The Haines Borough’s new Code Review Commission will look for guidance from the assembly and the public on what area of code it should tackle first, the group decided at its first meeting Tuesday.
The assembly voted to form the commission in June to address flaws in the borough code, and in September approved Mayor Jan Hill’s appointment of seven members from 12 residents who expressed interest. The on-going commission will make recommendations to the assembly about code that needs to be reviewed, edited or removed.
This action came after a minor offense ordinance proposed in 2015 raised concerns about the extent of local regulation.
While the assembly passed the ordinance several months later, many sections questioned by residents remained in code. The commission’s job is to fix that.
Mike Denker will serve as commission chair, Jerry Lapp is vice-chair, and Carolann Wooton is secretary. Don Turner Jr., Dan Humphrey, Deborah Vogt, C.J. Jones are members and Margaret Friedenauer is the assembly liaison.
The commission debated where to start into the 500-page code.
Resident Bill McCord suggested they begin with the hot-button topics. “I think that, in light of where all of this came from, the reaction to the minor offenses, that might be a fruitful area to start,” McCord said.
McCord also suggested the commission hold a forum to invite the public to share opinions so the commission may establish priorities.
“That would give you a better sense of how useful you’re going to be in terms of maintaining public attention,” McCord said.
“I think it’s not a bad idea for us to take some direction from the public,” Wooten said.
Planning Commissioner Brenda Josephson suggested the code review commission go through the minor offense list “chapter by chapter.”
“I really believe in the 20-80 rule: You deal with 20 percent of the issues that are causing 80 percent of the problem,” Josephson said.
Commissioner Turner said the group may want to start working on the Coastal Zone Management Plan.
“We’ve been kicked a lot for not following the code,” Turner said. “The state has abandoned that…it doesn’t exist and it’s in our code.”
In addition to public comment and input from commission members, Denker suggested the commission ask the assembly what priorities it has for a starting place. Friedenauer will bring it to the assembly at its Jan. 24 meeting during the committee reports.
The commission also kicked around ideas Tuesday of how to procedurally conduct meetings.
Wooten and others suggested a hybrid form of Robert’s Rules to keep conversation semi-informal and allow public comment, while keeping meetings on track.
The work may be done largely on the computers of commission members as the borough has budgeted no money to print hard copies.
Hill said she will look in the fiscal year 2017 budget to see if she could find some funds.
At its next meeting, the commission plans to formalize procedures, create a timeline and set priorities of where to start based on feedback from the assembly, public and commission discussion.
The next commission meeting will take place 6 p.m. Feb. 2 in the assembly chambers.