Time to consider a public review commission

Cheers to the can-do spirit whose recent “we will all pay for assembly screw-ups” letter suggested that it’s time to activate the voice of the Valley through a public review commission to replace cronyism and remind local government that it is founded on our will and instituted for our general good.

Our Valley property taxes are, after all, in the same M/V Susitna boat bumping into our neighbors’ floating homes, fallen from the same eroding riverbanks in view of the tall towers that the coal trucks will pass on our unimproved roads.

What we could do through our participation in this commission is clarify the responsibilities of our elected representatives and local government, for ourselves as well as for them. The commission could sift out and fit together related elements of the Alaska Constitution, Mat-Su Borough code and even the borough oath of office to “support and defend” those other neatly nested documents. We could ensure that although appointed by the assembly, the responsibility of the borough manager, attorney, clerk and treasurer is as it should be — for the good of the borough as a whole and that working to better the Valley’s land and people is what those public servants are evaluated on, not how well they serve the political ends of those who appoint them. (Wait, treasurer? Where’s that on the borough organization chart?)

One of the most valuable features we miss, perhaps from our collectively independent nature but inexcusable nonetheless, is unification of a Valley vision of what our small, local government should be and do, to replace the politicians’ and developers’ visions we hear too often. Since piecemeal seems to be the general approach to governing, this commission could, in relatively short time, schedule evaluations for and refer borough code, finances, plans, policy, practice and public information to borough advisory bodies for review and critically needed integration. We could even update, carry out and thereby demonstrate respect for the many management and development plans already approved thanks to countless volunteer and staff hours. Those plans now lie ignored, gathering dust while our elected representatives use our tax dollars to reinvent a wheel tailored more to their own liking.

In fact, this commission could amend borough code to more specifically define mayoral and assembly duties and responsibilities. It could develop a comprehensive Borough Elected Representative Policy Manual to replace the current toothless few pages of unrelated bits about using cellphones and borough stationary, and present a united front to the Legislature. Even more effective, this commission could add penalties for noncompliance, not just for elected representatives who break the rules, but also for their peers who fail their ethical obligation to report and deal with such abuses.

This commission could request that the ethics board draft ethics code from a national, continuously vetted and discussed model that can readily be molded to our own needs. Then the commission could work with our elected representatives to live that code. Refusal to comply with commonly accepted ethical standards, regardless of how borough code has been diluted, demeans the borough staff and residents who already consider it a point of pride, not a burden, to strive to reach their own high standards of ethical public service.

This commission could return us to the realization that we who live here, whether we commute or work locally, are first and foremost neighbors with critical health, safety, natural resource, energy, social service and education infrastructure needs that go wanting, while our tax dollars are spent to reverse good management decisions, fatten private profits and pursue an ephemeral future.

This commission is a brilliant idea. We could certainly reach common goals to live in better health, prosperity and peace among ourselves. This commission could help focus our efforts to keep our valley sufficiently educated, healthy, safe and sustained enough to survive — and even thrive — in our run-ins with the rest of this crazy world.

But whoa, Nelly. In a sane borough, we wouldn’t even need this commission because the ceremonial mayor would act ceremonially and the assembly would accept the advice of its advisory bodies. But we live in the Mat-Su Borough, where the majority of our current crop of elected representatives show little evidence of wanting to represent anything but their own agendas. The same letter that suggested a public review commission also suggested an alternative. Recall.

Patty Rosnel lives in Palmer.