Left Over Shots From the Capitol - Ethics, Transit, Cell Phones

Here are some shots that didn't make it into the blog last week of legislators.

The Legislative Ethics Committee met last week.  This is a joint Senate and House committee plus there are some public members.  From their website,  

The Select Committee on Legislative Ethics is responsible for:

· Helping people understand and comply with the Alaska Legislative Ethics Code,
· Issuing formal advisory opinions interpreting the ethics code,
· Considering complaints alleging violations of the code and
· Maintaining public files of disclosure statements

A couple of issues they discussed were:

1.   An attorney in the legislative legal office had interpreted the laws to mean that when legislators travel on state money for state business, they are NOT allowed to do anything that could be construed as campaigning.  The case that brought about this ruling was, if I have my facts straight, about someone who went to a fundraiser or some such overt campaign activity on such a trip.  This apparently wasn't a big part of the trip, but it was ruled as a violation of the rules.
   
   Now other legislators are concerned that they cannot do anything - even talk to anyone - in a way that remotely relates to campaigning.  Legislative members pointed out that being a legislator was inherently political and with the financial realities of modern day politics, as soon as they take office, they have to start campaigning for the next election.  When they speak to constituents,  someone could consider that campaigning.  Another legislator said that she was not even allowed (they can ask for advisory opinions from the ethics committee if they have doubts) to stop by campaign headquarters on a trip to Anchorage to check on potential candidates for an upcoming election. 
   
   Concerns were raised at another committee meeting and before the ethics committee was a proposal to get a second opinion on this.  Someone questioned the expense of a second opinion, someone else said for political reasons, it would be advisable.  The original attorney said that their office would welcome a second opinion.  They voted to get a second opinion. 
   
   
   
2. Staff from the Information Technology (IT) office were at the meeting because the committee had questions about the feasibility of having executive sessions via teleconferencing.  A couple of the rural public members said that getting to meetings could take them three days of travel, which cut into their normal work lives.  Another member thought a meeting which might take 20 minutes could cost $50 or $60 in travel costs for all the members.  If they could do this by phone or video conference it would speed up the process and save a lot of money. 
   
   The IT staff couldn't guarantee complete confidentiality.  Using audio conferencing was more likely than video, but even then there were some ways that people could, at least for a short time, could breach security.  Plus, you can't tell if the people on the other end of the line have someone else in the room with them.  I'm leaving out a lot of the details, but the committee did feel that siince some of the issues they discuss were extremely sensitive, a breach of security was not acceptable.  This was put on hold.

 

I happened to stop in Rep. Max Gruenberg's office when Anchorage Transit Director Jody Karcz stopped in to discuss their budget and proposal they are working on.   Ms. Karcz is on the far left and Rep. Gruenberg on the right.  The Rep's staff were sitting in on the discussion.  Serious cuts have had major impacts on transit in Anchorage including the cancelling of local bus service in the Eagle River area.  (Park and Ride busses still operate.)  They will experiment, beginning March 1 I believe, with allowing regular passengers to use the Anchor Ride buses (these are normally only for the disabled).  This will only be done in the Eagle River area. 

  

 Rep. Mike Doogan testified before the House Transportation Committee in support of his bill (HB 257) to ban the use of cell phones - including hands free devices - while driving a car.  Here he was in an animated discussion with Rep. Tammie Wilson of Fairbanks who asked questions about other distractions, about pulling over to the side, and other such questions.  Rep. Kyle Johansson is looking on in the background.  Transportation Committee Chair Peggy Wilson is co-sponsor.  She mentioned that her 85 year old mother was hit by a driver using a cell phone and she had to crawl out through the passenger seat and walk over to the other driver who was still talking on her cell phone.

 

And here's a shot I couldn't resist of Rep. Jay Ramras of Fairbanks on the phone in his office about 6pm one night.

I'm a Broken Record - Juneau is Beautiful!

Third day of nothing but blue sky and sunshine.  It's comfortably warm in the sun, chilly in the shade.  And as we got higher up the trail, we got into snow.  But even though we're still exploring the same trail - Basin Road and Perseverance Trail, I'm seeing new sights and it's simply spectacular. 

 

Remember you can double click on any picture to enlarge it. 

And yes I know you've seen this sign before, but it's bigger here.

  

A man paused while I was taking this picture and asked if 

I was a  geologist. He was and he said he didn't see many people 

taking pictures of rock formations.  

 

  

  

Note the two rocks covered with a thin clear coating of ice.

 

The snow at this point was covered with hoar frost.

  

  

  

This is a frosted nut.

  

 

 
 

This is Silver Bow Basin.

"I Can" is Contagious

A friend in Pakistan sent me a link to this video.   I found it very uplifting.  While some may want more details, I do know personally that most people have far more capability than they ever use.  Finding ways to release that capability is the most powerful tool humans can ever find.  And the most hopeful.  Enjoy the video.

Juneau Keeps Being Beautiful

Each time I go up Basin Road, I go a little further. Here are some pictures from yesterday.

 

  

  

  

  

 

And in front of our place, along the south facing wall, we have tulip leaves showing already.

FASD Brief Primer with Dr. Sterling Clarren and Carolyn Hartness

Thursday I took some time to go to the FASD Conference for Southeast Alaska in Centennial Hall. I came in as Dr. Sterling Clarren was getting ready to speak. Clarren has been in on the research on FAS from almost the very beginning. This is a topic where I'm a somewhat informed amateur. My wife has had some training in this area and I was a mentor for an FASD young man.

I urge you to view at least one of Dr. Clarren's videos (they're short) and the Carolyn Hartness video (also short).

Dr. Clarren covered a lot of ground that had been somewhat blurry for me in the past and he did it incredibly well. He had things organized into neat little bits, so that the few videos I took turn out to be like mini-lectures. Instead of putting them into one long video, I've broken them down into three separate videos.

Please recognize these are just a few minutes out of a long talk. But I think anyone could learn something about this issue (and it's something everyone should understand because it has become so pervasive) from watching these three short videos. But keep in mind, these are missing the context of the whole talk.

And I've got one from Carolyn Hartness. If Dr. Clarren is clinically precise, Harkness communicates with her warmth and from the richness of her experiences with her adopted daughter.


Dr. Clarren talks about the early days as FAS was being first recognized and named.




Here Dr. Clarren talks about the FAS Face.



Dr. Clarren defines FAS and FASD and the complications of trying to define them.


Here Dr. Clarren talks about diagnosis:




And here Carolyn Hartness talks about how people have so much trouble 'getting it,' understanding how much parents of FAS kids have to do to help their kids fit into the non FAS world. And how wonderful the kids are.

Polaris Students Lobby to Make Malamute State Dog

I met a group of students from Anchorage's Polaris K-12 School at the Capitol who were in town lobbying to get the Alaskan Malamute named the Alaska State Dog.  This campaign has been going for three years and and CS (Committee Substitute) for HB 14 passed the house last April.  Now it is wending its way through Senate committees. 




Here's the bill itself, short and simple.

Constitutional Amendment to Enlarge Legislature Passes State Affairs With Changes

Rep. Seaton had an amendment, which was accepted by the Resolution sponsor Rep. Peggy Wilson, to cut back the additional seats from eight new Representatives to four new representatives and from four new Senators to two new Senators. The size (in terms of population) of each district would remain nearly the same, increasing from 15,673 to 15,735.

This basically cuts the fiscal note in half. The estimated costs of the original resolution was about $4,470,000 million plus for each year and with the cut, it reduces the annual extra cost to $2,342,000. Also, wouldn't have to do any reconstruction changes.

I discussed the issues in a previous post. The impetus for the bill is to prevent the rural districts from losing representatives as the population grows in the more urban areas. As it is now, Rep. Wilson pointed out, urban legislators can walk across their districts and only have one school district. But rural legislators serve broad geographic areas that are expensive to travel around. The largest rural district is half the state with half the school districts. There would be new districts in the urban areas, but this change would not increase the geographic size of the rural areas.

One issue is that the Alaska Constitution (Article 6 - 6) requires:

Each house district shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area. Each shall contain a population as near as practicable to the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the state by forty.

Also the 1964 Voting Rights Act has requirements that redistricting not reduce representation of minority voters and Alaska must have all redistricting reviewed by the feds because of past problems.

The resolution passed 5 - 1 with Rep. Gatto voting nay.

You can listen to the discussion of this bill below as well as the rest of Thursday's State Affairs meeting:

00 - 19 - HB 292 - Increasing the cap on State Emergency Aid from $5000 to half the federal cap (about $30,000, so Alaska's would be about $15,000)

22:18 - 47:05 HJR 38 - Constitutional Amendment to increase the size of the legislature.

51:00 to end - HB 115 - Allow permanent absentee registration.

Juneau Fog and Sun

 

 This morning there was fog outside, but as I walked to the Capitol, Mt. Juneau was showing through the fog with a blue sky background.

  

 But looking to the east, Mt. Roberts was shrouded in fog.

  

 After the State Affairs Hearing and stopping in to check on a few offices, I headed to Centennial Hall for the Fetal Alcohol Conference.  More on that later.  Speakers were excellent.  Went down the stairs which give pedestrians a short cut.

  

 Just before I went into the meeting, I saw this view  of the 

mountains above the fog on the other side of the channel

  

 And when I left the meeting about 2:30pm, the sun was shining bright and the sky bright blue, but there was still some fog in the channel.  But it was rapidly evaporating as I walked over to get the picture above. 

 

And by 4pm, the sky was brilliant blue.  The stairwell (several pictures 

above) is to the right of the four story building on the right.

House State Affairs Passes HB 115 - Permanent Absentee Voting

I put up the Sponsor's Statement for this bill last night.  Basically this bill would allow people to sign up for permanent absentee voting without having to fill out the paperwork every election.  Eight states already do this including Oregon which began this 30 years ago according the the testimony of Rep. Buch and the Director of the Division of Elections Gail Fenumiai.  



The main questions were about security.  How would the division of elections know if someone died?  What would prevent the spouse or other relatives from using the absentee ballots to vote twice?  What happens if someone moves?   

The response boiled down to:

a.   To vote, you have to sign the envelope and have a witness.  Doing this falsely is a felony.  
b.   This hasn't been a problem other places.

A caller from Colorado who is in the division of elections there and had been in Oregon said this wasn't an issue.  He also said that about 70 percent of the people (in his district?  in Colorado?  not sure, my notes on this seem to have vanished when I shut down my computer) now vote absentee.  

So, this bill now moves on to the next committee.  Finance I believe. 


Rep. Buch and the Director of the Division of Elections Gail Fenumiai talk to Rep. Seaton after the meeting was adjourned.

Disaster Cap Increase Moves out of State Affairs

HB 292 - “An Act relating to grants to victims of a disaster in this state;  and providing for an effective date.”

The hearing on this bill began on Tuesday, Feb. 16 and continued today, Monday.

This was about the amount the state can give to help families after a disaster.  The cap on the grant to households hasn’t changed since 1977.  It’s $5000.  That’s $17,000 in today’s dollars, the committee was told.  

The proposal is for half of what the feds give out, which can vary slightly but is about $30,000. So the new cap would be at about $15,000.

On Tuesday they'd said they have a strict process,  People don’t automatically get the max.  Average is about 30% of the cap.  If you have insurance etc. you don’t get max, or even anything.  Reasonable amount to get people moving again, not to make them whole.

They assured the committee that there were clear procedures.  "We don’t cut checks, there’s an Interview, we go through the application process with them, take photos, verify that victims can’t make themselves whole and can’t recover insurance, identify the specific need and loss." 

Passed out of committee to the Finance Committee. 


Photo is Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer speaking to Mike O'Hare Mike O’Hare, Deputy Director, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management where the bill originated. 


Here's the whole bill (The way these are formatted online, they do not fit on the blog right.  Taking out some of the HTML formatting has its own problems as you can see.  I'll leave this one, but I have to find an easier way to do this, or just link you to the bill):

HOUSE BILL NO. 292
01 "An Act relating to grants to victims of a disaster in this state; and providing for
02 effective date."
03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:   
04    * Section 1.  AS 26.23.090(b) is amended to read: (b)  The governor is authorized to make financial grants to an individual or
06       family to meet disaster-related necessary expenses or serious needs of individuals or
07       families adversely affected by the disaster that cannot otherwise adequately be met
08       from other means of assistance. The governor may make a grant to an individual and
09       family under this subsection as follows:                                                                          
10                 (1)  when the President declares a major disaster, the governor may                                    
11       make a grant of an amount whose total of federal and state shares does not exceed the
12       maximum amount authorized by 42 U.S.C. 5174(h) [42 U.S.C. 5178(f)] for grants
13       payable to individuals and families;                                                                             
14                 (2)  when the President does not declare a major disaster but the                                      
01       governor declares a disaster emergency, the governor may make a grant of an amount
02       not to exceed one-half of the maximum grant amount established under (1) of this   
03       subsection [$5,000].                                                                                         
04    * Sec. 2. This Act takes effect immediately under AS 01.10.070(c).