House fisheries committee advances bill to reshape Board of Fisheries appointments

The House Special Committee on Fisheries on April 8 advanced House Bill 125, an act relating to membership of the Board of Fisheries, after adopting one amendment and rejecting another. The committee voted to report the bill out of committee as amended with an attached fiscal note.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Jimmy, was before the committee for a third hearing. Chair Stutes said it was the committee’s intent, "with the will of the committee, to move House Bill 125 from fisheries." Representative Vance moved the amendment the committee ultimately adopted as Amendment 1.

Amendment 1 reinserts statutory language (statute 16.05.221(a)) specifying that the governor appoint board members "on the basis of interest in public affairs, good judgment, knowledge, and the ability in the field of action of the board, and with a view to providing diversity of interest and points of view in the membership." The amendment also preserves a seven-member board and the seat breakdown described in the amendment: two seats representing commercial fishing, two representing sport fishing, two representing subsistence fishing and one seat for the scientific community, while removing prescriptive nomination requirements that had named AFN for subsistence seats and NOAA for the science seat and replacing those with a general qualification of "knowledge and experience in the fishery." Representative McCabe said the change shifts focus "away from politics and start[s] focusing on fish," and Representative Copp said he favored removing the NOAA nomination requirement in favor of candidates with fisheries knowledge.

Two additional amendments were raised and discussed. Representative Vance offered a hybrid regional/user-group amendment (Amendment 2) that he later withdrew after committee discussion and concern that it could be "too prescriptive" and potentially be gamed to stack the board. Representative Vance said he brought the proposal to place the discussion on the public record and then withdrew it.

Amendment 3 would have directed the governor to give preference to candidates who had served on regional advisory committees (ACs); proponents said the intent was to recognize advisory-committee members' process knowledge. Several members raised concerns that giving formal preference to AC members could narrow the candidate pool or introduce localized bias. Joe Felkel, legislative liaison for the Department of Fish and Game, testified that "there's nothing that requires the ACs to have a designated seat like that. It it's kind of up to them how they determine their memberships." The committee requested a roll call on Amendment 3; the vote was three in favor and three opposed, and the amendment failed on a tie.

After the amendment votes, Representative Edgmon moved to report House Bill 125, version 34-LS0696 back out of committee "as amended with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note." With no objection, the committee reported the bill out of the House Fisheries Committee as amended and attached the fiscal note. Chair Stutes closed the meeting and asked members to remain to sign paperwork related to making the bill a committee bill for CFAB.

The bill has completed three hearings in the committee and carries the committee’s recommendation as amended. The transcript shows the committee debated the balance between user-group representation, regional representation and the desire for appointees with statewide rather than purely local perspectives.