Recall request initiated against third Mat-Su Borough official

MAT-SU -- Assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere, on Friday, joined the growing ranks of Mat-Su Borough assembly members against whom recall applications have been submitted.

Recall applications have been filed at the Mat-Su Borough clerk's office against borough mayor Tim Anderson and assembly member Jim Colver. This particular application, signed by 24 people, was filed by Meadow Lakes resident Sherri Mulhaney.

Mulhaney said she is a member of Citizens to Restore Open and Honest Government (CROHG), but the petition stems from what she called personal outrage.

"I only joined [CROHG] when I realized what was going on . . . it is a personal thing for me," she said.

Mulhaney said the petition came about because she was upset at the recent actions of the assembly.

"The obvious reason is that they broke the law," Mulhaney said.

The reasons listed in the petition are identical to those outlined in the previous applications filed. The application charges Ladere with voting to enter into an executive session to consider matters that led to the borough's violation of the Open Meetings Act. It also charges that she withheld, or allowed to be withheld from the public, an appraisal of Hatcher Pass Development Corp.'s assets, which resulted in the borough's violation of the Public Records Act.

Ladere, on Tuesday, said she didn't want to go into the executive session, but had to in order to fulfill her duties as an assembly member.

"I attempted to avert going into executive session," Ladere said. "But we were outvoted. . . I can't not go into executive session."

Not going into executive session, Ladere said, would constitute a failure to perform prescribed duties, a recallable offense, according to borough code.

According to the minutes of the meeting, assembly member Larry DeVilbiss moved to suspend the rules to take up the executive session at the end of the meeting instead of at its beginning. Ladere voted with DeVilbiss on the matter, but the two were outvoted.

The motion made by assembly member Sara Jansen to go into executive session, however, passed by non-objection.

As for the second charge, Ladere said she was not privy to the appraisal mentioned until it was available for release to the public.

"I didn't have access to that," Ladere said.

But Mulhaney said Ladere's opposition is not enough to exonerate her.

"As far as I'm concerned, either they're all guilty or they're not," Mulhaney said. "[Ladere and DeVilbiss] were at the meeting -- they're just as guilty as the rest of them."

Ladere seems to be taking a "c'est la vie" approach to the ordeal.

"I serve at the pleasure of the voters," Ladere said. "If they get mad at me, then I don't serve. I'm not sure that 20 people speak for everybody, but maybe they do."