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(a) The commissioner will appoint three or more department employees, including a chair, to serve as a variance review committee whose primary responsibility is to evaluate variance requests submitted under 7 AAC 10.900 — 7 AAC 10.990. The commissioner will include at least one employee from each oversight division. An employee who is substantively involved in any recommendation made under 7 AAC 10.930(b) to the variance review committee shall recuse oneself from participation in committee’s review of the variance request for which the employee made the recommendation. A director making a recommendation under (h) of this section shall recuse oneself from participation in the committee’s review of the variance request for which the director makes the recommendation. (b) In reviewing a request for a variance, the chair of the variance review committee shall determine whether a variance is prohibited under 7 AAC 10.930. If a variance is prohibited, the chair of the variance review committee, without involving the full variance review committee, shall immediately send the commissioner a recommendation under (g) of this section and clearly indicate the prohibition in the recommendation. (c) The chair of the variance review committee shall initially evaluate a variance request within 10 days after the oversight division determines a variance request to be complete under 7 AAC 10.930(b). The initial evaluation must include an initial assessment of the basis for the variance request and a determination, using the standards that the full variance review committee would use under (d) and (e) of this section, of how the variance if granted would impact the health, safety, or welfare of any recipient of services authorized or services paid in full or in part by the department. At the end of the evaluation, the chair may

(1) without involving the full variance review committee immediately send the commissioner a recommendation under (g) of this section to grant the variance request; or

(2) refer the matter to the full variance review committee to evaluate the variance request as provided in this section. (d) In its review of a variance request, the variance review committee shall

(1) consider the recommendations that the oversight division made under 7 AAC 10.930(b);

(2) consider all material supplied with the variance request and any other relevant information available to the department;

(3) verify, if applicable, that

(A) any conditions of parole or probation were met;

(B) any court-ordered restitution has been made, or payments are current;

(C) the individual is in compliance with any treatment required by the court, or that any required treatment has been successfully completed;

(D) if the barrier crime or condition is related to financial exploitation, including