The 2022 General Election is around the corner, and it’s more important than ever for rural Alaskans to make their voices heard and get out and vote. In the race for U.S. Senate, I’m ranking Lisa Murkowski first on my ballot. Lisa understands rural issues, and she’s prioritized enhancing our public safety and infrastructure. She’s been a strong voice for our children, our fisheries, and our communities. I’m grateful to have her as our Senator, and I’m voting to make sure she continues serving rural communities for another six years.
Early in-person voting is happening now through November 7th in many of our communities. If you requested an absentee ballot, make sure you mail your ballot, apply 84 cents of postage, and postmark it on or before Election Day. Get out and vote!
Mike Williams Sr.
Akiak, AK
KRSA helps support Western Alaska
Alaskans come together when our neighbors are in need, and today (October 28, 2022), Western Alaska needs our help. September’s Typhoon Merbok devastated the many communities in that region including the loss of all fishing supplies, stored fish caches, smokehouses, and boats. These supplies are used not only in daily life but for their way of life; these communities will face years of rebuilding as a result of this storm. KRSA is pleased to announce that we have made a $10,000 donation to help ease the burden our neighbors to the west face. We encourage anyone who is able to donate through the Alaska Community Foundation’s Western Alaska Disaster Recovery Fund.
About KRSA: KRSA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit fishery-conservation organization that works to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of fish resources in the Kenai River and elsewhere in Alaska, through education and advocacy of sport and personal-use fisheries and the promotion of science-based fish management.
Kenai River Sportfishing Association
Soldotna, AK
3,000 of our Alaskan children are in crisis
As the drama of the political season unfolds, none of the headlines or debate discussions have addressed true news, like the State of Alaska’s Children in Need of Aid Crisis. Alaskan politicians have not been able to resolve this epidemic that has plagued our state for at least 15 years and it’s not front-page news.
The State of Alaska’s new go-to agency, the State of Alaska Division of Family and Community Services was commissioned in July. This same agency was previously DFYS (Department of Family & Youth Services) and OCS (Office of Children’s Services). The name has changed; however, not enough changes have remedied the fact that over 3,000 of our Alaskan children are in crisis, and yet Juneau never talks about it. Why aren’t these alarming statistics front page news in the newspaper today?
Yes, there are over 3,000 Alaskan children in state custody. This means the State of Alaska has taken control away from 6,000 parents to raise their own children. A large percent of these children is Alaskan Native from our rural communities. To visualize these 3000 young people, imagine the entire population of Kotzebue or an entire cruise ship full of children. You and I are responsible for their safety. And yet, many of them are anything but safe. These children deserve, at a minimum, to have safe, stable, loving homes.
While on the campaign trail, I learned of one 7-year-old child, Isaac. Isaac has been a ward of the state, off and on, his whole 7 years of life. He has been in 27 foster homes, spreading from his home in rural Alaska to foster homes 1000 miles away from his village. He told his social worker he wants to be “OCS” when he grows up as he was moved from one foster home to another. This is Isaacs’ normal. Why? We pulled him from his family long ago and we are responsible 24/7/365 to care, nurture and hopefully see he is loved.
How can this developing child not be further injured by being endlessly shuffled through 27 strange homes? And when he is moved from one home to another, garbage bags are used as his luggage. Garbage bags. It is humiliating for me, as an Alaskan, to know we use garbage bags to transport this little guy’s precious treasures.
This is real life happening right under our noses. Why don’t we ever hear about it? These child cases are all classified “confidential” by the courts and are closed the public. With today’s system, a family member can harm a child, and even though OCS is aware of it, the perpetrator is rarely charged and held accountable. And because no one hears a peep, the abuse can continue. And it does.
Every Alaskan could share a story about this silent epidemic. In a group setting, just bring up the words Foster Care, OCS, or Child Protection. You will quickly realize that children in need of aid in Alaska grow up, they become a human trafficking targets and a statistic in the correctional and mental health systems. This is grim. This is tough. This is where Alaskans need to get tough.
Every Alaskan I know cares about children. Our state does not adequately support our foster homes, so we do not have enough of them. Our state agencies are not partnering with the rural communities, native corporations, and tribes, so we are constantly battling one another.
There is a revolving door shortage of Child Protection Officers/Social Workers, but this is not a surprise. For $24 an hour, these super-people must fly into communities through every kind of weather, enter homes, investigate cases, write legal pleadings, testify in court, and take kids from families then get up the next day and do it again.
And yet, for the past two decades, the Division of Family & Community Services (formerly DFYS, OCS) has enjoyed the biggest budgets of public money in the state. Where do the millions of dollars go? Let us dig into the line items of those budgets and see how responsible Juneau has been with public funds set aside for children like Isaac. The more I learn of this shattered system of our children in crisis, the more I am convinced that Juneau is ignoring these very tough issues.
As Governor, Children in Need of Aid will receive my immediate attention. I am ready to shake up Juneau and get this crisis in the forefront. Alaskans have been ghosted on this subject for years, it is time for transparency relating to this epidemic.
As Governor, I will find the answer to these questions of “why” and I will demand cooperation with the communities and tribes of Alaska. Tough leadership is needed more than ever now in the State of Alaska. We cannot be proud of the Alaskan Children in Need of Aid Crisis, but it is time this makes the front-page news. Isaac and the other 2,999 children are counting on us.
Charlie Pierce
Candidate for Governor
Alaskans: Finish the Ballot!
With the advent of a new ranked choice voting system for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, and other political offices, you might overlook the last part of the ballot — the part dealing with retention of judges. In Alaska, judges must periodically appear on the ballot to allow the voters to decide whether they should continue in office, but these judicial retention elections are non-partisan, and judges generally are not allowed to campaign. Don’t be caught by surprise. Do your research on the judges early and finish the ballot.
The judges you will see on your ballot in November went through a rigorous, nonpartisan, and merit-based selection process to be appointed. Alaska’s judicial merit selection system finds the best qualified candidates for the governor to choose from, then gives the voters the last say by requiring every judge within three years of appointment to go before the voters for another term in office. And to help voters with this important decision, the Judicial Council — a citizen body created by the Alaska Constitution — gathers an immense amount of information about the judges’ performances and makes it available to the electorate before the election.
Depending on which judicial district you live in, you will be asked to vote “yes” or “no” on up to twenty individual judges. But you don’t have to guess about which judges deserve your “yes” vote. The Judicial Council has exhaustively surveyed all of the judges’ performances. It polled those most familiar with each judge’s performance — court system employees, police, attorneys, jurors, and others. It also reviewed each judge’s professional activities, financial disclosure statements, the number of times a party filed a peremptory challenge against the judge, and the timeliness of the judge’s decisions.
After gathering all this information, the Judicial Council then held public hearings on the judges’ performance and accepted written comments. Following this rigorous review, it voted unanimously to recommend that all the judges be retained. The information the Judicial Council gathered is publicly available to you to learn more about each judge.
Just who makes up the Judicial Council? Six volunteer citizens, three appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature, and three attorneys appointed by the Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar Association. The current council is made up of a retired Anchorage police officer who capped his career as spokesperson for the Anchorage Police Department, a neonatal intensive care nurse from Anchorage, a business owner from Kenai, and attorneys from Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. The chair is the Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, who votes only in the very rare case of a tie, and there has never been a tie on a retention vote. For all of the judges up for retention in November, the Council found all met performance standards, and it recommends that they all be retained for another term in office.
The Judicial Council’s endorsement seems like a pretty good indication that these judges deserve your “Yes” vote. But don’t take our word for it. Go to www.ajc.state.ak.us, review some or all of the information there, and then decide. And after you do that, finish the ballot and cast your votes in the judicial retention election.
Members of the Alaska Bar Association’s Fair and Impartial Courts Committee: Adam Alexander, Elaine Andrews, Ruth Botstein, Grant Callow, Jeff Davis, Zoe Eisberg, Stephanie Harrod, Jahna Lindemuth, Erin Dougherty Lynch, Don McClintock, Sarah Melton, Brett Watts, Matthew Widmer
