Good afternoon. I call this meeting of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee to order. Let the record reflect. It is 1 31 p.m. On Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 members present today are Senator Dunbar, Senator Young, myself Senator Merrick, Chair Bjorkman is excused and Senator Great Jackson will be with us shortly today.
We will hold a second hearing on Senate bill 211 extend occupational licensing boards. The omnibus board extension bill.
We heard this bill on Monday when the legislative auditor Chris Curtis reviewed the first five audits in the bill.
We adopted a committee substitute which added the board of certified real estate appraisers.
Today we will hear a review of the real-estate appraiser's audit by Ms. Curtis,
followed by director Sylvan Rob with the division of corporations business and professional licensing.
And finally, we'll hear testimony from representatives of three of
Please let the record reflect at 1.32 p.m. We have been joined by senator gray Jackson
So first we will start with our legislative auditor Chris Curtis if you would like to come forward place yourself on the
Record and begin the review of the audit. Thank you for being here
For the records, my name is Chris Kurtis. I'm your state legislative Auditor
I believe all of you have a copy of The real state appraiser sunset audit in your meeting packets and I'll be going over that
Audit at a fairly high level
So overall we found this board was serving the public's interest
by conducting their meetings in an effective manner,
by actively amending their regulations,
and by effectively licensing real estate appraisers
and appraisal management companies.
The audit also concluded that there was one board member seat
that had been vacant for 56 months as of January 2025.
Statute changes may be necessary
to address federal oversight findings
and board related investigations
are not conducted in a timely manner.
We're recommending a six year extension for this board.
If you turn to page 8, you'll find our discussion about board statutes that may not fully comply with federal law.
This board is subject to oversight by the Federal Appraisal Subcommittee, which reviews all states appraisal and appraisal management company regulatory programs for compliance with Federal requirements at least every two years.
Exhibit 2 shows the federal findings issued in 2024.
According to the board chair, curative legislation has not been introduced because they have
been unable to find a legislative sponsor.
The schedule licensing activities is on page 10.
As of January 2025, there were 362 active licenses, certificates, and registrants.
On page 12 is a schedule of revenues and expenditures showing a surplus of 86,000 as of Jan. 2025.
First, we recommend the Office of the Governor,
Boards and Commissions Director,
continue to work with the board
to identify potential applicants
to fill board seats in a timely manner.
Wreck two, the Board should continue
to seek a statutory change
to address the Federal Oversight Committee's findings,
or Federal Appraisal Subcommittee findings.
Wreck 3, the commissioner should work with policymakers
to improve the recruitment and retention of investigators.
So auditors tested five board related cases that have been open
for over 180 days and we found unjustified periods
of inactivity in all five cases.
The periods ranged from 165 days to 575 days.
Turnover and vacancies contributed to the delays.
Additionally, one period of 5 75 days was due
to untimely board member review.
Management's response to the audit begins on page 25, the Office of the Governor,
the DCCD Commissioner, and the Board Chair concur with the conclusions and findings.
Thank you, Ms. Curtis.
Questions?
Senator Dunbar.
I'm sorry, Miss Curtis, I didn't quite track.
Could you say again, what do they need a legislative sponsor for?
What is the fix they needed?
Certainly through the chair, Senator Dunbar, there is a Federal Appraisal Subcommittee.
which is a federal agency out there that reviews all state appraisal and appraisal management
company licensing programs. And they do that every two years. So their 2024 review identified
some state statutes that don't fully align with the management, it's AMC's the
management companies, the appraisal, management company federal requirements.
So it looks like we're going to need some statutory changes.
This might be outside of your realm, but can you give us a sense of what that means exactly, in what ways are we out of compliance with this federal law?
Through the chair, Exhibit 2 on page 9 lists the federal finding.
The first is the state statutes requires federally regulated AMC's to report information that is not consistent with the AMC rule.
And then secondly the state statute regarding ownership limitation for an owner who's hadn't appraised a license or certificate refused, denied,
cancelled, surrendered in lieu of revocation or revoked in any state for substantive cause is not consistent with the AMC rule.
So those two issues don't fully align with federal requirements.
Okay, thank you Madam Chair.
Further questions for Ms. Curtis?
Seeing none, Thank you for being here.
Next, we will have Director Sylvan Rob from DCBPL come forward and we're going to continue
the conversation from last meeting about board surpluses and deficits.
Ms. Rob, welcome to the committee if you could place yourself on the record and do you have
any opening comments?
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, members of the Committee for the Records Sylvain Rob Director of The Division
of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing.
Yes, Madam Chair, if I may, I feel like our discussion of surpluses and deficits that
we had on Monday might have been better informed by taking one or two steps back just to remind
how we operate fiscally and so probably the biggest thing that I neglected to
say Monday that would have been really helpful to that decision or excuse me
that discussion is that the division has carried forward for our professional
licensing monies that we collect and a part of the reason for that is because
all of our Professional licenses are good for a two-year period and they all
expiration dates throughout the course of that two-year cycle and so the overwhelming
majority of revenue for our programs is generated during the renewal cycle because more people
renew than get a new license. And so we tend to see in that 2- year period one year where
a program will have a great deal of revenues during that renewal period and then the next
year substantially less when there only have people who are obtaining new licenses or continuing
Approved those sorts of fees that are generated and so I think knowing that helps sort of explain
the way that
the division functions. So the Division, as I mentioned, is one allocation in the budget.
So we just have one account that covers the entire division. But then we do cost accounting
within the provision to keep very close track, I mean, truly to 15-minute increments of how
staff time is being spent in making sure that we're allocating any other expenses equitably
between programs to ensure that licensees are truly only paying for the costs that are related to
regulating their program.
And again, we have 45 programs.
We licensed 125 professions.
The disparity there is like one of our programs is dental.
We license dentists, dental hygienists
and then we had some certificates
that are available for dental assistants
who wish to do specific procedures.
So dental being one program of those 45.
And so hopefully that sets the stage a little bit better,
Madam Chair, but happy to answer additional questions
about finances for the program.
Thank you, Mr. Rob.
Questions from the committee?
Seeing none, thank you for that clarification.
We appreciate it.
And now we will move to some invited testimony.
We have members of three boards.
The first is Bradley McConnell, the Vice Chair
of the Board of Psychologists and Physiological
Mr. McConnell, welcome to the committee. Could you please place yourself on the record and proceed with your testimony? Yes.
Yes, good afternoon for the records. My name is Bradley McConnell and I serve as the vice chair of the Alaska Board of psychologists and psychology psychological associated examiners. Thank you for
the opportunity to speak with the Committee in support of SB 211, which would extend the board.
Excuse me, following its sunset review, the Board of Psychologists and Psychological
Associates examiners exist to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Alaskans.
Our mission statement, right into the record at the beginning of each meeting, is the
board continues with the goals and purposes of protection of the public ensuring the
Ensuring psychological care is offered by professionally qualified persons and ensuring
qualified psychology practitioners are available.
The Board has approved applicants for licensure of psychologists and psychological associates
as well as monitored continuing education requirements.
By reading this since the beginning of each meeting, the Board is reminded of our goals
and objectives and we stay focused on our duties to the licensees,
The decisions and regulations we make as a board directly affect the professionals delivering
these critical services across the state.
Lightensure through the board ensures that individuals practicing psychology and Alaska
need consistent standards.
This oversight provides the function of preventing unqualified or unethical practice and ensures
licensees are accountable to a set of standards, eliminating or allowing the Board to lapse
For these reasons, I respectfully urge your support of Senate Bill 211 to extend the Board of Psychologists and Psychologist and psychological associate examiners.
Thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank You Dr. McConnell. We appreciate your testimony. Anything from the committee?
Seeing none, thank you. For being here.
Next up is May Hayes, the chair of the board of certified real estate appraisers.
Proceed with your testimony.
Hello, my name is Mae Hayes. I'm the board chair for the Board of Certified Real Estate Crazers.
So real estate appraisal evaluations are required for most federal related real
estate loan transactions. These valuations must be performed by licensed real-estate appraisers
Further, state boards are federally monitored by the appraisal subcommittees to ensure compliance to federal laws.
The appraisal subcommittee relies on state board to certify that the appraisers are qualified.
They also rely on State boards for appraisal management company certification and further just to monitor.
Use PAP, which is the Uniform Standards of Professional Cribal Practice.
Let's see here.
Sorry, I thought it was going to be talking to you guys on Friday.
Take your time.
All that said, our board must exist in order to meet federal regulation
so that Alaskans can continue to obtain real estate loans,
conventional loans FHA, VA, et cetera.
questions for Ms. Hayes.
Seeing none, thank you for being here.
We appreciate your testimony.
We'll take a brief at ease.
Senate Labor and Commerce back on the record at 1.44 p.m.
Our last testifier Ann Wells is the chair of the Board of Social Work Examiners.
Ms. Wells, is not available, but she has submitted written testimony that has been distributed to the committee.
Anything else to come before the members, questions, or comments on today's hearing?
Seeing none, we will set this bill aside for further consideration.
Senate Bill 211, Extend Occupational Licensing Boards.
Senate bill 225, trusts, trust proceedings, trustees.
Senate, Bill 198, purrs, ters, retirement, and medical eligibility.
With nothing further to come before the committee, we are adjourned at 1.44 PM.