Colberg again denied planning appointment

PALMER — Mayor Talis Colberg’s attempts to install a conservative voice on the Mat-Su Borough’s planning commission remain at a standstill.

Colberg has tried, and failed, a half-dozen times now to nominate conservatives to the commission. Each time the borough assembly blocked him.

The assembly’s problem is that, traditionally, each planning commission seat has corresponded to an assembly seat. When vacancies pop up, the assembly member whose seat corresponds to the vacant planning commission seat usually has a say in who is appointed. So far, none of the assembly members whose district has a vacant seat has approved of Colberg’s conservative picks.

Tuesday was no different. Colberg put forward Pio Cottini, a Palmer-area surveyor, for the seat that corresponds to Lynne Woods’ assembly seat.

Woods said that when the nomination was announced, “I received an onslaught of e-mails from all parts of my district.”

All of them were opposed to Cottini, she said.

“I ran on a platform to listen to what people have said so I have to not support this appointment,” she said.

Colberg, for his part, addressed concerns that there might be special interests at play in his nominations. He noted that a barrage of e-mails over a nomination all saying the same thing is likely evidence of at least a concerted effort, if not an active special interest. He said there have been three openings on the commission since he became mayor.

“Let me have one of the three,” he pleaded.

But the nomination eventually failed, with Vern Halter, Mark Ewing and Ron Arvin voting on the losing side.

—Andrew Wellner