Joint Legislative Council, 4/15/26, 5:15pm

I'm going to call this meeting of the Legislative Council to order. Today is April 15th. We are at 5:17 PM. We have Zach from the LIO over there helping us teleconference, and I'm going to ask Ms. Truitt in the back to call the roll.

Representative Carrick. Here.

Representative Edgeman.

Representative Johnson. Representative Kopp. Representative— online.

Representative Schrag. Can you hear me? Yes, we can, Chuck. And this is—.

Representative Stutes. Here. Representative Mears. Here. Senator Clayman.

Here. Senator Giesel. Here. Senator Gray Jackson. Honored to be here.

Senator Hoffman.

Senator Keele. Here. Senator Steadman? Senator Tobin? Here.

Vice Chair Stevens?

Chair Hannon? Here. 11 Members present. With 11 members present, we have a quorum to conduct business. Senator Giesel, do we have a motion?

Madam Chair, I move to amend the agenda to relocate item VB, that's 5B, legislative procurement proceeding procedures amendment from committee business to executive session for consideration. And I'm going to object for the purpose of discussion. This afternoon, the Legislative Affairs Agency recommended it is more prudent to discuss our procurement procedures initially in executive session. So if there is no objection to that change, I will remove my objection. We will still end up having that discussion post-executive session on the record, but we will discuss them in executive session first.

Is there any discussion of that before I remove my objection?

Okay, I will remove my objection and ask, uh, Ms. Truitt to give us a roll call vote on the motion to amend the agenda.

Representative Carrick? Yes.

Representative Kopp? Yes. Representative Schraggy? Yes. Representative Stutes?

Yes. Representative Mears? Yes. Senator Clayman? Yes.

Senator Giesel? Yes. Senator Gray Jackson? Yes. Senator Keele?

Yes.

Senator Tobin? Yes.

Chair Hannon? Yes. 11 Yeas, 0 nays. So with 11 yeas, we have amended the agenda. Senator Giesel, do we have another motion for approval of the agenda?

Madam Chair, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Legislative Council approve the agenda as amended. Is there any objection? Seeing no objection, the agenda is approved as amended. That brings us to approval of minutes from our March 18, 2026 meeting. Senator Giesel.

Madam Chair, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Legislative Council approve the minutes dated March 18, 2026, as presented.

Is there any objection?

Seeing and hearing no objection, the minutes are approved. That brings us to the sanctioning of charitable events. Senator Giesel, do we have a motion? Madam Chair, I move and ask unanimous consent that the Legislative Council ratify the chair's sanctioning of the following charitable events per AS2460080A2B: Kenai River Junior Classic, Ted Stevens Kenai River Classic, Kenai River Women's Classic, and the Ted— excuse me, the Stevens Hoffman Adios Retirement and Toast benefiting Food Bank of Alaska, Kodiak Women's Resource Center, Tundra Women's Coalition. And I will object for purpose of discussion.

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit status The status of the recipients for both of those events or all 4 of those events has been verified. Is there any discussion?

Madam Chair. Representative Stutes. Thank you. I just want to make sure everybody gets their tickets for the roast for the 2 senators. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay. Make sure you get to the roast to roast them. Perhaps there is a roast being served.

For a couple of turkeys, she said, if it didn't catch the record. Let's put that on the record. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. I'm going to remove my objection.

So the sanctioning of those vents has been ratified. That brings us to committee business. The first one is the Bethel LIO lease renewal number 1. Senator Giesel. Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council approve renewal renewal number 1 of the lease for the Bethel office space in an amount of $70,200.

And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion and ask Procurement Officer J.C. Kestel to come forward and provide information on this and take your questions.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Chair Hannon, and members of the committee. For the record, my name is J.C. Kestel, Procurement Officer of the Legislative Affairs Agency.

Included in your packet is the request for a lease renewal number 1 for the Bethel office space. The original lease agreement between Bethel Native Corporation and the Legislative Affairs Agency is for— was for a 5-year lease term with 5 1-year renewal options. That lease— initial lease term is coming to an end, and the agency is requesting Legislative Council's approval to proceed with renewal number 1 for the 1-year period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. If approved, that will leave 4 renew— 1-year renewal options remaining in the lease. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Senator Tobin. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. I am curious, as I know in the last few weeks many of our rural communities have experienced significant volatility in their oil and heating fuel costs, and also in their electrical generation. Do we anticipate that with this particular lease that we are locked into a certain heating and electrical cost, or is there a dynamic of where there may need to be additional resources at some point allocated? Through the chair, Senator Tobin, our lease for this Bethel office space is a locked-in lease rate for the, for the year.

It is subject to annual CPI adjustments for those particular variable costs.

Additional questions or concerns?

Okay. I am going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt to take a roll call vote on the motion to approve the 1-year lease extension for the Bethel LIO.

Representative Carrick. Yes. Representative Kopp. Yes. Representative Schraggy.

Yes. Representative Stutes. Yes. Representative Mears. Yes.

Senator Clayman. Yes. Senator Giesel. Yes. Senator Gray Jackson.

Yes. Senator Keele. Yes. Senator Tobin. Yes.

Chair Hannan. Yes. 11 Yeas, 0 nays. With 11 yeas and 0 nays, the motion has passed. That brings us to our computer equipment hardware refresh.

Senator Giesel. Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council approve the fiscal year '27 computer hardware refresh expenditure of $232,024 out of existing capital funds. And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion and ask our Chief Information Officer, Shea Wilson, to come forward and provide information on the item. And we'll take your questions. Mr. Wilson.

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the Legislative Council. For the record, my name is Shea Wilson, Chief Information Officer for the Legislative Affairs Agency. You each have in your packet a memo regarding the annual hardware refresh for the fiscal year 2027, which comes before council every year for approval to replace outdated technology equipment across the legislature. The prices reflect a per-unit increase of— from due to memory and SSD price increases of about 50% for laptops and desktops. We have reduced our, the number of items to compensate so that the year-over-year increase is only about 1.8%.

Without this expenditure, IT would not be able to replace the equipment as it breaks down and loses functionality due to aging, thereby making the legislature less productive when work cannot be accomplished without the necessary technology support. The total cost of the FY27 hardware refresh is $232,024 to be paid out of existing capital funds.

The costs, replacement equipment lists, and quantities have been reviewed by IT Subcommittee, and we recommend that the Legislative Council approves this proposal. Thank you for your consideration, and I'm here to answer any questions.

Are there questions?

Seeing no questions— Representative Schrag. Thank you, Mr. Criswell. I just didn't quite hear what you had said. You said that there was a 50% cost increase due to the memory and other components, but that you had done something else to reduce the year-over-year cost. What was the something else?

I couldn't hear you. There was— through the chair, Representative Schrag. There was a per-unit cost increase. We reduced the number of units to keep the cost the same to the legislature.

We will be able to maintain our stock with that reduction. Thank you.

Okay, I'm going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt to please call the vote, the roll call on the motion to adopt The computer hardware refresh.

Representative Carrick. Yes. Representative Kopp. Yes. Representative Schraggy.

Yes. Representative Stutes. Representative Mears. Yes. Senator Clayman.

Yes. Senator Giesel. Yes. Senator Gray Jackson. Yes.

Senator Keehl? Yes. Senator Tobin? Yes. Chair Hannon?

Yes. 11 Yeas, 0 nays. With 11 yeas and 0 nays, the motion has passed. That brings us to our Americans with Disabilities Act compliance update. Senator Giesel?

Madam Chair, I move that the Legislative Council adopt the Americans with Disabilities Act Website Compliance Statement as presented. And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion and ask Mr. Wilson to provide information. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the Legislative Council. Again, for the record, my name is Shea Wilson, Chief Information Officer for the Legislative Affairs Agency. You each have in your packet a memo regarding the adoption of the Website Compliance Statement in regards to federal mandate outlined within Code of Federal Regulations Title 28, Chapter 35, Subpart H. The federal mandate requires all state and local government websites to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant by April 24th, 2026.

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These are a set of guidelines that are published to provide guidance on how to help content be available for all people and allow assistive tools.

After the federal mandate was passed and DTI became fully aware of our duties in regards to this mandate, we obtained services to scan our website and report to our web designers remediation that needed to be done. It became clear that documents posted to the website, usually in the form of PDFs, were going to be the items that were the hardest to remediate. L.A.'s programming team We're able to create changes to document processes by reworking templates and the publishing process that the legislature uses, and largely remediate the standard documents that we create, such as journals, minutes, and measures. And then to inform responsible authors when there were any issues with those documents. The legislature posts a large quantity of documents that come from sources other than the legislature.

They're posted to our website.

They're posted through committee aides to bills as supplemental material. Those committee aides have a large amount of other responsibilities with respect to running a committee. The quantities of the documents can reach as high as 122 documents in a— posted in a single day by a single aide. These documents are fundamental to the understanding of the bill process and necessary for governmental transparency. The aides who post these documents do not have the time to remediate every document that they receive, and there are currently not automated tools to assist with this process.

The federal mandate, Title 28, Chapter 35, includes a Section 204 which states that a public entity will be held in compliance if the head of the public entity can issue a written statement that meeting compliance would alter the nature of the service and would require undue financial and administrative burdens.

And that is the compliance statement that you have in your packet. With me, I am here to answer any questions, and with me we also have Emily Nauman and Ian Walsh from Legal Services and Stacy Bentley, HR manager to answer any questions with regard to this compliance statement. And if you don't know, Stacy is our ADA compliance officer as head of HR. Representative Sharkey. Thank you, Chair Hannon.

Mr. Wilson, just, just to make sure I understand it, federal law says we need to make our documents accessible. Internal documents we've worked to make accessible. But documents posted by committee aides are probably not feasible. And so this is a statement from head of legislative counsel saying that it would alter that work in such a way as it would be infeasible. And so we're exempting ourselves essentially from that portion of the federal law.

Is that right?

Through the chair, Representative Sharkey, that is correct. Thank you. Representative Schrag, if you will just use the mic so that our recording secretary can hear it.

I will work to do better. Thank you, Chair Hannan. Anyone else?

Okay.

This is Jessica Geary for the record, Executive Director. I just wanted to make one point of clarification. Exempting us temporarily, but we still will continue to work towards compliance. So we are not exempting ourselves permanently, if that makes sense. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Then I am going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt for a roll call vote on the motion to accept our ADA compliance statement.

Representative Carrick. Yes. Representative Kopp. Yes. Representative Schraggy.

Yes. Representative Stutes. Representative Mears. Yes.

Senator Clayman. Yes. Senator Giesel? Yes. Senator Gray Jackson?

Yes. Senator Keel? Yes. Senator Tobin? Yes.

Chair Hannon? Yes. 11 Yays, 0 nays. With 11 yays and 0 nays, the motion has been adopted. Okay, that's going to bring us to our executive session.

We are going into executive session to discuss RFP 681 for lighting for our chambers and legislative procurement procedures. Senator Giesel, a motion. Madam Chair, I move 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), discuss— discussion of a matter that may by law be required to be confidential. The following people may remain in the room or online for the executive session: Jessica Geary, Sabrina Javier, Jacey Kessel, Sydney Truitt, Serge Lesch, Michaela Bradner, Matt Simpson, Jason Chartier, Emily Nauman, Megan Wallace, Zach Lathorn, Tallulah Leshstufka, Helen Phillips, —any legislators not on Legislative Council and any staff of Legislative Council members.

If there is no objection, we will take a brief at ease. Madam Chair, before we take that brief at ease, Chris Curtis is here from the Audit Department. Okay.

We are going to amend the motion. Madam Chair, I will amend the motion to include Chris Curtis. Thank you. And with that, there are no objection. Okay, we're going to take brief recess.

Call us back to order and ask Ms. Truitt to take the roll call again to verify we still have a quorum.

Representative Carrick. Here. Representative Edgman. Representative Johnson. Representative Kopp.

Yes. Yes. Representative Schraggy. Here. Representative Stutes.

Here. Representative Mears. Here. Senator Clayman. Here.

Senator Giesel. Here. Senator Gray Jackson. Honored to be here. Senator Hoffman.

Senator Keele. Here. Senator Steadman. Senator Tobin. Here.

Vice Chair Stevens. Chair Hannon. Here. 11 Members present. With 11 members present, we have a quorum to continue business.

We are going to once again turn to RFP 681 for chambers lighting. Senator Giesel. Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council approve award of RFP 681 to Northern Powerline Constructors Incorporated, doing business as Chatham Electric, with a not-to-exceed contract value of $114,240. And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion and ask Mr. Kestel and Facilities Manager Serge Lesh come forward with information about the contract and the award. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Chair Hannon and members of the committee.

For the record, J.C. Kestel, Procurement Officer for the Legislative Affairs Agency.

Included in your packet is the memorandum for this request for contract award for RFP 681. I am going to summarize this memo for you. On January 12th, 2026, the Legislative Affairs Agency issued RFP 681 to solicit proposals from contractors to install new LED lighting and modernize the lighting controls in the Senate and House chambers. The procurement or the solicitation was advertised on the State of Alaska online public notices website with the plans room and sent to contractors throughout the— potential contractors throughout the state. RFP 681 closed on March 19th with 2 proposals received.

These proposals were reviewed by an evaluation committee consisting of 5 legislative employees who independently reviewed and scored the proposals, then met to discuss evaluations and finalize scoring.

After review of the scores, Northland Powerline Constructors, Incorporated, doing business as Chatham Electric, received a total score of 900— 736.40 points, which was the highest. Uh, the other proposal from Alkan Electrical Engineers received a total score of 783.39 points. Uh, the PEC recommends awarding RFP 681 to Northland Powerline Constructors, Inc., DBH-Adam Electric. They had a proposed cost of $108,800, and the agency is requesting an additional 5% contingency to address any unforeseen conditions for a total not to exceed $114,240. We are happy to answer questions, and Serge may have something he would like to add.

Or may not. Are there any questions regarding the award of the RFP?

Seeing no questions or further discussion, I am going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt to call the roll on the motion.

Representative Carrick? Yes. Representative Kopp? Yes. Representative Schraggy?

Yes. Representative Stutes? Representative Mears? Yes. Senator Clayman?

Yes. Senator Giesel? Yes. Senator Gray Jackson? Yes.

Senator Keele? Yes. Senator Tobin? Yes. Chair Hannon.

Yes. 11 Yays, 0 nays. With 11 yays and 0 nays, the motion has passed. The RFP 681 can be awarded. That brings us to legislative procurement procedure amendments.

With this agenda item, we do have 3 separate proposed amendments to procurement procedures. They will each be considered and voted on separately. So I'll ask for a motion on the first one. Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council adopt, adopt Amendment Number 1 to the Alaska Legislative Procurement Procedures. And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion.

Mr. Kestel, can you provide us information on this change? Thank you, Chair Hannon and members of the committee. This Amendment Number 1 request is an increase to small procurement threshold for the application of the procurement procedures. This amendment creates a carve-out in Section 020A.2 for the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee, increasing its small procurement threshold from $40,000 to $50,000. This mirrors existing authority provided to the Legislative Council under Section 020A.2(a).

This change aligns with the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee's procurement authority with that of the Legislative Council and reflects the scale of expenditures typically reviewed by the committee. It will reduce their administrative burden for routine procurements while maintaining existing controls for other entities of the legislature. This amendment also includes technical, grammatical, and conforming edits to Section 020 made to ensure consistency with current procurement practices. I'm happy to answer questions. Any questions or discussion?

Discussions.

I'm going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt to please call the roll on Amendment 1.

Representative Carrick? Yes. Representative Kopp? Yes. Representative Schraggy?

Yes. Representative Stutes? Representative Mears? Yes. Senator Clayman?

Senator Giesel? Yes. Senator Gray Jackson? Yes. Senator Keele?

Yes. Senator Tobin? Yes. Chair Hannan? Yes.

11 Yeas, 0 nays. With 11 yeas and 0 nays, the motion has passed. That brings us to the second proposed amendment to the procurement procedures. Senator Giesel? Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council adopt Amendment Number 2.

To the Alaska Legislative Procurement Procedures. And I'm going to object for purposes of discussion. Mr. Kestel, can you please describe this for us? Thank you, Chair Hannon and members of the committee. This amendment adds language to Section 020A to exempt transportation services from the legislative procurement procedures due to limited carrier availability, particularly for travel to and from Juneau, and increasing transportation and relocation costs.

Competitive solicitation is often impractical for these services. Situate— this change allows the agency to secure transportation services more efficiently in situations where only one viable provider exists. And I am happy to answer any questions.

Seeing and hearing no discussion, I will remove my objection. Ms. Truitt, please call the roll on Amendment No. 2. Representative Carrick. Yes.

Representative Kopp.

Yes. Representative Schraggy. Yes. Representative Stutes. Yes.

Representative Mears. Yes. Senator Clayman. Yes. Senator Giesel.

Yes. Senator Gray Jackson. Yes. Senator Keele. Yes.

Senator Tobin. Yes. Chair Hannon. Yes. 11 Yeas, 0 nays.

With 11 yeas and 0 nays, the motion is passed. That brings us to our third motion under procurement procedures. Senator Giesel. Madam Chair, I move that Legislative Council adopt Amendment Number 3 to the Alaska Legislative Procurement Procedures. And I again am going to object for purpose of discussion.

And Mr. Kestel, can you please describe this item for us? Thank you, Chair Hannon. Amendment number 3 expands the use of state cooperative contracts. This amendment updates Section 040A.2 to allow the legislature to utilize contracts competitively procured by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in addition to those procured by the Department of Administration. This reflects the shift of statewide contracting responsibilities from the Department of Administration to the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and preserves flexibility should those responsibilities change more in the future.

Use of these contracts would eliminate the need for a separate legislative solicitation. However, all existing legislative contract approval requirements would remain unchanged and in effect. This amendment also clarifies that products— it includes supplies for a conforming change, ensuring consistency with our current procurement practices. I'm happy to answer questions.

Questions or discussion?

Seeing none, I'm going to remove my objection and ask Ms. Truitt to call the roll, please. Representative Carrick? Yes. Representative Kopp? Yes.

Representative Schraggy? Yes. Representative Stutes? Yes. Representative Mears?

Yes. Senator Clayman? Yes. Senator Giesel? Yes.

Senator Gray Jackson? Yes. Senator Keel? Yes. Senator Tobin?

Yes. Chair Hannon? Yes. 11 Yays, 0 nays. With 11 yays and 0 nays, the motion has passed.

Is there anything else to come before the committee?

We are going to be adjourned at 6:08 PM.