Mayor OK to be on MEA board

PALMER — Having reviewed the relevant statutes, an Anchorage law firm has told the borough that its new mayor can retain his seat on the Matanuska Electric Association board of directors.

But attorneys from the law offices of Boyd, Chandler and Falconer said in an opinion distributed Monday that Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss should declare a conflict of interest and request “to be excused from participation in his role as Mayor in most matters that involve the interests of MEA.”

Mayor DeVilbiss was elected in January to fill the unexpired term of Talis Colberg, who left to take the helm of Mat-Su College. DeVilbiss has said from the start of his campaign that he had no intentions of stepping down from the MEA board. But on Monday Kathy Wells, former president of Friends of Mat-Su, spoke at an MEA board meeting saying DeVilbiss should step down.

She noted that two intensely controversial pieces of borough legislation — one regulating new power plants in the borough and the other requiring permits for extracting coal-bed methane — could directly benefit MEA if repealed.

And, Wells noted, DeVilbiss had promised in his campaign to put a section on each borough assembly meeting agenda wherein the assembly could choose to repeal ordinances already in place.

DeVilbiss said there isn’t a conflict so long as he removes himself from assembly discussions or votes pertaining to MEA.

The attorneys’ review concurs.

“Mr. DeVilbiss must declare a conflict and ask to be excused from participation in Assembly action related to any matter in which MEA has a ‘substantial’ interest,” the opinion says.

The nine-page decision discusses conflict of interest rules at MEA and laws at the borough and state level and then answers a series of questions drawn from specific aspects of those laws and rules.

Borough rules, for example, say an elected official can’t be employed or hold a public office if the job or office is incompatible, in conflict with or affects the official’s judgment and independence in executing the duties of his borough position.

That statute prompted the law firm to ask if serving on the MEA board equals employment since there is no salary attached — only stipends for meetings. They say the answer is no. Similarly, the opinion says that serving on the MEA board is not holding a public office, since MEA is essentially a private corporation.

The opinion says that even if the MEA position is a public office or employment, it’s still compatible with the mayor’s job, since the mayor would be asked to help decide very few issues that have anything to do with MEA.

“While acting in either capacity, Mr. DeVilbiss has fiduciary duties to both MEA members and Borough citizens. As set forth above, we believe these dual duties are not inherently incompatible. However, the mayor should be sensitive to the potential for conflict between his two fiduciary duties and err on the side of declaring a conflict and requesting to be excused from participation in his role as Mayor in most matters that involve the interests of MEA.”

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