SENATE BILL NO. 81 "An Act relating to the office of victims' rights; and providing for an effective date." 3:12:59 PM SENATOR ELVI GRAY-JACKSON, SPONSOR, relayed that the bill was introduced by the Senate Rules Committee at the request of the Legislative Council and as chair of the committee it was her honor to carry the bill. She spoke to the reason for the bill and read from a prepared statement: In the Thirty-Second Legislature, legislation was passed that created a new salary schedule for state attorneys, which inadvertently excluded the four attorneys in the Office of Victims' Rights or OVR, as it is known. For your convenience, I have included an excerpt from the minutes of the August 18, 2022, meeting of the Legislative Council in your bill packet. The discussion during that Leg Council meeting describes the reason this bill is necessary. To summarize those minutes, as a temporary solution to the problem, Legislative Council unanimously approved paying OVR attorneys according to the new salary schedule, created by last year's HB 226, and funded the increase with a one-time transfer for fiscal year 2023; however, the legislation before you today is required to place the OVR attorneys on the state attorney salary schedule permanently. Senator Gray Jackson continued by explaining the reason for the amendment, which she supported. She continued to read from a prepared statement: Senator Wilson, who is a co-chair of the Victims' Advocate Selection Committee along with co-chair Representative Carpenter approached Senate President Stevens with a problem. The Victims' Advocate Selection Committee had been appointed on March 1, 2023, because the director of the OVR, Taylor Winston, resigned and a new director needs to be selected. However, working with the Personnel Office, the co-chairs of the selection committee determined that it was too late in the session to advertise, screen, interview, score, consider, make an offer to, and nominate a candidate by the time our Joint Confirmation Session takes place. At that time, SB 81 was identified as a vehicle to assist the joint Victims' Advocate Selection Committee with their task of hiring a permanent victims' advocate. Senator Wilson, on behalf of the selection committee, proposed an amendment that made two substantive changes to the OVR statutes. The first substantive change is to AS 24.65.070(a) which relates to "Staff and delegation," and says, in part: "The victims' advocate shall appoint a person to serve as acting victims' advocate in the absence of the victims' advocate." New language was added in the amendment which is on Page 2, Lines 3 6 of Version B.A which says, "If the victims' advocate is not available to appoint a person to serve as acting Section 3 adds a provision that gives the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House the authority to jointly appoint an acting victims' advocate if the victims' advocate is not available to appoint an acting victims' advocate or if the legislature is unable to ratify one during the legislative session. Senator Gray-Jackson continued as follows: The amendment that modified this section of statute contemplates a situation where the victims' advocate appoints an acting victims' advocate and for some reason that acting victims' advocate leaves the job before a permanent victims' advocate has been hired, leaving a vacancy in this important leadership position. In this scenario, which we think is unlikely to happen but possible, the amendment added a provision that says the presiding officers can jointly appoint an acting victims' advocate. It would also allow the presiding officers to jointly appoint a new acting victims' advocate to serve until being ratified. Without this change, a successful candidate for Victims' Advocate who is nominated by the Selection Committee, for example, during the summer or fall, could not begin working until being ratified during the following legislative session. The second substantive change is to AS 24.65.020(b) which relates to the "Appointment of the victims' advocate," which currently says, in part: "The appointment is effective if the nomination is approved by a roll call vote of two-thirds of the members of the legislature in joint session." New language was added in the amendment that modified this sentence, so it reads in the current version of the bill on Page 2, Lines 7 and 8: "The appointment is effective if the nomination is ratified by two-thirds of the full membership of the senate and two-thirds of the full membership of the house of representatives." Therefore, this version of the bill removes the requirement that the Legislature confirm the victims' advocate by a roll call vote in a joint session. The maker of the amendment proposed that this would be a more efficient process while still requiring ratification by 2/3 of our membership and I agree, Mr. Chairman. With these changes to the original version of the bill, the selection committee can be more deliberative in the hiring process. Finally, a quick word of support for the Office of Victims' Rights. As noted in a letter in your packet that was written by Acting Director Kathy Hansen: "OVR attorneys work directly with prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and lay victim advocates when advocating for crime victims. OVR attorneys regularly advocate for victims throughout the entire State of Alaska. They handle the most serious and high-profile felony criminal prosecutions in our state - including homicides, sexual assaults involving adult and minor victims, felony property crimes, and felony thefts - as well as both felony and misdemeanor domestic violence crimes ?" Supporting the important work of the Office of Victims' Rights is the goal of this legislation and I encourage support of SB 81, Version B.A. 3:19:53 PM Representative Josephson asked whether there was a provision that allowed the exempt and partially exempt staff salaries track the Alaska Public Employees Associations (APEA) pay increases, so the OVR attorneys would not slip behind as they had previously. He asked if the victims' rights attorneys would be part of the provision. 3:20:47 PM JESSICA GEARY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS AGENCY, was unsure and deferred the answer to Legislative Legal Services. 3:21:13 PM MEGAN WALLACE, CHIEF COUNSEL, LEGISLATIVE LEGAL SERVICES, JUNEAU (via teleconference), answered that a provision in HB 226 ensured that the legislature shall increase the salary schedule at the same time and rate as the supervisory bargaining unit. However, the language required further legislative action before the salary schedule could be increased. She furthered that the salary increase provision was separate from the subsection of HB 226 that provided the initial increase for state attorneys. Representative Josephson asked if the attorneys could be accidentally left out again. Ms. Wallace responded that the employees that were paid on the basic legislative salary schedule and would tag along with all other future increases however, since the OVR attorneys were omitted from AS 39.27.011 subsection (l) without the proposed amendment, the attorneys would not be eligible for the additional increase. 3:23:59 PM Co-Chair Foster asked for wrap-up comments. Senator Gray-Jackson thanked the committee. SB 81 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration.