(a) The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall appoint four legislators to the committee. Two shall be Senators appointed by the President. Two shall be Representatives appointed by the Speaker.

(b) The Governor shall appoint two members to the committee. At least one of the members appointed by the Governor shall be an active member of the Oregon State Bar with experience in representing parties who are not agencies in contested case hearings.

(c) The Attorney General shall appoint two members to the committee.

(d) The chief administrative law judge for the Office of Administrative Hearings shall serve as an ex officio member of the committee. The chief administrative law judge may cast a vote on a matter before the committee if the votes of the other members are equally divided on the matter.

(2) The term of a legislative member of the committee shall be two years. If a person appointed by the President of the Senate or by the Speaker of the House ceases to be a Senator or Representative during the person’s term on the committee, the person may continue to serve as a member of the committee for the balance of the member’s term on the committee. The term of all other appointed members shall be four years. Appointed members of the committee may be reappointed. If a vacancy occurs in one of the appointed positions for any reason during the term of membership, the official who appointed the member to the vacated position shall appoint a new member to serve the remainder of the term. An appointed member of the committee may be removed from the committee at any time by the official who appointed the member.

(3)(a) The members of the committee shall select from among themselves a chairperson and a vice chairperson.

(b) The committee shall meet at such times and places as determined by the chairperson.

(4) Legislative members shall be entitled to payment of per diem and expense reimbursement under ORS 171.072, payable from funds appropriated to the Legislative Assembly.

(5) The committee shall:

(a) Study the operations of the Office of Administrative Hearings;

(b) Make any recommendations to the Governor and the Legislative Assembly that the committee deems necessary to increase the effectiveness, fairness and efficiency of the operations of the Office of Administrative Hearings;

(c) Make any recommendations for additional legislation governing the operations of the Office of Administrative Hearings; and

(d) Conduct such other studies as necessary to accomplish the purposes of this subsection.

(6) The Employment Department shall provide the committee with staff, subject to availability of funding for that purpose. [1999 c.849 §21; 2003 c.75 §19; 2005 c.22 §132; 2009 c.866 §3]