Wasilla council nixes idea to make airport manager a peace officer

August 18, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

WASILLA - The Wasilla City Council rejected an ordinance Monday that would have clarified the powers of the city's airport manager, but then brought it back for reconsideration after members of the public who spoke against it left the meeting.

The motion failed again after a second vote.

The ordinance proposed by Mayor Dianne M. Keller would have amended city code to give the definition of peace officer, by Alaska statute to Airport Manager Tom Westall, who was appointed by the mayor in April 2003. Westall was not at Monday's meeting.

Nine people spoke against the ordinance during a public hearing, one spoke in favor, and two letters against the ordinance were submitted to the council.

Dave Glenn, owner of Grasshopper Aviation, used his three minutes before the council to read a letter written by Michael Koskovich, another commercial pilot.

Koskovich wrote that the airport manager was &#8220overzealous” and armed by &#8220misguided directives from a mayor who is either naive to the way an airport should truly be managed, or has been ill advised by a person or persons bent on empire building, or both.”

Koskovich urged the council to defuse a potentially deadly situation at Wasilla airport.

&#8220We do not need and do not want some kind of Wyatt Earp wannabe with body armor, recording devices, a dime-store tin badge and a concealed semi-automatic handgun stalking the airport grounds,” Koskovich wrote.

In another letter submitted to the council, Vincent Doran asked why Wasilla's airport needed an armed airport manager.

Doug Glenn, Dave Glenn's son, and Gail Glenn, Dave Glenn's wife, also spoke against the ordinance, as did James Bullock, who brought his Cessna 206 from Slana to fly with Grasshopper Aviation this summer.

&#8220I was looking at transferring from there to Wasilla,” Bullock said. &#8220But after one month, I don't think so.”

The job of an airport manager should be to promote business and development to support the aviation community, Bullock said. After 10 years, Wasilla's airport has no sewer, no water, no fire hydrants, no electricity and no safe area to dispose of oil, he said.

&#8220You have one air taxi and one maintenance facility,” he said. &#8220You should have 100 to 200 flights a day, and you have six.”

Vicki Faeo spoke in favor of the ordinance, and said she supports the airport manager.

Greg Koskela, a private pilot based on Lake Lucille, and a member of the city's planning commission, said he was aware of tensions at the airport and said those tensions create an unsafe environment.

&#8220A distracted pilot is an unsafe pilot,” Koskela said. &#8220The airport is a gold mine of development opportunities. I hope you resolve the issue.”

Koskela is running unopposed for a Wasilla City Council seat.

Council member Mark Ewing said the original city code regarding the airport manager was written before Wasilla had a police department, and the airport should not have the equivalent of an armed police officer.

When it came time to vote, Ewing and council members Diana Straub, Marty Metiva and Steve Menard voted it down. Apparently thinking the matter was finished, the people who spoke - and other interested audience members - left.

During the later public comment period, Koskela spoke again and said the proposed ordinance was good, but the timing was bad and that, like Menard, he was grappling with the issue.

Menard, saying he was &#8220grappling and struggling” with the ordinance, moved to bring the measure back to the table.

The council tied in a vote to reconsider the ordinance, with council members Ron Cox, Howard O'Neil and Menard voting yes. Mayor Keller broke the tie, voting to consider her ordinance again. She then spoke in defense of the measure.

About 100 airplane owners lease tie downs at the airport, yet the council heard from 10 people on the issue, Keller said.

&#8220I ask you to consider the silent majority,” she said.

O'Neil said that, after listening to &#8220extremely rude pilots,” he would not let his vote be influenced by bullies in the audience. He saw it, he said, as parting shots from people who were turned down in their bid to have a commercial flying service on Wasilla Lake.

&#8220If you are going to have things you can and can't do, you have to have someone out there,” O'Neil said.

&#8220They were distorted and inappropriate and threatening and have been before.”

Metiva, Ewing and Menard all spoke in favor of postponing a vote on the ordinance. But when the votes were counted, the ordinance failed along the same lines as before, with Cox and O'Neil casting the only votes in favor.

In other business, the council approved an ordinance that creates a formal fee schedule and time deadline for public requests for records, with only Straub voting no. The council voted unanimously to remove the current ordinance from the city code that addresses political signs, paving the way for the planning commission to draft a new ordinance.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.