Meeting Summaries - NCSL Annual Meeting
Legislative Effectiveness Committee

Meeting Session:

Keeping Your Vision for Public Service Alive

Overview & Presenter:

This luncheon and keynote address helped participants renew their passion for public service and cultivate a new sense of hope in the midst of polarizing political breakdown. Former Oregon state legislator Donna Zajonc provided tips she has learned as a professional political leadership coach.

Featured Speaker:

Donna Zajonc, Co-Founder, Bainbridge Leadership Center, Washington

Summary:

Donna Zajonc described the current political climate where the partisan fighting is more intense and legislators are feeling that “we have lost our way.” There is a sense that the problems are grave and the effect on individuals can make them feel sick, tired and old. She suggested a three-prong strategy to help lawmakers rekindle their passion for public service:

Develop your political habitat --- Our emphasis on partisan concerns is only part of what we need to consider. We need multiple perspectives to keep healthy and we have to assertively make sure that we are not shutting out viewpoints.
Living in the Land of “No” --- Your “yes” means nothing to people until you develop your ability to say “no.” You have to be strategic in terms of where you use your time and energy. Many of us are “yes” addicts, but you have to create boundaries in this area. When you start saying “no” your “yes” will become more powerful.
Attention to outcomes --- You will be known for what you pay attention to, what you create. Energy and passion flow when a legislator concentrates on outcomes rather than problems. Legislators need to help people find hope and two questions will help them do that. First, do I want to convince or connect? Convincing is a persuasive strategy, while connecting involves listening and building relationships. Second, what is it that you are eager to create and that only you can do? This means reflecting on what it is that you can offer others and what really energizes you.

Meeting Session:

Hiring Guide for Legislators & Staff

Overview & Presenters:

When candidates run for legislative office, they don’t usually think about having to make hiring decisions and oversee an office. This session provided basic advice to legislators and staff who have to hire employees---what to look for and what to look out for.

Moderator: David Boulter, Executive Director, Legislative Council, Maine

Presenters:

Laura Bauman, Chief of Staff, Senate Democrat Caucus, Indiana

Lore Christopher, Human Services Director, Legislative Administration, Oregon

Summary:

Dave Boulter opened the session by explaining the importance of legislative hiring decisions. Good hires help your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency and the decision enhances your credibility. Bad hires waste time and energy, undermine effectiveness and reflect poorly on you. The positions can vary greatly, especially between partisan and non-partisan staff, but before you make any hiring decision you need to spend the necessary time to identify the skills you need in a position and then recruit and identify the right candidate. This can be a daunting experience and most legislators aren’t trained to deal with it. Most states have some help available in the form of Human Resources (HR) experts or experienced staff to help legislators through the hiring process. In Dave’s experience, the most common mistake is for legislators to hire too quickly, often someone who helped with the campaign, not focusing on finding the skill set the new job requires.

Lore Christopher created an employer road map for legislators:

Identify your employment needs --- How many hours do I need this person? Is this for session only or on a permanent basis?
Determine your needed job duties --- Decide what is expected of the employee and create a simple one-page job description.
Determine what the hiring process will be and who will conduct each step of the hiring process --- Decide how you will get the word out about the opening, when you need someone to start in the job, how people will apply and how you will screen the applicants.
Interview to hire the qualities you need --- Decide who will be in the interview and develop relevant interview questions. Lore strongly suggested linking all questions to necessary skills for the position and to ruthlessly avoid talking about personal information in the interview. She also advised people about how to be sure to properly handle questions and comments about race, religion, color, sex, native origin, marital status and age.
Follow proper post-decision procedures --- after the decision is made, extend a detailed job offer in writing, keep a signed copy of the job description and give one to the employee, help the employee learn the office logistics, complete the required paperwork and clearly establish the salary with the proper personnel action.

Laura Bauman has had extensive experience as the staff director of Indiana’s Senate Minority Caucus. Her strongest recommendation was the use of a dynamic intern program, which in their situation allows college students to get credit for their placements. This has been a natural feeder system for their caucus hires, as they get to see the interns in the real setting of a legislative session. Laura has found that the key traits in new employees are flexibility, competence, people skills, willingness to help, being well-organized and managing time wisely. Within the internship period, she has plenty of time to see how the interns stack up on these key qualities. Also, serving a political caucus, it is important to see how the interns fit with the caucus and individual member philosophies. Ultimately, the intern program gives her a chance to see which people actually thrive in the fast-paced political climate.

Meeting Session:

Intern Programs: What Works?

Overview & Presenters:

Intern programs can be a “win/win” proposition in which legislators and interns both benefit, but success only comes with planning and oversight. This session focused on describing the key attributes of a successful program.

Moderator:

Pete Poynter, Director of Government Affairs, BellSouth, Georgia

Presenters:

Bob McCurley, Director, Alabama Law Institute, Alabama

Donna Morgan, Administrator, Legislative Internship Program, Tennessee

Rob Marchant, Senate Chief Clerk, Wisconsin

Summary:

Pete Poynter opened the session and described an earlier meeting where we featured international interns in state legislatures. Pete described the great learning opportunities involved in these programs and introduced the panelists.

Bob McCurley described Alabama’s Capitol Intern Program, which started in 1979. The program uses Alabama residents who have attained at least college junior status. In the program, interns are treated pretty much as staff persons in that they attend committee meetings and do research. There is an educational component as Fridays always include an intern meeting with public officials. They have prohibited certain activities: interns do not run personal errands for legislators and do not engage in political activities. This year they have expanded and also started a district intern program where the interns focus on assisting constituents. Bob seeks potential applicants through letters and flyers to colleges and legislators, newspaper articles and word of mouth through past interns. The program has been very successful as legislators have little or no staff to help them outside central staff and the experience for interns can be a path to legislative office, public service or a key professional career.

Rob Marchant told the audience about Wisconsin’s Senate Scholar program, different from many other intern programs. The Wisconsin program aims at high school juniors and seniors and is purely an educational program. The program is an intensive, week-long educational program offered by the State Senate in which the participating scholars experience key aspects of policy development, constituent relations and the processing of legislation. There are 33 senators and one scholar is chosen from each Senate district. The program is run three times with a group of 11. The senators may recommend more than one applicant and a staff committee makes the choice, which keeps the senator from being the one who “rejects” a constituent. The application process is fairly rigorous with an essay, transcripts and letters of recommendation. The scholars stay at a close-by hotel and are chaperoned 24 hours a day, which includes bed checks and a signed code of conduct. The program includes the creation or review of a constituent letter, fiscal analysis and bill draft; meetings with staff, officials, academic faculty, press and lobbyists; and participation in a mock committee meeting. The response has been very positive, particularly around how “real life” the experience is and the great access to staff and officials.

Donna Morgan presented Tennessee’s intern program, which involves 70-80 college students. As the coordinator of the program, she works for both the House and Senate and reports to the chief clerks. The interns typically work January through May. The program provides a three-day orientation and the interns are assigned to legislative offices where they function as staffers. They routinely have a Friday meeting where they meet with officials and over the course of the program hold a mock session, run for elective offices within the program and create mock legislation. In addition, many of the students have papers to write as required by their schools. Like the Alabama and Wisconsin programs, the Tennessee program has been very popular with interns and legislators alike, and many of the interns have come back to work as staff. Also, this year, two former interns are running for the legislature.

Meeting Session:

Emerging Perspectives on Feminine and Masculine Leadership Styles---And Why We Need Both

Overview & Presenters:

Americans are asking their elected officials to work together like never before. This interactive workshop session examined a new way of thinking and leading that blends the strengths of men and women in a complementary partnership.

Introductions: Senator Sheila Kiscaden, Minnesota

Facilitators:

Donna Zajonc, Co-Founder, Bainbridge Leadership Center, Washington

David Womeldorff, Co-Founder, Bainbridge Leadership Center, Washington

Summary:

Facilitators Donna Zajonc and David Womeldorff started by examining the audience’s assumptions and belief about feminine and masculine leadership qualities. The group looked at positive and negative traits and ultimately created a blended list of key leadership traits:

Visionary
Competent
Able to get things done
Self-assured
Persuasive
Engaging
Honest and ethical
Compassionate

David and Donna took that list and connected it to two models of leadership: problem-reacting and outcome-creating. With all the challenges we face, it is typical to fall into a problem-reacting mode, and to some degree problems need to be addressed and solved. However, as the groups own list showed, we respect the leaders who can stand back and figure out what outcome is needed, who don’t deviate from the important work to respond to minor distractions. The distinctions in these two approaches center around what we are paying attention to, what we want in terms of results. The participants also personally identified their own core beliefs and assumptions about leadership and linked them to actual behavior.

The facilitators also described the Myers Briggs personality profile and noted that decision-making function is the only function in the profile that shows a marked male/female distinction. Two-thirds of males prefer “Thinking” and two-thirds of females prefer “Feeling.” Some of the key aspects of “Thinking” relate to an emphasis on objectivity, logic, clarity, justice, consequences of action and being firm and fair. Some of the key aspects of “Feeling” relate to an emphasis on values, interpersonal relationships, harmony, mercy, empathy and compassion. Regardless of your preferences, true leadership ability involves developing your capacity address both “Thinking” and “Feeling” styles.

Meeting Session:

Legal Research: The Short Course

Overview & Presenters:

Legislators and legislative staff often have to teach themselves about legal research, learning enough at least to understand the legal problems or questions involved with a piece of legislation. This session provided tips to help you negotiate the legal thicket and find the information you need.

Moderator: Jeff Finch, Deputy Clerk, House of Delegates, Virginia

Presenters:

Cheryl Jackson, Manager of Information and Resource Services, Division of Legislative Services, Virginia

Marilyn Johnson, Research Librarian, Legislative Council, North Dakota

Summary:

Jeff Finch opened the session and described the experience he had as a non-lawyer doing the basic legal research necessary for his work on the Mason’s Manual committee. He spent a lot of time trying to find, read and understand the terms in the legal cases he was reading. He felt like non-lawyer legislative staffers could benefit from some tips on basic legal research.

Marilyn Johnson identified six key suggestions for legal research for non lawyers:

Stay on your side of the non-legal fence --- Her goal as a non-lawyer librarian is to guide people to the right material, but not to provide interpretations. You can’t put your office in jeopardy by improperly giving legal advice.
Don’t get sidetracked --- legal documents are often chock full of interesting discussions and issues. When you are doing legal research, you have to constantly remind yourself of exactly what you are researching and confine yourself to that.
Learn the basic tools --- in each state there are some basic tools, like legislative history notes and key case reporters. Find out from legislative legal staff what those basic tools are and concentrate on learning those tools first. Also, learn to use the relevant abbreviations.
Make contacts with people who know how to do the work --- Use your legislative legal staff to help point the way on your work. Make it clear that you will do the work and what you need from them is guidance.
Learn the lingo --- The court cases and legal documents use a number of legal terms that you may be unfamiliar with. Do your research with a Black’s Law dictionary or similar source book handy so that you can quickly look up what you don’t know.
Use information connected to your state --- Each state has some materials that are unique to that state. Put emphasis on using and understanding that material.

Cheryl Jackson focused on how to find a case and how to make sense of it once you have found it. Finding cases involves looking at the written opinions of judges or justices when deciding a matter. Your mission in doing case law research is to find a case on point, one that is a case with similar facts and circumstances to the one that is before you. In your work you need to know that there are state and federal court systems and usually three levels of court involved, such as a state trial court, intermediate appellate court and supreme court.

Case law relies on precedent. The doctrine of stare decisis says that decisions should stand as precedents for guidance in future cases. Generally, courts should not rule against a standing precedent unless there is a strong reason to do so. Cheryl then described examples of case citations and showed the participants how to find the volume, reporter and page from the citation. She also explained how to use Lexis, Westlaw and other sources to find cases when you don’t have the citation.

In addition, Cheryl explained how to read a case, describing the syllabus (summary of facts), holding, opinion of the court, concurring opinion and minority opinion, plus the editorial enhancements such as headnotes. Finally she explained Sheperdizing, which allows the researcher to find the prior and subsequent history of a case. In this way, you find out if the holding in your case is still good law.

Meeting Session:

How a Bill Really Becomes a Law

Overview & Presenters:

We’ve all seen the fancy diagrams about how a bill becomes a law, but what really happens as a bill moves through the legislature? This session showcased the many roles that legislators, bill drafters, clerks and secretaries, and other legislative staffers play in the lawmaking process.

Moderator: Representative Susan Westrom, Kentucky

Panelists: Representative Rob Eissler, Texas

John Phelps, Clerk of the House, Florida

Julie Pelegrin, Senior Attorney, Legislative Legal Services, Colorado

Melinda Ellis-McCrady, Communications Director, House Democratic Caucus, Washington

Summary:

Julie Pelegrin noted the many roles that legislative drafters play in the bill creation process. It is a position with a lot of gray areas and nuances, combining the roles of legal expert, educator, scrivener, subject expert and mind reader. Most legislators are not lawyers, but they are expected to create and defend laws. Particularly in a term limits environment, drafters have to educate legislators so that they can explain their bills to colleagues and the media, sometimes requiring the drafter to explain line-by-line what is going on in the bill. The drafter may also have to create a one-page summary, talking points or some other document to assist the legislator. The drafter has to be an active listener, really probing what the requestor says he or she wants. This listening/clarifying stage is crucial. Legal expertise is also crucial and the drafter must think with this perspective constantly. Sometimes the most innocuous amendments can involve intricate legal ramifications, and the drafter is the one responsible for identifying those issues and guiding the legislator in handling them. Ultimately, the drafter’s role is to get it right.

John Phelps highlighted the clerk’s role by examining the changes in the field in the last 30 years, using his state of Florida as an example. The clerk’s main purpose of properly recording the legislature’s actions has remained the same over time, but the earlier legislature featured biennial sessions, no microphones on the floor, few copies of bills and filibusters. Clerks have seen their procedural and administrative duties reflect the increased professionalism and openness reflected in more staff, great dissemination and real time publication of bills and other legislative documents, annual sessions and no filibusters. There is an increased emphasis on verification of the clerk’s work and very few technical mistakes are made these days.

Melinda Ellis-McCrady described her work as a communications director for a caucus. In essence, they treat a bill like a campaign, connecting with media sources right from the start. They gather stakeholder groups and work with them on the bill’s campaign. They also focus the legislators on determining how the bill will “play” in their districts. She described a recent example---an “Energy Freedom” bill. The caucus worked to ensure leadership support and to address the skepticism of the press. The key was an almost unheard of alliance between farmers and environmentalists and the support of one crucial eastern Washington legislator. The message of “breaking the addiction of foreign oil” was repeated throughout the campaign, and the floor debate, media strategy and legislative consensus building were all orchestrated and well-planned.

Representative Rob Eissler emphasized the homework, ground work and teamwork involved in creating and passing legislation. He identified the formal steps in how a bill becomes a law, but noted that much depends on the ability of people to work together. The initial ideas for legislation often come to legislators from constituent letters, phone calls or visits or from lobbyists or staffers, and legislators must be attentive to recognize the good ideas when they see or hear them. Before introduction legislators must work closely both with the drafter and interested parties to fine tune the bill. The drafting process requires legislator time and attention. Then the legislator must do the hard work of persuading and garnering support for the bill, working with lobbyists as appropriate. Rob related the story of the “Texas Chili Parlor Amendment” in which he and others came up with a key amendment for education finance while at a chili parlor, writing up the key components on a napkin. The important aspect was that legislators have to be prepared to use their legislative skills and be flexible and creative enough to look for solutions any time, anywhere.

Meeting Summaries - NCSL Annual MeetingLegislative Effectiveness Committee

Meeting Summaries - NCSL Annual Meeting
Legislative Effectiveness Committee