The Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) may be eliminated and their tasks reassigned to the Department of Fish & Game after lawmakers questioned the three-member panel’s effectiveness.
Representative Charisse Millet said she questions whether the state’s getting a good return on its investment, with commissioner salaries at $200,000 each…
Rep. Millet(R-Anchorage): “This bills’ moving, this is not a joke. I’ve heard within the Division, ‘Don’t worry, this bill’s just going to sit here. It’s not. This is a serious conversation that we’re having with a group of employees that have been tasked with doing something and some commissioners that have, at best, been dragging their heels.”
Julianne Curry with the United Fishermen of Alaska said they’ve also been concerned with the relatively slow progress of the Commission, which only adjudicated 3 cases last year, but they’re not in favor of a State agency taking over…
Curry: “The majority of the members of my organization have expressed to me that they would like to keep CFEC independent; however, as I stated we are unable to take a position until our questions are answered in the legislative audit which is going to be coming out in June.”
She asked the Legislature to hold the bill until they hear the results of that legislative audit, but the bill was passed out of committee unanimously.