3 boroughs or 1? Voters may decide

PALMER — How many boroughs does it take to govern the Valley?

Three, apparently. Or so says Brian Sullivan.

Sullivan, a former school board member and a candidate in the last election for borough mayor, said in a recent opinion piece published in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman that the borough as currently constituted is ungovernable, a conclusion he said he reached while on the campaign trail in the mayoral election.

“In Talkeetna, the comment was often made that ‘we see the mayor during the campaign and then never again.’ Another example is the recent Wasilla High School principal dustup. Local views were not represented by the district, with decisions made far away with results the community was not happy with,” he wrote.

In an interview, he elaborated.

“The structure of the government isn’t what works for the area,” he said. “I think people in Wasilla would really like a borough seat in Wasilla. There’s a lot of pride in that community. And I think people in Palmer don’t always agree with the direction that Wasilla is going.”

So his idea is to split the borough into Wasilla, Palmer and Talkeetna boroughs.

In theory, it would mean less government since the Palmer and Wasilla governments could merge with the new borough governments, and the city of Houston with the Talkeetna borough government. Anchorage and Haines went through a similar process merging the borough and city governments into a single body.

Sullivan said in his opinion piece that the change could be made with a vote of the people, getting it on the ballot through gathering signatures on a petition. But he’s not quite there yet. Currently, he’s trying to draw up language to present to the borough’s clerk.

“It’s a work in progress,” Sullivan said.

Wasilla City Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff has talked to Sullivan about his plans and she said she has major reservations.

“I think the intent is good if the intent is to make government more local,” Woodruff said.

But her biggest objections are twofold.

First, “I’m very concerned in that with a borough with 100,000 resident sometimes it’s hard to have a big voice in Juneau,” she said. “I kind of fear that splitting it three ways might dilute our voice.”

Second, “I fear that it’s going to lead to duplication of a number of services and ultimately more expense for the taxpayer,” she said.

On that first point, she noted that there are a number of issues where the cities and borough are already working together, presenting a unified voice in Juneau. A good example is the regional wastewater treatment plant. Another is road construction.

“We need to see money for the same roads,” Woodruff said.

As for the second point, she brought up platting. Wasilla doesn’t do platting. The borough covers the city. But if the borough was split, would Wasilla need to institute its own platting board and hire a director and technician to handle it?

And what about emergency services? The borough covers Wasilla but not Palmer. Would the new Wasilla borough have to take on ambulance and fire service?

She also worries about a perception problem Sullivan might run into. The new boroughs would have much wider boundaries than the current cities.

“Both Palmer and Wasilla have had annexation talks that have not gone very well,” Woodruff said. Among a certain segment of the population, a split like Sullivan’s, “Would be seen as an attempt to do an annexation; annexation by another name.”

And she’s not sure there is such a big difference between the areas Sullivan has identified. The biggest divide, she said, seems to be between rural and urban Valleyites. All three boroughs delineated in Sullivan’s plan would have rural portions.

For his part, Sullivan said there are big differences in the various regions he’s identified. Big Lake and Knik, he points out, have to worry about rail lines going through their areas. Palmer doesn’t. But Palmer is more likely to worry about an issue affecting Sutton — the proposed coal mine at Wishbone Hill.

He said he sees support for new government in Houston, where a lot of residents wish the city government in place would function better than it does, and in Big Lake, where residents have recently resurrected talks that may lead toward creating a city of Big Lake. Creating a new borough, he said, in the area might satisfy both of those desires.

“I would argue that you want a government that is closer to the community issues,” he said.

The next step after drawing up a potential initiative, he said, is to go into information-gathering mode, talking to chambers of commerce and other community groups.

“If they think it’s a terrible idea, then that’s the input,” Sullivan said.

Woodruff said her hope is that someone somewhere will eventually do a cost-benefit analysis.

“What I cautioned him (about) is if you present this to the voters without a good, solid analysis of the pros and cons and the costs you’re really doing them a disservice,” she said.

Sullivan said the plan might change as he moves along.

“This may not be the ultimate solution for what we need in government, but better, more efficient government is the goal,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.