CSHB 267(RES)-WILDLIFE VIOLATOR COMPACT  5:37:31 PM CHAIR CHARLIE HUGGINS announced CSHB 267(RES) to be up for consideration. CAPTAIN BURKE WALDRON, Division of Wildlife Troopers, Department of Public Safety (DPS), said he was available to answer questions on HB 267. KEVIN SAXBY, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law (DOL), stated that he was assigned to the Division of Wildlife Conservation and the Board of Game. 5:40:07 PM SENATOR STEVENS joined the committee. JEANNE OSTNES, staff to Representative Craig Johnson, sponsor of HB 267, related that yesterday they talked about the form that the DPS would be entering data into. She said the trooper would need a user name and an ID to get onto the website. She said a compact state could ratify or review different suspensions or actions that were happening in the other compact states. The report could be browsed through by either violator or citation. Besides the 50 states, the compact includes 18 provinces from Canada, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico; it includes 1,834 counties along with 239 countries. So no matter where the person is living in the world, there is a way to identify where they are and what action was taken against them. She said the software is smart enough that the state can choose specifically how it can look at the different animal species. CHAIR HUGGINS interrupted, "Let's look at frogs." MS. OSTNES responded that frogs were included in the fishing category. She said each state could add to the list and assign them on the left. CHAIR HUGGINS asked how the identities of people with like-names would be confirmed. MS. OSTNES replied by using home address, eye color, race gender, and suspension status. 5:43:55 PM SENATOR WAGONER asked if counties are a sub-grouping under each state. MS. OSTNES replied she wasn't sure because all states have their own system. SENATOR WAGONER said the reason he asked is that traditionally counties outside of Alaska offer hunting and fishing licenses, and they are only good within the boundary of the counties - and there are a lot of counties. MS. OSTNES said that taking violator's names completely out of the database would be a policy matter for the 28 states that are involved, but not doing that was recommended to help with things such as legal proceedings after the fact, trend analysis and tracking habitual violators. Names of people who do not have their license revoked any longer because "they have paid their dues" stay in another section of the database. CHAIR HUGGINS asked the lower age limit for entry into the system. MS. OSTNES replied the adult age of the state the person resides in. 5:46:16 PM SENATOR MCGUIRE joined the committee. CHAIR HUGGINS turned to Mr. Saxby with that question. MR. SAXBY answered that age isn't addressed in the bill, so it would follow that that issue would be up to each state, and people under age 16 don't need a license in Alaska. MS. OSTNES said that VISA and Master Card as well as other credit card businesses can be hired to do a spot check of the system. CHAIR HUGGINS asked if this is a certified system. MS. OSTNES answered yes and added that only a public safety administrator would have the ability to get into it to change the information. She said that ADF&G received some funding last year to computerize its licensing system, and 35 of its largest vendors as well as all of their departments around the state will soon be computerized. Once this bill passes, the administrator would be the person to deal with the process of how and who would be able to look at the information. 5:49:50 PM CHAIR HUGGINS asked for a quick review of how this system would work for the State Troopers. CAPTAIN WALDRON replied that the DPS would administer the compact simply because the Troopers are the licensing enforcement agency and it would be simpler for them rather than to have the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) forward the information to them. One person would review court judgments relating to fish and wildlife cases and make the determination on whether to enter the individual into the compact database or not. Once those decisions are made, an in-house clerk would be assigned to update the list. Initial start-up may require more effort than once it is going. In most states the administrator and clerk spend between 10-20 hours a month to update the list. Historically Alaska doesn't have a lot of revocations and would have less than 200 names to enter per year. SENATOR MCGUIRE asked how expungement would work. CAPTAIN WALDRON answered that peoples' names would remain in the database and their revocations would be listed as current or not. They remain in the database unless the member states adopted language to change it. MS. OSTNES said that was correct. CHAIR HUGGINS said that is probably unacceptable for him. The average Alaskan would expect to be off the list once they have lost their license. SENATOR MCGUIRE agreed and remarked that even Senator Green's similar prescription database bill was changed to allow a name to come off the list after a period of time. She said that is a real privacy invasion and asked if there was anything they could do in this bill to guarantee expungement after someone has served their penalty. MS. OSTNES replied that she thought so. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said he understood once a license was revoked for three-years, one could get it again. He thought this was different than the prescription database bill in which everyone was included, including people who hadn't been convicted of anything. Expungement is appropriate in that case. He didn't see this bill being different from a criminal court case; it's a public record once you've violated the statute. CAPTAIN WALDRON said he agreed with that; the purpose for names remaining in the database is to provide a criminal history database for court convictions and sentencing that is similar to other databases. Troopers and prosecutors could use this database to help with sentencing recommendations and guidelines at court hearings. MS. OSTNES said you can find whether someone had a small claim against them by just looking at the court house computer. SENATOR WAGONER said he wasn't sure that the court house records span another 28 states. 5:58:14 PM CAPTAIN WALDRON said the court system database is Internet based and is available to anyone in any state. 5:59:15 PM CHAIR HUGGINS said he would set HB 267 aside.