Legislature(2023 - 2024)SENATE FINANCE 532
02/21/2023 05:30 PM Senate LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Note: the audio ![]()
and video ![]()
recordings are distinct records and are obtained from different sources. As such there may be key differences between the two. The audio recordings are captured by our records offices as the official record of the meeting and will have more accurate timestamps. Use the icons to switch between them.
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
FEBRUARY 21, 2023
5:30 PM
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson, Chair
Representative Kevin McCabe, Vice Chair
Senator Click Bishop
Senator Matt Claman
Senator Jesse Kiehl
Senator Donny Olson
Senator Gary Stevens
Representative Bryce Edgmon
Representative Sara Hannan
Representative Craig Johnson
Representative Dan Saddler
Representative Cathy Tilton
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Bert Stedman (alternate)
Representative George Rauscher
OTHER MEMBERS PRESENT
AGENDA
COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION
COMMITTEE POLICIES
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
COMMITTEE BUSINESS
SPEAKER REGISTER
Jessica Geary, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs
Agency (LAA)
Emily Nauman, Director, Legal Services, LAA
Kathryn Kurtz, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, Legal
Services, LAA
Mindy Kissner, Finance Manager, LAA
I. CALL TO ORDER
5:32:40 PM
SENATE PRESIDENT STEVENS called the Legislative Council
meeting to order at 5:32 PM. Present at the call were:
Senators Bishop, Claman, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Olson, Stevens;
Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Johnson, McCabe, Saddler,
Tilton.
Twelve members present.
II. COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION
5:33:45 PM
SENATE PRESIDENT STEVENS nominated and elected Senator Elvi
Gray-Jackson as the Chair of Legislative Council and asked
unanimous consent and that nominations be closed.
Without objection, Senator Gray-Jackson was elected Chair of
Legislative Council.
5:34:38 PM
SPEAKER TILTON nominated and elected Representative Kevin
McCabe as the Vice-Chair of Legislative Council and asked
unanimous consent and that nominations be closed.
Without objection, Representative McCabe was elected Vice-
Chair of Legislative Council.
III. COMMITTEE POLICIES
A. Quorum and Voting Requirements
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON said it is a long-time Council policy to
require a minimum of eight members for a quorum, and eight
members to approve a motion. With a fourteen-member joint
committee, this policy ensures at least one member of the
other body approves a motion or satisfies a quorum to do
Councils business. Unless there is an objection, she would
like to maintain this tradition.
The policy was maintained without objection.
B. Alternate Members
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON stated in 2011 Council adopted the practice
of appointing alternate members, similar to other committees
such as Legislative Budget and Audit and Ethics. For 2023-
2024, the alternate member for the Senate is Senator Bert
Stedman and there is no alternate member in the House.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON continued that she would like to establish
the policy that alternate members are welcome to sit at the
table at any Legislative Council meeting. Regarding voting, an
alternate may only vote in the absence of an appointed Council
member of their respective body. In other words, the Senate
alternate may only vote if a Senate member is not present; a
Senate alternate may not vote if there is an absence in the
House membership of the Council.
The policy was approved without objection.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON thanked her staff, Legislative Affairs
Agency staff, and the members of Council. She pledged to treat
everyone, from committee members to staff and presenters with
respect, and anticipated that all members would do the same.
She pledged to provide plenty of notice for upcoming meetings;
materials as early as possible; and to do her best to discuss
agenda items with each member prior to the meeting. She asked
members who may have questions or concerns about any materials
to ask in advance of the meeting, so staff have a chance to
prepare a response or additional information. She reminded
members that LAA staff serve the committee and asked that
members be courteous and respectful in their questions and
comments when staff present data. The Chair closed by saying
that she looks forward to working with Vice Chair McCabe,
getting to know her colleagues in the House, and working with
each member on this very important committee.
C. Sanctioning Charitable Events
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON stated as per AS 24.60.080(a)(2)(B)
Legislative Council sanctions charitable events that have
501(c)(3) tax exempt status. The policy in place since 2003
grants the Chair the ability to sanction these charitable
events and the Committee would ratify the Chairs action at
the next Council meeting.
The policy was maintained without objection.
D. Subcommittees
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON stated she would like to continue the work
of the subcommittees on Information Technology, Security, and
Assembly Building issues. If members, or staff representing
them, would like to serve on any of these subcommittees,
please contact her office. There was no discussion of this
item.
JESSICA GEARY thanked the Chair for the opportunity to
introduce her hard-working, non-partisan management team who
support the important work of the Legislature. She stated the
many and various functions LAA provides then introduced LAAs
leaders: Megan Wallace, Chief Counsel and Parliamentarian;
Mike Warenda, Anchorage Operations Manager; Rayme Vinson,
Chief of Security; Tim Banaszak, Chief Information Officer;
Tim Powers, Manager of Information and Teleconferencing and
LIOs; JC Kestel, Procurement Officer and Supply Manager; Mindy
Kissner, Finance Manager; John Wright, Print Shop and
Documents Manager; Serge Lesh, Facilities Manager; Skiff
Lobaugh, Human Resources Manager; Chuck Burnham, Research
Manager; Emily Nauman, Legal Services Director; Sant Lesh,
Deputy Executive Director; and Molly Kiesel, Special Assistant
and Recording Secretary for Council. Together this team has a
combined total of 200 years of legislative service and
institutional knowledge. She said she is proud to lead this
effective group of professionals and appreciated the privilege
of recognizing them here today.
IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
5:42:34 PM
VICE-CHAIR MCCABE moved that Legislative Council approve the
minutes of the December 19, 2022, meeting as presented.
The minutes were approved without objection.
V. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
A. 2023 Manual of Legislative Drafting
5:43:39 PM
VICE-CHAIR MCCABE moved that Legislative Council approve the
2023 Legislative Drafting Manual.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON objected for the purpose of discussion and
requested Emily Nauman, Legal Services Director, and Hilary
Martin, Revisor of Statutes, to speak to this item.
EMILY NAUMAN, Director of Legal Services (LAA), said the
Manual of Legislative Drafting is adopted each legislature as
required under Uniform Rule 10, which states in part that the
Manual be followed by all officers and employees of the
legislature in preparation, processing, and disposition of all
legislative documents and records. Essentially, the Drafting
Manual operates as the rules for the Legal Services division.
Most 2023 updates are simple and update references from the
32nd Legislature to the 33rd Legislature. The few technical
and substantive changes were outlined in the January 19, 2023,
memo provided to Council.
There was no discussion of this item and Chair Gray-Jackson
removed her objection.
5:45:24 PM
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Senators Bishop, Claman, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Olson,
Stevens; Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Johnson,
McCabe, Saddler, Tilton
NAYS: None
The motion passed 12-0.
B. Office of Victims Rights Compensation
5:46:06 PM
VICE-CHAIR MCCABE moved that Legislative Council approve bill
version 33-LS0441\A and request the Senate Rules Committee to
introduce it.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON objected for the purpose of discussion and
asked Ms. Geary to speak to this item.
MS. GEARY said as was discussed at the August 18, 2022,
Legislative Council meeting, the four Office of Victims
Rights (OVR) attorneys were inadvertently omitted from the
attorney pay raise bill, HB 226. The budgetary component has
been corrected; however, legislation must be approved to amend
the statute to add OVRs attorneys to the attorney salary
schedule.
There was no discussion of this item and Chair Gray-Jackson
removed her objection.
5:47:19 PM
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Senators Bishop, Claman, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Olson,
Stevens; Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Johnson,
McCabe, Saddler, Tilton
NAYS: None
The motion passed 12-0.
C. 2023 Revisors Bill
5:48:04 PM
VICE-CHAIR MCCABE moved that Legislative Council approve the
2023 Revisors Bill version 33-LS0303\B and request the Senate
Rules Committee to introduce it.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON objected for the purpose of discussion and
asked Kathryn Kurtz, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, and Emily
Nauman, Legal Services Director, to speak to this item.
KATHRYN KURTZ, Assistant Revisor of Statutes, said the purpose
of the Revisors Bill which is anticipated in statute, is to
improve the statutes by correcting or removing deficiencies,
conflicts, and obsolete provisions. Legal Services reviews the
statutes on a regular basis for that type of problem and
receives feedback from users, including the Department of Law
when they notice issues; the Revisors Bill isnt intended to
fix every issue. The bill is deliberately policy neutral and
intended to simply clean up existing statutes. At the Agencys
request, the Department of Law reviewed the draft bill, found
no legal issues and support the proposed amendments in the
bill. She said the changes are explained in the Sectional
Summary.
There was no discussion of this item and Chair Gray-Jackson
removed her objection.
5:49:53 PM
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Senators Bishop, Claman, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Olson,
Stevens; Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Johnson,
McCabe Saddler, Tilton
NAYS: None
The motion passed 12-0.
D. FY22 Legislature Audit
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON noted for members that this was not an
action item and asked Mindy Kissner, Finance Manager, to speak
to this item.
MINDY KISSNER, Finance Manager with the Legislative Affairs
Agency, stated that before members was the FY22 Audit
conducted by external auditors Elgee Rehfeld. By statute the
legislature undergoes an independent audit of its internal
controls and financial statements. The outcome of the FY22
Audit was a clean audit with no exceptions.
There was no discussion of this item.
E. FY24 Legislative Council Budget
5:51:40 PM
VICE-CHAIR MCCABE moved that the Legislative Council per AS
24.20.130 approve the FY24 Legislative Council Proposed Budget
and transmit it to the House and Senate Finance Committees for
their review and action.
CHAIR GRAY-JACKSON objected for the purpose of discussion.
After the discussion, if the motion is approved, the
Legislative Council budget will be advanced to the respective
legislative budget subcommittees. Representatives Tilton and
Johnson serve on the House subcommittee, and Senators Hoffman,
Olson, and Stevens serve on the Senate subcommittee. The House
Finance Subcommittee is scheduled to consider the
Legislatures budget on February 24, 2023. She asked Ms. Geary
to speak to this item.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GEARY said the FY24 proposed budget and
sectional narrative, which details each appropriation and
allocation in the budget. In preparing this budget request,
she met with Presiding Officers, Rules Chairs, House and
Senate Finance Co-Chair staff, and the Legislative Council
Chair. This committee is responsible for authorizing the
transmittal of this budget request to the Finance Committees
for action. By voting yes, members agree to pass the budget to
Finance for any additional work or changes they may make.
She said rather than going page by page, she would highlight
the significant items in this request and encouraged members
to ask questions at any time during her presentation.
Generally, overtime hours worked by non-partisan staff were
still fairly high but moving in the right direction and
recruitment and retention remain challenging, mainly for
seasonal and lower range positions. For calendar year 2022,
which had no special sessions, LAA staff worked a combined
total of more than 8,000 hours of overtime.
Ms. Geary paused in her testimony to clarify for members that
staff are not eligible for overtime pay and she is using the
term overtime to refer to hours worked over the salaried
time of 37.5 hours per week; this work is recognized with
hour-for-hour compensatory time, which has no cash value. She
continued that the overtime worked in 2022 was the equivalent
of just over four full-time positions. Several employees
exceeded the annual limit of 150 hours of compensatory time
before the end of the year, meaning the extra hours required
to complete their work were essentially donated. This is a
reduction of about 20% from 2021 which had four special
sessions.
The administrative services portion of the legislatures
budget had significant cuts in FY16 and has been flat funded
since. Efficiency and attrition have supported workload
increases and existing services without impacting the budget
despite the current rate of inflation. This allocation now has
an eight percent vacancy rate in personal services and
maintaining current operations will require more resources.
Specifically, two additional full-time positions are included
in this budget request: a contracting officer in the supply
section and an information assistant for the Mat-Su
legislative information office for a total increment of
$200,000; as well as an increment of $450,000 to reduce the
vacancy rate to a more sustainable three percent.
As was discussed in the previous agenda item, as a companion
to the required legislation, the Office of Victims Rights
allocation includes an increment of $107,000 to fund placing
the OVR attorneys permanently on the attorney salary schedule.
Ms. Geary continued with the Legislative Security Services
allocation, saying that Legislative Council approved a
contract for security services at the Anchorage Legislative
Office Building and an increment of $100,000 to fund it, which
is in this request. In the Session Expenses allocation there
is an increment of $117,000 to fund an increase in the staff
lodging stipend as approved by Legislative Council in January
and requested receipt authority of $35,000 for royalties
received from Lexis Nexis for publication of Alaska Statutes.
Finally, the Session Expenses allocation has been chronically
underfunded the past several budget cycles and has had to
borrow from the interim budget, otherwise known as the
Legislative Operating Budget. To ensure a fully funded Session
Expenses allocation, including enough funding for a thirty-day
special session, an increment or permanent transfer from the
interim budget in the amount of $581,000 is recommended.
There was no discussion of this item and Chair Gray-Jackson
removed her objection.
5:56:35 PM
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Senators Bishop, Claman, Gray-Jackson, Kiehl, Olson,
Stevens; Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Johnson,
McCabe Saddler, Tilton
NAYS: None
The motion passed 12-0.
VI. ADJOURN
SENATOR STEVENS complimented Chair Gray-Jackson on a flawless
meeting with unanimity on every issue and said it may be the
last time she sees that [laughter].
SENATOR BISHOP said he echoed Senator Stevens's comment to new
Vice-Chair McCabe and to Chair Gray-Jackson as well.
With no further business before the committee, the meeting was
adjourned at 5:58 PM.
5:58:09 PM