An Ombudsman for the Borough?

A proposal developed by a group of Borough residents and activists would require the creation of an ombudsman job to field and investigate citizen complaints against Borough officials.

The proposal was developed by the newly formed Committee on MSB Accountability, with Beth Fread, a former member of the Borough Transportation Commission and former Wasilla Mayor Vern Rupright as its primary sponsors.

Often a role found at the state level, an ombudsman is typically a citizen representative paid a salary funded by taxpayers.

But rather than create a new government position, Fread and Rupright’s proposal looks to appointment an ombudsman as a government contractor through a new independent seven member volunteer commission of representatives selected from across the Borough. Instead of taxpayer dollars, the salary would be funded through other means, such as grants, but sourced by the Borough, Fread said.

The position’s independence from the Borough government is key, she said.

“I want an external ombudsman that doesn’t live in the building with everyone that they can make friends with,” she said. “I see the role of an ombudsman as receiving complaints … from anybody who disagrees with and has a complaint about what the Borough is doing … and the ombudsman would check the law and the policies and procedures and come back with their findings and report them to the agencies and complainant.”

The proposal will be presented as a citizen’s initiative. To become law it must first be presented to the Borough clerk and certified as legal by an attorney, placed on the ballot through a signature collection and then approved by voters.

The proposal would give the ombudsman the power to choose whether or not to investigate citizen complaints against Borough officials, including members of the Assembly, gather sworn testimony, issue subpoenas and compile reports with his or her findings.

Although the proposal doesn’t include a specific salary for the position, it does say the first year would cost no more than $150,000, including office space and salary.

Fread said she came up with the idea during a conversation with her husband and a friend.

“I was sitting with my husband and a friend and we were discussing things, and all of the sudden the terms ‘MatSu Borough’ and ‘shenanigans’ got used together. My husband said ‘you know what the Borough needs? The borough needs an ombudsman,’” she said. “My reaction was I do not want anyone in the Borough being an ombudsman, because my experience is that [Borough employees] are there to tell me that whatever entity they are working for is absolutely right.”

Although she declined to go into specifics about which “shenanigans” inspired the proposal, Fread pointed to the beginning of the ordinance as laying out their reasons.

“The two Primary Initiative Sponsors … have spent a considerable number of years defining and promoting the need for governmental cooperation to share information in order to promote transparency in the activities of the MSB with minimal success; and … members of the Committee who have served on MSB Advisory Boards found that the staff in the MSB modified recommendations (resolutions) to the Assembly without prior notice or consultation with those Advisory Boards/ Commissions,” the proposal states.

Rupright said his concerns for the Borough stem in part from the way the government is centralized in Palmer, without representative offices elsewhere in the region. He said if Borough officials won’t address citizen concerns, than this type of initiative is the best option.

“Why has it come to this?” he said. “If it’s come to this that the people are concerned enough to put together a ballot initiative, you know you have some problems you have to rectify and you can take it by the horns and save everyone the trouble … or you can choose to ignore it.”

While developing the proposal Fread and Rupright held a community meeting attended by about 20 local residents to hash out the idea, Fread said. They plan to hold another meeting March 21 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Curtis Menard Sports Center in Wasilla and want to submit the proposal to the Borough shortly thereafter.

But at least one member of the Borough Assembly doesn’t like the idea. Instead of an ombudsman who answers to a committee of non-elected volunteers, he said the Borough already has a group of ombudsmen tasked with watching over Borough management: the Assembly. And if local citizens don’t believe Assembly members are keeping their best interests at heart, they should vote them out, he said.

“That vetting process that happens during the election and campaign allows folks in their districts to get the people they want rather than a committee,” said Randall Kowalke, who represents a rural area of the Borough that includes Willow.

Kowalke worried that the estimated cost of the office, $150,000, doesn’t factor in expenses to the Borough incurred when offices must compile information for the ombudsmen’s investigations. He also suggested the measure won’t be certified for signatures at all, since the law requires that citizens’ initiatives do not carry a cost to the Borough, and this one does, he said.

But Fread is prepared for that possibility. She said they purposefully included language that says that the Borough “shall ensure that the physical and clerical requirements … are met” rather than directing the Borough to spend specific money. That wording, she said, gives the Borough leeway to instead source funding through other means.

And if it doesn’t? She said her group might be prepared to resubmit the proposal and fight it in court, if necessary.

“I don’t know how far the committee is willing to take it,” she said.