with training and turnover (indisc.) with existing DB plans. In my time with the department, I received multiple certifications. I am a Fire Officer III, Firefighter II, Paramedic - I also have my associates degree in paramedicine - Fire Instructor II, CPR and multi-level EMT instructor, and am the only child passenger safety technician in Ketchikan. This was all accomplished with a cost to the city. I'm not saying that I'm not irreplaceable, but I can tell you, it will be a very long time and a lot of money before someone earns all the certifications that I have. My family is actively searching for a new place to call home to a state that has a DB program. My family has roots here in Alaska and I don't want to relocate them, but it is well known that if a fire fighter works after 55 it puts them at a greater risk of dying due to line of duty deaths, including heart attacks. I would like to be able to hold my grandchildren and to enjoy my retirement. I started when I was 28 and will not realistically be able to retire at an age that affords me the ability to do so. At 58 I will have 30 years in my DC plan; still, not enough to retire. Can you imagine a 58- year-old carrying someone down a flight of stairs and out of a fire? Not saying that it cannot be done or won't be attempted, but it puts me, the public, and my coworkers at a higher risk. The relatively small increase in the cost of the proposed DB program is money well spent when you consider the value of retaining employees throughout a career as opposed to training new people and not having benefits in place to keep them. This cycle is already happening, resulting in the export of home- grown talent to states with better options for retirees. I encourage you to pass HB 55. Thank you for your time and consideration for this bill. 4:55:32 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS closed public testimony on HB 55 and invited questions from committee members. REPRESENTATIVE TARR said, "don't give up on us yet," to those who were considering leaving the state. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asked when Tier I obligations and liabilities would be paid without the bill compared to when they would be paid if HB 55 were to pass. Additionally, he questioned whether documents had been provided to the committee that addressed that timeline. 4:57:18 PM ELISE SORUM-BIRK, Staff, Representative Andy Josephson, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Josephson, prime sponsor, directed Representative Eastman to an actuarial report [included in the committee packet], which was conducted by the state's actuary, [Buck Global, LLC]. She deferred the question to Mr. Puckett, Division of Retirement and Benefits, Department of Administration (DOA). 4:57:58 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that HB 55 was held over.