Police powers ordinance decision postponed two more weeks

PALMER — After a lengthy debate, the special assembly meeting at the Mat-Su Borough building in Palmer adjourned Tuesday evening with the decision to put off the final vote of whether to put an advisory question to voters regarding the topic of extending police powers outside of city limits until July 31.

The ordinance is in response to the rise in crime and population in the Mat-Su Valley, which needs police protection for a district roughly the size of West Virginia according to Assemblyman Randall Kowalke. The Valley is currently experiencing a deficit in police officers and state troopers to respond to crime. As of now, the Valley has 36 Alaska State Troopers, 14 less than it had in 2005, according to Mayor Vern Halter, who also added that he had been informed that an adequate trooper number to police the borough was 85.

The advisory vote on police powers would ask voters only whether they wanted the borough to “investigate and consider steps to add police powers to its responsibilities in the areas outside the cities,” according to the proposition written and sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Sykes. The actual step of taking action would require additional approval of voters in a separate election.

The cost to residents of the Valley is estimated to be 3 to 3.5 mils equating to $300 to $350 per $100,000 of assessed property value. Some members of the assembly worried that this high mil rate would scare off otherwise supportive voters, but others felt that the question should at least be asked.

“We should let the voters decide. Some of them are going to be scared about the 3.5 [mil rate],” Assemblyman Dan Mayfield said. “Sometimes no matter how worthy the cause, it’s a going to be a dangerous question.”

Passing of the ordinance has already been put off once before due to a lack of collected information and vague wording on the document. Three working group meetings have been held since June 18 to gather thoughts from the public about the issue. The report, put together by Deputy Borough Manager George Hays, covered six questions that were answered by citizens of Palmer, Wasilla and Willow.

The report indicated that people thought drugs were the highest cause for crime in the borough and the main recommendation for reducing crime was not to add more troopers, but to repeal or revise Senate Bill 91, by making consequences tougher for criminals. Adding more troopers was the second preference of citizens, but according to Hays, part of the problem is that there is little interest in joining the AST.

“There were issues with the trooper retirement program, possibly with the training program regarding their lack of ability to get enough troopers,” said Hays by phone at the meeting.

Although the majority of assembly members were in support of the idea of adding police powers or at least addressing crime, some felt that the wording was still not as intuitive as it could be and others felt that the act of adding more police enforcement was not enough to eliminate the issue. Assemblywoman Barbara Doty argued that an additional court system is needed to solve the actual problem of Valley crime.

“It’s one step, but I don’t think this action actually gets to the root of the problem, which is really, in my mind about, as the city of Palmer said, looking at beefing up our code compliance, looking at addressing drugs, theft and vandalism in ways that are not just by having our own police force,” Doty said.

Solutions proposed to address the lack of police power outside city limits includes designing a contract with either the state or the city police forces in order to provide more manpower, or forming a separate Mat-Su Police Department altogether. These suggestions have been taken off the pending amendment however, and for now, all the assembly hopes to ask the public is whether they should look into the issue.

“I think it’s our responsibility to at least ask the public if we should take a first step” Sykes said.