Rural Action Subcabinet plans public hearings

ANCHORAGE - Two questions have arisen in the year since then-Gov. Sarah Palin formed the Rural Action Subcabinet: What has it accomplished and what will it accomplish?

Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, who heads the subcabinet, plans to address those questions during public hearings this week in Unalakleet and Kotzebue.

Sullivan automatically became chair when Palin appointed him the state's top lawyer in June.

He came to the job from Washington, D.C., and concedes his time in rural Alaska consists of a trip to Rampart, where his mother-in-law is from, more than a decade ago. But he said that's going to change.

He said other subcabinet trips to the Bush are planned and people can e-mail ideas for the effort to attorney.general@alaska.gov.

"I think the process is going to benefit from being much more open, to both test drive some of the ideas we've been thinking about to see if there's interest ... but then also get other ideas from the people out there, not just the advisory committee."

He said the subcabinet's focus has been on studies of people leaving rural areas and high fuel prices.

The subcabinet plans to present recommendations to Gov. Sean Parnell by December.

Asked if the subcabinet is getting more attention under Parnell, Sullivan said he couldn't say.

"It's hard for me to compare between Gov. Palin and Parnell simply because in the short time that I was working for Gov. Palin it wasn't an area that we talked about," he told the Anchorage Daily News. "On the other hand she was the one that initiated this. But I can tell you that Gov. Parnell is clearly interested in these issues."