Haines resident Jamie King is the new member of the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee.
The board held its annual election Tuesday. Haines resident Dean Risley was also re-elected to his seat, as was Luke Rauscher, who ran unopposed for a seat reserved for a Skagway resident.
Klukwan resident Johnnie Gamble also was elected, though Klukwan hasn’t claimed its designated seat on the board for years, said chair Tim McDonough. Gamble ran unopposed.
King replaced committee member Dave Werner, who decided not to run this year.
Members of the committee and the public nominated four residents for the two open Haines seats, including King, Risley, Chip Lende and Al Gilliam.
Lende, who attended the meeting, seemed surprised by his nomination. “If you need me on here, I’ll serve, but it’s all new to me.”
King, who received 23 votes, won the first open seat outright. However, a 13-vote tie between Risley and Gilliam prompted some confusion, as McDonough seemed unclear as to the procedure for breaking a tie.
Ultimately, Skagway committee members Rauscher and John Tronrud, who attended telephonically, cast votes over the phone. Both voted for Risley, breaking the tie.
“I don’t like change a lot,” Risley said, explaining why he wanted to be re-elected. “I don’t like things to happen abruptly.”
King, who worked for Fish and Game for 10 years, said he “doesn’t have an agenda” as a committee member but wants to carry out the will of the community.
Twenty-three residents turned out at Tuesday’s meeting to vote. Committee election procedures stipulate anyone who shows up at the meeting can vote.
Last year’s election drew 78 people and packed the room beyond capacity.
The committee will next meet in late January, when it will discuss Dungeness crab harvests, black bear baiting and the latest moose survey.
McDonough also said at the end of Tuesday’s meeting that the committee’s request for the state to discontinue its reciprocal fishing license program with Canada was denied.
McDonough said he received a letter from Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell denying the request.
Besides McDonough, Risley, King, Rauscher, Tronrud and Gamble, the committee is composed of John Katzeek, Kip Kermoian, Julia Heinz and Randy Jackson.