Public meetings scheduled in Manokotak, Dillingham late November ahead of LBC meeting in Anchorage Dec. 1.
Staff for the state’s Local Boundary Commission issued a final report Friday regarding the Dillingham and Manokotak annexation petitions. The report recommends the LBC deny both petitions, but for different reasons. The LBC won’t make any decisions until it comes to Dillingham and Manokotak late in November to hear from the public. KDLG’s Dave Bendinger has more.
Audio transcript: Dillingham’s annexation of the Nushagak Commercial Fishing District was adopted by a narrow vote in 2012, thenoverturned in 2014 following a lawsuit led by Ekuk Natives Limited. The city has been fighting for years to lay territorial claim to the district for the purpose of collecting a 2.5 percent raw fish tax. This latest attempt is different from the previous mainly by the approach; the city hopes to get the state Legislature’s approval for the petition, but it needs to get by the LBC first. In a 70 page final report released Friday, staff for the LBC strongly recommend the commission deny both petitions.
"I think the City of Dillingham is disappointed,” Mayor Alice Ruby said Friday. “We haven’t had time to really read the report, we just looked at the summary. But ultimately it rejects all the work and the arguments we’ve been making, so yeah, we’re pretty disappointed with that outcome.”
The final decision has not been made, however. The LBC will gather more public testimony on both petitions, which have been consolidated, during meetings in Manokotak and Dillingham late in November. Ruby says the city will continue to press its case.
“You know the key to working with these kinds of state actions is we will argue how the decision is not correct. They’ve not interpreted what we think are the regs and the plan that we’ve presented," she said. "So that’s why it’s important to be familiar with the report and participate when the LBC does come out here.”
The staff report finds that Dillingham is not the appropriate entity the claim all of the "revenue generated by taxing a fishery that is an important resource" to several communities in the region. It also took issue with the city’s lack of proposed new services, and the lack of permanent population in the territory to be annexed.
As to the Manokotak petition, LBC staff say the city will not be able to provide the services at the mouth of the Igushik River it proposes to with the fish tax dollars. The report came down hard against trying to divide up sections of the fishing district and allowing municipalities to lay sole claim to the catch from those waters.
A decision from the LBC itself is expected at a December 1 meeting in Anchorage, just days after the public hearings.
Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org or 907.842.5281.
Public meeting schedule:
1. Manokotak 'Nunaniq' School
- Monday, Nov. 28, 2016
- Hearing begins at 2:30 p.m.; Public comment period starts at 7:00 p.m.
2. Dillingham City Hall
- Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016
- Hearing begins at 11:00 a.m.; Public comment period starts at 6:30 p.m.
- Second hearing Wednesday, Nov. 30, 206
- Hearing begins at 9:00 a.m.; public comment period resumes at 2:00 p.m.
The commission will hold a decisional meeting regarding the petitions Thursday, Dec. 1, at 9:00 a.m. at the Atwood Building in Anchorage.
Both the hearing and decisional meeting will be available via teleconference by calling 1-800-315-6338 and using access code 94587.