A charter change for areawide policing might not make it to the October ballot.
The Haines Borough Assembly voted 4-2 to hold a third public hearing for the ordinance at their Tuesday meeting to give staff time to hash out disputes in interpretation of charter language.
“We’ve had some information that caused us to have more than one interpretation of what our charter says,” Mayor Jan Hill said Tuesday. “I’m hopeful that we will have one more public hearing on this topic so that we can get some more clarification.”
On Tuesday, Paul Nelson contended that borough attorney Brooks Chandler’s previously stated position that that Haines Borough is breaking charter when they respond outside of the townsite service area is wrong.
According to current charter, “The Haines Borough shall exercise areawide the powers to provide for tax assessment and levy; planning, platting, zoning; and education.” Among the listed services is “emergency dispatch.”
“The borough is not in violation of the charter as it stands,” Nelson said. “There Is no legal challenge of the charter.”
Hill said that some people agree with Chandler’s interpretation of charter and some people don’t, but that she’d “feel more comfortable waiting for it to go on the ballot.”
Assembly member Brenda Josephson said that she believes the charter change would require two votes to pass, one by current townsite residents and one for voters who live outside townsite boundaries.
“Our code states that we need to have the areas vote separately if there’s going to be an expansion, a reduction or a consolidation,” Josephson said. “It appears we would be doing a consolidation so it would have to be ratified by separate votes.”
Assembly members Sean Maidy and Stephanie Scott opposed a third public hearing. “We’ve been going over this long enough,” Maidy said. “I don’t know why we’d need to postpone to get advice from our attorney, we’ve heard from our attorney. Are we going to miss our possible chance of putting it on the ballot? I don’t feel that this one question is enough to throw this entire ordinance out. I think we’re grasping at straws to find a way out of it.”
In order for initiatives to appear on the October ballot, ordinances must be adopted by Saturday, Aug. 24, according to borough clerk Alekka Fullerton. A specialmeeting date has not been set.
No arrests made outside townsite since assembly restricted police response
The Chilkat Valley News has analyzed Haines Borough police data on calls for service from outside of the townsite since Oct. 1, 2018, when the assembly directed police only respond to calls of “imminent threat to life or property” or a crime in progress.
The directive came after a ballot proposition to raise taxes to pay for police services in Lutak, Mud Bay and Haines Highway failed with 68 percent opposition by voters.
Of 225 total calls from those three neighborhoods recorded by police since October 2018, police sergeant Josh Dryden combed through reports and found that 99 of those calls ordinarily would have required a response “if we were policing correctly.”
The Haines Police did not provide data on how many out of town calls they responded to, but did prove that no arrests outside the townsite service area have been made since October.
Lutak residents rung in 21 calls for service; Mud Bay residents logged 20 calls; Haines Highway residents called 58 times. Reasons for those calls range from welfare checks requested by individuals, to reports of assault, theft, and domestic disputes.
Mud Bay Road calls were categorized as: vehicle stops (8), welfare check (4) found object (3), assault (2), fire (one), fraud (one) and complaint (one).
On Lutak Road, the majority of calls were to report road blockage, like fallen trees (five)— and five separate vehicle accidents. There were two vehicle stops, two welfare checks, one suspicious activity report, one abandoned vehicle and one hazardous material report, a search and rescue, harassment report, dog bite, and one complaint of illegal fishing.
According to police chief Heath Scott, vehicle stops in an unpatrolled area can occur when an officer is returning to another call for service outside of the townsite. One officer lives outside the townsite, which could contribute to vehicle stops, too, Scott said.
Haines Highway callers primarily reported vehicle accidents (six), road disturbance (five), fires (four) and welfare checkups (four). There was one report for a domestic dispute, one for an assault, a protective order broken, and report of trespass, driving while intoxicated and three reports of fraud.
Scott said no arrests were made likely because of the narrow direction from the assembly.
“When we get calls after the fact and those crimes aren’t in progress and there’s no threat to life or property, we have to take the appropriate action,” Scott said. “It’s hard to close a case out with an arrest if you’re not investigating it at the location it occurred.”
“I don’t like using these numbers, because it gives people a false sense of security,” Dryden said. “There can be 300 calls with no arrests, but all it takes it one call where somebody’s life is threatened and we’re not going to be there.”