Two bills that would make changes to the Foster Care Review Board attracted mostly supporters to hearings Friday.

Lincoln Sen. Amanda McGill's bill (LB929) would not allow any of the 11 members of the board, or their employers, to receive any money from the Department of Health and Human Services after appointment.

No particular incident prompted the bill, McGill said. It was seen as a way to make the board stronger and to do away with concerns that board members could not be as straightforward, honest and open with their judgments and information as they might be.

Former Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said the review board was created more than 25 years ago, not to have one agency spying on another, but to protect the foster children it now tracks.

"Every once in a while ... Health and Human Services, the agency, tends to forget what its mission is," he said. "It tends to forget that kids need to be protected."

So it's important that members don't have any allegiance or connection to HHS, he said.

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist's bill (LB998) would eliminate the review board and bring the staff and its functions under the Legislature's jurisdiction.

The work of the review board would continue to go on both at the state level and at the local level with 46 boards. A member of each of those boards would be appointed by the governor.

"My intent is to remove any glimmer of impropriety, of conflict of interest, of filtering of information that needs to happen at the state level," Krist said.

He said the state has problems with both foster care and the review process.

"And if we continue to stay in the same box and do things the same way we are doing them, I think we will go the same track," he said.

Krist began working on his bill in August, he said, and it was not related to last week's firing of Foster Care Review Board Executive Director Carol Stitt. Review board President Georgie Scurfield said at the time Stitt was removed because of management issues.

Krist said his office got a call Friday morning from employees at the Foster Care Review Board who said they wanted to come to the hearing to testify in favor of the bill. But, he said, the callers said they were told their jobs were in jeopardy if they did.

Both Scurfield and acting Director Kathy Bigsby Moore said Krist's comments about the employees stunned them.

Moore said she was asked by employees if they could attend the hearing and she told them they could. No one asked her about testifying, she said. But if they had, she would have told them they could take vacation time to testify.

"I never ever would have said anyone's job hangs in the balance," she said.

She said some staff still were emotional about Stitt's leaving. She sent an email to the staff Friday afternoon reiterating that as the acting director she has no intention of making any sweeping changes.

No one testified in opposition to Krist's bill.

Board member Marcia Anderson testified in a neutral position, saying she was sorry the senators had concerns about the work of the board, the data it provided and perceived conflicts by members.

"I am truly sorry that the concerns leading to the introduction of these bills are taking time and attention away from the real, immediate and heartbreaking issues surrounding Nebraska's child welfare system and the work that this committee is undertaking to address those issues ..." she said.

Scurfield said after the meeting that what is important to her personally is that the work of collecting data and tracking children continue.

"It doesn't matter to me if it's through the board or through the Legislature," she said.