The Hospital/Kahtnu Problem: Either Way We're SOL

I was having a hard time trying to make up my mind about the Kahtnu/CPGH  situation.  I can easily see the merits of both sides.  Competition does help the consumer’s bottom line.  But there is the truth that the hospital is able to offer a full service, including those procedures that will never be profitable, because other services might be more profitable and can cover those other costs. Lose those profitable services and the price of everything else either goes up, or the service goes away.

Maybe it’s easy to be callous.  If you don’t need the service, why pay?  But it is often luck that calls those shots.  Every time someone has to hold a bake sale, spaghetti feed or something to help out someone with medical needs (and often that person in need is a child), I am embarrassed that we live in a society that accepts that practice as being just fine.

Oh, and then there's insistence that tax rates are lower for the rich than what we working people pay.  The result..?

More bake sales. We all know that the proceeds of these fund-raisers don't make a dent in the staggering debt people incur.

We are forced to seek out bargains and places like Kahtnu make sense.  But it is shortsighted to then make it harder for those, who through no fault of their own, can’t afford treatment, so the hospital point of view is also valid.

There is only one solution.  Medicine should not be a for-profit business; just like police, firefighters and paramedics are not for-profit.  The cost of medical care is never going to be manageable as long as everyone at the top in the trade, from doctors to pharmaceuticals to insurers, can make huge profits.

And it comes at our expense.  We pay for it with exorbitant health insurance costs, high deductibles, huge medical bills and taxes.  One way or another we pay for it all.

I can chose not to buy a stereo if I think prices are too high.  We have no choice with medicine. What’s the option when you are in pain or sick… to die or to be in pain?  Of course we’ll pay. Or we’ll be in pain or we’ll die and that does happen here.

Pulling numbers from the thin air just for example, say CPGH total expenses are $20 million a year, that includes all salaries and benefits, supply and maintenance costs and whatever, they have to charge at least that much in fees.  If they lose one component that makes more money than another, they would have to raise the fees charged for those procedures.  The price of services keeps spiraling up and we are forced to pay even more insurance premiums, higher fees and higher deductibles.  Each and everyone of us has had this happen to us already.

Until there is universal, single-payer health coverage in the US and until medicine is run like the service it morally should be - -equally for all - - those who stand to profit from our vulnerability will screw the consumer. 

It already happens.

Board of Gaming the System: Managing Wildlife for the 1%

Before you dismiss this post as the opinion of a Bambi-loving extremest greenie,  just for the record I'm a multiple gun owner who has hunted caribou, moose, deer and various winged critters. I think that if you eat meat or wear any sort of animal product (including leather), it is nothing sort of hypocritical to be opposed to hunting.  Fine if you choose not to do so, but don't expect me to do the same.  I believe in the freedom of and from any sort of religion and that includes most any rigid political or social dogma.

There is a certain tragic beauty in the natural balance of nature. No matter if the predator is human or beast, hunting is essential to that balance.

On the Kenai right now there's an overpopulation of arctic hares and feral bunnies.  Besides making it darn near impossible to take your dog for a walk off-leash, there's plenty of snacks for predators - - especially lynx.  As this year's lynx have a feast, these well-fed cats will lose few of their own kind to starvation. Since more lynx will survive, there will be more offspring.  This trend will continue for a couple of years until enough fluffy bunnies have been consumed that there aren't enough of them to sustain the lynx. Some of these predators will begin to starve and the downward spiral begins again until there aren't enough lynx to keep the little hoppers from breeding, well, like rabbits. And the cycle goes on and on. 

That same pattern is part of the balance of predators and moose. Because moose breed, well, like moose, the cycle of feast and famine takes longer to phase through.

Humans are part of that natural cycle; we have been since we evolved. 

If there is something beyond nourishment, warmth and art that comes from harvesting wild game, it is the challenge of matching ones skills to the terrain, the weather, and the deadly smarts of our wolf and bear competitors.  Some years are lean for all involved. We humans have the luxury of stopping off at a store on the way home, so unsuccessful hunts don't thin our ranks.  If you haven't noticed, there's an overpopulation thing happening on the planet. With more people, there are more hunters and more of a demand for prey.  Not everyone will be successful. Get over it. Those who aren’t successful have a few options. They can keep at it and hone their skills and patience. They can find another hobby and in that way thin the ranks of human predators, or they can get appointed to the Board of Game and game the system, so that their big-game hunting guide cronies can bring in rich outside trophy hunters and guarantee them a kill.

That is the agenda of the Board of Game with their recent decisions to expedite aerial predator control on the Kenai and many other places around the state.

In making their decision about the Kenai, the BoG chose to ignore the 300+ moose killed in traffic collisions here.  Meat harvested from these accidents is eaten by Alaskans.  Although not hunted with a gun or bow, a dead and harvested moose is a dead and harvested moose.  When these moose are added to the numbers that hunters get, the yield for the Kenai is very plentiful.

The Rossi scandal is exposing the depths of how political cronyism coupled with blatant personal unethical practices have made Alaska wildlife management decisions become based on what is best for big game guides of rich outsiders.

Let’s begin with Ted Spraker, a central peninsula resident, former Fish and Game biologist and Safari Club member.  Ted admits that habitat is the most important factor when it comes to moose populations; in the log run, a habitat can only support so many moose.  In area 15A the moose population is slightly lower than the habitat can support, and in Area 15C there are slightly more than average as the habitat is much better there. Both well within what is normal for their different stages of habitat flux.  15A hasn’t had a major wildfire for decades and there just isn’t enough browse to support significantly more moose.

Despite Spraker’s awareness of this, he is looking for a short-term boost to the moose populations.  Why?  Well, the spin is that they want more moose meat on the table of Alaskans.  Ted knows that that the aerial hunting of predators will not significantly increase the success of Alaskan hunters. 

If there was a concern about the number of moose for ordinary Alaskans, how come the Board of Game has never considered reducing the number of rich Outside game and trophy hunters that guides bring in? Professional hunting guides do have skills and their clients are more successful than the average Alaskan.  And make no mistake, non-subsistence urban and Outside hunters take most of the game in any given management area.

There’s certainly a legitimate debate if subsistence users should have priority with hunting rights.  In my mind, they absolutely should.  In bush Alaska, the grocery store is nature.  In Kenai and Anchorage, we have Fred Meyers and Safeway. 

Preserving ones way of life is a legitimate consideration however, but ethical decisions must be made. I don’t understand the arrogance of thinking that someone who does not depend on hunting to survive should have as much access to the resource as someone whose life does.  Once subsistence needs are met and then if there is enough game left to satisfy recreational Alaskan hunters, only then you should you allow rich Outside sport and trophy hunters to get their trigger locks off.

Each and every current Board of Game member is tied in some way or another to big game hunting guides.  There is no balance on the board – each and every one was appointed by governors as a favor to the big game guide lobbyists.

The recent Corey Rossi scandal is exposing some of the arrogance that these political appointees practice.  While Rossi is not on the BoG, he was the director of the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation and just got busted for violating hunting rules and lying about it. In addition, Rossi and current BoG Chairman Cliff Judkins and then-Game Board member Bob Bell of Anchorage went on a subsistence musk ox hunt. Yeah, that’s right, none of these nimrods depend on musk ox to live, but they had a subsistence permit.  The permit rules state that you must destroy the  horns.  That rule is there to keep those just interested in a trophy from killing the animal under the guise of subsistence.  Well Judkins and crew tried to bully a lowly F&G biologist to make an exception for them. They wanted trophies.  The biologist refused to play along. They tried to use their power to break the rules. 

Rossi and his kind have abused their special perks of obtaining trophy permits by giving them to Outside hunting lobby groups such as the Sarfari Club to auction off for fund raisers for those organization.  More meat for rich outsiders, less for Alaskans. 

The BoG is about special privileges for guides,  the connected and the rich. 

The BoG took public input about introducing aerial predator control on the Kenai and a whopping 92% of the testimony was against the practice.  Yet the Board’s decision to expedite the slaughter  was unanimous. 

The BoG has an agenda that isn’t tied to facts, ethics, public opinion or sound wildlife management practices. Why does that seem acceptable to the Governor? Why is this OK?

Reason 738 why we’re SOL.

The Alaska Dispatch has had an excellent series of reports about these scandals.  I hope you are reading them:

Smart Alaska Game Board decisions drowned out by bad calls

New allegations surface against disgraced former Alaska wildlife chief

Alaska Board of Game shows affection for any predator control program

State is playing an unscientific game

And some related links:

Aerial control

Political science at Alaska Fish and Game

Rossi investigators examine signature of Kenai hunting guide

This is old, but still applies:

End Aerial Wolf Hunting

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/01/19/2273061/rossi-investigators-question-signature.html#storylink=

The Dems: Let's Save some $; The Reps: Let's be Somewhat Frugal

Oh, the crazy world of Alaskan politics.  We elect republicans because they are fiscal conservatives and scorn democrats because they love to spend.

There are a series of bills before the new legislative session and included are several, all sponsored by democrats, that would force the state to save a sizable chunk of the state's growing wealth.  Included in the bills is SB142 sponsored by Johnny Ellis of ANC which would transfer $2 billion additional dollars into the Permanent Fund and another $2 Billion to a fund whose investment gains would then pay down the state's pension debt.  While there is some bipartisan support in the senate, there seems to be no traction among Republicans in the state house, including Mike Chenault and Curt Olson, the central peninsula's representatives in the state house.  Mike's comment was simply that he didn't think that lawmakers should be mandated to put money aside.

WTF?  The last time the politicians added anything to the PFD that they weren't already mandated to do, it was 1985.  If they are not required to save, and Mike's a great example of why this happens, money goes to boondoggles. I've written about the tremendous wastes at the Goose Creek Prison and the Port of Anchorage that came while Mike was in the leadership role in the state house.  Better grab your Xtratufs because the slime will continue when the money gets released for the Susitna Dam and the Knik Arm Bridge.  Mike feels entitled to go play golf and go on international junkets on the government dime.  And what do we get?  We're just SOL.

So, do you want the politicians to spend the money, or do you think it might be better if the citizens spent it?  More $ in the Permanent Fund = more $ for us. If you think it might be better for us to have money to spend, start voting for some Democrats.

Hey, the Dems HAVE to prove that they are really fiscally conservative in this state, or else they couldn't get elected in a union hall. The republicans, especially the ones we elect from the peninsula are all about talking the R talk, but playing good-ole-boys (or corrupt bastards) and enriching their friends at our expense.

Mike Doogan, another D, has a bill that would put a one-time $10 Billion deposit in the PF. Another bill sponsored by Bill Wielechowski, a D from Anchorage, would cap the spending from oil-generated funds each year and mandate that 2/3 of the excess would have to be saved.  If Wielechowski's bill passes, the proposal to save would go before the voters. 

Remember Steve Cowper - he was governor quite a few years back and he proposed an educational permanent fund.  The state would set that up like the PFD, but the profits from that would have been used for education.  Forever.  What happened to that?  The Rs that controlled both the Alaskan senate and house shot that down.

Because they are fiscal conservatives?

Yeah, right...

Trophy Hunt!

Back in November, I wrote about Bob Ermold's opinion piece in the PC about predator control.  Bob got all slobbery about the wisdom of Corey Rossi, the unqualified director of the State of Alaska's Division of Wildlife Conservation. Corey was originally selected by then Gov Sarah Palin to run the AK Dep't of Fish and Game, but he was not appointed after a near-revolution in the department based on his lack of a degree or appropriate experience.  So, the special job he has now was created for just him.  Since then, he's been sort of promoting his own big-game guide services. Apparently conflicts of interests mean nothing to those who approve of his desire to kill every wolf and bear in AK.

Well, ole Corey is in a heap of trouble.  Apparently, an independent investigation by the state troopers has shown that this guy, who is suppose to conserve wildlife, has violated state hunting laws and lying to the cops and has just been slapped with 12 counts of illegal guiding.

Read more about the charges at the Alaska Dispatch and Craig Medred's follow-up piece here. Seems that one of the things Rossi lied about in the investigation was that he was working for Kenai guide, Joe Dilley.

I wonder if there are bag limits on unqualified head of state departments?  Well, since the Murkowski/Palin/Parnell governorships, that would be the head of nearly every department.

Updated:Things That Don't Suck in Soldotna

New Year's Day, 2012: a time to appreciate the place where I live.  Please add your comments about the good things Soldotna has going for it..Here's my start:

1) Tsalteshi Trails - this winter cross-country ski/summer running and biking trail system is a gem not only for Soldotna, but for Alaska.  Get out there and get fit!
2) Maybe it's just me, but I love the bridge and the lights - the color-changing side lights in the winter just make me happy every time I cross.  I think the DOT should have a volunteer light-controller who can creatively program the lights...
3) Kaladi Brothers Coffee Shops- both are great places to sip and chat.
4) The Kenai River Brewery - stop and have a pint with Inebriata!
5) St Elias Brewpub - Soldotna became so much more livable when St Elias opened! I usually boycott businesses which overtly push ultra-conservative politics, but the food and beer are good.
6) River City Books - they have a good collection of books and it's a great spot for lunch.
7) Soldotna Creek Park - the annual Kenai RiverFest is held here, there's a weekly farmers and craft market in the summer  new kiddie park and now the Kenai Watershed Forum has its office there too.  Once the Birch St light and crossing is improved, this will be even a better place to visit.
8) The Moose Refuge - trail system and Headquarters Lake.  If you haven't snow shoed or skied out here, you are missing out on one of Soldotna's prettiest places!

C'mon now...what makes Soldotna special for you?

No Time for Modesty

If you picked up the PC today, the lead story is a fluff piece praising the glories of Mike Chenault, the speaker of the AK House of Reps.  "I was the best fit for the job" explained the not-too-humble north-roader.  Jumping in with the alleluias was Kurt Olson, SOLdotna's representative to the state house.

Mike is proud to have brought home the bacon to the Kenai as the peninsula received a record amount of funding from the 2011 governor's budget.

Well, I guess that's what politicians are supposed to do - acquire the most money for their constituents.  Of course, if it was a democrat running up the government tab, everyone would be crying about those tax-and-spend liberals. Of course, if record amounts of money went to bush Alaska, most Kenai Peninsula folks would whine about the government handouts Natives were getting.  But it's a good thing when we benefit from republican legislators who spend state money like drunken sailors.

Not that money shouldn't be spent.  Roads, schools, solid waste facilities, prisons and ports are needed, aren't they?

It's kinda funny, when Mike and Kurt obtained money for peninsula roads, there were strings attached.  The money could only be used on central and north peninsula roads - not for roads in Homer or Seward.  Well, Gary Stevens, the senate rep from Kodiak, Homer and Seward, had the audacity to challenge Gov Parnell's proposal to roll back taxes on the oil company record-breaking profits.  Chenault and Olson are all about giving back a $billion a year to the oil companies and without requiring the companies to explore or drill or hire more than they already are.  It's easy to see that some of the bacon that Mike brings home is a reward for being Parnell's cheerleader.

And then there's the Goose Creek Prison in the MatSu Borough that was approved and built while Mike was in the House and the speaker.  The prison cost over $240 to build (and it is not quite finished yet).  It was built where there are no utilities, so another $20 million was spent getting power lines and septic. Oh, and it will cost $25 million a year more than it would cost to just leave the 1000 prisoners it would house in Colorado where they are currently serving their sentence.  This waste of state money happened under Mike's watch.

Then there's the port fiasco. Estimates now are exceeding a cool billion dollars as to the final cost of the expansion.  It's been one cost over run after another. All under Mike's watch. Just why wasn't this built here on the Kenai in Seward - with roads and rail in place and a true ice-free harbor, it was really the best location for the port.

Let's not get started on the Knik Arm Bridge or the Susitna Dam.

But some connected people are making a ton of money, so how do you say thanks to Mike for not being a good steward of the states money?  Money for Mike's constituents.

The state desperately needs to come up with a process that independently evaluates true need, cost-effectiveness and does so not as a reward to good old boys or corrupt bastards, but on what is really needed.

A Republican I Would Vote For

OK, if you are a regular reader of SOL, you know that my take on things is a bit left of center.  As such there's not too many Rs that my conscience will let me support.  But there are a few.  I've become a big fan of the Alaskan Senate President, Gary Stevens, who represents Kodiak, Homer and Seward.  He's not in anyone's pocket, he's practical, and his reasons for supporting something or not seem to come from what is in the best interests of people, not necessarily corporations. He just doesn't recite party-line dogma and that is refreshing. Since the last political session, he has been a very outspoken critic of Parnell's proposal  to give about a billion dollars a year back to the oil companies - despite the fact that we Alaskans own the oil that comes out of the ground, despite the fact that the companies are making record profits, and despite that fact that exploration, drilling and oil field employment are up since ACEs because the law.  Oh, and Parnell's plan doesn't actually require the oil companies to invest/drill/hire more.

Anyway, earlier this week, Gary was invited to speak to Commonwealth North, the pro-development lobbying group that gave grades of D or F to any Alaskan politician that was more concerned with people than corporations.  Gary blasted them.  You can read the contents of his speech here.  OK, I live in  Soldotna, so can't vote for Gary - but I would if I could!

And in surprising news, I heard Mike Chenault  on NPR this morning saying that before the state invests any more money in any natural gas pipelines, there needs to be buyers in place.  With so many natural gas wells coming online in the lower 48, Canada, Russia and around the world, North Slope gas just is not going to be competitive.

Atwater Out?

This just in - KPBSD Superintendent Steve Atwater is one of the two finalists for Carol Comeau's position in Anchorage. Read the ADN story here.

By most all accounts, Steve has done a good job here on the Kenai, and after years of the previous superintendent's divisive school leadership, one can only hope that if he does get the Anchorage job, his replacement will be as competent and professional as Steve has been.  It's a tough job, for sure, and with the declining enrollments here on the Kenai, there will be some difficult decisions that the school district will have to deal with. 

Stop Not Making Sense

I didn’t go to the last Borough Assembly meeting, but I listened to the KDLL news report about Debbie Brown’s and George Pierce’s testimonies against funding non-profits.  Neither of them has any of their facts straight, but what do you expect?  For what it is worth, Debbie was able to speak a few clearly understood sentences and that’s different, although what she said was…crazy, so nothing really has changed I suppose. 

George confused the Kenai Watershed Forum, the non-profit that the Borough Assembly is considering partially funding, with state and federal regulatory agencies that were “taking land away from people”.  Debbie talked to the assembly as if they were kindergarten kids, explaining in the most basic terms what a non-profit does.  “They benefit their members"was her conclusion.

Robert Ruffner, the director of the KWF, noted that they did a lot of work for the borough particularly spearheading replacing substandard culverts that were impeding salmon migration and such, and that they hired local contractors at market rates to do this.  The KWF has been able to obtain several matching grants to replace the culverts. Because of their familiarity with the process of coordinating with inter-government agencies, they have expedited these projects, and have already replaced some dozen of these culverts and at a fraction of the cost that the borough would have incurred on its own.

So, people like Debbie, George, the ACT people and Fred Sturman, try to come across as folksy, homespun, common sense citizens, but in fact, they are not anything more than self-serving, stingy grinches. 

There are a few homespun sayings that come in mind about them:

Penny wise and pound-foolish.  So, this crowd would rather avoid paying for a few things now that would then take so much more money in the future to correct.  And we’re talking about preserving one of the few healthy remaining salmon runs on the planet.  What they are really saying is that they’d rather save a few dollars on property taxes, which are already some of the lowest in the nation, and to hell with worrying about having our grandkids have fish in the Kenai River. 

They would cut off their nose to spite their face. These folks are so caught up in their no-tax dogma, that they would oppose things that would, without a doubt, benefit the economy, recreation and culture of the Kenai. I think they are just basically cheap bastards. Oh, and the kicker here is that the $100,000 that the KWF is asking for would come from what the state gets from the haul of commercial fishermen and passed back to the borough.  So, not a penny of property tax would actually be used and the money the state receives from the fishing industry would then be used to enhance and perpetuate the fishery – and benefit all of us.  A win, win, win situation. 

They fiddle while Rome burns: So, there are clear and undisputed problems and there are clear and undisputed solutions, but Debbie and company would rather engage in political theater rather than actually solve the problems.  Notice that neither of them offered alternatives that might actually solve anything.  

The KPB barely dodged letting the crazies run the asylum this last election. Just check out the comments to any PC story and see that we have some very, very scary neighbors. Check out the PC story on this here.

Intensive Mismangement: It's All About Misinformation

Bob Ermold has an OpEd in a recent PC about predator control and the Peninsula moose population. It's kinda funny in a way, one thing he complains about is when facts or figures are applied incorrectly or out of context, yet his whole piece, which supports aerial shooting of wolves, is nothing but facts and figures being applied incorrectly and out of context.

First,  I hope that no one believes that Bob actually wrote this without considerable help.  If you have ever seen anything that he has written in his context as an education administrator, you might not have to wonder why schools are in trouble.

But let's focus on the facts that he presented.

The first is accurate - the moose population is in decline. Well, maybe just bull moose are in decline. Everything after that is propaganda, however.

Bob goes on to claim that nothing has been done to alter the decline - that's not true of course.  Every hunting regulation and every decision about habitat (road and subdivision development, forest fire control, etc) has had some degree of influence on the moose population.  It might be more accurate to say that nothing has been done that has increased the moose population.

But we really don't know if aerial shooting of wolves does much to increase the population either.  It might appear to be a logical assumption, but there have been no significant studies done in areas that have had this to see if it has actually had the results that the AK Board of Game claim will happen.

Don't you find that curious that the BoG, a panel of political appointees and comprised of mostly big game guides, doesn't want AK F&G to actually study the results?

The consensus, and this comes from the data that Bob claims is not necessarily inter-connected, is that loss of habitat is the primary reason that the moose population is on the decline.

And just how many road kills are there on the Kenai year in and year out - over 300 per year!  Maybe we are hunting the wrong predator.

Here is what is known and supported by years of data collecting.

1) Yes, by controlling predators (wolves and bears) there is usually an increase in moose population.  But long-term data suggest that the increase becomes limited by habitat.  An area can only support so many moose and other factors (weather, road kills here on the Kenai, hunting, disease) are significant.

2)Accurate studies of the effects of predator control are rare. Despite Bob's claim that other factors are not connected, they most certainly are.  Heck, Bob, rump fat indices measure how much browse the animals have access to.  You don't think the availability of food is an indication of moose survival rates?  Let's spell this one out.  Let's say predator control was done in an area and 50% of the predators were eliminated.  But lets say it was also a low-snow year and there was plenty of browse.  The next season there are more moose.  How much is attributed to predator control, how much to having plenty of food?  Long-term studies that examine all aspects of moose populations are absolutely necessary.  But since non-biologists are in charge of the BoG and AK DoF&G, funding to actually study the results have been cut and biologists must clear any and all reports and studies through the appointed political apparatchiks. 

Bob quotes Corey Rossi, the former head of AK DoF&G.  Remember him? He was the guy Palin hired to head that department, yet he would not qualify for an entry-level biologist position.  His background was promoting big game guiding.  That's it.  Check out Craig Medred's piece about how politicized the AK Dep't of F&G has become.

Of course, Cora Campbell, the current commissioner of that office is another political appointee without any real qualifications.

Bob goes on to mention the clause in the state constitution that states wildlife should be managed for maximum sustained yield, and for maximum benefit of the people.

But just what does that mean?  The only absolute is that increasing habitat will increase moose populations, yet Bob doesn't like the solutions to that (less development and more wildfires). The BoG is comprised entirely of big-game guides, maybe some one might argue that wildlife viewing (including wolves and bears) is a benefit to the people (tourism and such).

Make no mistake, Bob, whose background is as a special ed teacher (he's no scientist), is a tool of big game guide lobbyists whose only motivation is bringing wealthy big game hunters to Alaska.

Defining the Kenai: The Runoff Election

Just what is happening here?

The Peninsula Clarion poll has Fred and Mike running neck-to-neck.  Considering the Clarion doesn't have much readership outside of the Central Peninsula, and that Fred probably has his strongest support in Sterling, Nikiski, Kasilof and Ninilchik areas, I'm not too sure how accurate the poll is.  Again and again, I have to come back to the fact that Joe Miller, one of the most slimy politicians (aside from Jerry Ward) to run for office got, by far, the most votes of anyone for the US Senate than any other candidate last year.

How do you explain it, the support for Joe Miller and the support for Fred Sturman?   

Fred has run one of those old-timey campaigns and his Burma-shave style placards along the highway are folksy. But what the heck is Freddy saying?  Basically that government is bad, that we are paying too much for what we are getting, and that government employees are paid too much and don't work hard enough.

Maybe it's just me, but the borough seems to have very competent people running the day-to-day stuff.  We do get some whacked politicians, the current mayor would be one example and one or two council members might qualify for that description too.  People who don't have a firm grasp on how organizations work.

And in case you haven't really done any research, the taxes we pay here on the Kenai are among the lowest in the entire country and in most all of the incorporated areas of Alaska. I wonder where the folks like Fred say they are going to move to when they say they are going to move because taxes here are too high? 

We do have an apathetic voter base and Fred's base isn't apathetic.  Fred's base are the people who voted for Joe Miller.  Unlike Miller, I'd have to say that Sturman is at least sincere.  But just what has done to make the Kenai a better place?  Um, aside from bitchin' and moanin' on soundoff, pretty much nothing.  Hey Fred, wanna complain? - start a blog for goodness sake!  Has he been involved in any public service? No.  Nada, nothing.

I'm trying hard not to make a cheap shot here, but Fred is barely illiterate.  Please don't think he's going to actually read up on any issue.  Fred is also fairly computer illiterate.  Really, does anyone think he's going to be effective at doing anything but offering inane folksy advice on anything? If he even attempts to cut any service, you folks who didn't vote will come out in droves and whine about how your road needs plowed/repaired, how your local fire service needs improvement, how your kid's school needs some basic maintenance or some books.

Let's head off the problem and get out there and vote - if the typical 20-30% of folks vote, Fred's base will constitute about 1/2 of those voters.  It will be close.  If you are a teacher, in law enforcement, work for emergency services, if your child goes to a public school, if you work to make the Kenai a better place, if you want sanity to prevail, get out and vote.

It might be that we can only hope that we won't be SOL is that folks in Seward and Homer, where sanity holds a slight majority, vote in significant numbers.

You would think that after Carey's disaster of running the borough, folks would be fed up with incompetence.

Oh, well.  If Fred wins, it will be way easy to continue writing this blog.  I'll have plenty of material!

It's Fred vs Mike

All along, the borough mayor's race pit Mike Navarre vs the other candidates, but who would have guessed that Fred Sturman would have been the top of those five?

I guess I'm not really surprised by voters on the Kenai - just how many were snookered by Joe Miller after all?

The run-off will tell a lot about who we are here on the Kenai Peninsula as the two surviving candidates offer completely different visions for how government will work - or won't.

Fred is dedicated to cutting everything and that will fly until the consequences of doing so becomes a reality.  Just what will be cut?  What services will we do without?  As soon as it is something that impacts someone, and every cut will do so, the political carnage will begin.  Fred complains about high taxes, yet there is no place in the US where you will pay less taxes, especially when the PFD check gets factored in.  So, now that the focus is down to two candidates, maybe Fred should explicitly let us all know what he will cut.  What borough services will be eliminated?  Who will get pay cuts?  What roads won't be serviced?

It's only fair for Mike Navarre to present a clearer picture of what he will do as mayor as well.  He took money from lobbyists for both projects, so what is his stance on the Pebble and Chuitna mines?

The prime question for voters is simply do we want the Kenai to progress in a way that promotes a better quality life or do we want to do without those things that serve and protect us and make living here not such a bad thing.

With just 20% of the eligible voters casting ballots this last time, the direction the borough takes may very well be made by the minority.  Look at the fiasco of the Carey administration, I suspect that those errors will seem minor if Fred gets elected.

SOL in Seward and Homer

KDLL/KBBI had a story Monday morning about the Borough receiving about $4.5 million for roads from the state. At the borough assembly meetng in Homer, Milli Martin asked why none of the funds were going to the eastern/southern peninsula. Mayor Carey stated that the legislature stipulated that the money only go to Districts 33 & 34 - and then he said that actually, the representative from one of those districts - he wouldn't say which - told him they money was to be limited to those two districts or there would be no money at all. Carey said he didn't like the deal but that since some money beat no money, he took it. 33, of course, is Olson's district and 34 is Chenault's. 35 - Homer and Seward - is Paul Seaton's. Gee, you think maybe there's some vindictiveness going on there because Seaton challenged Parnell on oil tax rollbacks? It appears as though the knee-jerk conservatives are taking extra steps to push Seaton out by making him look ineffective to his constituents. It really looks like another example of elected officials putting petty partisan politics way ahead of the good of the people. C'mon, folks - you remember the People??? Anyway -  so much for "neighborliness".

Let's see - no natural gas for Homer or Seward, no extra money for roads, and a borough mayor willing to sell out a good portion of his constituents. Gotta love republicans!

Union for the Rich

I hope that you have all been following Jenny Neyman's most excellent reporting in the Redoubt Reporter on the international students who have come to the central peninsula on a cultural work visa, only to be left stranded with little work and no place to stay.  If you haven't read the articles do so here and here.

If you've been following the Republican presidential debates, each candidate is tripping over themselves saying that we need to get out of the way of business and cut regulations.

But the reality is that when there is little oversight, abuses will happen and this visa fiasco is just one example.  Businesses, including local ones, have exploited lax student visa regulations by hiring these foreign youngsters at below the going rate, providing crowded living arrangements (if any arrangements are even made) and deducting incidental fees from wages.  Students in the Hershey chocolate plant in Hershey PA, have been hired at the minimum wage so that the company doesn't have to pay local workers a decent (but still low) hourly rate.  Then Hershey and other companies dock the students' paychecks for minor expenses.  Kids end up making $1/hour.  Things are not much better here.  These are students that have already paid $3000-$6000 to a company to come here.  Thank goodness for decent people like Connie Goltz (an Australian also here on a visa) and Danette Howland to take these students in and show them that some folks US also have a conscience.

So, the real reason Republicans are for cutting oversight regulations is so the special interests they pander to can make more money.  In this instant, these companies make more money because they can hire these students for less money than they can hire Americans.  That then increases the US unemployment rate.  Why do Republicans hate average Americans?

It's curious too that in the banking business, those countries that have strict regulations like Canada have weathered the economic downturn of the last few years.  The ones like the US, Iceland and Ireland where there was little oversight, got hammered.  Remember the Saving and Loan debacle under the Reagan administration?   The US cut back the regulations and almost immediately that industry collapsed and that instigated a financial crisis.

But here we go again, the republicans are all for cutting regulations.

But lets call the Republican Party for what it is - the union for the rich. They are ready to sink the economy even more than it already is just to preserve the tax breaks the rich get for private jets and hummers.

Somehow they've manage to manipulate the teabaggers and religious fundamentalists and have convinced these groups that policies that protect the health, welfare and safety of ordinary Americans are not possible.  But making the rich even richer is what it is all about.

Ear to the Ground

The Kenai Borough's mayoral race had two mentions in this Sunday's ADN's Ear .  First up was a bit about how a fund-raiser for Mike Navarre had across-the-aisle supporters including  some influential Rs such as Lisa Murkowski, Gail Phillips and Arliss Sturgulewski.

Considering that Dale Bagely, the leading R in the race, was a strong backer of the scoundrel, Joe Miller, it's no surprise that Lisa might back someone like Mike.

The other mention the Kenai received was Fred Sturman's malapropism (I hope) when he stated on the KDLL political forum, that the Kenai was a monogamous stream.  He's not the only candidate that has trouble pronouncing anadromous.   Didn't another candidate say that the river was androgynous?  I guess it's all about sex, so they are at least on-topic.

Candidate Deadlines and Class Warfare in Soldotna

Monday is the last day to file for the various elected borough and city positions that will be open this fall.  Predictably, many announced candidates are holding off making it official.  For borough mayor, only Dale Bagley and Gary Superman have put in the paperwork although there's no reason to think that the remaining four will change their minds.  I hope that they are all in as it promises to be entertaining.

Here in Soldotna, Peter Micciche is seeking a second term as city mayor, there's an article in today's PC with the announcement.  You have to give Peter his props, he's done more than a fair job as mayor, but to read article, you would think he's done so without any missteps. Micciche reinvents history with his account of the cemetery issue.  He was one of the driving forces to keep the cemetery from being established at the Redoubt site.  As Peter laments in the article, if folks don't like the direction government is going, they should get involved and that's just what happened.  Four folks not happy with Peter ran for the city council and when elected, forced Peter to change his position.  To his credit, the mayor has played nicely since.

Maybe it's a small issue, but the sweetheart deal that Larry Semmens, the Soldotna city manager got is a bit slimy.  Semmens was allowed to retire, but then was hired back as the manager - double dipping.  Now, an ordinary state, borough, city or school employee is NOT allowed to do the same thing (although temporary contracts for retired personnel to fill in for a regular employee who is sick or on emergency leave are allowed).  ONLY the bosses are given this sort of exception and allowed to be retired and work full time at the job they retired from.  Why?  Well, who the heck knows?

Why is this slimy?  Well, when one is employed in a public-sector job, both the employee and the employer pay into the retirement and health care programs.  Those contributions keep some money coming into the retirement and health care systems and help keep it solvent.  Now, Larry gets to collect his retirement and get health care for himself and his family and pays nothing into the system.  Oh yeah, and the deal increases the unemployment by one as some qualified candidate that would help pay into the system does not get hired.

It's the Chilkoot Charlie philosophy:  "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you."  I think it is also the Republican/Tea Party way.  They want ALL of the benefits, but damn if they are going to contribute. 

Now Larry has done a fine job as manager, but how can his special deal be the right thing to do?

There are two city council seats B and F are open.  Rumor has it that Pete Sprague will file for Shea Hutchings seat F.  No word if Brenda or someone else will file for B.

6 Pack

The salmon are in the freezer, most of the big summer chores are almost done and maybe, just maybe, there will be some time to devote to this blog once again.

The PC reported that there are now six candidates for borough mayor.  New to the field is Tim O'Brien, a retired oil patch worker from Nikiski.  Of course, that follows last week's announcement that former borough mayor, Mike Navarre, entered the contest after he was able to convince Ron Long to drop out of the race.

Ron and Mike had enough common sense to realize that they would be competing for the same voters.  Ron, from Seward, and despite being on the borough assembly and its president for one term, really didn't have the name recognition on the peninsula and wasn't interested in schilling for votes, so it probably wasn't too hard for Mike to talk him into withdrawing from the race.

O'Brien doesn't seem to have any clear reason why he is running, well, except that his friends convinced him to giving it a try.

Right now, despite six candidates, I see a three-way race between Dale Bagley, Gary Superman and Mike Navarre.  Debbie Brown and Fred Strurman won't get anyone other than ACT folks to vote for them.

Here are the links to each candidiate's web site:
Mike Navarre: Nothing but press releases right now
Dale Bagley: Some info regarding his past accomplishments, light on what he might do.
Debbie Brown: Big on ideas, little substance on her site.
Fred Sturman: Fred's got one idea - cut spending.  Not one idea of exactly how or what he would cut.
Gary Superman: Nothing here right now other than his announcement that he is running.
Tim O'Brien: No web site yet, but there is a Tim O'Brien running for mayor of New Britian that has one!

Get Well Soon

The CPGH is in the news again and there are two interesting developments.  The first story to break is that Mayor Carey has been given the green light to enter private negotiations to rewrite the lease and operating agreements the borough and the hospital currently have.

In typical Carey Speak, the mayor is quoted in the CP as saying “One of the things we agreed to … was that while we are involved in discussions, we won’t give details of what we are talking about...Basically we want to get some changes made and then once we get them made, we are going to let people know what they are and why."

So, AFTER the changes are made, he'll let the public know what they were and why we need them.

Isn't that backwards?  If the changes are good and needed, shouldn't we be on board with the process from the get-go?  And please let me know of ANY decision Dave has made in his tenure that made sense.  Do we really want HIM to be making these decisions?

The follow-up story is that Ryan Smith is resigning from his post as CEO of the hospital to take a similar position at a smaller hospital in Wyoming.  Maybe there is a connection, maybe not.

What I find curious is that here we are in the land where Joe Miller gets more votes than anyone, yet most every resident wants the borough government to retain ownership and control over the hospital. Maybe there is the sense that despite how high medical costs already are, if the hospital was to entirely become a private enterprise, the costs of medical care would skyrocket and maybe the level of care with plummet.

(Not) Waiting For Superman

I think I should tie each of my blog titles to some song.  The last posting about Dave Carey not seeking re-election could have featured Paranoid by Black Sabbath.  I'd have to go with the Flaming Lips Waiting for Superman, something a bit more innocuous, for the news that Gary Superman has decided to make it a menage a cinq for the borough mayor job.

I don't think anyone is surprised by Gary's announcement and each candidate offers the voters something quite different.

First to announce was Dale Bagley. Dale is sane, which is a not a claim all of the candidates can make.  One of the most worrisome things about Dale was that he ran Joe Miller's Kenai Peninsula campaign.  Joe has been one of the sleaziest, dishonest, self-serving, full-of-crap office-seekers since Jerry Ward.  That someone would back Miller despite all the BS, is beyond belief.  Oh, wait a minute, most all of the voters from the peninsula voted for Miller.

Then you have Debie Brown.  Anyone who has heard her testify at a meeting knows three things: she can't ever get to the point or be clear; she has a whacked sense of what is important; and she cannot make the claim that she is sane.

Ron Long is the sole progressive of the lot, a guy that makes decisions by learning as much as he can about an issue and then applying some logical thought to the process.  But so far, he is running a lack-luster race and doesn't really seem to have direction.  He's not that well-known in the central or south peninsula and that could be problematic.

Fred Sturman, along with Ms Brown, a fixture at borough assembly meetings, has one thing to say- times are tough and we have to cut everything.  Fred wants us to live without schools, roads, police, firefighters, EMTs, garbage dumps, hospitals, and any sort of regulation. Good luck with that.

And now Gary Superman is in the mix. Gary transformed a bit when he was on the assembly and actually seem to come around and understand the purpose of the borough government.  One thing I want to know is what he did to get the ACT people to dislike him so much? As far as I'm concerned, being on the ACT hit list is a good thing!

Carey's Notion - Blame it on the Aristocrats

It's old news by a day, but I am sure most of you are aware that Carey has decided not to seek a second term as borough mayor.  It's been a rough first term for Dave: hiring inexperienced and unqualified people and giving them huge pay raises; having his chief of staff getting caught in a questionable business deal with the borough; getting blasted by the out-going emergency manager for the Mayor's inept running the borough; flip-flopping on most major decisions; palling around with terrorists (Schaeffer Cox and the North Road Militia) and the open-carry crowd; and having students tell him that cutting funding to KPC wasn't a good idea.

So, Dave has bowed out of the race.  It's a tough job and certainly one where it is impossible please everyone.  But rather than bow out with grace, honor and self-respect, Carey, in his official statement that you can read here, chose to take a paranoid approach and assign blame to various bogeymen for his failings. 

First, and in typical Carey fashion, he wraps himself in the American flag as if he has sole ownership and understanding of what it means.  The implication is, of course, that if you disagree with Dave, you are not patriotic.  When he had the fire hydrants painted red, white and blue as Mayor of SOLdotna, I wondered if it was still OK for dogs to pee on them? I guess this will be the last Progress Day parade where Dave carries a 49-star flag and lectures us all about it.

Dave is also proud of getting 64% of the vote when he was elected borough mayor, but of course there are lies, damn lies and statistics.  The voter turnout was dismally low when he ran, so another way of looking at it is that about 66% of the eligible voters didn't vote for him. 

Using some Carey-logic, he concludes that it would be unethical and would give him an unfair advantage to seek re-election while currently serving as mayor because he was elected to serve everyone. As mayor, he might make a decision these next few months that could make people happy, so that would go against his vow to God.

Huh?!? 

It is my understanding that as a politician, if you can make good decisions most of the time, that becomes a reason to seek re-election.  Then you can stand on your record of accomplishments and an opponent would have to have a darn good reason to run against you.

Right now, four people are in the race because they think they could do a better job.

Then Dave blasts the 'aristocrats' on the previous borough assembly.  Aristocrats?  Like Gary Superman, a North Road bar owner?  Pete Sprague, a retired mailman?, Ron Long, a small-business owner from Seward?, Paul Fisher, a half-asleep assembly member?  Or maybe Millie Martin, the grandmother from the south peninsula?  None of these folks meet any definition of aristocrat, but they do all have one thing in common, they (maybe with one exception, sorry PF), are a heck of a lot smarter than Dave.  And they, with one exception (sorry again, PF) had the audacity to challenge Dave when Carey would make a bone-head move. In other words, most of them (yep, let's leave PF out of this one too) did their job.  Most all would try hard to follow Robert's Rules of Order when conducting assembly meetings, something Gary K, the current assembly president, should experiment with.

Carey goes on to tout the mantra that defines a simplistic political solution to problems that we have here in Alaska and the US - the government spends too much. All right, already.  But what to cut?  If you don't think some service is necessary, someone else does. So, when Dave proposed cutting funding to KPC, despite a voter mandate to provide that funding, students, faculty and other concerned citizens protested, just like that Paul Revere guy shooting off bells and warning the redcoats.

How did Dave respond?  He hired a lawyer to intimidate those young punks that were intimidating him.  And then Dave gives the lawyer a plug in his statement.  Isn't THAT unethical?

Dave directs his final paranoid delusion towards Gary Turner, the head of KPC.  The assembly has an ordinance to consider that would prohibit politicians from being on the payroll of an organization that receives borough funding. That sort of makes sense - you don't want conflict-of-interest issues to come up.  It's all about ethics, of course. It could appear that some quid pro quo was in effect by steering money to some entity while that entity paid you.  What's funny here is that Dave was trying to cut funding for KPC and at the same time, wanting to stay on that gravy train.  It just came back to bite him in the ass.

But don't expect Dave to really understand ethics or ethical behavior.  Maybe a few years in the seminary is just what the dude needs.