Spectrum

Jim Colver

Assembly member disputes accusations

This is in response to the letter to the editor by Bill Yost of Willow, printed in the Frontiersman July 20.

In his letter, Mr. Yost alleges that I either supported or knew in advance that the state redistricting board would try to place Mat-Su's northern residents in election districts with Fairbanks voters. His allegations have no basis in fact.

Personally, I would prefer to have two Senate seats and four House seats entirely within the borough. I believe our population growth in the last decade warrants no less than this, and I voted for this recommendation to the state redistricting board.

I am not happy about a Senate district that stretches north to Fairbanks. However, I do oppose spending our limited borough funds to fight the board's plan in court for the simple reason that it was too expensive for a very uncertain outcome. I'll touch on this again a little later in this letter.

My remark at the March assembly meeting to which Mr. Yost referred was meant to be a joke, as Borough Mayor Tim Anderson stated in an April 27 Frontiersman letter to the editor, and as Assembly Member Kelly Lankford-Ladere also responded in a Spectrum article.

Here's what the record shows: At a March 31 meeting discussing the state legislative redistricting process in general, assembly members — including myself — made jokes that areas to the north have more moose than people.

The assembly made two recommendations to the state redistricting plan — on April 5 and on May 14 — and neither of them had districts that went beyond the northern borders of our borough. I voted for both of these recommendations — the record is clear on this.

During the July 10 the special assembly meeting to consider entering in a lawsuit to challenge the reapportionment plan, I made my position clear — some of which was printed in this newspaper at the time. As I saw it, the chances of prevailing in such a lawsuit were slim and, even if we did prevail, it was likely the redistricting board would change the plan very little.

In addition, entering that suit could have cost the borough $500,000 to $1 million. Even if we won the suit, we'd have seen very little for such a large outlay of public money, and the board would likely come back with another plan leaving some Mat-Su residents linked to a distant election district. As I stated at the July 10 special meeting, if the borough had an extra $500,000 to $1 million, I would propose using it to lower property taxes rather than spend it entering a political fight best left to the political parties which were already waging that fight.

So I don't really understand Mr. Yost's beef. He's a Willow resident, which, in the redistricting plan, is within a House district that is currently represented by a fine lady.

One of life's key lessons, however, is that you can't please all the people all the time, you can only do the best job you can. To that end, the present assembly has fully funded schools, voted to keep the roads plowed and graded, to pave numerous gravel roads, to build three new schools and remodel another, and to repair the roof of yet another school for Mat-Su's children. Through bonds we voted to improve the borough's parks and recreation areas, such as ball fields and soccer fields. We even managed to find a new location for the Academy Charter School. The remodel of Wasilla High School is also coming soon.

Even when we disagree at times, we are all still working hard — each in our own way — to serve the people who are, when it comes right down to it, the Mat-Su Borough.

Jim Colver is a District 6 Mat-Su Borough assembly member.