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Legislative Council approves leadership, budgets and policies; votes at a glance
Summary
At its Feb. 12 meeting in Juneau the Alaska Legislative Council elected its chair and vice chair, ratified two sanctioned charitable events, adopted policies on voting and archiving committee records, approved the FY‑26 transmittal to finance and approved a $10,000 increase to outside counsel for Janus litigation.
The Alaska Legislative Council on Feb. 12 elected Representative Sarah Hannan as chair and confirmed Senate President Gary Stevens as vice chair by unanimous consent, approved its agenda and minutes, ratified two previously sanctioned charitable events, and approved a series of budget and policy items, all by voice vote or unanimous consent unless noted.
The council approved transmittal of the FY 2026 proposed legislative budget to the House and Senate finance committees, approved an amendment to an outside legal-services contract related to the Janus litigation adding $10,000, adopted the 2025 legislative drafting manual, and adopted a committee records archiving policy for public testimony and related committee records.
Votes at a glance
- Election of chair: Representative Sarah Hannan nominated and elected chair of the Legislative Council by unanimous consent (no objection) — outcome: approved. - Election of vice chair: Senate President Gary Stevens nominated and elected vice chair by unanimous consent — outcome: approved. - Agenda approval: Motion to approve the meeting agenda as presented (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: approved by unanimous consent. - Minutes approval: Motion to approve minutes of the Dec. 12, 2024 meeting (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: approved. - Ratification of sanctioned charitable events: Motion to ratify the chair’s sanctioning of two charitable events per AS 24.60.080 (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — events listed in packet: 1) Juno Dance Theater 50th Anniversary Gala (02/08/2025), 2) Juno Bridal Rescue’s “Love Is A 4‑Legged Word” fundraiser (02/15/2025); outcome: ratified by unanimous consent after a brief verification of 501(c)(3) status. - Appointments: Creation of an Information Technology subcommittee; Chief Information Technology Officer Shay Wilson named chair; several legislative office technology and records staff listed as members — outcome: appointments announced and accepted. - Adoption of legislative drafting manual: Motion to adopt the February 2025 legislative drafting manual (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: adopted. - Janus litigation contract amendment: Motion to approve amendment No. 1 to the outside counsel contract for Janus litigation adding $10,000 for a total of $110,000 (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: approved after explanation by Megan Wallace, chief counsel for legal services. - FY 2026 budget transmittal: Motion to approve transmittal of the FY 2026 proposed Legislative Council budget to the House and Senate finance committees per AS 24.28.130 (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: approved. The packet includes salary adjustments (health insurance $614,300; PERS $527,600; 3% COLA $1,000,186) and $441,100 in increment requests including administrative services and state facilities rent; total year‑over‑year increase reported as $2,772,000. - Ethics committee staffing increments: Motion to add a $20,000 ongoing increment to convert a legislative secretary position to 40 hours and a $90,000 one‑time increment to hire a non‑permanent employee for one year (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens) — outcome: approved and incorporated into the budget transmittal. - Committee records archiving policy: Motion to adopt the committee records archiving policy as presented (moved by Senate President Gary Stevens; policy authored by Senator Kathy Giesel with assistance from Legislative Legal Services) — outcome: adopted. The policy directs that public comments and testimony submitted to committees be included in the physical and electronic legislative record and archived in the legislative library or records systems.
All motions that were recorded in the meeting packet passed by unanimous consent or by the motions and objections process described on the record; no roll‑call tallies were taken because the council used unanimous‑consent/voice procedures where permitted. Where statutory citations were invoked during motions, they were recorded in the meeting transcript (see authorities below).
