News Release

March 25, 2003

Citizens' council elects new officers, seats new members

Steve Lewis of Seldovia was re-elected president of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council at the group's March quarterly meeting in Anchorage.

Lewis has represented the City of Seldovia on the council since March 1999, and served as vice president before being elected president in March of last year.

The other offices of the council's executive committee were filled as follows:

Vice president: Marilynn Heddell, representing the City of Whittier.
Secretary: Blake Johnson, representing the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Treasurer: Patience Andersen Faulkner, representing Cordova District Fishermen United.
Members at large: Paul McCollum, City of Homer; Tom Copeland, Oil Spill Region Environmental Coalition; Jane Eisemann, City of Kodiak.

The council board also seated three new members.

John French will represent the City of Seward, replacing long-time member Dennis Lodge.

Kristin Smith will represent the City of Cordova. She replaces Margy Johnson, another long-time board member, who has taken a job with the Murkowski administration as Director of International Trade.

Tom Jensen will represent the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, replacing Dave Marquez. Jensen is returning to the board, having previously represented the state chamber for several years.

In other business, the board selected the firm of Walker and Levesque of Anchorage as its attorneys, replacing Gross and Burke of Juneau. Bill Walker, a principal of Walker and Levesque, is a previous member of the council board, where he represented the City of Valdez.

The Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council is an independent non-profit corporation whose mission is to promote environmentally safe operation of the Valdez Marine Terminal and the oil tankers that use it. The council's work is guided by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and its contract with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The council's 18 member organizations are communities in the region affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, as well as aquaculture, commercial fishing, environmental, Native, recreation, and tourism groups.