Sykes, Endle spar for final time at Palmer Chamber

By matt hickman

Frontiersman.com

PALMER — The final debate in the campaign for the Mat-Su Borough Assembly District 1 seat, drew a much-larger-than-usual crowd for the weekly Palmer Chamber of Commerce meeting on Tuesday.

Incumbent Jim Sykes and challenger Brian Endle took written questions from the audience on a number of issues, most of them allowing each to coil into their preferred postures — Sykes as an informed, experienced statesman, and Endle as a champion against tax-and-spend policies and government overreach.

On the first question relating to budget, Endle did acknowledge that, at some point, revenue growth will be required, even at the borough level.

“Most likely there will be a necessity for taxes here,” Endle said. “But I want to look at ways to cut first before we look at taxes. We can focus our priorities on the borough where they need to be.”

Sykes pointed out that the borough as mostly accounted for the $5.7 million in deficits it was left holding after Gov. Bill Walker’s sweeping vetoes, through cuts and putting off certain capital improvements.

“There will be further cuts to get through this, but you still need to raise revenue,” Sykes said. “I don’t favor a property tax; we need to diversify… We have an excellent bond rating and we’re in pretty good shape there in a way the state isn’t.”

The candidates butted heads over land use, a sticking point between the two, because it was the borough’s nefarious and sneaky use, as he sees it, of zoning laws on his personal property in Buffalo-Soapstone that got him into politics in the first place.

“In our community, we weren’t notified properly,” Endle said. “There’s no transparency. That’s something the borough needs to improve on. In some cases, mailing (zoning information) would be sufficient.”

Sykes reiterated in the case of Endle’s property, the community, through its council, had asked the borough to zone them. He also said that state law requires boroughs to do planning, which Endle countered by saying, “Planning isn’t required; the ability to plan is required by law. That’s an important difference.”

That disagreement led into the next question about attracting businesses to the Valley.

“We should be looking at ways to aide businesses, help them out,” Endle said, offering mining opportunities in the Buffalo/Soapstone area as one example.

Sykes said what’s holding businesses back is a lack of planning regulations.

“We’ve had businesses of weight who’ve come out, looked around and said, ‘you don’t really have sufficient rules to protect our business investment. We’ll come back when you grow up,’” Sykes said.

The discussion then turned to the Matanuska River and its impending erosion that will one day wipe out 20 or so home owners near Butte.

Sykes said the only ultimate solution for the problem is for those handful of homeowners to be bought out, which earlier this month FEMA declined to do for a third time.

Endle said he didn’t believe in buyouts and again turned to mining as a solution.

“I’m not for buyouts. These people own their property and they have a right to it,” he said. “The borough wants to use (that land) for its own purpose and that doesn’t sound right to me. I have been working to find a way where companies could mine gravel out of the river… I’m still looking at a feasibility plan, but I know the Hermon Brothers did it at one time.”

Finally the candidates were asked about the opioid crisis and how that affected the borough’s need to form its own police force.

“Inevitably, we will,” Sykes said. “As we grow in population, we’re going to have more conflicts and more needs, but we have to find a way to pay for them… None of these things will be cheap.”

Endle believes that cities working together could remedy the situation in the interim, though the only municipal police forces in the Valley exist in Wasilla and Palmer with Alaska State Troopers picking up the rest.

“What Mayor (Bert) Cottle did in Wasilla with more law enforcement sharing between the cities is good to help,” he said.

In closing statements, Endle reiterated his frustration with the borough’s zoning practices.

“My opponent and I differ on zoning — I was against it on our community council and he was for it,” Endle said. “The main reason I was against it was transparency. The borough wasn’t acting in a way that would have let us know what they were doing. It’s like a neighbor said to me, ‘They didn’t even think we were worth a stamp.’”

In his closing, Sykes accused Endle of being the cause of the state disbanding the Buffalo Mine/Soapstone Community Council because Endle, when he was its president, forced a quorum so high that meetings could never be held.

“I have not been in favor of zoning, but I have been in favor of community planning,” Sykes said. “We have community councils that want our planning.”

Early voting is under way and election day is Oct. 4.