HB 133-PUBLIC MEETINGS: EXEMPT MUNI SVC AREA BD  8:16:22 AM CHAIR MCCORMICK announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 133, "An Act exempting municipal service area boards from the requirements of the Open Meetings Act; and providing for an effective date." 8:16:34 AM REPRESENTATIVE JESSE SUMNER, Alaska State Legislature, prime sponsor, presented HB 133. He paraphrased the sponsor statement [included in the committee packet], which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: House Bill 133 would give specific exemptions to local municipalities on the Open Meetings Act. Currently, the Open Meetings Act (OMA) doesn't allow for Board Supervisors on the Road, Safety and Assessment (RSA) board to ride in the same vehicle, because of the quorum statute in OMA. For example, in the Mat-Su Borough, RSA is an advisory only position appointed by the Mayor. These positions are strictly voluntary; with no power to contract or spend any of the Borough's money. Not only would this change incentivize local board members; which has been a problem filling, but in the Mat-Su Valley, it is critical to get all the Supervisors together and brainstorm on how best to solve Borough issues, without the cloud of the OMA. Currently, in practice, if a board member found out something wrong with a road, he or she does not have the ability to call others on the board to come look at said problem and discuss solutions on solving the issue, because of the Open Meetings Act. This is a big problem for local municipalities with an easy solution set forth in this bill. Please join us in supporting HB 133. 8:18:29 AM CLARK BICKFORD, Staff, Representative Jesse Sumner, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Representative Sumner, prime sponsor of HB 133, presented the sectional analysis [included in the committee packet], which read as follows [original punctuation provided]: Section I: Just a small grammatical amendment AS 44.62.310(d)(5) from UPON to ON. And Removes a portion of AS 44.62.310(d)(8) to ultimately read "meetings of municipal service area boards established under AS 29.35.450 29.35.490." This is the heart of the Bill that will give the power back to local municipalities to function reasonable in deciding on how best to problem-solve and not be in violation of the Open Meetings Act. Section II: If passed, this would take effect immediately under AS 01.10.070©. CHAIR MCCORMICK opened invited testimony. 8:19:49 AM JILL PARSON, board member, Big Lake Road Services Area (RSA), gave invited testimony during the hearing on HB 133. She informed the committee that she was a member of the Big Lake RSA board of supervisors, adding that the Open Meetings Act (OMA) greatly hindered the board's ability to observe road issues in a timely manner and research possible solutions. Ideally, she explained that the board would like to be able to ride together in one van with the borough road maintenance superintendent to view and discuss road problems as a group. This way, options and research could be conducted more efficiently while learning from other board members in preparation for the quarterly meetings. However, subject to the OMA, supervisors must drive in three separate cars so that no one car has a board majority during a "ride around," which is far more time consuming. She said RSA supervisors welcomed more efficient ways to handle their responsibilities and preparation for regularly scheduled meetings. CHAIR MCCORMICK sought questions from committee members. 8:23:25 AM REPRESENTATIVE MEARS asked whether the bill would be limited to these types of boards. REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER answered yes. REPRESENTATIVE MEARS asked whether the bill would impact boards all across the state or only those in Matanuska-Susitna ("Mat- Su"). REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER said the bill would apply to municipal service area boards established under AS 29.35.450 AS 29.35.490. He added that a forthcoming amendment would make the exemption even more narrowly tailored. 8:24:56 AM REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT sought to confirm that the bill would remove the language "when meeting solely to act on matters that are administrative or managerial in nature." REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER confirmed. He noted that rather than removing the language in question, a forthcoming amendment would add one more exception for fact finding missions. REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT said she supported the bill's intent, but wanted to make sure that it was being done properly. REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER stated that the Mat-Su borough was particularly cautious about violating the OMA, as it was the only municipality with a standing injunction for OMA violations. 8:26:36 AM REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT sought to verify that the OMA was a state law, so exemptions could not be made without changing state statute. REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER answered yes, any exemption would need to be made through statute. 8:27:25 AM REPRESENATIVE BAKER shared his understanding that under the OMA, a meeting can be held as long as 24 hours' notice is given. He asked, "Is there a specific reason for this kind of board, why they had to go a month out because of the cancelled meeting ... 'meeting for the record.'" REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER shared his understanding that it required at least two weeks to notice a meeting because of the timing requirements for publication. 8:29:05 AM SANDRA MOLLER, Director, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development (DCCED), stated that there was strong interest in maintaining the OMA and looked forward to hearing amendments. 8:29:42 AM REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT asked for examples of other municipal service area boards. REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER stated that fire service area boards are the most common. REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT asked whether the bill would apply to all service area boards. REPRESENTATIVE SUMNER answered yes. 8:30:44 AM CHAIR MCCORMICK announced that HB 133 would be held over.