Office of the Legislative Auditor

Legislative Audit Commission

Minutes

April 12, 2021

Representative Hansen, 2019-2020 Chair, called the Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home and social distancing guidelines in place for the State of Minnesota, this meeting was held using the Zoom conferencing web application. 

Representative Hansen said the purpose of the meeting was to (1) elect new officers of the LAC as required by law, (2) establish subcommittees, and (3) hear a legislative update on the Office of the Legislative Auditor’s (OLA’s) housekeeping bill.  He asked the clerk to take the roll; all members were present except for Representative Liebling. 

Representative Hansen requested nominations for the 2021-2022 LAC chair; Senator Kiffmeyer nominated Senator Koran.  Receiving no other nominations, a verbal roll call vote was taken and the motion passed.  It was noted that Representative Liebling had joined the meeting.

Senator Koran assumed the chair, and thanked members for their support.  He then requested nominations for vice chair; Representative Liebling nominated Representative Hansen.  Receiving no other nominations, a verbal roll call vote was taken and the motion passed.

Senator Koran explained that he had made selections of which members would serve on the subcommittees.  He said that he made a few changes from last time and felt that it was good to have members experience the work of the different subcommittees.  There was some discussion on members switching subcommittee assignments.  Representative Bernardy made a motion to amend Senator Koran’s selection of subcommittee appointments to switch herself with Representative Liebling (between the Audit and Evaluation subcommittees).  Senator Koran said that he put a lot of thought into his selections and would like to keep them as selected for now. 

Senator Rest moved that the list of subcommittee appointments made by Senator Koran be approved.  A verbal roll call vote was taken and the motion passed.  For the record, Senator Koran stated that the subcommittee appointments were as follows:

Audit Subcommittee 
Senator Rest (Chair)
Senator Benson
Senator Frentz
Representative Bernardy
Representative Pierson
Representative Quam

Evaluation Subcommittee
Senator Kiffmeyer (Chair)
Senator Klein
Senator Koran 
Representative Erickson
Representative Hansen
Representative Liebling

Executive Subcommittee
Representative Hansen (Chair)
Senator Kiffmeyer
Senator Koran
Senator Rest

Senator Koran asked Jim Nobles, Legislative Auditor, to provide an update on the OLA’s housekeeping bill.  Mr. Nobles said the OLA budget and statute changes are in the State Government Finance Omnibus bills:  Senate File 1831 and House File 1952.  He said that the Senate bill includes a $500,000 appropriation for OLA to conduct a review of the state’s election equipment, which will be a very extensive and complicated project.  The Senate bill also includes additional appropriations to OLA from the Data Security Account, which was created several years back that accumulates funds from bulk data sales through Minnesota’s Driver and Vehicle Services.  The legislature directed OLA to conduct data security audits using those funds.  However, Governor Dayton had vetoed the appropriation and the Senate bill re-appropriates that money to OLA.  In addition, the other difference between the House and Senate bills is that the Senate bill retains the housekeeping language that OLA staff cannot run for an elected public office.

With no further business, Senator Koran adjourned the meeting at 9:02 a.m.

Senator Mark W. Koran, Chair

Shelly Gilb, Recording Secretary