Mayor candidates answer questions at forum

PALMER — It’s a crowded field of candidates seeking a mostly ceremonial role, but seven of eight contenders for Mat-Su Borough mayor met for a forum Saturday that filled the backroom at Turkey Red.

The way the forum worked, the candidates took turns answering randomly selected questions. Which meant that often only one candidate was asked a particular question.

The only no-show was Bruce Walden, a Butte resident, a conservative and a former Green Beret who is making his second run at the mayor’s position. Walden has said he favors creating good-paying jobs in the Valley and opposes excessive regulation.

John Leiner, a Palmer-area farmer and familiar presence at borough assembly meetings, was asked about what he’d do about coal mining. It’s an issue that weighs heavily on residents of the Sutton area, where Usibelli Coal Mine is looking at the possibility of extracting coal.

“That’s more for an assembly person,” Leiner said, noting that the mayor can’t really introduce legislation. “What I could do as mayor is help the people who are being negatively impacted to mitigate those impacts.”

Larry DeVilbiss, another farmer who has also spent time serving on the borough assembly, school board and who is currently on the Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors, fielded a question about road funding. The question mentioned that Mat-Su got very little from the state this year and asked how he’d work with the Legislature to change that.

“Every one of our delegation, except for one, has encouraged me to run, and every one but two are endorsing me,” he said.

Which is to say he would know who to talk to in the Legislature and might be in a good situation to lobby for funds, DeVilbiss said. He said he is also a proponent of the Knik Arm Bridge to Point MacKenzie.

Brian Sullivan, a former school board member, former state legislator in Washington state and -former army officer, was also asked about coal, more specifically about a tax on coal extraction.

“I don’t like taxes generally,” he said, but the debate around a tax has to take into account the costs coal extraction will have on the surrounding community. “My question would be ‘Does it make sense?’”

He said he would also look to see if such taxes are standard in other coal-producing regions and that, as a father of three girls, he is as concerned as anyone about keeping the Valley a good place to live.

When, toward the end of the forum, candidates were asked to pick their own questions to answer, Kurt Jarmer, a firefighter who works at the Palmer Senior Center, had just gotten off of a grader that morning and planned to be back at it afterward. He picked one about school budget surpluses.

The question was directed to the rule that says the school district has to return half of its leftover funds at the end of each year to the borough. Jarmer said he is opposed to that rule.

“That’s panic spending. They’ll spend it on anything that they need and it may not even be what they need,” he said. “Let them keep it and I feel that they would spend less money and spend it wisely.”

Sullivan also addressed this question, saying that surrendering the surplus is frustrating for the school board, but the borough sets that money aside to buy new school sites, which he described as “doing the right thing.”

“I would have to think long and hard about changing it, but I’m open to the discussion,” he said.

Jeff Ward, a University of Alaska Anchorage student who ran for Wasilla City Council last year, was asked about a borough sales tax.

“I don’t really think we need it,” he said. If the Valley had enough jobs that people didn’t need to commute to Anchorage, those people would spend more of their money locally. “That alone would bring enough money into our community so we wouldn’t have to implement a borough-wide sales tax.”

David Wilson, a health care administrator and political newcomer with degrees in education and psychology and a master’s in health care administration, was asked about how he could work with the school district to reduce its budget and lower taxes.

“Really, it’s trying to find commonalties and linking those goals together,” he said. He also addressed the school budget surplus question, saying he thought it made for wasteful spending.

Ken Clark, a retired telecom employee and political newcomer, was asked to address the oft-discussed planning advocacy group Friends of Mat-Su.

“I followed FoMS on the Internet,” he said.

Clark found he agrees with a few of the ideas the group has proposed. However, he said “I didn’t think all of them were economically feasible.”

He also addressed the issue of funding for roads.

“The state of Alaska has got a big, big war chest, so to say, because of the higher oil prices,” he said. “My thing would be to try to get Juneau to cut loose of some money.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.