distribution requirements, reserving certain bill numbers, and eliminating the "automatic tabling"
requirement for bills circled on the Senate floor.
4. In-depth Budget Review Planning -- Chair Blackham explained that the Executive Appropriations Committee
had assigned two budget reviews
to the committee: the Division of Human Services' Department of Licensing; and the Department of Administrative Services'
Central Stores.
MOTION: Rep. Harward moved to invite those agencies involved to report in the October meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
Rep. Harward noted that it would be helpful to have budget review choices made for next
year as soon as possible to provide time for scheduling and research. He added that the chairs had
asked Legislative Auditor Wayne Welsh to bring his recommendations to the July meeting.
Chair Blackham asked Mr. Welsh to also review that list with the Legislative Fiscal Analyst and
make a joint recommendation.
5. Future Topics -- Chair Blackham noted that Mr. Smith had distributed a memorandum with potential issues for study in 1997. He asked the committee to review each topic and make
recommendations for items for study. Rep. Harward noted that issues relating to lifting a tabled
bill and the status of pending amendments when a bill is circled/uncircled have been resolved
and suggested eliminating them from the list. Chair Blackham agreed. Rep. Harward also
explained, for the benefit of the new committee members, that the committee has been reviewing
the Interim Rules and some of the Joint Rules for consistency with practice for the past couple of
years. He noted that the committee has not reviewed either the House or the Senate Rules and
offered those as a subject for future study, if the members desire.
Chair Blackham said that Legislative Management Committee has recommended the
issues relating to legislators for committee study.
MOTION: Rep. Harward moved to adopt the three issues recommended by the Legislative Management Committee for study: compensation for legislators, length of the
session, and ethics.
Sen. Evans agreed compensation and length of the session are related. Speaker Brown
explained that he felt that how legislators are paid does not relate to how long the sessions lasts.
Sen. Evans said he felt that the session could not be lengthened without increasing the salary to
adequately compensate legislators for the time away from their full-time jobs. Chair Blackham
said his schedule is much more full than it has been in the past. Speaker Brown said compared to
other states, Utah is still far from being a full-time legislature. He felt the objective should be
making modifications in the process to better serve the public. Chair Blackham said that the
other issue is making the compensation fair.
Chair Blackham noted that a task force studied ethics and gifts
about three years ago but no recommendations resulted. Speaker Brown said that Rep. Tanner felt his bill addressing
ethics in the 1997 Annual General Session was not given a fair and proper hearing so the issue
was sent for study. Mr. Fellows suggested looking at what other states are doing and new
legislation should be written based on the research. Rep. Harward said Sen. Tanner could be
invited to present his bill to the committee after the research is done.
Returning to the motion, Chair Blackham called for the vote. The motion passed
unanimously.
Chair Blackham introduced the issue of term limits and asked the members for comment.
Sen. Evans said that the Senate caucus had suggested recommending a modification of the term
limitation process based on turnover in the election process. He said the caucus suggested
putting term limitation in place if a certain percentage of turnover is not reached during an
election. The Senate did not vote on the term limitations bill introduced in the 1997 General
Session. Chair Blackham said the committee would study term limits.
Chair Blackham asked for comment on studying issues relating broadly to legislative
sessions.
MOTION: Rep. Harward moved to study special session sifting and standing committee review but not televising the session.
Speaker Brown said that he felt that televising the session is not authorized. Rep.
Harward said that he felt that the legislative chambers are public places and, therefore, it would
be difficult to restrict television cameras. Chair Blackham suggested that it would be difficult to
fit this issue into the schedule.
Rep. Harward said he was recommending special session sifting as a study item because
there are often very substantive issues to study but little time to review legislation or have
sufficient committee review. Speaker Brown suggested that sifting would tie the hands of the
governor to call a session in an emergency. Rep. Harward said that is why the topic needs
discussion. Speaker Brown noted that the June 18 special session may clarify that situation.
Rep. Goodfellow said that there are substantive issues in the upcoming special session but no
bills are before the legislators and the session will begin 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. He felt that the
public was being locked out of the process. Mr. Fellows noted that during the last special session
there were no bills requested until the day of the session. Rep. Harward suggested that once bills
are distributed, a recess could be called to allow time for study. Speaker Brown said that there is
that flexibility now. Chair Blackham returned to the motion and called for the vote. The motion
passed unanimously.
Chair Blackham introduced issues relating to specific rules. He said that the Senate
considers bills on Wednesday/Thursday schedule already. He felt that the standing committee
agenda priority of bills from the opposite house issue is an important one. Speaker Brown noted
that the last three days of the session are dedicated to bills from the opposite house. Chair
Blackham said this issue should be low on the priority list.
MOTION: Speaker Brown moved to put these issues low on the priority list. The motion passed unanimously.
Rep. Harward discussed combining a cleanup of the rules technically to correct the
inconsistencies.
MOTION: Sen. Evans moved to have Rep. Harward and other interested members study this issue and bring recommendations to the committee. The motion passed unanimously.
Chair Blackham discussed the issue of budget process and suggested a review of the
legislative budget process. He suggested the committee ponder this issue and decide whether to
study it in the next meeting. He invited other items for study from the committee. There were
no further suggestions.
6. Meeting Schedule -- Chair Blackham said that traditionally the committee has met on the fourth Tuesday of the month. The committee agreed to meet on the day before interim
at 9:00 a.m. in room 405, including September.
7. Division of Purchasing -- Mr. Smith reminded the committee that an audit of computer sales was performed as part of the in-depth budget review. The audit report indicated substantial
price variation between agencies. The committee had asked the Division of Purchasing review
this issue and return with the findings and controls for future purchases.
Mr. Douglas Richins, director of the Division of Purchasing, gave a brief summary of the
state's three-prong approach to purchasing computers: 1) mail-order types of computers on
contract through bidding; 2) bidding with local manufacturers; 3) contracts with three PC stores
for a wide variety of computers. He noted that the auditors provided suggestions that would make
the process more effective. He said that each agency should define its own computer needs,
while the state should provide multiple computer stores where agencies could shop to meet those
needs. He said that the division had expected the agencies to compare prices between computer
shores, but the auditor found that was not happening. He said that the agencies just established a
relationship with one store. To correct this problem, he said that the division is providing more
education to assist the agencies to be more sophisticated and informed buyers.
Mr. Richins recommended that purchases of desk-top computer equipment be monitored
on a regular basis to ensure that agencies have documented their purchase and that all vendors
are in compliance with the state contract. He said that the division's auditor reviewed the
contracts and found some price differences on the invoices were due to "bundling" (co-mingling
contract and non-contract items) and differences in interpretation in application of the markup.
He added that the contract language has been tightened to avoid these problems.
Mr. Richins said that the division has met with technology managers in the agencies to
review how they compare contracts before making purchases. The agencies have also been
informed about the audit and the recommendations. He noted that the division's Web page
contains up-to-date information on purchasing. He distributed two handouts titled "Multiple
Award Contracts" and "PC Store Pricing Comparisons."
Speaker Brown asked if specifications are written before components are selected. Mr.
Richins said that some purchasers want the confidence of a name brand, but that there are others
who want the option of determining specifications. Rep. Harward asked if there is a separate
written contact for each purchase. Mr. Richins said that the request for proposals and the
vendor's response or a counter offers constitute the contract. He added that negotiations fine
tunes any ambiguities.
Chair Blackham thanked Mr. Richins for his compliance to the audit.
8. Other Committee Business -- Chair Blackham said the chairs would establish the schedule for the study items and set the
next committee meeting for July 15, 1997.
9.
Adjournment
MOTION: Speaker Brown moved that the meeting be adjourned at 10:45 a.m. The motion passed unanimously. Sen. Evans was absent for the vote.
Minutes reported by Karen E. Mecham
MINUTE06.WPD