First class borough ordinance postponed indefinitely

PALMER — The second of two hotly contentious ordinances presented to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly on Tuesday also failed to pass and was instead postponed indefinitely. Mayor Vern Halter’s Ordinance 20-016, which was introduced in June of 2020, would have put a question on the ballot to Valley voters to change from a second class borough to a first class borough.

While second class and first class boroughs are alike in many ways, the pandemic highlighted the disparity of health powers between first and second class. Both carry the same mandatory areawide powers of education, assessment and collection of taxes and land use regulation as well as the same additional areawide powers. However, non area wide powers that apply outside cities only would change from a long list including EMS communications, animal control, solid and septic waste and water pollution control to any power not otherwise prohibited by law.

“If the borough changes to a first class borough, what happens is in the areas outside ht cities this list of powers goes away and the borough Assembly is authorized by law to engage in any power not otherwise prohibited by law and so for us local government types what that means is you can do anything that’s not otherwise prohibited by the state or Federal government,” said Borough Attorney Nick Spiropolous.

Spiropolous and other second class borough attorneys throughout Alaska contested the Alaska Attorneys General position that second class boroughs had health powers, which would include the ability to mandate masks areawide.

“You would be granted by the state legislature the authority to do anything not otherwise prohibited by law, so that’s the change just like the previous question, this would go onto the ballot,” said Spiropolous.

Spiropolous noted that the initiative to change the from second to first class borough could also be put on the ballot with a citizen’s initiative. Deputy Mayor Tam Boeve moved a technical amendment to change the dates in the ordinance from 2020 to 2021 which passed unanimously. Immediately following Boeve’s motion, Assemblyman George McKee moved to postpone the ordinance indefinitely before a floor vote could be taken. While members of the public were largely split on the strong mayor ordinance, dozens spoke out against the ordinance to change to a first class borough.

“If we choose this, our borough taxes will go up. Government will get bigger,” said Gordon DeVries. “Our Mat-Su Borough has become an economic and personal freedom haven in stark contrast to what Anchorage has done.”

As was the case with the strong mayor ordinance, many of the dozens of public commenters who spoke against the first class borough ordinance noted that they did not take kindly to becoming more similar to Anchorage.

“If you look at Anchorage and what they’re doing, I see that coming with this particular ordinance. I don’t want to see the borough to have the ability, health powers and to put masks on people just to enter the building. That’s crazy,” said Brian Endle.

However, few members of the public noted the increases in population since the Mat-Su Borough’s incorporation in 1964 and the lack of health powers at the start of the pandemic.

“Our population now in 2021 has grown exponentially. We have significantly more population and more needs of our residents in the Mat-Su Borough than we did in the 60’s,” said Stephanie Allen. “I think going forward should you approve this it would be really beneficial for us to be able to move on some of these powers should the need present itself and not be hindered as a borough.”

While Assemblyman Jesse Sumner vehemently opposed the ordinance, he also was not in favor of postponing instead of voting on the ordinance itself.

“I actually oppose the motion to postpone. I very much oppose the main motion but I’d like to see how everyone votes on this thing and I think we should just vote it down,” said Sumner. “I hate to see this assembly every time the assembly chambers get packed to postpone things. It’s like we’re just punting it off and kind of playing rope a dope with the public until people don’t notice and then sometimes things do get passed after a few postponements.”

McKee’s motion to postpone passed with Sumner, Tew and Yundt voting in opposition. After the meeting during Assembly comments, Halter revealed his intention with introducing the ordinance last June.

“I am glad you didn’t put the strong mayor on the ballot. I think you have a great form of government right here with a great assembly and a new manager and I think you’re going to do some really good things for the borough,” said Halter. “I do have a confession to make. I actually kind of pushed that first class over second class kind of to complicate the strong mayor issue more than any other thing. I think you should’ve voted tonight myself after listening to testimony and I think the vote would’ve been 7-0.”