The Committee on Judiciary was called to order at 9:05 a.m., on Tuesday, February 2, 1999. Chairman Bernie Anderson presided in Room 3138 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada. Exhibit A is the Agenda. Exhibit B is the Guest List. All Exhibits are available and on file at the Research Library of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

Mr. Bernie Anderson, Chairman

Mr. Mark Manendo, Vice Chairman

Ms. Sharron Angle

Mr. Greg Brower

Ms. Barbara Buckley

Mr. John Carpenter

Mr. Jerry Claborn

Mr. Tom Collins

Mr. Don Gustavson

Mrs. Ellen Koivisto

Ms. Sheila Leslie

Ms. Kathy McClain

Mr. Dennis Nolan

Ms. Genie Ohrenschall

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

Chairman Anderson announced anyone intending to testify should sign in on the attendance roster and present any materials to the committee secretary for distribution. In addition, anyone wishing to speak before the committee were to leave their business card with the committee secretary. He further stated materials became the property of the committee. Chairman Anderson asked anyone having phone or other device to please turn them off.

Chairman Anderson welcomed the committee members to the first meeting of the Assembly Committee on Judiciary for the 1999 Legislative Session. He stated he was a resident of Sparks representing Washoe County Assembly District 31. It was his fifth session and he had been a member of the Judiciary Committee since 1991. He served as Chairman of the committee last session and as a Co-Chairman in the 1995 session. Mr. Anderson said it was his privilege to serve as the Committee Chairman for the current session. He was pleased the committee had Assemblyman Mark Manendo of Las Vegas as his Vice Chairman and said it was Mr. Manendo’s third session and second serving on the committee. He was also pleased Assemblywoman Buckley and Assemblyman Carpenter had returned to the committee. Assemblywoman Buckley would serve again as the Assistant Majority Leader, having returned for her third session and third time on the committee. Ms. Buckley was Mr. Anderson’s Vice Chairman last session and she was Chairman of the newly enlarged and much worked Committee on Commerce and Labor. Assemblyman Carpenter was the ranking member of the committee and had been on the panel since the 1987 session.

Mr. Anderson welcomed back other returning members of the committee, Assemblywomen Genie Ohrenschall and Ellen Koivisto, Assemblymen Tom Collins, Dennis Nolan, and Assemblyman Don Gustavson. He stated on behalf of all returning committee members he wanted to extend a sincere welcome to the new members: Assemblywoman Kathy McClain of Las Vegas, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie and Assemblywoman Sharron Angle of Reno, Assemblyman Jerry Claborn of Las Vegas, and Assemblyman Greg Brower of Reno.

Continuing, Mr. Anderson said "as he looked around this morning, he saw a group of legislators who hold a wide variety of occupations and professions — attorneys, consultants, a school teacher, university staff, an operating engineer, a management analyst, a journeyman lineman, a rancher and a number of managers and owners of various businesses." He stated their varied backgrounds should combine to make it a very exciting committee.

Chairman Anderson went on to introduce the clerical and research staff that would be assisting the committee. He further explained the procedure of conducting meetings including the times the committee would meet and the types of bills that would come before the Committee on Judiciary. The committee would begin at 9 a.m. on Monday mornings and would begin at 8 a.m. on other days. Later in the session the committee would begin at 7:30 a.m. on days other than Monday. He also stressed the committee would adjourn at 10:30 a.m. each day at the request of Speaker Dini in order to attend the Assembly Floor Session.

Mr. Anderson explained the jurisdiction and workload of the committee and said "the Assembly Judiciary Committee is one of the busiest committees in the legislature, all you had to do was to look at yesterday’s agenda and you saw that we picked up about one-third of the bills that were introduced in prefiling. During the 1997 session, there were 248 legislative measures referred to this committee. Over 20 percent, in fact 22 percent of all the bills and resolutions referred in the Assembly committees came to this committee. Only the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means had more measures and most of those were either bills that were concurrently referred, rereferred, or one-shot, fairly simple bills. About one-third of the measures that were referred to this committee last session never made it out. We are always referred as Cul-de-sac Number 2 where good things go in and never come out. We do kill bills in this committee, and a higher percentage than the past may die in committee because of the 120-day limit."

Mr. Anderson reiterated as a freshman, he was told by former Chairman Bob Sader, the committee dealt with issues ranging from before life to after death. The committee had jurisdiction over all the chapters in 15 titles of Nevada Revised Statues (NRS) and another 16 chapters in other titles; a total of almost 200 chapters of NRS. The committee literally tracked the interests of citizens from the cradle to grave; with responsibility for laws related to juvenile justice and domestic relations to laws governing trusts, wills and estates of decreased persons. The committee was responsible for laws related to the Judicial Branch of State Government and for laws regulating Nevada’s most important industry; gaming. He said criminal laws, penalties, and laws related to various business transactions fell within the committee’s jurisdiction.

Mr. Anderson said the work accomplished by the committee was not only important to the daily lives of their constituents, but was also important to the vitality of the entire state and Nevada’s future generations. Committee members should enjoy the work they did on the committee, but also should recognize the responsibility they had been given. He shared with the committee a cartoon that expressed the way he liked to look at life. "Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future but today is a gift and that is why it is called a present." Because of the work of the committee he felt things would be better tomorrow than they were today.

Chairman Anderson emphasized the importance of courtesy when dealing with other members of the committee, staff, and all the persons who testified before the committee. He expected the committee to respect the people with whom they dealt, even if they did not agree with their positions. He also emphasized the importance of providing a fair hearing to all parties on all bills scheduled to be heard. He particularly wanted to point out the importance of public testimony at all meetings. Continuing, Mr. Anderson said the committee must never forget they were there to serve the public and persons who testified before the committee deserved their respect. He asked committee members to pay attention during testimony, not be redundant in making remarks or asking questions, and not be argumentative with witnesses or committee members.

Don Williams, Chief Principal Research Analyst, Legislative Counsel Bureau had been asked to explain session deadlines during his presentation. Mr. Anderson noted what his own limits and deadlines were for the committee. Once a bill was introduced, he planned to have the bill scheduled for hearing within the very near future; possibly as soon as within 1 week after its introduction. If a committee member had a bill introduced and they were not prepared to present it soon, they needed to notify him and give him a specific date not more than 2 weeks from the time the bill had been introduced. At that time Chairman Anderson said all the prefiled bills would be scheduled. Unfortunately, due to time limits imposed by the 120-day session, he would have to schedule more bills than usual per hearing date and thus testimony would be limited. He said except for prearranged presentations requested of the Chairman and set up in advance, he planned to limit all witnesses to 5 minutes unless the committee requested extensive testimony and, of course, that would not include the committees questioning times of a particular witness.

Mr. Anderson said when he appointed subcommittees or individual members to work on a bill and report back to the committee, he expected to have a final report returned within 10 days or less. As deadlines for committee action on bills approached, the deadlines would be shortened. He added when conference committees were appointed, he would expect the first conference committee to have reported back within 8 days. If a second conference committee had to be appointed they needed to report back within 7 days. He further stated when the end of session approached, the deadlines for conference committees would be much shorter, possibly only a few hours.

Chairman Anderson asked committee members to be considerate of the committee room and the items contained therein. They would be responsible to dispose of their own garbage. Drawers where their committee files were stored after each meeting were not locked. He also suggested that if they had something confidential or valuable in their files, they should take those items with them when they left the committee room.

Mr. Brower introduced Joe Vaeth a senior from Incline Village High School. Mr. Vaeth was a Nevada Career Days participant and spent the day with Mr. Brower.

The next order of business was to review the Standing Rules of the Committee on Judiciary, attached hereto as Exhibit C. Chairman Anderson pointed out two changes in the standing rules as follows:

1. The first change included a slight variance in item 5 from the previous sessions. Committee introductions of bills or resolutions would require a two-thirds majority of the entire committee (10 out of 14 members) and did not imply commitment to support the bill or resolution. Previously the two-thirds majority was stated as 9 of 14, but should have been 10 of 14.

2. The second change occurred in item 11. That section had been expanded and reflected the duties of committee secretaries. The committee secretaries were custodians of all records and minutes of the meetings until those documents were released to the custody of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Mr. Anderson indicated Mr. Manendo, Vice Chairman had the responsibility of the required prison tours. He explained because of the 120-day session the committee would not tour as part of a scheduled meeting, but could tour during non-committee time.

Chairman Anderson asked for a motion to adopt the Standing Rules of the Committee on Judiciary.

Don Williams made a presentation of the committee brief and gave an overview of session deadlines.

Mr. Williams provided committee briefing documents to the committee, attached as Exhibit D. He credited Allison Combs, Committee Policy Analyst for the Senate Judiciary Committee, who had assisted in the preparation of the brief.

Mr. Williams stated the committee brief provided general background information and summarized selected issues which pertained to the committee. Pages 1 to 3 listed the titles and chapters of Nevada Revised Statutes, which were under the jurisdiction of the judiciary committee. Pages 3 to 7 contained a summary and brief explanation of certain major topics addressed by the committee last session. Overview of issues expected to be considered by the committee were located on pages 7 to 10. He also included studies conducted throughout the interim. Pages 11 to 12 incorporated a list of key judiciary officials and interest groups and telephone numbers for the committee’s quick reference.

Mr. Williams focused on the interim studies of Fees, Fines, Forfeitures and Administrative Assessments; Family Courts; and Juvenile Justice. (Exhibit D).

Mr. Williams continued with a short presentation regarding the implementation of the 120-day session; key dates for the 1999 legislative session (Exhibit E).

Mr. Williams provided the committee with some perspective so they might better understand the process. He said they were in session 169 calendar days in 1997. The first meeting of the committee was January 23; 3 days after the session had started. The last meeting of the committee took place on Sunday afternoon July 6 and the session ended on July 7. There were a total of 118 committee meetings during the 1997 session that included 114 regular meetings and 4 floor meetings. They also had 24 subcommittee meetings. He focused on the 118 meetings and referred to the deadlines which restricted the committee during session. The last date for bills to be processed out of committee would be May 14, which would be the 103^rd day of session. Reference Exhibit F for the remaining portion of Mr. William’s presentation.

Chairman Anderson thanked Mr. Williams for his presentation and asked if there were any questions.

Mr. Carpenter asked what would happen after the March 22 final deadline for committee bills passed. Would there be any provisions provided for special dispensation if a disaster occurred? Mr. Anderson stated after March 22 if something monumental or catastrophic had occurred he would have to approach Speaker Dini, and request the opportunity to make a change. Mr. Dini would have to convince the Majority Leader of the Senate that the situation did indeed constitute an emergency and fell under that recognized group.

Mr. Collins complimented the staff for the great work they had accomplished in keeping the committee organized. He also thanked Mr. Anderson for his excellent leadership. He said it was one of the best committees in the Nevada Legislature.

Mr. Anderson agreed with Mr. Collins stating the committee had a very powerful staff and Mr. Williams and Ms. Lang truly made it a pleasure to serve on the committee.

In closing, Mr. Anderson informed the committee, the Speaker of the Assembly and the Majority Leader of the Senate had divided a number of bills submitted from the state agencies and distributed them to the committee where introduction would be required. He said that did not mean members agreed to the bill, it merely was as a matter of courtesy for a fair hearing.

Mr. Anderson reminded the committee the reason they voted was to make sure a controversial topic had a fair hearing and in order for a bill to be heard fairly, the bill also had to be posted and agendised. He suggested they not sign-on a piece of legislation with which they were not really happy being associated. At the same time if it was a controversial topic they might want to discuss that topic. He further stated even if a member represented the other side of a piece of legislation they might want to make sure the discussion took place and that was why the committee existed; for open discussion to take place.

Chairman Anderson adjourned the meeting at 10:15 a.m.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

Novella Watson-Lee

Committee Secretary

APPROVED BY:

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, Chairman

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