Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Gray Jackson
“Chris Curtis has served over 34 years with the Division of Legislative Audit and was approved by the legislature on March 2, 2012, to serve in her current position leading the division as legislative auditor.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Gray Jackson
“After the nominee is approved by the full committee, I anticipate that we will appoint the recommended nominee to serve as acting legislative auditor until his or her nomination is voted on separately by the House and the Senate or in a joint session at the first possible opportunity.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Gray Jackson
“a few weeks ago on June 26th, sadly, in my opinion, Chris submitted her letter of resignation to the committee with an effective date of August 30th. I worked with Ms. Curtis and Stacy Bentley, the HR manager, to revise the job description for this critically important position. And the job announcement was posted to Workplace Alaska on Monday, July 6th, and it closes on Friday, July 24th.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“Today we are asking for the committee's approval of an amendment to that contract to expand the scope of work to include a new mobile application for an additional contract amount for $17,700.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“With the addition of the mobile application to the contract, the new contract cumulative amount not to exceed is $262,450. And the Division of Legislative Audit has availability within our budget to absorb the additional cost.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Louise Stutes
“as the body tasked with confirming board members and executive branch oversight, I believe it's the legislature's duty to initiate an independent review of the Board of Fisheries and to ensure they are compliant with applicable policies, regulations, and statutes.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Louise Stutes
“We're not addressing any decisions that have been made by the Board of Fish. We— our intent through this audit is to address the process in which these decisions are being made and that the process that has been laid out and established is being complied with in making these decisions.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Zack Fields
“I just wanted to thank Representative Stutes for bringing this request to the committee, and I support it and look forward to learning more. It does seem like some unusual decisions intervening in that board's decision, so thank you.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Bill Wielechowski
“I think the first fall meeting was October 12th, 2023, and I'm just wondering if we should expand it to include that entire fall meeting schedule right through the present.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“the board's process is set out in regulation and statute, and that's what we will use to help evaluate and determine and answer the audit objectives.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“I have no concerns about our ability to conduct the audit. I always make sure that an audit request, that we have adequate criteria. We need criteria.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“we conduct all of our audits in accordance with auditing standards that require that we maintain our independence both in fact and appearance. Yes, I have no concerns about that. To be able to address these objectives using objective criteria. We will gather sufficient appropriate evidence like we always do for every performance audit we issue, and we will come back to the committee with an independent objective report.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Julie Coulombe
“When I look through the bullets, there are some real measurable things that the audit— the auditor would be looking at. You're mentioning Fishery Statutes and Regulations, Administrative Procedure Act. Regulation, Executive Branch Ethics Act. So it sounds like there is a measure here.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chuck Kopp
“I fully support the request by Representative Stutes. I don't think we have a board, a regulatory board in state government that is more sought to be weaponized by activists. And the process does matter.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Zack Fields
“I move and ask unanimous consent the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee approve the special audit request related to the Board of Fisheries and that the audit cover October 12th, 2023 through July 1st, 2026.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Gray Jackson
“I want to thank Chris and her staff for doing— always doing a great job on our behalf.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Louise Stutes
“A common theme that in the eyes of the public is growing more severe each year is the board's adherence to a transparent public process, ethical conduct, as well as its own policies, regulations, and statutes. These concerns were proven factual when our own Attorney General recently overturned 5 regulation proposals adopted by the Board of Fish, citing ethics acts violations. Board decisions and consequent— are consequential, often impacting thousands or tens of thousands of Alaskans within a single action.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Matt Groening
“the Attorney General herself cited ethics violations in overturning the 5 proposals that are referenced in the letter. There are several other meetings and proposals that are under litigation right now, and I believe that consistently we have been hearing concerns over the course of you know, Representative Stutes' 8 years as Fisheries Chair, that folks are concerned about the process and whether it's being followed.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Scott Kawasaki
“I feel like given the breadth of stakeholders' concerns and with current litigation, the AG overturning several proposals, and the amount of concern as Fisheries Chair that Representative Stutes has heard, it felt like it was appropriate to have an objective and independent look at the board's processes and procedures.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Matt Groening
“The only one, as you pointed out, that might be somewhat subjective is determine whether the board has operated in a transparent manner and/or provided adequate public notice. I think that would be more for the legislative auditor to speak to how she would determine that. But as the representative said, we worked with the legislative auditor on crafting this request so that they were quantifiables that they could come back with results on.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“if we get up and going in August, possibly by next session, but it won't come to this committee. Would never have it done that early because it would have to be done in prelim to you by December, final in January. We won't make that, but I would think generally 4 to 6 months of field work depending how big the team is.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Louise Stutes
“this audit request is not based on any outcomes of what the Board of Fish has done. It is based— we are asking it based on the process on which those outcomes were determined. The process, not the end result.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“likely we will have recommendations that come out of the audit.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026
Chris Curtis
“The audit is an independent— it'll be an opinion based on sufficient appropriate evidence. We bring it to this committee, we present it during executive session. This committee will decide whether or not to release it, but this committee has never not released it because it's an independent process.”Alaska Legislature: Joint Budget & Audit - July 16, 2026 8:30am · Jul 16, 2026