JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - Wasilla City Council Member Diana Straub has no plans to resign her position on the council, despite the fact that she will live and work in Juneau for Rep. Mark Neuman over the next five months. She said she plans to attend the first council meeting of each month via teleconference and attend the second meeting of each month in person.

Fellow council member Rob Sande expressed concern at the Jan. 10 council meeting that Straub would not be able to effectively represent her constituents via teleconferencing. Sande said he would move at the Jan. 24 meeting that Straub be asked to resign. "I think there may be a conflict," Sande said. "She will only be home three or four days per month and this time of year we attend a lot of budget meetings and work sessions."

Straub will work as a secretary/receptionist for District 15's new Republican representative.

"Initially I thought I had to resign because in the past other people had done that," Straub said in an interview Friday. "But there was nothing that said I had to, so I was pretty excited about that and decided to keep my seat."

Straub said teleconferencing shouldn't challenge her ability to effectively serve on the council.

"We use modern communication technology for a lot of things in our state," she said.

While Sande may have reservations about Straub's arrangement, fellow council member Noel Lowe said he thought Straub could pull it off.

"She is committed to come back for every other meeting and from what I've seen of her work ethic, I think it's doable," Lowe said. "It's more challenging to communicate through teleconference. You have to ask people to repeat things and ask for clarifications, but as long as you're willing to do that, I don't think it's a problem."

The city clerk's office indicated, however, that there might be a legal conflict with the city's code.

A provision in the municipal code states, "Teleconferencing may not be used as a regular form of participating for regular meetings of the council."

Part of the debate hinges on the meaning of the word "regular."

"I don't think five intermittent meetings in a three-year term meets that description," Straub said.

Sande is not so sure. He believes the code was established to ensure council members were physically present for meetings.

"The code is unclear," Sande said, "and its meaning varies between different people."

Sande wanted to be clear that he was not attacking Straub.

"It's more about getting a true reflection on how the council feels about a member participating in this way," he said.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.