Three Palmer City Council members lose their seats after recall vote

Three members of the Palmer City Council have lost their seats.

Sabrena Combs, Brian Daniels and Jill Valerius were part of a special recall election April 19 following a controversy stirred up when they discussed what amounted to public business with constituents in a social media discussion forum. Local critics said that was a violation of the state’s open meetings law.

In the latest results posted on the city of Palmer’s website Friday evening, all three received at least 100 more yes votes than no votes. The yes votes to recall are 499 for Combs, 498 for Daniels and 493 for Valerius. The no votes are 371 for Combs, 373 for Daniels and 373 for Valerius.

The results will be certified May 3 at 6 p.m. The empty seats will be filled by appointed members by the remaining four members of the city council.

An attorney hired by the city to investigate the matter agreed but no penalties were pressed. Instead, there were recommendations that city council members receive training on the state’s open meetings statute and how social media platforms can be misused, innocently or otherwise.

Nevertheless, local conservative activists mounted a recall effort and amounted a vigorous campaign, charging that the three had conspired in secret through their discussion on social media with Mat-Su Moms for Social Justice, a community group described by critics as Marxist.

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