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Attached are copies of the written responses from communities. 

 At this writing, there is confusion over the official positions 

 of Sitka, Haines, and Ketchikan. They have yet to provide 

 written responses and it is unclear if they were officially 

 represented at the February 2 meeting. (Their chambers of 

 commerce were, but we're not certain about their cities' 

 positions.) 



"This new position has not gained widespread support," said 

 Governor Steve Cowper when the State of Alaska rejected the 

 Conference's changes. "The original reform package is a well- 

 reasoned and fair compromise and comes closer to satisfying the 

 concerns of a majority of affected Alaskans." 



In a letter to the board, Jim Ayers, former Southeast Conference 

 executive director, said the proposed changes were the result of 

 pressure by the timber industry and Senator Murkowski. 

 "Clarification is a hoax being perpetrated on the Alaskan people 

 and you are being asked to play a leading role." 



"The Conference does not at this time represent communities or 

 the people of Southeast Alaska," stated Ralph Gregory, Ketchikan 

 Borough mayor and former chairman of the Tongass Committee. "A 

 municipality representing thousands of people has a single vote," 

 wrote Gregory in a letter published in the Ketchikan Daily News . 

 "The same vote is available to any individual paying dues. This 

 has, in a practical sense, disenfranchised whole communities who 

 now are outvoted by individuals representing special interests or 

 simply their own." 



"It is clearly a timber industry proposal," says Reuben Yost, 

 former mayor of Pelican and member of the Tongass Committee. He 

 called the one week comment period a "sham." 



Kate Troll of the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association (a leading 

 commercial fishing group) said the new changes are not just a 

 matter of boundary adjustments. "They are proposing to pretty 

 much eliminate the heart of five fisheries systems — Lisianski, 

 Ka da shan, Nutkwa, Karta and the Chuck River." 



No doubt the Conference board will tout the total number of 

 comments they received. Most were form letters from logging 

 industry employees and petitions from logging camps — half of 

 which were out-of-state loggers. 



Summary 



Columnist John Greely summed the situation up well when he wrote: 

 "This is all politics as usual. From that viewpoint, it's smart 

 for Murkowski to insist on a 'clarification' from the Southeast 



