HOUSE RULES STANDING COMMITTEE March 5, 1997 5:20 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Representative Pete Kott, Chairman Representative Gail Phillips Representative Brian Porter Representative Bill Williams Representative Kim Elton Representative Al Vezey MEMBERS ABSENT Representative Irene Nicholia COMMITTEE CALENDAR Approval of Professional Services Contract with Ron Sommerville PREVIOUS ACTION No previous action to record. WITNESS REGISTER PAMELA VARNI, Executive Director Legislative Affairs Agency 130 Seward Street, Suite 313 Juneau, Alaska 99801-2197 Telephone: (907) 465-3800 POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions regarding Mr. Sommerville. TED POPELY, Legislative Assistant House and Senate Majority Capitol Building, Room 208 Juneau, Alaska 99811 Telephone: (907) 465-3720 POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions regarding Mr. Sommerville. ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 97-8, SIDE A Number 001 CHAIRMAN PETE KOTT called the House Rules Standing Committee to order at 5:20 p.m. Members present at the call to order were Representatives Porter, Williams, Elton, Vezey, Phillips and Kott. APPROVAL OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT WITH RON SOMMERVILLE Number 021 CHAIRMAN KOTT said before the committee is the contractual professional services contract between the House Rules Committee and Ron Sommerville, approving, rejecting or amending the contract in the amount of $25,000. The contract commenced on February 1, and terminates August 1. The reason the House Rules Committee is taking up the issue is because the money will come out of the session budget. Number 031 REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS made a motion to accept the contract for Ron Sommerville in the amount of $25,000, excluding reimbursement for expenses, and that the contract be in effect until August 1. Number 038 REPRESENTATIVE BRIAN PORTER objected for the purpose of discussion. CHAIRMAN KOTT said there is a motion before the committee to accept the contract and there was an objection. Number 044 PAMELA VARNI, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs Agency, came before the committee. She stated the contract is a professional services contract, which means the accounting section would be paying Mr. Sommerville versus him being on staff. It would save the legislature money because he is not being paid for leave, health and other benefits that state employees receive. Ms. Varni explained Mr. Sommerville has been on contract before. She noted the agency does budget, under session expenses, for professional service contracts. CHAIRMAN KOTT said it is his understanding that Mr. Sommerville will report to the project director, Ted Popely. Number 060 MS. VARNI indicated that is correct. She informed the committee members Mr. Popely works for the House and Senate majority. Most of the time he is the project director for a lot of the professional service contracts that the legislature has. REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS indicated Mr. Popely could discuss how the legislature has used Mr. Sommerville's services. Number 069 TED POPELY, Legislative Assistant, House and Senate Majority, came before the committee. He said he works closely with Mr. Sommerville. He noted that in the past, he has been a contract employee with the legislature. Mr. Popely explained in the committee members' files there is a break down of some of the work that Mr. Sommerville has done with the legislature. He said most of the issues he has been assigned involves state and federal issues, such as subsistence management, fisheries regulations, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), RS2477 rights-of-way, etc. Mr. Popely stated Mr. Sommerville has been an integral factor in most of the work he has had to do. Mr. Sommerville has assisted and consulted on issues and has performed various tasks such as drafting testimony for individual legislators to be given before congressional and state committees. Mr. Sommerville has also corresponded with federal agencies and has contacts with other assorted state and federal government officials. He has preformed a substantial amount of research in these areas and has an extensive working historical knowledge of many issues as a result of his 20 plus years with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game where he served as a wildlife biologist prior to his retirement. Mr. Sommerville's services have been valuable. Number 138 REPRESENTATIVE KIM ELTON asked how many contracts has Mr. Sommerville had, how far back do they go and what is the total amount. MR. POPELY indicated Mr. Sommerville has been working since 1995. He has had a contract that has been extended from 1995 until the present. His total for the last two calendar years has been about $97,000. This extension, the $25,000, would be on top of that. He noted it has been written in increments of $25,000 for six month periods. He has been billing at $40 an hour, and will be billing at $50 under the current contract. Mr. Sommerville performs a substantial amount of work pro bono and limits himself to a certain number of hours per day. Number 138 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON indicated he used to administer contracts with the Executive Branch and under the Executive Branch rules, any contract that was over $10,000 you had to solicit three bids. If it was over $25,000, you had to go to the full bid process. Representative Elton said the contract administrators would always be looking over his shoulders to make sure they aren't inappropriately broken up. He asked what the rules are for legislative appropriations, contracts and why there has been a series of $25,000 contracts. Representative Elton said he could make a good argument, as the history indicates, that there is a full expectation that he is going to be recontracted. He questioned why this is being done in a series of contracts. Number 154 MS. VARNI explained under the legislature's procurement procedures, we don't have to solicit for professional services if it is $25,000 or under. Once it exceeds $25,000 or above, unless it's for legal services. Legal services does not fit into this solicitation procedure. She explained the procurement procedures for the legislature are a lot stricter than the Executive Branch. It is like going out and hiring an attorney, you know who you want to hire and who has the expertise in that field. She said in a lot of instances someone will start out with a $10,000 or $25,000 contract and then realize they need additional work with someone that has the expertise. She said if that is the case, there is documentation that the person can provide the required service and that is why they didn't go out to bid. In Mr. Sommerville's case, the contract isn't an amendment because he has taken on additional responsibilities. She referred to the statement of work and what he is providing for the House and Senate and said it is currently a lot different than what his original contract said. Ms. Varni explained Senate Rules approved Mr. Sommerville's contracts before. A lot of his work was provided to both the House and Senate minority leaders so they could share in the information he was providing. Number 188 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said he has asked Mr. Sommerville to provide his biweekly reports and he has been very good about doing that. He said his concern is that somebody could come in and say, "What you're doing is you're artificially limiting this contract to the exact amount beyond what you don't need to do this and you're doing it in a series." That leads to the perception of a problem that this is being done in order to get beyond the contract provision. He asked if the provisions are part of law or if they are legislative operating procedures. MS. VARNI explained it isn't in statute. She said it says in Title 36 that the legislature will adopt procurement procedures that are consistent with the Executive Branch. We have procurement procedures that have been adopted by the Legislative Council. Mr. Varni said there are a lot of contracts that are for $15,000, $20,000 or $25,000 and they don't go beyond that. The ones that are amended because of certain circumstances, there is documentation to substantiate why it is exceed the $25,000. Number 213 REPRESENTATIVE AL VEZEY said he isn't aware that any professional service contracts are put out to bid, at least not in the state of Alaska. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said the contracts he has been involved with were if it was a professional service contract over $10,000, they had to solicit from three people. If it was over $25,000, you had to go through the full request for proposals (RFP) process. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said the professional services contracts he is familiar with in excess of $1 million are not bid. He said you qualify the professionals and then the fee is negotiated. There may be another category of professional services where they don't feel it's really professional. MS. VARNI said she believes Representative Vezey is talking about engineering contracts, where that is true. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said when you get the professionals and experts, the procurement code provides that the state, as an owner, can choose the expert that best fits the needs. MS. VARNI said the Executive Branch may have that policy, but the legislature does not. When the contracts exceed $10,000, there is a typed contract they enter into with someone. Professional services above $25,000 would go out to bid. Number 248 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said he would strongly suggest we look at adjusting our procurement regulations. There is a big difference between contracting for services and contracting for professional services. He said there many many cases where prospective bidders are not qualified to go out and service. MS. VARNI said that is correct and she does have some suggested changes for the legislative procurement procedures. She noted they are drafted, but she hasn't had a chance to meet with Representative Barnes to see whether she is in agreement with the suggested changes. She noted the changes would need eight votes from the Legislative Council. Number 262 REPRESENTATIVE BRIAN PORTER said he thinks the statutory requirement would have a process that would be somewhat of an (indisc.) to the state's procurement code. The state procurement code allows for full source contracts and RFPs. This is similar to those processes. He said he would remove his objection. Number 273 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said he would like an understanding of what the rules are. He said, "If I were going to go back to Washington, D.C., what kind of access would have to help for testimony or speech or if I were going to be visiting professional offices (indisc.) Mr. Sommerville or somebody that's under contract. I guess the Rules Committee is the agency." Number 280 Representative Phillips said if Representative Elton or another member were to go the Washington, D.C. and testify on behalf of the House of Representatives, Mr. Sommerville helps prepare all of the documentation. If a member were to go in their own, he wouldn't help. It has to be done on behalf of the House of Representatives, as a whole. CHAIRMAN KOTT said there is a motion before the committee to accept the contract between the House Rules Committee and Ron Sommerville. He asked if there was an objection. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON objected. A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Phillips, Porter, Vezey, Williams and Kott voted in favor of the motion. Representative Elton voted against the motion. Chairman Kott said the contract was accepted by the House Rules Committee. ADJOURNMENT CHAIRMAN KOTT adjourned the House Rules Committee meeting at 5:40 p.m.