The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted to report out House Bill 58 after hearing testimony that the bill would standardize the selection process for the director of the Office of Public Advocacy and increase the office’s independence by making the director removable only for cause.

Courtney Owen, staff for Representative Zach Fields, presented the bill and told the committee that HB 58 would make the public advocate selection analogous to the public defender selection process and would protect the director from removal except for cause. The committee received invited testimony and then approved the bill by voice consent with no objections.

Brent McGee, who served as Alaska’s public advocate from 1984 to 2003, testified in support of the bill and described the office’s whistleblower role in confidential proceedings. “There’s an inherent conflict of interest in having a position that represents individual Alaskans appointed by the same person who is the executive,” McGee said, arguing that independence helped the office identify systemic errors that otherwise remained hidden in confidential child-protection and protective proceedings.

Suzanne DiPietro, executive director of the Alaska Judicial Council, described the council’s current process for screening and nominating public defender candidates, which the bill would extend to the public advocate. DiPietro told the committee the Judicial Council’s process begins with a public announcement and a multiweek application that can run about five weeks and includes a lengthy application form (she said about 27 pages), a bar survey soliciting peer evaluations, an investigation of employment and disciplinary records, a public comment period and a 45-minute interview for each applicant. After deliberation the council typically forwards at least two nominees to the governor.

Sen. Myers asked how changing the appointment process would address perceived conflicts of interest and confidentiality issues. McGee said the statutory change would not move the public advocate out of the executive branch but would provide the director greater protection against termination, enabling the office to perform an independent oversight and whistleblower role in confidential proceedings when necessary.

After testimony, Sen. Jesse Keel moved that the committee report HB 58 from committee with individual recommendations and any attached fiscal note; no members objected and the motion carried by voice consent. The chair instructed staff to complete required paperwork to report the bill out of committee.

The bill will proceed with the committee’s recommendation; supporters framed the change as a correction to an oversight when the Office of Public Advocacy was established in 1984, and as a step to preserve the office’s ability to independently identify and report systemic problems found in confidential proceedings.