Rep. Shirley Ringo is serving her seventh term in the state House – but today marked a first for her: She chaired a legislative committee. “It’s the first time, and it’s something that I never expected to have the opportunity to do,” said Ringo, a Moscow Democrat, after this afternoon’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee. “So it’s a landmark day for me. It just shows if you stay around long enough, that about anything is possible.”

The Idaho Legislature and its standing committee chairmanships have long been controlled by Republicans. But JLOC has two co-chairs, one from each party; this year, it’s co-chaired by Ringo and Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls.

Ringo said, “I think we all appreciate JLOC’s role to look at policy and potential changes in policy.” The joint committee directs the Office of Performance Evaluations to study and report on issues involving state government and how it functions; she noted that recommendations from today’s report on improving contract management could save the state money as well as make programs work better. “I’m very interested in the next one we’re getting, to look at public employee pay,” Ringo said. “We all know that we have been remiss in our dedication to bring those to policy levels.” That report is due out Jan. 30.