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Office of the Revisor of Statutes

Office of the Revisor of Statutes

MARSS Working Group - 10/4/17

Full audio of the meeting

Minutes

Members Present

Bert Black, Patricia Winget, Mary H. Lynn, Jodi Pope, Wendy Legge, Denise Collins, Kerstin Forsythe Hahn.

Members Excused

Beth Scheffer, Rebecca Gaspard.

The following packet was handed out:

The meeting of the MARSS Working Group held in the conference room of the Board of Cosmetology was called to order by Kerstin Forsythe Hahn at 2:03 p.m. The working group has agreed that they are following the requirements of the open meeting law.

The Minutes of the meeting held September 14, 2017, were amended to reflect that the final part of the meeting opened the discussion of possible funding options.

Motion to approve the Minutes of the meeting held September 14, 2017 by Kerstin Forsythe Hahn. Carries as amended..

  • Recommendations Summary: Working group will proceed with sub-group recommendations.
  • Presentation of Materials Created by Revisor’s Office: Melissa Patsch, LeAnn Simonson
    • Presenters stated that the executive summary and requirements description are business-friendly, preliminary suggestions for inclusion in the larger report.
    • The Requirements Appendix B-Initial Build includes rough-ins for future capabilities. Working group requested further editing to clarify which user type is referred to in each incidence of the word “user”.
    • Working group inquired whether all options for reducing costs had been explored in the Project Plan for In-House Build, including leveraging current staffing. Presenters explained that Revisor IT staff are already fully dedicated to the Legislative system, and a new system will require new staff.
    • Statistics on rulemaking by year were queried from the Beta system. Presenters noted that statistics can be sorted by other categories depending on the needs of the working group.
  • Discussion of Agency Support
    • Office of Administrative Hearings does not support cost as-is; they absorb staffing costs and the system licensing costs $6,000 annually. Working group inquired whether this figure includes costs of public access, data storage, or backup.
    • Department of Labor and Industry will not see much cost savings. Leadership thinks system benefits are not in cost savings but in opening public access and ensuring no records are lost.
    • Working group will ask rules managers for better cost savings estimates.
    • Greater transparency, improved records maintenance, and increased legislator knowledge will be emphasized in report.
  • Funding Brainstorm
    • Working group do not consider the General Fund a likely source of funding and decided against charging each agency per rule-making or per FTE position.
    • Wendy Legge brought up the Odyssey Fund used by Management and Budget as a model mechanism. Working group will invite someone with knowledge of Odyssey Funds to next meeting.
    • Building a system of this scale requires a critical mass of funding; the legislature may be willing to front money if it is then repaid.
    • Private entity sponsorship could violate laws governing gifts to agencies and selling ad space could be considered selling access to public data.
    • US Patent and Trademark Office brought up as historical model for allowing a private entity to create and run a system in parallel to but separately from current public data access channels, which would remain in place.
    • Working group will continue conversation at future meetings.
  • Working group decided on timeline for report drafting.
  • Working group discussed relocating future meetings per Revisor’s request to make it easier for legislative staff to attend. Group recommended that chair speak with Revisor.


Adjourn 3:40 p.m.