Assembly discusses health powers

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly discussed the lack of ability to mandate masks or health powers during Tuesday’s meeting. Governor Dunleavy’s Mat-Su office director Todd Smoldon brought up the issue during his comments that then continued through Borough Attorney Nick Spiropolous’ report.

Spirpolous said that he met with other state officials including Governor Dunleavy and assistant Attorney Generals to inquire about what health powers second class boroughs may have. Spiropolous detailed the history when Alaska was drawn into boroughs and each were given the opportunity to pursue first or second class borough status when the Mat-Su Borough incorporated in 1964. Other second class boroughs in the state include Kenai, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Aleutians east and Northwest Arctic. As a second class borough, additional powers can only be granted by the voters, the legislature or transferred from cities to the borough.

“When you look at the disaster powers of our state in title 26 in local emergency powers were mandated to develop a local emergency response plan,” said Spiropolous. “There’s a specific part in there that says this section does not empower a political subdivision to perform responsibilities that it’s not otherwise empowered to perform. What does that mean, it means you don’t get extra powers simply because you declare a disaster.”

Spiropolous noted that the Governor does have the power to suspend operations of statutes, but that powers are not granted by that suspension. Without a statewide mask mandate, second class boroughs are powerless to enforce health powers outside of buildings that are owned by the borough.

New Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani also provided the Assembly with an update on registration. Trani said that parents can expect to see individualized mitigation plans from schools on August 12.

“We’ve developed a mitigation for how to mitigate the spread of covid across the district. The whole goal is to keep school open as much as we can for in person learning,” said Trani.

Deputy Borough Manager Russ Krafft presented an opportunity that will come up at the next meeting on August 18. The Mat-Su Borough received an invitation from Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer to submit a bid to host the Arctic Winter Games in March of 2024. The AWG has been ongoing for over 50 years and held six times in Alaska. The conglomeration of 2,000 athletes from Alaska, Greenland, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Canada brought an estimated $38.7 million economic impact to the Northwest Territories of Canada in 2018. Krafft noted that the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau had submitted a bid previously that included Arctic Valley Ski Area, but would now include Skeetawk Ski Area in Hatcher Pass.

“I think that venues such as Big Lake or Willow would be prime spots to have this kind of activity so I’d certainly think that it would do very well for tourism here in the future and it should be something that we would pursue,” said Assemblyman Dan Mayfield.