APOC says forum was OK

WASILLA — Calls Monday to the Alaska Public Offices Commission confirmed what candidate forum organizers have said for weeks — forums planned at the Wasilla Senior Center and Primrose Retirement Community were legal.

“Based on the facts that were provided, we did not see that any type of a violation that might have occurred,” said Heather Hebdon, a paralegal with APOC.

She said she’d discussed the matter with people in Wasilla prior to the forum at the Wasilla Senior Center that incumbent Mayor Verne Rupright declined to attend, citing possible APOC violations.

The first forum was at Primrose Retirement Community and was canceled after Rupright sent a letter saying the forum violated APOC rules. The second forum was at the Wasilla Senior Center and was canceled after organizers received a letter from Rupright saying the forum was a violation of APOC rules. But organizers at WASI called APOC, confirmed the forum was legal and it took place Sept. 15, but without Rupright in attendance.

Rupright said that he didn’t think it was appropriate to participate in either forum because he said staff with mayoral candidate Dianne Woodruff’s campaign helped set them up.

But APOC’s Hebdon said that even if a candidate had clearly organized a forum for all to participate in, it might not necessarily run afoul of APOC rules.

“Basically what it comes down to is that you’re not offering an advantage to one candidate or another,” Hebdon said.

If such a hypothetical forum could be shown to give equal opportunity to all candidates, it would — in theory — be permissible under the statutes, she said.

But that’s not how Rupright interprets APOC’s rules, he said.

“Our understanding of the APOC rules … is a campaign cannot set it up or approach an organization to set up a forum or debate,” Rupright said.

For her part, Woodruff campaign worker Patti Fisher said that Rupright is exaggerating her ties to the forums.

“I did gather the three people that were going to be involved with it,” she said of the canceled Primrose forum. “Beyond that I said, ‘OK, it’s yours, you decide how it’s going to be set up, you decide who the moderator is going to be, who’s going to ask the questions. I’m out of it.’”

Woodruff said that her campaign had no say in what questions would be asked and didn’t know what the questions were prior to the event.

Fisher said her involvement in the Wasilla Senior Center forum was even more minimal — merely the suggestion that the organization that runs the center, Wasilla Area Seniors Inc., should plan a forum.

From the start, both at Primrose and at WASI, Fisher said all she wanted was for seniors to have a chance to participate in a forum and maybe ask questions of their own. She said that leading up to the WASI forum, Rupright again raised the issue of the alleged improprieties.

“(WASI) had called APOC themselves and called the mayor’s office back and said there is no violation we’re going through with it,” Fisher said of the WASI forum.

Rupright did not participate in the Sept. 15 forum, but sent a note saying he would not attend as “this forum is a violation of APOC rules.”