HB 330-PROVIDING ALCOHOL TO MINORS/ BREWPUB LIC.  REPRESENTATIVE NORM ROKEBERG, sponsor of HB 330, told members that on July 9, 2001, police officer Justin Wollam and three others were killed when Robert Esper crossed the median of the Glenn Highway and collided with Officer Wollam's patrol car. Esper was suspected of driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level of .091. Representative Rokeberg stated: While investigating the events leading up to the tragic and deadly accident, police discovered that Esper and his underage friends had been drinking at a party where alcohol was furnished by two adults. Both men pleaded guilty to furnishing alcohol to minors and were th sentenced on February 20 of this year. Currently furnishing alcohol to a minor is a class A misdemeanor, subject to no more than one year in prison and a fine of not more than $5,000. What HB 330 does, quite simply, is increase the penalty for an adult who furnishes the alcohol to a class C felony, but only in those cases where the minor goes on to negligently cause the death and or serious physical injury of another while acting under the influence of alcohol. Mr. Chairman, on the House floor one of my colleagues added on lines 12 and 13 the words 'operating motorized equipment, firearms, or watercraft' to further tighten the implementation of this particular bill. In your deliberations today I ask that you look at the words 'motorized equipment' and perhaps substitute 'motorized vehicle' because conceptually - because there is no definition for 'motorized equipment' in state statute. That concludes my testimony, Mr. Chairman. I'd be happy to answer any questions. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR took public testimony. MS. ANNE CARPENETI, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law (DOL), said that DOL has supported HB 330 all along but the term "motorized equipment" is not defined in statute. Alaska statute does contain a definition of "motor vehicle" that could be cross referenced to AS 28.40.100; and definitions of "firearm" and "watercraft" that could be cross referenced to Title 11. She thought the cross references would make the bill clearer. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if the cross-references should also be noted within the body of the language. MS. CARPENETI said that adding to the definitions in Section (2) (A) and (B) would work better. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked Ms. Carpeneti to draft an amendment with the changes she suggested. MS. CARPENETI agreed to do so. MS. MARTI GREASON, representing Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), thanked Representative Rokeberg for introducing HB 330 and said that national research, as well as anecdotal self- reporting at an Anchorage middle school, show that when young people choose to drink, they frequently start around the age of 12. All have had the assistance of an adult to obtain alcohol. Alcohol is involved in too many deaths and injuries of young people. MADD believes that adults who provide alcohol to underage persons who, while under the influence, cause injury or death must be held to a higher standard of responsibility and culpability. MADD supports HB 330 to accomplish that objective. MS. CATHIE MAURO told members that she lost her 14 year-old daughter in the July 9 accident. She first started getting support for making this action a felony in August by contacting her legislators and MADD. With their support, HB 330 has gotten this far. She expressed concern about some of the language changes made during the committee process. She originally wanted adults who furnish alcohol to children to not only be accountable for the children's actions while impaired by the alcohol, but also accountable for the lives of the children they provide the alcohol to. She said if one removes the car from the July 9 scenario, the children could have died from alcohol poisoning or hypothermia. She noted that many things can happen when children are impaired by alcohol. She suggested that fine-tuning HB 330 could save many lives. She asked that committee members not wait until they experience a similar tragedy before doing more to deter adults from furnishing alcohol to children. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR noted the arrival of Senator Ellis. REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG repeated that the House floor amendment added the words "operating motorized equipment, firearms, or watercraft" on lines 12 and 13. He noted the intent of the floor amendment was to narrow the scope of the bill. SENATOR DONLEY asked for a synopsis of the floor debate on the amendment. REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG said, in his opinion, the only reason for the debate was that his colleagues were feeling guilty about their own experiences in life. He believes they didn't wish to raise culpability to the level of a felony if an assault occurred that resulted in an injury and death. He said he personally disagreed but lost the debate. SENATOR DONLEY asked if this bill will hold the adult who provides the alcohol responsible and charges the adult with a class C felony. REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG said that is correct. He added one part of the issue is furnishing alcohol within a family. Under existing statute, a parent can give a child alcohol and a majority spouse can give a minority spouse alcohol. The issue becomes one of hosting and discussions on the House floor and in House committees centered around presumed liabilities if a minor secretly took alcohol. He said that is not what this bill covers and, because the standard is criminal negligence, there is no mens rea for intent if a minor steals alcohol at one's home. SENATOR DONLEY asked what the interrelationship is between this felony and the existing statutes that allow a parent to furnish a child with alcohol. He asked, "Are we only criminalizing the activity when it's - are we accelerating the criminal fine for only the activity that is currently a criminal activity or are we also creating some sort of criminal penalty when the providing of the alcohol is actually legal under existing statute but then there's a subsequent serious physical injury or death?" REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG replied, "No. All we're doing here under the original bill before they put the motorized craft and stuff in was to create an aggravator if there was serious injury or death. That is all we're doing, basically creating an aggravator." He repeated the House floor amendment narrowed the scope. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR suggested that the choices being offered are either to delete the House floor amendment or clarify it by deleting "motor equipment" and inserting the words "motor vehicles," which is defined in statute, and then providing for additional clean-up language, including statutory references to "firearms" and "watercraft." SENATOR THERRIAULT asked Representative Rokeberg to recount the discussion on "motorized equipment" versus "motorized vehicle." REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG said some wordsmithing was done to make sure that ATVs and snowmobiles were included. SENATOR THERRIAULT noted that those vehicles will not be included in the definition of "motor vehicle." MS. CARPENETI told members if the bill cross references AS 28.40.100, snow machines will be included. SENATOR DONLEY said that he tends to agree that the original language is better because he can think of some scenarios involving activities other than operating motorized equipment, firearms or watercraft that this bill should apply to. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR agreed. He suggested amending CSHB 330(FIN)am by deleting the words "operating motorized equipment, firearms or watercraft" on page 1, lines 12 and 13. SENATOR DONLEY asked Chairman Taylor his opinion of retaining the word "acting" throughout the bill as that word was added by the House Finance Committee. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR questioned whether anything substantive was added to the bill by inserting the word "acting." REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG explained that the word "acting" was included by the legal drafter to make the provisions symmetrical. MS. CARPENETI said it was actually included by the House Finance Committee at her suggestion. The committee wanted to clarify that the person was acting under the influence of the alcohol that was illegally furnished. She was not sure its addition actually clarifies the causal relationship. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR maintained that it does clarify that the adult can only be involved if the minor was under the influence of the alcoholic beverage received in violation of this section. SENATOR DONLEY asked Ms. Carpeneti if she could recommend other language. MS. CARPENETI said she would recommend using the House Judiciary Committee language. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR maintained that Amendment 1 would return the bill to the House Judiciary Committee version. He then noted that without further discussion or objection, Amendment 1 was adopted. There being no further discussion, SENATOR DONLEY moved SCS CSHB 330(JUD) from committee with individual recommendations and its accompanying fiscal notes. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR announced that without objection, SCS CSHB 330 (JUD) moved from committee.