The nine-member Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board, a new advisory panel created by the Legislature last year, has moved closer to full membership.
State Senate President Peter Micciche last month appointed Paul Johnsen, of Petersburg, and David Arzt, of Homer, to the panel.
Johnsen is the only board member so far from southern Southeast Alaska. He began his career in the Coast Guard, later going to work with the Alaska Marine Highway System. He retired from the state ferries in 2007 as a senior port and chief engineer.
Arzt is an active Alaska marine pilot, according to the announcement from Micciche’s office. He has served on the Marine Exchange of Alaska, American Pilots Association and Aleutian Islands Safety Committee.
The new advisory board was created to provide more public input over operations and investment decisions for the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Legislature last year approved the new panel’s responsibilities, replacing a board structure under an 18-year-old law that had been criticized as ineffective and often ignored by state officials.
House Speaker Louise Stutes, of Kodiak, in November appointed Shirley Marquardt, a former mayor of Unalaska, and Wanetta Ayers, executive director of Commonwealth North, an Anchorage-based public policy research group, to six-year terms on the board. Both had served on the former advisory board.
The governor has appointed Cynthia Berns, Larry Carson and Alan Austerman to the board.
Carson, who also served on the old board, is a former state trooper. Austerman represented Kodiak in the Legislature and served on the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
Berns, vice president of community and external affairs at the Old Harbor Native Corp., is the board's Alaska Native representative.
The governor has not yet named a board member from a ferry workers union. The ninth member is the deputy commissioner of the state Department of Transportation.
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