SB 69-BOARD OF FISHERIES CONFLICTS OF INTEREST    CHAIR SCOTT OGAN announced SB 69 to be up for consideration. MS. AMY SEITZ, staff to Senator Thomas Wagoner, sponsor, explained that currently, if a member is found to have a conflict with an issue and doesn't get to participate in the discussion or vote, SB 69 changes the procedure to match that of the Legislature. A member would declare what their conflict is and why and still be able to participate and vote. The reason they do this is because the member who has the conflict is also often the member who has the most knowledge and experience on that issue. SENATOR THOMAS WAGONER said the administration fully supports this bill as does Alan Austerman, Fisheries Policy Advisor for the governor. SENATOR RALPH SEEKINS said, "I always believe in the old theory of no conflict no interest, but I'm wondering why we would not extend this same policy to the Board of Game?" MS. SEITZ responded that she asked the Board of Game that question and the members responded that they didn't want it. SENATOR SEEKINS said he was curious about why the statute is there in the first place. CHAIR OGAN attempted an explanation that perhaps most of the issues the Board of Game deals with occur during the sport hunting season and the only people to have a commercial interest would be guides or outfitters. SENATOR SEEKINS supposed in a guide's case, it might take away a significant portion of their ability to make a living. He was trying to figure out why it would be good for one board and not the other. MS. SEITZ added that the Board of Game only conflicts out one person per year. SENATOR SEEKINS countered, "In this case, we won't conflict out anybody on the Board of Fish." CHAIR OGAN asked Ms. Seitz how many times per year a member of the Board of Fish is conflicted out. MS. SEITZ replied that she didn't have a number, but Mr. Dersham might. MR. ED DERSHAM, Chair, Board of Fisheries, replied about 10 times per year. CHAIR OGAN said his concern is that if people are not required to conflict themselves out, they're going to end up being on the short end of the stick. SENATOR SEEKINS said he didn't agree that a person should be conflicted out of a vote because they have an interest in what they are looking at. He had never seen an instance arise where they didn't tell the person to go ahead and vote anyhow. He also was uncomfortable with holding someone else to a higher standard than he is bound to as a member of the Legislature. CHAIR OGAN agreed. He reminded the committee that Senator Lincoln had the biggest Senate district in the state and he wanted to contact her on this issue. He also wanted more time to consider whether or not the Board of Game should be included. MR. ROLAND MAW, Executive Director, United Cook Inlet Drift Association, supported SB 69. He said his bill is needed because many good fishermen with college degrees in resource-related fields are being excluded from participating on the Board of Fisheries process. Also, with all the rationalization and consolidation going on in the industry, it is hard to maintain conflict boundaries. MS. KAREN DUNMALL, KAWERAK, Inc., a non-profit travel consortium in Norton Sound, opposed SB 69. The Board of Fisheries website says it is charged with making allocative decisions based on biological and socioeconomic information provide by ADF&G, public comment and guidance from the Alaska Department of Public Safety and the Department of Law. TAPE 04-25, SIDE B    4:18 p.m. MS. DUNMALL was, secondly, concerned that some proposals before the board could result in severe economic consequences to various groups of people including the board members. In most of those cases, it would be difficult to impossible to represent all users. Her last point was that the interests of subsistence users are underrepresented on the Board of Fisheries as compared to commercial interests. If persons with a conflict of interest were allowed to vote on proposals, the public process would disintegrate and the gap between commercial and subsistence users would widen. MR. DERSHAM said the board has discussed this bill, but is not taking an official position although several members spoke favorably of it. No board member spoke against it. SENATOR ELTON applauded the sponsor for checking with the Board of Game to see if it wanted to be under the umbrella. The only reason he would not make a motion to move the bill is because the sponsor has said he is willing to wait until Senator Lincoln could comment on it. "I hope we can do it expeditiously on Monday, because this is a real issue. It is a real problem.... It is very difficult to get people to serve...." CHAIR OGAN pointed out that a person is still subject to AS 39.52.120 - misuse of official position. He agreed with Senator Elton's comments pointing out that the Senate Resources Committee has four commercial fishermen, a subsistence fisherman and two fillet and release fishermen on it. SENATOR WAGONER said he would meet with Senator Lincoln on Monday and move the bill on Wednesday. Senator Seekins would check with the Board of Game in the meantime. There being no further business to come before the committee, CHAIR OGAN adjourned the meeting at 4:30 p.m.