SB 24-SPORT FISHING GUIDING SERVICES  3:35:10 PM CO-CHAIR WAGONER announced SB 24 to be up for consideration. [CSSB 24( ), labeled 27-LS0278\I, was before the committee.] MICHAEL PAWLOWSKI, staff to Senator Lesil McGuire, sponsor of SB 24, said the Department of Fish and Game representatives were asked to talk about the enforcement provisions in the current draft, in particular AS 08.57.220 on page 13, the responsibility provisions. 3:36:51 PM AL CAIN, Division of Sport Fish, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), explained that section (1) on page 14 [Section .220] makes the guide, outfitter or transporter responsible when a client commits a violation in their presence. He didn't see any culpable mental state stated; Section .200, the civil penalties provision, would come into play for that. An example would be a client on a boat catching too many fish while the guide wasn't paying attention. But the guide could not be issued a citation for the same violation that the client had committed in those circumstances. Section (2) requires that the guide expressly (or implied) authorizes an unlawful act; in that case the guide would be equally responsible for that violation. He could be sentenced under Section .210, the criminal provisions. 3:39:46 PM SENATOR STEDMAN asked how the guide or the assistant guide is tied back to the outfitter. There seems to be occasions when the behavior of the guide is condoned by the people that own or manage particular lodges; and then they have the tendency of claiming they are just hiring an individual contract worker. MR. CAIN said he didn't see any provision allowing that connection under Section .210 in the bill. And by outfitter, he assumed that he meant the actual guide; current law provides for operators who employ guides; those premises change in SB 24 to "a guide who employs assistant guides." He asked if Senator Stedman meant how the guide who is not on the boat but who is the employer of the assistant guide is made responsible. SENATOR STEDMAN said yes. MR. CAIN said he didn't see a provision that allows for that connection. Under Section .210 he sees "a person who is licensed under the chapter who commits or aides in the commission of a violation or permits the client to commit a violation." That language infers the guide or assistant guide who is out on the boat and does not make the actual guide who is back at the lodge responsible. Current language in AS 16.40.260 makes the operator liable for inappropriate actions committed by the guides they employ. At this time SB 24 doesn't capture that element. SENATOR STEDMAN suggested they look at strengthening that language, because there are some lodges that condone egregious violations of the state's fish and game laws. It's very difficult to go back to the lodge owner from a guided sport boat when he is not on the boat. 3:42:53 PM CO-CHAIR PASKVAN said he had heard over the years in the construction trades a general contractor, for example, hires sheetrock workers not as employees but as independent contractors, and the question is if a lodge operator would use an artifice to create a mechanism to avoid a liability for egregious conduct. CO-CHAIR WAGONER agreed that language needed to be looked at and thanked Mr. Cain for his testimony. 3:44:01 PM CO-CHAIR WAGONER said he had an amendment to restrict public members to current commercial fishers not one person who has been a commercial fisherman. He also had an amendment to delete the waiver for the Kenai River Special Management area that is already in statute. CO-CHAIR WAGONER said SB 24 would be held for further work.