9:39:07 AM SENATE CS FOR CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 399(STA) "An Act establishing the office of elder fraud and assistance; and relating to fraud involving older Alaskans." This was the first hearing for this bill in the Senate Finance Committee. 9:39:40 AM SUE WRIGHT, Staff to Representative Mike Chenault, testified that this bill is "event driven". She told of the instance of a distant cousin to the McDowell Family of Sterling taking "egregious" advantage of the elderly couple. As a result of the cousin's actions, the McDowell's home was "gutted" to the "studs". Ultimately the couple lost between $750,000 and $2 million in real property and bank accounts. This was accomplished through quit claim deeds, powers of attorney and other documents, which were signed while the victims were hospitalized and in a medicated state. Ms. Wright reported the efforts of Representative Chenault's staff to obtain assistance from a State agency for this family, with only the Office of Public Advocacy (OPA) responding. The family has recently obtained stays on eviction notices and has a guardian appointed to fairly represent the couple's interests. Ms. Wright stated that the legislation before the Committee would allow OPA to investigate cases such as this. She was aware of only one other similar investigation; however, it was pursued by federal officials. She was aware that many complaints have been filed, although none that were investigated. 9:43:15 AM Co-Chair Green announced that one of the victims in this case is Sam McDowell, who is renown in Alaska. 9:43:38 AM DAN MCDOWELL testified via teleconference from an offnet location that his father and mother are the victims Ms. Wright spoke of. A distant relative had convinced his mother to authorize access to the couple's assets. Mr. McDowell had made many attempts to obtain assistance to stop this abuse. His parents are now "penniless" and residing in separate assisted living facilities. The perpetrator has been utilizing multiple social security numbers and had attempted to evict the family from their homestead riverfront property. Luckily, this was averted. Mr. McDowell stressed that with an aging population, efforts must be undertaken to prevent such abuse of elderly Alaskans. 9:47:43 AM Senator Dyson requested input from OPA, as he had been informed that the appropriation listed in the fiscal note would be insufficient to establish the program. 9:48:24 AM Co-Chair Green requested the sponsor to speak to this matter. 9:48:27 AM Ms. Wright acknowledged concerns about the establishment of a new program. Because the number of cases could not be accurately predicted, a determination was made to provide adequate funding for OPA to start the program with minimal number of cases. If the costs exceed the appropriation, the issue would be readdressed. Mr. Fink, Director of OPA has made significant progress in streamlining the agency and making operations more efficient. 9:49:55 AM Senator Dyson appreciated Mr. Fink's efforts. Senator Dyson was aware of other instances of elder abuse. He posed a scenario of an elderly man falling in love with his nurse, who then takes advantage of the situation. 9:50:52 AM Senator Hoffman asked why the fiscal note only reflected funding for the upcoming fiscal year. He asked whether the program would only be in operation for one year. 9:51:05 AM Ms. Wright explained that the cost to operate the program in future years was unknown. Therefore, the fiscal note contained a conservative amount for the first year of operation. Once the estimated number of cases was determined, more accurate appropriations could be made. As many as 500 complaints could be filed annually. 9:51:53 AM Co-Chair Wilken offered a motion to report the bill from Committee with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. Without objection SCS CS HB 399(STA) was MOVED from Committee with zero fiscal notes #1 from the Department of Health and Social Services, #2 from the Department of Law, #3 from the Department of Public Safety, and fiscal note #4 in the amount of $189,000 from the Department of Administration. Ms. Wright thanked the Committee on behalf of the McDowell family.