Recall petition released for signatures

MAT-SU -- A petition filed by a group of Valley residents seeking the recall of Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson was released last week for the collection of signatures.

After consulting attorney Tom Klinkner of Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot, borough clerk Sandra Dillon released the petition to Bill Moll, president of Citizens to Restore Open and Honest Government, a local political action group.

Moll and his group have 60 days from the date Moll picks up the petition to collect 2,323 signatures from registered voters in the borough. The number represents 25 percent of the number of votes that were cast in Anderson's bid for election.

The petition, however, will only reflect half of the allegations Moll listed in his application for a petition. Klinkner said the opinion he issued was only to help Dillon determine whether certain charges, if they were proven true, could be considered sufficient grounds for recall.

Dillon, in her letter to Moll informing him the petition was available, reiterated that she was not making a determination as to the validity of the allegations Moll made.

". . . it is not the role of the clerk to determine the truth or falsity of the allegations, but rather the clerk must determine whether those facts meet the requirements of [Alaska Statute] 29.26.260," Dillon wrote.

Moll wrote that ". . . Anderson violated the law when he led the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly into an executive session to consider matters that should have been made public and when he led the assembly to make decisions outside the public's view in violation of the Open Meetings Act."

Klinkner stated the first portion of that charge is not sufficient for recall.

"The Mayor has no power to directly cause or prevent an executive session of the Assembly," Klinkner wrote. "The Application does not allege that the Mayor used any unlawful means to persuade the Assembly to go into executive session."

The second portion of the allegation, that Anderson led the assembly to make decisions outside the public's view, "if liberally construed, states a sufficient ground for recall," Klinkner said.

Again, the mayor has no power to directly cause or prevent action by the assembly since he is unable to vote, Klinkner explained, but if Anderson led the assembly to take unlawful action in a closed meeting, he would not be performing his duty to preside over meetings.

Anderson, in a press release, said the assembly took no unlawful action during the March 20 executive sessio, to which Moll referred in the application.

As proof, Anderson offered statements included in affidavits submitted to the Palmer Superior Court during a recent civil case brought against the borough by Friends of Hatcher Pass, in which the borough was found to have violated the Open Meetings Act and the Public Records Act. One affidavit was given by Dillon, who stated that she attended the March 20 executive session.

"During the executive sessions of March 20 there were no votes taken, nor was any poll taken of the assembly members," Dillon wrote. "No one announced how they would vote on a purchase of the [Hatcher Pass Development Corp.] lease purchase. There was no decision made to purchase the HPDC lease."

Assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere gave an affidavit on the same date as Dillon, stating, "At the executive portion of the meeting of March 20, 2001, the assembly did not make a decision to purchase the lease." Those were not Moll's only allegations. He also charged that Anderson withheld from the public the HPDC appraisal, in violation of the Public Records Act. This charge can be broken into two parts as well.

Klinkner said the allegation that Anderson withheld the appraisal from public view is sufficient grounds for a recall, again by liberally construing the allegation. ". . . it states that the Mayor had custody of a record subject to public inspection, but withheld the record from public inspection, contrary to the public records law," he wrote.

But Anderson responded that he never had a copy of the appraisal until the rest of the assembly did. He further stated that the position of borough mayor is ceremonial and, as a result, the mayor is not able to make policy decisions.

Moll was vacationing when the letter was released and could not be reached.