As noted previously here on Deckboss, the state is conducting a major performance review of the Community Development Quota program.
Launched 20 years ago, the CDQ program reserves a share of the lucrative Bering Sea fisheries for the benefit of disadvantaged Western Alaska villages. Six nonprofit companies manage fish and crab harvests on behalf of village groups.
A panel comprised of Alaska's commerce, labor and fish and game commissioners have been quietly conducting the program review.
Curiously, no public hearings have been held. The review presumably will wrap up around the end of the year, but who knows.
The state at least has seen fit to post review reports from the six CDQ companies.
These are essentially self-evaluations, with each company assessing its financial performance and success in creating jobs and opportunity.
Based on these reports, all the groups are doing just wonderful work out there.
The performance review does have some consequence. If a CDQ company is deemed to have underperformed, officials can take away as much as 10 percent of its quota and redistribute it among the other companies.
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A number of these senior managers make more than the President of the United States, and many times the people they represent.
Tim Radner's article in the FDN's Sunday section says a new generation of young managers is leading the CDQ groups. It also says that young people are leaving the Coastal Villages in large numbers. Populations that were 300 people are now 50 people. Do those 50 people need the same percentage of the fish that the 300 needed?? Should the percentage of the Bering Sea fish resource given to the CDQ's be village population dependent?
Uncle Ted's get out and vote program.
The CDQ groups have facilitated the depopulation of the bush by participating in high bycatch fisheries that eradicated salmon in western alaska. Removing the traditional nutritional and economic base for a generation now. They are ,making the bush a wasteland so that resource companies can come in with little or no local consent or consultation. Half of alaskas natives now live in the lower 48. Of the remainder half live on the road system. The only real way to stabilize communities is through the funding of city & borough governments. Corporate Elvis's left the building a long ways back.
How about removing their unfair advantage of not having to pay taxes on their cdq earnings so that they may contribute by paying for their fair share of what the government provides.
The rationale for not giving the CDQ groups meaningful scrutiny, exposing the corruprion, gladhanding and insider deals is that by drawing negative publicity to the program, Congress might curtail or terminate it.
But it has become a mockery of it's initial intent. Sleek corporate offices in Anchorage or Juneau. Sleeker digs with their corporate affiliates in Seattle. Exorbitant wealth indeed alleviating poverty for the fortunate 1-3% who exploit the system. The remainder of the monies that trickle out to the villages in no way compensate for diminished or extinct salmon runs and fisheries rationalized at the villages shores excluding whole native populations. This has become a perverse mockery of an antipoverty program. A thieves buffet.
Of course they are not going to suffer any public input. Way too messy and undignified. This will be a whitewash.
Investigations of the chair for misappropriation of funds, quota manager resigning suddenly, perhaps on ethical grounds.Audits. Standard operating procedure, just read the report.
Don't forget the handful Seattle and beyond owners who make millions in salaries alone and who only answer to themselves for performance. They fly around in private jets and private yachts. Shame that the other 90% went to them while only 10% was given to these natives.
Give the other 90% to the groups. At least they are mandated to help other rather than the owners in Seattle who help themselves with private jets and millions in salaries.
What ignorance without the capital 90% committed to innovate this business there would be no 10%. Sorry I know this is ground breaking concept of businesses that make money, and pay taxes.
Our empty rivers are a tribute to the effectiveness of the research and development you esteem. Same with the vanishing halibut and crab. You've latched onto some petty bush crooks and turned them into a greedy predatory mafia to facilitate your monopoly of the Bering Sea.
In Dutch Harbor, a non CDQ community, the school district is judged one of the 100 best in the US. Teachers salaries start at above 80k and head north to 6 figures. All from pollock landing taxes given to a local government. A high standard of education would be a significant marker of a successful economic development regime, maximizing the potential of our young. High salaries attract motivated teachers. In adjacent CDQ areas pay is far lower, starting at half of that in Unalaska. By that standard the CDQ program has been a phenomenal success in the only non CDQ district within its boundaries.CDQ revenues need to go directly to local governments and school districts.Retaining good educators, building an infrastructure to support development won't be accomplished from a distant corporate office.
Of course Dutch Harbor could attract good teachers with a promise of a reasonable salary based on cost of living as well as the isolation factor of it's location. Perhaps it's the only village in the whole CDQ region directly benefitting through fair taxes. Fair taxes.
The Maggie A embezzling case is now set in court. It's ready to use as an example for other such digs into the non-profit world of Public Money Abuse.
If CDQ royalties were treated as tax revenue and distributed directly to school districts and city governments, there would be a dramatic overall improvement in the quality of live and village economies into the future.
Instead we now have a corrupt sequestration of revenue from a publicly owned resource, by a rather sociopathic political caste, which would otherwise have withered away naturally from it's own ineptitude. In various ways the mismanagement, monopolization of resources, and ecological devastation have resulted in a perfect storm of rural poverty in the bush. Which our benevolent political leadership will doubtless alleviate with more of the same.
Americans for the betterment of all Americans work for improving the quality of life for everyone.
The CDQ managers and regulators must not have compassion for their fellow Americans, mostly poor, mostly illiterate and ignorant Alaska Natives living in the poorest region of the state.
The CDQ personal reviews need to be given to a panel of expert auditors for a feasibility report to Congress otherwise these self-reviewed reports are not worth the paper they are printed on.
Like blogger at 12/19 7:23 AM remarked "This(CDQs) has become a perverse mockery of an antipoverty program. A thieves buffet."
The CDQs have also promoted mockery of real science in regards to pollock, halibut, crab and salmon stocks as well as a digusting mockery of justice in Bush Alaska. "A thieves" den of greed and self-enrichment. Only a handful have the code to this entitlement.
I wish my sister and I could get a CDQ job with an outrageous salary this Christmas Day. It's easy to just exist and pretend to be somebody important. Heck, my whole Native family qualifies for high-level CDQ jobs because nepotism in the CDQ program is ok to practice without state or federal oversight.
Hopefully this 2012 CDQ review will lead to government oversight, transparency, accountability, as well as qualified, experienced, and, honest managers willing to rub elbows with the Poor Eskimos of Western Alaska on a daily basis.
He made a list and is checking it twice, gonna find out who is naughty or nice. Nice - friendly, kind, careful, exact.......
In 20 years, the CDQs have not been friendly or kind to the poor stakeholders of Western Alaska, the real recipients of the Public Money from the pollock fishery. Carelessly not carefully, they jumped back into the Bering Sea to help destroy their stakeholders Salmon Culture lifestyle. It's not exactly what the poor people expected from guys and gals claiming to be looking out for their best interests.
The CDQ program has made a mockery of antipoverty, real science and justice in Western Alaska.
These problems can be fixed with state and federal oversight and strict regulations starting in 2013when Congress revisits the Magnason-Stevens Act of 2006, especially the Coast Guard Rider that gave the CDQs the golden tooth to chew up the Salmon Culture of Western Alaska, bringing it down to skin and bones.
Thousands of hungry Eskimos and Native people all the way into Canada sit on the banks while the CDQs continue to harvest pollock for foreign trade, killing off the salmon as Bycatch. There is no justice in this practice.
Some CDQs have also made a mockery of the role of the village men sitting on the Board of Directors. Powerless puppets at the beck and call of the mean spirited managers calling the shots all for the price of a per diem check.
The managers slide in the fastest talking village director as the Chairman of the Board who then has a couple of brow beaters(board bullies) to keep the rest of the board members passive so business can go on as the managers want.
A failing example of corporate structure. A mockery of corporate cohesiveness. Brought to Western Alaska thanks to the lack of State and Federal oversight on millions and millions of Public Money.
The system surrounding the CDQs is as tight as a nut on a serrated bolt. If a nut comes loose, the serrated bolt will cut off the dissenter. It's an unmanly situation to have your 'nuts in the bag' just to stay in favor of the bolt keepers.
If your middle name isn't Lackey or Quisling you're a sort of political orphan in this constellation of Alaska Constitutional sellouts.We OWN the resources. Corporations work for US. Get a court order for all the text messages the Governor urged the beaurocracy to use to avoid public records laws. This subversive criminality is rampant across all resource oversight. Time to come clean.
One thing is certain. When the tax holiday is given to the oil majors the State budget will be slashed as it was before, under Knowles. At that time revenue sharing with the bush went to the budget guillotine first.
The lights went out in many a city government. Some folded & went tribal based on the certainty of federal revenue. So history is about to repeat itself. The bush will be cut adrift once the tax cuts are implemented. But this time the Feds are also broke, and native programs will also be the first to go. So good governance of CDQ's & ANCSA corporations is imperative. But instead of being held to their statuatory obligations, they are now the organ grinder and government is a monkey on their chain.
Congress can undo and fix the CDQs. As we see 20 years later, it was not a very good idea to model the CDQs after the ANCSA corporations. This leads me to believe that the whole CDQ idea was put in place to create a diversion because the smart men knew they were throwing millions of dollars into a shark pool. That gave them time to continue to rape the Bering Sea of it's resources while killing off the culture of the CDQ stakeholders. It's irony at it's finest.
Smart men study history and use it for their advantage. Dumb men are guided by greed and jealousy and hatred.
The forces of evil are the epicenter of the CDQs. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this monkey thrown onto the backs of Western Alaska's poor and illiterate people.
The Bush has been "cut adrift" for a long time The people are their own worst ememies and hopefully soon they will wake up to that and take a stand before it's too late for their important food resource, the salmon.
The pioneering study of the effect of creating a national park on the subsistence lands of an indigenous population is a book called "The Mountain People" by Colin Turnbull on the Ik tribe in Uganda. Any governmental body that wishes to privatize a resource to the detriment of native populations in the locality should be required to read it.Here is a link to Wikipedia's article on the Ik.
Many of the tragic consequences Turnbull documented are evident in the north in various manifestations.
Welfare, public or corporate is no cure or substitute.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ik_people
The CDQs were not intended to become a welfare program.
They are.
The CDQ program was intended develop fisheries related economic opportunity for people living in western Alaska coastal communities. The decennial review reports confirm that it has failed to do that in any meaningful way.
Some people have taken advantage of the CDQ program to become wealthy. Most of the intended beneficiaries have seen very little improvement. It's a disgrace.
What has happened to the Salmon Culture of Western Alaska in the past 30 years is more than "a disgrace.", it's downright criminal. The already poor people are being forced to give up their culture and tradition of living off the salmon. It's suppression of a population of Alaska Native people who are ignorant and illiterate. There is no justice in Bush Alaska and this CDQ program promotes just that.
It's a real tragedy that Palin with her anticorruption stance, and fair taxation on oil, will likely be viewed by history as a Trojan horse for the oil& resource industries.Every deep pocketed resource industrial complex that wants it's slice of Alaska's pie owes her a nod due to her choice as successor.
Parnell acts like he's still employed by K Street to lobby for those he now pretends to regulate. It'd be a nice surprise if for once he'd exercise his "short man syndrome" on behalf of Alaska's electorate.
Palin brought Alaska into the national spotlight. Parnell is trying to dim the spotlight by not actively getting involved in this Chinook Salmon Crisis. It's on his back big time. How much longer the State will continue to pretend all is okay is just a matter of time. Just a matter of time. The CDQs are helping everything along, them and their State sanctioned self reviews. State sanctioned self reviews.
The State of Alaska is sactioning the Self Reviews of the CDQs. They must think the whole population of Western Alaska are too dumb to see the lack of progress these millions and millions of dollars the CDQ program was suppose to bring to Alaska's poorest region of the state. Yeah, we're all too dumb and stupid to see that nothing has changed one bit. Except we're losing our hundreds year old Salmon Culture while they kill off the Salmon in the Sea.
The CDQs themselves represent 10% of the Bering Sea fisheries. 10%.
How can you blame CDQs for the salmon decline? You ignorant jerks on here never have anything good to say about the CDQ program.
Well they do put people to work who refer to their real owners as "ignorant jerks". What strain of inbred fascists spawned you? CDQ's have bought quota and influence far exceeding their 10% royalty. They've lent legitimacy to rationalization. And they have a lot of difficulty sharing wealth or quota with their residents. Overpaid corporate mannequins. Roll over; now bark, goooood BOY!
I'm not "ignorant" nor am I a "jerk" and No Thank you, you can keep your name to yourself.
When the CDQs got involved in the Bering Sea pollock fishery just to add more money to their coffers, they became part of the problem of killing off the salmon as ByCatch.
Even with just 10%, they are part of the problem.
The audacity of the CDQ situation is that they (CDQ Managers) got involved in the Bering Sea without the permission of the people who rightfully own the millions and millions of dollars stemming from the destructive pollock fishery. These managers took advantage of Western Alaska's people who are mostly poor, mostly ignorant, mostly illiterate, because they themselves were being used as puppets by smarter men.
It's a classical case of puppeteering from top to bottom. Smarter men manipulating dumber men. Dumber men in control of millions and millions of dollars to cover their backs while they play 'Bully in the Neighborhood' games with the stakeholders of the money.
It's an easy set-up because there are no state or federal guidelines or regulations guiding the expenditures of the CDQ money. That lack of oversight in turn has made the CDQ program managers omnipotent in attitude and behavior. Bull dogs ready to attack anyone who challenges their authority. That's what happens when the supposed 'cream of the crop' has limited experience, limited intelligence, or qualifications, and is placed in a position managing millions and millions of dollars on poor peoples behalf.
Yes, the CDQs are a classical case of puppeterring. Puppets with no empathy for the poor they are suppose to represent.
Western Alaska's people will not be free as long as tyrannical, short sighted people are in control of the best anti-poverty program that came out of Congress in the history of Alaska so far.
The CDQs need to be reorganized by Congress in order for the poor to start receiving fair and equal representation.
I agree 100% with blogger, 1/7 @ 6:38 AM, "CDQ's have bought quota and influence far exceeding their 10% royalty."
Buying "quota and influence". It's the 'bought influence' that is making the playing field unfair for any individual to achieve what use to be the building block in our country - the American Dream, where one can achieve monetary independence through motivation and hard work.
The CDQs have made it impossible for any resident in Western Alaska to become independent on one's own initiative. They have created monopolies with the public money intended to help individuals in Western Alaska become self-sufficient in the fisheries off the coast of their homeland.
It's not affirmative action when one who disagrees with management style becomes excluded and discredited with lies and public intimidation. Fair and equal representation is not a goal or practice of the CDQs.
"discredited with lies and public intimidation" - common bullying practice in Western Alaska. Some CDQ managers know this practice well because they grew up with it. It's normal to them.
The rightful owners of the CDQs are the village people of Western Alaska.
The village people have to decide if they want to continue to live in poverty, discrimination,and unfair practices. Feeling no worth or value as a citizen of the United States of America with a voice is a choice. To be able to speak up against wrong without fear of retaliation like threats, mockery, sabotage, or shunning from an elected official or agency man who is working on our behalf, is a right in our country. That's the basis of our freedom. Use it.
Speak for your culture and tradition of living off the Salmon. No one else will. Make the CDQs work for you. Make them use the millions to preserve your lifestyle. No one else will.
The tragedy here is how messed up the allocations are. Too bad the State didn't weigh heavily on this. It only makes sense to fix the allocations.
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