The Haines Borough Assembly voted 4-2 to advance a charter amendment that would again put the question of boroughwide policing on the October ballot.
The ordinance would amend the charter to make it legal for police to respond to calls for help from Lutak, Mud Bay, and the Haines Highway- a job they’ve already been doing in cases of emergency since November.
But current borough charter limits the police service area to the townsite.
Last October, out-of-town voters opposed a hike in property taxes to pay for police service in their neighborhoods. Following the vote, the Haines Borough Assembly directed police to stay within the townsite, but quickly reversed their decision when several residents were ping-ponded between police and state troopers in calls for emergency help.
Assembly members Sean Maidy and Will Prisciandaro re-introduced the ordinance on July 18.
“This is a different vote than last time,” Maidy said. “This is the police having jurisdiction.”
“We’re already responding out there and we’re funding it with extra overtime. My view is just making it charter-legit. The last time we linked the increase of property tax to the vote, people would have voted for police but they didn’t like that funding mechanism,” Prisciandaro said.
Four residents spoke against increasing taxes to pay for out of town policing. “I am not against police, I’m against raising taxes to pay for the sparse services,” Hannah Clark said.
Borough manager Debra Schnabel said that reconsidering the service area issues wouldn’t be a tax question, but a jurisdictional one.
“The point would be to clarify the charter,” she said. “What I clarified with our attorney is we are not expanding the townsite area. The concept would be to provide by charter that police services can be delivered areawide. The townsite service area can remain the same, delivering a higher level of service. All we’re doing is clarifying levels of service.”
Assembly members Tom Morphet and Brenda Josephson were opposed.
“This is essentially asking the same question we asked last year,” Morphet said. “For this to go ahead, it needs to pass in two different areas: in the townsite and separately, it needs to be passed outside of the townsite. Nobody in the townsite is forcing the services on people outside the townsite.”
Mosquito lake resident Paul Rogers said that he believes out of town residents would still vote against changing charter because they don’t trust the borough.
“I think they’re opposed to changing the charter because they understand that a change in charter would give the borough the authority to change how they assess property taxes and things like that, and they have a problem with that because it allows the borough the authority to do things that they can’t do right now,” Rogers said.
The ordinance will have its second public hearing on Aug. 13 at 6:30 p.m in assembly chambers.