Oct. 4 election: Pot and pools

WASILLA — As more facts come to light, last year’s petition to put a marijuana prohibition initiative on the October 2016 Mat-Su Borough ballot appears increasingly suspect.

According to borough clerk Lonnie McKechnie, the petition in question — “prohibiting marijuana businesses except those involving industrial hemp” — required sponsors to collect 1,098 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot this fall. Her records show that 1,100 signatures collected were counted, while 150 collected were not.

Alaska Statute 29.26.120(a)(4) requires petition sponsors to secure all signatures within 90 days after the petition is issued, with no stipulations made about holidays or weekends. The marijuana initiative petition was issued June 9, 2015, meaning sponsors had until Sept. 7, 2015 to collect signatures.

Signatures must also be accompanied by a signed affidavit — which must be stamped by an official notary public — that says the petition sponsor can account for all the petition signatures on that page, according to AS 15.45.130. Until those signatures are verified in such a way, they cannot be counted, according to the statute.

Of all signatures obtained for the marijuana initiative petition, 228 were collected on or before Sept. 7, 2015, but not notarized until Sept. 8, 2015 or later, and as late as Sept. 22. Another 175 signatures were collected outside of the initial 90-day period, and 226 total were notarized by an individual who also signed the petition, in violation of AS 44.50.062, which says: “A notary public may not ... perform a notarial act if the notary public … is a signer of or named in the document that is to be notarized.”

Two more individuals, including initiative sponsor Sally Pollen, appear to have signed the petition twice, in violation of AS 15.45.330, which states: “A person who ... knowingly signs more than once for the same proposition at one election, or who signs the petition when knowingly not a qualified voter is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.” Each of these four signatures were counted in the certified 1,100, according to public record.

Several affidavit and petition signatures and dates were crossed out or amended for reasons that are unclear, and while any petition signer may withdraw his or her signature before the petition is filed, the petition signer must give written notice to the lieutenant governor prior to filing under AS 15.45.120.

AS 29.26.140 dictates that the borough clerk has 10 days to review the petition, and if the clerk rejects it, the sponsors have another 10 days to obtain additional signatures. If this were the case regarding the marijuana initiative petition, the sponsors could potentially have had until Sept. 27, at the latest, to collect additional signatures, but McKechnie would not confirm or deny that that’s what happened.

Her response, via email, to questions about the apparently late signatures, double signatures and conflict of interest with the notary, was that the questions requested the borough “to draw legal conclusions when there is a pending lawsuit. We must decline to answer at this time.”

The lawsuit filed against the borough questions the validity of Proposition B-1 based on borough zoning laws and the initiative’s allegedly “intentionally deceptive” wording, but the plaintiffs make no mention in their complaint of potentially invalid petition signatures based on certification issues. Borough attorney Nick Spiropoulos, borough manager John Moosey and borough public information officer Patty Sullivan, who were emailed the same questions put to McKechnie, did not respond.

Mayor Vern Halter did not return calls or emails seeking comment, either.

The bond proposition

Mat-Su Borough Community Development Director Eric Phillips said the Palmer and Wasilla public pools are in dire need of repairs, and a recreation bond proposition is giving voters a way to remedy that.

On the ballot this coming Tuesday, voters will see an estimated cost breakdown for nine capital projects amounting to $22.16 million in association with Proposition B-4, which would allow the borough to incur that much debt to pay for improvements to local pools, ice rinks, trails and rec centers. More than half of that money would go toward the pools, which Phillips said haven’t changed much since they were built about 35 years ago.

“What we’ve got is equivalent to a 1982 Ford or Chevy truck with 450,000 miles on it,” he said. “I’ve driven a number of cars like that, and they might last 5 years, or they might last 5 days, but at some point, something’s gonna give out.”

A Thursday afternoon gas leak that caused firefighters to respond to the Wasilla pool this week seems to be indication enough of that, but even before the incident, Phillips said it was clear both pools had seen better days.

“Basically everything in the pools is going to be replaced,” he said. “Inside a pool, it’s a very humid, chlorinated environment, and 35 years of being in that environment has impacted every pipe, fitting and screw in the building.”

Borough Parks and Recreation Manager Hugh Leslie said much of the $12.83 million allotted for pool improvements would be spent on bringing the buildings up to code, replacing mechanical and electrical systems and renovating surfaces, to include pool deck expansion. There will be no more seating than there is now at either pool, he said, but there is the potential to expand the pools from six to eight lanes.

“The plan calls for six, but that’s the minimum,” Leslie said.

The lanes at the Wasilla Pool will also be lengthened by about a yard, he said, to bring the pool up to high school competition standards.

Since the Palmer Pool is already competition ready, the plan would be to begin repairs and renovation on the Wasilla Pool first, and complete that project before closing the Palmer Pool for similar improvements. Each project would take around nine months to complete, and there would be no overlap in closures, he said.

“We’ll never lose ability to hold competitive swimming events in the Valley,” Leslie said.

Leslie also said the pools have provided an average 32,000 swim lessons per year since 2012, and conducting the repairs described in the ordinance would help secure those lessons in the future.

“I certainly think there’s value in kids learning how to swim,” he said.

The rest of the package

After the pools, the Brett Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla would receive the next largest chunk of change — $3.75 million — if the bond passes. The money would be spent to replace the existing rink floor, heaters and refrigeration system, plus corrective work to ensure code compliance, according to the initiative ordinance.

Leslie said the rink has been around about as long as the pools, opening in the fall of 1984, and the most recent renovations were made in the fall of 2002, according to previous Frontiersman reporting.

A presentation on the bond to the borough from this past August reports 57,000 people on the ice at the arena annually.

Another $1.5 million of the bond is reserved for the Talkeetna and Willow outdoor ice rinks, which, according to the initiative ordinance, would get new asphalt bases and open-air, steel roofs over each rink, as well as improved retaining walls. Bleachers and stadium lighting would also be installed at each rink.

While an early form of the bond proposition included only improvements to the pools and Brett arena, Phillips said the borough decided to add other projects to the list to “maximize the types of users that would benefit.”

As such, nine trail projects, a Big Lake area bridge project, upgrades to parking lots and park improvements are also lumped into Proposition B-4.

The nine trails to be reconstructed, improved or relocated include the Ridge Trail, Wasilla Creek Headwaters Trail, Menard Sports Complex Trail System, Plumley-Maud in the Butte, Matanuska River Trail (north and south), Brasil Springs to Crevasse Moraine, the Haessler-Norris Trail System and the Herning Trail.

“We tried to find projects that had the most support and would provide interregional connectivity,” Phillips said.

About $2.22 million would be reserved for these projects.

To read more about the bond in detail, visit the Mat-Su Borough proposition webpage at bit.ly/2cIQq3Q and click the link for Ordinance No.16-085.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.