90 Daze

Douglas Island, conveniently located a few hundred yards across the Gastineau Channel from Alaska’s capitol city, the focal point of the Stroller’s living room view, is a breathtaking charcoal etching.

The island’s hill and mountain ridges, chiseled against a brilliant blue sky by a recent confectioner sugar snow fall on our third growth trees, create a scene reminiscent of a Rie Munoz print.

Bald eagles sail updrafts.

The mirrored waters of the Gastineau Channel host a pod of Orca whales grazing on it’s bounty, providing a spectacular ’sounding’ show for those of us lucky enough to live here.

Gazing up the island’s Kowee Creek Valley and the old Dan Moller ski trail, origins of  Juneau’s world class skiing opportunities,  the Stroller is once again struck by the incredible beauty and promise of this land.

There is  just less than a month left in the 26th Alaska Legislature’s first session and the statutorily mandated 90 day clock is ticking.

To the Stroller and Sages it seems that three years ago a growing cynicism in the Alaskan electorate,  frustrated and embarrassed with the drift and tone of our state and country’s governments, caused them to vent their frustrations on their legislature.  They voted, by a very narrow margin, to place a time limit on the only real voice we have to comment on and/or restrict the excesses of our government.

Barely 51%  voted to limit the time the legislature meets to do the peoples business.

The Stroller and all the Sages passionately believe we made a mistake.

After a long and reasoned discussion over a few drams of a highly prised nectar from Scotland, the Stroller and assembled Sages concluded this legislature, if it can find the time, needs to rectify that mistake and, at the very least, return to the 121 day session limit.

We should probably repeal that limitation too.

We, ‘the people’, have muffled our own voice.

We’ve forgotten the legislature is us.

Carving a viable, responsible 21st century state out of a vast wilderness, pressured by all the parochial, national and international interests inherent with such an endeavor, realistically can’t be done by a citizen legislature meeting only 90 days a year and any thoughtful person knows it.

By employing a 90 day session rule, we’ve abrogated much of our voice and our power to the special interest folks we’re angry with.

The responsibilities of governing are different than running a hotel, saloon or restaurant.

The concept of a legislature is to be a deliberative body.  Deliberation should not be constrained by arbitrary time limits. Contemplation of the definition of our path forward will take time, thought and reflection.

Our state, unlike most others, is still in the formative stage.  We are defining who we are and wrestling to find a way for 650,000 people to generate enough revenue to provide the basic services our citizens expect from their government.

We’re dealing with some of the most powerful influences in the world; big oil, international mining, international and domestic financing and a transitional world economy.

Fifty years ago, our constitutional framers designed an executive branch that is by far the strongest of any state in the union.  We created a position with the powers, responsibility and expectation of leadership.

More often-than-not other state executive structures resemble an executive committee.  Officers elected to critical posts within their governments are often of the opposite party of the Governor.  There is a saying in Texas that their Governor is the governor of everything that isn’t important.

If only we’d known.

Not ours.

Alaska elects two officials, a Governor and a Lt. Governor, both from the same party.  The governor hires and fires all department heads, with the exception of some minor restraints relating to the Commissioners of Fish and Game and the Department of Education.

The Attorney General is appointed by the Governor but with the limitation  they also serve under the burden of their duty to the law and the Court, a subtlety the most recent AG seemed to miss.

The 55 State Constitutional Convention delegates who gathered in Fairbanks in 1955 did a second miraculous thing, they created a Judicial Branch to the envy of the overwhelming majority of states across our country.

They insisted the Governor select judges from a limited list of nominees, pro-offered by the Alaska Judicial Council, and not necessarily in lock step with the Governor’s political agenda.

They tried, and mostly succeeded, to take the politics out of judicial appointments.

The constitutional framers created a strong, streamlined executive branch and judiciary but they struggled to design a legislature to match those two unique constructions.

They decided to give our legislature an indefinite end.  Members could hold their leaders feet to the fire, they had time to settle internal disputes,  get over perceived personal slights and try for another ending.

Those extended sessions were not a happy time for lobbyists, they usually cleared the building, wary they might get their head snapped off by a weary legislator wanting to go home.

Legislation couldn’t be killed by the time clock, the rank and file, the jury legislators, had a say in closure.  Leadership discipline faded or, at the very least, had to walk softly among their members.

The Legislature had time to do what it needed to do. ‘ Little’  issues weren’t crowded into oblivion by an artificial time-clock.

Now the ‘little bills’ are stacking up in both Finance Committees.  It’s not an ‘on purpose’ political strategy.   Most bills pick up a fiscal note and must be cleared by the Finance Committees.   Those committee’s work loads on major issues, the most critical issues, mandate they now operate like a MASH unit.

Staff preforms legislative triage and prioritizes ‘little’ bills.

A semi-controlled chaos rules.  Key legislators and abundant staff work 14 hour days seven days a week.

The House and Senate Finance committees are frantically trying to simultaneously craft responsible legislation addressing the state’s operating, capitol and supplemental budgets in the face of declining revenues.

Additionally, they are trying to best advantage the opportunities in the President’s stimulus package,  review  AGIA, encourage an in state gas pipeline, find common ground for consolidation of rail belt utilities, address the economic and social disaster that is Western Alaska, reform health care, help  neighbors suddenly in need, patch our broken educational system, and do it all under the spectre of a seemingly fickle, but constitutionally powerful, Governor Sarah.

Governor Palin’s priorities and motives on critical issues have become suspect even to her most ardent legislative supporters.

She is savvy to the powers bestowed on the office and is using them to her best advantage.

Like one of the the Sages said, “wouldn’t you be tempted?”

And that’s a big part of the problem.

Since her ascension to the national political stage, and her obvious determination to become a viable candidate for POTUS, legislative leaders just don’t trust her any more.

And since her Vice Presidential bid she doesn’t trust them or anyone outside of her ever changing inner circle.

Alaska’s been lucky.  Until now our Governors, including Hickel and Hammond, who both flirted with national aspirations,  have resisted putting their personal ambitions above Alaska’s.

The Stroller and Sages speculate that in about three weeks, as this first session of the 26th Alaska Legislature draws to an abrupt conclusion, it’s success will come down to the trust between Speaker Chenault and Governor Sarah.

Can you trust the hand shake?

Contemplation.  Reflection.  Measured response.

A dram of a finely crafted nectar from Scotland, a creation that takes knowledge, time, thought, dedication and respect for the traditions, expectations and aspirations of  the next generation, the ones who will consume it, might be instructive.

Or consumption increasingly appealing.

Remember, this all goes down a lot smoother if you just ‘put a squirt of lemon in it’.

Stroller