Copies of this proposed rule are available without cost upon request to: Pamela Haack, Department of Regulation and Licensing, Office of Administrative Rules, 1400 East Washington Avenue, Room 171, P.O. Box 8935, Madison, Wisconsin 53708 (608) 266-0495.
Notice of Hearing
Department of Employee Trust Funds
The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds will hold a public hearing to review this proposed rule, which amends ss.
ETF 20.04 (1),
(2) and
(3) and
20.05 (title),
(1) and
(2), Wis. Adm. Code, relating to joint and survivor annuity reduced 25% upon death of annuitant or named survivor in accordance with the provisions of s.
227.16 (1), Wisconsin Statutes.
Hearing Date, Time and Location
Date: September 13, 2001
Time: 1:00 P.M.
Location:
801 West Badger Road
Room 2B
Madison, Wisconsin
The public record on this proposed rule making will be held open until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 14, 2001, to permit the submission of written comments from persons unable to attend the public hearing in person, or who wish to supplement testimony offered at the hearing. Any such written comments should be addressed to Linda Owen, Department of Employee Trust Funds, 801 West Badger Road, P.O. Box 7931, Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7931.
Analysis Prepared by the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds
Some Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) annuity options are defined by administrative rule, as authorized by Wis. Stats. s.
40.24 (1) (g). Section
ETF 20.04 (1) creates an option for a joint and survivor annuity with payments reduced by 25% upon the death of either the participant or the joint survivor named on the original annuity application. At present, this reduction affects the annuity payment for the month in which either the participant or the named survivor dies. Since the effect is currently retroactive to the first of the month, when the joint survivor dies an overpayment to the participant routinely occurs, requiring collection efforts or other adjustments. The proposed rulemaking will amend s.
ETF 20.04 (1) to specify that a reduction in payment due to the death of the named survivor will not take effect until the end of the month in which the death occurs. No change is proposed with respect to the reduction resulting from the death of the participant; this avoids any conflict with the portion of Wis. Stats. s.
40.02 (5) concerning the last payment of an annuity due to an annuitant.
The proposed rulemaking will include several non-substantive, technical amendments that will conform the rules to changes in terminology used by the department, correct cross-references to renumbered statutes and conform the language of the rules to newly defined terms. The proposed rulemaking will amend terminology in s.
ETF 20.04 (1) and
(2) to conform the rules to the newly defined terms “joint and survivor annuity" and “named survivor" found in Wis. Stats. s.
40.02 (39r) and
(41r), created by
1997 Wis. Act 110.
One type of annuity available from the WRS is intended to provide enhanced WRS benefits until the annuitant becomes eligible for Social Security benefits at age 62. It is the intent of this option that the annuitant's total anticipated income from both the WRS and Social Security will be the same each month, both before and after reaching age 62. This type of annuity was previously called a “Social Security Integrated" annuity. The department has now adopted the term “Accelerated Payment Annuity" to describe this option, to preclude the misperception that this option involves the department interacting with the Social Security Administration to coordinate and calculate this benefit. The proposed rulemaking will amend ss.
ETF 20.04 (3) and
20.05 (1), to replace the description “social security integrated annuity" with the terminology “accelerated payment annuity" to describe the temporary annuity authorized by Wis. Stats. s.
40.24 (1) (e).
The proposed rulemaking will add “alternate payee" to the list of persons in s.
ETF 20.05 who may not choose the accelerated annuity option described in Wis. Stats. s.
40.24 (1) (e), if the result would be that the amount of the lifetime annuity would be less than a specified threshold. This reflects the harmonizing of the accelerated payment option under Wis. Stats. s.
40.24 (1) (e) with the threshold in Wis. Stats. s.
40.25 (1) (a) for payment of a life annuity. The dollar amount of this threshold is indexed annually by the salary index defined in Wis. Stats. s.
40.02 (52). The proposed rulemaking will also update the stated dollar amount of the threshold ($25 in 1982) to the present indexed amount ($129 in 2001).
Authority for Rule
Initial Fiscal Estimate
The proposed rule has no fiscal impact on county, city, village, town, school district, technical college district and sewerage district fiscal liabilities and revenues. The rule itself has no anticipated state fiscal effect during the current biennium and no future side effect on state funds. The department's actuary has indicated that the proposed rule would have such a negligible effect on the benefit liabilities of the annuity reserve for this annuity option that no change to the actuarial factor used to calculate this option would be necessary.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The Department anticipates that the provisions of this proposed rule will have no direct adverse effect on small businesses.
Copies of Rule and Contact Persons
Copies of this rule are available without cost by making a request to the Department of Employee Trust Funds, Office of the Secretary, P.O. Box 7931, Madison, Wisconsin 53707, telephone (608) 266-1071. For questions about this rule making, please call Linda Owen, Policy Analyst, Division of Retirement Services, at (608) 261-8164.
Notice of Hearing
Health and Family Services
(Community Services - HFS 30-)
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to ss.
51.61 (9) and
227.11 (2) (a), Stats., the Department of Health and Family Services will hold a public hearing on both the Department's emergency rulemaking order and proposed permanent order amending s.
HFS 94.20 (3), relating to the rights of patients to make telephone calls.
Hearing Date, Time and Location
Date: September 12, 2001
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location:
Conference Room B-145
State Office Building
1 West Wilson Street
Madison, Wisconsin
The hearing site is fully accessible to people with disabilities. Parking for people with disabilities is available in the parking lot behind the building, in the Monona Terrace Convention Center Parking Ramp or in the Doty Street Parking Ramp. People with disabilities may enter the building directly from the parking lot at the west end of the building or from Wilson Street through the side entrance at the east end of the building.
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Health and Family Services
The Department operates secure mental health facilities for the evaluation, treatment and detention of ch.
980, Stats., sexually violent patients. Departmental investigations have indicated that a portion of the ch.
980 inpatient population has routinely abused their s.
HFS 94.20 telephone rights by making inappropriate calls to the members of the public, by fraudulently placing numerous long distance calls that are billed to innocent third-parties or by operating fraudulent schemes. Since the Department has previously had no means of monitoring patient telephone use, the extent of this activity is unknown, but given the experience of investigations triggered by citizen complaints, it is clear that these sorts of activities are not infrequent among this population. In addition, experience with telephone monitoring in other secure institutions indicates that call monitoring can and does help staff detect contraband and other security-related issues and activities. These abuses are clearly contrary to the therapeutic activities conducted at the secure mental health facilities.
Until recently, the Department has been unable to stop these abuses because the Department's facilities lacked secure telephone systems. Previous DHFS efforts to obtain secure telephone systems from the telephone system's vendor used by the Department of Corrections were not successful because the call volume at DHFS's secure mental health facilities were viewed as insufficient to support the telephone system.
In late 2000, the Department of Corrections selected a new vendor for its secure telephone system. In May 2001, the new vendor agreed to also install the system in DHFS's secure mental health facilities. On June 22, 2001, the Department issued these proposed permanent rules as emergency rules that became effective as of that date. The telephone systems allow the Department to establish and enforce calling lists for each inpatient and monitor inpatients' calls for counter-therapeutic activity. An inpatient's calling list is a finite number of telephone numbers associated with persons the inpatient is approved to contact by telephone. Use of calling lists alone, however, is insufficient to discourage and minimize inpatient attempts to subvert the system. The Department must monitor phone calls made by ch.
980 inpatients to discourage and minimize the occurrence of inpatients calling persons on their calling list who, in turn, subvert the secure system by forwarding the inpatient's call for the prohibited purposes and activities previously described. The Department must be able to monitor the phone calls of ch.
980 inpatients both to protect the public and promote therapeutic activities at the secure mental health facilities.
The Department is proposing these rules to protect the public's safety by minimizing the recurring fraudulent activity associated with telephone use. Pursuant to an earlier emergency rule promulgated by the Department, the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center and the Wisconsin Resource Center have been operating with the secure telephone system since late June and early July, 2001.
Contact Person
To find out more about the hearing or request a copy of the proposed rule, please write or phone:
James Yeadon
Division of Care and Treatment Facilities
P. O. Box 7851, Room 850
Madison, WI 53707-7851
608-266-5525 or,
if you are hearing impaired,
608-266-1511 (TTY)
To comment on or discuss the content of the proposed rule, please e-mail or phone:
Steve Watters, Director
Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center
1111North Rd.
P.O. Box 700
Mauston, WI 53948
608-847-1720 or,
if you are hearing impaired,
608-266-2511 (TTY)
If you are hearing or visually impaired, do not speak English, or have other personal circumstances which might make communication at the hearing difficult and if you, therefore, require an interpreter, or a non-English, large print or taped version of the hearing document, contact the person at the address or phone number above. A person requesting a non-English or sign language interpreter should make that request at least 10 days before the hearing. With less than 10 days notice, an interpreter may not be available.
Written comments on the proposed rule received at the above address no later than September 24, 2001, will be given the same consideration as testimony presented at the hearing.
Fiscal Estimate
This rule applies to facility created under s.
980.065, Stats. The two state facilities created under that law are the Wisconsin Resource Center in Oshkosh and the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston. The secure telephone system that has been implemented at the two facilities does not create any additional costs for State or Local governments. The immediate cost of installing and operating the system is paid by the vendor that provides the secure telephone system to the State. Ultimately, the costs associated with this telephone system will be borne by the patients who use the system, or by individuals who accept collect calls from these patients, through user fees collected by the vendor.
It is anticipated that the implementation of this system will reduce the number of incidents of telephone fraud and inappropriate telephone calls to the general public that originate from Chapter
980 patients.
A copy of the full fiscal estimate may be obtained from James Yeadon who may be contacted via the contact information provided in this notice.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The rule changes will not affect small businesses as “small business" is defined in s.
227.114 (1) (a), Stats.
Notice of Hearings
Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection - Water Regulation Chs.
NR 300 -
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to ss.
31.02 (4) (c),
(4r) and
(4g), Stats., interpreting s.
31.02 (4r) and
(4g), Stats., the Department of Natural Resources will hold public hearings on the creation of ch.
NR 331, Wis. Adm. Code, relating to fish passages around barriers on Wisconsin's rivers and streams. The proposed rule will specifically address the public rights issues on navigable waters with fish passages and describe the cost-share program. Additionally, there is information on the factors to consider and the decision process on when the Department will order fish passages.
NOTICE IS HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN that pursuant to s.
227.114, Stats., it is not anticipated that the proposed rule will have an economic impact on small businesses.
NOTICE IS HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN that the Department has made a preliminary determination that this action does not involve significant adverse environmental effects and does not need an environmental analysis under ch.
NR 150, Wis. Adm. Code. However, based on the comments received, the Department may prepare an environmental analysis before proceeding with the proposal. This environmental review document would summarize the Department's consideration of the impacts of the proposal and reasonable alternatives.
Hearing Date, Time and Location
Date: September 14, 2001
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location:
Room 027
GEF #2
101 South Webster Street
Madison, Wisconsin
Date: September 18, 2001
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location:
Auditorium
Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary
1660 East Shore Drive
