Kenai Peninsula residents hoping to sway the Alaska Board of Fisheries on issues ranging from how much fishing time Cook Inlet commercial fishers get to when bait can be used on the Kenai River will have to travel to Anchorage to do so.
By a 4-2 vote, the board earlier this month decided to hold its January 2005 upper Cook Inlet meeting in Anchorage as opposed to Soldotna. The board ‹ which meets to discuss Cook Inlet issues once every three years ‹ cited its policy that all board meetings be held in major cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks as a reason not to meet in Soldotna.
In 1999, the board met in Soldotna to discuss upper Cook Inlet issues. However, Board of Fisheries Executive Director Diana Cote said Thursday that the board decided two years ago to make it a policy not to meet outside major cities because of budget concerns.
Cote said the board held a teleconference earlier this month and decided not to break with that policy. She said board members Rupe Andrews, John Jensen, Robert Hyeano and Dr. Fred Bouse voted to hold the meeting in Anchorage, while Ed Dersham and Art Nelson voted for Soldotna. Mel Morris did not participate in the teleconference.
Cote said the idea of holding the meeting in Soldotna was taken up at the suggestion of Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai.
Cote said the cost of moving the meeting to Soldotna would not be out of range for the state to pay. But when the board voted to stay in Anchorage, she said it was simply voting to keep its policy in place.
"The majority of the board members said we really need to have a compelling reason if we're going to go away from our policy," Cote said.
Sen. Wagoner was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment. However, his chief of staff, Mary Jackson, said Wagoner was disappointed the board did not decide to convene on the peninsula.
"He thought it made sense to bring it here for both the commercial and sport (fishing) interests, but the board decided otherwise," Jackson said.
Opponents of the board's decision have charged in recent weeks that political pressure and scare tactics were used to keep the board from coming.
Dwight Kramer is the chair of the Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee. He said he believes a letter sent by Kenai River Sportfishing Association Executive Director Ricky Gease to the Board of Fish citing security issues played a big role in the decision not to hold the meeting in Soldotna.
"This is just board politics," Kramer said.
He said he thinks Gease's letter was simply a way for the board to justify holding its meetings away from Kenai-Soldotna area sport fishers.
"I think that was a set-up deal," he said.
Kramer said KRSA would rather have the meeting in Anchorage because it wants to have better access to board members. Because KRSA can pay to have Gease and others attend the meeting, Kramer said holding the meeting away from Soldotna only serves to hurt local anglers.
"They can control it so well in Anchorage," Kramer said. "They can pay for so many people to stay in hotel rooms, to take board members out to lunch or dinner, that it's to their advantage to have it there."
Gease was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment. However, on Thursday KRSA Board of Directors chair Ron Rainey denied that his organization believes Soldotna is particularly dangerous. In fact, he said Gease's letter simply pointed out that wherever the meeting is held ‹ Anchorage or Soldotna ‹ security issues should be addressed.
"We didn't say Anchorage would be more safe," Rainey said. "We just said they should look at security."
Rainey said if he had his choice, he'd probably rather have the board meet in Soldotna.
"I'd rather sleep in my own bed," he said.
Board of Fish chair Ed Dersham of Anchor Point said Wednesday that he believes Soldotna is plenty safe. Having the meeting closer to where the action is would only serve to let more people in on the public process, Dersham said.
"One or two board members brought (security) up during our discussion," Dersham said. "I stated I didn't remember any security problems when we had our last meeting in Soldotna."
Rainey said he doesn't think Soldotna is unsafe. However, he did point out the fact that the majority of the sport fishers who utilize the Cook Inlet basin do hail from Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna area.
"The center of the sport fishing population is not in Soldotna," he said.
The board needs to consider the needs of all users ‹ not just central peninsula residents ‹ when making decisions that affect all of Cook Inlet, he said.
"The Cook Inlet cycle doesn't just concern itself with the Kenai River, it's for all drainages in Cook Inlet," he said.
Since most sport fishers don't have the luxury of taking off time from work, he said, it's actually more of a benefit to more Alaskans with a stake in the fisheries to hold the meeting where the majority of the people are.
"With sport fishers, most of them are working people that can't take off during the week," he said. "(Sport fishers) have more easy access to the meetings in metropolitan areas."
Soldotna city officials said Wednesday that their city is perfectly safe and that any concerns about safety were unwarranted. Soldotna Police Chief John Lucking would not comment on the suggestion that the city is unsafe, saying it would be inappropriate to do so.
However, Lucking did say Thursday that he was unaware of any security problems at any previous board meetings. He said two Soldotna police officers were stationed at the meeting, and that one of the officers told him, "it was a very boring two days."
Soldotna Mayor Dave Carey said he was not commenting to the press on the issue, either, although he did tell the city council he believes the claims of danger are without merit. Soldotna Parks and Recreation Director Andrew Carmichael said that any suggestion that the city is an unsafe place for the board to meet was "ludicrous."
Dersham said he believes there is a compelling reason to hold the meeting on the peninsula, and that in areas of the state where there are longstanding conflicts between user groups ‹ commercial, sport and personal-use fishers have a stake in the inlet's fisheries ‹ he thinks it's best to hold the meetings where the board is likely to get the most response, which would be on the peninsula.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "I've made it very plain from the beginning that when the board meets in these controversial meetings ... I thought having it (in Soldotna) was the best thing to do."
Dersham said it's too late to move the meeting to Soldotna. However, he said he's looking into ways to allow local people to have as much participation in the decision-making process as possible. Dersham said some of the things he's looking at include scheduling preboard meeting hearings on the peninsula and conducting teleconferences with local advisory committees.
"I'm working on ways to get as much input from the Kenai-Soldotna area as possible," he said.
Kenai Peninsula Fisherman's Association president Paul Shadura said Thursday that the least the board can do is come to Soldotna for a couple days to take public testimony.
Since the majority of issues set to be discussed likely will have an effect on local commercial and sport fishers, Shadura said the board needs to give locals a chance to have their say.
"(Going to Anchorage is) such an inconvenience and a cost to the public," he said. "Since the cost would be minimal for the board, they should come down here."
