Page 1410 – Must Read Alaska

New Public Defender: Samantha Cherot

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September 17, 2019

Born and raised in Alaska, Samantha Cherot has been named Alaska Public Defender, filling the position vacated in April by Quinlan Steiner.

Cherot was selected from a list of three applicants provided to the Governor by the Alaska Judicial Council on Aug. 20, and will serve a term of four years. She must be confirmed by the Alaska Legislature.

“All three individuals put forward by the Council were highly qualified, but Samantha Cherot stood out as someone with the presence, skill set, and experience to excel in this position,” said Governor Dunleavy. “Not only was I impressed by her commitment to public service, but her focus and approach towards caseload management and prioritization. I congratulate Ms. Cherot on assuming the role of Public Defender and wish her all the best.”

Samantha Cherot has been an Alaska resident for 32 years, and has practiced law for nearly 12 years. She graduated from California Western School of Law in 2007, and most recently worked as an assistant public defender in Anchorage.

[Read Samantha Cherot’s biographical statement that accompanied her application.]

Roland Maw trial looms in October

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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September 17, 2019

4

Eligible Alaskans expect to see their Permanent Fund dividends deposited in their bank accounts the first week of October.

The definition of “eligible Alaskans” are those who filed for their PFDs before March 30, and who were in Alaska for at least 180 days of 2018, who were not absent for more than 90 days at a stretch, and who meet other criteria.

One guy who didn’t meet the criteria, but who filed for PFDs for several years will be facing the biggest Permanent Fund dividend fraud and theft trial in Alaska history in late October.

Roland Maw, who was Gov. Bill Walker’s appointee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, has a trial date set for Oct. 28 in Juneau Superior Court.

After months of status hearings, trial calls, and pretrial conferences, the criminal case against Maw starts anew on Oct. 2 with a pretrial conference and discovery hearing.

A second pre-trial conference will follow on Oct. 21, and then the jury trial starts, with Judge Amy Mead, a Walker appointee, presiding in Courtroom D.

Unless Maw’s lawyer is able to get another delay, that is.

Maw, the former executive director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, was supposed to stand trial in February, and again in May. But a series of motions made by his attorney hung up the trial.

As Walker’s Board of Fisheries nominee, Maw received a chilly reception from the Legislature. He was a nonstarter.

When Maw applied for the job of Commissioner of Fish and Game under Walker, he didn’t even get an interview for the job by the Joint Board of Fish and Game, which is the body that recommends to the governor a list of candidates for that job.

In 2016, Maw was charged with 12 felony counts of theft and unsworn falsification after prosecutors said he applied for and received Permanent Fund dividends while he was out of Alaska for over 90 consecutive days, for the years 2009 to 2014, without reporting those absences on his dividend application.

One of his defenses is that the PFD application is unclear as to whether the 90-day absence is consecutive or total number of days.

[Read Maw’s motion to dismiss here.]

His other defense angle appears to be that the courts have no evidence to show he was actually the one pushing the keys on the keyboard as travel reservations and Montana resident hunting and fishing licenses were purchased in his name. He has been convicted in Montana for purchasing in-state licenses when not a resident.

“Mr. Maw does not necessarily assert that he is not the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct that is represented in every single exhibit,” his attorney Nicholas Polasky wrote in a court brief. “However, Mr Maw does not agree that he is the person who made the statements or engaged in the conduct in some of the exhibits.”

If he wasn’t a resident in Montana — and he pleaded no contest to the seven Montana charges pertaining to that residency assertion on his hunting and fishing licenses –and he wasn’t a resident by Alaska standards as it pertains to the Permanent Fund dividend, is Roland Maw a man without a state?

Why I’m voting ‘no’ on Juneau’s Proposition 3: The JACC Racket

Columns

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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September 17, 2019

10

Why I’m voting ‘no’ on Juneau’s Proposition 3: The JACC Racket

BY PAULETTE SIMPSON
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Juneau is a jewel of a town.

With just 31,000 residents, it’s also our country’s fifth smallest capital city in terms of population. I would argue that small really is beautiful and by embracing that smallness, we can keep Juneau affordable and livable well into the future.

For over a year, proponents of a new performing arts center (JACC) have mounted a promotional campaign to convince Juneau voters to help pay for construction of an oversized 44,500-square-foot, two-story, $26 million facility. (For perspective, Centennial Hall is 19,680 square feet.)

Some supporters signed on early when the original concept was somewhat more modest and no public funding was anticipated. After plans ballooned and the cost exploded, many community members began questioning the scale and price tag of a project that now demands our tax dollars.

Promoters seem to suggest that the arts in Juneau are in a state of emergency. Yet somehow, as a JACC zealot tells us, the Western States Arts Foundation ranks Juneau as one of the country’s top 10 small cities for creative vitality and vibrancy.

We’ve been admonished that “Juneau is the only capital city in the country without a performing arts center.”

Well, we’re also the only capital city in the country without road access — unlike Santa Fe, New Mexico, a capital city which some suggest should be our model.

Santa Fe (population 84,000) is located within an hour’s drive of Albuquerque (population 560,000) and in comfortable driving distance of numerous communities in the four states bordering New Mexico. That makes it relatively easy and inexpensive for visitors to access and support its cultural resources.

But Juneau could be the Native art capital of the Northwest if only we had a $26 million performing arts center?

I would submit that Juneau has a world-class Native arts presence on display at both the Walter Soboleff cultural and research center, and especially in the galleries of the Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff Library, Archives and Museum Building.

Perhaps more correctly, Juneau could be (and have) just about anything we wanted if we only had a road — and a growing population. But we don’t have either.

The arguments for a 44,500-square-foot JACC deny the stark reality of the state budget and Juneau’s demographics.

Here’s an inconvenient metric to ponder: According to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, in 1998-1999, Juneau’s K-12 school enrollment totaled 5,740. By the 2018-2019 school year, K-12 enrollment had dropped to 4,567.

A 44,500-square-foot JACC will require an ever-expanding universe of patrons to meet the revenue projections proponents claim are possible. How will they manage expenses without undercutting the competition and diminishing the rental income streams of smaller venues?

What’s sorely missing from this conversation is a sense of proportion and a measure of modesty. That old-fashioned virtue shows up in another capital city.

About equal in population to Juneau is Helena, Montana. Helena is also a highly cultured community with a history as a regional center for the performing arts.

In 1976 Helena’s municipal offices moved from the (1919) Algeria Shrine Temple to the renovated (1904) federal building, and the Algeria Shrine was converted to a convention/civic center akin to Juneau’s Centennial Hall.

Then, in 1991, Helena transformed its (1894) Lewis and Clark County Jail into a performing arts center, and named it for actress Myrna Loy, who grew up down the street. The community raised the funds to renovate the historic downtown structure into a state-of-the-art venue for concerts, films, art exhibits, and arts education experiences. Known as one of the most vibrant small arts organizations in the rural West, the Myrna Loy is a fully equipped facility with an auditorium, theatre and gallery. And it’s about 7,500 square feet.

Helena embraced its “smallness” and with creativity, but not puffery, re-imagined and re-purposed existing buildings.

Not Juneau.

Rather than propose a less ambitious project, or attempt the hard work of an innovative remodel or inspired addition to Centennial Hall, our glitterati demanded big and brand new. City leaders swooned and got in line.

Perhaps we’re not that creative after all.

I’m voting “no” on Proposition 3.

Paulette Simpson resides in Douglas, Alaska.

Palins lawyer up

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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September 17, 2019

17

Sarah Palin has hired Alaska lawyer Lori Colbert, and husband Todd Palin has hired Alaska layer Kimberlee Colbo, as they move forward in their divorce proceedings.

Colbert is a lifelong Alaskan who graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a degree in political science, and earned her law degree at Willamette University College of Law. She has practiced law in Alaska for more than 20 years. Family law is one of her specialties.

Colbo graduated from the University of Washington School of Law and represents clients in matters involving all aspects of insurance defense, including bad faith and coverage, manufacturers and retailers in product liability. She represents individuals involved in divorces and child custody disputes.

The case has been classified confidential, which means access to case files are limited to Sarah and Todd Palin, their attorneys, and court personnel. It’s a very rare situation but there is a minor involved, and the judge may have decided to protect the child from the adverse experience of the media circus.

Cokie Roberts passes at 75

The Social

Suzanne Downing

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September 17, 2019

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HER DAD, REP. HALE BOGGS, DIED IN ALASKA CRASH WITH BEGICH

Famed journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has died from complications related to breast cancer. She was 75.

Roberts was the daughter of Congressman Hale Boggs of New Orleans, Louisiana, who along with Congressman Nick Begich of Alaska disappeared when their plane went missing in Alaska on Oct. 16, 1972. The plane was never found.

The two had been traveling from Anchorage to Juneau on congressional business.

She was for many years a voice on NPR, won three Emmys and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend.”

Begich’s grandson, Nick Begich III of Chugiak, recalled meeting her at her home in Washington, D.C.

“She was a gracious host and sharp, intelligent, and every word was spoken with intention,” Nick Begich III said.

Terry Moran, a national correspondent for ABC, described her as: “Brilliant. Brave. Kind. Hilarious. A fierce patriot. And one of the best human beings I have ever known.”

Political reporting was in her DNA — her father was Democratic majority leader in the U.S. House. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, joined the House of Representatives, serving from March 20, 1973 to Jan. 3, 1991. Her older brother Thomas was a wheeling and dealing lobbyist who was credited with pioneering the hiring former members of Congress to lobbying positions.

Janus: State heads to court over collecting union dues

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 16, 2019

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Janus: State heads to court over collecting union dues

FORCED UNIONISM WILL BE TOPIC OF LAWSUIT

Several state employees have asked the State of Alaska to stop deducting union dues from their paychecks.

Their requests were in response to the recent decision by the Attorney General that the State’s current practices relating to collection of union dues are not in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision known as Janus.

The Department of Administration notified the public employee union Alaska State Employee Association, advising that the State would halt deductions for these employees.

[Read: State putting guardrails on collection of union dues]

ASEA, representing the general government bargaining unit, threatened litigation if the Department of Administration did not continue to collect the dues on behalf of the union, according to a press release from the Department of Law.

To ensure employees’ First Amendment rights are honored, Attorney General Kevin Clarkson filed a lawsuit Monday, asking the court to confirm that the Department of Administration, when directed by an individual employee, should stop deducting the dues from that employee’s paychecks.

“The Supreme Court made it clear in Janus that public employees have the freedom to pay union dues or not,” said Clarkson. “Janus also requires that the State have clear and compelling evidence of a state employee’s choice to pay union dues. If the State receives a direct request to stop paying union dues, the State must honor that request or else it would be violating the employee’s First Amendment right.

“Because we want to make sure we are acting in compliance with the Constitution, we are asking the court to confirm the State’s actions in halting dues deductions when directly requested by an employee,” he said.

Under the prior administration, DOA had sent employees back to the unions to make a request to stop union dues deductions, Clarkson said.

Breaking: Budget director Donna Arduin exits

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 16, 2019

36

Breaking: Budget director Donna Arduin exits

Alaska Budget Director Donna Arduin, who has been the point of the spear on budget reforms for Gov. Michael Dunleavy, will move into an advisory role at the end of the month. But as of this morning, she is no longer the budget director for the State of Alaska.

Arduin was brought in to do the heavy lifting to bring spending in line with revenues. She was told to identify $1.6 billion in budget cuts, and to do so within about six weeks of her boots hitting the ground in Alaska.

Arduin is a nationally respected budget hawk who has helped numerous governors during tough budget times, such as Jeb Bush of Florida and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. She was championed by Alaska fiscal conservatives, and reviled by Democrats. Women Democrats were especially vile, criticizing her on social media for her attire (the fact that she wore sleeveless dresses, an animal skin collar etc. She is the sharpest dresser in Juneau.)

She cleaned house at the Office of Management and Budget, getting rid of all the Walker Administration appointees, and she and the staff did the job she was asked to do, and endured a lot of abuse by the Legislature and the Left, particularly those who were ushered out with Walker. At one point, the threats against Arduin became so personal that the door to the Office of Management and Budget in Juneau was locked for safety of the employees.

Arduin, who has national prominence, arguably can be described as having sacrificed more on Dunleavy’s behalf than anyone in his administration. She was the person that the Left could and did attack because she was from “Outside” Alaska; she became the scapegoat for the policies of the Dunleavy Administration.

Her hiring last December was a sign that Dunleavy was serious about budget cuts. Her departure signals that the Dunleavy Administration is tacking to the middle, and that future budgets will not be as Draconian — if there are cuts at all.

But this change in OMB may also signal that Dunleavy has taken all the pressure he can take over cuts, as he faces a serious recall campaign from the Left.

Arduin leaves the Administration two weeks after former Chief of Staff Tuckerman Babcock resigned. He had been moved into the role of senior advisor a couple of weeks before his resignation.

Joe Geldhof, who has been a supporter of the governor’s campaign promise to restore the Permanent Fund dividend, told Must Read Alaska “based on my observations and experience working with individuals tasked with building budgets in Alaska and in the federal government, I can say without reservation Arduin is both skilled and significantly better at assembling budget proposals for consideration by the governor than most Alaska OMB directors since 1979, when I started paying attention.”

“Donna Arduin was given a job consistent with campaign promises and more importantly tasked with recommending budget reductions consistent with revenues received by the State of Alaska. She did a remarkably good job at pulling together a crew on short notice and delivering recommendations on where and how to cut,” Geldhof said. “Was the work perfect? Naturally no, but it was significantly better than the usual run-of-the-mill budget proposals many of us have witnessed for decades in Alaska, which pretty much amount to gimmicks for spending money from savings accounts.”

Diversion, ‘blue ticket,’ and a free ride home to family

Anchorage Daily Planet

Suzanne Downing

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September 15, 2019

6

ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET

Alaska could learn something from Seattle and other large urban megalopolises when it comes to the homeless and “diversion” programs.

Take, for instance, operations in place for decades in cities such as San Francisco and New York and West Palm Beach, in Florida, to help send the homeless back to where they say they came from.

The city of Seattle and community organizations already offer the homeless free bus tickets out of town, but Reagan Dunn, a King County council member, wants to take it further. He wants to set up a $1 million, free-standing government program to provide bus tickets for “family unification.” It would be part of the city’s homeless diversion program, the Associated Press reports.

Dunn, we believe, is onto something. In territorial days, Alaska used to have a “blue ticket” that was offered those who ran afoul of the law and were given the choice of jail or a one-way ticket south. If they took the ticket, they were escorted to Seward to catch a steamship heading south.

Alaska and the city of Anchorage, along with social agencies, Native corporations and other private businesses, should consider an updated version of that program for the homeless, perhaps mirroring Seattle’s, to help those who want to go home.

It would not be the complete answer to Anchorage’s homeless problem – not everybody, after all, wants or is able to go home – but it certainly is a better idea than herding the homeless from one city park to another every 10 days or warehousing them in permanent camps that only promise more problems than solutions.

It would be a step toward helping to solve their problem and the city’s.

[Read the Anchorage Daily Planet at this link]

Services for Mayor Anderson of Soldotna

Almanac

Suzanne Downing

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September 15, 2019

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Memorial services for Dr. Nels Anderson, the late mayor of Soldotna, take place on Monday, Sept. 16, at the following locations:

LDS (Mormon) Church on Marydale Ave. in Soldotna:
Viewing from 2:30-3:45 pm
Service from 4-4:45 pm. Interment to follow at Soldotna Memorial Park.

Soldotna Sports Complex:
A community gathering celebrating the life of Dr. Anderson from 6:30-8 pm.

“He gave so much to his community. Let’s gather as one to celebrate the passing of this great servant,” said Sen. Peter Micciche.

Dr. Anderson was born on Feb. 28, 1946 in Bangor, Northern Ireland. He was the oldest of six children. The family moved to Logan, Utah.

He attended Utah State University, where he met Carla, his wife of 54 years, during their freshman year. They married in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Feb. 15, 1965, and moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to continue their undergraduate studies.

Anderson earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan and earned a medical degree from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1973, completing his residency and specialized in obstetrics and infertility. He was assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base to practice medicine.

Upon discharge from the Air Force, the couple moved to Soldotna, and have called the Peninsula home ever since.

During his 36 years in Soldotna, Dr. Anderson made his mark on his community as a family physician, an in vitro fertilization specialist, public servant, Boy Scout leader, church leader, dog musher, and avid gardener.

As a physician, obstetrics was his favorite part of family medicine, and he was the only in vitro fertilization doctor doing test-tube babies in the state of Alaska. During his career, he delivered more than 5,000 babies, with more than 300 of them test-tube babies.

Bringing those little miracles to those families is the true legacy he leaves behind.

He was the chief of staff at the Central Peninsula General Hospital two separate times, and served as the president of the Alaska chapter of the American Cancer Society. Anderson was awarded as the Alaskan Family Physician of the Year in 1999.

Dr. Anderson took a seat on the Kenai Peninsula School Board and served for 16 years, and was School Board president for many of those years. He was elected to serve on the Soldotna City Council from 2009-2012, and he was instrumental in the creation of the Soldotna Community Memorial Park, Soldotna’s first cemetery.

In 2014, Anderson began his first term as Soldotna City Mayor. He would serve until he left for a mission in West Africa in 2016. Anderson served a second term as Mayor upon his return in 2017, which he held until his death.

Mayor Anderson was an active and devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in many capacities during his life, from teaching Sunday school to serving as a bishop.

Upon his move to Alaska, Dr. Anderson embraced all things Alaska, including taking up the sport of dog mushing after being asked to sponsor a local musher. Like everything else in his life, he didn’t do anything halfway. A mere five months after his first time mushing, he ran and completed his first Iditarod race in 1987. He would go on to run the race two more times in 1991 and 1992.

After his racing days had passed, he continued to support the local mushing community, and was given the honor of being the Race Marshal for the Tustamena 200. Dr. Anderson also owned a commercial setnet fishing site, which his sons worked diligently to pay their way through college.

Dr. Anderson will be remembered for his love for his fellow man, giving service above all and truly exemplifying a statement he was often heard him telling his scouts, “Character is what you do when nobody is watching.” He was the true leader of his family and led by example to his seven children, 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife, Carla; five sons, Hubert (Elaine Jones) of Salt Lake City, Utah, Jeremy (Laura Sozio) of Hermiston, Ore., Matt (Valerie Popper) of Kansas City, Mo., Nate (Allison Bingham) of Anchorage, Alaska, and Deryk (Julia Sullivan) of Palmer, Alaska; two daughters, Carissa of Anchorage and Rebecca (Derek Johnson) of Heber City, Utah; his three brothers, Bryan, Kim and Deryk Anderson; and two sisters, Elizabeth Wooton and Melanie Wadsworth.

New Public Defender: Samantha Cherot

Roland Maw trial looms in October

Why I’m voting ‘no’ on Juneau’s Proposition 3: The JACC Racket

Palins lawyer up

Janus: State heads to court over collecting union dues

Breaking: Budget director Donna Arduin exits

Diversion, ‘blue ticket,’ and a free ride home to family

Services for Mayor Anderson of Soldotna

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