Assembly hopefuls meet at candidates’ forum

WASILLA — A Mat-Su Borough police department, an expanding borough bureaucracy and government’s relation to business were all topics on the table during Thursday’s forum for candidates for borough assembly.

Fully half of the candidates running for election to the assembly turned out — two from each race.

From District 1, the seat for which incumbent Lynne Woods has reached her term limit, Bruce Walden of Butte squared off against George Rauscher of Sutton. Not present were Warren Keogh of Chickaloon and James Tapley of Sutton.

From District 2, which represents the Palmer area, Noel Woods faced Tom Braund. The incumbent in that race, Pete Houston, could not attend, nor could his third challenger, John Liner.

Rauscher introduced himself as a father of four who is active with the Sutton Community Council where he has served as chairman. He said he was running for office intending to listen to his constituents and take their views into account.

His opponent, Bruce Walden, introduced himself as retired from a career in the military. He said he’s running to correct what he sees as a poorly managed and “business-unfriendly” borough administration.

Warren Keogh, though not present, submitted an opening statement describing himself as a father of three, Vietnam veteran, former firefighter and active community council member living on his Chickaloon homestead. He said the borough deserves good schools and good infrastructure.

Woods said he’s been an Alaska resident for 65 years and held many different jobs in that time, in construction, transportation and emergency services. He is a father of four and has seven grandchildren

Braund is a 10-year Alaska resident and served nine years in the US Marine Corps. He said he sees himself as a statesman, working for the good of the community, rather than as a politician, working for himself and for special interests.

The first question out of the gate asked candidates if they felt the borough needed to expand its relatively small government to meet the needs of a growing population.

“No, we do not,” Walden said, then told a story of a trip he took to borough headquarters on a day when there happened to be a gas leak that was evacuating the building. “I sat there and started counting people and 160 people came out on my side.”

He said the government is not run efficiently and uses tax money to do things it shouldn’t.

Woods answered that he felt whatever number the borough gave as its staffing level, which then led to a calculation that the borough government is smaller per-capita than most in the state, probably didn’t reflect how many people it actually employs.

“They hire so many consultants that I don’t think are counted as staff,” he said, adding that his job would be, “making sure that the assembly is fiscally conservative in that they really want to get bang for the buck.”

Braund said that some growth might be necessary but that he would endeavor to keep the government small.

Rauscher said making decisions about how big the government should be entails a lot of thought and that the borough could benefit from a bird’s eye view and a clear direction.

“I think it’s time to take a look, stop and think about where we’re going as a borough,” he said.

One question asked candidates what they thought the borough should focus on when it comes to creating jobs. All four candidates seemed to agree that the best thing the borough can do is get out of the way and let entrepreneurs figure that out.

Asked about the potential for creating a borough police department to supplant the Alaska State Troopers, very few candidates thought it was a good idea. Braund said he needed to study it more. Rauscher dismissed it as impractical in such a large borough and prohibitively expensive. Woods agreed that the cost was too great, especially considering the borough’s obligations to its employees’ retirement funds.

But Walden said it’s something the borough should take a very close look at. He said he didn’t think it would be affordable and if it wasn’t he wouldn’t support it, but that local policing is a very good idea.

“When you have a police department that answers to Juneau rather than us right here in the borough, you’re asking for trouble,” he said.

On the question of whether the mayor should run the show at the borough instead of a manager — a question voters will decide at the same time they pick assembly members — there were a number of opinions.

“I just applaud the Assembly for putting it on the ballot,” Rauscher said.

Walden said he was very much in favor of a strong-mayor government, saying that position should be elected and that the borough is mature enough to handle it.

“We’re big boys and girls. This isn’t 1964 anymore,” he said. “It works all over the country and it will work right here.”

Woods said he felt that the question was going to come down to one of how quickly voters want to be able to decide on a change in leadership. He noted that the assembly has the power to hire and fire a manager and voters pick the assembly. Voters who want a change in manager need only elect a new assembly.

Braund mainly agreed with Walden, saying, “I’m a voter and I know that I want to elect somebody who’s going to be running part of my life.”

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