Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Legislative Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee reviews proposal to replace 25 agency positions with legislative council roles, including program evaluators
Summary
Senators discussed a request from Majority Leader Hogue, delivered through Senator Sickler, to avoid adding 25 new positions to the legislative council by transferring existing agency positions; legislative staff described the proposed program evaluator roles and their duties.
Senator Dwyer told the Appropriations — Government Operations Division that Majority Leader Hogue asked, through Senator Sickler, that the committee consider replacing 25 positions rather than adding them to the legislative council.
"He wanted us to look at those same positions in agencies and see if we couldn't transfer them or some of them to make up for those 25," Senator Dwyer said. She said the intent was not to increase the total statewide headcount but to reallocate existing positions into the legislative council.
Levi, a legislative staff member, described the program evaluator positions the council would use if the transfers proceed. "The program evaluators would be ones that would take a look at programs that you appropriate money for, and then do kind of like an operational audit or analysis of whether the outcomes are the program and then provide reports back to legislative management or to standing committees of the assembly," Levi said.
Senators acknowledged agencies slated as sources for transfers would likely oppose losing FTEs, and members discussed making printed copies of the majority-leader materials available to the committee. No formal vote or final decision on reassigning positions is recorded in the supplied transcript; the committee considered the concept and asked staff to circulate the document detailing candidate positions.
The committee flagged implementation concerns: agencies could resist reductions in their staffing; any reallocation would require further review and likely additional committee work. Levi and other staff identified the evaluator roles as focused on operational reviews of programs that receive appropriations.
No binding action was taken during the portion of the meeting recorded in the transcript.
