ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE  LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL   SEPTEMBER 23, 2021  10:30 AM    MEMBERS PRESENT  Representative Sara Hannan, Chair  Senator Lora Reinbold, Vice Chair  Representative Bryce Edgmon  Representative Louise Stutes  Representative Cathy Tilton  Senator Mike Shower  Senator Bert Stedman  Senator Gary Stevens    MEMBERS ABSENT  Representative Matt Claman  Representative Neal Foster  Representative Chris Tuck  Senator Click Bishop  Senator Lyman Hoffman  Senator Shelley Hughes (alternate)  Senator Peter Micciche    OTHER MEMBERS PRESENT  Representative Harriet Drummond    AGENDA  CALL TO ORDER  APPROVAL OF AGENDA  APPROVAL OF MINUTES  COMMITTEE BUSINESS  COMMITTEE BUSINESS EXECUTIVE SESSION  ADJOURN    SPEAKER REGISTER  Jessica Geary, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs  Agency (LAA)    10:46:00 AM    I. CALL TO ORDER    CHAIR HANNAN called the Legislative Council meeting to  order at 10:46AM on September 23, 2021, in the House  Finance Room 519.    Present at the call were: Representatives Edgmon, Hannan,  Stutes, Tilton; Senators Reinbold, Shower, Stedman, and  Stevens.    Members absent were: Representatives Claman, Foster, Tuck;  Senators Bishop, Hoffman, Hughes (alternate), and Micciche.    Eight members present.    II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA    10:47:34 AM  VICE CHAIR REINBOLD moved and asked unanimous consent that  Legislative Council approve the agenda as presented.    CHAIR HANNAN, seeing no objections, approved the agenda.    III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES    10:48:44 AM  VICE CHAIR REINBOLD moved and asked unanimous consent that  the Legislative Council approve the minutes dated March 17,  2021, as presented.    CHAIR HANNAN, hearing no objections, approved the minutes  and introduced the first item of business, a briefing and  overview of pending Capitol Maintenance, and Jessica Geary,  who was present to answer Council questions.    IV. COMMITTEE BUSINESS    A. Overview of Pending Legislative Council Matters    JESSICA GEARY, Executive Director of the Legislative  Affairs Agency, said that the memo council members received  was an outline of items to be brought before the committee  for consideration either this year or next year depending  on timing. The first was the Capitol roof Jensen Yorba  Wall was preparing construction management and bid  documents, and their preliminary estimate was $1.3 million  and there were existing capital funds. She said that a  hazmat survey had been completed and there were no  hazardous materials present, and the last time the roof was  replaced was in 1993/1994. said the second item to come  before Council are contract approvals for: the Sitka LIO;  Utqiagvik LIO and Legislative Office Space; Ketchikan LIO  and Legislative Office Space; and the Thomson Reuters  Westlaw - Online Research Services contract. The third item  would be the veto of per diem by Governor Dunleavy which  meant that beginning the January regular session, there  would be no funds available for regular session per diem,  and that she would be presenting scenarios for the  committees consideration. The last item would be a  potential amendment to Legislative Procurement Procedures,  to be presented at a future meeting by JC Kestel,  Procurement Officer. She paused to take any questions  before continuing.    SENATOR STEVENS asked Ms. Geary for options on Governor  Dunleavys veto issue; he stated that one issue was to  simply not fund the governors per diem but was interested  in hearing options other than that.    MS. GEARY said the options as she saw them were for  Legislative Council to approve transfers to cover per diem  from the existing budget authorization and then recommend  to the Finance subcommittee that a supplemental fund be  backfilled to replace the almost $2 million. She said those  were the only two options she had been able to come up  with, but that it would need to be dealt with through the  budget process.    SENATOR STEVENS asked if that would mean per diem could be  provided as early as January.    MS. GEARY said yes, if the transfers were approved to cover  per diem in the interim, if it was the will of the  committee, per diem could be paid beginning the first day  of session.    SENATOR STEVENS thanked Ms. Geary and the Chair, and said  he assumed members would proceed with that and get this  taken care of. It was totally absurd, he said, for Governor  Dunleavy to think that legislators should all go to Juneau  and not receive per diem for the cost of living. He said if  that was the case, there likely would have been several  legislators who would not have run due to not being able to  afford to participate in law-making. He said he hoped it  was an issue Chair Hannan would address.    CHAIR HANNAN thanked Senator Stevens and said it was her  full intention to address this issue before the beginning  of regular session in January of 2022. She said she  anticipated there would be a couple more Legislative  Council meetings between now and the start of session.    VICE-CHAIR REINBOLD echoed Senator Stevens comments. She  stated she was concerned even though she was often one of  the lowest per diem-takers. She thought it was important  due to the costs involved for lawmakers with special  sessions being repeatedly called. She said perhaps members  could take a step further and look at all the executive  branch per diem and if Governor Dunleavy was going to throw  stones, perhaps the Legislature could investigate members  of the Executive Branch who were taking per diem, required  to be in Juneau, and often not. She thanked the Chair.    CHAIR HANNAN, seeing no further comments, asked Ms. Geary  to continue with subcommittee updates.    MS. GEARY stated that a few of these updates were a bit  premature because currently two of the subcommittees were  in the planning stages: the Security subcommittee and the  Assembly Building subcommittee. The IT subcommittee was  already formed, she said, and reminded members of the  recent security breaches to the Executive and Judicial  branches. She said LAAs IT Manager, Tim Banaszak, had been  working closely with his counterparts in the other branches  to be able to best prevent what had happened to them from  happening to the Legislature and might need to bring some  items before the committee for action. She said the  telephone systems were due for replacement and the IT  Department were considering a few pilot programs to see  what would best fit, and once a decision was made between  those, it would be presented to Council. She said if it was  alright with the Chair, she would wait to give detail on  the other two items until they reached that point in the  agenda.    SPEAKER STUTES asked if the IT Department had begun  replacing the telephone system, because she had been  calling a staff member of hers from Kodiak and kept hearing  a message that said the number was no longer in service, so  she had been resorting to calling him on his cell phone.    MS. GEARY said that to her knowledge, the replacement had  not yet begun, so she believed this could be an isolated  incident, but the IT Department would be happy to  investigate this issue and follow up with the Speaker.    SPEAKER STUTES said that would be great, and she would  appreciate it.    VICE-CHAIR REINBOLD said she was recently in Juneau and  found ninety-three messages on her phone even though she  had forwarded the phone to her district office and was  surprised to learn that if the phone did not get picked up  in the office, it would bounce back to the Juneau phone for  message recording. She asked for assistance with this issue  and wanted to remind others this had been an issue for  several years and would appreciate a reminder on how to  forward a phone and have it stay forwarded and not end up  reaching Juneau.    MS. GEARY said she would be happy to send out more frequent  reminders, and that hopefully with the new web-based phone  system, issues like this would not be problems in the  future.    B. Formation of Assembly Building Utilization Subcommittee    10:59:12 AM  CHAIR HANNAN, seeing no further questions, announced she  was forming a subcommittee for utilization of the Assembly  Building to produce recommendations for the best use of the  assembly building for the benefit of the legislature and  its service agencies. She said she would chair the  subcommittee, and its membership would include the  Legislative Affairs Agency Executive Director, Jessica  Geary, or her designee; the Facilities Manager, Serge Lesh;  Senators Kiehl, Stedman, and Bishop; and Representatives  Edgmon and Tuck. She asked if there were any questions and  gave the floor to Ms. Geary.    MS. GEARY said members are aware that Legislative Council  voted on August 16, 2021, to accept the donation from the  Juneau Community Foundation with the intent that, until  this committee had a chance to consider potential options  for use of the building, that no large expenses would be  made. She then highlighted some of the possible options,  which she expected the new subcommittee would explore and  research. Her list included: Legislative housing  (apartments); renovating to replace current leases as they  expired; continuing to lease space to current tenants to  offset building maintenance costs; utilizing in some way  the buildings underground parking garage with nineteen  spots; possible Legislative office space perhaps  relocating the Print Shop, storage, Ombudsmans Office all  of which the Legislature currently pays rent for in non- Legislative buildings, as well as possible relocation of  the Capitol Press Room and Legislative Mail Room from the  Capitol. She updated members about current projects within  existing procurement authority, including replacement of  rusted-out fire doors, the underground storage tank with an  above-ground storage tank, new garage door and openers,  rekeying of the locks for security reasons, as well as  completion of an environmental hazard survey. She told  members they had copies of the buildings current floor  plans and said she would be happy to take any questions.    SENATOR SHOWER said that last meeting, he made it clear he  was not a fan of accepting the gift of the Assembly  Building as he believed it was going to cost the  Legislature money rather than the predictions of other  members that it would save money or even provide income. He  said he would believe it when he saw it and asked that  Council members be kept apprised of costs as projects moved  forward.    CHAIR HANNAN said that she would keep members apprised.    REPRESENTATIVE TILTON seconded Senator Showers request,  and further recommended to the new subcommittee that they  confer with support staff and staff who had been working in  the Capitol for many years, as they could have good ideas  about the new space.    CHAIR HANNAN thanked Representative Tilton and said she  would, and further explained that she kept the committee  small to keep it manageable but did not intend it to be an  exclusive group working in isolation. Seeing no further  questions or comments, she moved to the next order of  business, requiring members to go into Executive Session to  discuss formation of a subcommittee on Legislative Security  and a contract for snow removal at the Anchorage  Legislative Office Building (LOB).      V. ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE BUSINESS - EXECUTIVE SESSION    A. Formation of Legislative Facilities Security  Subcommittee  B. Anchorage LOB Snow Removal Contract    11:06:19 AM  VICE-CHAIR REINBOLD moved and asked unanimous consent that  Legislative Council go into Executive Session under Uniform  Rule 22(B)(1), discussion of matters, the immediate  knowledge of which would adversely affect the finances of a  government unit and 22(B)(3), discussion of a matter that  may, by law, be required to be confidential. The following  individuals were permitted to remain in the room or on-line  for the entirety of the executive session: Jessica Geary,  JC Kestel, Rayme Vinson, Sant Lesh, Megan Wallace, Emily  Nauman, Helen Phillips, Jodie Murdock, Bree Wylie, any  Legislators not on Legislative Council, and any staff of  Legislative Council members.    11:07:06 AM  A roll call vote was taken.    YEAS: Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Stutes, Tilton;  Senators Reinbold, Shower, Stedman, Stevens.    NAYS: None.    The motion was approved 8-0.    11:07:43 AM  Council went into Executive Session.    11:26:11 AM  Council came out of Executive Session. A roll call vote was  taken to confirm a quorum.    Present at the call were: Representatives Edgmon, Hannan,  Stutes, Tilton; Senators Reinbold, Shower, Stedman,  Stevens.    Eight members present, maintaining a quorum.    CHAIR HANNAN said for the record that she had formed a  subcommittee of the Council to consider improvements to  Security at the Capitol and other Legislative Facilities.  She said the subcommittee would be chaired by Chief of  Security, Rayme Vinson, and if any members were interested  in serving on that subcommittee, they should email Tim  Clark, her Chief of Staff.    11:27:44 AM  VICE-CHAIR REINBOLD moved that the Legislative Council  approve the award of RFP 647 for Anchorage Snow Removal  Services to A-1 Lawn and Landscaping for a one-year  contract and a five-year option one-year renewal with a  budget not to exceed the value of $65,000 per contract  year.    CHAIR HANNAN objected for purposes of discussion and asked  Mr. Kestel to briefly summarize the contract.    JC KESTEL, Procurement Officer, Legislative Affairs Agency,  said LAA issued RFP 647 to solicit proposals for snow  removal services at the Anchorage Legislative Office  Building. He said members had copies of the bid abstract  from the bids that were received, and that LAA recommended  the contract be awarded to A-1 Lawn and Landscaping, who  proposed the lowest total price on the RFQ, and said he  would be happy to answer any questions.    11:29:03 AM  A roll call vote was taken.    YEAS: Representatives Edgmon, Hannan, Stutes, Tilton;  Senators Reinbold, Shower, Stedman.    NAYS: None.    11:30:08 AM   An at-ease was taken.    11:31:58 AM  The at-ease ended.    CHAIR HANNAN said that members had been in the middle of a  roll call vote, and asked Ms. Kiesel to continue.    SENATOR STEVENS said he was disconnected and was now back  with the Council.    CHAIR HANNAN thanked him and said that Ms. Kiesel was going  to ask for his vote.    SENATOR STEVENS voted yea.    With 8 yeas and 0 nays, the motion was approved.    VI. ADJOURN    11:32:36 AM  Adjourn.