New borough mayor to review local boards and committees

MAT-SU — The Mat-Su Borough’s new mayor isn’t giving the borough’s boards and commissions the political clean sweep, but Larry DeVilbiss said he expects to knock out a few cobwebs.

In a letter dated Feb. 3, DeVilbiss thanks members of the borough’s 25 borough-wide boards and commissions, and the service-area boards, and then tells them he and the borough assembly will pursue a review of all boards, as he promised during his campaign.

“The word resignation isn’t used,” DeVilbiss said Monday.

That’s a change from what he told a Frontiersman reporter shortly after he was sworn in on Jan. 28. In an article published Jan. 30, DeVilbiss said he was going to ask for the resignations of all board members: “It’s standard process in state government, but it doesn’t mean we’re stopping any of the business that’s on deck with the boards and commissions. It indicates who’s willing to comply with the mayor and be part of the ongoing process.”

DeVilbiss presented his draft letter, asking for the resignations, at the Feb. 1 assembly meeting.

Near the end of the long meeting, the first over which DeVilbiss presided, the majority of assembly members urged DeVilbiss not to send a letter they said many volunteers would find offensive.

“They just want to serve their community,” Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine told the mayor. “They don’t want to go through all the political who-ha.”

The gist from the assembly: they back the mayor’s efforts to streamline the boards but not his proposed method.

DeVilbiss stepped back from his original plan, saying Monday, “This is a product of the political process. I never intended to go off and do something on my own. It’s going to take cooperation with the assembly to do anything.”

DeVilbiss said he and the borough assembly are “unanimous in our agreement to entirely and comprehensively review the boards and commissions.”

He said he wants to look at the whole picture, and review and evaluate each board. In his letter, he promises he won’t make changes without educating himself on the board’s purpose and taking the time to meet those who serve.

“I pledge to do a minimum of three things before taking any action,” DeVilbiss writes in the letter. “First, I will review the legislative history establishing the board, commission, or committee and share that with the Assembly in light of current strategic goals. Second, I will attend at least one of your meetings as an observer. Finally, I will individually interview you and solicit your input for improvement. This will take considerable time.”

DeVilbiss, who was once elected as a road service area supervisor and served on the Planning Commission, said he respects the efforts of those volunteers and agreed with borough assembly members who were concerned how people would react to being asked to resign.

“The assembly’s concern, and I think it was valid, was volunteers who had faithfully served us for years would not understand, and feel unappreciated,” DeVilbiss said.

Some board members agreed they would have taken offense.

“Yes, I would have,” said Theresa Morache, who has served on the Animal Care and Regulation Board since July 2009. “I work very hard on that board.”

The Library Board’s Jeanne Troshynski was also taken aback by the call for resignations.

“I was just shocked when it first came out in the paper,” Troshynski said.

She said instead of dissolving boards, the mayor and assembly should be making better use of these sounding boards. She said the assembly rarely asks for reports or input from the Library Board.

“Unless we initiate some kind of contact, we don’t have any,” Troshynski said. “We’d love more interaction. It’s really up to them to make better use of the boards.”

Longtime borough Ethics Board member Frank Muncy said he wasn’t offended by the notion of being asked to resign.

“He (DeVilbiss) has a right to decide what he wants to do,” Muncy said. “Maybe he feels they (boards) are a waste of time.”

Muncy, who spent three terms on the board before taking a mandatory break before returning to the board, said it’s a public service.

“Someone needs to do it,” he said.

There are two vacancies on the Ethics Board and Muncy said it and other boards could use some recruiting help to publicize the positions.

“It’s hard to get people to consider serving on the board,” Muncy said. “Maybe it’s misunderstood. It’s not very glamorous.”

Troshynski said the borough should streamline the appointment process, which she called “cumbersome.”

“The process needs to be fixed,” she said.

The new mayor said he is firm in his resolve to make changes to the boards.

“It is my desire to streamline the process of borough government, so that it is more efficient and responsive to the needs of the citizens,” DeVilbiss writes.

DeVilbiss said he’s looked at the list of 50 to 60 boards of various sorts, and some have had long-term vacancies.

“You have to start asking if they were necessary in the first place,” he said. He forwarded names to fill 20 vacancies last Friday.

“What we’re after is more quality and more quantity public input, and more efficiency processing borough business,” the mayor said. “There are too many things that take too long to get done. That came out over and over in my campaign.

“It’s one of the few areas I have any say in,” DeVilbiss added.

The notion of dismissing all board members raised a few eyebrows around the state. While Gov. Sean Parnell did ask for resignations as he started his first full term as the state’s executive officer, such a move isn’t typical in local governments, said Kathie Wasserman, executive director of the Alaska Municipal League.

Wasserman said she’s only seen it a couple of time — the last time was in 1996 when then new Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin set off a firestorm by demanding letters of resignation from the city’s department heads.

“It was a really bad time then,” Wasserman recalled. “I don’t think I remember it being done since.”

Verne Rupright, Wasilla’s mayor since November 2008, was an advisor to Palin, but said that decision was hers. As for his own administration 12 years later, “I told everyone to stay in place,” Rupright said.

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, who took office July 1, 2009, waited for one third of the board terms to expire in October before he made any move to replace board members, said his chief of staff, Larry Baker.

“Some he retained; some he replaced,” Baker said.

Fairbanks Mayor Luke Hopkins, who had served five years on the assembly there before being elected mayor, said he was comfortable with the expertise of those around him.

“I don’t need to turn over the apple cart if there’s no need,” Hopkins said.

Bettine, who called for an assembly letter to counter the mayor’s had it gone out like the draft, said her phone rang off the hook when it was reported DeVilbiss was calling for the resignations. She called the boards a “safety net” for her decision process.

She said the controversy may be good for the borough in the long run, and DeVilbiss’ final letter puts the mayor and assembly on a course to make needed improvements.

“I think the assembly needs to pay more attention to its boards and commissions,” Bettine said. “I think people will be more engaged after this.”