Late night caper--"No matter what I do with this, I'm gonna lose my job tonight." So said, according to building gossips, a capitol night security guard when he caught four Republican House members and at least two of their staff hiding boxes and bubble wrap 'stolen' from in front of Republican Senate members' offices. The after-dark raid was an apparent in-your-face response from House members to the in-your-face message from Senate Republicans that they were prepared to go home if the House didn't accede to their demand that the House pass a radical dismemberment of teacher and public employee pension plans. Of course, hijacking empty boxes and bubble wrap is pretty lightweight--not the kind of heavy lifting Alaskans expect from legislators as the end of the session nears. The guard, so far, has not lost his job for catching the House members red-handed.

What's in a name?--Thursday the legislature met in joint session to confirm gubernatorial appointments. No filibusters, no great angst--most nominees sailed through unanimously. The only emotion expressed on the floor was laughter as we confirmed the appointments to the Board of Veterinary Examiners. As he read the names of the nominees, Senate Majority Leader Gary Stevens noted the appropriate appellations for two of the three nominees for the veterinary board: (Dr. Timothy) Bowser and (Dr. Cynthia Ann) Trout.

The joy of motherhood--For the first time in my memory, the prayer that begins each session of the Senate discussed vomit. Sen. Gretchen Guess was the stand-in chaplain on Mother's Day Sunday and, among other things, prayed for mothers "who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up vomit laced with Oscar Meyer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid . . ." Actually, don't judge the prayer by that snippet. Senator Mom's prayer was pitch perfect in its list of services mothers provide. You'd expect pitch perfect from a mother who juggles the child-like antics of her colleagues on the floor with the demands of her three-month-old daughter.

Take this cone and . . .?--Some bemused state employees were startled to find in their state email accounts an invitation from the governor to an ice cream social last Wednesday in the State Office Building. Some commissioners and their deputies served the ice cream, lemonade and popcorn as a gesture of thanks. It should be noted the ice cream was passed out as the House debated SB141, a bill that radically reduces the benefits for new state employees. SB141 is considered a 'must have' this session by the governor. The irony wasn't lost on some state employees who picketed the ice cream social.

Fish politics--Recently retired Juneau judge Peter Froehlich passed his confirmation hearing in the Senate Resources Committee with flying colors. Peter has been appointed by the governor to be one of three members of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, a quasi-judicial group that arbitrates harvester entry to some of the state's most lucrative fisheries (as well as less lucrative fisheries). Committee Chair Sen. Tom Wagoner noted Peter may have a streak of masochism given the nature of some of the fish harvester disputes. Sen. Wagoner mused "I'm not sure how much you've worked with fishermen" as he suggested how difficult they can be. The 15-year court veteran responded: "I'm not sure how much you've worked with lawyers."

Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Email:
Senator.Kim.Elton
Jesse.Kiehl
Paula.Cadiente
Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

    Mark Twain wrote that "the art of prophecy is difficult, especially with regard to the future." 
     So I decided to wait until the last day of the regular session to write this column. Then the guv called a special session.
     No more waiting, this end-of-the-regular-session dispatch will focus on what happened with some of my personal legislation (none of my bills are in play during the special session). Then, when the special session limps to a close, I'll bleed over the keyboard again and give a final, final overview of what happened for--or to--Alaskans this year.
     Cooperation, one of the principles articulated in the bestseller Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten, worked pretty well for me on some personal bill priorities (doesn't EIKILIK, the acronym for the book, sound like it should be an Inupiat word for 'working well with others'?).  Five of my bills are now law because we worked across the aisle:
       • SB25, my Frankenfish bill passed with the help of co-prime sponsor Republican Sen. Gary Stevens of Kodiak. The bill provides that genetically modified fish sold in Alaska must be labeled as genetically modified. This bill got an early start and was the eighth senate bill to make it all the way this session.
       • All the elements of SB37 were incorporated into a governor's bill and passed this session. The bill, co-prime sponsored with Republican Sen. Fred Dyson of Eagle River, changes archaic law and allows shipment of unembalmed loved ones across state lines. Some religions, including the Jewish religion, do not allow embalming and the old law made sending bodies to final resting places Outside a bureaucratic nightmare for bereaved families.
       • SB176, naming the UAS/National Guard joint use facility after Charles Gamble and Donald Sperl--two Juneau men who lost their lives in Vietnam, also was introduced on the House side by Democrat Beth Kerttula and squirted through the legislature in three weeks as HB297 with the energetic assistance of Haines Republican Rep. Bill Thomas.
       • My SB30 was incarnated as HB185 by Rep. Mike Chenault, a Kenai Republican, and passed. The bill provides that post secondary schools, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, notify incoming students of the potential deadly danger of meningococcal disease.
       • SB31, my bill to retain the retire/rehire bill--with safeguards against managerial abuse--was tweaked and passed in a different form when HB161, a similar bill sponsored by Republican Representative Jim Elkins, was adopted on the last day of the regular session.
     The first two bills, SB25 (Frankenfish) and SB37 (unembalmed bodies), took advantage of an 11-year old provision that allows co-prime sponsorship across party lines. Over that decade plus, 25 bills have been introduced with cross-party sponsors. Seven have passed in some form. I've had the privilege of being a co-prime sponsor of four of the seven successful efforts. 
     The other two passed in 2003 when I worked with Republican Sen. John Cowdery of Anchorage to pass SB13 (which put the nation's strictest limits on insurance discrimination by credit rating) and SB26 with Republican Sen. Robin Taylor of Ketchikan (to protect benefits of state employees and their families when employees are called to active military duty).
     So far, others in the senate this year also transcended party labels and made things happen for Alaska and Juneau. Republican Sens. Gary Wilken and Lyda Green worked well with others when they crafted the operating budget and the capital budget. Too often, the budget process is marked by partisanship and acrimony. This year, the partisanship was muted in the Senate.
     Sen. Wilken and his staff worked so well with others that the operating budget (not including spending for public schools) passed the Senate 19-1. Perfection is an impossible goal when 20 legislators representing different parts of the state and a diversity of constituents have 20 different perfect plans. But, with the exception of school funding, which is still at risk and needs to be fixed in the special session, it was pretty good for Juneau and the state. 
     Sen. Green and her capital budget staffer (Juneau's own Ginger Blaisdell) were easy to work with--tough, but fair. Her capital budget efforts accomplished a legislative rarity--a unanimous vote of the floor of the Senate for project spending. Again, nothing's ever perfect but this was an elegant achievement.
     To this point, Juneau's been treated fairly in the capital budget. On our side, Sen. Green added back Juneau's big-ticket item--$10 million for the Lena Point fisheries lab. That means the Juneau-based UAF fisheries program can grow in conjunction with the new NOAA facility.
     Rep. Beth Kerttula and I successfully funded the $9 million first phase of the lab in 2002 with the help of former Rep. Bill Hudson. This year we needed the last phase and with the help of Rep. Kerttula and Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, we captured the second phase dollars for the fish lab. 
     While the operating and capital budgets are part of the "call" for the special session, I'm hopeful that the bi-partisan work already done on the capital and operating budgets stands through the special session and doesn't get swamped in acrimony during the extra innings.