Washington Administrative Law Judges Association

Board Meeting November 29, 2006

 Persons Present:  Mattie Harvin-Woode, President; Laura King, Secretary; Ann Rendahl, Treasurer; Brenda Ellis, Member at Large; Craig Nelson; Member at Large.  Desiree Hosannah, Vice President, was excused.

 I.            Minutes.  The board approved the minutes from the October 3, 2006, meeting as amended.  Minutes are posted on the board’s www.walja.org web site.

 II.            Treasurer’s Report. 

             A.            Update.  The Treasurer gave a brief oral update and provided checking, savings, and conference account balances.  The Treasurer noted that there are still a couple of outstanding NAALJ Sponsored Conference bills to be settled.

             B.            IRS Tax Filing.  The IRS erroneously based WALJA’s non-profit reporting schedule on a calendar year fiscal year.  The Treasurer will send a letter formally requesting a change corresponding to the July 1 - June 30 fiscal year established in the by-laws.

             C.            QuickBooks.  The board tabled the purchase of QuickBooks.  The Treasurer will explore alternate means for WALJA accounting.

 III.         Salary Update.

             A.            Governor’s Budget.  The Governor’s budget is anticipated in December 2006.  The budget may or may not include raises for non-unionized but benchmarked administrative law judges equivalent to the BIIA negotiated increase.

             B.            Letter to WSBA Administrative Law Section.  The board anticipates presenting a letter to the Administrative Law Section of the WSBA supporting an increase in salary for all administrative law judges, hearing officers, review judges, etc.  The letter will be finalized after the President confers with WALJA Salary Committee Chair Jeff Burkhardt and John Gray who is a Department of Revenue Review Judge.  The Administrative Law Section will vote on the resolution and, if passed, present it to the BOG.

 IV.            WSBA BOG La Conner Meeting.  The next meeting is scheduled for December 8 at 9:00 AM.

             A.            The issue of changing from judicial to active status is expected to be discussed at the January 2007 meeting.  Because a number of WALJA members currently hold judicial status, the board anticipates taking a position on proposed changes.  President Mattie Harvin-Woode will confer with Mary Barrett, NAA Chair, and Dennis Moss, former board member.

 V.        Social Committee - Holiday Activities.  Rather than enter the members’ already generally crowded holiday social calendar, the board anticipates sponsoring “Recover from the Holidays” gatherings in Olympia, Seattle, and Spokane in January depending on members’ interest.  Treasurer Ann Rendahl and Member at Large Craig Nelson will co-chair the Olympia gathering; the Secretary will chair the Seattle gathering; and Member at Large Brenda Ellis will chair the Spokane gathering. 

             Social Committee members are Marjorie Gregg, Brenda Ellis, and Kathy Koehler of the Department of Licensing; Deborah Fiander of the Office of Administrative Hearings; Gilda Felizardo of the Board of Tax Appeals; Ed Pesik of the Department of Social and Health Services; and JE Sullivan of the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.  The Social Committee is chaired by the Secretary.

 VI.            Membership.  A “thank you” letter will be sent to all members in January 2007 thanking them for their support and hard work and reminders for those who have not renewed.  Also, the board anticipates personally thanking members during the January gatherings.

             Membership Committee members are the Treasurer; Anita Davidson and Michelle Mentzer of the Office of Administrative Hearings; and Irene Haverty of the Department of Licensing.  The Membership Committee is chaired by Member at Large Craig Nelson of the Department of Licensing.

 VII.       CLE Committee Update.  WALJA and the Network of Adjudicatory Agencies (NAA) are organizing a CLE which will probably be held at the Lacey Community Center in September 2007.  The Department of Licensing is the sponsoring agency.  The Committee anticipates attendees from other agencies including the Office of Administrative Hearings.  The Committee anticipates a Seattle University Law School professor providing the ethics credits portion.  Ellen Barton and Betsi Davis, both Department of Licensing, are co-chairing the CLE along with Vice President Desiree Hosannah and Member at Large Brenda Ellis.

             WALJA CLE Committee members are Zimmie Caner of the Department of Health; Dennis Moss of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission; Member at Large Craig Nelson of the Department of Licensing; and Bob Kingsley, Deborah Fiander, Anita Davidson, and Barbara Boivin of the Office of Administrative Hearings.  The CLE Committee is chaired by Vice President Desiree Hosannah and Member at Large Brenda Ellis.

 VIII.            Announcements.  The next meeting is scheduled for December 20 at noon.

 Respectfully submitted,

 LAURA KING,

Washington Administrative Law Judges Association

Board Meeting October 3, 2006

 Persons Present:  Mattie Harvin-Woode, President; Desiree Hosannah, Vice President; Laura King, Secretary; Ann Rendahl, Treasurer; Brenda Ellis, Member at Large; Craig Nelson; Member at Large.

 I.            Annual Meeting Minutes.  The board discussed whether to approve the September 2006 annual meeting minutes at the next annual meeting in 2007.  The board decided to continue discussion of this item at its retreat on Sunday, October 22, 2006.

 II.          Salary Committee.  The board briefly discussed the efforts to date towards its goal of increasing ALJs’, Hearing Officers’, and Tax Referees’ salaries across all state agencies.  The board noted that the salary committee was going to meet later in the week on October 5, 2006.  The board decided to continue discussion of this item and invite salary committee members to the board retreat on Sunday, October 22, 2006.

 III.            Treasurer’s Update. 

             A.            NAALJ Sponsored Conference Accounting.  The Treasurer gave a brief oral update and provided checking, savings, and conference account balances.  The Treasurer noted that the final hotel bill from the sponsored NAALJ conference had not yet been received.  The board discussed reported potential problems such as some attendees’ hotel bills being erroneously charged to WALJA.  The Treasurer reminded the board that, after all bills are paid, 80 percent of the profits will go to NAALJ and 20 percent will go to WALJA.  In addition, the loan that WALJA made to the conference account of $1,000.00 is expected to be repaid.  The Treasurer anticipates presenting to the board a final accounting of all NAALJ sponsored conference expenses at the board retreat on Sunday, October 22, 2006.

             B.            Web Site.  Past President Brian Watkins is still maintaining the WALJA web site.  He is a signatory on WALJA’s accounts for purposes of using a debit card to pay for hosting of the web site.  Brian would like to transition both the duty of maintaining of the web site and the duty of paying for hosting of the web site to a board member.  Ann Rendahl, Treasurer, and other board members volunteered.  When the transition is complete, he will no longer be a signatory on WALJA’s accounts nor will he have a debit card.

             C.            IRS Tax Filing.  Although WALJA has applied for non-profit status, an informational WALJA federal IRS tax filing is required by the 15^th day of the 5^th month after the close of WALJA’s fiscal year (which is June 30)--due November 15, 2006.  The purpose of this filing is to report all WALJA non-business related income.  Some non-business related income is allowable for non-profits such as WALJA; WALJA just has to be sure not to exceed statutory and regulatory limits.  (For example, museums often operate a cafeteria.  Income from the museum’s cafeteria is non-business related because the business purpose of the museum is not to sell food.  Likewise, if WALJA had sold box lunches at the conference at a profit, the profits from the box lunches would be non-business related income.)  The Treasurer reports that WALJA is well within allowable limits and anticipates timely filing of this return.

 IV.            September WSBA BOG Meeting.  The board designated Brenda Ellis, Member at Large, to attend this meeting in Spokane in October 2006.

 V.        Board Officer Liaison Assignments. 

             A.            CLE Committee.  The board anticipates sponsoring two or three CLEs per year.  Desiree Hosannah, Vice President, and Brenda Ellis, Member at Large, will co-chair the CLE Committee.

             B.            Membership Committee.  The board anticipates some member outreach efforts to include highlighting member benefits.  Craig Nelson, Member at Large, will chair the Membership Committee.

             C.            Newsletter Committee.  The board anticipates a regular newsletter promulgated to the members.  Ann Rendahl, Treasurer, will chair the Newsletter Committee.  The board anticipates promulgating the newsletter via e-mail to the members whenever possible to save on mailing costs.  Every issue will contain a President’s Column and Mattie Harvin-Woode, President, will inaugurate this feature.

             D.            Social and Networking Committee.  The board anticipates strengthening bonds among the members with social and networking opportunities beyond that provided by CLEs and the newsletter.  Laura King, Secretary, and Brenda Ellis, Member at Large, will liaison to the Social and Networking Committee.  Marjorie Gregg, Hearing Officer, Department of Licensing, will serve as chair.

             E.            WALJA Liaison to the Network of Adjudicatory Agencies.  The board anticipates communicating across all state agencies that employ ALJs, Hearing Officers, and Tax Referees.  Craig Nelson, Member at Large, will liaison to the Network of Adjudicatory Agencies.

 VI.            Announcements.  Kitsap Legal Services, Inc., invited Laura King, Secretary, to participate in an assessment of Kitsap County’s legal needs.  The assessment meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 26, 2006.  This effort is part of Kitsap County’s input to the state legal services plan.

 Respectfully submitted,

 LAURA KING, Secretary

The Washington State Bar Association's Access to Justice Board will be holding an open house on October 11 at three different locations. The first location is South Bellevue at the Community Center at 14509 SE Newport Way, Bellevue. The time will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. (lunch buffet provided). The featured speaker is Bill Neukom, President-elect of the American Bar Association. The second location is Court in the Square, 401 2nd Avenue South, Seattle from 5 to 7 p.m. The featured speaker is Paula Boggs, VP, General Counsel and Secretary for Starbucks Coffee Company, and Hon. Rob McKenna, Washington State Attorney General. The third location is the Regional Justice Center Courthouse, 401 4th Avenue North, 3rd Floor Rotunda from noon to 1:30 p.m. (lunch buffet provide). The featured speaker is Hon. Deborah Fleck, King County Superior Court.

We discussed the location of the Annual Meeting which will be held on September 7, 2006 at 12:00, during the NAALJ conference.  We decided to hold the meeting at the conference hotel, and provide box lunches from the hotel.  We must use the hotel’s food service and cannot bring in food from outside.  However, keeping the meeting on site will most likely provide for more involvement from conference attendees and local ALJs.  After discussion, Ann moved that we provide lunch at no cost for all current and renewing dues paid members (2006-2007); Past dues paid members (2005-2006 members) would have to pay $10 for their lunch. Jeff seconded the motion, and the motion passed. We agreed to include a flyer regarding the Annual Meeting in the renewal letter.

VI.  ALJ Salary Task Force

Jeff met with the ALJ Salary Task Force, launched by Howard Graham, Pat McIntyre, and others in the legal services community.  The task force seeks to build a coalition of stakeholders who are interested in the concerns regarding ALJ salaries.   It was suggested that WALJA work with the task force and also develop strategic partnerships with other organizations.  After discussion, Jeff moved that we move forward with the proposal that WALJA join the Task Force. Ann seconded the motion, and the motion passed. 

VII.            2007 international CCAT Administrative Justice Conference

This conference, sponsored by our Canadian counterparts, is scheduled for May 6-9, 2007 in Vancouver, B.C.  They have asked for a WALJA member to be involved in their conference planning.  Jeff will contact the Chair of that conference.

VIII.         Announcements/Adjourn

Next meeting: August 24, 2006 12 noon