BETHEL — Tribal leaders from Marshall and Akiak say concerns about spending and management of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta's tribal nonprofit organization are prompting an emergency meeting, called for July 19-20 in Bethel.
The Association of Village Council Presidents is now broken, said Mike Williams, a longtime tribal leader who is the spokesman for the Kuskokwim River village of Akiak. AVCP runs a variety of welfare, public safety and educational programs but also serves as the Alaska Native voice and political workhorse for the region.
An attempt by some of the same tribal activists to hold an AVCP special convention in May failed to establish a quorum, and no official business was conducted.
The activists say they expect better attendance this time for what they are billing as an emergency meeting to shake up and reshape AVCP with new leaders. But the level of support is unclear and some tribes say they don't want to see the entire executive board replaced. The meeting is not sanctioned by AVCP. Under AVCP bylaws, two-thirds of the 56 member villages would have to call a meeting for it to be official.
"It is now apparent that the executive board is lost, that they are not in control of AVCP; that the attorneys and the administration are the ones running it," the Native Village of Akiak said in a June 22 letter to all 56 member tribes. "In other words, the tribes that created and own AVCP, and who now sit at its board of directors, have lost control of it."
An official AVCP special convention took place in June. It was for tribal members only and closed to the public and news reporters.
Tribal members who were there relayed that AVCP board chairman Henry Hunter told the group the organization was nearly bankrupt as of late last year. The tribe for Akiak recapped the meeting in its letter, which called for the upcoming emergency meeting.
"Chairman Hunter told the board that he and the Executive Board had found out, in November 2015, that AVCP was about to go 'bankrupt,'" the Akiak letter said. "He told the board that they had found this out on their own, that the administration including the accountants, did not tell them this."
The assertion was first reported in June by public radio station KYUK.
"I think everybody heard it," said Williams, who was at the June meeting.
Hunter misspoke and immediately corrected himself at the convention, AVCP general counsel Liz Pederson said in an email Thursday. AVCP contends its finances are strong.
"AVCP was not 'near bankruptcy,' in November 2015 as you have reported, nor is it today," Pederson said in a June 20 response to the KYUK story posted on the AVCP website and Facebook. "As reported at the meeting, the organization is financially strong and growing stronger."
Neither Pederson nor acting president Mike Hoffman was available to discuss its financial status on short notice last week, she said in an email. A message left for Hunter was not returned.
In December, AVCP laid off 30 workers, though 25 of them found jobs elsewhere in the organization. This year, it closed its hotel and restaurant in Bethel.
KYUK also reported that AVCP years earlier had improperly used tribal welfare dollars to prop up a flight school.
The organization needed to restructure to be strong, and did so, Pederson and Hoffman said in earlier interviews.
As evidence of its strong footing, just last month the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program announced that AVCP was giving it $1.5 million over three years.
Under AVCP bylaws, an emergency meeting can be called by the chairman or by two-thirds of member tribes. The activists want the bylaws changed so that a minority of tribes can call a special meeting, said Ivan Ivan, chief of Akiak tribe and a former state representative.
"We are after accountability," said Nick Andrew Jr., tribal administrator for the Yukon River village of Marshall. "We are looking to unseat the chairman, the president and the executive board. We're looking for proactive changes here."
"We need to fix what is broken," Williams said. "Fifty-six tribes are the only ones that are going to fix our own organization."