Scott Sundberg should not vote on his own seven proposals to expand his company’s heliskiing area, according to a Haines Borough attorney’s recommendation.
However, Sean Brownell can vote on his own proposals, according to the written opinion of attorney Patrick Munson of Anchorage, who provided legal advice to the borough on this matter.
The nuance is that Brownell and Sundberg technically represent different constituencies on Haines’ heliskiing review committee.
Brownell is the official representative of the heliskiing industry. Sundberg represents the general public on the committee. Consequently, different conflict-of-interest rules apply to each, Munson wrote.
Brownell, co-owner of Alaska Heliskiing, has requested that the borough add seven spots to the areas where his company transports and guides heliskiers. His request originally covered 18,249 acres, although Brownell trimmed some acres at a Tuesday committee meeting.
Meanwhile, Sundberg, co-owner of Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, has also requested seven changes in the lands where his company is allowed to heliski. SEABA’s requests covers 10,095 acres. But 8,321 acres are of federal Bureau of Land management land, which Haines does not have jurisdiction over.
Overall, the two businesses’ requests would increase borough lands that would allow heliskiing from 137,593 acres to 165,937 acres.
On Oct. 26, Munson wrote a memo to the five-person heliskiing committee to address the fact that Brownell and Sundberg are on the same advisory committee that will make recommendations on their requests.
The heliskiing committee’s recommendations will go to borough manager Bill Seward. Seward will make his own recommendations to the assembly, which has final approval.
Munson said there is an appearance of a conflict-of-interest in the situation. But the borough code allows the situation.
Munson recommended that at-large representative Sundberg recuse himself from voting on his own requests.
“The member should step down… and participate in the discussion as a member of the public representing his or her map changes. The member would still be involved in the discussion to the same extent as other advocates for particular map changes, but would not vote on the changes he submitted,” Munson wrote.
Sundberg is complying with the recommendation to sit out votes on his own requests. “I just want to deliberate. I don’t care if I vote,” Sundberg said.
Meanwhile, Brownell represents the heliskiing industry as a whole, and is expected to advocate pro-heliskiing stances on the committee, Munson wrote.
The committee includes assembly member Ron Jackson as chairman, a conservation community representative, a heliskiing representative plus two at-large representatives who were picked at random from seven applicants.
On Tuesday, the committee was briefed on two of Alaska Heliskiing’ s and one of SEABA’s requests. All three are to be studied and tweaked some more before the committee votes on those recommendations.
The committee will continue its briefings on the remaining 11 requests today and Monday.
Those briefings will also discuss whether helicopters and skiers will bother mountain goats in that region.
Sundberg noted that mountain goats usually stand still when helicopters and skiers are in sight.
“You’ll find that a lot of these animals have habituated to our activities… These goats are really comfortable with our activities,” Sundberg said.
But Kevin White, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, disagreed. “There is very limited information that mountain goats have habituated (to helicopters and skiers),” White said.
A wrinkle is that mountain goats tend to hunker down and stay still in rocky areas when spooked, he said. “They don’t run away like moose or bear … It’s not a quickly observed behavior or response,” White said.