Lawmakers make the law, except when they sit on an obscure legislative panel with strict rules for casting votes.

Lawmakers and audience members raised a ruckus last week over two of the panel's decisions, drawing attention to how much power unelected state officials have in applying the law to everyday Ohioans.

When the House and Senate pass a bill and the governor signs it into law, the process isn't always over.

Often, state agencies must create rules to put the law into effect - imposing fees, telling school districts when and how they can use vehicles to transport students, deciding how many hours of direct care nursing home residents should receive.

Lawmakers created the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review in 1977 to make sure the rules follow the law's intentions.

''Before there was a JCARR, the administrative agencies could do whatever they wanted to do with a bill,'' said Rep. Scott Oelslager, a Canton Republican and current chairman of the panel of five representatives and five senators. ''Conceivably, they could totally reverse the policy through the rule-making authority.''

Only eight states lack some type of formal review of administrative rules, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

JCARR staff members comb through rules as they're submitted and often recommend that agencies fix problems, Director William Hills said.

Usually the group, which meets about every three weeks, can wrap up in 15 minutes while still providing an important balance between the elected and unelected parts of government, he said.

That balance isn't always popular. In the past, the committee was criticized for approving rules that more than doubled the price of wine in Ohio.

Two years ago, when the group delayed a vote for a month, it held up creating a program to allow families of 3,000 developmentally disabled Ohioans to care for them at home instead of institutions.

Last week's debates forced two meetings in four days and centered on rules that met the intent of the law, but angered many who were upset the body couldn't reject them simply for disagreeing with the policy.

The panel only can invalidate rules that exceed legal authority, violate the intent of the law or conflict with another rule.

In one case, lawmakers were upset with new parking fees the Department of Natural Resources will begin charging in May to visitors driving to state parks.

In the second, school districts and parents of disabled children crowded the hearing room to hear debate on ending a federal program for services to the developmentally disabled.

The committee legally couldn't stop the rules: The law allows the state to set entrance fees at parks and the federal government is pulling funding on the disability program.

But Senate President Bill Harris removed fellow Republican Sen. Timothy Grendell for his pointed questioning on both rules.

Oelslager took the time before each meeting to read the group's rules to explain to citizens why members would have to make unpopular votes. He said even though the objections were outside the committee's power, it's good they were raised because they alert legislators to possible problems in the law.

But some Democrats joined Grendell in opposing the parks' rule and calling into question the workings of the rules committee.

''I don't think the role of JCARR is to automatically rubber stamp every rule that comes through the committee,'' said Sen. Charles Wilson, a St. Clairsville Democrat.

Carrie Spencer is a correspondent for the Ohio Associated Press' Columbus bureau.