Mayor candidates debate

September 29, 2006

By Michael Rovito/Frontiersman

WASILLA - In perhaps the most spirited candidate forum this election season, candidates for Mat-Su Borough mayor took each other to task Wednesday evening - some lambasting the current assembly - in front of a standing-room-only audience at Mat-Su College.

Underdog candidates Bruce Walden and David Straub received much of the applause from audience members after offering their thoughts on the current assembly, then describing how they would remedy the situation.

Straub, holding with a theme he has used in past forums, said government in the borough is too dense and difficult to navigate. He said he wants to see less bureaucracy in the

Mat-Su.

&#8220I want government to be transparent,” Straub said.

A panel of local media representatives and an employee of the school district, all from different regions of the borough, asked the candidates prepared questions.

One question focused on their opinion of vague ethics rules in the assembly and how each would deal with them. The question comes on the heels of the borough Board of Ethics' announcement of its investigation of assembly member Jim Colver, who is running for school board.

Colver has maintained his innocence.

First to answer the ethics question was Charlie Fannon, the former Wasilla police chief with 30 years of public service. Fannon said vague ethics rules exist in the assembly because the people who put them together are the ones affected by them.

&#8220I think we need some clear-cut, concise ethics guidelines,” Fannon said, adding that those in violation of ethics rules should be kicked out of office for at least 10 years.

Ethics were brought to the table earlier in the debate when Straub directly questioned Curt Menard of Wasilla about Menard's wife's seat on the borough school board. Straub asked Menard if it would be possible for him to be unbiased as a mayor since his wife, Linda, holds a public decision-making position herself. He likened the scenario to a Mafia-style takeover of local government.

Menard assured Straub that he could be fair and unbiased in situations involving the school board. &#8220I didn't know I was in a Mafia family,” Menard said.

Five candidates of varying political experience are vying for the job of mayor.

Jody Simpson of Big Lake touted her time on the borough assembly as something that bolsters her knowledge of the process. Simpson asked her opponents how many assembly meetings they have been to in the past, and how involved they were with the assembly.

Two of the more colorful answers came from Straub and Walden, with Straub saying he cannot stomach listening to the assembly, and Walden describing what he called the &#8220foot on my back” style of government.

&#8220I've had a whole lot of experience with the assembly,” Walden said. &#8220Being squashed by it.”

One subject that seemed unavoidable during the forum was the recently passed Title 16 rewrite. The rewrite, now know as Title 27, will tighten regulations on future development, such as subdivisions, after it is implemented in six months.

Fannon used his chance to question another candidate by asking Menard, who sits on the borough's planning board, why he supported a title that would, as Fannon called it, curtail development.

Menard responded that the lack of forethought in the borough years ago is responsible for the Title 16 rewrite. &#8220I was appalled when there was no planning and no responsible organization. It cost us all more money,” Menard said.

Menard then questioned why Fannon moved out of the borough after losing a previous election.

Fannon, who said one of the main reasons he is running is to help curtail ballooning property taxes for residents, doesn't own property in the borough, although he said he is looking for a home.

After the debate, assembly member Mary Kvalheim said she was impressed with the field of candidates.

&#8220I agree with some of them, and I disagree with some of them,” Kvalheim said.

Polling stations in the borough will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, with elections results available at the borough Web site, www.matsugov.us, after the polls close.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@ frontiersman.com.