Date: 01/20/2015

Final
BILL SUMMARY for HB15-1055

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS AFFAIRS AND LABOR

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
Adopt amendment L001 (Attachment C). The motion pa
Adopt amendment L002 (Attachment D). This motion w
Refer House Bill 15-1055 to the Committee of the W
Refer House Bill 15-1055, as amended, to the Commi		Pass Without Objection
PASS


10:48 AM -- HB 15-1055

Representative Esgar, bill sponsor, introduced House Bill 15-1055 to the committee. The Colorado State Employee Assistance Program (C-SEAP) provides short-term counseling, mediation, conflict resolution, and other services to Colorado state employees. This bill clarifies that the dependent of a state employee is not eligible to be the sole and direct recipient of services from an employee assistance program, but that the program may allow the participation of a state employee's dependent or any other person who is not a state employee to participate in an employee assistance program if such participation is necessary to provide effective counseling and assistance to a state employee.

Representative Esgar answered questions from the committee regarding who can initiate the service from the household and explained the rationale for the safety clause in the bill.

10:55 AM -- Mr. Jack Wylie, legislative liaison for the Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA), and Ms. Randi Wood, Director of C-SEAP, testified in support of the bill. Mr. Wylie testified that this bill would not change current practice by the program, but would clarify who the program is able to serve and under what circumstances another person would be included. Ms. Wood referenced a handout given to committee members that provides program highlights of the C-SEAP program (Attachment B). Ms. Wood discussed C-SEAP and the work of the program.

150120 AttachB.pdf150120 AttachB.pdf

Ms. Wood and Mr. Wylie responded to questions from the committee members about the vision for the future of the program, where C-SEAP's nine office locations are throughout the state, the departments that most commonly use C-SEAP's services, the number of state employees who currently use services provided by C-SEAP, how many visits are currently allowed before employees are referred to an outside service provider, who can initiate counseling services with C-SEAP, and the impact of this bill on costs.

11:07 AM

Representative Esgar introduced amendment L.001 (Attachment C), which would correct the misspelling of "dependent" within the bill.

150120 AttachC.pdf150120 AttachC.pdf

Representative Tate introduced amendment L.002 (Attachment D), which would change "any other person" in the bill language to "spouse" in order to make the bill language more specific. Representative Esgar responded regarding concern that this amendment would change the original intent of the bill. Other committee members questioned Representative Tate regarding the intent of the amendment. Representative Esgar clarified that the bill as written would not change current C-SEAP program practices. Committee members also questioned Representative Esgar and Ms. Wood regarding the language of "any other person," circumstances when another person would be included in services, the fiscal impact of this language, and current program practices. Ms. Wood also answered questions from committee members regarding the average number of sessions used by program participants and how including other people in the employee's live in the counseling services impacts their use of counseling services, how long it takes to resolve the issue, and involvement of other family members. After committee discussion the motion was withdrawn.

150120 AttachD.pdf150120 AttachD.pdf

11:20 AM

Representative Esgar provided closing remarks on the bill.
BILL:HB15-1055
TIME: 11:07:09 AM
MOVED:Williams
MOTION:Adopt amendment L001 (Attachment C). The motion passed without objection.
SECONDED:Kraft-Tharp
VOTE
Arndt
Garnett
Navarro
Nordberg
Pabon
Rosenthal
Roupe
Szabo
Tate
Thurlow
Winter
Kraft-Tharp
Williams
YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Pass Without Objection
BILL:HB15-1055
TIME: 11:08:35 AM
MOVED:Tate
MOTION:Adopt amendment L002 (Attachment D). This motion was withdrawn.
SECONDED:Szabo
VOTE
Arndt
Garnett
Navarro
Nordberg
Pabon
Rosenthal
Roupe
Szabo
Tate
Thurlow
Winter
Kraft-Tharp
Williams
YES: 0 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: Withdrawn
BILL:HB15-1055
TIME: 11:23:34 AM
MOVED:Kraft-Tharp
MOTION:Refer House Bill 15-1055, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a vote of 13-0.
SECONDED:Rosenthal
VOTE
Arndt
Yes
Garnett
Yes
Navarro
Yes
Nordberg
Yes
Pabon
Yes
Rosenthal
Yes
Roupe
Yes
Szabo
Yes
Tate
Yes
Thurlow
Yes
Winter
Yes
Kraft-Tharp
Yes
Williams
Yes
Final YES: 13 NO: 0 EXC: 0 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS