SB 116-SERVICE OF CITATIONS  8:55:35 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the next order of business was CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 116(STA), "An Act relating to service of citations; amending Rule 3(f), Alaska Rules of Minor Offense Procedure; repealing Rule 3(g), Alaska Rules of Minor Offense Procedure; and providing for an effective date." 8:55:52 AM SENATOR DENNIS EGAN, Alaska State Legislature, as prime sponsor, introduced SB 116. He stated that the proposed legislation would correct the unintended consequence of a good bill passed in 2010, which stopped law enforcement from leaving a ticket under the windshield wiper of a vehicle. He stated, "To keep enforcing local laws, many municipalities went to civil violations for just a minor offense, and that has its own problems - it wasn't available to state law enforcement at all." Under SB 116, law enforcement could leave a parking ticket under a person's windshield wiper, thereby no longer having to write a citation with the person receiving the citation present. In response to Chair Lynn, he clarified that currently, the police officer has to issue the citation directly to the person. He said, for example, that if someone was parking in a loading zone, the police would have to stay there and issue the violation in person. CHAIR LYNN commented, "Meanwhile an assault is going on someplace and they're waiting for a parking ticket." SENATOR EGAN said that's correct. 8:57:42 AM JESSE KIEHL, Staff, Senator Dennis Egan, Alaska State Legislature, stated that many municipalities took their minor offenses out of the realm of the lowest possible criminal offense and made them civil violations, which allowed police to leave a ticket under the windshield wiper of a car. However, he explained the effect of that was that if a citizen believes it was an unjust ticket, he/she does not get to see a judge or magistrate, but instead must "fight city hall." He said many Alaskans are concerned about the civil violation process, which is more costly for municipalities and difficult for them to enforce when someone occasionally just throws out the ticket. He said the civil violation route is not available to Alaska State Troopers, so they do not write many parking tickets, but do write several tickets at the Palmer state fair when people block access lanes, driveways, or fire zones, for example. He said, "And that becomes a very difficult thing under the law as it reads today, because the legislature has never delegated to the Department of Public Safety any authority to make offenses civil violations, and probably appropriately so." The proposed legislation would fix that problem and allow an Alaska State Trooper to leave a ticket under the windshield wiper. CHAIR LYNN asked what happens when a ticket blows off a vehicle in a strong wind and is lost. MR. KIEHL answered that under SB 116, the ticket would then go into a default process after the time in which to contest the ticket had passed and the ticket had not been paid. He said the state court clerk would send a default letter to the owner of the registered vehicle, and the person with the violation would be given a certain amount of time to pay the ticket, after which if the ticket was still not paid, then the state would garnish that money from the person's permanent fund dividend (PFD). 9:00:39 AM SCOTT BLOOM, City Attorney, City of Kenai, testified in support of SB 116. He listed three reasons that the issues addressed under SB 116 would be important to the City of Kenai. The first reason was public safety. He explained that on peak days in July, the city commonly has 10,000-12,000 visitors; on its busiest day last year there were an estimated 15,000 visitors to the community. The local and residential streets are inundated. He said as word gets out that the city cannot issue parking citations, people tend to ignore restrictions and block fire lanes, driveways, and emergency access. He said being able to force driving regulations without requiring personal service would alleviate a large portion of the problem. MR. BLOOM stated that second reason he was asking for support of SB 116 was because the enforcement of parking under current law strains the City of Kenai's municipal resources greatly. Without the ability to leave parking tickets, the city's limited police force must try either to track down drivers, boot the vehicle, or tow them, all of which takes time and manpower. He relayed that in 2013, during the month of July, the City of Kenai issued approximately 106 citations; in 2014, since the current law was in place, the city issued only 12. As a relatively small municipality, it is difficult to set up an alternative administrative system to issue citations. Unlike Anchorage or Fairbanks, which have the economics to support a separate parking authority, this is not a practical solution for the City of Kenai. MR. BLOOM said the third reason he was asking the committee to support SB 116, was that he believed it would reduce the cost to both the city and the public. He explained that if the city must provide an administrative process, it would cost the city time and money, and that cost would be passed on to the public through increased citation amounts. Further, he said the alternative of immobilizing vehicles or towing them is exponentially more expensive and burdensome on all parties. Mr. Bloom offered to answer questions. 9:04:22 AM CHAIR LYNN, after ascertaining that there was no one else who wished to testify, closed public testimony. 9:04:30 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER moved to report CSSB 116(STA) out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSB 116(STA) was reported out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.