Gratitude & Concern Gratitude & Concern November 3, 2023 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Happy November! I hope you got to enjoy the trick-or-treaters on Halloween. We had preschoolers visit the Capitol and they were out-of-this-world cute. Adorable kids from Discovery Preschool trick-or-treated in the Capitol Wednesday Let's talk! A reminder if you're a ferry ride away from the Capitol: Rep. Story & I have a series of town halls and open office hours coming up. We hope to see you there! Skagway Town Hall: Sat. Nov. 4, AB Hall, 6-8pm Skagway Office Hours: Sat. Nov. 4, Library, 1-3pm Haines Town Hall: Mon. Nov. 6, Chilkat Center, 6-8pm Haines Office Hours: Mon. Nov. 6, Library, 1-3pm Gustavus Town Hall: Thurs. Nov. 9, Library, 5-7pm Gustavus Office Hours: Fri. Nov. 10, Fireweed, 10am-12pm I was honored to present a citation to the JDHS Cheer team in September. The 2022 team placed at Nationals and were three-peat state champions! Many Thanks Next week we get Friday off to honor American veterans. In times of global conflict, we’re especially grateful for the people who keep us safe. I was proud to pass a bill this year to honor our service-disabled veterans and active-duty National Guard members with a free trapping license. Alaska has expressed gratitude with a free fishing and hunting license for many years. For unknown reasons, we never included trapping licenses (which we do give to senior citizens.) My bill made the benefits match, as a small token of thanks for their service. Many veterans and outdoors groups helped push the bill. It was signed into law in May and takes effect in January. Please share this with anyone you know who might benefit from the free trapping license. And please join me in thanking Alaska veterans and active duty service members for their sacrifices at home and abroad. Rep. Story & I were honored to present a legislative citation to Arnold Ibias this summer honoring his years of service as a TMHS coach, a youth mentor, and parent volunteer. Our schools and communities are better places with people like Arnold on the team. Other People's Money Let me tell you, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board meetings have not been boring lately. They’re always important, but they're usually also dry as dust. The past few months conversations got a lot more heated as the board members push in some pretty unexpected directions. On the plus side, the board decided not to take an extra-high risk approach to investing. Right now the official goal is for the investments to grow in value enough each year (on average) to beat inflation plus add 5%. They call it “CPI+5.” That investment strategy, if it works, will let us draw 5% of the fund’s average value each year without ever decreasing its real value. The board spent time and money flirting with a change to CPI+7. Higher returns sound great in theory, but the only way to get there is by taking more and bigger risks. Risks often bring rewards, but sometimes they just lose money. The Permanent Fund’s staff and consultants recommended against it. One even pushed for a lower risk strategy than we use now. This board has taken to berating and micromanaging the staff in ways I haven't seen before. Listening to their meetings, they don't seem to think very highly of the people who actually do the work. Thankfully, this time they listened and kept our fund on course. The board also decided not to pursue an exemption to the Open Meetings Act. They're right to criticize the legislature for exempting itself many years ago. (I’ve run amendments to try to change that, but the bill went nowhere.) But some members took the wrong lesson and tried to let the Permanent Fund Corporation operate further from the public eye, too. Less transparency in government is a bad direction. I’m glad they dropped it. Unfortunately it’s not all good news. The board is still pushing for exemptions from our procurement code. Governments have procurement rules to prevent corruption. It's rarely a good idea to remove those guard rails—even less so when you're managing $77 billion dollars. They also want to exempt some information from public records requests. That includes their review of the Executive Director and some senior managers. Performance reviews should generally be private, but a total exemption opens the door to board members giving the head of the fund direction on investing outside of public meetings. If they bring this one forward it will need a very careful look. And sadly, they're still pushing the cockamamie idea that spending a bunch of public money to open a new Anchorage office will magically solve recruitment and retention problems for the fund. That's despite the fact the fund has the best recruitment and retention numbers in state government—the sort of numbers private sector businesses would kill for these days. And organizations seldom become more cohesive when they’re split up. The board is proceeding on that without bothering to wait for the legislature to appropriate the money they plan to spend for no benefit. That’s not a good look. Alaskans count on the Permanent Fund's board to act prudently and transparently with the people's money. I think it's fair to say the legislature will have a lot of questions for them this upcoming session. All my best, Did someone forward you this newsletter and now you want your very own copy? Did you fall into it through the series of tubes but now you want it sent straight to you? SUBSCRIBE Events & Happenings Around District B Juneau CLC Food Drive On Nov. 11, join the Juneau Central Labor Council for a Thanksgiving Food Drive to help our neighbors in need! Juneau Sausage, Sourdough, & Yogurt Learn to make sausage, sourdough, and yogurt with easy recipes. Sign up for the Community Schools class before Nov. 4! Gustavus Game Day Saturday (Nov. 4) you can learn a new game or teach your favorite at the Gustavus Community Center Game Day! Gustavus Mariculture Meetup On Nov. 15, meet up with mariculture experts for a lively discussion and information on great growth opportunities. Haines Bald Eagle Festival The annual Bald Eagle Festival is here! Join the fun from Nov. 10-12! Haines Handprint Turkeys Bring the kids to the library after school on Nov. 8 to make handprint turkeys. It's a fun way to get into the holiday spirit! Skagway Holiday Bazaar Nov. 18, get a jump start on your holiday shopping at the holiday bazaar! Skagway Yuletide Makers Market On Saturday Dec. 2, come check out awesome made-in-Skagway holiday gifts, or sell your own creations! Is there an event in our district I should know about? Please call or email! Want to Send Snail Mail? Alaska State Capitol Room 514 Juneau, AK 99801 You Can Call: 800 550 4947 907 465 4947 Or Email Me! ‌ ‌ ‌ Contact My Staff, the people who power the work: Aurora Hauke 907 465 5051 [email protected] Ella Adkison 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol, Rm. 419, 4th Avenue & Main Street, Juneau, AK 99801 Unsubscribe [email protected] Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]