The Council convened at 9:05 a.m. at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Los Angeles, California. Present were Chairman Cass; members Astrue, Bernard, Braden, Bruff, Secretary Drew, Fisher, Gellhorn, Kaleta, Kinney, Budget Officer Leo, Vice-Chair Levin, May, Olson, Neet, Troy, Vittone, Williams, and Chair-Elect Young. Past Chair Belmar was absent due to his wife's recent surgery.

Minutes of the prior meeting were approved without amendment.

The Chair thanked Mike Asimow, Chris Franklin, and Kellie Ann Moore, the Los Angeles Committee, and introduced our new Section Administrator Leanne Pfautz and our new Meetings/Membership Coordinator, Cindy Burns.

The Chair-Elect announced that he hoped to make appointments of committee chairs within the next month. There will be a meeting of committee chairs at the spring meeting in St. Pete.

The Vice Chair sought suggestions for the location for the spring 2001 meeting. That year, the annual meeting, will be in Chicago, and the winter meeting in San Diego.

Peter Strauss reported on the first action item, the Section's plain language recommendation, distributing a revised shorter version at the meeting. The stakes for the bar are whether the results to government of moving in this direction will shift control from lawyers to program people. The President and Vice-President are putting significant efforts behind this initiative. Strauss particularly commended the SEC's efforts to write prospectuses in a more understandable manner, and DOT's more user-friendly formatting of new hazmat regulations in the Federal Register. An on-line site, http://plainlanguage.gov, gives updates on such efforts.

Ernie Gellhorn made a motion, duly seconded, to vote in principle to adopt the plain language recommendation, so long as Strauss was willing to consider friendly editorial comments. Strauss accepted. Young commended the hard work reflected in the report, and suggested sending the recommendation to the committee on style. The motion was adopted unanimously.

Strauss then reported on the second action item, the Section's draft risk assessment recommendation, now being returned to the Council after previous discussion as a thoroughly reworked "consensus" draft. SONREEL will co-sponsor the recommendation if the Council accepts it. Tom Susman complimented Strauss as a model of how to build consensus from chaos, and expressed support for the view that there should be a presumption for risk assessment in consequential rules in a full-blown way. A motion to approve the recommendation was moved and seconded.

A full-blown debate on the recommendation ensued, including such suggestions as the pros and cons of drafting a better definition of risk assessment; taking more of a stance for risk assessment; including or explaining more of a range of risks or risk comparisons, identifying potential opponents of risk assessment and their biases; and including cost factors. Ken Warren of SONREEL suggested revisions supporting SONREEL's perspective that, while regulatory agencies should be encouraged to do risk assessments, there should not be a universal mandate that cuts across all statutes. Bill Rousch suggested that the Council was not in a position to judge the best mechanism or methodology for a particular risk assessment. Strauss would not agree to include cost descriptions, since a cost-benefit analysis is a differnet endeavor.

Gellhorn proposed a motion, duly seconded, that risk assessments "should be undertaken before any significant agency rule is proposed, modified, or eliminated unless the agency has good cause not to do so." The motion did not carry. Judge Williams and Ray abstained.

Leonard Leo proposed a motion, duly seconded, that risk assessment "should endeavor to be an objective process," which should "neither exaggerate nor minimize" the magnitude of risk. After discussion as to how terms like "objective" had become stalking horses for those who held decided views in the risk assessment debate, the motion did not carry. Judges Vittone and Williams abstained.

The Chair noted that, while the recommendation had the general support of most, there were enough questions to put over the vote till the next day to see if those still in doubt could discuss further and reach consensus.

Paul Verkuil reported on the ABA rewriting project. The organizational structure is in place, and the committee is waiting for co-chairs of various sections to provide associate reporters. An advisory board will be announced in the next few weeks. The committee has decided upon a format. There will be both descriptive and prescriptive versions. The former will say what the law is; the latter, what could be done better and how it could be reformed. Project news is available on-line, and the committee will present an update at the spring meeting.

The Chair thanked all who put on programs the preceding day, and adjourned at 10:55 a.m. for the panel on Privileges of High Government Officials, moderated by Tom Susman.