Assembly discusses strong mayor ordinance

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly discussed two ordinances that could appear on the November municipal ballot if passed. Neither the strong mayor ordinance 20-046 or the first class borough ordinance 20-061 passed the Assembly on Tuesday, but both will be up for an additional public hearing on July 14 where they would need to pass the Assembly to be voted on by Mat-Su Borough residents.

Assemblyman Jesse Sumner introduced his strong mayor ordinance in May, which would repeal the manager form of government and transfer the administrative powers to the mayor.

“If it passes by a majority of voters voting on the question, 60 days from the date of certification is your deadline. So within that two month period the assembly would have to consider an ordinance or series of ordinances to rearrange the government,” said Borough Attorney Nick Spiropolous.

While the Mayor would retain his veto power, if the strong mayor ordinance passed the assembly and a majority of Mat-Su Valley voters voted yes, the Mayor would no longer chair the Assembly meetings and would no longer vote in the event of a tie. Spiropolous noted that after seeking outside legal counsel, the ordinance was not subject to veto by the mayor before going to the voters.

“I think that the strong mayor is an okay idea, next year. But whether it’s being a first class city or strong mayor, the bottom line is you have to have a good reason to change what you’ve got or it’s unlikely to succeed and if you want to put it on the ballot, fine. But there’s really got to be some discussion and information for the public about what it really is and what it means and I haven’t seen that but I think that it’s something that really does need to be discussed,” said former Assemblyman Jim Sykes during public comment.

Sykes noted that the Mat-Su Borough used to have a strong mayor, but it was repealed. Assemblyman Dan Mayfield moved to continue the public hearing until July 14 which passed 5-2 with Sumner and Assemblyman Tim Hale voting no.

“When I look at this first class, it’s about strategy. How can the borough operate with a hundred and thirty, forty thousand population which it’s going to be 10 years from now. That’s what this is all about. When I look at strong mayor versus a good manager, I have a different look at that injecting politics into management,” said Mayor Vern Halter.

Halter’s ordinance 20-061 to move to allow Mat-Su voters to decide whether or not to become a first class borough was introduced in early June. Spiropolous said that currently, the Mat-Su Borough is a general law borough with a list of area wide powers inside and outside of the cities.

“The only difference in classifying between a second class borough to a first class borough is that your list of non area wide powers gets removed and replaced with a simple statement “any power not prohibited by law,” which means the borough assembly then could then enact its own powers and decide what to do in areas outside the cities,” said Spiropolous.

The list of mandatory area wide powers is identical between first and second class boroughs, featuring education, assessment and collection of taxes and land use regulation. The additional areawide powers is also identical between first and second class, featuring transportation systems, animal control, air pollution control, water pollution control, license day care facilities, and energy improvement assessment programs. However, 14 additional non area wide powers that exist in a second class borough would be replaced by a statement that reads any power not prohibited by law for first class boroughs. Those powers include transportation systems, regulation of fireworks, animal control, solid waste and septic waste, air pollution control, water pollution control, participation in federal or state loan programs for housing rehabilitation and improvement for energy conservation, economic development, participation in the state program for local roads and trails, EMS communications, regulation of licensing and operation of motor vehicles and operators, participation in debt programs, hazardous substance cleanup and energy improvement assessment programs. Moving to a first class borough would not affect service areas, city powers or borough powers inside of the cities. Assemblyman Ted Leonard pointed out the irony that Houston, Palmer and Wasilla are all first class cities inside a second class borough.

“This deserves some significant conversation and I don’t think we have the timing or the opportunity to do that so I encourage you to table it. Don’t get rid of it but table it,” said former Assemblywoman Barb Doty during public comment. Ordinance 20-061 will appear before the Assembly again on July 14.

“When I look at the strong mayor form of government, I look at it as basically a political type situation where you’re injecting politics into the management of the borough. When I look at first class versus second class, and I’ve been at this 14, 15 years with the borough, it’s a strategic move for the borough. We’re at a point in time where like here we are with the corona epidemic and we’d have health powers if we did that at that point in time. So you could actually use your CARES money I think a little bit more fluidly with just having that power without doing additional things,” said Halter. “As far as police powers, it’s obvious that the crime that’s going on in the Mat-Su Borough, you don’t have to raise property taxes to address police powers. It’s as simple as that.”