SB 392-REGULATORY COMMISSION OF ALASKA  CHAIR CON BUNDE announced SB 392 to be up for consideration and said that it was requested by the administration. MR. DANIEL PATRICK, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Regulatory Affairs, Department of Law (DOL), said the need for this bill arises as a result of last year's Executive Order 111, which transferred the responsibility for advocacy on behalf of the public in utility matters from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) to the Attorney General's Office. That has already occurred. SB 392 is essentially a compliment to that bill. The RCA personnel who were responsible for that advocacy now act under the direction of the DOL. This bill would complete that transfer of control by expressly providing four aspects of its execution. They are: 1. The bill would clarify that regulatory cost charge receipts, not general funds, will continue to pay of the costs of public advocacy, but now administered by the Department of Law - just as those off-budget receipts historically paid for the advocacy costs when the function was performed within the RCA. 2. The bill modifies the regulatory cost charge ceiling and creates two distinct budget components - one for the RCA and one for the DOL public advocacy function in order to provide each entity with budgetary independence from the other. The purpose for that is that the RCA, in its context, functions as the adjudicator and the Department of Law, as the public advocate, will be an advocate before them as a party and it's important that there be independence between the two as in any judicial or quasi- judicial setting. 3. The bill provides the Department of Law with qualified access to utility or pipeline carrier records, again similar to that that was afforded the RCA's former public advocacy staff in order to maintain efficient economical access to information. 4. Finally, the bill clarifies that state agencies are exempt from paying the allocated costs of RCA proceedings to which the state agency is a party, because there is no net fiscal benefit in the current arrangement. You have one state agency, that from time to time and unexpectedly, may cost- allocate to another state agency and then that state agency, whether it's the state as the state or the Department of Law public advocate, would come to the Legislature to get a supplemental to pay those costs. So, it would eliminate that exercise. MR. PATRICK summarized that the bill completes the consolidation of the public advocacy function within the DOL and gives that function budgetary independence for the RCA. It provides the advocate with qualified access to records and it eliminates the inefficiency by exempting key agencies from paying RCA allocated costs. MR. PAT LUBY, Advocacy Director, AARP, said it has 76,000 members in Alaska, all of whom consume utilities. He said: All too often the RCA is perceived as a referee between competing utilities as they battle for market share. From AARP's perspective, the RCA is our voice, our watchdog, our public advocate in the utility marketplace. Now that the responsibilities for public advocacy have been shifted to the Attorney General's Office, we know that the budget will always be limited. The cost of representing the public on utility issues should not have to be weighed in comparison with other important functions in the AG's office. If the issues before the RCA do not, in effect, cost the Attorney General some of his limited budget, he would be more comfortable allowing his staff to proceed as necessary and appropriate knowing the utilities will be picking up the cost. This is as it should be. AARP families need the RCA, we need them to have the budget and the staff to do the investigations necessary for all utility issues and we encourage your support of SB 392. SENATOR STEVENS moved to pass SB 392 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.