{"id":4621,"date":"2019-02-26T10:30:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T19:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2019-03-07T10:44:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T19:44:36","slug":"stedman-assembles-strong-team-of-experienced-staffers-to-work-on-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4621","title":{"rendered":"Stedman Assembles Strong Team of Experienced Staffers to Work on Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m grateful\nto have put together an extremely experienced team of staff personnel for my\noffice.  As operating budget chairman for\nthe Senate Finance Committee, it is important to have good and experienced\nstaff.  It is also very helpful that my\nentire staff have very strong family roots in the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good staff is particularly important given the reductions in the proposed budget presented by the Governor, the revenue challenges we face, the effort to protect the Permanent Fund, and provide a reliable dividend for future generations.  All Alaskans will feel the impacts from the budget that will pass this session \u2013 I will work, along with my staff, the ensure that the pain is distributed equally and proportionally among all regions of Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the members of my team and their backgrounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Team Stedman (L to R): David Scott, Kelly O’Sullivan, Randy Ruaro, Sen. Bert Stedman, Pete Ecklund, and Melissa Kookesh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            Pete\nEcklund:  <\/strong>Pete is\nfrom Ketchikan and is Tsimshian.  He has\nworked since 1994 in the Legislature.  During\nthis time, Pete has coordinated and worked closely for many years on the\noperating budget for co-chairmen in both the House and Senate Finance\nCommittees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Melissa\nKookesh:  <\/strong>Melissa\nis from Angoon and is Athabaskan and Tlingit. \nHer first year in the Legislature was 1995 when she worked as a House\nPage and she has been with the office since 2015.  She was formerly the assistant to the\nPresident of the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska which is\none of the largest tribes in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Kelly O\u2019Sullivan:  <\/strong>Kelly is from Ketchikan.  She has fifteen years of experience in state government in accounting, finance, and budgeting.  She spent the last nine years in the Office of Management and Budget as a Budget Analyst, Capital Budget Coordinator, Chief Budget Analyst.  Kelly also spent time at the Department of Administration\u2019s Division of Finance as Chief Accountant and Finance Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Randy Ruaro:  <\/strong>Randy is also from Ketchikan and is part Filipino.  He has experience working in the legislature for several representatives from Ketchikan.  Randy has also served on the staff for Governors Murkowski, Palin, and Parnell, working mainly on transportation, land, and resource development matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            David Scott:  <\/strong>David is from Metlakatla and is also Tsimshian.  He has worked twelve years in the legislature in various roles including Chief of Staff to the House Majority Leader and for Senator Donald Olson from Golovin.  David carries most of my personal legislation and is my Senate Finance Committee Aide.  He is a veteran and before coming to the Legislature was a rescue swimmer for the United States Navy on the U.S.S. Stetham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We look forward to working hard for the District. Please do not hesitate to contact the staff with any issues or concerns you may have regarding the district, or other issues with the state government. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m grateful to have put together an extremely experienced team of staff personnel for my office.  As operating budget chairman for the Senate Finance Committee, it is important to have good and experienced staff.  It is also very helpful that my entire staff have very strong family roots in the district. Good staff is particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}