State Government

Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor pressed Congress Thursday for new icebreaker ships to operate in the Arctic. The issue became more immediate as Mead Treadwell and others pointed to Nome’s trouble getting fuel this year. APRN’s Libby Casey reports from Washington.

Governor Sean Parnell and First Lady Sandy Parnell will host the annual holiday open house at the Governor’s mansion next Tuesday, December 6th.

The open house is among the most popular holiday events in the Capital City every year, with members of the governor’s cabinet serving hot cider and holiday treats to Juneau residents waiting in line to have their picture taken with the first family.

More than 24,000 cookies and 100 pounds of fudge will be cooked up for this year’s event. Students at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School are making Gingerbread houses that will be on display, and several local school and community groups will perform carols.

The holiday open house has been held every year since the Governor’s mansion was built in 1912, with the exception of two years during World War II. Over the last year, the mansion has undergone about a million dollars’ worth of repairs and weatherization improvements.

This year’s gathering is next Tuesday from 3 to 6 p.m. People with accessibility needs should contact the governor’s office to arrange early entry. The number to call is 465-3500.

Alaska Attorney General John Burns is resigning, effective Jan. 2.

In a letter to Gov. Sean Parnell, dated Nov. 19, Burns says his “resignation is based solely on personal reasons.” He says living out of a suitcase is neither fair to his family nor conducive to his health.

An attorney from Fairbanks, Burns took the job 11 months ago and did not move to the capital city. His youngest daughter is a senior in high school.

In his resignation letter, he says serving as “the managing partner of the state’s largest law firm has been an incredible and unbelievably fulfilling experience.”
He says he will miss working with the men and women in the Department of Law.

Burns says he is staying on until January to assure a smooth transition with his successor.

Parnell announced the resignation Friday. In a news release he called Burns a capable leader and “true public servant.”

Juneau Representative Beth Kerttula has filed a letter of intent to run for re-election in 2012 — though the makeup of House District Three is still unclear.

When the Alaska Public Offices Commission asked where she would run:

“I put down all of the places that I know could potentially be in it. Petersburg, Gustavus, Tenakee, Skagway and Juneau. So wherever I wind up, I’m going to run,” she says.

The Redistricting Board has re-drawn the district to include those communities, but a pending lawsuit could change it. However it turns out, Kerttula says she is looking forward to an expanded district.

“I just think it is exciting to get new issues and new people and to think about in a holistic sense how Southeast itself operates,” she says. “When I think about what this district means it really would kind of be the glue to the whole of Southeast.”

Kerttula says it’s especially important for Southeast Alaska communities to pull together since the region is losing representation in redistricting.

“If we can get all of those communities working together we can be a little more powerful.”

Kerttula, a Democrat, is in her seventh term for House District Three, which currently is downtown Juneau; Douglas; Lemon, Salmon and Switzer Creek areas; and the Juneau airport area. She’s also in her fourth year as minority leader for the state House of Representatives.

A letter of intent is only the first step to running for office. She still has to file with the Alaska Division of Elections. That’s not required until next spring.

Alaska legislators hope to bid on the old Unocal building in Anchorage for legislative office space.

The Legislative Council on Friday voted 10 to 2 to authorize a bid on the building on West Ninth Street, along the Delaney Park Strip. It would replace the West Fourth Avenue building, long deemed cramped and inadequate, with little parking.

The council has been looking at the Unocal building for some time, but postponed a vote in August. Now it appears the legislature is second in line. Owners already have a bid, reportedly from an unnamed Alaska Native corporation. If the two cannot reach agreement by the end of the month, the Legislative Council has authorized negotiations to begin.

Juneau Senator Dennis Egan, a Democrat, is a member of the bipartisan group that represents both houses. He says most of Friday’s discussion was in executive session, as members worked through the issues. He says he reluctantly voted “yes.”

“We’re leasing the current facility in Anchorage – the legislative offices — and it costs us a lot of money every year, and for the state to own something just makes a heck of a lot of sense,” Egan says. “It’s just like the buildings in Juneau.”

The six-floor, 55,000 square foot Unocal building would have enough offices for Anchorage lawmakers and visiting legislators. Egan says he takes comfort in the fact that the utility corridor is straight up the middle of the structure, so it could not be renovated into a legislative hall.

“The utilidors, the elevators, the restrooms, all that stuff, is in the middle of the building,” he says.

The $6.7 million building is 40 years old and in need of renovation. It was previously owned by Chevron Corporation. About 18 months ago the legislature put in a bid, which failed. Now it’s owned by a limited liability corporation headed by Anchorage businesswoman Janice Ellsworth.

Egan says the owners are currently doing abatement of asbestos and other hazardous materials.

Millions of pages of Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation will be organized and permanently archived in the capital city.

The state archives office has received a federal grant to make the documents accessible to the public.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, commonly called the National Archives, has given Alaska $109,000 to catalog the material from the case, which took five years to litigate.

Project director Larry Hibpshman says two full-time archivists will evaluate and appraise the records, dispose of extraneous material, then organize and put it into the state archives electronic catalog. The catalog will be uploaded to a national bibliographic utility so the material is available wherever anyone needs to use it.

Hibpshman says the project will take about two years to complete. He expects the work to be done by September 2013. He’s already begun the evaluation.

“There are lots and lots of witness interviews, some of which are probably depositions. There are exhibits, particularly the ones that support the interviews. There are the daily documents the lawyers filed as they went through to keep track. There’s a great deal of discovery material both from the plaintiffs to the defendant and from the defendant to the plaintiffs,” Hibpshman says.

While most of the material is paper, there are also recordings and some microfilm.

Hibpshman has assembled a seven-member Oversight Task Force to review project activities and advise the archvists on matters he says historians usually don’t deal with, including legal issues, the science and technology of the spill and cleanup, regional concerns, and public information.

The state’s lead oil spill litigation attorney, Craig Tillery, is on the task force as well as Barbara Hendrickson, the state’s lead case paralegal; Jennifer Schorr, Department of Law Environmental Section Assistant Attorney General; and former Environmental Conservation Commissioner Kurt Fredriksson. Other members are Andrew Goldstein, Valdez Museum and Historical Archives; Patience Andersen Faulkner, Eyak Tribal Council; and Carrie Holba, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Council Librarian.

Hibpshman says others closely associated with the spill and litigation will provide advice and information.