Board of Fish Confirmation Hearings

This weeks regularly scheduled Fisheries Committee meeting for Wednesday has been rescheduled for Thursday - April 18th at 5:00 p.m. We will be holding confirmation hearings on the three appointees to the Board of Fish; Grant Miller, Dan Coffey and Virgil Umphenour. This meeting will be teleconferenced to the Kodiak LIO and is open for public testimony.

Board of Fish Conflict of Interest

HB 542, which I introduced to clean up the conflict of interest problems on the Board of Fisheries has hit a snag on the Senate side. Senate President Drue Pearce has assigned it to four committees. In a discussion that I had with her, she said that the Board of Fish should be a professional board and that HB 542 is not the answer. Those of you who know how the board system works and recognize the problems with the conflict of interest on the board, might want to contact Senator Pierce and see if she will change her mind. If we do not get HB 542 passed this year, the Board will be looking at another year of problems.

CFAB

HB 284, the CFAB bill, is scheduled for another Senate Labor and Commerce meeting the afternoon of Tuesday, April 16th. There is still hope that this bill will still pass this year.

AMSEA

HB 366, the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) bill, passed the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate Finance committee waiting for a hearing. The Federal dollars are drying up this year for this program and HB 366 will provide the funds from the state to continue this program.

Salmon Roe Stripping

The Governor had asked me to introduce a bill that would stop all fishermen from getting a processor's license and stripping salmon roe. This bill would have given the hatcheries a three year window in which they could strip salmon roe and discard the carcasses. I had several problems with this bill and refused to introduce it. It is my understanding that the Governor has decided not to introduce this bill, but has instructed the Commission of Fish and Game to use their regulatory powers to accomplish the same thing. We will give follow-up information later.

ASMI

It still doesn't look good for getting the funding back into the budget on the Senate side for the $844,000 for international marketing of Alaska Seafood. I have talked to all the members of the Senate Finance Committee and feel that I have gotten nowhere. Send a POM from the Kodiak LIO if you would like to see this money restored. Alaska will lose about $9 million in matching monies if this cut goes forward.

Retirement Incentive

House Bill 354 was scheduled to be heard this past Monday on the floor of the House. This is the teacher retirement bill sponsored by Representative Jerry Mackie. This program allows a school district to adopt a retirement incentive plan and designate categories of employees eligible to participate in that plan. This in turn allows districts to reduce their personal services costs by offering an incentive plan to employees at the top end of their pay scale, thus being able to hire a new employee at the beginning scale for their job classification. This is the only so-called RIP bill that will possibly go all the way this session. All other bills of this nature seem to be dead for this Legislature.

School Dress Codes

House Bill 30 has passed out of the Senate Health, Education & Social Services Committee and has been referred to Senate Rules to be scheduled for a Senate Floor vote. This would give school districts the option of requiring students to wear certain clothing or that prohibits a student from wearing specified clothing. A dress code that requires students to wear a uniform may not be implemented unless the governing body does four things. Provides at least six months notice, determines that financial resources are available to assist economically disadvantaged students, includes a provision allowing parents to exclude their children from the dress code and includes a provision that a student may not be academically penalized or otherwise discriminated against if the student is excepted from the uniform requirement. I support the intent of this legislation and voted in favor of this bill before it went to the Senate side.