Candidates begin to line up for local races

MAT-SU — Election season is off to a relatively slow start with a small handful of local candidates filing paperwork to be on the Oct. 1 general election ballot.

The filing period opened Monday for candidates seeking election for Wasilla, Houston and Palmer city councils, along with the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, borough school board and Palmer mayor. With 11 seats up for election in the cities and borough, as of Friday afternoon, five candidates had filed to be on the ballot. Candidates have until 5 p.m., July 26 to file for office, with the exception of Houston, where the deadline is 3 p.m., July 26.

Here’s a rundown what’s on the ballot so far around the Valley.

Mat-Su Borough

The borough has the most happening on its ballot so far, with two assembly seats — Districts 1 and 2 — and three seats on the school board — Seats C, G and F — up for election this October. In the first week of the candidate filing period, so far no one has turned in paperwork to run for the assembly, the borough clerk’s office reports.

District 1, which represents Sutton, Chickaloon and other communities north and east of Palmer, is currently representative by Warren Keogh. District 2, which includes mostly Palmer and the immediate surrounding area, is served by Noel Woods.

For the school board, all seats are elected at-large and Seat C, held by board president Susan Pougher, has no official candidates so far. Pougher said Friday she intends to run again, but has yet to file the paperwork.

For Seat F, Talkeetna resident Donna Dearman has filed to run for the seat held by Neal Lacy. In an announcement of her candidacy, Dearman cites more than 20 years of experience in education with Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, where she was a teacher and administrator. She retired as an assistant principal in 2006. She has a master’s degree in special education and a doctorial degree in special education administration. Dearman moved to Talkeetna in 2007 with her husband, Larry.

For Seat G, incumbent and Palmer bookstore owner David Cheezem is seeking election. He was appointed in February to fill a vacancy on the board created when Lynn Gattis resigned after her election to the state House of Representatives.

In a statement announcing his candidacy, Cheezem says the school district faces “challenges” with a new state testing protocol that “could threaten to narrow the focus of the classroom. He wants to minimize ‘teaching to the test.’”

Along with filling school board and assembly seats, borough residents will be asked to vote on a ballot question that, if approved, would increase the retail sales tax on alcohol by 5 percent.

City of Houston

There are three council seats up for election this year, all three-year terms that are elected at-large by city residents. Those include Seat G, currently held by Kathleen Barney; Seat F, held by Paul Stout; and Seat E, held by Jim Johansen, who is also the city’s deputy mayor. Although a couple of people have picked up application, only one has returned his paperwork to be on the ballot, the city reports. That candidate is Johansen, who is seeking re-election to his council seat.

Along with filling vacancies on the city council, Houston voters will also decide on a question that would repeal a moratorium on a sales tax charged on retail fireworks sale in the city.

As it stands now, the city charges 4 percent sales tax on fireworks sold in the city, but half of that comes from a 2 percent tax hike approved by voters in 2010. That extra 2 percent tax is scheduled to sunset at the end of the year. If voters approve Proposition 1, the current 4 percent tax rate will continue.

City of Palmer

Along with a pair of city council seats, Palmer will elect a mayor this go-around at the ballot box. For current mayor DeLena Johnson, she hopes that choice will be her again. Of the seats up for election, Johnson so far is the only person to file, as she seeks re-election to the office she won in 2010. Johnson said there’s still lots to do and she wants to see it through.

“I can’t leave the job undone,” she said. “I feel I’m getting some things accomplished and I want to keep it going. … There are a number of things, but mostly we’ve got a lot of capital projects we have money for, we have funded, and need to get completed.”

She also said the city has “some ongoing budget concerns” that need to be addressed and that “without someone paying attention to that, it’s not going to change.”

Incumbent city council members Edna DeVries and Katherine Vanover are both eligible to run for re-election, but as of yet neither has filed. In Palmer, all seats are elected at-large.

At this time, there are no other questions on the Palmer city ballot.

City of Wasilla

Along with a pair of regular three-year council seats, Wasilla voters will be asked to elect someone to serve the final two years of the terms left for Seat A, which was recently vacated when councilman Steve Lovell was killed in a heavy equipment accident. Lovell was elected in 2012, and whoever is elected will serve until 2015.

Of the other two spots — Seat E and Seat F — only one person so far has filed with the city clerk’s office to be on the ballot. That would be Wasilla resident Gretchen O’Barr.

O’Barr has lived in the Wasilla area for 27 years and has expressed an interest in public service in the past. In 2008, she ran unsuccessfully for city council Seat C against current councilwoman Leone Harris. This time around, O’Barr will be on the ballot for Seat E, which is currently held by Dianne Woodruff, who can not run again due to term limits.

“I like community service and I’m retired no and I have the time,” she said when asked about her desire to serve on the council. “I have some concerns about the city, so I need to put my money where my mouth is. I have no ax to grind, I just want to do the best for everybody.”

Along with filling council seats, Wasilla voters will decide on a one-year sales tax increase to pay for building a new public library. The question asks if the city should raise its sales tax from 2 percent to 3 percent for 2014. If approved, the city could raise the estimated $6.5 million it needs to account for toward the $16 million project. The overall total includes the value of land donated to the city for the library by the Mat-Su Borough and an expected buy-in from the state.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Learn more about Mat-Su Borough and local city elections at:

• Borough: matsugov.us/Clerk/elections

• Houston: http://tinyurl.com/prhj3ps

• Palmer: http://tinyurl.com/nhkmbjx

• Wasilla: http://tinyurl.com/nj32s7u

• State: elections.alaska.gov