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.

 

SEAT                          MUELLER explained that the Assembly is here to declare the two seats on the Assembly and the two seats on the School Board vacant.  He said Assembly members that no longer reside in the new districts hold these two seats.  He said the districts changed once the redistricting vote took place, and the Department of Justice approved the redistricting plan.   

 

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  She said USIBELLI, TALERICO, POLLOCK, and herself no longer represents the people in Denali Park.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.

 

 

ATTEST:  _________________________          APPROVED:  __________________

 

 

Date Approved:  ____________________