Governor Palin appointed Lynn Chrystal as the member from the Third Judicial District on March 27, 2007.  Governor Parnell appointed him as the Local Boundary Commission’s chair on September 10, 2009.  Mr. Chrystal is a former mayor and member of the City Council of the City of Valdez.  He has lived in Valdez since 1975.  Mr. Chrystal retired in 2002 from the federal government after four years in the Air Force and 36 years with the National Weather Service.  He has worked in Tin City, Barrow, Yakutat, and Valdez.  He has served on the boards of several civic groups and other organizations including the Resource Development Council, Pioneers of Alaska, and Copper Valley Electric Cooperative.  Commissioner Chrystal is retired but teaches on a substitute basis at Valdez schools.  His current term on the LBC ends January 31, 2013.

Commissioner Harcharek was appointed to the LBC on July 18, 2002 by Governor Knowles.  Governor Murkowski reappointed him to the LBC on March 24, 2004.  In April 2007, his fellow commissioners elected him vice chair of the commission.  On March 9, 2009, Governor Palin reappointed him to the commission.  Dr. Harcharek has lived and worked on the North Slope for more than 30 years.  He earned a Ph.D. in International and Development Education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977.  He served as a member of the Barrow City Council for fifteen years since 1993 and is currently Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Barrow.  Dr. Harcharek recently retired from the North Slope Borough as the Community and Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) Planner for the Department of Public Works.  In his twenty-four years of employment with the North Slope Borough, Dr. Harcharek has served as North Slope Borough Senior Planner and Social Science Researcher, CIP and Economic Development Planner, Community Affairs Coordinator for the North Slope Borough Department of Public Safety, Director of the North Slope Higher Education Center (now known as Ilisagvik College), and Socio-cultural Scientist for the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management.  Prior to that, he served as Director of Technical Assistance for Upkeagvik Inupiat Corporation, and Dean of the Inupiat University of the Arctic.  Commissioner Harcharek served for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and was also a Fulbright-Hays Professor of Multicultural Development in Thailand.  He has served as a member of numerous boards of directors, including the North Slope Borough Board of Education, the Alaska Association of School Boards, the Alaska School Activities Association and the Northern Justice Society.  His current term on the LBC ends January 31, 2014.

Governor Parnell appointed Larry Semmens of Soldotna to represent the Third Judicial District on the Local Boundary Commission on September 10, 2009.  Mr. Semmens is a certified public accountant and the manager of the City of Soldotna.  Previously, he was the finance director for the City of Kenai from 1996-2008.  He also served the Kenai Peninsula Borough as finance director from 1995-96, controller from 1988-95, and treasury manager from 1981-88.  Semmens is the current chair of the Alaska Public Entities Insurance Pool, and a member of the Alaska Government Finance Officers Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the International City Managers Association.  He was recently reappointed to the Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool Board.  Semmens served in the U.S. Air Force from 1973-76 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boise State University.  His current term on the LBC ends January 31, 2012.

Lavell Wilson, a Tok resident, represents the Fourth Judicial District.  Governor Palin appointed him to the commission on June 4, 2007.  Commissioner Wilson is a former member of the Alaska House of Representatives, serving the area outside of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the Eighth State Legislature.  He moved to Alaska in 1949 and has lived in the Northway/Tok area since.  Commissioner Wilson attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Brigham Young University.  Commissioner Wilson worked as a licensed aircraft mechanic, commercial pilot, and flight instructor for 40 Mile Air from 1981-1995, retiring as the company’s chief pilot and office manager.  Mr. Wilson became a licensed big game guide in 1963.  He has also worked as a surveyor, teamster, and construction laborer, retiring from the Operating Engineer’s Local 302 in Fairbanks.  As a member of Local 302, he worked for 12 years on the U.S. Air Force’s White Alice system, the ballistic missile defense site at Clear, and the radar site at Cape Newenham.  He has also taught a course at the University of Alaska for the past few years on the history of the Upper Tanana Valley.  His current term on the LBC ends January 31, 2010.