Sealaska Plaza is the location of the regional Native corporation’s Juneau headquarters. (File photo/KTOO)
Sealaska shareholders will learn Saturday which of nine candidates will fill four seats on the Southeast regional Native corporation’s board of directors. They’ll also find out whether a term-limits measure will go into place.
Most of Sealaska’s 22,000 shareholders who will vote already have. Results will be announced during Sealaska’s annual meeting, Saturday at the Ketchikan High School gymnasium.
The board usually endorses a full slate of incumbents. But this year, the panel rejected one, who is running as an independent. Other independent candidates include well-known artists, businesspeople, nonprofit administrators and a former high-level staffer.
The term-limits measure would make incumbent board members step down after three, three-year terms. They would not be allowed to run again.
It’s supported by critics who say Sealaska has lost too much money and needs top-level changes. It’s opposed by the board, which says the corporation would lose important knowledge and history.
Similar terms-limits measures have failed in past years.
Read more about Sealaska election issues.
The three board slate members are Inside Passage Electric Cooperative CEO Jodi Mitchell, National Congress of American Indians Executive Director Jackie Johnson Pata and Tlingit and Haida Business Corporation CEO Richard Rinehart.
The independents include incumbent and attorney Patrick Anderson and term-limits author Mick Beasley, a carver.
The other independents are carver Doug Chilton, financial advisor Brad Fluetsch, Bartlett Regional Hospital Controller Karen Taug and former Sealaska Corporate Secretary Nicole Hallingstad, now operations director for the National Congress of American Indians.
