Candidates meet during council forum

WASILLA — Three out of four people hoping for a spot on the Wasilla City Council met in a forum Tuesday to talk about sales tax, the library and their competing visions for the city.

Two seats are open in the Oct. 4 election and both incumbents have chosen to try and keep their seats. Leone Harris faces challenger David Nyberg and Colleen Sullivan-Leonard squares off with Pat Brown.

Sullivan-Leonard couldn’t make it, moderator Stu Graham said, because she was ill. But she sent a statement citing her resumé, which includes stints working for the governor, the city’s planning commission, the state Legislature and the Alaska Municipal League, among other organizations.

“I have worked hard this past year to keep a conservative voice at the council table,” Sullivan-Leonard said, pointing to votes she took to cut the budget. “I believe in budgeting for what you need, not what you want.”

Pat Brown was the first to speak after Sullivan-Leonard’s written statement. Brown is blind, but said when people ask if he can serve on the council “the answer is a resounding yes.” He volunteers for various charities around town and considers himself “mission-oriented.”

Harris, a Realtor who has worked as a legal secretary, said she wants to continue projects to pave city roads and build new ones, to expand the airport and build a train depot in town.

Nyberg, who owns All I Saw Cookware, said he’d bring a business perspective to the council and hopes to help the city manage its ongoing growth.

The first question out of the gate was interesting for its premise. Unlike in past year, when candidates were asked if Wasilla needed a new library, this go-round the question was how will the city get a library and how will it pay for it.

“We do have a group called Friends of the (Wasilla) Library. They are working on getting grant funding for the library,” Harris said, adding that when the city sells the Meta Rose Square building, the money can be used for the library.

Nyberg, a tenant in that building, said that the Friends of the Wasilla Library were diligently working on the plan to get a new building.

Brown said he feels the idea of a library is too limited and would like to see things like descriptive movies and audio books at whatever new facility is put together. He said he’s an advocate bringing the private sector onboard.

“It has to be a venture between the private and the public,” Brown said.

Asked about the sales tax, the candidates showed more difference in opinion. The question referred to a reduction in sales tax after the city finished paying off its sports complex. The tax went from 2.5 percent to 2 percent. Graham asked if it needed to go back up.

“Sales tax is not a friendly thing to talk about, but as far as I’m concerned, when we had the 2.5 percent sales tax it wasn’t that much of a burden,” Nyberg said, noting that the additional revenue could build a library.

Brown said the question was asked the wrong way and should instead focus on what the taxes pay for; what services the city provides or facilities it builds with the money.

“It’s not an issue of how much should it be, it’s what’s the end result,” he said.

Harris offered another view.

“I’m totally against any tax,” she said. “We have young families who are struggling.”

The last question dealt with opportunities for business in Wasilla.

Brown advocates bringing in more high-tech businesses. Harris said the city should continue to build its infrastructure to make itself more attractive. Nyberg more or less agreed about the attractiveness, but had a different idea of how to increase it.

“What we need to do as the city of Wasilla is to be out there selling our city a little bit more,” he said.

But infrastructure plays a role, he said. Wasilla should be attractive because it has such low taxes, but there are so few roads the city is “constantly in a gridlock.”

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