Arvin: Property board redundant

PALMER — The deputy borough mayor’s move to disband one of the Mat-Su Borough’s 25 advisory boards and commissions has raised some eyebrows in the community.

“Every one of us has blind spots and you need a public process to keep you honest, both ethically and intellectually,” borough planning commissioner and Palmer bookstore owner David Cheezem said of why he thinks the borough should keep the Real Property Asset Management Board in place.

He and a member of that board, Terry Snyder, penned an opinion piece that published in Tuesday’s Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

But deputy mayor Ron Arvin said the board does nothing to increase the public process.

“I see it as just another layer of regulation and process that the private sector has to follow to present and try to get virtually anything done in the borough,” he said.

The board has 11 members and a variety of functions. Most of those functions have to do with borough land and their uses. The board makes recommendations when the borough seeks to acquire or sell land or allow borough land to be used for things like timber harvesting or gravel extraction.

But the board is also has a broader role as well to “act in an advisory capacity to the assembly and administration, on all matters affecting real property and natural resource development,” according to borough code.

Arvin said that lately it seems like any time there’s a hot topic the board is called into play. And, again, he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

“Everything that goes in front of the RPAM board goes in front of a half a dozen other boards and commissions before it gets to the assembly,” he said.

In the opinion piece, Cheezem and Snyder say they doubt that Arvin will stop with the RPAMB.

“There is already talk on the assembly about cutting other boards and commissions — and some on the assembly resist input from community councils as well. They are coming for the Real Property Asset Management Board now, but are they going after your Parks and Recreation Board next?” they write.

But Arvin said there are no other boards he would like to eliminate.

There are, however, some he would like to combine, like the three or so boards that deal with issues related to emergency services. He also thinks the Parks, Recreation and Trails Advisory Board might be able to absorb the duties of the Historical Preservation Committee.

Arvin also said he at one time had some ideas for the borough’s planning commission, but quickly ran into a state law that dictates a class II borough like the Mat-Su Borough has to have a planning commission with a certain set of powers.

“I had an idea to limit the powers of the planning commission and I very abruptly learned that that’s a state statute issue and I had no business interfering with that,” he said.

He wrote a response to the Cheezem-Snyder opinion piece, which is on the Opinion page of today’s Frontiersman, in which he estimates the number of boards and commissions at the borough — including community councils and boards for things like fire and road service areas — at more than 60.

Arvin says that adds up to a lot of staff time when you consider that most of those boards include a borough staff member of some sort in all of their meetings.

“It really is probably a very big, huge cost, but it’s kind of rolled into the daily functions so it’s not like it’s specifically billed out where one could even find out what that cost is,” he wrote.

Another argument Cheezem made in an interview was that removing the RPAMB would lead to less transparency, that land deals between the borough and the private sector could be negotiated in private meetings between borough staff and whatever company is seeking a deal.

“You don’t have good decisions when things happen behind closed doors. You don’t have people really looking at the issues and looking at all of the ramifications,” Cheezem said.

But Arvin disagreed, saying that removing the board would put more of the onus on the assembly to hash out issues with whatever deal is being discussed. And since assembly meetings are better attended than the RPAMB meetings could ever hope to be, that means the issues would have more exposure rather than less.

Cheezem said he was there at the assembly when Arvin said he wanted to do away with the RPAMB board and restrict the planning commission. It was during the period when Usibelli Coal Mine was seeking permission to build a road to its coal leases in Sutton through borough land.

“He was obviously not happy that the real property asset management board did not quickly and enthusiastically endorse his position on the coal lease and he was not happy with the planning commission,” Cheezem said. “He said that he wanted to disband the Real Property Asset Management Board, and he also said that he wanted to diminish the authority of the planning commission.”

Arvin said he disagrees with Cheezem’s notion that this is related to the coal issue.

“Absolutely not, and if Mr. Cheezem had been paying attention for the past year he would know that I have been of this mindset since I was elected, and even before that,” Arvin said. “That’s an example of industry being put through the grinder, but that was not my motivation. My motivation is to streamline government so that it is more efficient and works better for the residents of this borough.”

Disbanding of the board is set to go before the assembly for a vote Dec. 7.

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