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Idaho House majority leader calls for change in oversight for nonpartisan watchdog agency [1]

['Clark Corbin', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2023-02-01

Idaho House Majority Leader Megan Blanksma wants to reassign oversight of the Idaho Legislature’s independent, nonpartisan watchdog agency: the Office of Performance Evaluations.

Blanksma, R-Hammett, is sponsoring a new bill in the Idaho Legislature that would place the Office of Performance Evaluations under the oversight of the Legislative Council. The Legislative Council is controlled by Republicans because it has eight seats for the majority party versus six seats for the minority party.

Currently, the Office of Performance Evaluations is under the authority of the bipartisan Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, where membership is evenly divided between the state’s two largest political parties, the Republicans and Democrats.

The Office of Performance Evaluations is an independent, nonpartisan office of the Idaho Legislature that evaluates whether state government programs are operating efficiently, cost-effectively and achieving intended results, according to its website. Under state law, the Office of Performance Evaluation may conduct an evaluation of any agency or program that receives state funding. Currently, requests for evaluation must be submitted by a legislator to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, which decides which requests will be conducted.

As House majority leader, Blanksma is a member of the Legislative Council.

If passed into law, Blankama’s bill would do away with the bipartisan Joint Legislative Oversight Committee altogether.

“It’s a little bit of a red tape reduction act here, and it just eliminates JLOC as the oversight committee for the Office of Performance Evaluations and turns that oversight to Legislative Council,” Blanksma told the House State Affairs Committee during a brief introductory hearing Wednesday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.

Blanksma’s bill would also allow the Legislative Council to appoint the director of the Office of Performance Evaluations and set the director’s compensation.

Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, expressed concern about changing the oversight of the independent Office of Performance Evaluations.

“I am concerned about this bill because the structure of the Legislative Council is different than the structure of the committee that would be eliminated by this bill, in particular the check and balances provided is not going to be the same,” Gannon told the committee.

Gannon said the existing oversight of the Office of Performance Evaluations has been in place since 1992.

“Public discussion and public transparency make better decisions for everybody, well, certainly for the people,” Gannon added. “I don’t think anybody should ever fear an independent review of what state government is doing (or) how state government is spending its money.”

The Office of Performance Evaluations has conducted recent evaluations on Medicaid rates, deferred maintenance in public school buildings and facilities and a report that found there was no review process for at least 164 state tax exemptions that are on the books and do not expire.

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Office of Performance Evaluations Director Rakesh Mohan attended Wednesday’s introductory hearing on the bill but was not asked any questions. Wednesday’s hearing was only an introductory, or print, hearing where public testimony is not accepted.

The House State Affairs Committee voted to introduce Blanksma’s bill without opposition Wednesday. Introducing the bill clears the way for it to return to the committee for a full public hearing.

Blanksma’s bill will be given a bill number and posted on the Idaho Legislature’s website after it is read across the desk on the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives later Wednesday or on Thursday.

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[1] Url: https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/02/01/idaho-house-majority-leader-calls-for-change-in-oversight-for-nonpartisan-watchdog-agency/

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