Legislature blocks governor's attempt to take over ferry advisory board

Alaska lawmakers on March 12 narrowly overturned an executive order from Gov. Mike Dunleavy that would have given him the sole authority to appoint members to the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board.

The final vote was 33-26 to reject the governor’s move.

Representatives and senators met in a joint session to consider overturning a dozen executive orders issued by the governor earlier this year that would have eliminated state advisory boards or consolidated their oversight within the executive branch.

Lawmakers voted separately on each resolution to reject the governor’s actions, requiring support from a majority of lawmakers; they overturned eight of the 12 orders.

Dunleavy’s 12 executive orders are equal to the number of all executive orders issued in the previous 20 years.

As established when Dunleavy signed into law the marine highway board in 2021, the Legislature gets to appoint four of the board’s nine members; the governor gets to appoint four members; and one seat is reserved for the deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation.

The board was intended to help insulate the ferry system from political control and micromanagement from whoever is governor; its recommendations are advisory and nonbinding.

Dunleavy’s executive order would have given the governor the authority to appoint the entire board, along with the ability to dissolve the current board membership on July 1.

The March 12 vote to overturn Dunleavy’s attempt to take control of the board was heavily partisan. Every Democrat and independent member of the Legislature voted to overturn the order; the votes siding with the governor came exclusively from Republicans, though coastal Republican lawmakers representing Kodiak and Sitka voted against the governor, as did three Anchorage and Fairbanks Republican senators.

Kodiak Rep. Louise Stutes, who was one of the primary sponsors of the bill that created the advisory board in 2021, defended the importance of keeping the Legislature involved in appointing its members.

“This is a very successful board with a diverse group of board members with diverse ideas,” Stutes said later. “This, to me, is exactly what we’re looking for: a group of people that do not all think alike and are able to think outside the box and ask tough questions.”

In addition to stopping the governor’s changes to the marine highway advisory board, legislators rejected other executive orders that would have eliminated state boards regulating midwives, barbers and massage therapists, and would have eliminated citizens advisory boards for a large state park in Southwest Alaska and the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in Haines.

The most controversial order was overturned on a 58-1 vote. It would have dissolved the Board of Certified Direct-Entry Midwives, transferring its licensing and oversight authority to the state Department of Commerce.

 

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