April 4, 2025 — The Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee voted to forward Joan Wilson’s nomination for chief administrative law judge to a joint session after a confirmation hearing in which Wilson outlined the Office of Administrative Hearings’ caseload, staffing needs and proposed statutory changes.

Joan Wilson, who has served as chief administrative law judge for six months, told the committee the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) is "the first, quasi court of relief for Alaskans who have received a negative decision from a state agency of some kind," and that the office handles appeals across roughly "42 distinct subject areas." She said the office issues proposed or final decisions that frequently go to superior court and the Alaska Supreme Court and that OAH has a high affirmance rate: "We have a very high affirmant affirmance rate about 93%."

Wilson described OAH’s mission as providing due process and timely decisions across a wide range of matters — from child-support and Permanent Fund eligibility to professional licensing and large commercial tax assessments — and said the centralized panel model trades some agency-specific expertise for consistent adjudication. She told senators OAH must balance workloads with available staff and praised the court-like efficiency: state-level reviews through OAH can be less expensive than using the court system for the same work.

Committee members asked about hiring, training and vacancies. Wilson said the office is "fairly small" and that it has 10 judge positions total, with seven currently filled, two in the pipeline and one remaining vacancy she wants to fill. She outlined training efforts including National Judicial College programs, judicial writing training and peer mentoring and said she would seek to improve professional performance of judges and reduce bias in decision-making.

Wilson also previewed statutory changes she may propose to the Legislature. She said the office’s enabling statute (AS 44.64) and current appeal rules can leave the Department of Law without an opportunity to appeal certain decisions on pure questions of law until a respondent loses, and that she would like to explore expanding interlocutory appeal authority or adjusting the proposals-for-action process so the judge could revisit a draft decision before it goes to the final decision maker.

After the hearing, Senator Stevens moved that "the judiciary committee has reviewed the qualifications of the governor's appointee and recommends that the following name be forwarded to a joint session for consideration, Joan Wilson for chief administrative law judge." The motion was adopted by the committee for forwarding; the committee's motion noted it "does not reflect intent by any of the members to vote for or against the individual during any further sessions for the purposes of confirmation." Committee members were asked to stay after adjournment to sign paperwork.

Wilson told the committee she plans to work with the Department of Law and the governor's office on any statutory updates and to present a collaborative proposal if possible. The committee will consider the nomination in joint session as the next procedural step.