Alaska Natives Motion for Summary J

Federal Consolidated Opposition Brief

Alaska Natives Reply

DCT Order Vacating Polar Bear Rule

From the opinion:

Plaintiffs contend that the Service proceeded with an unprecedented critical habitat designation despite the Service’s finding that such designation “will not result in any present or anticipated future conservation benefit to the polar bear species ” and is not “ ‘essential’ to the conservation of the species.” Plaintiffs further opine that: (1) such designation will “have significant adverse ramifications for the people who live and work on the North Slope, for Alaska’s oil and gas industry, and for the State of Alaska”; (2) the designation will “leave the species worse off because it is impairing the cooperative relationship that the … [Service] has sought to build with the Alaska Natives”; (3) the Service’s failure to exclude “native-owned lands and rural communities” will “disproportionately harm Alaska Natives and other North Slope Borough residents”; (4) the Service failed “to engage in meaningful consultation with [the State of Alaska and with] Alaska Natives early in the rulemaking process”; (5) the Service’s inclusion of “a one-mile no disturbance zone as part of the barrier island habitat unit of the designation … exceeds its authority under the ESA”; (6) “[t]he Service failed to adequately consider and include in the calculation of the total economic impacts of the designation the substantial indirect incremental economic impacts”; (7) “[t]he Service failed to provide Alaska with an adequate written justification as required by the ESA … for promulgating a … designation that conflicts with the comments submitted to the” Service; (8) the Service failed to address the area exclusion requests by Alaska “and failed to adequately consider whether the benefits of excluding those areas were outweighed by the benefits of including them”; (9) “[t]he Service improperly included areas that it concedes were not occupied by polar bears at the time of the designation”; and (10) “[t]he Service improperly included areas as critical habitat without determining that those areas contained the physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the polar bear.” Plaintiffs seek the invalidation of the Final Rule and request that the Court vacate and remand the Rule.

An excerpt:

Federal dollars obligated to tribal 8(a) firms grew from $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2005 to $5.5 billion in 2010, a greater percentage increase than non-tribal 8(a) obligations (160 percent versus 45 percent). Obligations to 8(a) firms owned by Alaska Native Corporations (ANC) represented the majority of tribal obligationsevery year during the period, rising to $4.7 billion in 2010. While tribal 8(a) firms comprised 6.2 percent of total 8(a) firms, their obligations accounted for almost a third of total 8(a) obligations in fiscal year 2010. Over the 6 years, the percentage of competitively awarded obligations to tribal 8(a) firms rose; however, solesource contracts remained the primary source of growth, representing at least 75 percent of all tribal 8(a) obligations in a given year.

I’ve written another piece like this. It was after the last election. I said it the three elections before that. In the words of baseball great Yogi Berra, it’s Déjà vu all over again! I’m writing and talking about the same thing, in what has become an even-year ritual: Alaska doesn’t count votes properly and hasn’t for years.  Alaska still uses the Diebold Accuvote Optical Scanners. The same Diebold machines California “decertified” because of the “Deck Zero” anomaly after the company admitted the software error plagues all versions of their paper ballot op-scan systems, deleting the first batch of scanned ballots under certain circumstances without alerting elections officials to the deletion.

I’m not a Joe Miller fan. My “horse” is out of the US Senate race in Alaska. It’s not about any candidate. But has everything to do with my candidate, Scott McAdams’ slogan: “It’s about Alaska!” Specifically, it’s about the bedrock of election integrity. If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament. It’s poisoned.

Here’s some history:

The Democratic Party obtained the 2004 Diebold Global Election Management System (GEMS) database by suing the Division of Elections in State Superior Court. That suit was made necessary because the Division of Elections insisted that the database was not public record. The Division of Elections refused for more than nine months to release the GEMS database, but did so a few days before a hearing was scheduled to begin in Superior Court.

According to the Division of Elections’ Diebold-produced vote reports for 2004, as posted on the Division’s official web site, a far larger number of votes were cast than the official totals reported in the statewide summary. In the case of President George W. Bush’s votes, the district-by-district totals add up to 292,267, but his official total was only 190,889-a difference of 101,378 votes. In that year’s U.S. Senate race, Lisa Murkowski received 226,992 votes in the district-by-district totals, but her official total was only 149,446-a difference of 77,546 votes.

The Division’s own posted data for 2004 shows that in 20 of the 40 State House Districts, more ballots were cast than registered voters. In 16 election districts, the voter turnout was over 200%.

A review of the audit logs of the GEMS database for the 2004 election shows that modifications were made on July 12th and 13^th of 2006. The Division claims it kept no backup copies of that database after the 2004 election was certified.  It was impossible to know who had made the modifications because the entire department HAD THE SAME USER NAME: ADMIN, AND THE SAME PASSWORD: PASSWORD.

The law says that public records must be produced “as soon as practicable, but not later than the 10th working day” following receipt of the request. Democrats requested the database on Oct. 30, 2006, and, through its counsel David Shoup, again on Nov. 3. In a response dated Nov. 27, Division of Elections Director Whitney Brewster told Shoup she would not respond to the Democrats’ records request until Dec. 6, two days after the new Governor would be sworn into office on Dec. 4.

Again, in 2006, the Democratic Party of Alaska had to sue the DOE to secure evidence.”Loren Leman’s reluctance to release this critical public information highlights the need for a Lieutenant Governor who will ensure the transparency of elections. We need someone in charge who doesn’t agree withthe way Lt. Gov. Loren Leman has handled all this. Sarah Palin’s running mate, Sean Parnell, says he’d handle it the same way as Loren Leman,” Metcalfe said. Parnell said Oct. 12 at a public forum at the University of Alaska, Anchorage that he would handle the Democrats’ request for information the same way Leman has – by offering to let them count the paper ballots. Parnell told the Anchorage Daily News in August of 2006 that the Democrats’ lawsuit to get the 2004 electronic election data “smacks of political posturing more than a real desire to see a fair result.” [Anchorage Daily News, August 17, 2006]

In 2006, I watched a tied state house race publicly decided with the flip of a coin onto a beaver pelt. I trusted the outcome of the coin flip far more than the closely-guarded “secrets” of the GEMS database and the culture of secrecy (or, so-called “security by obscurity”) surrounding one of our most precious and fundamental rights-the right to vote.

Sean Parnell is now the Governor.  His concern with election integrity and the ability of citizens to oversee their own elections – otherwise known as self-governance – is completely flaccid.

In 2007, the University of Alaska began an audit of the Alaska election process. They followed in the footsteps of similar recommendations from universities in Florida and California. A “fix it” list was created that included replacing the software. To date, there has been no report on the suggested fixes.

Move along, nothing to see.

Fast forward to 2010.

Despite heavy national media coverage and historic Citizens United money spent on Alaska’s hotly contested and much-watched three-way US Senate race, the results, if we are to believe them, were a surprisingly low voter turnout. In fact, this election was one of the lowest turnouts since they started tracking ballots cast versus registered voters in the mid-1970s.

It’s strange that Anchorage appearances by both Rachel Maddow and Glenn Beck covering the high profile race had such a chilling effect on voters.  It’s curious that the forgotten gubernatorial race, reportedly, had several hundred more votes recorded than the attention-grabbing U.S. Senate race. Furthermore, as returns from around the state poured in on election night, the percentages between candidates in statewide races never changed throughout the evening-despite Juneau, for instance, being ideologically opposite of Wasilla.

Election chain of custody is the unbroken trail of overseeable accountability that ensures the physical security of our ballots during an election.  Goldbelt Security Services was contracted by the Alaska Division of Elections to provide the security and transportation of the ballots to Juneau.  Goldbelt is an Alaska Native Corporation with SBA 8(a) status-meaning they are eligible for sole-source, no-bid government contracts.  The 8(a) program was relentlessly attacked by Joe Miller.  The Alaska Native 8(a)’s unanimously backed Lisa and provided tremendous financial support in the bargain. As they transported the record of the state’s future, Goldbelt Security had a tremendous stake in the outcome of the election. Imagine if the Alaska Division of Elections contracted Drop Zone Security to transport and guard the election ballots. How would the Murkowski camp react?

I’m not buying it.  We are a small enough state that we should have hand counts. Based upon Alaska’s documented and nefarious election history, we should, at the very least, be able to perform a basic audit of any precinct. We, the people, should be able to reconcile reported election results by reviewing the summary reports, signed by poll workers detailing total ballots received, total ballots cast, total ballots spoiled, leftover ballots and compare all of that to the poll tape and signed voter registries.

Apparently, Joe Miller’s campaign is on the same page:

Anchorage, Alaska. November 16, 2010 – The Joe Miller campaign is pleased the Division of Elections will allow access to several precinct registers for review; however, the Division has not responded to the campaign’s request to review the voting tapes generated by the voting machines at the polling places. These tapes tally the total number of votes cast.

The Joe Miller campaign filed suit last Friday in state court in Juneau in order to compel the State to fulfill its legal obligations under the Public Records Act and allow inspection of the election registers from certain precincts that voters signed before casting their ballots. The Division of Elections had been unresponsive to the Miller request. The lawsuit simply asked that representatives from the campaign be given access to inspect the election registers.

Given the contested nature of the election, time is of the essence to ensure the vote count is trustworthy and that each valid vote is counted, and that there be no opportunity for fraud to taint the election results. Irregularities at polling places have been noted both Election Day and during the ballot review process including sworn affidavits testifying to unsecured ballot boxes and ballot envelopes arriving in Juneau presorted by the Senate race: these ballots are not to be handled in this fashion prior to the write-in review.

Miller Campaign chief counsel Tom Van Flein noted, “The campaign determined that inspection of precinct registers was an appropriate audit to spot check the process. The registers will provide data on the number of people who signed in to vote which can be matched with the number of votes tallied for each precinct.”

If we want to have faith in something, we go to church-not the voting booth.

Lisa Murkowski’s campaign, funded by millions of dollars from corporate sugar daddies, will no doubt prevail. The Alaska DOE counted “Lesa Murcowshit” as a vote for Murkowski. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the voter’s intent.  Joe Miller has been criticized and mocked for challenging write-in votes. What he should be doing -and demanding- is a full scale election audit and reconciliation of every vote cast and every ballot not cast.

Some Alaskans will be bitter regardless of the outcome.

My point isn’t about either one of them.

It’s About Alaska.

Taproot is located in the Republic of Spenard at 3300 Spenard Road. It’s the old Fly By Night Club!

The taping starts around 5:30pm.

Check out Taproot‘s website here and their facebook page here:

Taproot has a full bar with a comprehensive selection of fine Bourbons, incredible single malt Scotch and a gargantuan beer menu! AND…Taproot expanded their menu! They offer a wide variety of tasty options available to meat eaters and vegetarians alike. Everything from their kitchen is prepared to order, fresh from scratch! At Tap Root they focus on wholesome, natural foods, and use only organic & free range proteins, and locally grown produce.
Here is this week’s Moore Up North guest line-up:

INTERVIEW
Elstun Lauesen is a rural development specialist and consultant. Elstun contributed a chapter to Going Rouge, The Nation’s response to Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue.  He is also a regular contributor to The Mudflats.net.

PANEL
David Case is an Attorney and Author of Alaskan Natives and American Laws.
He has a long and distinguished history in the field of Tribal Law in Alaska and has been involved in groundbreaking litigation involving Tribal sovereignty and the exercise of Tribal authority in post-ANCSA Alaska.

Brad Garness was born of the Samish Tribal lineage in Alaska. He serves as the Executive Director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. In that capacity, Brad has worked to improve humanitarian conditions in the most impoverished state in America. He admits to being a bit of a wonk in that he actually reads complex bureaucratic documents like the tribal consultation guidelines being written by the Obama administration.

Natalie Landreth is an Attorney for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) here in Alaska. She is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, and a descendent of the Imatobby family. Natalie practices a broad range of Indian law from jurisdiction issues to fishing rights.

In his recent blog post, “Native Corporation secrecy and waste another reason to dump Murkowski” (http://bit.ly/chaMuX), Fagan levels inaccurate and simplistic charges at Alaska Native Corporations in general–and at Chenega specifically. Taking the predictable cheapshots to fire up the base, Fagan appears fairly unfamiliar with the 8(a) program and with ANCs. And given the number of mentions of one “Kristina Woolston,” an employee with Chenega, it seems he’s even less interested in learning anything about ANCs, 8(a), Murkowski relationships with them, or even Alaska’s economic relationship with ANCs–and much more interested in “pinning” Ms. Woolston to the wall with a sign that said, “I’m sinking Lisa Murkowski b/c Dan Fagan outsmarted me.”

But…as her work at Chenega would likely suggest, I’m betting she knows a fair bit more about 8(a) than Mr. Fagan, and I’d be willing to wager she could show him his ass in a discussion about the issue–if he’d stop showing it himself long enough to listen. That won’t happen, though. At least not if his blog post on ANCs is an example of his journalistic integrity.

From his initial characterization of the Reagan-era Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program as “a program that discriminates against business people based on their race,” Fagan signals to his readers how the intention of this smear piece: race baiting. He continues that the program “is designed to help so-called small, disadvantaged businesses get a leg up. … by discriminating against businesses run by people of certain races the government thinks don’t need a leg up.” There it is, readers–pssst, “WE” are being discriminated against!

Once we get a charge of reverse racism on record, we can move, ironically to another point–the time-honored “ANCs as fronts” charge. Despite clear language in 8(a) documentation that the 8(a) company must be responsible for at least 51% the work, the hollow charge is to say the ANCs get the contracts and hand them over to big, Lower-48 companies. If the critique were accurate, then item #2 (the front) could be seen to off-set item #1: Native Corps get the contracts through racism, but then hand them over to non-8(a)…ie, Dan’s “businesses run by people of certain [non-leg-up-needing] races.” Examples would be helpful to substantiate a claim like this, but they are not offered. Why do so when insinuation can be used as “fact” once the right fires are burning. The final move–the “it’s taxpayer money” script–moves the poorly written drivel from conspiratorial insinuation to laughable madness. Charges of taxpayer waste are easy to make because anything associated with the Government can be dragged in and run over with very little offered to establish a case. In Fagan’s blog,

1. Gov’t services contracts pay too much money. If it was a billion dollars worth of contracts, then it was too much money…simple as that…because a “B”illion just sounds big. How many contracts were held to earn that much? What services were provided? …meh, who cares. It was a Billion and that’s too much.
2. All “tax payer” money coming in should go directly to shareholders–if not, it must be wasted. I was not a business major, but I’m thinking there is a flaw in a business model based on that assumption. If not, those Boeing, Microsoft, and Google shareholders are really getting screwed. What’s really at stake here is that tax payers should be watching the spenders of any government money; however, once it is handed over to the service/product provider, the taxpayer doesn’t really have standing to inquire how that company is using it.
3. Money to shareholders better be cold, hard cash; nothing else can benefit them. ANCs do have requirements to Shareholders that exceed the requirements in the general market; however, doing a simple mathematical average based on a limited set of numbers does not provide a basis of adequately considered criticism.

On the surface, some of Fagan’s claims and complaints may have the initial feel of traction; but within minutes, the criticisms are nothing more than spinning wheels: lots of screeching and smoke, but no grip. The worst part of the article is the flat ignoring of the importance of ANCs to Alaska’s (all Alaskans) economy. ANCs consistently register in the top of the Alaska Business Monthly’s “Top 49ers” (Alaska’s largest in-state businesses). ANCs employ locally for their corporate offices; many provide to their shareholders’ pocketbooks, cultural identity, and local communities.

Attempting to build a pyre of the ANCs and burn Murkowski upon it is a shameful and ignorant move on Fagan’s part. Murkowski’s support of Alaska Natives, their cultures and villages, as well as their important access into the corporate world is something we should value as Alaskans–especially as we face challenges in resource development and the fishing industry.

After a few visits to banks and being lectured about the 5 “C”s of credit, it was pretty clear I only had one of the possible “C’s. According to the people with their hands on the money the five elements a borrower should have to obtain credit: Character (integrity), Capacity (sufficient cash flow to service the obligation), Capital (net worth), Collateral (assets to secure the debt), and Conditions (of the borrower and the overall economy).

I learned about the real business of credit in a story told to me by a local lawyer and great friend, Mr. John Shaw. Mr. Shaw told me about a meeting he had participated in years before.  He was invited to lunch to meet a young man  who wanted a loan from an Alaskan bank to purchase a small motel/hotel in Anchorage.

Mr. Shaw was asked to join the bankers to give a judgment on what he thought about this young man, Bill Sheffield. Bill Sheffield had been an appliance salesman at Sears and a veteran.  He had little going for him expect his character. Mr. Shaw was very proud of the fact that he gave his full and unequivocal approval for the loan.  Bill Sheffield built a great business and later became Governor Sheffield.

Well, Alaska and the Mat Su Valley in the 1990, where I lived were about as far down as you could go.  There were whole subdivisions in foreclosure.  The best job in town was the HUD contract managing the foreclosures. Thinking back, one of my best customers was Fawn.  She had been a local realtor and had probably sold many of the homes that were being abandoned.   Being smart, with a whole bunch of young children to feed, she hustled and got the federal contract to close out and repair the homes.  Many families walked out and left the homes with water on and more.  Very much like our current situation in 2010.

It seems like I was not the only one looking for cash.  As we would later learn, Alaska had two major economic disasters coming on fast.  Mark Air was struggling to take on Alaska Airlines (you know who won) and Martech USA Inc was playing fast and furious in the environmental remediation areas for the feds.  Both were federal contractors and the two “M”’s would be a huge disadvantage for me later when I went to the bank with a “government contract” in hand.  They shrieked and showed me the door. Many of our Alaska banks were not interested in any more “government” paper.

As for the other three C’s, capacity, capital, and collateral, I was a real dud.  That left only one of the five for me: character. As it turns out that was my  savings grace.

As I struggled, I had an employee who told me, ”I have some cash I don’t need for a few years. Maybe you could use it.” On a handshake, I had a $20,000 loan. Who needs banks, when these  Angels are watching out for fools like me. That stayed me over for the first year.  It was paid back and we kept he doors open.

As cash was always an issue, my second Angels appeared in the form of a cadre of girl friends who would hand me their credit cards.  I would use it and pay it back in 30 days.  Usually it was an Alaska Airlines card that gave mileage.  Since we were in Alaska, travel points were a great bonus and they traveled a lot on my hustle. Mark Air never could overtake the Alaska Air travel points.  We now know we contributed to their demise but we were hooked on mileage points.

But my most glorious Angel appeared in the form of another federal contractor.  As I said in an earlier blog, in 1994 Wal-Mart was thrashing me and every other small business in Wasilla and the entire Mat Su Valley. By this time I had already taken out an SBA loan but needed more operating cash, just as my government business was taking off.

I made the rounds of the banks, which by this time had seen the two big “M’s” go under. I hated talking to bankers who could not talk to you without one hand on the calculator.  I thought, if I took that calculator off their desk they would be mute. As soon as they start talking to you, they would reach for a calculator. Then they look at your financials and show you the door.

I was seriously looking at closing and digging out of debt. I had told my husband that we may lose our house as I had missed three payments. To his credit, he told me “this is a house not our home.  We will always have a home.  Maybe not this one.” That’s when you know you married the right guy.

That’s when Eleanor Andrews and I had a long talk.  Eleanor had built a great federal contracting business, had been a political appointee, and was a respected business woman in Alaska.  She was, and still is, the go-to model for contracting.

Eleanor Andrews, president and CEO of The Andrews Group, Inc. of Anchorage, was later named the 1998 Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. How lucky to be counseled by Eleanor at such a critical time!

She told me I needed to talk to her accountant. A hard lesson I had to learn was that my local CPA and attorneys really did not understand federal contracting.  What they considered okay was never good enough for government purposes.  Like a lot of small businesses I had  small town thinking and it hurt me. I learned to look for competency rather than a local address. And I never again picked a friend or family over expertise.

I told her I didn’t have enough cash to pay anyone.  She went to the phone and called Kevin.  He had been her accountant and understood how to “explain” things.  Then she said, ”Kevin  will see you tonight at 6 PM and I will pay for it. Get your chin up and go see him, now.”

I drove to Anchorage, 60 miles in the dark winter time, and we met for a few hours.  He took the information from my financials and restated them.  He told me to use as many footnotes to explain each item as necessary.

I took the new financials to the Anchorage bank and with the SBA guarantee got my second bank loan.  Whew! So I cut back, slimmed down, and keep going. I hired a new lawyer and CPA. They both understood federal contracting and were not using my company for their on-the-job training.

I learned you have to ask for help and find those angels who are ready to help.  In the first case, my employee kept a business open and his job, the second got their vacations out of Alaska, and my angel Eleanor understood that we are all in this together and a failed 8a business was another black mark against the perception that federal contractors are not capable of performing.

I have been having conversations with small companies now in 2010. The banks have frozen credit now because it seems the biggest C of all, the character of our economy is perceived to be questionable. Frankly, I think the banks are lacking that element today as they set on cash needed by the businesses.

The point of all of this?  Having survived the crash of Alaska and the multiple bumps of my business, I think we all have to understand that we all have to give all we’ve got and then some more.  We can only predict the future by creating it ourselves.

Today I attended a short seminar at Oklahoma City University and the subject was Crossing the Line: “Economic Incentives and Ethical Behavior”. It was presented by the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium. www.okethics.org In attendance were a lot attorneys and CPA’s. One friendly face was Oscar. Oscar is an ex-fed with years of experience in the game of federal contracting. Oscar and I can talk “con” anywhere and anytime. I enjoy his friendship.

Did I mention that both Oscar and I are classified by the government as “minority” and (surprise) women owned? I can say with a great deal of certainty that no one in that room has faced more “ethical” decisions on a daily basis than us. We both worked under a huge burden of regulations and rules that required, indeed demanded, the highest ethical behavior. The consequences of which were Leavenworth Federal Prison.

That might sound overstated but in the spending of public dollars: either by performing on a contract or supervising the negotiations of a contract from the government’s side; ethics and ethical behavior is a measure that all federal employees understand. However, many political folks and federal folks do slip and end up on the front page of the Washington Post.

My first weeks in the federal government coincided with the beginnings of the end for Jack Abramoff and his pals. The shoe dropped for Abramoff at the first hearing I attended when Senator Nighthorse Campbell publicly talked about a potential indictment that was coming. By the time I left Washington, DC, we had pretty much turned the Department of Interior upside down. So we thought. But that didn’t keep another Interior agency, Mineral Management, from slipping over the edge. Today Interior is still moving and removing staff. Quietly.

Even now with the oil spill, fingers are beginning to point to a lot of federal folks that did not or would not “uphold the public trust.” Let me make my second statement of certainly. In defense of a number of feds, the lack of resources to perform their duties is real. The public believes that there are too many feds and they are too lazy to do their jobs. Having been working across a number of agencies, I know the resources have slowly been starved that would allow for adequate oversight. For example, the Small Business Administration has had a 50% reduction in their staff over the last 10 years.

In the area of government contracting, minority businesses who obtain the special status for federal contracting are often, often, often the target of larger companies who want to recruit their businesses for teaming and partnering opportunities. That is usually a good thing and is the mission of the government to build a strong base of suppliers. However, too often the opportunity is not a win-win. Someone is a loser. Too many times it is the minority business. Ethics requires the ability to be fair with the partner even when the smaller partner is just learning the ropes.

In the ethics class the professor stated that research shows that the large majority of people are honest. Today we talked about decisions designed by governments which can generate positive and negative consequences. In the case of minority contracting, the public “believes” that we, minority contractors, are less than capable or we would not be in this “program.” It is pervasive and unspoken but true. If a minority contractor messes up it seems to be a heavier burden to carry. Yet non-minority businesses crash and burn every day.

So daily, ethics are imposed on the minority businesses and the companies with which they partner. I have one significant guideline that I was given by the first employee I hired, Tom Knight, now of Palmer, Alaska. Tom had spend years in the Army as a helicopter mechanic. He was well trained and we both had to learn the business of computers in the early 1990. (Before the internet!) We struggled with customers that wanted us to load illegal software on those early computers.

Tom said, “Kay, if you never do it, you don’t have to worry about it.”

Thanks, Tom. Those words have served me well.

Recent government investigations and news reports have exposed how the ANCs have capitalized on the unique benefit and created complex business relationships with Outside multinational corporations that have no ties to Alaska or the SBA program. 

Despite the multi-billion dollar contracts and record earnings of the 19 largest ANCs, the average annual payout to 130,000 of the Alaska Native shareholders is approximately $615.  In addition, a GAO Congressional Report found that most of the executive compensation is awarded to employees that are non-native.  Overall, only 5% of the employees at ANCs are Native Alaskans. 

According to a recent US Senate Committee Report, the value of Alaska Native Corporation contracts mushroomed from $508.4 million in 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2008 an increase of 916%! 

In most publicly-traded companies, the Chief Executive Officer is the most highly-paid employee.  According to the senate subcommittee report, for one or more years between 2000 and 2008, eight ANCs paid their CEO, a (native) shareholder substantially less than a non-(native) shareholder holding a lower-ranked position.

This week on Moore Up North we examined tribal sovereignty, the Alaska Native Corporations and the connection to the huge growth in no-bid federal contracts.

I interviewed  Heather Kendall-Miller, the senior staff attorney in the Anchorage Office of the Native American Rights fund.

My panelists were:

Larry Merculieff is the former City Manager of St. Paul Island, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development, President and CEO of Tanadgusix Corporation, Chairman of the Board of The Aleut Corporation, and General Manager of the Central Bering Sea Fishermens Association.

Karen Forsland is the Alaska District Director of the Small Business Administration. 

Brad Garness is the Executive Director for the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council. 

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