HB 76-LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL & LB&A MEMBERSHIP  9:50:15 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the final order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 76, "An Act relating to the membership of the Alaska Legislative Council and the membership of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee." 9:50:21 AM VICE CHAIR SEATON moved to adopt the committee substitute (CS) to HB 76, Version 26-LS0335\S, Chenoweth/Cook, 3/3/09, as a work draft. There being no objection, Version S was before the committee. 9:50:57 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG introduced HB 76 as co-prime sponsor. He said the bill would ad parity and fairness with respect to proportional representation in Legislative Council and Legislative Budget & Audit. He related that in the late 1980s, at the request of the minority leader at the time, the legislature, in which he was serving as the majority leader, adopted amendments to Uniform Rule 1, which applied more equal representation to all the standing committees. However, joint committees were not included at that time. The only joint committee that is not being included in the proposed legislation is the Joint Armed Services Committee, and that is because that committee does not do "the same kind of work the others do." REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he could find no reason or discussion related to why the two aforementioned committees were not included. He said Representative Stoltze imparted that the reason may have been that Legislative Council was "a little more political" and "they didn't want to get into it at the time." Representative Gruenberg opined that 20 years later it is time to have full parity. He noted the Minority names who are listed as co-prime sponsors [as shown on page 1 of Version S], and he invited any member of the Majority to become a sponsor. He said in the future when he looks back at his time serving in the legislature, he will consider [the support of proportional representation in standing committees] one of the better things the legislature has done, because it improved the system. He opined that HB 76 would make the system work better, as well. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG expressed appreciation that the committee members adopted Version S as a work draft, because it contains an applicability clause which clarifies that the bill will not apply until the next legislature, which will not disrupt the legislature. He said he thinks people want bipartisanship, and HB 76 is "as much a symbolic statement of that as anything else." 9:56:27 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO questioned if the issue of fairness is enough of a reason [to support HB 76] or whether it is more important for the Majority, which will be making serious decisions, to "maybe have an over-weighted presence." He said he is not ready to support the bill right now, because he needs more time to study it. 9:57:21 AM REPRESENTATIVE PETERSEN said all representatives are elected to represent districts of more or less equal size; therefore, if there is less representation of one party in a given committee, then "maybe some of the people from that member's district may not have equal representation that they deserve." He opined that it is an issue of fairness. He stated, "It seems to me like if we're going to do it for the committees that are set up that way now, ... we should do it for all the committees." 9:58:25 AM VICE CHAIR SEATON noted that language would be deleted from page 1, beginning on line 9, of Version S, which requires at least one member from each of the two major political parties, and would be substituted with "the idea of Majority and Minority of unaffiliated political parties." He asked Representative Gruenberg if he thinks that would be the affect of the language being deleted. [VICE CHAIR SEATON handed the gavel back to CHAIR LYNN.] 10:01:36 AM CHAIR LYNN interjected, "It is." He noted the time, remarked that the bill merits substantial discussion time, and committed to hearing HB 76 again. 10:02:14 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG told Representative Seaton, "I believe the language covers your problem." He said he would check with the bill drafter[s]. Regarding Representative Gatto's concern, he said, "I will put that on the record in a very succinct way when we reconvene." CHAIR LYNN said there may be other bills that may have some affect on HB 76. 10:04:13 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that HB 76 was held over.