April 15, 2020
| Members Present: | Members Absent: |
| Representative Rick Hansen, Chair | Senator Mark W. Koran, Vice Chair |
| Representative Connie Bernardy | |
| Representative Sondra Erickson | |
| Representative Tina Liebling | |
| Representative Nels Pierson | |
| Representative Duane Quam | |
| Senator Michelle Benson | |
| Senator Nick A. Frentz | |
| Senator Mary Kiffmeyer | |
| Senator Matt D. Klein | |
| Senator Ann H. Rest |
Representative Rick Hansen, Chair, called the Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) meeting to order at 10:31 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. Judy Randall, Deputy Legislative Auditor, Program Evaluation Division, Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA), took the roll.
Chair Hansen then asked Representative Bernardy to give the LAC a report from the Evaluation Subcommittee meeting that had been held on April 7, 2020. Representative Bernardy gave a recap of that meeting. Representative Bernardy then made a motion to move that the full commission approve the five topics that the Evaluation Subcommittee had selected, which were:
Senator Kiffmeyer asked for the results of the votes from the Evaluation Subcommittee meeting; Ms.Randall provided those for the commission. Senator Kiffmeyer then requested the results from the legislative survey for the five topics that had been selected by the Evaluation Subcommittee; Ms. Randall provided those for the commission. Senator Kiffmeyer then asked for the names of the five topics that received the most votes on the legislative survey; Ms. Randall provided those for the commission.
Chair Hansen then clarified to members that there was a motion on the floor and asked for further discussion. Further discussion took place among members. Senator Kiffmeyer asked why the five topics that received the most legislative votes were not the five topics chosen by the Evaluation Subcommittee. Representative Bernardy said that the survey results were taken into consideration, as well as other factors, such as which topics would be best for an evaluation.
Ms. Randall then elaborated on OLA’s ranking of the topics, as discussed at the Evaluation Subcommittee meeting. Senator Kiffmeyer suggested that in the future, topics that are not suitable for evaluation should not be placed on the legislative survey in the first place. Senator Rest expressed support of Senator Kiffmeyer’s comments and added additional comments. Ms. Randall agreed with the Senators’ comments and said that in the past, there had been an additional Evaluation Subcommittee meeting that would have potentially excluded the less-promising evaluation topics from the survey. She explained that due to Covid-19 and the extended legislative recess, the commission had decided to skip that meeting and move forward with having all 16 semi-finalist topics on the legislative survey. Further discussion took place.
James Nobles, Legislative Auditor, said that OLA would bring forth information from the Minnesota Department of Health regarding Individual and Small-Group Market Health Insurance, which was one of the original 16 topics with high legislative interest.
Chair Hansen then asked Ms. Randall to take the roll on Representative Bernardy’s motion. The result was 10 for and 0 against. The votes were as follows:
Representative Hansen asked if there was further discussion. Seeing no further discussion, Representative Hansen adjourned the meeting at 11:03 a.m.
Representative Rick Hansen, Chair
Maureen Garrahy, Recording Secretary
