Questions Assembly opponent’s attendance record

My name is Michelle Church and I’m running for District 3 of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly. Public service is a privilege and responsibility I take very seriously.

I live and work in the borough full-time. If elected, I will sponsor legislation that limits the number of meetings an assemblyperson can be absent or call in for. While this may seem trivial compared to more important borough business, I have witnessed how ineffective the incumbent has been in the past 18 months after he took a job in China and teleconferenced to more than half the assembly meetings.

When I was elected to office in 2006, I sponsored legislation that required borough department directors be residents of the Valley. This holds them accountable to decisions they make on behalf of their neighbors. The assembly should be held to that same standard. I pledge to attend assembly meetings in person and return your phone calls and emails promptly.

I am also deeply concerned about fiscal management of the borough. Since January 2012, this assembly has been unable to resolve the issue of the commuter ferry. Before I left the assembly in 2009, the manager consistently reported the ferry “on task, on time and under budget.” Negotiations were under way to clear hurdles with the Anchorage docking site.

Yet, in nearly three years, no one seemed to notice the landing on the Mat-Su side of Cook Inlet was not being constructed? Now the vessel is built and ready for the borough to take ownership, but there is nowhere to park it. Borough records show this inability or unwillingness to make a decision on this debacle has cost the borough taxpayers more than $600,000 just since January. The monthly bills of $90,000 continue while the vessel remains docked in Ketchikan.

Just weeks before the ferry was to be turned over to the Mat-Su Borough, the current representative from District 3 began making strong statements, via teleconference, urging the assembly to “get rid of it.” He now waffles back and forth between selling it and storing it on shore, something the designer of the vessel has publicly stated will damage it. Should the vessel not be used or sold for a public purpose, Mat-Su taxpayers could be held liable to repay a $12 million grant to the Federal Transit Authority.

Further concerns lie in the decisions of my opponent to spend down reserve funds from $14 million to $4 million building, among other things, a $7 million, 300-seat auditorium with private offices for each assembly member. This project never went before the public for a vote. The assembly just took money out the borough’s emergency reserve accounts. The current assembly chamber is rarely at capacity. The $7 million building expansion does not resolve extensive overcrowding in borough departments and the price tag does not include furniture or cost overruns.

Maintaining reserves above the absolute minimum, where we are now, has been responsible for the borough’s previous high bond rating. When the public votes to bond for schools and roads, our credit rating is jeopardized by a lack of adequate reserve money for either manmade or natural disasters. This results in higher interest rates for those projects equaling less money for needed infrastructure, which is bad for businesses and residents alike. I fear my opponent’s inability to deal effectively with these issues, due in part to his long absences, will result in future higher property taxes for all of us here in the Valley. Spending more than we are taking in must stop. It doesn’t work for the federal government; it won’t work for Mat-Su.

I served on the assembly from 2006 to 2009. The record shows we funded the borough government and schools without increasing the mill rate. We worked with businesses and people from the community to identify our most promising economic opportunities. It is time to change direction, stop the extravagant spending and get back to focusing on the Borough’s Economic Development Strategic Plan.

Clear differences exist between the current representative and myself. I hold deep respect for public office. I am a proven fiscal conservative with a vision of building an economy that is authentic to the Mat-Su. Agriculture is the Mat-Su’s “brand” — it’s how the Valley started, it’s how the Valley is marketed and it’s why many of us moved here.

This industry will create lasting wealth within the community while maintaining our unique sense of place. Product development will build on the ideas of many entrepreneurs living in the Valley providing opportunities for commercial advancement of their products.

I invite you to visit my website at michellechurch.org for a more detailed discussion of a vision long shared by many in the community. I respectfully ask for your vote on Oct. 2.

Michelle Church lives in Palmer and is a candidate for Mat-Su Borough Assembly District 3.