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DNR pays the price of lower budgets, fewer employees New commissioner says department plans to fill some vacant slots in Division of Oil and Gas to keep up with increased activity Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The headcount is down by about 80 and the budget by about $3 million at the Department of Natural Resources over the last five years.
Because of that, the department is doing a lot a things with a relatively smaller number of very dedicated employees, DNR's new commissioner, Pat Pourchot, told the Resource Development Council Nov. 9.
“I'm very impressed with the quality of work in some tough situations,” Pourchot said. But the work load has gone up over that period of time, he said. The state has title to 675,000 more acres of land from the federal government, and permits and leases have increased as land use goes up.
“And, of course, with that (there are) more land-use conflicts,” Pourchot said.
DNR has done several thing to meet the challenges. Three divisions — mining, land and water — have been consolidated into one, eliminating two division director positions. The department has a shared administrative services agreement with the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. And technology has been substituted for bodies in a lot of cases. Service level down But, Pourchot said, there have been reductions in some services to the public.
“We're not doing some things very well, and we're doing some things much slower than we were five years ago,” he said. One example is a two-year backlog in leases which need to be adjudicated in Southcentral.
And in water adjudication, DNR has lost two-thirds of its staff and about half its budget over the last five years. All the department can now do, Pourchot said, is have people file for priority in the event there is a conflict later.
Work that is done, he said, tends “to focus on the biggest, most important projects, the most immediate needs” and a lot of work just doesn't get done.
“This came home to roost, by the way, in a court suit a couple of weeks ago,” he said, when the judge remanded back to the department a suit by Greenpeace over water usage for the Northstar project.
“Some of the things (in that remand) we think we can deal with, with more information,” Pourchot said. “Some of the things the judge is right — we did not renew some water releases correctly under the law.”
He said DNR believes the issue can be resolved without holding up ongoing projects on the North Slope. But, he said, “it does have broader implications for the future.” DNR looking to budget, legislation Pourchot said the department will be looking for fixes in the budget, in legislation and in internal procedures. The department, he said, is “trying to improve our operations for the people we serve, for user groups” and will be “focusing on some of these less glamorous issues that are really the bread and butter building blocks.”
“Just to give a few examples of things we're trying to address, we're going to be trying to fill more of our vacancies currently in the Oil and Gas Division, to keep up with the increased activities… in the industry.”
The department will be trying to improve its technology and complete some of its computer-based system.
And it will be trying to “forward fund” some programs — using proceeds from land sales to do more surveys and planning. Pourchot said that was an example of an area where you need money up front in order to make money for the state.
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