Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1985, 1995 and 2005. They include names, AP style and other content of their eras.
This week in 1985, in an effort to save $125 million during the rest of the fiscal year, Gov. Bill Sheffield today directed state agencies to reduce travel, contracting and equipment purchases, and clamped a partial hiring freeze on state government. Sheffield announced the money-saving plan this morning at a meeting of his cabinet. He asked each commissioner to find vacant state jobs, called position control numbers (PCNs), identify which are essential and freeze hiring for those that aren’t. In addition, the governor wants to get rid of vacant unfunded or unused positions, prohibit additional temporary positions and prohibit using money earmarked for salaries for other purposes such as travel or buying equipment.
Today while the state government is also facing a deficit, there is also a chronic and widespread shortage of employees. As a result, one of the primary savings proposals being considered by lawmakers is reducing the amount of the Permanent Fund Dividend.
Original Story: “Sheffield orders new $125-million cost-cutting plan,” by Kirk McAllister. 2/12/1985.
This week in 1995, after 20 years, Petersburg’s Betty Marvin still remembers her dismay when she discovered she could not be a part of the great hope for Natives — village corporations. Marvin is one of the “landless” Natives who live in one of five Southeast communities not eligible to form a village corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, says he is trying to change that. Last fall he introduced a bill that would create five new corporations for landless communities and give each one 36,000 to 96,000 acres of federal land. The new corporations would be in Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee and Wrangell. Besides benefiting Natives, Murkowski hopes the legislation will be a boon for Southeast’s economy, said Chuck Kleeschulte, the senator’s press secretary. The proposed legislation stipulates that any timber harvested by landless Native corporations must be processed by Southeast mills. Timber owned by the original Native corporations is under no such restriction, and the export of unprocessed logs to Far East markets has angered many who want to see pulp and sawmill jobs in Southeast. Environmentalists, meanwhile, charge that Murkowski is using Natives to open up more land for logging.
Today the landless Natives issue continues, with Murkowski’s daughter Lisa now among those trying to pass legislation, such as a bill to remove 115,200 acres of public land from the Tongass National Forest and deed them to five new Native “urban” corporations.
Original Story: “‘Landless Natives’ hope this is their year,” by Lori Thomson. 2/14/1995.
This week in 2005, ex-Capitol security guard Dan Bussard expected to “maybe get a reprimand” for writing a letter to the editor about legislators drinking alcohol at the state Capitol. “I wasn’t expecting to get fired,” he said on Friday. “It’s my freedom of speech, and I should be able to express my point of view.” But the Legislative Affairs Agency, which canned Bussard, pointed to agency rules about guards not leaking information to the media. “He violated that,” said Pam Varni, the agency’s executive director. “And we were having other performance problems (with him).” No one disputes that some legislators and staff members tipple now and then in their Capitol offices. But lawmakers said it happens after-hours and not nearly as often as Bussard said. Bussard’s letter appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Juneau Empire. It carried his name as the author but did not identify him as a security guard at the state Capitol. “Do you know who can and does drink on the job? Our elected state officials, that’s who. … On any given afternoon it is not hard to find several people in different offices sitting around having a drink,” Bussard’s letter said. Alcohol is not allowed in other state buildings. But the Legislature makes its own rules for the Capitol, and alcohol is permitted. Some legislators said they work long days and don’t mind a drink with colleagues.
Original Story: “Critical Capitol guard is fired,” by Sean Cockerham. 2/13/2005.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
