Councilors call for guidelines

Ordinance would change city code about appointments for council vacancies

Aug. 14, 2005

DARRELL BREESE\Frontiersman staff

WASILLA -- Scrambling to address possible Alaska Open Meetings Act violations, Wasilla City Council Member Diana Straub introduced an ordinance that calls for the adoption of official guidelines to use when filling vacant seats on the council.

Problems with the procedures currently used came to light when the council and city clerk initially kept the results of a vote, held July 25, to fill a vacant council seat secret from the public.

Verdie Bowen, appointed as a result of that vote, joined Straub and Council Member Ron Cox in asking the city to draft new guidelines for the process.

Bowen and Cox had an action memorandum on the agenda calling for the council to address the issue, but pulled their action during Monday's meeting of the council, lending their support to the ordinance Straub introduced.

Straub's legislation calls for a change to city code regarding appointments to fill vacancies on the council.

"I want to establish a long-term solution to this problem," Straub said, "one that will spell out every step of the process, making it as transparent as possible. If my fellow council members aren't willing to go the extra mile and make sure that the city's business is done in the open, I would be surprised."

Bowen wasn't certain if Straub's ordinance sufficiently addressed his concerns, but felt it was not proper to have an action memorandum in process while a similar ordinance was being considered.

"I think addressing the issue as an ordinance is pretty powerful," Bowen said. "I'm not sure how well it addresses the issue; I still have areas of concern that it doesn't deal with."

Straub's ordinance lays out every step of the process for filling vacant council seats and complies with the Open Meetings Act.

The ordinance:

Requires all ballots to be marked with either the council member's seat number or signature to identify how each member voted.

Changes the scoring system used for Borda Count system ballots. The new system will give one point for first, two for second and three for third, etc.

Adds a tie-breaker system, in which applicants who are tied will be reconsidered by the council via the same scoring system.

Requires the ballots to be tabulated by the clerk in the presence of two council members and two members from the public in attendance at the meeting. The observers shall be selected by random drawing.

Requires each ballot cast by the council to be read into the record.

Implements a 72-hour waiting period before the newly appointed council member is sworn into office, allowing for appeals and reconsideration by the council.

"This is the next step in correcting the problems that arose from the July 25 meeting," Straub said. "We took action to fix the open meetings violation Monday by reading our votes into the record and now we need to put in place provisions and procedures to prevent anything like this from happening again."

Straub's ordinance is set for public hearing at the council's next regular meeting, scheduled for Aug. 22.

"I would like to see a lot of public involvement during the public hearing," Straub said. "The council is a public elected body and we need the public involvement to make sure we are doing what they want."

Contact Darrell Breese at 352-2267 or darrell.breese@frontiersman.com.