Alaska Commerce Commissioner to Head Pipeline Native Hiring Program
Story-Date: 01:16 p.m. PST Sunday   , September 21, 1997

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Alaska Commerce Commissioner to Head Pipeline Native Hiring Program


By Stan Jones, Anchorage Daily News
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 22--State Commerce Commissioner Willie Hensley, 56, will leave his
$79,000-a-year post next month to run the Native-hire program at Alyeska
Pipeline Service Co.

Hensley didn't return a call to his Juneau office Friday.

"He just said it was for personal reasons and didn't go any farther," said
Bob King, a spokesman for Gov. Tony Knowles.

Knowles brought Hensley to the Department of Commerce and Economic
Development in December 1994, soon after the election that put Knowles in
office.

Hensley has had a long career in Native affairs, business and politics
dating back to the Native land claims struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. In
1990 he ran for lieutenant governor, sharing the ticket with Knowles, who
lost his first bid for governor that year.

Alyeska runs the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline, which carries over a
million barrels of oil a day from North Slope fields to the tanker port at
Valdez.

When Alyeska got federal permission to build the pipeline in 1974, it
agreed to train and hire Alaska Natives. For years, Alyeska neglected that
commitment, but it has been trying to improve Native hire since pledging a
$25 million, 12-year effort under an agreement with the U.S. Interior
Department in October 1995.

The 1995 agreement set a goal of 20 percent Native workers for Alyeska and
its contractors by 2004.

At the time, said current Alyeska president Bob Malone, about 5 percent of
the Alyeska staff was Native. Today it's 9 percent, comprising nearly 70
out of 830 Alyeska employees. He said Hensley's hire would probably put the
company at or above 70 Native workers.

"He's got executive experience, he's an Alaska Native and he's familiar
with our program and Alaska Native issues in the state, so it was a perfect
fit," Malone said.

When the agreement was announced two years ago, Hensley was co-chairman of
the Alaska Federation of Natives, which helped work out the deal. "We hope
it's not disappearing ink," he quipped.

Alyeska is owned by seven oil companies with North Slope holdings. Among
the responsibilities of Hensley's Commerce Department is general oversight
of corporations, though other state agencies -- such as the departments of
Revenue, Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation -- deal with
high-profile, sometimes high-tension oil-industry issues like taxes,
royalties and pollution.

King, when asked if it was a problem having Hensley negotiate a job with
the oil industry while still commerce commissioner, said, "He had no
immediate oversight over Alyeska. He's immediately going to be stepping
down from anything to do with oil and gas matters."

King said Knowles expects to name a replacement for Hensley by the time
Hensley leaves for Alyeska late next month.

King said he had no word on candidates to replace Hensley.

Knowles in a prepared statement Friday said he accepted the resignation
with a mixture of regret and thanks, and praised Hensley for a "tremendous
job."

(c) 1997, Anchorage Daily News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Business News.



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