Legislature finds its ‘whipping boy’

I’ll be discussing the confirmation of Board of Fisheries (BOF) members, but first let’s talk Arctic Man! This annual snowmachine event got under way yesterday at Summit Lake — located at Mile 198.5, Richardson Highway — and runs through Sunday. If you’ve been wondering why you’re seeing all those RVs towing snowmachine trailers loaded with snowmachines and fuel headed up the Glenn Highway, now you know!

This is the largest gathering of snowmachines and drivers in the same place at the same time that I know of. If you’re interested in participating or just watching, head up to the event. Enjoy this last hurrah of winter, but do so in a lawful and sober manner, please.

I mentioned last week that three current members of the BOF had been nominated to continue their positions on the board by Governor Parnell. The Legislature met in joint session this past Monday to hold their confirmation vote for all 88 board and commission nominees the governor had appointed who were subject to confirmation by the Legislature.

The three BOF nominees were Tom Kluberton from Talkeetna, Reed Morisky from Fairbanks and Vince Webster from King Salmon. Kluberton was up for a possible second term, Morisky was looking to be confirmed to a first full term and Webster was hoping for a third term on the board. In addition to being the longest seated member of the three, Webster was also a past vice-chair and chairman of the BOF. Kluberton is the current vice-chair.

While new nominees are often given a unanimous favorable confirmation vote simply because they have done nothing anyone can object to yet, nominees returning for a second or third confirmation have a voting record and have usually made a few “enemies” in the process of reaching that point. I know this from my own experience on the board. I never received a second nomination because certain people objected to how I handled one particular issue. It was an election year and pressure was brought on the governor not to re-nominate me, but I digress.

I listened to a couple of the legislative committee hearings with Kluberton and Webster about being reseated on the BOF. Kluberton drew no objections in either hearing. Webster caught some flak, but also received a lot of support from members of the public calling in to testify. I missed the third committee hearing and the actual joint legislative vote because of other commitments.

The vote went this way: Kluberton and Morisky were unanimously confirmed to their next terms by a 59-0 vote. Webster was rejected by a vote of 29 for and 30 opposed to him receiving a third term. The governor will now have to nominate someone else to fill Webster’s seat, which will become vacant when his term expires on June 30.

The group going after Webster claimed he was responsible, as co-chair, for the failure of the Cook Inlet King Salmon Task Force to generate a meaningful plan to allow all user groups fishing opportunity in the Central District this coming season. He was also held responsible for the lowering of the current king salmon escapement goal on the Kenai River to levels some feel are precariously questionable in preserving the healthy status of Kenai king salmon.

I’m not commenting on who is right and who is wrong here. I did not participate in the task force and I was not privy to a lot of the information surrounding this issue. But here are a few facts: Fish and Game established the escapement goals being disputed; the board either rubber stamps the numbers or sets its own escapement goal in conjunction with the department. The board vote to accept the department’s recommended new numbers passed 7-0. As to the failure of the task force, again, I wasn’t there so I don’t have any “insider” views. I’ll just comment that the other co-chair of the task force was Tom Kluberton. As co-chair, doesn’t he also get either the credit or the blame? How come nobody seems to be faulting ADF&G for its part in this?

I think there was more than enough blame to go around. Perhaps a “whipping boy” was needed and Webster fit the bill while the rest of the crew and the department skated by.

While I didn’t agree with Vince on many votes, I think his heart was mostly in the right place. Good luck in your future endeavors, Vince, and hopefully we’ll bump into each other down the road.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.