Page 929 – Must Read Alaska

Many state jobs will continue during the Stutes State Shutdown on July 1

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June 24, 2021

Many state jobs will continue during the Stutes State Shutdown on July 1

The State Division of Personnel released a list on Wednesday afternoon of numerous state functions that will not stop even during a government shutdown created by the dysfunction in the Legislature. Many of the functions to remain active are related to public safety, but other workers, who are paid through various secondary means, will also stay on duty.

As the second special session opened in Wednesday, it appears more likely that Speaker Louise Stutes would not be able to lead her body to an agreement before the July 1 shutdown date.

The House is in disarray over the budget’s effective date clause and the Constitutional Budget Reserve, and Stutes has just six days to repair the situation. This is her first year as Speaker. The Republican House members, who are in the minority, appear resolute in their stance that the Constitutional Budget Reserve should not be used to bludgeon certain districts in order to get certain legislators to vote on a Permanent Fund dividend that is less than one third of the legally set “statutory dividend.”

Many Alaskans will not really notice much difference during a shutdown, at least for a while, if their interactions with government are few and far between. They may see more people at their favorite fishing spot, but unless they interact with state services, things may appear normal.

Unlike the dire predictions of Sen. Natasha Von Imhof a week ago, people will not bleed along the side of the road after an accident because Troopers and medics won’t arrive, and bridges will not collapse on July 1.

Von Imhof warned last week:

“I hope the folks at home fully understand the consequences of today, the action. A no vote means the budget doesn’t pass. Twenty-two thousand people, state workers, will be out of work July 1. That does not include the tens of thousands of teachers and university employees in the state of Alaska. Everyone at a job will not be paid … Hey, you drive over a bridge, I suggest you hold your breath and pray, ’cause it could fall on ya, because no one’s going to be around to fix it. If you want a permit to mine? Nope, not gonna happen. If you’re on food stamps and you call up and ask someone to process your application, no one will answer the phone. If you’re on Medicaid and you need emergency surgery, no one will authorize it because no one will answer the phone. Medicaid will be shut down. You call a state Trooper, I’m sorry, you’ll be sitting by the side of the road bleeding.”

None of that is true. It is legislative theater. The entire clip can be seen here:

This week, Von Imhof blamed the governor for not signing the budget that passed (without an appropriate effective date) by saying, “Gov. Dunleavy not doing everything in his power to keep his own government operational is like having an atheistic Pope.”

But apparently, Dunleavy is doing much to keep government operational. In the list released Wednesday, all emergency functions will continue, and so will justice, corrections, and even the investment managers for the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. Things like the Office of Archaeology will be closed, to be certain.

In the Department of Administration, for example, the Public Defender Agency will remain open, along with Office of Public Advocacy and the satellite service running the Emergency Broadcast System.

There will be reduced staffing for Retirement and Benefits, the Division of Motor Vehicles, which will have workers to support law enforcement and courts, and reduced statewide and department support services necessary to fulfill critical functions, such as IT support, Personnel, HR, Finance.

The only hearings that will be scheduled in the Office of Administrative Hearings will be for child support, Medicaid and public assistance, and substantiation of child abuse and neglect.

Most functions of the Division of Motor Vehicles, and the Alaska Public Offices Commission will be closed.

In the Department of Commerce, only these services are scheduled to go dark: Power Cost Equalization Payments,
Alaska Energy Authority – Project Development, Alternative Energy and Efficiency Alaska Energy Authority Rural Energy Assistance, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Investments, Tourism Marketing, Economic Development, Pass Through Payments (Fisheries Taxes, Payment in Lieu of Taxes, National Forest Receipts), Serve Alaska/AmeriCorps, Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing – new licenses and other functions not related to life, health, safety, Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, excluding enforcement, revocations, and suspensions.

In the Department of Corrections, just a few services are being stopped July 1, including: Recidivism Reduction Grants, Domestic Violence Program, Education Programs, Vocational Education Programs, and Chaplaincy Services.

In the Department of Fish and Game, a small number of services will close: EVOS Trustee Council, Habitat, Advisory Committees, Hunter Education, and Public Shooting Ranges. Most other functions of Fish and Game come from fees, so they pay for themselves outside of the Operating Budget.

As for Health and Social Services, most functions are open including Medicaid (Federal Mandate), General Relief/Temporary Assisted Living. Emergency Programs. Essential Newborn Health Screening, Juvenile Justice, Child Protective Services – foster care; front line case workers (Federal Mandate) Alaska, Psychiatric Institute (federal component through Medicaid), Pioneer Homes (federal component through Medicaid).

Health and Social Services offices that will not operate during the shutdown are: Community Initiative Matching Grants, Human Services Community Matching Grant, Assessment and Planning, Quality Assurance and Audit, Children’s Services Training, Senior Residential Services, Senior Benefits Payment Program, Community Health Grants, Emergency Medical Services Grants Tribal Assistance Programs, Residential Licensing – new licenses, Permanent Fund Dividend Hold Harmless, Early Intervention / Learning Programs.

In the Department of Labor, the offices to remain open include Unemployment Insurance (Federal Mandate), Disability Determination (for Social Security benefits).

Labor Department closures are things like Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC) except existing family housing, Labor Market Information, Vocational Rehabilitation, Wage and Hour Administration, Workers’ Compensation Appeals Commission Workforce Services (Alaska Job Centers)

The Department of Law criminal prosecutions and child protection divisions will be fully operational during a shutdown. Other functions may be reduced partially.

In the Department of Natural Resources, the only offices to be shut down are: Office of History and Archaeology, Agriculture Revolving Loan Program, North Latitude Plant Material Center, EVOS Trustee Council Projects, Public Information Center, Recorder’s Office, Office of Project Management & Permitting Agriculture.

In the Department of Public Safety, just a few areas will be closed during the shutdown: Alaska Wing Civil Air Patrol, Alaska Police Standards Council, Alaska Fire Standards Council.

In the Department of Transportation, safety and commerce functions continue. All international airports remain open, and airport police and firefighters will be on duty. Also functioning will be State of Alaska Part 139 and Rural Airport Operations (Federal Mandate), Alaska Marine Highway System, Emergency/Critical Road Maintenance, Traffic Signal Control Contracts, State Equipment Fleet Operations Support, Police/Fire/Other critical services, and the Whittier Tunnel (Normal Operations, Limited Maintenance Activities)

The list goes on. All divisions impacted by the expected shutdown are listed at this link.

Assembly transparency? Not so much. Congratulating Berkowitz was slipped into the order of business, without notice

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2021

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Assembly transparency? Not so much. Congratulating Berkowitz was slipped into the order of business, without notice

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution thanking former Police Chief Justin Doll. They passed another one thanking former Fire Chief Jodie Hettrick. They thanked Robin Ward, the manager of the Heritage Land Bank. All were retiring with the changing of the guard in Anchorage, as incoming Mayor Dave Bronson takes the reins. All of those resolutions were in the Assembly meeting packet.

But then there was the unnumbered resolution, slipped in at the last minute.

The Anchorage Assembly didn’t put it on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. And neither the members nor the Municipal Clerk included the flowery resolution in the meeting packet available online. It was a secret.

The public sitting in the audience never saw it coming, wasn’t prepared to give public testimony about whether it was appropriate, or even put up more than a rather solitary “boo.” The public cannot even see a copy of this particular resolution because it’s still invisible. You can hear it read aloud by Assemblyman Chris Constant below.

The unannounced, but carefully planned glowing endorsement of former disgraced Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson was read into the record and approved as a resolution.

Berkowitz resigned in October after a scandal involving a former news anchor and some nude selfies. Quinn-Davidson, who was Assembly chair, took over as mayor and served for eight months. During their combined reign, Anchorage slipped into an economic spiral that is still impacting the community today. The Assembly’s Leftist majority, led by then Acting Chair Felix Rivera, blocked election for a new mayor and instead, Anchorage lived under an acting mayor, an acting Assembly chair, and a vacant Assembly seat for eight months.

Read: Journalists cover for Berkowitz again and again

The Assembly, in its recognition of the Berkowitz-Quinn-Davidson era didn’t give each of them their own recognition, but combined the resolution into one laudatory summation of all the good things that Berkowitz and Quinn-Davidson had done for Anchorage, as though they were one administration.

Quinn-Davidson stepped to the podium to accept. For the first time in over 10 months, the plexiglas sneeze barrier that the Assembly had put in front of the podium was gone, and Quinn Davidson was there to receive the thanks of her colleagues on the Assembly, where she will return to her unfilled seat.

Assemblyman Constant had to remind the audience that it was inappropriate to boo as he read the long list of accomplishments ascribed to the two mayors. At the end of the presentation, there was polite applause from mainly the staff in attendance.

AIDEA approves $1.5 million for seismic at its leases in ANWR

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2021

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AIDEA approves $1.5 million for seismic at its leases in ANWR

Although drilling and exploring in the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge still seems like a far-off prospect, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which owns many of the leases that were sold by the federal government last year, is going ahead with seismic studies, with the thought that someday it may be able to sell those leases.

There were some members of the public who were less than pleased. Rick Steiner, a consultant with Oasis Earth Environmental Sustainability and long a foe of oil, said the leases are not valid because AIDEA isn’t the kind of agency mentioned as appropriate to bid on the leases. He said only publicly traded agencies and municipalities were mentioned in the ANWR legislation, not a public-private corporation like AIDEA. He was wrong, of course, many types of corporations or agencies that have public oversight may participate.

But Rick Whitbeck, of Power the Future, gave an epic statement during his public testimony, saying that oil and gas will be with us for a long time.

“To my eco-extremist friends on the line, let me be clear,” Whitbeck said. “AIDEA’s leases are binding, regardless of how you feel. Feelings don’t override facts. Feelings shouldn’t change good policy, nor should feelings affect what AIDEA’s board does today.”

He then asked the board to pass the resolution, numbered G21-18, and “continue to fight for Alaska’s jobs and energy future, and continue to make prudent decisions in the best interests of our state. “

Before he was done, he reminded the Left that he knew they were listening on the line:

“And to my friends who are members of the radical environmental movement in this state, oil and gas isn’t going away anytime soon. And when you receive your next Permanent Fund Dividend, make sure to thank an energy worker. They’re bound to tell you, You’re Fracking Welcome!! Have a great day, everyone.”

The resolution passed unanimously. AIDEA will spend $1.5 million on seismic studies.

Read: How the Left exploits the Gwich’in and the hypocrisy of it all

Anchorage Assembly awards $1.15 million of Covid-19 federal relief funds to Alaska Black Caucus to do vaccine outreach

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2021

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It’s been a good month for the Alaska Black Caucus. The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday awarded the newly restarted group a $1.154 million no-bid award to do outreach to the community regarding the Covid-19 vaccine availability.

That’s on top of an earlier award of $437,500 in federal relief fund to help the group purchase a building for its nonprofit activities. Together, that’s nearly $1.6 million to the fledgling organization.

The Alaska Black Caucus is arguably a surrogate for the Alaska Democratic Party. Its President Celeste Hodge Growden signed the recall petition against Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and has been a political activist for a long time, working on various campaigns for Democrats and as a legislative aide to Bettye Davis. She was an aide to Sen. Mark Begich and worked in his office when he was mayor of Anchorage as his Equal Opportunity Office director.

It’s also a group that is now a big beneficiary of Covid-19 relief funds that could have gone to help struggling businesses pay their property taxes.

The $1.1 million appropriation has no deliverables except to reach out to the community to spread the word about how to get a Covid-19 vaccination. This, at a time when everyone who wants a vaccination has gotten one. About 42 percent of Alaskans have been vaccinated, and nearly 70 percent of Anchorage residents over the age of 65 have been vaccinated. Black Alaskans lag in getting the vaccine, however, but the data is not especially good in this department.

The grant agreement with ABC will support “community outreach and education, data collection and analysis, vaccination clinics, and other services related to COVID-19 vaccine, testing, and mitigation efforts. The purpose of the program is to: Improve efforts and increase access to COVID-19 testing in the community; Build capacity to increase access to COVID-19 vaccine in the community; Implement strategies that decrease health inequities, as well as other COVID-19 related recovery and prevention strategies.” Most certainly it is also to do political work.

Read: Anchorage Assembly buys building for Alaska Black Caucus

The award fulfills the wishes of Assemblyman Felix Rivera who last year stated that the CARES Act funds had to be used to address racial inequality or they would not receive his vote.

Although there appear to be no deliverables in the grant, the group has put together a website with information about vaccines. The website states that the ABC strongly recommends people get the vaccine.

Read: Assemblyman Rivera says CARES Act funds must address racial inequality

Read: During meeting, Rivera slams down gavel on Assemblywoman Allard comments

Other groups receiving funds included the Alaska Literacy Program, for similar vaguely defined services.

For the $238,937 sole source grant, the ALP will “support work within English Language Learners communities and one-on-one with individuals to increase trust of the COVID-19 vaccine, assist with access to the vaccination, and provide access to accurate COVID-19 health information. The grant agreement amount is for $238,937 for the period of July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.”

The Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center also received a grant, for $2,447,984. The agreement with the Municipality is that the group will do staff training, facility renovation, equipment, technology upgrades, and client engagement “to improve COVID-19 vaccine, testing, and mitigation efforts.” The grant extends from March 15 through June 30, 2022.

Another group receiving a sole source grant is the Conquer COVID Coalition, for a total of $1,260,000 for services related to COVID-19 testing and vaccination access for the Municipality of Anchorage Health Department. This grant is to pay for public relations campaigns to increase testing and vaccination.

The Conquer COVID Coalition is made up of a number of businesses and nonprofits based in Anchorage, everything from the Downtown Partnership to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, and GCI to the Lucky Wishbone restaurant.

United Way of Anchorage also received a grant for $3,682,417 for services related to testing and vaccination access.

How the Left exploits tribal hypocrisy on oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Columns

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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June 23, 2021

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How the Left exploits tribal hypocrisy on oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

By TRISTAN JUSTICE / THE FEDERALIST

President Joe Biden continued to follow through on his campaign pledge to enact leftist environmentalism this month when he suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The decision was cheered by leftist environmental groups as a victory for wildlife and social justice, supposedly protecting indigenous tribes from the alleged devastation of oil and gas drilling hundreds of miles from their homes. Biden Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy celebrated the move as “an important step forward fulfilling President Biden’s promise to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

The Trump administration had opened the door to drill on the Refuges’ coastal plain, a nearly 1.6 million-acre stretch on Alaska’s north coast. The 1.6 million-acre patch along the north slope is less than 10 percent of the total refuge that stretches 19.6 million acres across northeast Alaska, a total about the size of South Carolina.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that below the surface of the North Slope’s 1.6 million acres temporarily opened for leasing, known as the 1002 Area, lie between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. If opened for operations, it could become the most productive oil field in the country at a time gas prices are soaring to seven-year highs under the new administration.

Yet on June 1, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed an order to bring leases to a halt, claiming “inadequate study” of the drilling’s impact by the prior administration. “The Secretary shall review the program and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, conduct a new, comprehensive analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the oil and gas program,” the order reads.

The Gwich’in Tribe, who live south of the massive wildlife refuge, claimed Biden’s decision to reverse course was a win for their “tribal sovereignty” by protecting the primary caribou herd in the region, a key regional food source.

“The Gwich’in Nation is grateful and heartened by the news that the Biden administration has acted again on its commitment to protecting sacred lands and the Gwich’in way of life,” said Gwich’in Steering Committee Executive Director Bernadette Demientieff on the heels of Haaland’s order. “After fighting so hard to protect these lands and the Porcupine caribou herd, trusting the guidance of our ancestors and elders, and the allyship of people around the world, we can now look for further action by the administration and to Congress to repeal the leasing program.”

The Gwich’in have played a prominent role in keeping ANWR free of development, partnering with leftist groups to keep these millions of acres of U.S. land unused indefinitely. Writing in The Hill, Finis Dunaway, a history professor at Trent University and author of “Defending the Arctic Refuge,” summed up the Gwich’in’s more than four-decade crusade to ensure the absence of development on one of the nation’s last known major reserves of oil and natural gas.

The Gwich’in Steering Committee — founded by Gwich’in from Alaska and Canada in 1988 — reframed public perceptions of the refuge, helping grassroots audiences to see the Arctic coastal plain as vital to Indigenous food security and cultural survival. Their leadership and advocacy widened support for protection of the refuge, encouraging religious and faith organizations, humans rights groups and many others to fight for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. These unlikely alliances fostered grassroots involvement that proved critical to the numerous close calls and impossibly narrow victories that followed.

In other words, the Gwich’in have been fundamental to preventing of any sort of development on the nearly 20 million acres of pristine wilderness in the name of “environmental justice” since 1988.

Yet only four years earlier, that the same tribe, which in fact lives outside the refuge, tried to lease their own lands within the habitat of the Porcupine caribou for oil exploration.

Read the rest of this column at The Federalist.

Anchorage Assembly expands zones for homeless shelters to midtown, will force licensing for shelter operators

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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June 23, 2021

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Anchorage Assembly expands zones for homeless shelters to midtown, will force licensing for shelter operators

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday passed ordinances opposed by residents across the city and also objected to by operators of homeless shelters and facilities.

The first ordinance expands the zoning for homeless shelters into areas called B-3 business districts. Most of the B-3 areas are in Midtown Anchorage. Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel of Midtown was the sponsor of the ordinance that will bring more crime and social problems to Midtown neighborhoods.

Zaletel is the subject of a recall effort that is now underway.

The B-3 district in Anchorage “is intended for primarily for general commercial uses in commercial centers and area exposed to heavy traffic. These commercial uses are intended to be located on arterials, or within commercial centers of town, and to be provided with adequate public services and facilities,” according to the Municipality, but the zone butts up against residential neighborhoods. The purpose of the ordinance is to spread out the homeless problem to reduce its impacts on the downtown district and make other neighborhoods share the burden.

The second ordinance is going to require homeless shelters to be licensed by the municipality by 2023. This ordinance was objected to by faith-based organizations who say that the Assembly, run by a leftist majority, is trying to force women’s shelters to admit transgendered individuals.

Read: Targeting faith-based organizations, Assembly seeks to license shelters

Only Chugiak/Eagle River Assemblywomen Jamie Allard and Crystal Kennedy voted against the ordinances, which passed 8-2.

Kevin McCabe: What went wrong? The ineffective budget and PFD trick bumps up against the Alaska Constitution

Columns

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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June 23, 2021

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Kevin McCabe: What went wrong? The ineffective budget and PFD trick bumps up against the Alaska Constitution

By REP. KEVIN MCCABE

It’s time Alaska’s government was honest with its people. It’s time we started following our laws.

Symbolic of our problem is the “do as I say, not as I do” mentality ingrained in Juneau and found in the recent essay from an Anchorage senator from the one of Alaska’s wealthiest districts.

The operating budget, which keeps Alaska’s government open for business, failed to pass the Legislature with enough support to make it effective in time for the new fiscal year. It is, in fact, a defective budget. The Alaska Constitution (Article 2, sec. 18) is very clear on this point: Unless a supermajority in both the House and Senate agree on a different date, all bills go into effect 90 days after enactment.

This operating budget failed to garner the two-thirds votes necessary to shorten that effective date. There is no legal or constitutional workaround, as has been done with prorated per diem, lowering the annual Permanent Fund dividend amount, or blowing through a 90-day voter-imposed session time limit. The Constitution has these rules for a reason. The government will not have funds on July 1 unless legislators negotiate in good faith to reach a real compromise.

A beginning of the solution would be asking critics like the good senator, and others who share her perspective, to spend a little less time accusing Alaskans of “greed and entitlement,” and asking those of us who voted “nay” what our motivations were.

I’m willing to sit down and talk to any one of my colleagues, despite what our critics are attempting to portray. My vote belongs to the constituents of my district.

I represent one of the most conservative House districts in the state. My neighbors overwhelmingly support following the Permanent Fund dividend law. In fact, they strongly believe they are rightfully owed the PFD money first taken during Gov. Bill Walker’s tenure and then by the Legislature during ensuring years. Further, they believe the PFD should be paid first, not last. This budget did not reflect any of my district’s values.

In fact, this bully budget was fundamentally coercive and directly used Mat-Su Borough children and elderly as political pawns. Members of the respective majorities employed budgetary parlor games such as pitting the amount of the PFD against capital projects such as the Houston Middle School (condemned from the 2018 earthquake), the Palmer Veteran’s Home, highways, infrastructure, and resource development against the fastest growing and second most populous area of the state. These tactics are non-starters and embarrassingly transparent.

Not held hostage in the budget were a swimming pool and a road to nowhere in Sitka benefitting the co-chair of Senate Finance (who is a member of the budget Conference Committee), and road construction in Fairbanks. These and other items were not used to leverage votes of other legislators; yet those legislators have no problem lecturing the House Minority members about the need to vote for this budget and “do the right thing.” Real compromise is a two-way street.

Worse yet, making these changes to the budget, in the 11th hour, behind closed doors, and with no consideration to me or my House Republican colleagues, fails to build the trust we need in order to work for every Alaskan. Our hand was forced. We were obligated to demand a budget that more accurately reflects the values and needs of all Alaskans.

I have never minced words. I would not support this budget, including the effective date, without compromises that reflect the needs and priorities of all regions.

To suggest anything else is an attempt to gaslight the public; to keep them from recognizing the fundamental failure of House and Senate leadership to pass a legal and timely budget.

The effective date clause, the CBR vote and reverse sweep are the only levers available to the minority caucus members of the House to use that ensure the voices of the nearly 325,000 Alaskans they represent are heard. Last Tuesday’s vote in the State House is a glaring failure to recognize that necessity.

There is still time to come together for and fix this, but the minority must have the concerns of its constituents heard. Less vitriol, fewer accusations of citizens being greedy by asking that existing statute be followed, and less budgetary skullduggery, will solve this impasse before July 1. The House Republican Caucus is still at the table, and we are ready to work. The question is, are those in critical positions ready to come to the table and find real compromises instead of expecting capitulation?

Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Wasilla, represents District 8 in the Alaska State House.

Controversial Park Service supervisor promoted to Mount Rainier park post

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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June 22, 2021

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Controversial Park Service supervisor promoted to Mount Rainier park post

The National Park Service has promoted Greg Dudgeon to become the next superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park.

Dudgeon is the acting deputy regional director in Alaska, where he oversees the management of 15 national parks, preserves, monuments, and national historical parks.

His history in Alaska includes a controversial assault by his direct report Park Service employees against Fairbanks moose hunter Jim Wilde, and the interference with the legal activities of moose hunter John Sturgeon, who took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he won 9-0 against the Park Service.

Dudgeon was the supervisor of the rookie rangers who were in the Yukon-Charley Preserve for the summer, having been relocated from out of state. Both the Wilde case and the Sturgeon case rubbed Alaskans the wrong way, due to the heavy-handed use of federal force to stop Alaskans from being able to legally hunt.

“As a 30-year National Park Service veteran, Greg has extensive experience caring for historic and cultural resources in parks and managing them in balance with natural resource conservation and public use,” said Acting NPS Regional Director Cindy Orlando in a news release. “Greg’s ability to work collaboratively with partners and communities to protect park resources make him a great fit for this position.”

That’s not how his critics describe him, however.

Dudgeon started his career with the National Park Service as a volunteer in 1983, when he was assigned to assist a whale biologist at Glacier Bay National Park. He worked his way up the ladder as a seasonal biological technician, an interpretive ranger and a commissioned ranger. Dudgeon was the chief ranger for the Bering Land National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park and Noatak National Preserve.

He was the superintendent of Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments from 2001 to 2003 and later returned to Alaska as the superintendent of Sitka National Historical Park, according to the Park Service release.

He became the superintendent of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in 2007, where he served until he took on his current role of acting deputy regional director.

It was during this time that the two most controversial cases took place. In the Wilde case, park rangers threw the then-70-year-old Wilde, a World War II veteran, into the mud and held his wife at gunpoint. As written by writer Craig Medred, who covered the trial for the Alaska Dispatch:

“The National Park Service ended up on trial here Wednesday in what was supposed to be a case against a 70-year-old resident of Central, Alaska, who led a short, but action-packed, high-speed riverboat chase along the Yukon River in September.

“From the day that encounter in the remote wilds of Alaska first erupted into a national incident — the state and the federal government are still in court arguing over who has authority for a river through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve long used for both Alaska and Canadian commerce — Jim Wilde, the man accused by the Park Service of fleeing and endangering rangers, has protested that all he ever wanted to do was take his boat to the safety of a riverbank before meeting with the government men who wanted to do a “safety inspection.”

“Before doing this, however, two rangers have testified Wilde said, ‘You fucking cocksuckers. I’m not stopping.’ He gunned his boat and headed upriver,” Medred wrote.

As for Wilde, he said since his boat was loaded heavily he would have been at risk for tipping if he had followed the park rangers’ instructions to halt and cut his motors in a fast-moving part of the river. Bill Satterberg was the attorney who represented Wilde.

In the trial, it became known that one of the rangers had on a previous occasion handcuffed an Alaskan for not giving his name to a federal official, and that the Park Service had overstepped by actually going into Canada several miles to detain the man in the handcuffing incident.

In the Sturgeon case, the Park Service, again under Dudgeon, ordered the moose hunter to stop his hovercraft boat, which he had used on the Nations River in the Yukon-Charley National Preserve. That case ended up at the Supreme Court, which agreed that the State of Alaska has jurisdiction over navigable waters.

Read: Sturgeon wins 9-0 at Supreme Court

Hunters and sportsmen in Fairbanks who were reached by Must Read Alaska said they were glad to see Dudgeon go, that his history of federal overreach in Alaska was less than appreciated by them. They said they felt they were treated as second-class citizens by Dudgeon, who showed little regard for the Alaska way of life, and they wish the communities around Mount Rainier well as he takes over the large national park near Seattle.

Speaker Stutes upset that governor asked for legal opinion on constitutional provision on budget’s effective date

Suzanne Downing

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June 22, 2021

29

Speaker Stutes upset that governor asked for legal opinion on constitutional provision on budget’s effective date

BUDGET HAS NOT EVEN BEEN TRANSMITTED TO THE GOVERNOR, BUT SPEAKER IS COMPLAINING

House Speaker Louise Stutes is upset that Gov. Mike Dunleavy has asked the Alaska Superior Court to weigh in on whether he can ignore the state Operating Budget’s effective date.

In a press statement on Tuesday, Stutes said the governor was unnecessarily risking a government shutdown. “Speaker calls on Governor Dunleavy to stop pushing Alaska closer to a shutdown,” is the headline on Stutes’ statement.

Dunleavy’s Attorney General on Monday asked the Superior Court to settle the question about whether Dunleavy can simply ignore the effective date clause in the budget and simply start spending money. Attorney General Treg Taylor said it’s his job to defend the constitution, and this appears to be a constitutional dispute between branches of government. After Dunleavy sought advice from Chief Justice Bolger, and was denied, AG Taylor filed a complaint with Superior Court to get the ball rolling.

The situation surrounds a constitutional technicality that says the budget goes into effect 90 days after it is signed, unless the Legislature passes a revised “effective date clause,” which would be needed in order to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The House did not pass that clause, because House Republicans were dissatisfied that the Permanent Fund dividend had once again been treated as a “what’s leftover, and as little as we can get away with” appropriation, rather than what Alaskans know they are entitled to through statute, which is about $3,500 this year.

Stutes’ statement is also an indication that the House Democrat leadership misjudged the situation, because now that the matter is before the courts, the Democrats’ plan to blame the governor for a shutdown becomes more problematic. The House had put forward a Permanent Fund dividend of zero, and then bargained it up to $1,100 through conference committee with the Senate.

Also problematic is the fact that the Legislature has not yet even transmitted the budget to the governor, yet the House Speaker is blaming the governor for risking a shutdown.

Legislative Affairs Agency has advised the Legislature that the government can continue operating on July 1, but the Governor’s Office is taking a more originalist approach to the Alaska Constitution, referring to what the framers intended when they put in the 90-day clause, rather than recent legal writings that propose looser interpretations.

The governor called the Legislature back into a second special session that starts on Wednesday, when the Legislature can remedy the situation by taking the existing budget, which is largely agreed to by both sides, and putting it inside a bill that has not yet passed — the forward funding for education bill, for example (HB 169), that is in House Finance. If the House majority treats the minority with consideration and includes a Permanent Fund dividend that most Republicans can stomach voting for, the House could transmit that bill to the Senate this week and they could all go home.

Alternately, Dunleavy has said he will present the Legislature with a new budget when they gather. His will likely include what’s known as the “50-50 PFD,” which is the amount that would be calculated under SJR 6, his bill to put the entire PFD calculation into the Alaska Constitution through a vote of the people — up or down.

“The fact that the governor is reaching out to the chief justice of the Supreme Court on a pending legal matter is inappropriate and troubling. Alaska just got through one of the toughest years in our history, and the governor should stop using our limited time and money on a lawsuit that will drive us one step closer to a state-imposed shutdown,” Stutes said.

On social media, however, the constituents of far-left members of her majority are not amused. Heavy criticism is being lobbed at Rep. Zack Fields and others for wasting 153 days so far this year and not producing a budget.

The public, which has been shut from the Alaska Capitol for well over a year, is using Facebook to tell lawmakers what is on their minds, and the Democrats are being wrecked by their constituents.

“Perhaps he’s [Dunleavy] pushing for the full PFD disbursement for Alaska’s citizens,” wrote one citizen to Fields about the Dunleavy PFD plan. “Perhaps less of the CBR should go to run state government (as designed – it’s not a bailout for fiscal irresponsibility!) 40% has NOT been cut in the last 6 years = shell game. Be honest and maybe people wouldn’t be so touchy about the subject.”

“It is reprehensible that you are trying to steal the pfd from every man, woman and child including disabled, homeless, senior citizen, victims of abuse and people with terminal illness, all to pay for your ‘programs’ that fail to help the people. There’s words for that and ‘politician’ is no excuse,” wrote another to Fields.

“Grow Up Rep. Fields, get your job done. Quit laying it off on others,” commented another, in a series of remarks that reflected the sentiment against Fields, in his attempt to shift blame to the governor.

Fields has had a tough public relations year, after having been part of a beer-and-leg-wrestling party after hours in the Capitol complex, and has been criticized for his cozy relationships with Republican turncoat Rep. Kelly Merrick and Rep. Sara Rasmussen. His past behavior puts him on shaky ground for criticizing the governor, when his own caucus has not been able to produce a legal budget.

Read Beer, pong, leg-wrestling, and the workings of government on the ‘floor’

Many state jobs will continue during the Stutes State Shutdown on July 1

Assembly transparency? Not so much. Congratulating Berkowitz was slipped into the order of business, without notice

AIDEA approves $1.5 million for seismic at its leases in ANWR

Anchorage Assembly awards $1.15 million of Covid-19 federal relief funds to Alaska Black Caucus to do vaccine outreach

How the Left exploits tribal hypocrisy on oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Anchorage Assembly expands zones for homeless shelters to midtown, will force licensing for shelter operators

Kevin McCabe: What went wrong? The ineffective budget and PFD trick bumps up against the Alaska Constitution

Controversial Park Service supervisor promoted to Mount Rainier park post

Speaker Stutes upset that governor asked for legal opinion on constitutional provision on budget’s effective date

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