Wasilla council appoints temporary member

WASILLA — City council has a new face — at least for the next month.

John Luberger has been chosen to fill out the term of former Seat D councilwoman Nancy Hall, who resigned last month to move to Venezuela with her husband to pursue a business opportunity there. Hall’s term is up this year and city voters will choose a new council member Oct. 5, said Wasilla City Clerk Kristie Smithers. Because her resignation came greater than 30 days from the election, the council was obligated to fill the seat.

“The code reads (the appointment) has to be within 30 days,” she said. “If this term was up this year and the person resigned 30 days before the election, the seat would remain vacant.”

Luberger was out of town and unavailable for comment on his appointment, but fellow council members say his choice is a good one. Although he’ll only participate in five city council meetings, “I’m very glad it worked out the way it did,” said councilwoman Dianne Woodruff. “In this case, we’re lucky, because Mr. Luberger goes to almost all of our meetings anyway and is pretty up to speed.”

Woodruff, who represents Seat E and is running for re-election against Mike Carson, said the council also wanted to make a choice that would not have any impact on the upcoming election.

Three of the six people who applied to fill the city council vacancy — Gary Hale, Colleen Sullivan-Leonard and Steve Menard — are also candidates in the upcoming Oct. 5 election.

Both Hale and Sullivan-Leonard are running for Hall’s Seat D. Menard is one of five candidates for Seat F, held by Kristofer Larson. Larson chose not to run for re-election.

“We won’t be looked at as that we gave an endorsement for any candidate,” Woodruff said. Had one of the candidates been chosen, “It could easily look like a council endorsement, and it might have given an unfair advantage.”

That Luberger is not a candidate is why Deputy Mayor Doug Holler voted for his selection.

“He’s been at the meetings and he’s current on what I think are hot issues in the city,” he said. “Any one of them could’ve filled that seat. For me, I really didn’t want to appoint somebody the people didn’t vote on, but we had to and it’s only for five meetings. I didn’t want to sway the public vote one way or the other.”

The odd timing of the election and Hall’s resignation brings to light an issue of required appointments so close to an election, Haller said.

“We’re in the midst of changing our ordinance now,” he said.

One option, he said, is to keep the 30-day rule to fill vacant seats but add a stipulation that if it falls within 90 days of an already-scheduled election that the seat can be filled by voters instead.

Luberger is slated to be sworn in at the council’s next meeting, which is Monday.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.