Colver recall petition tossed

MAT-SU -- A recall petition filed Oct. 17 against Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Jim Colver was essentially declared invalid Thursday by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski.

Michalski granted Colver's motion for a preliminary injunction, which ordered Mat-Su Borough Clerk Sandra Dillon not to release a recall petition filed by Cheryl Turner, the wife of former assembly member Jim Turner.

Turner lost the 2000 election to Colver. Three of the 10 required signatures on the application petition come from Jim Turner's family members and two are from employees at his business, Hatcher Pass Gateway Center, according to Colver.

Cheryl Turner has said it was not a political vendetta that sparked her decision to file a petition. She said she filed it after being asked about it by area residents stopping by the Hatcher Pass Gateway Center -- residents Turner said felt disenfranchised about activities at the borough regarding Hatcher Pass.

Court records were unavailable at press time, but according to Dillon and Colver's attorney, Scott Sterling, Michalski said the charges against Colver in the recall petition lacked "particulars."

"It didn't define what duty he had violated," Sterling said. That was particularly true, he said, in the charge that Colver failed to release an audit of Hatcher Pass Development Corp. Colver has said previously that he never gained access to the audit until the time it was made a public document.

"That was based on the fact that all the laws of the state and the borough put the responsibility for document management in the hands of the borough manager and/or clerk," Sterling said.

Michalski's ruling did not address Colver's request that state law be changed to require a hearing regarding the charges made against assembly members before a recall moves forward to the petition stage, Sterling said, and it's unlikely those issues will be addressed in this instance.

"I think he found there were other grounds [on which to rule in the case]," Sterling said.

The ruling in the case calls into question the validity of two other recall petitions that have been released by Dillon -- one to recall Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson and one to recall assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere.

Anderson's petition is halfway through the 60-day period in which sponsor Bill Moll, of Citizens to Restore Open and Honest Government, and other recall application sponsors have to collect the required 2,323 signatures.

Ladere's petition was released just over a week ago, Dillon said. The borough clerk is in the process of obtaining a legal opinion as to what, if anything, must be done about those two petitions.

Dillon said she was unsure how the legal ruling would affect future recall applications.

"I guess we'll deal with it on a case-by-case basis," she said. "You never know what the position of a judge will be -- that's the uncertainty of the [legal system]."

Colver said he is pleased to see the issue is over with. He said he has made and will continue making efforts to establish a working relationship with those who targeted him for recall.

He said he had not yet met with the Turners, but does intend to meet with the family. "I have been working behind the scenes all along to try to establish a dialogue," Colver said. "I'm going to try to keep extending an olive branch. . . it's in the community's best interest to try to resolve political fights."

Sterling and Dillon's attorney, Tom Klinkner, are still working out details as to how legal costs will be divided.

Cheryl Turner did not respond Friday to a message left at the Turner residence. When her husband, Jim, was asked if she was available to answer questions about the issue, he stated: "I don't think she's got much to say about that."

See Page A2 for a related story.