March 27, 2019
| Members Present: | Members Absent: |
| Representative Connie Bernardy | Senator Mark W. Koran |
| Representative Rick Hansen | |
| Representative Duane Quam | |
| Senator Nick A. Frentz |
Representative Bernardy, Chair, called the Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) Evaluation Subcommittee meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. The purpose of the meeting was to select evaluation topics to be placed on the survey of legislators.
Judy Randall, Deputy Legislative Auditor, provided an overview of items in members’ folders. She explained that the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) staff had prepared a preliminary review of the 15 topics the subcommittee had chosen at the last meeting. Ms. Randall said that they needed to reduce the 15 topics down to 10 to place on a survey to gauge legislators’ interest. She then ran through each topic, providing information on size and scope. She also said that Senator Koran had given her his top eight topics since he would either be late to the meeting or not be able to attend at all.
Members discussed the list of most promising topics according to OLA’s assessment. It was decided that the Board of Animal Health Oversight of Companion Animals and Commercial Breeders and Liquor Regulation would not be good topics at this time. Representative Hansen moved the following list of topics to be on the legislative survey:
Compensatory Education Revenue
Driver Education
Fisheries Management and Hatcheries
Licensing and Oversight of Child Care Centers
Minnesota Department of Human Rights
Personal Care Assistance
Pesticide Regulation
Probation Practices
Public Utilities Commission
Safety in State Correctional Facilities
The motion prevailed.
Representative Hansen then moved the Data Center Sales Tax Incentive to be the economic development topic; the motion prevailed.
There was a brief discussion about the size of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Probation Practices topics. It was decided that OLA should scope these topics before being placed on the legislative survey, so that legislators would not be confused if those topics were chosen and then narrowed in scope after the fact. Members decided that the PUC evaluation would focus on the commission’s public engagement processes, and the Probation Practices evaluation would focus on the extent to which probation sentencing and practices are consistent statewide.
With no further business, Representative Bernardy adjourned the meeting at 6:03 p.m.
Representative Connie Bernardy, Evaluation Subcommittee Chair
Shelly Gilb, Recording Secretary
