Legislature(2005 - 2006)BUTROVICH 205
02/22/2006 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Medicare Prescription Drugs - Department of Health and Social Services | |
| SB250 | |
| SB299 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | SB 299 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 250 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 250-DOMESTIC VIOLENCE/SEXUAL ASSAULT COUNCIL
CHAIR DYSON announced SB 250 to be up for discussion. He opened
public testimony.
1:56:11 PM
CHAIR DYSON interpreted Commissioner Tandeske's written comments
to be saying he agrees with the auditor's conclusions about the
composition of the board, but not with the proposed Amendments 1
and 2, offered and discussed at the 2/17/06 hearing. Chair
Dyson asked whether that is a fair summary.
BILL TANDESKE, Commissioner, Department of Public Safety (DPS),
replied, "Almost." He clarified that he doesn't take issue with
the finding of an appearance of a possible conflict in requiring
that the governor consult the Network for Domestic Violence and
Sexual Assault (Network). However, as a practical matter, he'd
be inclined to consult it anyway. He also doesn't oppose the
designation of a rural position, which he has advocated for.
However, excluding some small communities such as Pelican or
Angoon - connected only by the Alaska Marine Highway - perhaps
was overly restrictive. He emphasized having true public
members that bring a wide variety of life experiences to the
Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (Council) - or
to any board or commissioner, for that matter.
1:58:48 PM
BILL HOGAN, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Health and Social
Services (DHSS), referenced his letter regarding Senator
Therriault's position on the auditor's comments and the proposed
amendments. Noting his own comments would be similar to
Commissioner Tandeske's, Mr. Hogan said DHSS doesn't believe the
Network should have exclusive consultative authority - the
system has many other stakeholders including police, hospitals
and other providers from whom input is important. He concurred
with having a designated rural member, but suggested the
language in the proposed amendment is restrictive. He also
suggested, in general, that the pool of potentially qualified or
competent candidates for the Council shouldn't be limited; he
noted that his written comments reflect that.
CHAIR DYSON asked whether Mr. Hogan agreed with the
recommendations of the auditor, put forth in SB 250, and
disagreed with the proposed amendments.
MR. HOGAN affirmed that.
CHAIR DYSON called a brief at-ease.
2:01:25 PM
SUSAN A. PARKES, Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Division,
Department of Law (DOL), noting that she is the DOL
representative on the Council, expressed support for extending
the Council and offered to answer questions.
CHAIR DYSON referenced an e-mail from Ms. Parkes that stated,
among other things, opposition to the amendment to SB 250 that
would exclude state employees from serving as public members.
2:03:42 PM
PAT DAVIDSON, Legislative Auditor, Division of Legislative Audit
(DLA), informed the committee that after the last hearing and
review of amendments, she'd gone back to look at the sunset
reviews conducted by DLA in the past. She'd been looking for
any findings and recommendations in those reports that had, at
their core, a concern about the composition of the Council. She
reported that none of them identified the actual composition of
the Council as a core problem.
SENATOR ELTON arrived at 2:04:22 PM.
MS. DAVIDSON, in response to Chair Dyson, explained that the
amendments discussed at the previous [2/17/06] hearing seemed to
address who was on the Council. Therefore, she'd wanted to
determine if there had been problems with the Council's
composition or the qualifications of appointees in the past,
given the old rules. She'd found no problems relating to the
composition of the Council as it currently exists.
2:05:49 PM
TOM MAHER, Staff to the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee
(LB&A), reported that he'd checked with Senator Therriault on
the amendment and that Senator Therriault had also reviewed the
departmental responses. Mr. Maher noted that LB&A had
eliminated the reference to the Network. Although Senator
Therriault was quite supportive of putting back a Network member
on the Council as an ex-officio, nonvoting member, after
reviewing the departmental responses he feels much less strongly
about it because the departments were opposed to that and
indicated it would be a conflict. He added that, in general,
Senator Therriault doesn't support a complete rewriting of the
Council's composition.
PEGGY BROWN, Executive Director, Alaska Network on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault, supported the extension of the
Council. She said the suggested language that was submitted by
the Network regarding its elimination from statute was merely a
response to a request, and the Network would be happy to place
the matter entirely in the hands of the Council.
She referred to a letter to Ms. Davidson from the chair of the
Council. Ms. Brown reported that it basically says the
following: the Council recognizes and understands the merit of
this issue; it's important to note that the governor is not
bound by any recommendation by the Network; and because of this
safeguard, the Council believes obtaining input from the
Network, which has significant knowledge and expertise,
outweighs any limitations or theoretical conflicts.
2:08:25 PM
MS. BROWN reminded members that in late 1978 the Network formed,
and in late 1981 the Council was formed at its behest, because
of a perceived need for a state agency with pass-through
capabilities for funding. She said the Network put forth the
items in the amendments to formalize existing beneficial
interactions between the Network and the Council. For instance,
the Council currently invites the director of the Network to
participate in its meetings.
She explained that the idea behind establishment of an ex-
officio position for a Network member is to provide
institutional knowledge. This applies not only to programs
statewide, but also to work with the governor's Council on
Disability and Special Education, Office of Children's Services
(OCS), and the Division of Public Assistance. "We're very tied
in to other state systems," Ms. Brown pointed out. She
disagreed that being an ex-officio member would be a conflict,
and offered that it would be an asset instead, providing
stability and knowledge of domestic violence and sexual assault
issues across the state. It just formalizes what already
happens and ensures continuity, she concluded.
2:10:26 PM
MS. BROWN emphasized the Network's expertise, citing her own
background in both law enforcement and medicine as an example
and mentioning the varying backgrounds of other staff; she
highlighted their desire to be at the governor's service and to
provide a screening process for potential candidates for
membership.
2:12:39 PM
MS. BROWN remarked that the criteria for public members in the
amendments were put forth to ensure a broad perspective within
the Council. Expressing reservations about the exclusion of
state workers from serving as public members on the Council, she
offered to work with anyone on that part of the amendment.
SENATOR OLSON arrived at 2:14:53 PM.
SENATOR OLSON asked Ms. Brown to relate her position on the
proposed amendments.
MS. BROWN replied that the Network should remain at the service
of the governor in making recommendations of potential
appointees, and that the director of the Network should be an
ex-officio member of the Council. She supported the designation
of a rural public-member seat on the Council, as well as a seat
for a survivor of domestic violence or sexual assault, or the
advocate of such a survivor.
SENATOR OLSON asked her position on the amendment that has two
public members, one a survivor and one an expert in the field.
MS. BROWN replied that she supports the amendment.
2:18:26 PM
BARBARA MASON, Executive Director, Council on Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault, Department of Public Safety, reported that
she'd contacted all Council members and that much of her
testimony would be a synopsis of their comments. The first
question almost every member had asked was the purpose of the
amendment and the situation it was trying to fix. Most were
also concerned about whether the bill would create problems.
For example, it would remove from consideration over 14,000
public employees that are Alaskan residents with expertise in
the field of sexual assault and domestic violence. There are
some inconsistencies with the public-employment pieces in
differentiating between government employees among the
municipalities, boroughs, cities, tribal entities and so forth,
Ms. Mason said, which asks the question of defining "state
employee."
She said the Council supports extending the sunset audit to 2014
and doesn't oppose having one public member from rural Alaska.
However, the Council is concerned about the exclusion of members
from communities on the Alaska Marine Highway and asks to keep
that option open. The Council opposes restricting the election
of the other two public members for several reasons, such as how
to define an expert in this field - there are no university or
college degrees in domestic violence or sexual assault, and no
standard qualifications to identify such a person. Many of the
current committee members have achieved expertise through
informal means, Ms. Mason noted.
She reported that the Council is concerned about subsection (c)
of the amendment due to its limitation; the Council would prefer
to keep the pool as large as it can. The Council does not
support having the executive director of the Network as an ex-
officio member - the Network is composed of the programs that
are funded, and it receives grants issued by the Council, so a
conflict-of-interest issue is the cause for concern. The
Council is pleased with its current relationship with the
Network, Ms. Mason said, and works to include their opinions.
2:23:55 PM
MS. MASON emphasized that all the meetings are public and
everyone is more than welcome to participate. The Council
opposes excluding state employees as public members, since they
often have a great deal of experience and expertise in the
field. Domestic violence victims receive services from law
enforcement officers, emergency medical people, OCS,
prosecutors, legal advocates, courts, tribal courts, judges,
housing authorities, batterers' programs, treatment programs,
and so forth. A number of people working for these agencies are
government employees.
2:25:55 PM
SENATOR ELTON asked why the Council prefers to have a majority
of state employees, rather than looking for additional outside
perspective from the municipalities, nonprofits organizations
and so forth.
MS. MASON claimed state workers have a unique expertise, given
their positions within the state, and said the Council hesitates
to limit the positions to advocates for the victims. She asked
where the expertise would come from when dealing with offenders.
2:28:14 PM
SENATOR ELTON explained that his proposed amendment doesn't
limit the public seats to nonprofit employees or the medical
profession. Instead, it merely prevents the possibility of
overrepresentation by one common category of people.
MS. MASON remarked that in some ways the Council's purpose is to
address some state government entities that deal with domestic
violence issues. He suggested state workers have valuable
insight into the operation of the aforementioned entities.
SENATOR ELTON responded that it seems stacked in favor of the
state, however.
CHAIR DYSON advised Senator Elton that if he wished to modify
any of his amendments, the committee would hear them at the next
bill hearing. [SB 250 was held over.]
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