The council held its annual board meeting in Valdez during the first week of May. Among other business, new board officers were elected for the year.
The 2014-2015 executive committee includes:
• President: Amanda Bauer, representing the City of Valdez
• Vice President: Thane Miller, representing Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation
• Treasurer: Jim Herbert, from the City of Seward
• Secretary: Cathy Hart, representing the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association
Walt Parker, 10 year council board representative for the Oil Spill Region Environmental Coalition, seems to have made a contribution to just about everything Alaskan over the years. He’s had a hand in urban planning, education, transportation, fisheries, telecommunications, and land use planning, and the oversight of oil and gas operations all over Alaska and the Arctic.
Much of the major federal legislation involving Alaska, including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act of 1973, the National Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act of 1980, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 has Parker’s fingerprints on it.
John Devens, Sr, executive director of the council from 1998 to 2009, passed away at his home in Copper Center, Alaska on June 13.
Devens was the mayor of Valdez when the Exxon Valdez tanker hit Bligh Reef, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound.
Devens headed the “Oiled Mayors,” a group of elected officials from Exxon Valdez-affected communities that banded together after the spill.
Iver Malutin, former council board member representing the Kodiak Village Mayors Association, passed away June 25 at the age of 82.
Malutin was on the council board from May 2008 until he resigned from the board in January 2013.
In addition to the citizens’ council, Malutin volunteered on a number of other boards and commissions, including an appointment by Governor Frank Murkowski to the Alaska Commission on Aging, where he worked to promote collaboration between stakeholder agencies to improve health care services for Alaska’s elderly. Other volunteer positions included advisory boards and committees for fisheries, subsistence lifestyle, Kodiak, and Native Alaskan traditions.