Mayor vetoes assembly motion

MAT-SU -- After two reconsiderations at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting last week, a motion to limit public comment at assembly work sessions has been vetoed.

Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson said he vetoed the motion Monday because he believed there were other potential alternatives.

"I think we're closing a door that we don't need to close," Anderson said Tuesday. "There might be times where we want public comment."

The issue stems from a work session the assembly held prior to its Nov. 18 meeting. At the work session, Anderson asked if members in the audience had any questions -- an option not prohibited by the assembly's rules of order, but not often exercised.

Assembly Member Jody Simpson, at the work session, expressed her unease at allowing the discussion to migrate to the audience. A work session, she said, is generally a place where the assembly can more openly discuss a topic, without the constraints placed on discussions held during a regular assembly meeting. Allowing the discussion to become a public forum, she said, limits the amount of time the assembly can spend on an item -- particularly on topics such as coal-bed methane, which seems to regularly bring out flocks of concerned citizens.

At the regular meeting following the work session, Simpson made a motion to limit discussion during work sessions related to coal-bed methane to the assembly, staff and presenters. That motion was later amended to apply to all work sessions, not just those related to coal-bed methane.

Anderson said he saw the motion as a knee-jerk reaction to his decision to include the public in the discussion at hand that evening.

"I think it was more reactive than common sense," Anderson said.

He added that he doesn't believe every work session should have a time for public comment. But that option should be available, he said. Often, he said, assembly members request that the public be included in work sessions -- and said a similar request was made that evening by Assembly Member Mary Kvalheim.

Kvalheim said she, at the beginning of the work session, asked Anderson whether the public would have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters. Although both speakers that evening had presented information at other forums, Kvalheim said she didn't feel there had been much time at those meetings for the public to ask questions about their presentations.

Simpson, after receiving notice that the mayor had vetoed the motion passed Nov. 18, was one of three assembly members who requested a special meeting to discuss the veto. According to information from the clerk's office, that meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10, at 6 p.m. Although the veto will be automatically placed on the Dec. 2 agenda, Simpson said she hopes to convince the rest of the assembly to postpone discussion of the veto until Dec. 10, to allow assembly members Bill Allen and Bruce Bush and Anderson, all of whom will be out of town on Dec. 2, to participate in the discussion.

By that time, Mat-Su Borough Clerk Sandra Dillon should have time to research a request raised by Assembly Member Betty Vehrs that may expand the assembly's range of options. Vehrs, at the Nov. 18 meeting, requested Dillon to bring forward alternatives that would allow limited time for audience participation at the end of work sessions. Anderson, in a letter announcing his veto, suggested setting aside the last 15 minutes of each work session for public questions. Simpson said she wasn't sure that option was the right one.

"The assembly doesn't have any other mechanism to be informal in their debate. It's really our only opportunity to get together and discuss things informally," Simpson said. "I'd like to preserve that without outside constraints on the assembly's discussion."

Several assembly members mentioned that the issue has generated some discussion in the community, but Simpson questioned whether people who don't generally take part in meetings governed by Robert's Rules of Order understand the precious commodity available during a work session -- the flow of discussion. During most meetings, assembly members can only speak to issues pertaining to a motion on the floor, are bound to follow closely to the agenda, can only speak twice to any motion, and can't speak to more than two other assembly members about an issue outside public meetings.

During a work session, Simpson said, there's a more free flow of discussion. Discussion isn't limited to a specific motion, and assembly members aren't limited in the number of times they can comment on an issue. She added that there is no limit on the number of constituents who could call her or meet her -- or other assembly members -- to discuss topics of importance. The public, she said, has a greater opportunity to plead their case or discuss matters with assembly members than the assembly has to discuss topics freely and reach workable conclusions.

"That, to me, is as valuable as the opportunity for the public to interact with us," Simpson said.