SB 195-PAY INCREASES FOR EXEMPT EMPLOYEES  4:38:01 PM CHAIR SHOWER announced the consideration of SENATE BILL NO. 195 "An Act relating to the compensation of certain public officials, officers, and employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements; and providing for an effective date." He asked the sponsor to give the committee a high level summary of the bill. 4:38:40 PM SENATOR JESSE KIEHL, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, sponsor of SB 195, stated that this is the pay catch-up bill for state employees who are not in a union. It covers the exempt and partially exempt employees, which includes most staff at the Legislative Affairs Agency, all of the Department of Law, the bailiffs, clerks, and staff attorneys in the Judicial Branch, and most state corporations. He said it is a matter of fairness to bring these employees along who already lag union employees by one cycle. 4:40:06 PM CHAIR SHOWER relayed that a constituent asked why state employees shouldn't negotiate their own contracts and bargain for a better pay scale as opposed to having the legislature do the collective bargaining through legislation like SB 195. 4:41:34 PM SENATOR KIEHL said that if each employee were to negotiate independently for pay and benefits, the state would need to make a significant investment in human resource specialists to do the negotiations. SB 195 doesn't propose such a change, but it does propose to amend the salary schedule that is set in law up to the level that union employees have achieved in the past. SENATOR KAWASAKI asked why the Legislative Affairs Agency and legislative employees have not entered a collective bargaining agreement. SENATOR KIEHL said he couldn't answer directly, but he did know that sometime in the past an adjustment to the pay schedule did not provide the same step adjustment to employees of the judicial branch as others had gotten. Those judicial employees organized and negotiated a contract that included that missing pay step. That ended at some point, but ever since then those judicial employees have been included fully whenever the pay schedule was adjusted. SENATOR KAWASAKI asked if he believes that adjusting the pay schedule by law might soften the resolve of the legislative branch to organize itself. SENATOR KIEHL said he believes that employees are best suited under federal labor law and the Public Employee Relations Act to decide for themselves whether or not to be represented by a union. He added that anybody who thought it would be a good idea to organize, would be further motivated by looking at the nearly three-year lag time on these pay adjustments. 4:45:23 PM CHAIR SHOWER opened public testimony on SB 195. 4:45:46 PM BETSY BULL, representing self, Anchorage, Alaska, stated that she is a prosecutor in Anchorage and she supports SB 195 as just a starting point, because it does not address the recruitment and retention problems the Department of Law faces each day. For example, a colleague was assigned 100 sex cases, a couple of which were homicides. During that time she received and accepted an offer from Washington State. That job included a pension, a 20 percent salary increase, an annual 25 percent cost of living adjustment, a merit increase, equal paid time off, sick leave, and compensation for all on duty hours that were in addition to the regularly scheduled work. She received those benefits and a 70 percent reduction in case load. Ms. Bull said the Department of Law isn't even competing on the same playing field. MS. BULL relayed that when an attorney leaves DOL employment, those who remain have to pick up the caseload. It causes some to wonder why they should continue to work 60/hours/week when they're paid for just 37.5/hours/week. Their last cost of living increase was nearly seven years ago. MS. BULL reported that last year alone she carried more than 100 sex and homicide cases and was on duty 24/7 for 22 weeks. None of the extra time was compensated. She recounted that it was common for DOL attorneys to work 80/hours/week during trial and to give advice on complex cases to detectives and members of multidisciplinary teams, all of whom have higher base salaries than their own. She urged the committee to pass SB 195, and to recognize that it was a small step in the right direction. 4:50:04 PM CHAIR SHOWER closed public testimony on SB 195. SENATOR KIEHL thanked the chair and committee for hearing the bill. He also noted that the bill did not apply to those exempt employees who are represented by a union. 4:50:43 PM CHAIR SHOWER held SB 195 for future consideration.