JOINT SENATE/HOUSE LABOR AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE March 3, 1994 4:10 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Steve Rieger, Vice-Chairman Senator Judy Salo MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Tim Kelly, Chairman Senator Bert Sharp Senator Georgianna Lincoln COMMITTEE CALENDAR SS FOR HOUSE SPECIAL CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 3 Disapproving Executive Order No. 89. PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION SSHSCR 3 - NO PREVIOUS ACTION. WITNESS REGISTER Jack Slama, Secretary/Treasurer Teamsters Local 595 P.O. Box 102092 Anchorage, Alaska 99510 POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SSHSCR 3. Helvi Sandvic, Deputy Commissioner Department of Transportation and Public Facilities 3132 Channel Drive Juneau, Alaska 99801-7898 POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SSHSCR 3. ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 94-18(House), SIDE A Number 410 CHAIRMAN BILL HUDSON adjourned the House Labor and Commerce Committee meeting and reconvened the meeting as a Joint House/Senate Labor and Commerce Committee meeting at 3:35 p.m. REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON invited SENATOR STEVE RIEGER, Vice-Chairman and SENATOR JUDY SALO, committee member, for the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, to the table. CO-CHAIRMAN RIEGER thanked REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON and pointed out that Senate Labor & Commerce has had a hearing on Executive Order No. 89, but not the bill before the joint committee, but with some of the same testimony. SENATOR RIEGER explained he had a prior commitment and would be leaving before the end of the meeting. REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON reintroduced SSHSCR 3 (DISAPPROVING EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 89) and the prime sponsor, REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS, to the joint committee. He checked with some of those present from the administration who might wish to testify. JACK SLAMA, representing Teamsters Local 595, was asked to continue his testimony. MR. SLAMA reiterated his request that the State be an advocate for the trucking industry, not an advisary, and suggested Executive Order No. 89 would be a quick fix on a proposed change. He asked the legislature not to transfer weights and measures into the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, since he thought the present setup was a good "check and balance" system. MR. SLAMA also thought there needed to be a commitment from this Administration to not only fund the system, but seek advice from within the industry to participate in the process. REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON thanked MR. SLAMA for his testimony, and called on REPRESENTATIVE BILL WILLIAMS for his questions. REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAMS charged MR. SLAMA with making some strong comments about their perceived treatment by the Administration, and he said he hoped they don't treat him "like a dog." He wondered why MR. SLAMA didn't want to be within the department dealing with transportation. REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAMS also questioned MR. SLAMA'S charge that COMMISSIONER BRUCE CAMPBELL of the Department Of Transportation and Commissioner PAUL FUHS of Commerce and Economic Development were both on the Alaska Railroad Board of Directors. Number 465 MR. SLAMA didn't believe that anyone within the Administration should sit on the Board of Directors of the Alaska Railroad, since the railroad is a direct competitor with the trucking industry. He explained that when the DOT commissioner has the ability to set axle weights and length of common length vehicles, the commissioner can extend them out or can compress them, and the trucking industry cannot compete with the railroad. He declared this a conflict of interest, because he assumes COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL is sitting on the board looking out for the interests of the Alaska Railroad. MR. SLAMA said the quote, being "treated like dogs," came from one of the biggest trucking companies in the State, when the owner said he was tired of being treated like a dog by the Administration. He explained he was referring to the past when trucking industry's complaints, requests for assistance, additional funding for compliance, opening up longer hours in the scale houses, or for more inspectors has fallen on deaf ears. MR. SLAMA concluded by saying the trucking industry is not the most polished, professional organization in the State. REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAMS agreed the railroad was competing with the truckers, and he felt the government should not compete with private enterprise. REPRESENTATIVE HUDSON thanked MR. SLAMA for his testimony and called on HELVI SANDVIC, Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Transportation, to testify. Number 495 MS. SANDVIC apologized for the absence of COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL, but she explained he would be available at the Anchorage office around 4:p.m. by phone if he was needed for specific questions. MS. SANDVIC explained she was going to focus on the reason for Executive Order No. 89, but not to imply that weights and measures was not being run properly by Commerce and Economic Development. She said the perspective of the Department of Transportation was, regardless of who is running it, improvements need to be made because the issue is the deterioration of the highway system. She said the State of Alaska is responsible for maintaining and operating the highway, with direct responsibility to the Department of Transportation. MS. SANDVIC said, because of the responsibility, her department had been working closely with Commerce and Economic Development as well as the Department of Public Safety through the enforcement program, which she said needed to be completed and approved by the Federal Highways Administration. She explained their process, work, and review with the program, and pronounced it in pretty good shape, but she thought it was important to focus on the improvement of the weights and measures program. MS. SANDVIC said the issue is the matter of efficiency, and she explained the program involved three agencies, each of which is responsible for a particular element such as the permitting process from the Department of Commerce for oversized vehicles. If there was a bridge involved, she said DOT would have to be involved to establish stipulations, the criteria under which the permit would be issued. She thought the present method is cumbersome and could be handled more efficiently in a single agency. MS. SANDVIC referenced declining budgets as a problem for Commerce and Economic Development in keeping the scale houses open in a time frame within the available funding. She praised the efforts of the Department of Commerce in working within these constraints, but she stressed the need to catch and identify the number of vehicles that are causing damage to the highways. MS. SANDVIC then described the second part of the system which involves the weight in motion system, for which the Department of Transportation is responsible, and consists of imbedding equipment into the pavement structure. When the vehicles drive over the equipment, it calculates the weight, size, speed, and the time the vehicle strikes the equipment. She explained data from the system is used to correlate against the data being collected by the scale houses in the Department of Commerce and Economic Development to determine the effectiveness of the enforcement program. MS. SANDVIC said preliminary results shown by the weigh in motion system is that a number of oversized vehicles are not being apprehended or identified at the fixed stations. She explained the weigh in motion system was also used by the Department of Transportation to collect data needed for pavement design and construction and could not be turned over to another agency such as Public Safety or Commerce and Economic Development. Number 560 MS. SANDVIC described the use of the jump scales, the setting up of portable scales to test on a random basis, and of a vehicle that is potentially overloaded or beyond the length limits. Citations can be issued on site. She said the program has not been as effective as the collective agencies would like. Again, she stressed the need to consolidate the program to comply with the Federal Highways Administration with all of the functions in the Department of Transportation. MS. SANDVIC wasn't sure of the fears expressed by MR. SLAMA. She defended the Department of Transportation as being the responsible agency in terms of highway deterioration, and the need to focus on those driving the overload vehicles. MS. SANDVIC explained the zero fiscal note and the transfer of employees from Department of Commerce and Economic Development as a cost saving. She gave a short discussion on the possible efficiencies in restructuring the program to improve all areas. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN questioned the divergence of data from the weigh in motion program and the weigh stations. He asked if it was because the weigh stations were not opened. Number 601 MS. SANDVIC said most of his reasoning was correct, and she discussed the difference in the statistics from both the weigh in motion program and the weigh station. She said the weigh station was not catching all of those identified by the weigh in motion procedure, and she gave several reasons for this. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN wanted to know how the weigh in motion program worked, and he drew from MS. SANDVIC, in a series of questions, answers about the computerized system, measuring speed, determining the distance between axles, and measuring the weight. He wanted to know whether DOT would be supplementing with additional personnel and if more money would be expended. MS. SANDVIC said it would also include close coordination between the weigh in motion personnel with those staffing the scale house to work on problem areas and problem times. Number 650 REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked MS. SANDVIC to address the conflict of interest as mentioned by MR. SLAMA. MS. SANDVIC said she was not clear on his question of conflict of interest, but she did admit that both COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL and COMMISSIONER FUHS sat on the Board of Directors for the Alaska Railroad. She thought the focus of COMMISSIONER CAMPBELL was very much directed to the condition of the highways and his concern for the deterioration of the highways in relation to oversized vehicles. At this point SENATOR STEVE RIEGER left the meeting for another, as did the records clerk. SENATOR SALO remained in the committee.