SB 265-SEX OFFENDERS & CHILD KIDNAPPERS    CHAIR McGUIRE announced the consideration of SB 265. 9:06:54 AM TREVOR FULTON, Staff to Senator McGuire, Alaska State Legislature, said the state sex offender registry is popular and effective in identifying convicted sex offenders in communities. The Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) has the most complete data base in Alaska. SB 265 combines the resources of the PFD division and the Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry. By withholding PFDs from sex offenders that are out of compliance with the registry, SB 265 aims to bring in the one out of ten sex offenders who have not registered. It provides an incentive to register, so it will reduce the burden on law enforcement of tracking down non-compliers. Most importantly, SB 265 gives Alaskans an improved means to identify convicted sex offenders who may be living in their community. MR. FULTON said CSSB 265(TRA), Version M, is before the committee. The committee took a brief at-ease at 9:09:46 AM. 9:11:39 AM CHAIR MCGUIRE said a cursory look at those out of compliance revealed that about two thirds would have applied for and qualified for the PFD. SENATOR BUNDE said a memo from Tam Cook [Director, Legislative Legal Services] notes that a convicted felon is not eligible for a PFD, and he asked if that prohibition ends after serving time. DEBBIE RICHTER, Director, Permanent Fund Dividend Division, Department of Revenue, said the sex offender would only be denied a dividend while incarcerated. KATHY MONFREDA, Chief, Criminal Records Bureau, Department of Public Safety, said the department supports SB 265. It is an opportunity to improve compliance. Two thirds of non-compliant sex offenders applied for a dividend check last year. 9:15:15 AM SENATOR BUNDE asked if the PFD division will withhold the dividend and notify law enforcement if SB 265 passes. MS. RICHTER said her division does not address the sex offender registry at all. A match is made with the Department of Corrections for people incarcerated with misdemeanors or felonies. The division will not deny the dividend under SB 265, but would withhold payment for one year until the offender becomes compliant. SENATOR BUNDE asked if she will notify the department. MS. RICHTER said information will be coming from the Department of Public Safety. Eligibility work will need to be done because the sex offender would need to prove compliance. 9:17:38 AM SENATOR BUNDE said he doesn't understand the process. CHAIR MCGUIRE said the process will be established. The point is to bring sex offenders into compliance when applying for a dividend. Currently a similar process works for those who are convicted criminals. She has been working with Ms. Monfreda and Ms. Richter to come up with a process and doesn't want to dictate every minute detail in statute. This will just tell them to do it, and they will come up with a system. 9:19:04 AM SENATOR FRENCH said, "I would assume that should the dividend be delayed and should the sex offender who isn't registered with the right address [indecipherable] convicted during that year, during the period of delay, then the dividend will be denied." MS. RICHTER said that is correct. SENATOR FRENCH said he is no friend of sex offenders, but many of the failures to register are highly technical, and sometimes it is a matter of being one day behind. It can be a paperwork problem, and so it seems fair to hold back on the dividend for the time and see if the prosecutor has a strong case. If the person is convicted of failure to register, then the dividend is withheld. If it turns out the case is dropped and the sex offender is registered at the right address - which is really the idea - then "all is well." 9:20:22 AM CHAIR MCGUIRE said if the dividend was denied, it opens up the appeals process and the question of rights. If there was a legitimate attempt to register or a paperwork problem, then there would be an administrative nightmare. SENATOR GREEN asked about the fiscal note. MS. RICHTER said the fiscal note does not address just the impact of the bill on the PFD division. SB 265 will affect every functional area of the division minimally. The situation now is that the division is backlogged in appeals. There are 4,000 appeals and the division is about 8 months behind. The eligibility staff also handles public response, "so we're not able now to deal with the volume of contact that we get during application season and during payment season." She is asking for two positions including an eligibility specialist, which takes a year to fully train. The contractual portion of the fiscal note for $96,000 is the cost of hiring the contractor to write the agency interface that the division lost when it switched to the new database system. The new system will be very efficient over time, but pieces are not written. This $96,000 writes that interface and makes this match with DPS possible. 9:23:15 AM SENATOR GREEN asked if those costs will be incurred with or without SB 265. MS. RICHTER said the division received the bid but does not have the funding to implement it. SENATOR BUNDE said that should have been a budget request. MS. RICHTER said she was not aware that this would be an unintended consequence of rolling the system over until after the budget passed. SENATOR BUNDE asked if the division is funded out of the permanent fund. MS. RICHTER said her division is funded out of money that is transferred to pay the dividends. MS. MONFREDA said her office will work out the details with the PFD division. The division fears a spate of calls from sex offenders, and she will try to minimize that. CHAIR MCGUIRE asked the percentage of people out of compliance. 9:25:18 AM MS. MONFREDA said about 90 percent of sex offenders are compliant, and the state is trying to improve that. Not all are in Alaska, and it takes an investigation to track people. CHRIS ASHENBRENNER, Executive Director, Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Juneau, said SB 265 is a great tool for tracking sex offenders for safety and accountability. SENATOR FRENCH moved to report CSSB 265(TRA) from committee with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. Hearing no objections, CSSB 265(TRA) passed out of committee.