Assembly members voted for a rate increase without the rationale for that vote being made public. Deals made behind closed doors always give the appearance of underhandedness, and this is no different. Sunshine is a good sanitizer.
Confidential information is a great sales tool. Lots of offers are pitched that way and I have fallen for some of them but they always turn out to be sales gimmicks and I would bet that is what this was, too. Can you imagine the Regulatory Commission of Alaska falling for that?
Alaska Power & Telephone has a monopoly and because of that they also have a regulatory agency (RCA) to set the rates. Why did AP&T come to the borough assembly and want a vote without a rationale being made public? Can anybody tell us, the voters, why this is on the up-and-up? Did AP&T think that this was better than what they would get from the RCA?
Is the borough’s attorney doing right by the voters by advising all these closed meetings? I think not.
I would take the chance of the 18.12 percent increase in exchange for open and above-board meetings. Freedom is never free and an additional 7 percent on my electrical bill is acceptable in exchange for open meetings.
Eventually government behind closed doors will become unaccountable to the voters, and then what? Confidential =secret = ?
To those of you thinking of running for office, consider a pledge of not voting for any closed-door meetings.
Leonard Dubber