Assembly meets with community to discuss crime and possible solutions

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly hosted a public meeting at the borough office Wednesday to discuss crime in the borough, and gauge the community’s top priorities regarding their concerns, possible solutions and expectations.

Deputy Borough Manager George Hays led the discussion, aided by other assembly members and borough staff.

Various members of the community split into two groups to talk about a number of crime-related questions provided by the borough. They talked out the issues, brainstormed and drew out their results on their own easels. Once both groups finished jotting down their top priorities, Hays had them lay stickers down to vote and narrow them down to the top three for each question.

Each group selected a spokesperson to share their table’s consensus. Group two seemed to come to their verdict with less strife than group one, who quibbled a bit with their spokesperson, feeling he was “editorializing” their answers. Bickering ensued but they were able to get through it, some shrugging and others laughing it off.

“Let’s take a breath. We’re all here to make our community better,” Eileen Patterson, of the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission, said to group one.

Eventually, the results were quantified further from the combined votes of the two groups, establishing the top priorities of the room.

The three top answers to the question, “What are the three biggest crime issues?”, were drugs, rehabilitation and crime. The three top answers to the question, “What are your top three recommendations to reduce crime?”, were prevention, increased law enforcement and comprehensive social services, and consequences.

Another question, “Top Expectations if your recommendations are implemented?”, was asked. The community’s response was lower recidivism rate, decrease crime and fewer first-time offenders.

About 15 members of the community showed up to the meeting. Patterson said she would have liked to have seen a bigger turnout, mapping a more accurate representation of the community’s wishes.

“We need people to show up,” Patterson said.

When it came to solutions, the groups were encouraged to differentiate their expectations between borough or state actions. Since the borough has no police powers, an idea like adding a sheriff's office or additional state troopers was a prominent discussion point.

District 1 Assemblyman Jim Sykes was at the meeting. He said that Alaska currently has fewer troopers than it did 10 years ago.

“Like most things in society, until a problem gets so bad, nothing gets done,” Sykes said.

Sykes said that, while the total number of crimes within Wasilla city limits has gone down, the crimes committed outside city limits has increased. He said the criminals migrate from one area to another.

“Criminals know to go out of city limits,” Sykes said. “It’s like squeezing a balloon.”

One citizen, Paul Scheideberg appeared frustrated with SB91 and the “catch and release” of criminals committing the same crimes, saying that “these people get arrested, they get bailed out, turn around and do the same thing.”

Development Services Manager for the MSB Alex Strawn helps create and enforce Borough codes. One of the highest number of open cases falls under junk and trash violations. Strawn said that often, these junked and trashed houses were symptoms of addiction.

“If you drive them out of one house, they migrate to another,” Strawn said.

It was clear by the results that drug and alcohol abuse and the associated crimes were at the forefront of everyone’s mind that day. It appeared that this slice of the community agreed that getting to the “root” of the problem is to tackle the addiction, be it through expanded prevention efforts or increased treatment options.

“We really need to get families back together,” Army veteran Richard Heller said. “You just see people dying out here.”

This was one of three “Safer Borough” meetings. There was also a meeting in Willow June 18. Another is scheduled for Monday at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla at 6 p.m. The collated results of these meetings will be brought before the assembly as talking points and will be considered as they discuss the next steps to cut down the crime across the borough.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at Jacob.mann@frontiersman.com.