Wasilla City Council member weighs in on controversy

Aug. 14, 2005

City Council Comments/Howard O'Neil

Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the closing remarks of Wasilla City Council member Howard O'Neil at the Aug. 8 council meeting, during which the council's Open Meetings Act violation was resolved. The Frontiersman, in voice mails left on O'Neil's home phone, offered the councilor space on this page to share his opinions with readers, but he did not respond.

… I would also like to thank the audience for coming this evening, and I would also like to thank my grandson Dustin who's up from California for being here, who is leaving tonight, on the plane. I am sorry to see that the Frontiersman has left, I had a couple of things I wanted to say about, oh, what's been going on in the paper, or at least my opinion and some of my thoughts.

First of all, our attorney has stated that our using the Borda system, which we have used twice before, is not an Open Meetings Act violation. I believe the opinion is correct that Mr. (Verdie) Bowen was rightfully appointed to the council seat, and I find it amazing that the Frontiersman would not quote the section of the law that states that this was an organizational vote that does not follow under the Open Meetings Act.

Actually, it is not surprising, since the paper and its publisher have not shown any journalistic integrity involving the city of Wasilla since they lost their bid for advertising for the city.

If you look at the articles that the paper has written, they have been full of errors and not given any actual proof that there has been an Open Meetings Act violation. If you carefully look at the articles, the paper has not actually quoted an attorney that will specifically state that this action was an Open Meetings Act violation. The paper continually skirts around the issue and tries to state their opinion as fact.

It is the opinion of the paper that this was an Open Meetings Act violation because of only one reason, and that is that the publisher wants to take a pound of flesh from the city officials who they perceive have wronged the paper. I am tired of the Frontiersman continually warping the facts to centralize this situation.

And on another point, and this is hard for me, I find it also truly disappointing that anyone on the council would be doing the same thing to try and advance their political future.

Using words like cowardly and stating that the council should not have hidden behind secret ballots to me is a real cowardly act.

To me the real cowardly act was if a council member believed that there was a problem with the system and didn't speak up when they had the opportunity to change it. And they had that opportunity, there was at least three times during our meeting July 25th that a council member could have spoken up to change the system we use.

To come forward a day after the selection of a new council member was complete -- and I also want to say that the council had voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Bowen -- to come forward the day after the selection of a new council member was complete and jump on the paper's bandwagon is the most shameful act of all -- political grandstanding I have not seen in my five years as a council member …