At its two meetings last month, members of the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board expressed frustration over the state Department of Transportation’s communication with the board on significant decisions, including the state ferry system’s summer schedule, job vacancies, and short- and long-term planning.
In phone interviews last week with the Ketchikan Daily News, several board members elaborated on those concerns, saying the department occasionally struggles to meet one of its only obligations to the board listed in state statute: “The department shall provide information requested by the board in a timely and responsive manner.”
The Alaska Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment on this story by last Friday.
The board was established by legislation in 2021, replacing the Marine Transportation Advisory Board, though both boards are the same — advisory.
The nine-member board consists of the Transportation Department’s deputy commissioner assigned to the marine highway system and eight other members: a representative of a ferry system union, appointed by the governor; a representative of an Alaska Native organization or tribe who is from a community served by the marine highway, appointed by the governor; and six public members, appointed by the governor (four), by the speaker of the state House (one) and by the state Senate president (one).
The law directs the board to “provide advice and recommendation to the commissioner of Transportation … concerning the operation and management of the Alaska Marine Highway System, including advice and recommendations regarding business to enhance revenue and reduce costs; personnel management; commercial service options; ship maintenance, construction and repair; fleet strategy, reliability and regulatory compliance; and other service objectives.”
Among the five board members who spoke with the Daily News, all said that the state has been inconsistent in providing important information and documents to board members ahead of its meetings.
“Sometimes, information that shows up would be (the day of) the meeting, and (it) makes it almost impossible to be prepared to discuss it,” said board member Alan Austerman.
As an example, for the board’s most recent meeting on Feb. 24, the state sent out supporting materials two days prior, on Feb. 22. The seven documents included in the packet totaled 236 pages, including a 90-page fleet maintenance evaluation.
Board Chair Shirley Marquardt expressed exasperation at the state’s lack of communication on that undertaking in her email correspondence with the Daily News.
“We have not seen any preliminary findings and were presented with the final document in an email two days before the meeting. We had no involvement with the development of the evaluation, the scope of work or the methods used.”
Board member Keith Hillard, the union representative appointed to the board, shared a similar sentiment.
“The frustration’s been (that) the administration continues to do things, and the board feels that we’re not being notified in a timely manner,” said Hillard. “And that’s not just the last two meetings. You can go back to meetings before that. It’s frustrating.”
Board member Wanetta Ayers said she understands the challenge of keeping the board involved in decisions without slowing down the department.
“I think that the frustration is that we have a meeting scheduled, things happen during the interim, we don’t see the agenda packets until a day or two, maybe, or sometimes within hours of the meeting actually starting, and we can’t really be effective board members under those circumstances,” she added.
Board member Paul Johnsen said “we need more time” to review agenda materials before meetings. “But they’re doing better than they were before. Some of the previous meetings, they posted something a half hour before the meeting, and if you weren’t there, they start talking about things that you don’t even know about. But they’re understaffed too, so I don’t know. I don’t think it’s terrible.”
All of the board members that spoke with the Daily News said that they had not heard anything further from the state about when it will release another draft summer sailing schedule for public comment.
Due to staffing shortages, the Alaska Marine Highway System will not be able to operate the Kennicott this summer, staff explained to the board at the Feb. 24 meeting.
In order for the board to make recommendations as needed, said Austerman, the state will need to make a better effort to keep it informed.
The board’s success “really is going to depend on the department and their planners,” said Austerman. “We had a presentation at this last meeting giving us information that was totally new to us at that meeting, without any kind of prep on it, on what we were supposed to be talking about. We didn’t have an opportunity to get into the weeds with them on what they were really doing, because there was no planning by department in the first place to give us any information so we could prepare ourselves.
“So, it’s ... a DOT issue right now,” he added. “If they can start presenting information to us that would be part of a long-term plan, then things will move forward. If they continue to pop information on us without any prior warning and without any ability to have a discussion on it, then things will just move forward, and we’ll just sit there and watch them.”
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