Testimony of Wendy Zhan, Ohio Legislative Service Commission, House Development Committee, February 12, 2025

Summary

A February 12, 2025 memorandum of testimony from Wendy Zhan, Director of the Ohio Legislative Service Commission (LSC), to Chair Hoops and the House Development Committee on the LSC FY 2026-FY 2027 budget proposal. It states that for H.B. 33, the main operating budget of the 135th General Assembly, LSC drafted 8,770 amendments, and that 95.5% of the LSC budget went to employee personnel costs last fiscal year. It describes the line items for the Legislative Information Systems (LIS), the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC), the Legislative Fellows and the National Associations. Attached are written testimony from LIS and from CIIC, which states that its line item requests an increase of $50,000 in FY 2025 and an additional $25,000 in FY 2026.

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                        OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
                                                      Wendy Zhan, Director


                              Office of Research                                Legislative Budget
   www.lsc.ohio.gov             and Drafting                                          Office



To:              Chair Hoops and Members of the House Development Committee
From:            Wendy Zhan, Director
Date:            February 12, 2025
Subject:         LSC FY 2026-FY 2027 budget proposal

       Chair Hoops, Vice-Chair Lorenz, Ranking Member Abdullahi, and members of the
committee, I am Wendy Zhan, Director of the Legislative Service Commission (LSC). I appreciate
the opportunity to come before you today to present LSC’s budget proposal for the next
biennium.
        I will start by briefly explaining our structure. Our governing body, the Legislative Service
Commission, consists of 14 legislators, seven from the House and seven from the Senate. By law,
the chair rotates between the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. Our budget
group includes funding for three different legislative agencies – LSC, the Legislative Information
Systems (LIS), and the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) – as well as several
other legislative functions. The proposed funding levels for the upcoming biennium for LSC, LIS,
and CIIC are largely held at their respective current fiscal year’s funding level.
         GRF appropriation line item 035321 covers the operating expenses of LSC. As a
nonpartisan, central service agency for the General Assembly, LSC provides a comprehensive
array of products and services. While I am sure you are already familiar with many of our products
and services, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a few key LSC staff workload
statistics. Let’s start with the budget. For H.B. 33, the main operating budget of the 135th General
Assembly, we drafted 8,770 amendments and completed 66.6% (5,839) of them within two days
of the requests. In addition, we answered a total of 21,116 legislative bill and other amendment
drafting, analysis, and research requests and completed 42.8% (9,035) of those requests within
two days. During the last General Assembly, we also drafted 40,241 letters of commendation and
honorary resolutions to assist members with constituent outreach.
        We are proud of what we have accomplished. It takes people to develop and deliver all
of the LSC’s services and products, and in fact 95.5% of the LSC budget went to employee
personnel costs last fiscal year. For the money, the legislature gets a staff of dedicated,
experienced, highly trained, and educated employees. The LSC staff strives to provide quality
services in a timely manner to meet the demands of individual General Assembly members and
staff. We currently have about 145 staff. Since 2023 we have had ten retirements; together these
ten individuals devoted a total of 343.5 years (34.4 years per individual on average) serving the
General Assembly. We will need to fill a few vacancies once the busy budget season is over. As
the director, it is my top priority to search for, develop, and retain people with the talent,


Vern Riffe Center ● 77 South High Street, Ninth Floor ● Columbus, Ohio 43215-6136 ● Telephone (614) 466-3615
Office of Research and Drafting                 LSC                           Legislative Budget Office



dedication, and experience needed to serve the General Assembly. All of us at LSC appreciate the
support of the legislature and look forward to continuing to earn that support.
         The Legislative Information Systems line item (035410) pays for the operating expenses of
LIS. LIS provides computer networking, application development, telephone, and a variety of other
information technology services to the House, the Senate, LSC, and several other legislative
agencies. Kurt McDowell is the Director of LIS and is here with me today. Director McDowell’s
written testimony is part of our packet, and he is available to answer any questions you may have
about his agency.
       The Correctional Institution Inspection Committee line item (035405) covers the operating
expenses of CIIC. Chris Albanese is the Director of CIIC and is also here today. Director Albanese's
written testimony is also part of our packet, and he is also available to answer any questions you
may have about his agency.
       The Legislative Fellows line item (035402) pays the salaries and expenses for
24 participants in the Legislative Fellowship Program. Ten fellows are placed with the House, ten
with the Senate, two with Ohio Government Telecommunications/The Ohio Channel, and two
with LSC.
        Finally, LSC is the fiscal agent and processes the payments for the remaining three line
items. The Legislative Task Force on Redistricting line item (035407) is used to support legislative
and Congressional district boundary drawing activities. The Litigation line item (035501) is used
for the expenses of any lawsuit that might arise challenging state law and to which the General
Assembly is a party. The National Associations line item (035409) pays the General Assembly’s
annual membership dues to belong to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the
Council of State Governments (CSG), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and three
smaller organizations.
     Chair Hoops and members of the committee, thank you for your consideration. Director
McDowell, Director Albanese, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.


Attachments: LIS Director McDowell’s written testimony
             CIIC Director Albanese’s written testimony




P a g e |2
                 OHIO LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Date:          February 12, 2025
To:            Chairman Hoops and Members of the House Development
               Committee
From:          Kurt McDowell, Director
Subject:       LIS FY2026-2027 Budget Testimony

Chairman Hoops and members of the House Development Committee, my name is Kurt
McDowell, and I am the Director of Legislative Information Systems (LIS).

Legislative Information Systems (LIS) serves the Ohio General Assembly and the legislative
agencies. LIS is a non-partisan agency that consistently provides information technology, strategic
direction and forward-thinking solutions that are vital to the smooth and efficient operation of
Ohio’s legislative processes serving the citizens of Ohio.

The LIS director functions as the General Assembly Chief Technical Officer (CTO). The CTO
acts to improve cooperation, standards conformity, and security in all General Assembly IT
organizations. Oversight of LIS is provided by the Senate Clerk, the House Clerk, and the LSC
Director.

While the House, Senate, and LSC each have their own information technology organizations, we
work closely and cooperatively with them. LIS also provides direct services that generally begin
when requirements affect the entire General Assembly or an even larger community.

LIS operates the General Assembly, Senate, House, LSC, and Ohio Channel websites and is
responsible for the design and support of key applications like the bill drafting and chamber
systems. The SOLAR (State of Ohio Legislative Application Repository) system entails
everything from the initial request that LSC draft a bill, through consideration and approval by
both the House and Senate, to the preparation of an act for the presentation to the Governor. You
are using a portion of the SOLAR system today if you are following the testimony on your iPad.

LIS is responsible for the Electronic Rule Filing (ERF) system, the Register of Ohio (ROO)
website and applications, Rule Authoring Software (RAS), Rule Watch Ohio, the Ohio Revised
Code and Ohio Administrative Codes website, and the Cut Red Tape website.

LIS is responsible for the design and daily maintenance of the legislative telephone system, email
system, file servers and other services used by the legislature. LIS works with vendors to deploy
a cloud smart strategy. There are certain information technology functions that are more secure
and better implemented in a cloud environment. LIS makes sure the requirements of the
Legislature are considered before making technology decisions.




                 VERN RIFFE CENTER   77 SOUTH HIGH STREET, 24TH FLOOR   COLUMBUS, OHIO 43215
OHIO LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS



LIS also maintains computer desktop, server, network, telephone, and website support for other
legislative agencies. These include Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC), Capitol
Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB), Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review
(JCARR), Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC), Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee
(JMOC), Ohio Channel, and Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC).

While the responsibilities have increased over the 30 years that LIS has existed, LIS tries to be
good stewards of the taxpayer’s money. We have routinely kept our expenditures less than what
is appropriated, and I believe this will continue into the next fiscal years.

Thank you for your time today. I am happy to answer any questions that you might have.
              CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION INSPECTION COMMITTEE
                        A Joint Committee of the 136th Ohio General Assembly

HOUSE MEMBERS                                                                             SENATE MEMBERS
Jean Schmidt, Chair                                                                              Kent Smith
Latyna Humphrey, Vice Chair                                                                      Al Cutrona
Mark Johnson                                                                            Paula Hicks-Hudson
Dani Isaacsohn                                                                                    Al Landis

                                   House Development Committee

 Chairman Hoops, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the main operating
 budget.

 Established in 1977, the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) is a bipartisan joint
 committee of the General Assembly that is required by code to inspect, evaluate, and report on
 Ohio’s adult correctional facilities every biennium. The line item reflected in this budget requests
 an increase of $50,000 in FY 2025 and an additional $25,000 in FY 2026, which will allow the
 committee to maintain a staff of four so that CIIC members may be effectively assisted in fulfilling
 these statutory obligations.
 During the 135th biennium, staff were able to complete inspections at 31 facilities, including 28
 adult prisons operated by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and 3 juvenile
 correctional facilities operated by the Ohio Department of Youth Services, each year.
 DRC and DYS were appropriated over $2.5 billion by the legislature for FY 2025 in the Operating
 Budget of 2024. We operate as an important check and balance body of the State Legislature to
 ensure that both departments are meeting requirements laid out in the Ohio Revised Code and
 spending that money as the legislature intended. We also operate as an effective intermediary
 between the legislature and both departments. We offer an objective, facts-based approach to
 educate legislators on the state of correctional institutions and where there is room for
 improvement. This has allowed legislators to make informed decisions when it comes to policy
 that will impact those institutions.
 Finally, another large part of committee staff work is to answer constituent concerns on behalf of
 members. In the 135th biennium, 3,393 concerns were received, a rate of over 9 per day, from 1,031
 individuals incarcerated, family members, friends and constituents.
 The slight increase of funding for the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee will allow
 for its staff to, not only fulfill, but exceed statutory duties in the upcoming biennium.
 Thank you for your time,


 Chris Albanese,
 Executive Director




        Riffe Center, 77 South High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215 • (614) 466-6649 • Fax (614) 466-6929
                                              www.ciic.state.oh.us


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