MINUTES OF THE ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS Sixty-eighth Session June 22, 1995 The Committee on Government Affairs was called to order at 8:00 a.m., on Thursday, June 22, 1995, Chairman Douglas A. Bache presiding in Room 330 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada. Exhibit A is the Agenda. Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Douglas A. Bache, Chairman Mrs. Joan A. Lambert, Chairman Mrs. Deanna Braunlin, Vice Chairman Mr. P.M. Roy Neighbors, Vice Chairman Mr. Max Bennett Mrs. Marcia de Braga Mr. Pete Ernaut Mrs. Vivian L. Freeman Mr. William Z. (Bill) Harrington Ms. Saundra (Sandi) Krenzer Mr. Dennis Nolan Mrs. Gene Wines Segerblom Ms. Patricia A. Tripple Mr. Wendell P. Williams GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT: Assemblyman Genie Ohrenschall, District No. 12; Assemblywoman Christine R. Giunchigliani, District No. 9. STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Ms. Denice Miller, Senior Research Analyst OTHERS PRESENT: Mr. Al Bellister, Nevada State Education Association; Mr. George Cotton, Affirmative Action Manager, Clark County (See also Exhibit B attached hereto). Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, the sponsor of Assembly Bill No. 551, having been detained from appearing before the committee, a work session was held pending her arrival. ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 541 - Repeals provision requiring governing board to file certain quarterly financial reports. ASSEMBLYMAN LAMBERT MOVED TO INDEFINITELY POSTPONE A.B. 541. ASSEMBLYMAN KRENZER SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. Mr. Al Bellister, Nevada State Education Association (NSEA), addressed the committee. (At the direction of Chairman Bache, Mr. Bellister's remarks are set forth verbatim.) He said, "For the record, my name is Al Bellister with the Nevada State Education Association, and I guess this is more a point of personal privilege, if you will. I guess we committed a cardinal sin, and I'm here to apologize profusely for that. I wish Miss Miller was here. "On whatever day it was that we offered testimony on S.B. 291, we presented the members of the committee with this little booklet (Exhibit H to the minutes of June 20, 1995). I thought I represented the booklet as excerpts from an LCB publication that we believe showed or would dispel certain myths that were being purported in testimony. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my statements. "What this booklet is is a copy, a photocopy, of the cover of the LCB publication; the original was -- I'm not good at colors -- more of a cream color, I guess. It's not green. Everything in your booklets, ladies and gentleman, is NSEA. If it's yellow, it's our opinion. If it's on white, it's LCB. These graphs are, in fact, excerpts from this publication. The opinions that we drew from those facts are ours, NSEA's and solely NSEA's. They were not developed by LCB. LCB did not help us develop the opinions, suggest the opinions, write the opinions. I want to disavow them from the booklet entirely, and I apologize most profusely to Miss Miller. We submitted a letter to Mr. Malkiewich accordingly. "I apologized to Chairman Lambert and Chairman Bache as soon as this was pointed out to us. We should have caught it. I apologize again. I hope that sets the record straight. Any questions of the committee? I feel just terrible about it. It was not an intentional misrepresentation of LCB opinion." ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 725 - Revises limitations on other employment for certain unclassified employees of department of business and industry. Mr. Bache provided a proposed amendment to A.B. 725 (Exhibit C). Discussions were held among committee members. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS MOVED TO AMEND A.B. 725 AS SET FORTH IN THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT (Exhibit C) AND DO PASS A.B. 725. ASSEMBLYMAN DE BRAGA SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 468 - Regulates charges for water to mobile home parks in Las Vegas Valley Water District. Chairman Bache provided a proposed amendment to A.B. 468 (Exhibit D) and asked Assemblyman Genie Ohrenschall to explain the proposed amendment to the committee. Assemblyman Ohrenschall advised, following the words "the board shall" in line 20 on page 1, the proposed amendment (Exhibit D) would delete lines 21, 22 and 23 and would insert language which would cause the provision to read, "The board shall establish the initial threshold of any rate higher than the lowest rate, based upon greater average daily use, at the higher of the threshold set for other customers using a meter of the same size as the master meter or the product of the number of individual lots in the park multiplied by the threshold set for a single- family residence using the smallest meter used for such a residence." Ms. Ohrenschall explained the amendment was designed to make A.B. 468 slightly more flexible. She said, as presently written, A.B. 468 required the water district to continue doing exactly what it was doing at the present time, which was to charge a mobile home park for water at the lowest rate charged a single family residence. She said she discovered the water district had some flexibility in its rate system which would protect the water district and its conservation efforts so that residents of a mobile home park could not waste water and still be charged the rate charged for water for residential use. She said the intent of the proposed amendment (Exhibit D) was to attempt to keep the rate charged mobile home park residents at the same rate as that based on the smallest water meter which would accommodate a single-family residence unless the water consumption in a mobile home park was such that, when divided by the number of mobile home units, the consumption per unit was "...above what is now the golf club rate." ASSEMBLYMAN LAMBERT MOVED TO AMEND AND DO PASS A.B. 468. CHAIRMAN BACHE SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 551 - Prohibits legislator from receiving or accruing certain income during legislative session. Assemblywoman Christine R. Giunchigliani, District No. 9, testified. She provided a proposed amendment to A.B. 551 (Exhibit E) which she explained would delete the body of A.B. 551 in its entirety and insert in place thereof the language set forth in the proposed amendment (Exhibit E). Mrs. Giunchigliani advised A.B. 551 pertained to disclosure of a legislator's income. She pointed out a legislator filed a financial disclosure annually but suggested, during the year between the time he filed one financial disclosure and the time he filed the next, a legislator could experience a change in his source of income. She explained A.B. 551, as it was proposed to be amended, would require an amended financial disclosure form be filed with the Secretary of State if a public official or his spouse experienced a change in the source of his income. Ms. Krenzer said she understood the need for a legislator to disclose a change in the source of his income which occurred during the legislative session but did not understand the need for him to make such a disclosure during the interim between legislative sessions. Mrs. Giunchigliani explained the financial disclosure law pertained to all public officials and she was told it would not be proper for A.B. 551 to deal only with legislators because the language in NRS 281 dealt with public officials. Mrs. Segerblom asked whether a legislator who had disclosed he owned stock in a company represented by a lobbyist had to make such a disclosure with respect to every bill which involved that company. Mrs. Giunchigliani replied if the bill would affect the stock owned by the legislator then he should disclose his ownership of the stock. Several committee members disclosed they had conflicts of interest which would make them unable to vote on A.B. 551 until such time as it was amended as proposed in Exhibit E. ASSEMBLYMAN BENNETT MOVED TO AMEND A.B. 551 AS SET FORTH IN THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT (Exhibit E). ASSEMBLYMAN FREEMAN SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED; ASSEMBLYMEN ERNAUT, LAMBERT, HARRINGTON, KRENZER, TRIPPLE, SEGERBLOM, DE BRAGA, WILLIAMS AND NEIGHBORS ABSTAINED FROM THE VOTE. Discussions were held among committee members. ASSEMBLYMAN ERNAUT MOVED DO PASS A.B. 551 AS AMENDED. ASSEMBLYMAN NEIGHBORS SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. A work session was held. ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 408 - Makes various changes regarding access to public records. ASSEMBLYMAN FREEMAN MOVED TO INDEFINITELY POSTPONE A.B. 408. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS SECONDED THE MOTION. Discussions were held among committee members. ASSEMBLYMAN FREEMAN WITHDREW HER MOTION. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS WITHDREW HIS SECOND. Chairman Bache said he believed it would be appropriate for the Chair to accept a motion to amend and do pass A.B. 408 and for A.B. 408 to be made the subject of an interim study. Mrs. Freeman submitted a proposed amendment to A.B. 408 (Exhibit F). ASSEMBLYMAN FREEMAN MOVED TO AMEND A.B. 408 AS SET FORTH IN THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT (Exhibit F) AND ALSO TO INCLUDE ELECTRONIC RECORDS AND DO PASS A.B. 408 AND REREFER A.B. 408 TO THE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND PROCEDURES. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. SENATE BILL NO. 283 - Revises provisions governing confidentiality of certain records of commission on mental health and mental retardation. Ms. Denice Miller, Senior Research Analyst, reported she conferred with the legal division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau concerning a question previously raised by Ms. Ande Engelman regarding whether or not certain reports could be subpoenaed if the legislature declared them to be confidential. She advised she was told there was no broad statute which specified public records which were declared confidential either could or could not be subpoenaed; however, if a record was declared confidential, it was generally up to a court to determine whether or not there was a valid reason for such a record to be released. She said she was also advised the committee could clarify, although a record was confidential and was not to be released to the general public, the record could be released under certain circumstances or to specific individuals. Mr. Bennett stated the guidelines contained in S.B. 283 exceed the guidelines of the Federal Privacy Act and he did not believe the provisions of S.B. 283 would be upheld if challenged. He declared he could not support S.B. 283. Chairman Bache reminded the committee they had previously received proposed amendments to S.B. 283 (Exhibit G). Mrs. Krenzer indicated she was unable to support S.B. 283. Mr. Harrington said he would prefer the language of S.B. 283 to remain as written and with the proposed amendment (Exhibit G) and to allow the courts to determine whether or not there was any confidentiality problem. Mr. Bennett advised the proposed amendment (Exhibit G) did not address his concerns. ASSEMBLYMAN HARRINGTON MOVED AMEND AND DO PASS S.B. 283. ASSEMBLYMAN LAMBERT SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED; ASSEMBLYMEN ERNAUT, BENNETT, KRENZER AND DE BRAGA VOTED "NO." SENATE BILL NO. 543 - Exempts certain public works projects from provisions governing local government purchasing and public works. Mr. Bennett provided a proposed amendment to S.B. 543 (Exhibit H). He said the proposed amendment would establish in statute what was currently done pursuant to regulation and would satisfy certain concerns expressed about S.B. 543. He proposed S.B. 543 also be amended, with respect to the terms "water line" and "sewer line," to change the word "line" to the term "main extension." Mr. Nolan asked whether Mr. Bennett had discussed his additional proposed amendment with "AGC." Mr. Bennett replied he had not but did not believe the amendment would cause any problem. Further discussions were held among committee members. Mrs. Krenzer said, "I am concerned that public works projects funded by public dollars are not...part of this bill, and I would just like to go on record as saying that." She indicated she believed the intent behind the proposed amendments (Exhibit H) was good, however, she did not believe the amendments accomplished that intent. Chairman Bache commented S.B. 543 had been agreed to by both the representative of the home builders and the representative of "labor" and the only amendment proposed by those individuals was to change the term "main" to the term "line extension." He indicated he would have a problem with amending a bill which had been heard in the Senate and about which a concensus of opinion had been reached. Mrs. Lambert said she could not support the proposed amendments (Exhibit H). Discussions were held about the language "any related appurtenances." Mr. Bennett withdrew his proposed amendments (Exhibit H). ASSEMBLYMAN LAMBERT MOVED TO AMEND S.B. 543 BY REPLACING THE WORD "MAIN," ON LINE 6, WITH THE WORDS "LINE EXTENSION" AND DO PASS S.B. 543. ASSEMBLYMAN ERNAUT SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED. ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 282 - Authorizes preference for disadvantaged businesses in public works and in state and local government purchasing. Mrs. Lambert advised testimony was given that A.B. 282 should be amended to define the term "good faith efforts," to require registration and to define the term "ethnic minority." Mrs. Lambert expressed concern the term "good faith effort" could be used as a "loop hole." Mr. Williams commented Mr. Cotton, the representative of Clark County, had stated he had "...some information to address that." At the direction of Chairman Bache, Mrs. Lambert advised Mr. Cotton of the committee's concerns and asked him to address them. Mr. George Cotton, Affirmative Action Manager, Clark County, testified. He advised, as the result of a supreme court decision, rendered subsequent to the committee's hearing on A.B. 282, "...the good faith efforts or those requirements under the federal programs that had like a 10 percent set-aside were stricken down, so that they have to go to what we have to do in the states and do the economic disparity studies that we've done in Clark County. And you have to identify each group that needs to be addressed in your particular area..." He advised, as written, A.B. 282 substantially mirrored what the supreme court had dictated the federal government to do. He said the Nevada Department of Transportation's program was based upon the federal program which was "stricken down" by the supreme court. Mrs. Lambert indicated Mr. Cotton's testimony did not address the committee's concern about the term "good faith efforts" which she pointed out was contained in the language of A.B. 282. Mr. Cotton responded if, after having made a showing of a good faith effort, a subcontractor was unable to identify minority group businesses which he could utilize, the subcontractor should be given a waiver. Mrs. Lambert asked Mr. Cotton how "good faith effort" could be defined. Mr. Cotton replied the court had held an entity had to show it had actively pursued attempts to contract with available businesses in its area which were owned by members of minority groups or by women. He contended disparity studies would show whether or not vendors were available which were owned by members of minority groups or by women and said a subcontractor would have to prove he made a good faith effort to solicit such vendors. He explained the term "good faith effort" was fairly well defined by case law. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS MOVED DO PASS A.B. 282. ASSEMBLYMAN DE BRAGA SECONDED THE MOTION. Discussions were held among committee members. ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAMS WITHDREW HIS MOTION TO DO PASS A.B. 282. ASSEMBLYMAN DE BRAGA WITHDREW HER SECOND. Chairman Bache asked Ms. Miller to attempt to develop language which would address the concerns expressed by Mrs. Lambert. SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21 - Proposes to amend Nevada constitution to provide the state controller is appointed by and serves at pleasure of state treasurer. Chairman Bache reminded the committee of the purpose of S.J.R. 21. ASSEMBLYMAN ERNAUT MOVED DO PASS S.J.R. 21. ASSEMBLYMAN NOLAN SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION CARRIED; ASSEMBLYMEN BENNETT, SEGERBLOM AND FREEMAN VOTED "NO." There being no further business to come before the committee, Chairman Bache adjourned the meeting at 9:30 a.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: Sara Kaufman, Committee Secretary Assembly Committee on Government Affairs June 22, 1995 Page