Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
3 golden objects Minnesota Legislature

Office of the Legislative Auditor

Legislative Audit Commission
Topic Selection Subcommittee

Minutes

March 20, 2009

Members Present:

Representative Rick Hansen, Chair
Representative Michael Beard
Representative Bill Hilty
Senator David Hann
Senator Ann H. Rest
Senator Claire Robling

 

The meeting of the Topic Selection Subcommittee of the Legislative Audit Commission was called to order by Representative Rick Hansen, Chair, at 9:06 a.m. 

Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles said that the purpose of the meeting was to review the list of evaluation topics suggested by legislators and others.  A list of 12 – 15 topics would become “semi-finalists” that would later be narrowed down to a final list to present to the full Legislative Audit Commission.  He said that shortly after today’s meeting, a survey would be sent to all legislators to determine their interest in the “semi-finalist” topics.  Mr. Nobles introduced Judy Randall, Program Evaluation Manager, to go through the list of topics.  Ms. Randall walked through the timeline of the topic selection process.  She said the subcommittee would come back together in two weeks to pick the final five to eight topics. 

Ms. Randall said that she would go over the descriptions of the topics with the members.  However, since the list contained 69 topics, she said she would only talk briefly on the ones in each category that OLA staff felt were strong topics and on any that members had questions about.  The subcommittee discussed several of the topics.  Senator Rest suggested that Senior Nutrition Funding be combined with the Board on Aging and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) be combined with State-Owned Land if they are chosen as semi-finalists.  Ms. Randall said that OLA staff would draft background papers on the topics that the subcommittee selected today.

Representative Hansen asked each subcommittee member to go through the list and name their top 10 choices to be on the “semi-finalist” list.  Senator Rest reminded members they should try to pick one in each category to maintain a good balance.  The topics with the most interest were chosen.

The 15 topics selected by the subcommittee for further consideration were:

MnSCU Central Office Expenditures
Alternative Education Programs
Medical Nonemergency Transportation Services
Sex Offender Treatment Programs at Moose Lake and St. Peter
Board on Aging combined with Senior Nutrition Funding
State and Local Governance of Minnesota’s Transit Systems
Workforce Programs
Job Growth Policies and Incentives
Guardians Ad Litem
Public Defender System
Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) combined with State-Owned Land
Renewable Energy Development Fund
Information Technology Oversight and Policy
Minnesota Library System
Publicly Funded Housing

Representative Hansen moved this list of 15 topics to be on the survey to all legislators, and Senator Hann seconded the motion.  With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:08 a.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