Clerk hired by Palmer council

PALMER — The city of Palmer has officially hired Shelly Acteson by passage of Action Memorandum 21-059 at their regular meeting on Oct 12.

The former clerk issued her resignation in June and Palmer Manager John Moosey and assistant Nichole Degner have undertaken the clerk duties during council meetings. Former Wasilla clerk Kristie Smithers was hired as Clerk Designee to run the elections earlier this month.

“We are very much looking forward to Ms Acteson showing up and we have advertised already for the second and third positions in that department so we can get that office up and running as fast as possible,” said Moosey.

Per the contract included within the council packet, Acteson will be paid $91,000 to serve as clerk. Prior to the passage of AM 21-059, council amended the action memorandum twice.

“Here it just says ‘such notice must consist of work hours, leave in any form fashion or increment will not be counted towards notice period,’ but then she added in ‘to the degree possible for employee, understanding that the circumstances of employee’s resignation may impact her ability to perform work hours.’ That just sounds incredibly arbitrary as far as who will determine the degree possible, I’m not sure why that language would be added,” said Councilwoman Sabrena Combs.

City Attorney Michael Gatti had suggested that AM 21-059 be moved from the consent agenda to new business to make suggested amendments in four sections of the agreement.

“The language that was proposed to meet council concerns about the 60 day attendance at work to engage in the transition of the clerk’s office and this changes it to a large degree and that’s why I wanted to point it out,” said Gatti.

Acteson was listening to the stream of the meeting and texted Human Resources Manager Kimberly Green with her answer during the midst of council discussion.

“I have no issues if they want to remove that statement,” wrote Acteson.

Each of the two amendments to AM 21-059 and the vote on the motion itself passed by unanimous votes of the council.

“I appreciate that our new city clerk is already diligently watching us at the table and discussing stuff so I like that already,” said Councilman Richard Best.

Still serving as the clerk during the meeting, Moosey informed the council that three of the four recall petitions that had been previously rejected in September were refiled.

“We had three recall petitions that were resubmitted. We anticipate that being completed this week. It has been delayed, for the record it was delayed due to the illness of the hired clerk and then also too to operate the elections this past week,” said Moosey.

The previous recall petitions were submitted against then councilwoman Julie Berberich, Sabrena Combs, Brian Daniels and Dr. Jill Valerius. Mayor Edna DeVries questioned what would happen if no decision was made on the recall petitions within the ten days as is required by code.

“We have 10 days to do so. We will not meet that 10 day threshold because of the illness of the clerk handling that and also too, running the election. It just was not possible it’s close but it will be over the 10 days as required,” said Moosey. “I believe the applicant can take legal action against the city for being delayed, but when we are running an election and we have a pandemic illness I don’t really see any other way we could have accomplished that other than not meet our obligation for the election.”