Minutes of the Special Meeting
Denali Borough Assembly
Tri-Valley Community Center
June 26, 2002
CALL TO ORDER Presiding Officer Jerry Mueller called the special meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
ROLL CALL Assembly members present were: Sid Michaels, Jim Caswell,
Jerry Mueller, David Talerico, Teresa Usibelli, Jim Payne, Gerald Pollock,
Teresa Hall, and Mayor Gonzales.
Assembly member Carol Shields was absent.
HALL MOVED to excuse SHIELDS, and PAYNE seconded. The VOTE was unanimous.
HALL said she disagrees with the Attorney’s opinion. She said she thinks the redistricting significantly changed the people that the current middle district Assembly members represent. She said when she ran for a seat on the school board she won her election in the Healy area, but lost it in the Denali Park area. She said therefore she lost that seat. HALL said by making the Denali Park area its own area of representation, she thinks that it significantly changes things, and she would recommend that the Assembly vacate all the seats for the central district and leave the terms as they are.
TALERICO said he agrees with
HALL.
CASWELL asked if the Assembly has that
option. He said no matter what you do
someone is going to feel disenfranchised.
HALL said the Attorney letter says
“a need to truncate the terms of incumbents may arise when reapportionment
results in a permanent change in district lines which either exclude a
substantial number of constituents previously represented by the
incumbent.” She said this is what she
is referring to.
MICHAELS referred to Chapter 5,
Section 8 of the Borough Code, which addresses the reasons the assembly can
vacate a seat. He asked HALL for the
details of how to accomplish her recommendation. He said that section of the Code applies to Seats “D” and “F”.
HALL said if the reapportionment
considerably changes their representation, then they should declare those seats
vacant. She said USIBELLI, TALERICO,
POLLOCK, and herself no longer represents the people in Denali Park. She also said that she represent everyone in
the Borough, but the people in the Denali Park area can no longer vote for her.
POLLOCK said if a 15% change in
your representation occurs with State Senators then they have to re-run for
their seat.
MICHAELS said if the assembly just
vacates “B” and “F” then some of the remaining members have been elected by
Healy and the Denali Park area.
CASWELL said he is concerned with
setting precedence. He said he does not
want to dictate to the people in the central district how to run their
business. He said if the other people
in that district want to voluntarily vacate their seats then maybe that would
be a way to solve this problem.
Discussion followed.
HALL asked if this was something
that was thought about before? MICHAELS
said this issue was probably not thought of before. HALL said just because it’s not in the Charter, doesn’t mean it’s
not God’s law.
MICHAELS said he would feel more
comfortable with this if the section of the Charter or Code that applies to
carrying out HALL’s suggestion could be cited.
MUELLER said the court decision
referred to in the Attorney letter
did not allow for the terms to be
truncated.
HALL said the matter of the
truncation of terms is a matter to be decided on by the Assembly.
MUELLER said in the assembly’s
reapportionment plan it did not include truncation of terms, and he did not
think it would be appropriate to go back and tell the voters that we’re going
to truncate terms.
MICHAELS said that scares
him! He said he does recognize the
merit of what HALL is talking about.
PAYNE said HALL is up for
reelection this year, and USIBELLI will have to run as well. USIBELLI said her seat is not up until
2003.
HALL said USIBELLI’S seat goes to
Denali Park.
USIBELLI asked for a copy of the
ordinance for clarification. She said
she thought it went by the re-election year not by the Seat. HALL said the ordinance goes by the seat, so
USIBELLI’s seat would go to the Denali Park district.
Discussion followed.
MICHAELS asked about the school
board. HALL said the seats affected by
the reapportionment are up for election this year anyway.
MICHAELS asked if the Assembly
should ask the school board what they want, or does the assembly declare their
seats vacated as well due to the adoption of the reapportionment plan. He said if the assembly can declare
vacancies on the school board, and they can appoint people to the school board
positions, is this a good thing to start doing. MICHAELS said the Assembly tonight is basically declaring the
Assembly seats vacant, and they’re appointing that person to serve out that
term. He said the same thing would
happen with the school board seats vacated by the reapportionment plan. He said this is a special case forced on the
Assembly by Federal laws dealing with reapportionment.
The Clerk reminded the assembly
that she has to post the open seats next week!
MICHAELS MOVED to declare Assembly
Seat B vacant, and the person in the seat shall remain in office until a
predecessor is elected and qualified.
The staggered terms of the Denali Borough Assembly shall remain as is. PAYNE seconded.
Minimal discussion followed, and
MICHAELS reminded the Assembly that a 2/3rds vote is required for passage.
The roll call VOTE was unanimous.
MICHAELS
MOVED to declare Assembly Seat F vacant, and the
person in
that seat shall remain in office until a predecessor is
elected
and qualified. The staggered terms of
the Assembly shall
remain as
is. PAYNE seconded.
USIBELLI
asked for clarification, and the roll call VOTE was
unanimous.
MICHAELS
said he would like to emphasize that the reason the
Assembly
is doing this and not the school board is caused by the
Federal
requirements of redistricting. He said
he expects in the
future
that the School Board will do their own vacating of seats and
their own
appointment of seats.
MICHAELS
MOVED to declare School Board Seat B vacant, and
the person
in that seat shall remain in office until a predecessor is
elected and qualified. The staggered terms of the School Board
shall remain as is. PAYNE seconded.
MICHAELS
MOVED to declare School Board Seat F vacant, and
the person
in that seat shall remain in office until a predecessor is
elected and qualified. The staggered terms of the School Board
shall remain as is. PAYNE
seconded. The VOTE was unanimous.
PUBLIC There
were no public comments.
COMMENTS
ADJOURN MUELLER
declared the meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
Date Approved:
____________________