SENATE BILL NO. 234 "An Act extending the termination date of the Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar Association." Senator Adams moved for adoption of the CS for SB 234. Senator Pearce announced that she was not going to offer that version because it was not what was discussed at the subcommittee meeting. In her opinion, the Drafter misunderstood the intent of the subcommittee and therefore Version E of the Workdraft was not what was discussed. Senator Adams removed his motion. Senator Donley moved to amend SB 234, Line 6 to change the number "2002" to "2000". Senator Adams objected. His reason was because of the recommendation of the Auditor suggesting the date extend the sunset date out to six years. He wanted to know why the request was now being made to reduce the date to two years. Senator Donley responded saying there was a continuing question on the Bar Association's carry-over of approximately $1 million. As it related to its budget expenditures, he felt it was important to review this again after a couple of years. With that, Senator Adams removed his objection. Senator Donley noted on the record that he was a member of the Alaska Bar Association, but didn't feel that constituted a conflict of interest. Senator Parnell noted the same. Co-Chair Sharp ruled there was no conflict of interest and that they would both be required to vote on this legislation. There was no objection to Amendment #1, and Co-Chair Sharp ordered it adopted. DAVID BUNDY testified on behalf of the Alaska Bar Association to the bill. He told the committee he was surprised to see there was a desire to move the sunset date up to two years. He spoke of the surplus of funds and said it had been the association's position from the beginning that they did not operate on state funds. They did their best to manage their funds economically and efficiently, he said. They planned their budgeting out well beyond two years from now, which had been summarized in the audit. He said he didn't see any reason that would change. It would be an expensive process for everybody to go through. He felt it would be unnecessary to through this again when there was no prospect that things would be significantly altered from what they were now. This concluded public testimony on SB 234. Senator Pearce spoke of the subcommittee conversation talking about the fact that the vote to elect members of the board of the ABA should be done by mail, which was already done. The discussion then centered on voting for the officers of the association and the requirement of members of the bar to be in attendance at the annual convention to participate in the officer election. Senator Pearce talked about the distribution of area and population in representation. This system would bring diversion to the board, by rotating the residency of the presidency even though Anchorage has the highest percentage of attorney seats on the board. She added that the professional dues charged by the ABA were higher than charged by most other professional associations in the state. Many attorneys contacted her office saying that they didn't like the high dues, but the public didn't know much about the ABA. She wanted the ABA to understand that other states have taken steps to reduce the dues charged in their state. (Further conversation was illegible due to a microphone malfunction.) Bar expenses were certainly higher than other professional dues, she said. Whether the two-year extension would well serve the public, she wasn't sure. The ABA treated what they did internally different than most other professional licensing boards. Mr. Bundy requested an opportunity to respond to Senator Pearce's comments. He quantified that he was unable to hear her entire discussion because the teleconference was broken up. He didn't think it was fair to characterize the bar association as not concerned by what the Legislature felt. They took an extensive amount of time to respond to Senator Donley's earlier questions, he argued. He said they were interested in input from anyone with an opinion in the organization. We certainly listen to members and their opinions he stressed. Mr. Bundy defended the level of dues charged by the bar. Their research indicated that considering the functions the bar performed, both admissions and discipline of attorneys and continuing legal education, and that they got no state subsidy, the dues were not higher than other states that performed similar duties. Other states had discipline administered by the Supreme Court as a state function, or done on a volunteer basis instead of paid council, which he said was another way of getting a state subsidy for the bar. In his view, it was not accurate to say Alaska lawyers paid more than any where else therefore it must be too high. The organization did a great deal of research to verify that and the information was available for interested parties, he offered. He wanted to make sure his comments were noted on that point. Senator Adams offered an amendment on Page 1 Line 8 to add: "Any Alaskan that fails the Alaskan Bar license test after 25 tries is automatically a lawyer and must be President of the Bar Association and pays no dues." Senator Adams then told the committee that this was his APRIL FOOLS JOKE, and withdrew the amendment. (Laughter) Senator Adams moved Senate Finance Committee Substitute for SB 234 out of committee with individual recommendations. There was no objection, and Co-Chair Sharp so ordered.