Minutes of the Work Session

Denali Borough Assembly

Cantwell School

February 10, 2002

 

CALL TO ORDER    Presiding Officer Jerry Mueller called the work session to order at 2:00 pm.

 

ROLL CALL               Assembly members present were: Sid Michaels, Jim Caswell, Jerry Mueller, David Talerico, Teresa Usibelli, Jim Payne, Gerald Pollock, Carol Shields, and Mayor Gonzales.  Assembly member Teresa Hall was absent.

 

1.)   Ordinance 01-07, Version A, an ordinance amending the Denali Borough Code of Ordinances, adding Chapter 22, pertaining to business licenses.

 

CASWELL asked why the application asks for a person’s social security number.  

 

PAYNE also questioned this requirement.

 

Discussion followed regarding whether or not the above-mentioned number is needed on the application.    

 

MICHAELS asked if a sole proprietorship type business has a tax ID number.  USIBELLI said that number is the person’s social security number.  

 

CASWELL asked why the Borough would need to know the person’s State business license number.  He said their social security number is not the business of the Borough.

 

MICHAELS asked if there is a case where the Borough would require a borough license and the State would not require them to have a license.   

 

Mayor Gonzales said the Revenue Development Task Force was interested in finding out what businesses operate in the Borough. 

 

MICHAELS said if this license requirement goes into effect, then people might assume a tax will follow shortly thereafter.  He spoke in favor of considering this ordinance after the voters vote in a new tax.  MICHAELS said he would like to see this postponed until that time.

 

SHIELDS agreed with MICHAELS.

 

CASWELL said he would like to see the social security and business license number requirements taken off the application.  He said he would like this license to be renewable every five years.

 

TALERICO stated that one of his concerns is that at some point in the future the Borough will need this information to see where businesses are in the Borough.

 

Discussion followed and USIBELLI said she would like to see this application renewed every two years, and have it renewable on-line.  She said she does not know if the Borough could give someone a Borough business license if they did not have a State business license.

 

Minimal discussion followed. 

 

2.)   Ordinance 02-01, Version A, an ordinance amending the Denali Borough Enabling Code, Title I, Chapter 4, Public Records.

 

There was do discussion.

 

3.)   Discussion regarding a proposed ordinance that provides for an ethics commission and provides for disposition of alleged violations.

 

USIBELLI said lately there have been a lot of complaints coming through the office and she thinks it would be advantageous to the Borough to have a group that reviews complaints.  She said that way the person would feel like he or she were getting a response to their complaint.  She said the packet of information has she provided has an example of an ethics ordinance and other information provided through her AML training.

 

CASWELL stated that he is not aware of any complaints that state an unethical act has occurred.  He said he does not see the need for an ethics commission.

 

MICHAELS said there might be a problem getting nine people who have the time to make a commitment to serve on this commission.  He said that this commission might not have anything to do for two or three years.  He would rather have it where an individual could put the occurrence of the alleged violation in writing and that would trigger the selection of a commission to hear the complaint.  He said he has not seen anything in writing that denotes an ethical violation has occurred. 

 

PAYNE said these alleged violations should be handled in-house.

 

USIBELLI stated that she agrees with MICHAELS.  She thinks that setting up an ethics committee is a good idea.  She said stated that she has seen three or four things that have come up that could have been put to rest by an ethics committee.

 

Discussion followed. 

 

CASWELL stated that if something isn’t broke don’t fix it!  He said He said he has not seen any ethical violations.

 

MICHAELS suggested possibly expanding the personnel committee so they could deal with these alleged violations.  MICHAELS asked the Administration how many ethical violations they have received.

 

Mayor Gonzales stated that he does not know of any ethical violations complaints received by the office.  He reminded the assembly that they need to be careful not to mix legislative and administrative matters! 

 

USIBELLI said there has not been any formal complaints because there is not a formal process in place if someone wants to lodge a formal complaint. 

 

CASWELL said he would like to see a letter from the individual suffice as a complaint form.

 

MUELLER spoke in favor of utilizing a complaint form. 

 

PAYNE agreed with CASWELL.   

 

CASWELL said some Village View residents had a complaint and it was a letter.

 

TALERICO stated that he likes the idea of a form, and the idea of involving the Personnel Committee.   He said he has received phone calls from members of the public regarding this issue.

 

MICHAELS reminded the Assembly that someone could be falsely accused regarding an ethical violation, and the person that submitted that complaint could be opening himself up for a lawsuit. 

 

Mayor Gonzales said the process for complaints right now is the written complaint is submitted to the Mayor, then the assembly, then on to the court system if necessary.  He reminded the Assembly that they only have one employee:  The Borough Clerk.  He said the rest of the employees are under his administration.

 

Discussion followed and USIBELLI spoke in favor of having an ethics committee to show the public that the Assembly has made a good faith effort to resolve a complaint.

 

MUELLER stated that one of the things that he would hate to do is form a committee like this based on a phone call. 

 

PAYNE stated that the Assembly has a Code of Ethics in place already and that needs to be adhered to. 

 

USIBELLI stated that the Assembly is a voluntary group of people that are not formally trained regarding how to handle these types of situations.  She said this committee would help the Assembly and the Staff learn how to handle complaints from the public better. 

 

ADJOURNMENT      MUELLER declared the work session adjourned at 2:55 pm.

 

 

 

Attest:                                                                         Approved:                                         

 

Date Approved: