Craig council weighs putting back topics it cut from Shaan-Seet agreement

The Craig City Council on Oct. 15 considered putting back two topics it had cut from a proposed working agreement with Shaan-Seet, Inc., after the city administrator said the corporation would not sign without them.

The topics are protection of the environment and customary and traditional hunting, fishing and gathering, and cultural and historic preservation. Shaan-Seet is the Alaska Native village corporation for Craig.

Council member Michael Kampnich said the council had removed the topics over the summer because members questioned whether the corporation's role was the same as the tribe's. "At the time we did, believing that the purview of these sections was more tribal rather than corporation," he said.

City Administrator Morris Ververs wrote in an Oct. 7 memo that the council had two choices: approve the agreement with both topics restored or not enter it at all. He recommended approval.

The agreement would set up an annual meeting between the city and the corporation to discuss a list of subjects, including taxes and payments in lieu of taxes, zoning and development, and economic development. Ververs wrote that the list is for "annual discussion only" and does not commit the city to any policy, project or spending. Any future use of city money would need council approval, and either side could end the agreement with 30 days' notice.

The agreement started with an old draft that Ververs wrote "predates this administration and was never finalized." The council cut the two topics in July, and the revised version went to Shaan-Seet in early September.

City records do not yet show whether the council approved the agreement on Oct. 15. The council meets next Nov. 5.