Majority of Palmer City Council does not acknowledge 'unorthodox request' at latest meeting

PALMER — On Tuesday, members of the Palmer City Council spoke about the Jan. 10 incident in which Councilman Richard Best requested the Palmer Police Department to disturb the peace for a ‘grand gesture’ before he departed for his job in Juneau as Chief of Staff to Representative Ben Carpenter (R-Kenai).

In a recording of the call at 12:35 a.m., on Jan. 10, Best says that he is calling on a non-emergency matter, identifies himself as a member of the council in his fourth sentence and repeatedly mentions his position. Best requests that PPD send a squad car to play the Peter Gabriel song “In Your Eyes” as John Cusack’s character does in the 1989 cult classic Say Anything. After explaining his idea and mentioning that he is not under the influence of anything, PPD did not carry out what Best refers to as an “unorthodox request.”

The Frontiersman broke the story on Monday night.

“Are you familiar with the movie ‘Say Anything’?” Best asked the Palmer Police officer. “With John Cusack holding the stereo above his head.”

At Tuesday’s meeting Councilwomen Julie Berberich, Sabrena Combs and Jill Valerius admonished Best for his actions. Mayor Edna DeVries, Deputy Mayor Linda Combs, Councilman Steve Carrington and Best himself did not acknowledge the incident whatsoever.

“I’m willing to pay the fine of disturbance of the peace,” Best told the PPD officer.

When asked by Frontiersman staff if his request was out of bounds, Best said that he felt no remorse for making the request.

“In no means, I called as an individual citizen,” said Best. “There was no me putting myself as an elected official into anything. I didn’t ask for any special favors.”

At 6 p.m. on Monday, former councilman David Fuller sent an email to all members of the council voicing his concerns over the request, including the recording of the call made to PPD. During audience participation at the meeting, Fuller rose to speak to the council on the matter.

“Good initiative, bad judgement, but it’s not his first rodeo,” said Fuller. “It’s right and wrong so that’s all I’m asking and I hope you guys have the fortitude to go on record and take a stand at what you think and stand by it.”

No code of ethics exists in Palmer Municipal Code pertaining to reprimanding or censure of a member of the city council. Berberich, Valerius and Sabrena Combs all said that a code of ethics needs to be put into code. After Fuller spoke, Clerk Norma Alley read an email from Hillary Palmer.

“This action fits the description of using public resource for personal gain. For this he has not apologized to the citizens he serves nor cited a temporary lapse in judgement. On the contrary, Mr. Best seems to find the situation humorous and sees no issue with the misuse of publicly funded law enforcement resources,” wrote Palmer. “I request that Mr. Best relinquish his position on city council as he has demonstrated his comfort with corruption and can no longer be trusted in a position of authority.”

Members of the council finished their business during the meeting and did not acknowledge the incident until council member comments at the end of the meeting. Valerius began by saying that the situation had weighed heavily on her heart and was visibly emotional as she read her comments. Valerius said that she had received correspondence from community members expressing disappointment and distrust after reading the story.

“Most disturbing to me is the response that’s been given to the media which in the Frontiersman was a lie saying that he had not used his position with the council, and if you listen to the recording that is quite true, and then the whole situation is being made of as though it’s a joke,” said Valerius.

Valerius went on to say that the council needed a code of ethics, asked that the mayor and council publicly acknowledge the incident and requested that Best apologize. After Carrington made no mention of Best’s call, Berberich concurred with Valerius. Berberich said that a code of ethics had long been overlooked and apparently was now necessary.

PPD Chief Dwayne Shelton was made aware of the call made on an early Saturday morning as he got to the Police Department on Monday and agreed with the actions of the commanding officer that made the decision to deny Best’s unorthodox request.

“Typically that’s not a request that we would normally do anyway, and with it being that time of the middle of the night that’s not something that we’re going to get on the PA and wake up the whole neighborhood and cause a disturbance over,” said Shelton.

After Deputy Mayor Linda Combs also made no mention of the incident, Sabrena Combs was trembling as she spoke on the matter.

“Many times I’ve heard him speak, including directly to me on this council about how important the perception of our actions is to our constituents and that regardless if it’s written in code or not, we should be transparent and ethical at all times,” said Sabrena Combs. “That being said, I hope that you madam mayor choose to publicly admonish his behavior on the record.”

Following Sabrena Combs’ emotional testimony, Best made no comments concerning his call on Jan. 10 and the meeting was promptly adjourned.