Legislative Effectiveness Committee

Meeting Summary
December 2006

Meeting Session:

How Can Legislatures Stay Strong with Term Limits?

Overview & Presenters:

Term limits passed in the 1990s are causing dramatic changes in state legislatures. This session highlighted a recent major study that identified practical steps that term-limited legislatures can follow to strengthen inexperienced legislative leadership, committee chairs and other members. The presenters also explored the role of staff, lobbyists and citizens in responding to term limits and the lessons that extend to all legislatures.

Moderator: Gwen Bailey, Assistant Clerk, Senate, Virginia

Presenters: Gary Moncrief, Professor, Boise State University, Idaho

Assemblymember Betty Karnette, California

Ramona Kenady, Chief Clerk of the House, Oregon

Summary:

Gwen Bailey noted that the 1990s brought term limits to a number of state legislatures and many of us reacted by complaining about all the problems caused by those limits. Now we are left with 15 states with legislative term limits and we have to move beyond complaints and explore how we can best cope with the challenges of term limits. She introduced the panelists.

Assemblymember Betty Karnette described her experience serving first in the Assembly, then the Senate and now the Assembly again. California term limits have created some odd career patterns. She talked about former House Speaker Willie Brown and some of the original impetus for term limits. She noted the impact of money on the initiative process and the negative aspects of allowing people to be paid for collecting signatures. In regards to coping with term limits, perhaps the most important response in California was by former Speaker Bob Hertzberg to vastly expand the legislator and staff training. The orientation experience helped term-limited freshman legislators start building the relationships with each other to help them be effective. The orientation was also critical in guiding legislators on questions of what they can and cannot do in office.

Gary Moncrief talked about the joint project on term limits sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. In terms of history, Gary noted that we had a high point of 20 states with legislative term limits, but since that point only one state has added term limits while six have eliminated them, four through court process and two through legislative action. We are left with 15 states and there is unlikely to be much change in that in the near future. Gary also noted the need to remember that term limits can vary greatly in terms of their length and aspects like lifetime bans.

From the joint project study, we know that term limits has had a huge impact on turnover, with term limits states running around 30% member turnover compared to a normal 18%. However, the real impact is at the level of leader and committee chair position. Although the public may not notice, the learning curve has been huge for the leaders and chairs in term-limited states. Committees under term limits report more partisanship and less civility, as well as reduced influence generally. There has been a power shift to the majority caucus and partisan staff. The recommendations from the study focus on increased legislator training like California has adopted, mentoring programs, earlier selection of leaders, use of leadership ladders, training tools like CDs to help new legislators learn the rules and more staff training. Gary also mentioned increased training in policy areas like health care to help give term-limited legislators some sense of the history and context of major issues.

Ramona Kenady described the Oregon experience in having term limits and then having them overturned through a court decision. She noted that the Oregon legislature did suffer during that period, with the institution seeing increased partisanship and decreased communication. Her advice to term-limited legislators was:

Trust your professional staff. Those staff want the institution and the members to look good. The key is that legislators need to realize that sometimes staff will bring them bad news. Legislators should appreciate those who tell them the straight truth and not adopt a “shoot the messenger” philosophy.

Provide leadership training. Leadership takes tremendous knowledge and skill, and term-limited legislatures need to invest in giving their leaders as much training as possible.

New member orientation. In Oregon their best results have come from holding sessions away from the Capitol and emphasizing the “getting to know each other” activities.

Continue training over the course of the session and break it into short programs.

Consider taking the sponsorship notations off of bills.

Meeting Session:

Starting on the Right Foot: New Member Orientation

(Co-sponsored with the Women’s Legislative Network)

Overview & Presenters:

Legislative leaders and staff directors are planning new member orientations that are more involved and interactive than ever before. Experts led this roundtable discussion and provided advice on what and how to teach at these sessions and who should be doing the teaching. They also talked about how to plan new member orientation so that first-termers continue to learn throughout the legislative session.

Moderator: Representative Susan Westrom, Kentucky

Presenters: Jeffrey Finch, Deputy Clerk, House of Delegates, Virginia

Patsy Spaw, Secretary of the Senate, Texas

Bruce Feustel, Senior Fellow, NCSL, Colorado

Summary:

Representative Susan Westrom described the opportunities states have with new member orientation to help freshman legislators begin their learning process. She introduced the presenters.

Bruce Feustel described recent themes in new member orientation programs across the country. Bruce interviewed a cross-section of new member orientation coordinators and found the following themes:

Avoid Overload. The biggest danger is in providing too much information, to the point where people’s eyes glaze over. In planning, you have to constantly think about what do the new members need to know and when do they need to know it. Breaking the new member orientation into multiple segments helps the learning process.

Use Legislators as Faculty. The new lawmakers perk up when they get to hear from the people who have actually been doing the job.

Get New Members Comfortable with the Building and the People. One of the highlights of Iowa’s orientation is the Capitol Tour. They split the new members into small groups and send them on tour with one partisan and one nonpartisan staffer.

Ramping Up on IT. Freshman legislators come in with a wide range of familiarity and expectations about technology. Orientation planners usually combine some general group training with a lot of one-on-one follow up.

Remember the Family. When someone gets elected to the legislature, life changes for everyone in the family. Coordinators often find that the spouse orientation gets the most questions.

Keep it interactive. People who win elective office are highly engaged personalities. The orientation works best if the new legislators can start practicing through mock committee and floor sessions and other interactive activities.

Get Feedback. Coordinators rely on surveys and other feedback to help them fine tune their training sessions.

Jeff Finch described the changes he has seen for the orientation for the Virginia House of Delegates. They have had strong support for the training from legislative leadership and have expanded to a five-day program. They start by emphasizing an appreciation for legislative history, using a cast of interpretive actors to show how representative democracy started in our country. They also use Capitol Tours and he noted that the new members are visibly affected by seeing the setting in which they will be legislating. Their training has become more interactive using both committee and floor mock sessions. He also noted that they have recently added sessions on ethics and sexual harassment, where they use some small group discussions to help legislators brainstorm on how to handle potentially difficult situations.

Jeff noted that they use members, executive branch officials, lobbyists, media and legislative staff as faculty at the sessions. They also spread out the training into two component pieces to give participants some time to absorb and reflect on what they have learned. The first phase emphasizes salaries, benefits, staff services and working with the media. The second phase, held right before the session starts, emphasizes parliamentary procedure and how to present a bill.

Patsy Spaw described the orientation partnership the Texas Legislature has with the University of Texas (UT). Two and a half days’ training is held in the Capitol and the last day and a half is at UT. Patsy noted the importance of having leadership “launch” the orientation---it sends the message to freshman legislators that the program is important. They typically use a luncheon speaker who is prominent in business to emphasize the value of private sector in the legislature’s work. Patsy also highlighted the importance of panels with current legislators where the new members can ask the questions that are really on their minds.

Patsy noted that freshman legislators have a lot of anxiety over working with the press, so that is always a key part of the training. Other key sessions include the budget process and health and human services. Their computer training is done totally on a one-on-one basis. On a final note, she reminded attendees of the importance of also planning staff training, since legislators need to rely on their staffs to do much of their legislative work.

Meeting Session:

Excellent Constituent Service: Texas Style

Overview & Presenters:

Legislators across the country report that constituent service becomes more important each year. With its blend of biennial sessions, large state house and senate districts and increasing citizen demands, Texas provides some unique insights about constituent work. In this session, experienced Texas legislators shared their tips on the right attitude and organization to meet the demand.

Moderator: Representative Peggy Welch, Indiana

Presenters: Representative Warren Chisum, Texas

Representative Rob Eissler, Texas

Summary:

Representative Peggy Welch opened the session and described the importance of constituent service to all legislators and noting that Texas provides some interesting challenges in representation that provide insight for all state legislators. Peggy stressed the view of her role of legislating, educating and advocating, with the real “bread and butter” being her ability to help her constituents with the key services they can get from government. She then introduced the participants.

Representative Rob Eissler talked about the importance of making the mental shift from connecting to “voters” during the campaign to concentrating on serving “constituents” regardless of whether they supported you or not. Rob likes to see it as a challenge to win over his detractors, trying to show his diligence and reliability. The key is adopting a cheerful consistent attitude and responding quickly to requests for help or information. Even if the constituent contact is late at night, Rob will call in to his legislative office right then and leave a message for his staff. The general rule is that someone from the office will call that constituent by 10:00 the next morning with the applicable information or at least a progress report. On emails, Rob tries to answer as many personally as possible and often responds at odd hours. “If you’re up at 3:00 a.m. and have some time, you might as well answer a few emails and people notice that kind of service. He encouraged attendees to see themselves as “agents of change” and develop excellent and consistent constituent practices.

Representative Warren Chisum serves in a 19-county district of roughly 165,000 constituents, a district physically larger than 11 states. It can be a full day’s drive just to go give a speech. In this kind of setting, a legislator has to take a different kind of approach to constituent service, making maximum connections with your efforts. Warren described a chat room that is set up for the school superintendents in his district. By focusing on the chat room and reviewing the responses, each communication reaches all the relevant school superintendents. By setting up chat rooms for other key groups, he really is able to send and receive information efficiently. Warren also emphasized setting up responsive practices, noting that he and his staff answer all letters and emails by the third day and they will stay in the office as long as necessary to get that accomplished. His final words of advice addressed expectations. “Don’t promise what you can’t do.” Constituents can have inflated views of a legislator’s power and it is critical to give them a realistic appraisal of what things can be done.

Peggy Welch then directed an audience discussion of constituent service practices. Among the comments were:

I make the seniors in my district a priority.

My constituents notice when I call in to talk radio.

Doing guest teaching appearances at the law school, university or community college is important.

Try to set your legislative office up as a “one-stop” shop for your constituents.

Town hall meetings are a great way to tell people about legislative activities and develop contacts.

The best way to handle confrontational email is to call the person---it defuses things to talk in person.

E-mail can be cryptic, so review your emails to be sure nothing could be construed as rude or dismissive.

Meeting Session:

Committee Business Meeting

Overview & Presiding Officer:

Committee officers and members discussed plans for committee sessions at the Spring Forum 2007 and reviewed a committee project.

Presiding Officer: Committee Chair: Representative Rob Eissler, Texas

Summary:

The committee made plans for sessions for four available time slots at the upcoming 2007 Spring Forum April 19-21. The committee sessions will likely take place Friday, April 20. The approved sessions are:

How to be the “Go To” Legislative Source for the Press. Some legislators are media darlings while others seem to get hammered in the press. This session provides tips on getting a leg up with the media and developing a strong ongoing relationship.

Blogging: Understanding the Basics for Legislators. (Possible shared session with the Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce Committee). This session will look at how legislatures are participating in the blogging phenomenon and give legislators a chance to get some hands-on experience.

Nonpartisan Staff: Staying Relevant in Partisan Times. Nonpartisan staff have been critical to improving the capability and responsiveness of state legislatures, but legislators and staff have struggled to figure out the possible new roles for nonpartisan staff in the increasing partisan environment.

Committee Business Meeting. The committee officers and members will finalize plans for the 2007 Annual Meeting committee sessions.

The committee officers and members heard a report on their project to create a “How to be an Effective Legislative Staffer” CD and offered suggestions for key themes to address on the CD:

Having a positive helpful attitude
Understanding what needs to be done and doing it, regardless of your position or title
Being patient
Being organized
Maintaining confidentiality and using discretion
Treating everyone with respect

Legislative Effectiveness Committee

Meeting SummaryDecember 2006

Meeting Summary
December 2006