Anchorage Daily News

Then-Gov. Sarah Palin announced a new Rural Action Subcabinet during the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention last October, as a response to the concerns over the high rural fuel prices and potential loss of population to cities.

Its profile has been very low since, and questions have come up about just what the subcabinet has accomplished and what it plans to do. Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, who automatically became chair of the subcabinet when Palin appointed him as the state's top lawyer in mid-June, said rural issues will be a priority for him and that he intends to raise the profile of the subcabinet and its work. Sullivan, who came to the job from Washington, D.C., concedes his time in rural Alaska consists of a trip to Rampart, where his mother-in-law is from, more than 10 years ago. But he said that's going to change.

Subcabinet members will have a public hearing in Unalakleet today, and Sullivan will go on to Kotzebue for a hearing on Wednesday. He said other subcabinet trips to the Bush are planned and people can e-mail ideas for the effort to attorney.general@alaska.gov. He said the focus has been on a study of rural outmigration and a new study of what's driving the high price of fuel in the Bush. But what's needed is a "much more open process, to open this really to the public," he said.

He said Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell and Emil Notti, commissioner of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, are focused on coordinating with villages on contingency plans for fuel needs this winter, "trying to anticipate those needs and having stockpiles ready." There's also a desire for job training and looking at the possibility of taking into account such training as well as the effect on the local economy, rather than just the cost, when decisions are made on awarding state contracts, he said. Another idea is looking at neighboring villages sharing services like clinics, schools and airports in places where the local areas want to do so.

Sullivan said the goal is for the subcabinet, and its rural advisory group, to consider ideas and to present recommendations to the governor by December. The Daily News sat down with Sullivan last week and asked him about the effort.

Q. You mentioned that the rural subcabinet has met three times since it was created by administrative order last December. What has been accomplished through those meetings?

A. I would say the first phase of the rural subcabinet was internally, doing the studies, working on the studies and getting some consensus around certain ideas. But, as I mentioned, I think the process is going to benefit from being much more open, to both test drive some of the ideas we've been thinking about to see if there's interest ... but then also get other ideas from the people out there, not just the advisory committee.

Q. Do you have a sense that the subcabinet is getting more attention under the new governor?

A. It's hard for me to compare between Gov. Palin and Parnell simply because in the short time that I was working for Gov. Palin it wasn't an area that we talked about; on the other hand she was the one that initiated this. But I can tell you that Gov. Parnell is clearly interested in these issues. ... I have met with him a number of times on these matters.

Q. Could you talk about some of your own experiences in rural Alaska, the time you've spent in villages?

A. I am no expert, that's for sure. But what I've told the people that I've met with at every one of (the meetings with Native leaders) and I think it's really important, is that I have a strong interest in the issues and just as important a deep, deep respect for the cultures. ... I don't normally like to get personal on these things but my wife is part Athabascan and so I've been exposed to that culture to some degree and have a lot of respect for it. ... an important part of wisdom is knowing what you don't know and I certainly have a lot to learn.

Q. What is your sense for what the biggest, most important problems that rural Alaska is facing right now?

A. I think jobs and job training are big issues, big issues, and the one thing that to me as I've been looking at these different issues (as chair of the rural subcabinet and co-chair of the rural justice commission) ... what I think it's important to recognize not only in rural Alaska but throughout the state is that economic opportunity issues and crime issues are not unrelated.

Q. What do you think is working in rural Alaska?

A. I think a great example and I haven't been there, I'll certainly know more about it, but my understanding is that in Kotzebue the Red Dog Mine has employed ... I don't know the exact statistics but I've heard the numbers are actually quite high in terms of the employment levels from the local communities.

Q. You talked about pre-positioning fuel for the winter. Could you talk about that, what the rural subcabinet is thinking in terms of trying to avoid some of the issues we had last winter, when there were reports of people having trouble being able to afford food on the Lower Yukon?

A. What we're trying to do right now is to coordinate, and that's something the lieutenant governor is focused on and Commissioner Notti, and to get the information out to all the villages on what kind of programs there are out there. And to get a sense of what kind of contingency planning needs to be done, if it all.

Q. Given the fact we have another year of poor salmon returns but fuel prices are relatively lower than last year, do you think this winter is going to be better than last out there or worse?

A. One of the key things we're trying to do now is to gather information to help us evaluate that very question. Because it's a really important question. So I don't know, I think it's hard to make a prediction. But part of the exercise of what the lieutenant governor, commissioner Notti and others are leading is to actually have enough information to actually answer that question

Q. Those villagers who said that they engaged in illegal subsistence fishing as a protest of the restrictions on salmon, do you think they should be prosecuted? Will they be prosecuted?

A. My general approach to ongoing cases is not to comment. So I'm not going to comment on that.

Q. What do you think of state Sen. Albert Kookesh challenging the state's jurisdiction basically in terms of enforcing subsistence fishing limits (Kookesh is fighting a citation for taking too many salmon near Angoon).

A. Same general answer on that. But I will say that, at least from my perspective, one of the things I am trying to do, as part of the rural subcabinet, is focus on the areas where there is common ground. Areas where we think that action-oriented results, based on partnership, can be what comes out of this. ... Of course issues such as subsistence are important, they're also extremely complicated. Our focus, my focus, in the rural subcabinet is going to be in the numerous, numerous areas where there is common ground to address challenges.

Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.

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