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February 10, 2006
Room 302 Wyoming Capitol
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Senator Grant Larson, Chairman
Representative Randall Luthi, Vice Chairman
Senator Jim Anderson
Senator John Hines
Senator Rae Lynn Job
Senator Mike Massie
Senator John Schiffer
Representative Roy Cohee
Representative Ross Diercks
Representative Tom Lockhart
Representative Wayne Reese
Representative Ann Robinson
Representative Colin Simpson
Dan J. Pauli, Director
Mark Quiner, Assistant Director
Dave Gruver,
Assistant Director
Dave Nelson, School Finance Manager
Wendy Madsen, Legislative Service Office
Please refer to
Appendix 1 to review the Council Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
Chairman Larson called the meeting to order at 1:05pm. The following sections summarize the Council proceedings by topic. Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Council Meeting Agenda.
Minutes from the December 13, 2005 Council meeting were approved without any changes.
Mr. Dave Gruver updated the Council on the annual status of administrative rule reviews. He explained that the LSO notifies the Governor of the Council’s action on administrative rules, noting that the Governor is required to file written objections to the Council’s recommendations or to direct the agency to amend or rescind the rules objected to by the Council. He explained that the Governor had not yet acted on two contested rules at the time of the LSO’s annual rule review report to the Council in December regarding the Governor’s response to the rules objected to during the course of the year. Mr. Gruver updated the Council as to the status of the Governor’s actions on these two rules, noting that the Governor agreed with the recommendations of the Council on both sets of rules.
Mr. Gruver summarized legislation sponsored by the Task Force on Utility and Tax Relief. He explained that the Task Force voted to sponsor five bills at its January 27, 2006 meeting. Representative Luthi explained the work of the Task Force up to this point, which was authorized by the Council at its October meeting to explore legislative solutions to grant tax relief to Wyoming citizens, including options to address the high cost of utilities, gasoline and property taxes. He explained that the Task Force had met five times since the creation of the Task Force in October in Casper and Cheyenne.
Senator Larson noted that the bills are being sponsored by the Task Force itself and not the Management Council. He noted that he expected that the bills would be referred to the Revenue Committee when they came up for introduction. Senator Hines questioned if the Task Force had explored issues related to the federal 4R Act relating to property tax assessments rates in HB97. Representative Luthi noted that issues in the Wyoming Constitution relating to the assessments were explored, but that the Task Force did not look at that Act specifically, and will look into the issue further.
Mr. Gruver briefly explained the Revisor’s Bill, which is sponsored each year by the Management Council to correct inadvertent technical errors in the statutes from previous legislative sessions. He explained that the bill is longer this year than in years past, because the statute publisher had recommended correction of a number of minor technical mistakes that had not been corrected over time.
Mr. Gruver also suggested that the Council consider appointing a subcommittee in the 2006 interim to review larger technical issues in statute that are not appropriate for the Revisor’s Bill, but should be reviewed. As an example, he noted that it is a policy call to determine if a new section should be included as part of the act that comes before it.
Senator Schiffer moved that the Council sponsor the Revisor’s Bill as a Senate File. The motion carried with 12 ayes and one absent. (See Appendix 3, vote on 06LSO-150.C1 – Revisor’s Bill.)
Representative Illoway explained the tasks accomplished by the Select Committee on Legislative Facilities in 2005 and projects in process. Representative Illoway and Senator Mockler summarized the Committee’s budget requests for FY07-08, which included an additional appropriation to complete the historic bench restoration, purchase of new chairs for committee members, replacement of committee audience chairs, updating equipment in the Medical Aid Station, construction of historic coat racks, purchase of additional furnishings for Room 204 and Room 302, commission of portraits of past governors, remodeling of the LSO Main Office, purchase of new sound system in the Senate, and acquisition of additional committee room photographs. Representative Simpson requested that the Committee explore options for installation of automatic sinks in the restrooms. Senator Larson thanked the Select Committee for its efforts to improve legislative space within the Capitol. (See Appendix 4.)
Representative Illoway explained that the Select Committee recommended updating and republishing Wyoming’s Blue Book in the upcoming biennium. He explained that the Wyoming Blue Book is a comprehensive guide to Wyoming government and the term “blue book” generally refers to the printed collection of government facts and history that many states publish periodically. He noted that State Archives recommended an appropriation of $300,000 to allow State Archives staff to conduct the research, or contract for the research, and pay for publication costs. (See Appendix 5.)
Senator Mockler presented information from the Committee requesting that the Legislature hold a fire drill during the upcoming legislative session. She noted that last year at the request of the Committee, the Management Council authorized a fire drill, which identified areas for improvement in evacuation procedures. She explained that the Committee worked with the Office of Homeland Security to improve evacuation procedures and develop crisis guidelines during the interim, which will be provided to all legislators and staff. She also explained that the Department of Administration and Information conducted a structural analysis of the Capitol fire escapes and addressed problems in the structural integrity of the fire escapes, so that they can be used during the upcoming session in the event of an emergency. Chairman Larson noted that the presiding officers may consider holding a fire drill during the upcoming session, depending on the time constraints of the session. (See Appendix 6.)
Mr. Pauli summarized the draft legislative appropriation bill for the FY07-08 biennium. He noted that the Legislature’s operational appropriation is now based on a biennial budget process that coincides with the rest of the state budget process, rather than appropriating an annual budget to the Legislature. He noted that the largest item in the appropriation request is the salary component for legislative staff, legislators, and employer-paid benefits. He highlighted portions of the bill including in-state and out-of-state travel costs, interim committee budgets, annual dues, equipment and supplies and session laws and digest costs.
The Council discussed out-of-state travel costs and Mr. Pauli noted that there has been a trend for more legislators to attend professional development meetings. Representative Luthi noted that the Council should encourage as many legislators to travel to these types of meetings as possible, because it is a good opportunity to find new ideas for solving public policy issues. Senator Larson noted that attending meetings for NCSL and CSG is a very good way to obtain a lot of knowledge that cannot be gained any other way. He suggested that the Council may wish to examine guidelines about how long legislators can stay when they travel to out-of-state meetings, but he has not seen abuse of this program.
Mr. Pauli explained that the figures used for developing the interim committee budgets were based on the same figures that were used for the last biennium, but that when the Committee’s present their proposed studies at the end of the session, the Council can adjust the amount provided to each committee and will only be bound by the overall amount.
Mr. Pauli noted that the last two legislative budget bills provided an appropriation to allow Management Council to schedule five additional days of per diem for a mid-session recess during the General Session. Mr. Pauli noted that the Council has not exercised this options, but that the amount has been included in the draft bill. Representative Reese commented that the amount should stay in the budget to allow the option to schedule a break to allow members to return home for a few days to take care of business and talk to constituents. Senator Larson noted that he would prefer to get the session completed once it starts, but that it does not hurt to have the funding included, even if the Legislature does not exercise the option.
Mr. Pauli provided an update on the use of the appropriation to reimburse legislators for half of the cost of personal digital assistants (PDAs). He noted that since PDAs become the property of the legislator, the appropriation is effectively an increase in compensation, so only legislators elected in the fall 2004 general election were eligible to purchase PDAs. Of the 15 eligible Senators, only three have purchased PDAs, and of the 60 eligible House members, only 16 have made purchases. He noted that the draft bill includes an appropriation to provide sufficient funds for 60 new House members and 15 Senators to purchase PDAs, provided that they did not receive reimbursement to purchase a PDA in the last biennium. Representative Lockhart raised a concern that the members that use the technology should have an opportunity to upgrade the devices and recommended removing the limitation that members who purchased PDAs in the last biennium could not upgrade.
Senator Larson asked if the Legislature needed an appropriation to pay for use of the state airplane by legislators, noting that it may be more cost-effective to rent the plane in lieu of paying mileage and per diem for some meetings. Mr. Pauli explained that those expenses can be paid out of individual committee budgets. He also noted that Management Council has flex authority in use of the legislative appropriation, so that funds could be moved in the budget to pay for state plane rental costs.
Senator Schiffer questioned if the Legislature should continue belonging to the Energy Council. Representative Luthi noted that the Energy Council consists of energy producing states and other energy producing nations and that the knowledge sharing is invaluable. Senator Larson stated that because mineral revenue is so important to the state’s overall revenues that participation in the Energy Council is worthwhile.
Representative Luthi moved that the Council sponsor 06LSO-0373.W3 – Appropriation for the Legislature as a Senate File in the 2006 Budget Session.
Senator Larson asked if there were any amendments to the draft bill. Representative Lockhart moved to remove the restriction on the acquisition of PDAs that allows members to purchase the devices only if they had not purchased one in the last biennium, and thereby allow legislators to upgrade the device each biennium. The motion carried.
Senator Schiffer moved to add $549,000 for legislative facilities projects of the Select Committee on Legislative Facilities. The motion carried.
The motion to sponsor the legislative appropriations bill carried with 12 ayes and one absent. (See vote form at Appendix 7 for 06LSO-373.w3 – Appropriation for the Legislature.)
The Council recessed at 2:40pm and Chairman Larson called the meeting back to order at 2:55pm.
Mr. Pauli summarized the pre-session legislator training schedule, the schedule for the opening day Joint Session, and the 20-day tentative session schedule, adopted by the Council at its December meeting.
Mr. Pauli provided Council members with an update on the number of drafting requests received by the LSO in advance of the session. To date, the LSO has received 451 drafting requests, with 108 of those drafts canceled. He explained that 210 total bills and resolutions have been numbered at this point.
Mr. Pauli explained that the Management Council Real Audio policy provides that LSO information technology staff will maintain Real Audio recording of only five “rolling” days of legislative proceedings. He noted that when the Real Audio policy was first adopted, the restriction was necessary due to limited storage space on the server, but that the LSO now has the capacity to store an entire session of audio proceedings on the server, and the Select Committee on Legislative Technology recommends amending the policy to allow for the change. Representative Luthi moved to amend the Management Council’s Real Audio policy to maintain audio proceedings of the full legislative session on the Legislature’s Web site to the extent that disk space is available. The motion carried.
Mr. Pauli also summarized a recommendation from the Select Committee regarding Management Council’s e-mail policy. The Council’s policy currently provides that e-mail addresses provided for legislators using public funds must be made available to the public. E-mail accounts provided by Wyoming.com or other Internet service providers have a limited amount of capacity for the storage of old e-mail. He explained that in a few instances, legislators e-mail mailboxes have become filled with spam or old e-mail messages, which have prevented new mail from constituents, staff, and other legislators to get through to the account.
To address this problem, the Committee is recommending that Council amend the current policy to allow LSO information technology staff to periodically clean out over-filled mailboxes by saving the unopened messages on a CD that will be sent to the legislator. Senator Schiffer moved to adopt the Select Committee’s recommended change to the Council’s policy. The motion carried.
The Council resolved into executive session at 3:30pm for the purposes of considering school finance litigation. The Council reconvened in open session at 4:48pm.
Mr. Gruver and Mr. Nelson updated the Council on the status and structure of the legislation sponsored by the Joint Education Committee to recalibrate the school finance model.
Mr. Pauli noted that the Council was mailed the LSO Annual Report in January. Senator Larson noted that there is wide disparity in legislator expenses for out-of-state travel and that the Council may wish to explore this issue further in the future.
Ms. Wendy Madsen explained the current Management Council policy regarding the legislative intern and aide program. She noted that the program is currently undergoing some “growing pains” and that the issue of how interns and aides are classified and badged needs to be explored in the 2006 interim. She noted that the LSO will work with leadership during the session regarding exceptions to the general policies for interns and aides. The Council discussed the intern and aide program and agreed that the program provides a valuable opportunity to get young people involved in the process and that LSO should continue to work to make improvements to the program. Representative Luthi noted that interns and aides are underutilized and that legislators should explore ways to use these individuals more effectively. Senator Job encouraged the LSO to also explore options for a legislator guest program for individuals who may not be working for legislators, but may be visiting the Legislature at the request of a member. Senator Anderson stressed the issue of the safety of young people participating in the program while in Cheyenne during the session.
Mr. Pauli updated the Council on a public records request from the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle to the Legislative Service Office regarding e-mail correspondence created by Representative Luthi during the week of January 24, 2005. Mr. Pauli explained the LSO’s response to this request, noting that he requested staff examine their computer files to determine what e-mail records they may have maintained electronically. LSO staff found no electronic copies of e-mails that met the request. He explained the LSO’s current practice regarding e-mail management is to print out e-mails that need to be saved as records. He noted that staff print out a hard copy of e-mails that have significance and store them in the appropriate file folder by subject. He explained that the LSO does not store the records by date, but by the subject matter that the e-mail addresses, so it is difficult to determine where to look for a record from a certain date, but he has asked staff to look in hard copy files to determine if any of the records meet this request. He explained that if staff find any paper copies of e-mails that fit the request, the LSO would then need to analyze the documents to determine if the document is a public record.
Ms. Debie Child, LSO staff member, provided the Council with a letter requesting permission for one-time use of the legislative logo for a charity auction for the Future Farmer’s of America Foundation. (See Appendix 8.) The logo would be used to decorate a fiberglass cowboy hat that will be signed by members of the Wyoming Legislature. The proceeds from the auction will benefit the Wyoming FFA. Senator Anderson moved to allow a one-time use of the legislative logo for the purpose identified by Ms. Child. The motion carried.
There being no further business, Chairman Larson adjourned the meeting at 4:55pm. Chairman Larson noted that the Council may hold additional meetings throughout the session, as needed.
Respectfully submitted,
Senator Rae Lynn Job, Secretary