The Alaska Unorganized Borough and Public Funding Implications
A discussion Paper and Independent Analysis for Alaska Venture Fund, Denali Commission and Justice40 Initiative Project
by Freddie R. Olin IV
Introduction
In Alaska, an unorganized borough refers to a type of borough (equivalent to a county in other states) that lacks a centralized municipal government. Instead of having a borough government, the unorganized borough is managed directly by the state government. This means that services typically provided by a borough government, such as law enforcement, education, and waste management, are often administered by various state agencies or through contracts with private entities.
The unorganized borough covers vast areas of Alaska where there are sparse populations and few established communities. Residents of these areas often rely on state agencies or local community organizations for essential services. The lack of a centralized borough government can present challenges in terms of governance, infrastructure development, and resource allocation in these areas.
Leading up to my April 25, 2023 interview participation with Becca Braun concerning the Denali Commission and the Justice40 Initiative project, I had been internally processing and considering the implications of how the Alaska unorganized borough receives or lacks receipt of public funding either from the state or federal government. Because the Denali Commission and Justice40 Initiative are public funding initiatives either from congressional appropriations or executive order, the Alaska unorganized borough and its constituent communities are disadvantaged compared to organized boroughs or unified home rule municipalities like Anchorage (1). Each community in the Alaska unorganized borough must represent its own interests, goals, plans, and successes without a collective like an organized borough.
For example, how effectively does a rural, remote, primarily Native Alaskan village cooperate with the Denali Commission, let alone the dozens of federal agencies named in the Justice40 Initiative executive order? When you consider that many of these villages have a total population of 100, the exacerbated imbalance between a small municipality or tribal community against a whole government agency apparatus becomes increasingly pronounced. How many residents of a village of 100 are professionalized, sitting behind a computer desk forty hours a week?
Theoretically, a municipal government or a tribal government can contract advocates, planners, and other subject matter experts; however, how many contractors are willing to jump into projects on behalf of small villages which are in the most dire need of community planning without an overarching borough government? Furthermore, because the majority of communities in the Alaska unorganized borough do not have a tax base to speak of, how easily could a small village of 100 find, identify, and appropriate funding for contractors?
These questions are only the tip of an iceberg made of the unmet needs of communities composing the Alaska unorganized borough. While I wish I could make this subject the focus of my graduate and PhD studies in the near future, I am obliged to continue down the track of conducting formal research on Alaska Native corporations, which is another field of study that does not have any significant activity.
Any errors in this work product are mine and mine alone. I am willing to correct any identified and reflected errors.
Literature Review
The Alaska Unorganized Borough, the Denali Commission, and the Justice40 Initiative have received very little formal academic research. As keyword terms here, four main databases were extensively searched:
University of Alaska Fairbanks Rasmuson Library (includes all listings in UAA/APU and UAS libraries, as well as public libraries in Anchorage, Mat-Su, and Juneau)
The Duke University Alaska Law Review database was also searched with each respective keyword term.
Two textbook publications (2) cited Problems and Possibilities for Service Delivery and Government in the Alaska Unorganized Borough, authored by staff in 1981 within the then organized Division of Community Planning, Department of Community and Regional Affairs. I contacted the currently organized Division of Community and Regional Affairs front office email requesting information on this staff paper, but as of Sunday, July 2, 2023 I have not received a reply. I will continue to seek a copy of this paper.
There are two potential aspects of institutional knowledge and bodies of work that may not be included in public databases: the distinct UAA and UAS Master of Public Administration degree programs. Research faculty and students in either degree program likely have produced research on the above keyword terms, but may not have been published for dissemination. I myself lack personal, professional, or academic contacts in both programs, but some faculty from each program could be interviewed to query the institutional work in relation to the above keyword terms.
There may be databases of legal analyses conducted by the Alaska Department of Law and the Legislative Affairs Agency, respectively under direction of the State of Alaska Attorney General and Alaska legislators, but I was not able to take the time to identify any publicly available databases.
Lastly, the Alaska Governor's Office, Office of Management and Budget, as well as the related Legislative Affairs Agency, Legislative Finance Division, likely have financial analyses, reports, and advice concerning the unorganized borough and public funding. I was not able to take the time to identify any publicly available databases.
The bibliography of relevant publications is included at the end of this work product, as well as citations throughout.
Characterization of the Alaska Unorganized Borough
Existing organized borough boundaries, Alaska Mapper. Accessed Sunday, July 2, 2023.
The State of Alaska constitution calls for, but does not require, boroughs to be organized statewide on a voluntary basis (3), with the intent of leaving no village or municipality alone (4). Practice however has shown over the decades the difficulty of small, rural, and remote villages voluntarily organizing boroughs according to the state constitution. The central obstacle for most subregions within the unorganized borough is lack of a tax base. Boroughs have been organized for the most part around the tax base either natural resource extraction or the tourism industry provides (5).
Mid-June 2023 the City of Hoonah announced that a voter ballot will be issued soon on the question of Hoonah and its surrounding areas organizing a new borough. If successful, it will be the 20th organized borough in state of Alaska history. The central justification of organizing the borough according to advocates is better capturing a tax base from seasonal tourism cruises. (6)
According to Thomas, et al from 2015 research, there are 95 communities in the unorganized borough (7) stretching from the Canadian border in the Interior, to the Southwest Alaska coast, a small number of western Aleutian chain communities, and a handful of communities in the Southeast panhandle. Spatially, the unorganized borough approximately totals 375,000 square miles, or 57% of the state of Alaska land mass (8). Juxtaposed to the massive size, only 12% of Alaska residents are located in the unorganized borough, at just under 80,000 from the same 2015 data (9). Thomas et al, describes these 95 communities without an organized borough as "remain[ing] a protectorate of state government." (10)
Because these 95 communities without an organized borough do not have a significant local tax base, most if not all 95 incorporated municipal governments or tribal communities (i.e., "local governing entity" without an incorporated municipality but a federally recognized tribal government (11)) depend entirely on the Community Assistance Program (CAP), or formerly the Community Revenue Sharing Program (CRS) prior to 2016. CAP is an annual State of Alaska Operating Budget appropriation division of public funding by state law and formula. CAP funding goes to organized boroughs and unorganized borough communities alike. (12) It can be said most if not all unorganized borough communities solely utilize CAP funding to keep an incorporated municipality functioning on a minimal basis and scope.
An historical alternative to revenue sharing was the State of Alaska Capital Budget. Prior to the 2014 oil price crash, the Capital budget regularly amounted to $5bn annually. After 2015 however, the Capital budgets have been a small fraction of 2014 levels and most prior years through the 2000s. (13) Communities in the unorganized borough can no longer rely on Capital budget requests, also known as Capital Improvement Projects (CIPs), for supplemental funding beyond a basic municipal operating budget.
A large majority of unorganized borough communities are not on the road system, namely the Alaska Highway, Richardson Highway, Tok Cutoff, Glenn Highway, Parks Highway, Sterling Highway, Elliott Highway, and the Dalton Highway (or the Haul Road to the North Slope). Periodic state government attempts to expand the existing road system thereby establishing new road connections to unconnected communities become politicized and polarizing, not to mention the high costs of constructing and maintaining each project. (14) For each incorporated municipal community and tribal community, the State of Alaska, Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT/PF) own and maintain airports throughout the state, with or without an organized borough. (15)
Because of the lack of road connection, and the need to either barge or air freight materials for community development projects, such project costs are high and often prohibitive.
The Alaska Unorganized Borough and the Denali Commission
The Denali Commission manages a "Project Database System," which is a record of all completed, canceled, ongoing, and recent funding awards according to the authorizing legislation of the commission from 1998, and multiple iterations of reauthorization afterward. The database is extensive, complex, and not an intuitive search tool. However, it is the only database of its kind as most state and federal government agencies do not have similarly publicly available project database records. Below is a summary of an "unorganized borough" award search list as of Sunday, June 25, 2023.
According to the project database, there have been a total of 1,393 awards to communities, or project manager entities who have worked, or are currently working, on projects for communities located in the unorganized borough.
By and large, the most high volume project managers on behalf of unorganized borough community award recipients are listed below in alphabetical order:
Alaska DCCED, Division of Community and Regional Affairs
Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Alaska Energy Authority
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Alaska Village Electric Cooperative
Due to the nature of most unorganized borough communities having a small total population, it is not surprising that a high volume of awards have been and are being made to third-party project managers like the above list. It is common for funding applications by third-party project managers and funding awards benefitting more than one unorganized borough community at a time. The above project managers more often than not group multiple communities under one funding application and subsequent listed award.
The current authorizing legislation of the commission allows for funding availability of the following broad topics:
Workforce Development
Economic Development
Energy
Healthcare
Infrastructure
Transportation
Conference Sponsorship
Crime Victim Services
Training
Village Infrastructure Protection
Broadband
The two most consistently titled projects fall under bulk fuel farms and health clinics, further detailed by repair/maintenance, design, and new construction. From the initial 1998 authorizing legislation, the main goal and intent of the commission was to service aging bulk fuel farms in so many of the unorganized borough communities without an efficient governance system of support like a borough (16). Over the years the goals, intentions, vision, and mission of the commission has expanded, and it can be argued each community in the unorganized borough is in high need of the services, technical assistance, and funding opportunities the commission lawfully provides.
Justice40 Initiative and the Alaska Unorganized Borough
The Justice40 Initiative began under Executive Order 14008 (EO 14008) issued by President Biden on January 27, 2021. (17) The executive order can be broadly described as a federal government approach to addressing climate change as a matter of domestic policy. Domestic policy can be compared to foreign policy, like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It can be said the intent of the executive order is to position the federal government to better domestically meet the goals, political commitment, and multilateral treaty obligations of the UNFCCC.
There are two leadership organizations created under the executive order: 1) the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, and 2) the National Climate Task Force. One other leadership organization known as the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council was amended from a previous executive order first creating the interagency council in 1994 (E.O. 12898). (18)
The White House Office of Domestic Policy is led by the US National Climate Advisor (Ali Zaidi), and can be referred to as the Climate Policy Office. (19) The office as described is charged with coordinating federal departments and agencies on implementing climate policy, and has capabilities to form ad-hoc committees or interagency groups. (20)
The National Climate Task Force as referenced is composed of 21 different department and division leaders of the federal government, from the White House to federal departments and agencies. It has been charged with meeting climate-policy commitments like greenhouse gas reduction by departments and agencies, public land and waters conservation, protection of biodiversity values, environmental justice, and procurement contracting with prevailing wages as the minimum for contractors and employees. (21)
The amended White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council created an Advisory Council, or a public membership-based council made of individuals, experts, leaders, and other involved stakeholders on addressing environmental justice. Some declared topics of environmental justice are cited as "climate change, disaster preparedness, racial inequality, or any other area determined by the President to be of value to the Advisory Council." (22)
The Justice40 Initiative as summarized above shows a level of seriousness by the federal government to address climate change as a crisis issue, nationally and globally. However, there is little spelled out in the executive order itself on how federal government leaders are supposed to actually work with communities falling under the purview of the executive order and the initiative. Besides the Advisory Council composed of public members, and perhaps implicit policy sets from dozens of federal departments and agencies on how to work with the public and communities, how is the Alaska Unorganized Borough going to be best represented? How are the interests of the Alaska Unorganized Borough going to be advanced under a national initiative spanning dozens of federal departments and agencies?
Furthermore, how does the State of Alaska fall under the purview of the initiative, if at all? There certainly has to be a voluntary aspect for a state government participating in a federal initiative, and based on the recent state budgets led by Governor Mike Dunleavy, there has arguably been little support for these types of federal initiatives. If the unorganized borough has been characterized "as a protectorate of state government," there is little to no extant direction being provided by the Alaska State government on how the Alaska Unorganized Borough can advance towards either becoming organized in whole or in part, further developed, or even operating beyond minimal funding from the Community Assistance Program.
The Justice40 Initiative, Denali Commission, and the Alaska Unorganized Borough
The Justice40 Initiative has long-term goals of addressing environmental justice, including perpetual climate change effects, disasters, and harm to historically underserved and under-represented peoples and communities (i.e., the Alaska Unorganized Borough). The Denali Commission, somewhat concurrently and somewhat disjointedly, has been tasked with environmental justice topics like environmental conservation, (i.e. replacing aged bulk fuel farms (23)), and village infrastructure protection (i.e. community-wide climate change adaptation and/or village relocation due to climate change). (24) What is missing is extant support from the Alaska State government for the Alaska Unorganized Borough. Under the authorizing legislation, the Governor of the State of Alaska is named state co-chair of the Denali Commission, and a delegate or designee is further assigned to become the co-chair on behalf of the State of Alaska. (25)
The current co-chair designee listed on the denali.gov website is Tyson Gallagher, but from his former Deputy Chief-of-Staff role in the Governor's office. (26) The listing is likely several years old, and has not been updated to the point of Mr. Gallagher being promoted to the Chief of Staff to the Governor in recent months. (27) This appears to betray another episode of indecision from the Governor's office over representing the better interests of rural Alaska and the Alaska Unorganized Borough, which the Denali Commission has historically served by the majority of projects reflected in the project database.
My centerpiece recommendation after producing this discussion paper is advocacy for Governor Dunleavy to rename his Denali Commission state co-chair designee, and if not Chief-of-Staff Tyson Gallagher, another leader from the state executive administration. I have recommended in an Alaska Beacon commentary from November 19, 2022 (28) for the Director of the Division of Community and Regional Affairs (DCRA) to be the Denali Commission state co-chair designee. The current director of DCRA is Sandra Moller (29), and from my understanding she has been the director of DCRA from Governor Dunleavy's first term since 2017-2018.
DCRA is the state government agency assigned by the state constitution for providing funding assistance, technical assistance, and state government oversight of the Alaska Unorganized Borough. (30) There are three years left of Governor Dunleavy's second term, and there will be no shortage of planning, work, and effort on continuing to meet the needs of the unorganized borough, whether from the state level or the federal level, not to mention from each community composing the Alaska Unorganized Borough.
About the Author
Freddie R. Olin IV is Koyukon Athabascan, born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. With diverse experiences from working on oil rigs on the North Slope and wildland firefighting in both Alaska and the Lower 48 to staffing political offices in the Alaska State Capitol, his favorite is being a family man with his wife and their two children. He is currently employed by Gana-A'Yoo, Limited, an ANCSA village corporation based in Anchorage. His views and commentary do not reflect those of Gana-A'Yoo.
Bibliography and Citations
David S. Case and David A. Voluck, Alaska Natives and American Laws, 3rd ed. (Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2013)
Clive S. Thomas, Laura Savatgy, and Kristina Klimovich, Alaska Politics and Public Policy: The Dynamics of Beliefs, Institutions, Personalities, and Power (Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, 2016)
Edwina C. Langenberg-Miller, “Changing Winds: National Politics and Its Role in Funding for Rural Development in Alaska” (Thesis, Fairbanks, AK, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010)
Presidential Documents, “Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” (White House, January 27, 2021)
Karen Sandrik and Sarah Matsumoto, “Heat Waves and a Public-Private Partnership in Alaska,” Alaska Law Review 39, no. 2 (2022): 201–31
Elisaveta Barrett Ristroph, “How Can Laws, Institutions, and Plans Facilitate Alaska Native Village Adaptation to Climate Change?” (Dissertation, Honolulu, HI, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 2018)
Sasha Kahn, “It Takes a Village: Repurposing Takings Doctrine to Address Melting Permafrost in Alaska Native Towns,” Alaska Law Review 39, no. 1 (2022): 105–38
Local Boundary Commission, “Local Government in Alaska” (Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, May 2015)
Daniel Alda Cohen, et al, “Securing Climate Justice Federally: A Political Economy Approach to Targeted Investments,” Environmental Justice, November 2022
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Northern Engineering and US Army Corps of Engineers, “Statewide Threat Assessment: Identification of Threats from Erosion, Flooding, and Thawing Permafrost in Remote Alaska Communities,” November 2019
Mindy L. O’Neall, “The State of Climate Change in AK: Agency and Networking of the Governmental Kind” (Graduate Project, Fairbanks, AK, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017)
Jeff Staser, “Thoughts on Reauthorization of the Denali Commission” (Alaska Federation of Natives, June 21, 2011)
Footnotes
AS 29.10 et seq
Case, David S. Alaska Natives and American Laws, 3rd ed. (2013), and Thomas, Clive S., Ed., Alaska Politics and Public Policy. (2016) [herein Thomas]
Article X - Local Government, Alaska State Constitution
Article X, Section 3, Alaska State Constitution
Thomas, p. 642
Sean Maguire, "Hoonah set to try again to form new Alaska borough," Anchorage Daily News June 18, 2023
Thomas, Table 18.1, p. 640
Thomas, p. 641
Thomas, p. 648
Thomas, p. 641
Local Boundary Commission, "Local Government in Alaska," p. 17
3 AAC 180 et seq
Nat Hertz, "Gov. Walker proposes to fix Alaska budget deficit with income tax, Permanent Fund restructuring," December 9, 2015
Tim Bradner, "Maybe there's a way to de-politicize the Ambler road," Anchorage Daily News, February 3, 2023
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Public Airports List, accessed Sunday, July 2, 2023
Staser, Jeff, "Thoughts on Reauthorization of the Denali Commission," June 21, 2011
Federal Register, Vol. 86, No. 19, p. 7619, Presidential Documents, "Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad" (herein EO 14008)
EO 14008, p. 7629
whitehouse.gov/cpo, accessed Sunday, July 2, 2023
EO 14008, p. 7622
EO 14008, p. 7623
EO 14008, p. 7629-7632
Staser, Jeff, "Thoughts on Reauthorization of the Denali Commission," June 21, 2011
UAF Institute of Northern Engineering, US Army Corps of Engineers, "Statewide Threat Assessment: Identification of Threats from Erosion, Flooding, and Thawing Permafrost in Remote Alaska Communities," November 2019
42 USC § 3121, Amendments from 1998, Title III, Sec. 303(b)(1)(A) "one [commission member] shall be the Governor of the State of Alaska, or an individual selected from nominations submitted by the Governor, who shall serve as the State Cochairperson."
denali.gov/about/meet-the-commissioners/, accessed Sunday, July 2, 2023
Office of Governor Mike Dunleavy, November 14, 2022 press release
Freddie R. Olin IV, "Here are suggested priorities focused on rural Alaska for the next governor's administration," Alaska Beacon.
commerce.alaska/gov/web/dcra, accessed Sunday, July 2, 2023
Thomas, p. 646