Veto stands

PALMER — Borough Mayor Talis Colberg is now 1-1 in his record of vetoing ordinances.

In a 4-2 vote at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly’s regular meeting Tuesday, the body declined to override the mayor’s veto of a resolution that would have granted $100,000 to the Renewable Energy Alaska Project for an energy conservation campaign.

The project would have created an Alaska-specific website where residents could type in data about their energy consumption and receive feedback on how to conserve. REAP hoped the site would eventually be able to track how those conservation measures played out and pit communities against one another in friendly conservation competitions. The organization said it would also advertise the site around Southcentral.

In vetoing the measure, Colberg said, essentially, that the borough has other, more important priorities. He pointed to school maintenance and libraries. He also said he didn’t agree with placing the resolution on the “consent agenda” — a section of the assembly’s agenda in which multiple items are approved, usually with one vote and no public comment.

Most of the assembly members who opposed the grant on its first vote back in September seemed to think the campaign was a good idea but worried about the cost. They also noted the plan was for a campaign targeting all of Southcentral Alaska but no other municipal body or other organization had chipped in.

Assemblyman Pete Houston, who has supported the grant all along and cast one of Tuesday’s two losing votes, said at the end of the meeting that he hoped the assembly could eventually revisit the idea in a form more palatable to his colleagues.

“I think we do need to take a leadership role,” he said.

Though the vote on the override came without any discussion, the veto came up as the assembly discussed other ordinances and resolutions Tuesday. Assemblyman Mark Ewing said when accepting grant money to do energy efficiency work on the Dorothy Swanda Jones building — essentially the borough’s headquarters — that such a project constitutes money better spent than money spent on advertising a conservation program.

Houston disagreed. The borough’s energy efficiency project, he said, proves that sometimes it takes more than just a vague commitment.

Pledging to change your habits to be more aware of energy use is all well and good, but actually getting better appliances or swapping old-style light bulbs for compact florescent ones makes a bigger difference.

“I see this as an example of why (the REAP grant) was a good idea,” Houston said.

The veto was Colberg’s second since taking the reins as mayor. The assembly overrode his first veto that would have shot down an ordinance putting a proposed borough sales tax to a vote. That tax later failed at the polls by about 3-1.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.