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3 golden objects Minnesota Legislature

Office of the Legislative Auditor

Legislative Audit Commission Meeting
Topic Selection Subcommittee

Minutes

March 5, 2010

Members Present:

Representative Rick Hansen, Chair
Representative Michael Beard
Representative Bill Hilty
Senator David Hann
Senator Claire Robling

Members Absent:

Senator Ann H. Rest

 

The meeting of the Topic Selection Subcommittee of the Legislative Audit Commission was called to order by Representative Rick Hansen, Chair, at 11:57 a.m.

Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles explained that this year was going to be different from those in the past because the OLA had recently started three evaluations that were chosen the previous year. He said those three are the Renewable Energy Development Fund, Medical Nonemergency Transportation Services, and Governance of Minnesota’s Transit Systems. Since the office was conducting those evaluations now, the subcommittee would need to choose a smaller number of topics than previous years. Mr. Nobles introduced Judy Randall, Evaluation Manager, who was organizing the topic selection process this year. Ms. Randall gave a brief overview of the scope of the Minnesota Transit System topic, which would be rather large. Representative Hansen confirmed with the members that they wanted OLA to continue with the three topics that were on the list from last year.

Representative Hansen asked each subcommittee member to go through the list of new topics and name their top three choices to be on the “semi-finalist” list. Representative Hansen asked Mr. Nobles and Ms. Randall to speak briefly on each of the topics that were chosen by the members. The subcommittee discussed several of the topics.

The 12 topics selected by the subcommittee for further consideration were:

Guardians Ad Litem
State Services for the Blind
K-12 Online Learning
K-12 Teacher Compensation
Nuclear Energy
Fiscal Note Process
State Agency Strategic Plans/Management and Budgeting
Sex Offender Treatment Program at Moose Lake
Design-Build Highway Construction
Disaster Recovery Related to Flooding in the Red River Valley
No-Fault Auto Insurance
Environmental Permitting

Representative Hilty moved these 12 topics to be the “semi-finalist” list; the motion prevailed.

Mr. Nobles said that shortly after today’s meeting, a survey would be sent to all legislators to determine their interest in the “semi-finalist” topics. Ms. Randall said that OLA staff would draft background papers on these topics, which would help members make a final selection to present to the full LAC. She explained that the subcommittee would plan to meet together in approximately two weeks from today to make the final selections.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:48 p.m.

Representative Rick Hansen, Chair

Shelly Watterud, Recording Secretary

 

Mentioned

Office of the Legislative Auditor, Room 140, 658 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55155 : legislative.auditor@state.mn.us or 651‑296‑4708