JUNEAU — As a former Board of Fisheries appointee heads to court on Tuesday, Gov. Bill Walker is again wading into fisheries politics with the announcement of new appointments to the board.
It is the third time Walker has attempted to fill seats on the board that sets fishing regulations and allocations for the state. His previous appointees have resigned, failed to be confirmed by the legislature or stepped down prematurely. All appointments are subject to legislative confirmation.
Among the three appointments are newcomers, Al Cain, a former Alaska Wildlife Trooper, hunting and fishing guide Israel Payton and Soldotna conservationist Robert Ruffner, an environmental scientist who had previously been appointed to the board but failed to make it out of legislative confirmation.
Ruffner did not reapply for the vacant seat, but he said the governor called to ask if he’d be willing to go through the nomination process again. Ruffner agreed, but he said he hoped the political infighting that characterized his 2015 nomination had cooled.
“I really want to see less contention and less drama associated with the nominations,” he said. “We had some turnover and there’s bad stuff that happened last year. But I’d like to see us looking forward.”
Walker first appointed Ruffner last March after his first appointment to the board —Roland Maw— resigned after allegations surfaced that he had falsified residency information in Montana. Maw now has similar charges in Alaska. He is due in court in Juneau on Tuesday where he faces 12 felony and five misdemeanor counts of theft and unsworn falsification over his applications for six years of Permanent Fund Dividends and his applications for commercial fishing permits.
During his 2015 confirmation, segments of the fishing industry sought to frame Ruffner as a nominee who disturbed an unwritten balance on the board between commercial, sportfishing and subsistence-fishing representatives. In a letter to the legislature, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, a powerful sportfishing lobby based on the central Kenai Peninsula, framed him as sympathetic to the commercial fishing industry. The Legislature voted against approving Ruffner by a 30-29 margin.
Ruffner said he’d likely not change much about how he went through the confirmation process, though he plans to reach out to the contingent of legislators who voted against him.
“The strongest opposition came out of the Valley and I will certainly talk with them, again to reassure them,” Ruffner said, referring to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. “I’m not trying to change things in a dramatic way, to the detriment of the Valley and that’s clearly what they thought was going on somewhere behind the scenes. I don’t know how they got that idea or why they got it.”
Payton was born in Skwentna and grew up living a subsistence lifestyle, according to his biography in a media release on the appointments. Currently he lives in Wasilla where he is a member of the Mat-Su Fish and Game Advisory Committee and regularly participates in the board meeting process.
Cain, of Anchorage, is well-versed in Board of Fisheries processes. He spent 15 years as an advisor to the board on enforcement issues.
Cain said he applied to the board because he wanted to help the board wade through the complex issues it faces, including contentious fisheries allocation issues.
“My biggest skillset is I know a great deal about Alaska’s fisheries, and I care about them and want them to be managed and protected for everyone,” Cain said.
