As reported earlier, the Alaska Board of Fisheries was called out by the Ombudsman for violating the Open Meetings Act.

In their March meeting, the chairman had a lunch meeting and returned to bring up a revote on the location for the 2020 Upper Cook Inlet meetings. The board voted to move the meeting from Soldotna to Anchorage. The chairman would not elaborate on what circumstances had changed. This vote came down after the chairman assured Kenai city officials that the board would not be voting on the 2020 meeting location.

I would encourage concerned Kenai peninsula residents to comment by email to the Board of Fisheries to hold the 2020 meeting in Soldotna. Kenai peninsula residents have endured 20 years of discrimination. An entire generation has been excluded from this so-called public process. A legitimate public process does not exclude or discriminate.

Send your comments to Executive Director Glen Haight at the Board of Fisheries before Oct. 8. The Board will vote on the 2020 venue at the workshop in Anchorage, Oct. 23-24.

John McCombs

Ninilchik