Borough Assembly ignores law, invalidates Two Rivers fire service election after crowd shows up to complain

The borough assembly set a terrible precedent Thursday by rejecting the results of a local election, claiming it was because an error appeared in a story in the Daily News-Miner regarding the effort to start a fire service area in Two Rivers.

The newspaper error is the cover story. In fact, the assembly rejected the election because a crowd of people from Two Rivers showed up and asked the assembly to reject the results.

Voters in Two Rivers approved the creation of the service area in a 149-92 vote Nov. 15, but opponents of the service area protested to the assembly Thursday and succeeded in getting the assembly to overturn the election by not certifying it.

The next step here is for the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse the assembly’s attempt to reject a legal local election.

The election had been heavily publicized in the area with the right date, but there was a single error in a news story and opponents of the result had various complaints about “misinformation” regarding the situation and wanted the election thrown out. Voters were confused, fire service opponents said.

The News-Miner story said the election was Nov. 15, but said that was a Wednesday, when it was a Tuesday.

The assembly rejected the advice of its attorney, who said the certification vote was really about whether the election process was validly held according to borough code. The election should have been certified.

Supporters had said the plan was to start providing fire service next July and there was a preliminary budget proposing a 1.5 mill rate to cover a $200,000 operating budget. That would be about $300 for a $200,000 house.

The attorney said the legal method of overturning the election would be to introduce an ordinance, hold a public hearing and vote to eliminate the service area.

One or more of the 149 voters will probably go to Superior Court and have an easy case against the borough. There is no evidence that the election was not held in accordance with the law.

The 149 voters who took the time to vote for the service area have an interest in the matter that four members of the assembly ignored.

The vote to overturn the election was 4-4, led by assembly member Tammie Wilson, who claimed the fatal error was in a newspaper ad. It wasn’t.

She was later corrected and told the error was in a newspaper story.

Wilson and the others claimed that a single error in the News-Miner caused an unknown number to miss the election and show up a day late. Barbara Haney kept saying the News-Miner is a “legal paper of record” and incorrectly claimed that somehow that applies to news stories.

The borough had a legal ad with the correct information in the paper on the same day the mistake was made.

One of the tenets of local government is that when a crowd packs the hall, the crowd often gets what it wants.

“I appreciate the legal aspects of all this, but I think it’s important to note that these fine folks showed up here tonight and they’re looking to us to right what they believe is a wrong. I think we should take that seriously,” said Brett Rotermund, a new right-wing assembly member who was swayed by the testimony.

“Sure we can do what the attorney says, but that to me is the example of government moving at the speed of smell,” said Rotermund. “I’d rather see us just decertify this thing, let’s kick it back.”

Wilson, Rotermund, Jimi Cash and Haney voted against certifying the election, while Aaron Lojewski, Savannah Fletcher, David Guttenberg and Mindy O”Neall voted to certify.

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