SITKA — Shareholders of a Sitka corporation formed under the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act have expressed concern about the financial stability of the organization.
About 100 Shee Atika Corp. shareholders met over the weekend to share their grievances, The Sitka Sentinel reported (http://bit.ly/2kYBZbm) Wednesday.
One of them, CeeJay Johnson of Washington state, said the group wants Shee Atika CEO Ken Cameron to step down. She also called for more transparency in board affairs and said the group is worried the corporation could go under due to losses since Cameron took over.
“A lot of times when shareholders have concerns they are ignored,” Johnson said. “We just want to work on getting it back on track.”
Financial records show Shee Atika had negative consolidated net income between 2011 and 2015, when the net income was minus $2 million.
Cameron, who is also the corporation’s president and chairman of the group’s board of directors, didn’t attend Saturday’s meeting, but said the corporation is open to speaking with shareholders.
“We will talk with our shareholders, our door is open,” Cameron said. “People do make appointments to come and speak with us. We are always glad to speak with shareholders and we always give them a high priority.”
Last year, Congress approved the purchase of the Shee Atika land on Admiralty Island for return to the Admiralty Island National Monument.
Cameron said in a Jan. 13 letter to shareholders that the corporation received $4 million of the $18.3 million sale price for two parcels of Cube Cove land and that it will work to sell the remainder of the property as funds are appropriated by lawmakers.
“Therefore, the Board has taken action to assure that the proceeds from the Cube Cove land sale will be used wisely and in compliance with the mission statement for all generations of shareholders,” the letter states. “In order to accomplish this, the Board has taken a hard look at expenditures.”
The letter, which was also posted on the Shee Atika website, listed cuts and reductions totaling $1 million. Among them were the elimination of board and staff travel, training, holiday parties and memberships in the Southeast Conference and the Alaska Chamber of Commerce.
The board also decided to return to its past practice of paying dividends to shareholders once a year instead of twice, according to the letter.
Shareholder Tom Gambell has drafted a resolution as a member of Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 1 that asks the Shee Atika board to remove Cameron.
“There are decisions being made without us,” Gambell said. “I felt that if we didn’t have a seat at the table we were probably on the menu.”
