Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit — April 22, 2026 5:15pm

Good evening. I call the Legislative Budget Audit Committee to order. Today is Wednesday, April 22nd, and the time is 5:18 PM. PM. Please silence all cell phones.

We have the following members present: Representative Fields, Vice Chair, Representative Foster, Representative Josephson, Representative Kopp, um, Senator Giesel, Senator Wielechowski, and myself, Senator Gray Jackson. We have a quorum to conduct business. I don't see any other legislators in the room, so at this point I'd like to thank Sophie Tenney from House Records and Chloe Miller from the LIO for supporting our committee today. Today we have some quick housekeeping. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee will be going into executive session to discuss the final release of the FY25 State of Alaska Single Audit, to consider a couple of contracts, and to receive a legal update.

After the executive session, we will come back on the record, and if it's the will of the committee, we will take action on a few of those agenda items. Any questions before we move on? Okay, great. We're at agenda item 2, approval of agenda. Vice Chair Fields, may I please have a motion for approval of the agenda?

I move and ask unanimous consent the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee approve the agenda as presented. Is there any objection? Seeing none, the agenda is approved. We're now at agenda item 3, approval of the minutes. Mr. Vice Chair, may I please have a motion for approval of the minutes?

I move and ask unanimous consent the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee approve the minutes of the meeting on March 17th, 2026. Is there any objection? Seeing none, the minutes are approved. I'd like to recognize that Representative Colom is online with us.

We're now at agenda item 4, executive session. The committee will now be going into executive session for consideration of the final release of the FY25 State of Alaska single audit, consideration of two contracts, and a legal update for a personnel matter. Mr. Vice Chair, may I have a motion? I move and ask unanimous consent that the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee go into executive session under Uniform Rule 22(b)(1), discussion of matters, the immediate knowledge of which may adversely affect the finances of government unit, and Uniform Rule 22(b)(3), discussion of matter that may by law be required to be confidential. The following individuals may remain in the room or online during executive session: Chris Kuroceni, staff of the legislative auditor; Emily Nauman and Megan Wallace; J.C. Kestel; any legislators not on the LB&A Committee; and any staff of LB&A Committee members.

Thank you. Are there any questions or any objections? If there's no objection, then the committee will now go into executive session, but we'll take a brief at ease while we clear the room. Brief at ease.

We're back on the record. We're out of executive session and the time is 6:11. We have the following members present: Representative Fields. Representative Foster, Representative Josephson, Representative Kopp, Representative Colon online, Senator Giesel, Senator Wielechowski, and myself, Senator Greg Jackson. So we still have a quorum to conduct business.

During the executive session, we discussed the topics listed on the agenda. Next, the committee will take action on several of those topics. The first one is the final release of the single audit. Mr. Vice Chair, may I have a motion for release of the FY25 state State of Alaska Single Audit.

Yes.

Brief it is, actually.

I move and ask unanimous consent that the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee release the FY25 State of Alaska Single Audit as a final audit report. Is there any objection?

Great. Seeing no objection, the FY25 State of Alaska single audit is released. We're now at consideration of contracts. The first is the lease of office space, space in Anchorage for the Division of Legislative Audit. Mr. Vice Chair, may I have a motion?

I move that Legislative Budget and Audit Committee approve the award of RFP 26-33-02 for Anchorage office space to Tutor B, LLC for a 6-year lease and 5 optional 2-year lease renewals. Thank you. And I will object for the purpose of discussion. I would like to ask Mr. Kestel, procurement officer, to speak on this item and take any questions when he is done. Ms. Curtis is also here available for questions.

Please proceed. Welcome again.

Thank you, Chair Gray Jackson and members of the committee. For the record, my name is J.C. Kestel, procurement officer for the Legislative Affairs Agency.

Included in members' packets is the memo that summarizes this RFP and the outcome. I will briefly summarize it here again. At the request of the Legislative Budget and Audit— sorry, Legislative Audit Division, RFP 26-3302 was issued to solicit proposals for office space in Anchorage. The RFP closed on February 19th, 2026. Two proposals were received.

However, only one was considered responsive to the RFP's requirements. A proposal evaluation committee was selected to evaluate the proposals and visit the office site with the agency. After completion of the individual reviews of the PEC or Evaluation Committee. They recommended award of RFP 26-3302 to Tutor B, LLC for— and I am happy to answer your questions any members may have. Thank you.

Any questions for Mr. Kestrel or Ms. Curtis?

Okay. Then I will remove my objection. Are there any other objections? Seeing none, then the motion to approve the contract for the lease of office space in Anchorage for the Division of Legislative Audit The next is the Cybersecurity Assessments of Select State IT Systems. Mr. Vice Chair, may I have a motion?

I move that Legislative Budget and Audit Committee authorize the Legislative Auditor to enter into a contract with System Soft Technologies, Inc. for a cybersecurity review of 3 state systems for an amount not to exceed $244,750.

Thank you. And I will object for the purpose of discussion. I would like Ms. Curtis to speak to this item and afterwards take any questions. Welcome back. Thank you.

For the record, my name is Chris Curtis. I'm your State Legislative Auditor. So this committee approved an IT security audit request several years ago, and that request directed Legislative Audit to conduct an inventory of IT systems and rank the systems in terms of significance and risk. Then once we've identified several systems that we recommended further review, we would procure IT security expertise to conduct cybersecurity reviews of those systems. So that process has been completed.

We have issued an RFP. We received proposals. There was a PEC, which is a procurement evaluation committee, reviewed and scored the responsive proposals, and System Soft Incorporated had the highest score. So we're recommending that contract be approved for SystemSoft so we can move forward with detailed cybersecurity review of those systems. Thank you.

Are there any questions for Ms. Curtis?

Okay, then I will remove my objection. Are there any other objections? Great. Seeing none, then a motion to approve the contract for cybersecurity assessments of select state IT systems is approved. We are now at— Within Item 5, adjournment, do any members have any comments before we adjourn?

Okay. Very quickly, I want you to know that we may need to meet again before the end of the session, but I will keep you posted. And as usual, I want to thank the members for making attending this meeting a priority. And I want to thank Chris and her staff and also Jacey, Emily, and Megan, and of course my staff, Jeff and Chantel. With that said, there is nothing else to come before us.

The committee is adjourned at 6:16 PM.