Alaska DPS seeks project manager, shifts marine enforcement post as FY26 budget adds funds for aircraft and trooper infrastructure

The Alaska Department of Public Safety told the House Finance subcommittee on the department’s FY26 budget that it is seeking staff and budget increases to maintain aircraft operations, support wildlife troopers and manage long-delayed facilities work while a Southeast enforcement vessel is replaced.

The department requested a $400,000 increment for the aircraft section “to accommodate increased costs for fuel, and parts, supplies,” Diana Thornton, administrative services director for the Department of Public Safety, told the committee. Thornton said department aircraft flew about 7,000 hours and “about 700,000 miles.”

The budget presentation included pay and operating increments for wildlife troopers: a $323,000 supplement to the Talkeetna post, a $300,000 base increase for law-enforcement supplies specific to wildlife troopers, and an additional roughly $106,900 for a workstation and vehicle for a wildlife trooper.

The presentation also showed a decrement in the marine enforcement component tied to removal of a boat officer position the department plans to repurpose. Commissioner James Cockrell told lawmakers the specific boat-officer post had remained vacant despite advertisement; because the department has decommissioned the enforcer vessel, the position has no current vessel assignment. Cockrell said the department is moving that position into the commissioner’s office and combining it with another PCN to create a capital project manager post.

“We really struggle in long range projects because we’re not project managers. I mean, we’re police officers,” Cockrell said. He told the committee the department needs a “central point of contact, someone with the skills necessary to manage multiple projects across the state” to oversee Trooper Housing projects, HUD-funded improvements at posts and deferred maintenance the department has been unable to track effectively.

Cockrell described the Fairbanks post as a priority, calling it long overdue for upgrades: “We’ve basically gotten other than some deferred maintenance, it’s fallen apart. We’re looking at the same issues with [Soldotna]. All our infrastructure within the department for the most part … we’re suffering.” (Transcript spelled some community names differently.)

On the Southeast enforcement vessel replacement process, Thornton and Cockrell said the department closed an RFP for design of the new vessel and expects construction to take about two to two-and-a-half years. Cockrell said the department will likely return to the Legislature in about that timeframe to request restoring the position to the vessel once the new boat is ready.

Representative questions elicited operational detail: the department said other marine positions continue to staff vessels in Kodiak and elsewhere and that the single vacant position was not essential while the enforcer is out of service. Thornton told the committee the department would repurpose the PCN now and seek to restore it when the replacement vessel is operational.

Committee chair and members asked that the department follow up with specifics on which PCNs were moved and the schedule for the vessel replacement; Cockrell said he would provide more detailed information to the committee.

Ending: The department framed the proposed capital project manager position as intended to accelerate multiple long-running infrastructure projects, including Trooper Housing and post upgrades funded in part by HUD and other sources. Lawmakers asked for more precise PCN tracking and a timeline for the Southeast enforcement vessel replacement as the committee continues its FY26 budget review.