Legislature(2001 - 2002)
03/20/2001 03:10 PM Senate STA
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
March 20, 2001
3:10 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gene Therriault, Chair
Senator Randy Phillips, Vice Chair
Senator Drue Pearce
Senator Bettye Davis
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Rick Halford
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 17
Relating to requesting that President Bush renounce and reverse
Clinton Administration anti-gun-ownership policies and reorient the
United States Department of Justice towards policies that
accurately reflect the intent of the Second Amendment to the United
States Constitution to grant individual Americans the right to keep
and bear arms.
MOVED CSSJR 17 (STA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
SENATE BILL NO. 126
"An Act establishing a right of action for a legal separation; and
amending Rule 42(a), Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure."
MOVED CSSB 126 (STA) OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
SJR 17 - No previous action recorded.
SB 126 - See State Affairs minutes dated 3/15/01.
WITNESS REGISTER
Joe Stewart
Staff for Senator Donley
Alaska State Capitol Room 508
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented SJR 17
Kara Moriarty
Staff for Senator Wilken
Alaska State Capitol, Room 514
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions on SB 126
Sharon Barton
Department of Administration
PO Box 110200
Juneau, AK 99811-0200
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced Steve Goodrich
Steve Goodrich
President, Center of Organizational Excellence
Dallas, TX
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave presentation on Alaska's workforce
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 01-14, SIDE A
Number 001
CHAIRMAN GENE THERRIAULT called the Senate State Affairs Committee
meeting to order at 3:10 p.m. Present were Senators Phillips,
Pearce, Davis and Chairman Therriault.
The first order of business was SJR 17.
SJR 17-FEDERAL GUN POLICIES
JOE STEWART, staff for Senator Donley, said SJR 17 requests that
President Bush renounce and reverse the Clinton Administration
anti-gun ownership policies and reorient the United States
Department of Justice toward policies that accurately reflect the
intent of the Second Amendment granting the individual rights of
Americans to keep and bear arms.
The legislation stems from a 1998 district court case in Tom Green
County, Texas - a divorce case in which the wife put a restraining
order on her husband. Because he owned a firearm, he was found to
be in violation of Title 18, Section 922G8 of the U.S. Code, which
states that anyone under a restraining order may not own a firearm.
Because this was a federal violation, the case was transferred to
federal district court where the judge ruled Title 18 of the U.S.
Code unconstitutional because it violates Second Amendment rights.
This was appealed to the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans where the
U.S. attorney argued that the Second Amendment does not protect
Second Amendment freedoms for individuals but gives a blanket
protection to recognized groups such as the National Guard. In
response, the National Rifle Association (NRA) sent a letter to the
solicitor general asking whether the attorney had, in fact,
accurately represented the position taken by the United States. The
response was, "He had indeed." It was the opinion of the Department
of Justice that there are no Second Amendment freedoms guaranteed
for individual Americans.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT introduced the work draft, CS 22-LS0443\B
Luckhaupt 3/19/01, which melds the two "whereas paragraphs" on page
2, lines 4-9. He asked whether Senator Donley, sponsor of the
resolution, had seen the new language and the position he was
taking on the rewording.
MR. STEWART said the change is acceptable to Senator Donley.
SENATOR PEARCE moved the CS for SJR 17, B version by Mr. Luckhaupt
3/19/01, as the working document.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT added that the committee substitute (CS) also
directs a copy to be sent to the minority leader of the U.S.
Congress.
The CS was adopted with no objection.
There were no other amendments offered, no questions, and no
further testimony on SJR 17.
He asked for the will of the committee.
Number 466
SENATOR PEARCE moved CSSJR 17(STA) and zero fiscal note from
committee with individual recommendations. There were no
objections.
SB 126-RIGHT OF ACTION FOR LEGAL SEPARATION
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT introduced the L Lauterbach 3/19/01 version of
the proposed CS for SB 126. He reminded committee members that they
had discussed a requirement for the court system to report
information to the Division of Vital Statistics (DVS) during a
previous meeting. Sections 5 and 6 on page 6 adds language dealing
with reporting. Information is supplied to the DVS and they are
directed to submit a report to the legislature by January 15, 2005
on whether they think the statutes need to be modified or how the
information relating to legal separations should be organized.
He asked whether Senator Wilken, the bill sponsor, had looked over
the new language.
KARA MORIARTY, staff for Senator Wilken, said there were no
objections to the new sections.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said that legal counsel recommended changes to
make it clear that separation actions that were initiated prior to
passage of the bill would be reported.
MS. MORIARTY said the Legislative Legal drafter suggested adding
the applicability language found on page 5, lines 30 and 31. In
the original bill there was language for an effective date for the
complaint for legal separation but not for the order for legal
separation to be effective. Added is, "and orders of legal
separation issued on or after the effective date of this Act."
SENATOR PEARCE moved the L version as the working document.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked for amendments. There were none.
He noted there was a zero fiscal note from the Attorney General's
Office. He asked for the will of the committee.
SENATOR PEARCE moved CSSB 126 (STA) and zero fiscal note from
committee with individual recommendations.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether there was objection.
SENATOR PHILLIPS objected.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT called for a roll call.
Senators Davis, Pearce and Chairman Therriault voted yea and
Senator Phillips voted nay.
CSSB 126(STA) moved from committee with individual recommendations.
SHARON BARTON, Director of Personnel for the Department of
Administration, testified that the number one management problem in
state agencies is recruitment and redemption of qualified
employees. Given the state demographics and strong state and
national economies, "What we see today is just the tip of the
iceberg." Workforce planning and development must be addressed in
earnest so that necessary State services can continue to be
provided to Alaskans.
Steve Goodrich, President of the Center for Organizational
Excellence in Washington, was invited for a two-day consultation to
help the State start on an action plan.
He was asked:
· To put Alaska's workforce situation in perspective relative to
the other 49 states.
· To identify the issues that compel workforce planning.
· To describe actions other state and federal organizations are
taking to resolve or mitigate workforce issues.
· To describe the workforce planning process and how it should
fit into other statewide agency and planning activities.
· To help develop a strategic action plan.
STEVE GOODRICH said that workforce planning is no longer about
transactional lines in trying to fill a given position or dealing
with a vacancy. Workforce planning is the strategic perspective of
a workforce that is viewed as an asset that needs to be grown and
maintained. Growth refers to the quality of the workforce that must
be maintained and therefore addresses retention and making sure the
right people are doing the right job at the right time.
He asked committee members their ideas on the major issues that
will be impacting the State of Alaska in coming years.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said one issue is finding the revenue to pay
for projects.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said there needs to be a ten-year plan of which
this is part. K-12 and post secondary education, vocational schools
and apprenticeship programs, gas line and Arctic National Wildlife
Reserve (ANWR) needs must be projected out ten years then "move
everything back and do it in two year increments."
MR. GOODRICH said this is how to plan for needs and figure out how
to pay for it all. It's an interesting concept because many
organizations have traditionally treated their workforce as an
expense rather than as an asset. "This changes the mind set in how
we focus on that."
Whether you're dealing with a pipeline or unemployment issues or
with an initiative to deal with alcoholism in the state, you must
determine the kind of workforce you need as well as ensuring that
they are there when you need them.
Alaska has a retirement rate that will approach 19 percent in the
next several years. This tends to be a bit lower than some states
and organizations. For instance, the federal government is
approaching 50 percent retirement in the next three or four years.
It's the "baby bust" from the baby boomer generation. This needs to
be combined with how to get a pipeline in and what a pipeline means
to the state in terms of court systems and road systems and
schools. How do you get there?
At the same time, there's a leveling of the playing field with
private industry. At one time, private sector employees and
government employees were considered separately and they didn't
necessarily compete with one another. However, with tight labor
markets they compete fairly heavily.
Although there is much written about a downturn in the economy and
about layoffs, this country is still adding about 150,000 jobs per
month. This shows that the economy is still in a growth spurt and,
in some cases, there are still labor shortages. The big question is
how we deal with those kinds of issues.
To get to Senator Phillip's point, it's in a strategic model at
present. This means that when you look at any organization you
examine - purpose, performance, customers and how you deal with
external influences - where does the workforce figure in and how
does it connect to the strategic imperatives of the organization?
The workforce isn't an isolated activity and it's not a
transactional activity, it's a transformational activity. First you
must decide what you want to achieve with a workforce plan. This
can be very comprehensive and a large component of the strategic
plan or narrowly focused. A narrowly focused plan is successful in
a narrow area.
If the workforce is treated as a strategic asset it's more
involved. This is more than having the right people in the right
place at the right time; it is creating an integrated and ongoing
strategy for ensuring that an organization is prepared with the
appropriate human capital. The term capital is used rather than
resources because it's about knowledge capacity. Part of the "baby
bust" is also part of the brain drain. Many organizations are
losing their knowledge bank at a very rapid rate.
Workforce planning is used for everything from budget justification
to looking at creating a virtual organization. It is making sure
the resources are available and understanding the quality of the
assets in the workforce.
The average age of new employees in this state is 38. This means
those individuals are entering the workforce with 16 to 18 years of
experience. Do they apply some of those same competencies or do
they have other competencies that can be tapped? Do we know the
capacity of the workforce? You certainly want to go through hiring
and retention and developing strategies around those issues.
Management strategies should allow department managers to look at
their workforce as an asset and get the most out of that workforce
while providing a good workplace environment. Attention should also
be paid as to whether there is a more flexible way to manage the
workforce. Instead of hiring additional personnel, ask whether it's
possible to borrow from another division or department to meet
temporary needs. How do you find those people? How do you deal with
a nursing shortage? Are there stopgap measures while you're working
on a more long-term strategy?
The process of going through workforce planning is multi-stepped
and can be rather involved. First, you need an overview of the
current organization to identify key issues such as:
· Is there a stable mission and series of functions in the
organization and are they clearly defined?
· What is the current scope and distribution of staff?
· What is the source and quality of data on the workforce?
Leadership commitment is very important because workforce planning
isn't a human resources or personnel endeavor; it's a leadership
function within an organization. They set up the purpose, the
direction, what they want to achieve and make sure they're
involved.
Workforce planning looks at technology and introduces the planning
concept to the staff. Sometimes staff views the planning as some
type of adverse action when it's really about growing and
strengthening the workforce.
Next, you profile the existing workforce. You look at competencies,
distribution, demographics, age, length of service, attrition and
accession patterns, in house versus outsourcing. How much of the
work of core government functions is provided in house and what is
being outsourced to contractors? Staffing ratios, such as
supervisory and support staff, must be examined. Work force
planning cannot be separated from how work gets done. If it's
inefficient, it won't be possible to optimize or maximize the
workforce. The performance and productivity within an organization
must be understood.
Future requirements are addressed next. For instance, what is a new
pipeline going to demand? What are some of the initiatives that are
internal to the state such as the current nursing shortage? Are
there issues such as individuals leaving the state after being
educated at the state universities? What will be the driving
issues? What will be the mission or strategy changes, workload
changes, productivity or new program initiatives? What's the
conventional thinking? They've done some scenario planning because
you don't want to plan against anything that doesn't have a long
tenure.
Labor market influences and issues will also be examined. Is there
a labor pool decline or any reform that's going on? You try to
understand the market that you're in. To meet workforce needs, you
can develop people's skills, you can hire new personnel or you can
borrow them from another department or agency. Your strategy may
include all three methods. For example, if you need many geologists
for a short time for pipeline work do you put them on the payroll
or borrow them from another state?
This is all gathering and understanding data about the workforce
and understanding those strategic issues that are going to be faced
and how you build a workforce to support them.
Sometimes it is necessary and desirable to benchmark the
organization against factors such as process, staffing levels and
ratios and costs so that when you enter into strategy work you can
do analysis against others. You work into strategic planning
activity that is similar to business planning. Information is
grouped according to process, issues that affect the size, scope
and distribution of the workforce, development and competencies and
then there are hiring recruitment and retention issues. It takes an
involved and strategic session to come out with a specific
implementation and communication plan.
Ideally, you ensure that technology tools are available so you
don't have to repeat everything. It becomes live data. Managers
may therefore make real time decisions on a case-by-case basis for
program planning, budget planning and so forth.
The forgoing was a fairly comprehensive process for an
organization. For a state the size of Alaska, this process would
take between a year and 15 months to complete. If the State is
interested in a comprehensive plan, they should do some of the data
analysis that's the top level and then provide this to the
individual departments and agencies and let them do their own
strategy. Strategy should be done at the local level because you
know what the needs are against what's coming; they know how work
is currently done. With consultant help, this is the most
successful.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether he understood that this activity
is specifically undertaken for an organization, which in this
instance is the State or a department. When members say there's a
need for a gas line, he wonders whether we're looking at the needs
of the State and the State economy or State government and how it
is going to support that economic activity.
MR. GOODRICH said it could be both, and that's what the State needs
to decide. What is the focus of workforce planning? Looking at the
statistics, you may determine that you have trouble recruiting in
the State government. There's a 5.8 percent unemployment rate in
the State. You ask whether the labor pool is there and qualified.
Is it a desirable place to work and, if not, what could make it
desirable.
He was reading that the pipeline was going to create 735,000 jobs.
How many will be State jobs? Obviously it's desirable to hire as
many Alaskans as possible. How you make that happen could be part
of the strategy. Are the universities and technical schools getting
ready for this and is there an incentive for graduating students to
stay in State? This is part of an overall workforce plan.
The following Power Point presentation included random statistics
from previous workforce planning activities and was presented to
illustrate several points.
They first looked at average ages within departments of an
organization. It showed the "baby bust" with individuals leaving
service and few coming on board. This was a federal agency and less
than 2 percent of federal employees are under 30 years old. This
will be a very big issue in the next two to three years. Retirement
typically averages about 4 percent per year and about 20 percent of
those newly eligible to retire actually do so. Each department in
an organization needs to ask whether you can bring those retirees
back or retain them longer in order to transfer the years of
knowledge to a younger group. It's a mistake to bring them back and
leave them in the same job but you need to develop a program
whereby they leave their knowledge.
Good data allows you to make strategic decisions. He showed graphs
that examined:
· Supervisory & support staff ratios
· Attrition and accession
· Overtime rates
· Fulltime permanent employees over time compared to workload
· Contract labor cost performing core services
· Compare contract and in house labor
He's found that organizations don't typically maintain this kind of
data or analyze their workforce in this manner.
Typical issues found in workforce planning are:
· There's no commitment or involvement from agency leadership
· Spending lots of money and getting nothing of value in return
· Piecemeal or half-hearted planning
· Expecting results too quickly
· Lack of complete and accurate data
· Not including agency employees
· Not part of an organization's strategy
· Contractor vs. agency staff
· Return on workforce investment
Some of the best practices:
· Creating flexible compensation system
· Pay for performance: Specific objectives tied to
organizational results
· Hiring and retention bonuses
· Human resources department
· Having a chief people officer that represents the people
· Organization
· Create a virtual company
· Removing "stovepipes": Can you find a certain competency
somewhere else in the government and borrow it?
· Performance based management
· Clear goals
· Leadership directly involved
· Management tools exist and managers have the authority to
use them
· Accountability for people development and growth
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked about the data from the State of Alaska.
MR. GOODRICH said there's a lot of good data in the system already.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said that he's aware that State government will
experience a rapid retirement rate in upcoming years even though
Alaska has a relatively young workforce. He asked whether there was
any indication that Alaska would suffer as large a retirement
exodus as other states.
MR. GOODRICH said the average age for State workers is 45, which is
low, while the entry age is 38 which is older than most. At a 19
percent retirement eligibility rate over the next five years, the
State of Alaska compares favorably to other states. This doesn't,
however, mean that this isn't an issue. Further examination is
needed to determine which departments or agencies have the
retirement age workers. If there is a weighting in one area,
decisions need to be made to retain the knowledge.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked whether Mr. Goodrich was speaking about
Alaska State workers or private and State.
MR. GOODRICH said he was referring to State of Alaska workers when
he gave statistics.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said he finds it hard to believe that the State is
having difficulty attracting qualified people to enter the work
force.
SENATOR DAVIS asked whether it was salaries that affected
employment decisions.
MR. GOODRICH said he didn't know the reason.
SENATOR DAVIS asked whether he traveled from state to state with
the information he'd just presented.
MR. GOODRICH said he was simply giving a presentation but his
company does a lot of workforce planning for state, local and
federal governments.
SENATOR DAVIS asked which states he'd assisted.
MR. GOODRICH said he's worked in Maryland, Virginia, Vermont,
Texas, they're beginning in Indiana and they do a lot of federal
government work. Frequently they work with individual agencies.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked for his observations on the problems facing
State government.
Side 2
MR. GOODRICH said that there might be fairly rigid rules on how
people are hired, compensated and retained in State government. He
doesn't know whether State institutions are producing the kinds of
people that will be needed in the workforce. He wondered whether
the State could give certain incentives such as loan forgiveness or
low interest rates on loans to keep new graduates in the State. He
believes there's a nursing shortage but this is a nationwide
shortage, not just this State. This is primarily exacerbated by the
privatization of health care.
He asked what the pipeline would mean for the court systems and
highways and social services. It's necessary to make sure the State
is ready for this. What does it mean if the economy turns down and
the tax base drops off and the need for services increases? Is the
State ready for this? Not just in terms of financial resources, but
is the workforce ready?
SENATOR PHILLIPS said Alaska is always the opposite of the Lower
48. When the Lower 48 is in a downturn, Alaska is in an upturn and
vice versa.
MR. GOODRICH said Alaska also has one of the highest unemployment
rates.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said it's always been that way. Currently,
unemployment is the lowest it's ever been.
SENATOR DAVIS asked who brought Mr. Goodrich to Alaska.
MS. BARTON said the Department of Administration invited him to
present a base of knowledge about the process of workforce planning
and to give some indication of how Alaska stands in comparison to
other states. He's here to raise awareness. She met him at the
National Association for State Personnel Executives' winter meeting
where he was giving a presentation.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT referred to the recommendation that employees
should be viewed as a resource. If they've been trained in the
system then the knowledge should be retained. When school systems
and the State went through the retirement incentive programs, he
was told that there was considerable benefit in getting rid of
"dead wood." The brain drain or loss of experience was considered
acceptable weighed against getting rid of individuals that really
weren't contributing. He asked Mr. Goodrich for his comments on a
rigid workforce where you can't move individuals around and you
can't let them go.
MR. GOODRICH suggested working with unions and creating flexible
systems. Retirement incentive programs typically cause a loss of
the best and brightest while the "dead wood" remains. This doesn't
happen when a very strong and powerful performance management
system is in place with good support services. Next, let people
retire but don't let their knowledge leave. Develop succession-
planning systems and bring them back as trainers and mentors or
have them operate in this capacity for the last several years on
the job.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT thanked Mr. Goodrich for the presentation.
[A copy of the March 2001 State of Alaska Workforce Profile is
available in the committee file.]
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