03/09/1998 03:43 PM Senate RES

                                                                               
        SB 235 - BOARD OF CERTIFIED REAL ESTATE APPRAISERS                     
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to              
order at 3:43 p.m. and announced SB 236 to be up for consideration.            
                                                                               
MR. WALT SHERIDAN supported SB 236 and said he worked as the Alaska            
Lands Act coordinator for the United States Forest Service a number            
of years ago.  One of his duties was serving as chief of staff with            
the Alaska Land Use Council and he also represented the Forest                 
Service before the Citizen's Advisory Commission.  He's worked with            
the Commission since its inception and believes it provides a                  
unique service to the citizens of Alaska which is not fully                    
provided in any other branch of the State government.                          
                                                                               
The reason we still need a watch dog organization like the                     
Commission is because federal agencies have very short memories.               
ANILCA is a complicated piece of legislation and included many                 
provisions that were intended to protect unique aspects of the                 
Alaskan lifestyle, such as traditional use of public lands, access,            
use of motorized equipment, etc.  Most of these uses are either not            
allowed or are highly restricted on public lands in the lower 48.              
It's a continuing battle to maintain these uses as they were                   
intended in the original ANILCA compromise.  The Commission does a             
remarkable job of keeping federal agencies true to those ANILCA                
compromises.  Federal agencies also have a high turnover of                    
personnel and when people come up here, they have little or no                 
knowledge of ANILCA and a strong bias toward public land management            
as they know it in the lower 48.  Without constant vigil, the                  
ANILCA guarantees to Alaska will be severely eroded or lost                    
entirely.                                                                      
                                                                               
MR. STAN LEAPHART said he would answer any questions they might                
have.                                                                          
                                                                               
SENATOR LEMAN said the sunset date is currently 10 years which is              
considerabaly longer than any sunset extension the legislature has             
been giving.  So in the interests of keeping it uniform, he moved              
to extend the Commission to 2003 instead of 2008.  There were no               
objections and it was so ordered.                                              
                                                                               
SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass CSSB 236(RES) from committee with                  
individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note.  There            
were no objections and it was so ordered.                                      
                                                                               
MR. DEL ACKELS, Commissioner, Citizen's Advisory Commission,                   
commented that the problems are getting worse and he supported the             
bill.