The Haines Borough Assembly met on Feb. 11 to discuss everything from sending a letter to Canada re-affirming the friendship and cooperation between Haines and its neighbors in Haines Junction and Whitehorse to talking about changes to its rules around open meetings and executive sessions, and confirming a contract with new borough clerk Mike Denker.
The body’s next meeting is on Feb. 25 beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Being Neighborly
After some back and forth on the language, the assembly voted to give Morphet permission to sign and send what has since been described by national and international media as a love letter of sorts, one which seeks to “reaffirm a relationship of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance” with Haines Junction and Whitehorse.
Whitehorse mayor Kirk Cameron wrote back on Friday, also noting the history of friendship between the two communities. He also suggested that Morphet join the Border Mayors Alliance, which is a group of Canadian border-town mayors that is advocating against a trade war between the two countries.
Assembly members were mixed on their reception to the idea of sending a letter.
“The best way to create a problem is to write a letter acknowledging that we’re sorry about the problem,” Smith said. “Unless we’ve gotten angry notes from the mayors of Whitehorse and Haines Junction, just let it go.”
Smith said his opinion is that what’s happening nationally does not translate down to these communities. He was the sole dissenting vote in sending it.
But assembly members Kevin Forster, Craig Loomis, and Cheryl Stickler said they’ve heard from people in the Yukon that they are getting pressured to avoid traveling and spending money in the U.S. and that things in Canada are not friendly toward Americans right now.
Assembly member Richard Clement, who is also the vice president of the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay, said there was animosity during a recent board meeting, where half the members are Canadian and half are American.
“Canadians may be reluctant to come here,” he said. “The other thing that has been pressing on Canadians is the exchange rate. It’s just terrible right now.”
The letter has been received with mixed results in Canada. While the mayors of Whitehorse and Haines Junction responded largely positively, others on social media have urged each other to avoid traveling to and spending money in the U.S.
Morphet said during Tuesday’s meeting there has been a dip in participation from Canada in Winterfest and later told a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter that “Canadian visitation is critical to our economy – so we want to maintain that.”
Open meetings set for another hearing
A measure put forward by assembly member Stickler that would change the way the assembly holds executive sessions is back in front of the assembly and will be taken up again during its Feb. 25 meeting.
Under the proposed rule, assembly members who cannot attend in person would be limited to participating by telephone and only if they affirm that no one else is present or able to overhear the call. They would also be prohibited from recording or taking notes of the session.
But – while the majority of public comment and conversation on the measure has been around the idea of maintaining the privacy of executive sessions through controlling how people can gain entry to them – the ordinance would also change existing borough law around how they are recorded.
Right now, when the assembly meets in executive session, those meetings must be recorded. Those recordings can then be reviewed by the mayor or members of the assembly who did not attend the executive session. But, they could also, in theory, be available to judges or subject to discovery in lawsuits, or made public by a super-majority consent of the assembly.
Current language in the ordinance would see the practice of recording executive sessions halted, and require a court order to open previously recorded ones – ostensibly to protect the privacy of people who have candid conversations behind closed doors during executive sessions, believing them to be closed to the public.
Stickler suggested changing that provision, pointing out that the lack of a recording would require that assembly members who were not able to attend executive be debriefed about its content by the mayor or deputy mayor, a situation made more complicated by the fact that people who attend them are not allowed to take notes.
“I know that as much as we try to interpret what has happened in our conversations, we try to interpret it in an unbiased view, but invariably our interpretation is colored with our world view,” she said.
With a recording, there would be no need to rely on secondhand information.
Assembly member Mark Smith supported her in that change, saying that “if we’re unwilling to be willing to be recorded, even in executive session, then we shouldn’t be talking.”
Ultimately, the assembly decided to update the language, incorporating the proposed changes, and take it up again for a public hearing during its Feb. 25 meeting.
A new water main for Small Tracts?
The assembly is currently considering authorizing the borough to enter into a loan agreement with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for up to $2.835 million. The funds would come through the Alaska Drinking Water Fund and the state offers a subsidy of up to $2.5 million in loan forgiveness through a federal assistance program — meaning the borough could end up paying $335,000 or less for the project.
The measure will come up again during its Feb. 25 meeting. Stickler successfully proposed amending the ordinance to include petitioning property owners living along Small Tracts to find out if they’d like to form a local improvement district as the borough considers a water main extension project that would add about 4,200 feet of new water pipe. The project would bring utility services to more than 40 parcels that don’t currently have municipal water.
She said the purpose was to give people who live along Small Tracts Road the “opportunity to weigh-in and to get more information about potential costs, potential benefits before we move in and do something with them, not to them, but with them.”
Borough code allows a local improvement district to tap into funds available from the sales of borough lands to pay for projects that “improve the lives of residents.” In some cases, districts can also be assessed to pay for such improvements.
Chief Financial Officer Jila Stuart said Wednesday that the process of forming a local improvement district has been rare since the Haines city and borough consolidated, and described it as extensive. She said it would include postcards being mailed to residents and a public meeting to get feedback. She said the borough does not want to extend utility services to residents who do not want them.
Borough clerk
New borough clerk Mike Denker’s employment agreement also passed assembly muster. Denker’s three-year contract went into effect on Feb. 12, with an annual salary of $100,000.
That salary is above the range advertised in the borough’s job description, but current interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she and Denker negotiated that he will also provide support to the planning commission, which is outside of the responsibilities originally listed for the job.
“I believe the planning commission really needs some support,” she said. “I think he has the skills and knowledge to be very helpful in that regard.”
Police chief hire
In a memo to the assembly, Chief Fiscal Officer Jila Stuart said she has reached out to Greg Russell of Russell Consulting LLC for help finding a permanent, full-time police chief.
Stuart, who is standing in for the borough manager in this capacity, suggested forming an interview panel that included herself, elected officials, members of the public safety advisory board and potentially one or two people who have expertise in law enforcement.
During the borough’s last round of hiring, a finalist visited the borough in January but later withdrew when he clashed with the current interim chief.