Lobbying in D.C. proves helpful

VICTORIA BARBER

October 02, 2008 at 9:33AM AKST

Mayor Shirley Marquardt, city manager Chris Hladick and City Council member Zoya Johnson met with U.S. legislators, government officials and wounded veterans of the Iraq war on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., from Sept. 13 to 18.

The goal of the trip was to lobby for federal funding for city projects, such as the small boat harbor. The group also met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in an effort to secure reimbursement from the government for the money the city has spent on cleaning up the PCBs left at the powerhouse site, which the city maintains were from the military presence during World War II.

Shirley Marquardt said that in meeting with the Corps of Engineers she was pretty certain they were going “to walk into a brick wall,” but was pleasantly surprised to see a friendly face.

“Low and behold the department director of environmental division of the Civil Corps of Engineers walks in and he’s our old friend Lloyd Pike!” said Marquardt.

Marquardt said that Pike had visited Unalaska two years ago and “fell in love with the community.”

“You could see the lawyers stiffening and he (Pike) flat out made the point – ‘let’s not penalize these people for doing the right thing,’” said Marquardt.

Marquardt said that Pike advised city council that, since the Corps of Engineers does not have a reimbursement program, they should approach the Justice Department to intercede on the city’s behalf. This process would require the city to provide the Justice Department with the rationalization of why the federal government should pay for the cost of cleanup.

Marquardt said that the next step on the PCB issue is for the city manager, Hladick, and the city’s legal counsel to bring the issue before city council and outline the steps that approaching the Justice Department would require. It will then be up to city council to decide whether to proceed.

It was Zoya Johnson’s first trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby.

“We have to authorize it every time the city representative and mayor is travels and I wanted to know – what is important about these trips, is it money well spent,” said Johnson. “My impression after this trip is that it is.”

She said that going with the city to D.C. would be a poor choice for someone who wanted to get the tourist-eye view of the nation’s capital – the three Unalaskans had a packed schedule of meetings, visiting the offices of U.S. legislators Don Young, Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens and various government offices, including NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers.

“It was very productive and successful in that every office that we were in and official that we talked to reassured us that they had an interest in helping us to finish our projects,” said Johnson. “It wasn’t like, ‘yeah, we’ll give you the money,’ but they came across as though they truly believed that we here went through a really thoughtful process of preparing for the projects.”

“What was really interesting was how well aware all the officials that we met were about our projects and all the issues that our community is facing, not only did they know the history of the project, they knew what stage we are at now, and the amount we would need,” said Johnson. “They were really aware and seemed genuinely interested in helping us.”

The group also stopped in to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to read letters of support from Unalaska community members to wounded veterans of the Iraq war and distribute T-shirts to hospital’s “Deadliest Catch” fans.

Victoria Barber can be reached at 907-348-2424 or toll free at 800- 770-9830, ext. 424.