Special vintage--Former State Senator Chancy Croft hits the big time with a "crisp and lively" and "exceptionally fresh and balanced Sauvignon Blanc" from his Willamette Valley vineyard. His 2004 vintage was anointed by Sunset magazine (September edition) the best white wine bottled in the west for white wines priced between $15 and $50. Croft's J. Christopher Sauvignon Blanc retails for $18. Chancy still has a crisp and lively law practice in Anchorage.

Hmmm--Science magazine reports the best technique for selling an SUV to a man is to question his masculinity. Cornell University researchers gave a survey on gender identification to men who were then told they exhibited weak male characteristics. The researchers then surveyed the men's attitudes toward politics, gays and car purchases and compared the responses with additional surveys from a group of men whose gender ID was not questioned. The threatened men were more likely to support the war in Iraq, oppose gay marriage, and more likely to express a desire to buy an SUV.

Straight talk--Lest anyone think it's only Democrats and labor unions upset about last session's evisceration of public employee retirement systems, Alyce Hanley was a Republican House member from Anchorage who served from 1985 to 1990. She wrote in a July e-mail that the bill "was a major mistake." But she didn't stop there. She said there was a concerted effort to "get rid of" 27-year PERS board member Pat Wellington, whose courage was, in her mind, the only reason more than $200,000 in misappropriated money was restored to the retirement funds. Hanley went ever further, saying the Division of Retirement and Benefits was "not honest" about its role in drafting and pushing the bill.

Moretta Sperl Rieger (far left), Clara and Walter Sperl (far right) and members of the JDHS graduating class of 1965 attend the dedication of the Charles Gamble Jr.- Donald Sperl Joint Use Facility on the UAS campus Saturday, September 10.

Reps. Beth Kerttula and Bill Thomas join Sen. Elton and the sisters of Charles Gamble Jr., Marcella Whitney, Karen Webb and Charlene Ransom to celebrate the naming of the new Joint Use Facility.

Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Email:
Senator.Kim.Elton
Jesse.Kiehl
Paula.Cadiente
Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

     Here, have an Alaska Marine Highway schedule: it's free--and worth it.
     Well, actually, you can't have a new ferry schedule because they're not yet ready. But when you can get one, don't assume it will last longer than a timetable written on an impatient child's Etch-a-Sketch.
     Here's a few major schedule changes from the 2005 schedule published after several week's delay last fall:

• Ferry chieftans added service to Bartlett Cove, already served six days a week by a private company, and they cut back service on village runs not served by other vessels either private or public;
• The ferry bureaucrats started fast ferry service slowly in Prince William Sound, the Chenega arrived in PWS in late summer instead of the scheduled start in late spring because they didn't hire crew in a timely manner;
• Appointed ferry politicos pulled the Prince William Sound-dedicated fast ferry to an experimental fall/winter run between Ketchikan and Petersburg; and
• Then they re-routed the Lynn Canal fast ferry for much of the fall/winter schedule to run between Juneau and Petersburg.

     Pick an adjective for this year's ferry schedule: unreliable? or disruptive? or capricious? or destabilizing? or all of the above? At this rate, FEMA's director Michael Brown could be a step up from current ferry honchos.
     Alaskans and independent travelers (the most economically beneficial kind of tourist) make travel plans down the road based on medical needs, or an aunt's birthday, or a school holiday, or a two-week vacation. They need to know that a ferry will be running from point A to point B on a date certain. If they can't count on a schedule, they either schedule another destination or book a different travel vendor. It doesn't matter how big your promo budget (the ferry system is spending three quarters of a million new dollars to entice travelers), if your schedule keeps hacking and coughing your ridership catches cold.
     It's easy to point the finger at micro-managing political appointees who hold sway over the state ferries. But at some point legislators need to say enough is enough. We need to demand more of system managers. 
     I've talked to colleagues in the legislature, to business and community leaders in cities and villages served by the marine highway vessels, and to former system managers. If we could pick an adjective for next year's schedule it should be: reliable. That would be a switch but we need to make it happen.
     And here's some ways the legislature can induce ferry reliability. (I'm indebted to the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project for their suggestions). First, require ferry system managers to provide a baseline schedule to communities and the legislature before the legislature debates ferry funding. Second, and I've resisted this in the past, create a marine highway authority and structure it like the management authority that runs the railroad. Third, restore the ferry system trust fund to cushion the unexpected. Fourth, provide in law that the marine highway system have a schedule for vessels available at least six months in advance of sailings.
     As to the first recommendation, I've already gotten some legislative colleagues who represent ferry destination communities to sign on to a draft letter to the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The draft letter notes that we will ask the department's ferry management team for details of, and firm commitments to, the schedule they are asking the legislature to fund. The basic premise is accountability through budgeting--no more ad hocing their schedule after they get their budget.
     The second recommendation is, as I noted, a departure for me. I've opposed an authority in the past, believing it is an additional level of bureaucracy. Events over the past couple of years, ranging from the arbitrary and harmful move of the ferry headquarters to willy-nilly schedule changes, demonstrate we need to craft a professional rather than a political management system.
     This administration created an advisory board (the Marine Transportation Advisory Board or MTAB) to recommend schedule and management decisions. But ferry managers routinely ignore the MTAB. The most egregious example is the abrupt decision to change Prince William Sound vessels and schedules. The MTAB needs to have the same authority as the Alaska Railroad Board.
     The third recommendation is a return to past practice. An enterprise system like the ferry needs a cushion of capital to deal with dramatic changes in the cost of fuel, or unfortunate episodes like the LeConte/rock incident. It's unlikely this cushion will devolve into a slush fund since ferry managers will have to justify expenditures every time the fund needs replenishing.
     When some say "there oughta be a law" it pays to be cautious. But the fourth recommendation makes business sense. Talk to any travel agent and they will tell you that most travel decisions by individuals and groups are made way ahead of travel time. Bookings for high school basketball teams and family vacations aren't impulse buying decisions. The same can be said for business and industry travel. Good business decisions, whether made by those in the grocery business or the construction sector, generally are decisions based on a business plan and business plans are not done monthly. It makes sense to require in law that ferry managers give individuals and businesses a six-month guarantee that a vessel will run from one point to anther.
     Close readers of my column will remember that two months ago I had another recommendation for the ferry system. I recommended we get rid of the ferry manager, a politico who proved he was adept at moving bills through committee but has failed to demonstrate he can keep ferries moving on any kind of schedule. I stand by that recommendation. It may be the most important recommendation on the list.