2010 Wyoming Statutes
Title 28 - Legislature
Chapter 8 - Legislative Service Office

CHAPTER 8 - LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE

 

28-8-101. Creation; composition.

 

There is created the legislative service office within the legislative branch of government hereinafter referred to as the "office". The office shall be composed of the services division and the audit division.

 

28-8-102. Management council; membership; vacancies; meetings; rules and regulations; quorum; officers.

 

 

(a) Activities of the office shall be directed by a management council composed of the president, vice president, majority and minority floor leaders or their respective designees of the senate, plus two (2) senators selected at large not more than one (1) of which shall be from the same political party as the president; and the speaker, speaker pro tempore, majority and minority floor leaders or their respective designees of the house plus two (2) representatives selected at large, not more than one (1) of which shall be from the same political party as the speaker. The two (2) senators selected at large shall be selected by caucus of the two (2) major political parties in the senate, meeting separately, and the (2) representatives selected at large shall be selected by caucus of the two (2) major political parties of the house, meeting separately. These twelve (12) members shall select one (1) additional member at large from the house of which the chairman of the management council is not a member. The member at large shall not be from the same party as the chairman of the management council. Chairmanship of the management council shall be rotated between the house and senate after each two (2) year session so that the chairman shall not be from the same house as the chairman who served for the preceding legislative term. The members of the management council shall be the legislative representatives in directing the day-to-day functions of the office and the entire membership of the legislature shall have the ultimate control and supervision over policy of the office.

 

(b) Succeeding management councils shall be composed of said officers serving during the legislative session. Membership on the management council shall terminate upon qualification of a member's successor or upon the termination of the member's position held within his respective chamber, whichever first occurs. Vacancies occurring by reason of refusal or inability to serve during a period when the legislature is or is not in session, or for any other reason, shall be filled by a member of the body through appointment by a majority vote of the remaining members on the council of his political party. The council shall keep minutes of its meetings, which shall be available to all members of the legislature upon request. Any member of the legislature shall have the right to attend any of the meetings of the management council and may present his views on any relevant subject.

 

(c) The management council may promulgate reasonable rules and regulations for the internal management of the office, including the respective duties of the director and the staff. The rules of practice comprised in Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure shall govern the management council, all interim committees, and investigative committees in all cases in which they are not inconsistent with the rules and orders as specifically adopted by the management council.

 

(d) The management council shall meet promptly following its creation. A majority of the management council shall constitute a quorum for transaction of business. It shall elect a chairman, vice-chairman and secretary from among its membership. The chairman and vice-chairman shall not be members of the same body.

 

28-8-103. Director and staff.

 

The management council shall appoint by majority vote a director of the office. The director, subject to the prior approval of the management council, shall appoint an assistant director of legislative services and an assistant director of audit services. The director shall appoint such additional professional, technical and clerical staff as necessary to perform the functions assigned to the office. The director and staff shall be selected without reference to political affiliation and shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. They shall be paid salaries and receive necessary expenses as determined by the management council.

 

28-8-104. Direction by legislature during sessions; joint interim committees; requests for services; establishment of priorities; appointment of select committees; vacancies; enlarging committees.

 

 

(a) The legislature during regular or special session may direct the director and his staff to perform such studies, duties or services as the legislature may prescribe.

 

(b) When the legislature is not in regular or special session, the respective standing committees of the house and senate shall function as joint interim committees. Each of these interim committees may request the office to perform specific studies and services for the interim committee conditioned only upon receipt of prior approval of the committee's request by the management council. All priorities based upon limitation of time and appropriation of the office shall be established by the management council and followed by the interim committees and individual legislators. Any specific study or service that is approved by the management council, including bill drafting and prefiling, shall be done under the supervision of the appropriate interim committee or the individual legislator.

 

(c) The management council shall have the right, when a joint interim committee is not performing its assigned study or a special study is desired, to appoint a select committee of not less than three (3) members without regard to its house or senate makeup to carry out the duties of the interim committee or the special study.

 

(d) The management council shall have the right to fill any vacancy or enlarge any committee to facilitate any assigned studies conducted during the interim.

 

28-8-105. Duties of director and services division; prefiling bills; fiscal notes.

 

 

(a) It shall be the duty of the director, through the services division of the office, to perform the following specific functions, together with such other functions as the council may prescribe:

 

(i) Provide information during the legislative session and interim periods for any legislative, interim or standing committee or individual legislator;

 

(ii) Provide for and use an automated bill-drafting system;

 

(iii) Aid any legislator in drafting bills, resolutions or amendments prior to a general election, or aid any person who will be a member of the next session of the legislature in drafting or prefiling legislative bills, resolutions, or amendments, when the legislator aids and assists in the drafting and in the case of prefiling agrees to sponsor the bill, resolution or amendment. The management council may limit at its discretion, the number of bills that any legislator or person may have drafted or prefiled, but there shall be no limit applied to any standing or interim committee;

 

(iv) Keep a record of all expenditures of the legislature, and keep a correct inventory and act as custodian of all legislative supplies and property;

 

(v) Compile such laws of the state of Wyoming as are designated by the management council. In preparing copy for printing any revision or compilation of laws, corrections in punctuation, spelling, grammatical construction, section numbers or headings may be made provided such corrections do not alter the meaning;

 

(vi) Serve, or designate a qualified staff attorney to serve, as a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

 

(b) Bills or files, resolutions or memorials may be prefiled by any person who will be a member of the next session of the legislature after the general election and on or before December 15 prior to the convening of a regular session of the legislature. They shall be submitted to the director in such form as is in accordance with the most recent rules and practices. Each submittal shall bear the signature of the authorized person submitting it and shall be approved as to form by the director. A bill, file, resolution, or memorial is prefiled when written approval by the sponsor is received by the legislative service office. Promptly upon receipt of the draft of the bill or file, resolution or memorial to be prefiled, the services division shall:

 

(i) Cause each item to be placed in proper form with the use of the automated bill-drafting system and printed in sufficient quantity for use at the next session;

 

(ii) Maintain and deliver to the chief clerk of the appropriate house of the legislature immediately after such officer has been duly qualified, each item of proposed legislation, prefiled bill, file, resolution or memorial;

 

(iii) Forward forthwith to each legislator and legislator-elect of the pending legislative session and to each county clerk printed copies of each item of prefiled legislation, resolution and memorial so prefiled.

 

(c) The management council may negotiate with any responsible publisher for revising, compiling, editing, preparing, printing, publishing, selling and distributing any designated revision, compilation, session laws, journals or digests and may accept bids from such publishers and award contracts for the preparation and printing of such publications, to the bidder most nearly meeting the requirements of the council.

 

(d) The legislative service office shall provide fiscal notes for all proposed legislation having a fiscal impact, indicating fiscal and personnel impact and revenue generated or required by the proposed legislation, in such form and under such conditions as specified by joint rule of the legislature. Fiscal notes shall only quantify impact at the state level but shall also reflect any changes to the total amount of revenue distributed from the state to local governments under a statutory formula. Fiscal notes shall be submitted to the sponsor of the bill for review and approval prior to attachment to the bill.

 

28-8-106. Purchase and distribution of statutes, supplements and session laws.

 

The legislative service office shall purchase such number of copies of statutes, supplements or session laws as the management council may direct. The legislative service office shall retain such copies as necessary for its own use and distribute the balance as directed.

 

28-8-107. Auditing of state agencies; management audit committee; factors to be considered in audit reports.

 

(a) During every regular session the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of the Wyoming legislature shall each appoint five (5) members of their respective bodies to a management audit committee. Not more than three (3) members appointed from each house shall be from the same political party. The committee may appoint one (1) additional member of the legislature to this committee.

 

(b) The legislative service office, at the direction of the management audit committee, subject to management council budget priorities, and subject to general policies established by the legislature when in regular or special session, shall:

 

(i) Conduct audits of agencies which may include:

 

(A) Program evaluations;

 

(B) Performance audits;

 

(C) Analyses of policy alternatives;

 

(D) Audits of the accounts and operations of any agency or of any entity directly or indirectly receiving state funds;

 

(E) Repealed by Laws 1995, ch. 97, 2.

 

(ii) Conduct post-audits to determine if specific recommendations and problems revealed by a first audit have been corrected.

 

(c) The legislative service office shall prepare a report of each audit conducted and submit a copy of the audit report to the agency being reviewed for comment. The agency has fifteen (15) days, unless otherwise authorized by the committee, to submit a written response to the report to the legislative service office. The completed audit report, which includes the agency response, if any, shall be transmitted to the management audit committee for review and discussion with the agency officials and the legislative auditors. This review and discussion of the audit report shall be conducted by the committee in executive session. Following review the audit report may be released unless the committee requests the legislative service office to obtain supplemental information. A copy of the completed report and any supplemental information shall be distributed to the governor and each member of the legislature.

 

(d) The contents of the audit report, its findings and documentation are confidential and shall not be disclosed by any member of the management audit committee or employee of the legislative service office or agency being audited until the completed audit report is released, but the committee may discuss the contents of the audit report with the governor before release of the final report. The chairman of the management audit committee and the director may disclose and discuss any report made pursuant to W.S. 28-8-108(c) with the governor regardless of the status of the audit report.

 

(e) Generally accepted governmental auditing standards as promulgated by the Comptroller General of the United States shall be used to the extent practicable in conducting audits. The audit shall consider:

 

(i) Whether the funds which have been appropriated or otherwise allotted by the legislature to the various state agencies have been expended in accordance with legislative intent;

 

(ii) Whether administrative programs are being conducted according to legislative intent;

 

(iii) Whether funds and properties handled by an agency or held in trust have been properly administered;

 

(iv) That reports and financial statements by the agency disclose fully the nature and scope of the activities conducted and provide a proper basis for evaluating the agency's operations;

 

(v) Whether there is duplication or overlap of services;

 

(vi) Whether there are alternative means of achieving the same results;

 

(vii) Any other factors relating to the efficiency, economy and effectiveness of the agency being audited.

 

(f) Repealed by Laws 1995, ch. 97, 2.

 

(g) As used in this section, "agency" means any state agency, division or department of any state agency, institution, council, board, commission or any other unit, subunit or program of state government.

 

28-8-108. Comments, recommendations and suggestions in audit reports; disclosure of confidential information; unauthorized reports or releases; reporting criminal violations.

 

(a) The reports of the legislative service office may include comments, recommendations and suggestions, but neither the director nor the auditors shall have any authority to enforce any recommendation or suggestion nor shall they otherwise influence or direct executive or legislative action. All information obtained by the legislative service office related to an audit is deemed not to be a public record and shall remain confidential information in the possession of the legislative service office. Except as otherwise provided in this section or W.S. 28-8-107(d), this information may be disclosed by the legislative service office only to members of the legislative committee for which the information was obtained, only to the extent necessary to document a statement or report, and only in a manner that protects individual identities.

 

(b) Any member of the legislative service office who knowingly discloses confidential information other than as authorized by this section, discloses the contents of audit reports prohibited by W.S. 28-8-107 or releases other reports or information not authorized by the management council, the management audit committee or by statute is subject to immediate termination of employment.

 

(c) If information obtained by the legislative service office related to an audit discloses an indication of a violation of any criminal law of this state the information shall be reported by the legislative service office employee discovering the apparent violation to the director who shall report the apparent violation to the chairman of the management audit committee and thereafter or concurrently therewith, to the attorney general. Any report under this subsection may be made with the supporting information from the audit determined to be necessary or convenient. Upon request of the attorney general in investigating any apparent violation reported pursuant to this subsection, the legislative service office shall make available to the attorney general any information requested which was obtained during the audit, regardless of the status of the audit report.

 

(d) The legislative service office shall release information obtained in conducting an audit in response to a court subpoena in a criminal proceeding.

 

28-8-109. Reports by director to legislature.

 

The director and his staff shall prepare and deliver a report of the activities of the office to each member of the next succeeding session of the legislature not later than December 15th of each calendar year, or at such other times as the management council deems necessary or as requested by the legislature.

 

28-8-110. Mileage, salary and per diem of legislators engaging in activities.

 

All members of the legislature shall receive their statutory mileage, salary and per diem for each day actually spent in legislative-directed or management council-approved activities of the office.

 

28-8-111. Assistance to be provided by state and local officers or agencies; duty of audited agencies.

 

 

(a) Upon request of the director and with the approval of the management council or the management audit committee, each officer, board, commission, department or any political subdivision of state government or any local government shall provide assistance, documents and information to the legislative service office.

 

(b) In preparing fiscal and personnel notes for proposed legislation as required by joint rule of the legislature, the budget division of the department of administration and information, its successor, and any agency or department of state government shall furnish any information or assistance relative thereto as soon as reasonably practicable upon request of the director.

 

28-8-112. Space in state capitol building.

 

Adequate space in the state capitol building shall be provided for the conduct of activities of the legislative service office, the management council and its staff.

 

28-8-113. Duty of agency officers and employees; legislative service office access to records; failure to provide access; penalty.

 

 

(a) Any officer or employee of a state agency subject to audit or sunset review shall fully assist the legislative service office during the course of the audit or review. The legislative service office shall have access to and authority to examine all books, records, accounts, files, correspondence and all other documents, confidential or otherwise, maintained by the agency or its employees during the course of agency business. The provisions of W.S. 16-4-201 through 16-4-205 do not apply to audits or investigations of state agencies performed by or on behalf of the legislature or legislative committees. Any member of the legislative service office who discloses confidential information obtained while conducting an audit, to any person or in any manner not authorized by law, is subject to disciplinary action as provided by W.S. 28-8-108(b).

 

(b) Any officer or employee of an agency who knowingly fails or refuses to permit such access and examination is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed six (6) months, or both.

 

28-8-114. Legal actions authorized; employment of counsel.

 

 

(a) The legislature finds that proper interpretation and administration of the constitution and legislative enactments of the state of Wyoming are matters of great public interest and importance, and the legislature has a sufficient interest in the proper interpretation and administration of the constitution and its own enactments to provide standing for the legislature to prosecute an action for declaratory judgment to protect its interests and the interests of the public.

 

(b) The legislature by a majority vote of the members of both houses when in session, or the management council by the affirmative vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the members of the council during the interim, is authorized to commence and prosecute an action for declaratory judgment in the courts of this state, or of the United States, when such action is deemed necessary or advisable to protect the rights, powers and interests of the legislature or assure proper interpretation or administration of the constitution, statutes or administrative rules of Wyoming.

 

(c) The legislature may by resolution direct the management council to prosecute an action. The management council may commence an action upon its own motion.

 

(d) The legislature or the management council may direct the legal staff of the legislative service office to commence and prosecute the action, or it may employ private counsel for such purposes, as it deems advisable.

 

28-8-115. Repealed By Laws 2002, Ch. 76, 3.

 

28-8-116. Confidential communications.

 

(a) Unless the privilege is waived by the individual legislator involved, the following shall be deemed confidential and privileged:

 

(i) Communications between a legislator and legislative staff relating to:

 

(A) A request for research or advice on a legislative issue;

 

(B) A request for the drafting of legislation or amendments to legislation;

 

(C) Any matter under consideration by a legislative committee other than communications made publicly to legislative staff in a public meeting of the committee;

 

(D) Development of a legislator's position on legislation or discussion of any matter arising out of or relating to the deliberative process of the legislature.

 

(ii) All documents and electronic records, including but not limited to correspondence, e-mail, notes, memoranda and preliminary or final drafts, received by a legislator or legislative staff or prepared or assembled by a legislator or legislative staff in regard to a communication under paragraph (a)(i) of this section, other than a version of a bill or amendment approved for introduction;

 

(iii) Communications between a legislator and a contractor or consultant retained by the legislature other than communications made publicly in a public meeting.

 

(b) Private communications of or to a legislator in his official capacity including but not limited to communications with constituents are confidential until otherwise disclosed by the legislator or the individual who is party to the communication.

 

(c) As used in this section, "legislative staff" means the staff of the legislative service office, session staff employed by the legislature and legislative interns and aides.