The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly said farewell to two of its members last night and swore in members for new terms. The ceremony comes as elected bodies around the borough prepare to seat new and familiar faces.
At the beginning of last night’s assembly meeting, Cindy Ecklund and James Baisden stood with their right hands in the air while Borough Clerk Michele Turner administered their oaths of office.
Assembly members certified the results of the Oct. 1 municipal election during the meeting. The move makes the results official.
All three assembly candidates ran unopposed this year.
Ecklund will retain her District 6 - East Peninsula seat. Willy Dunne will return to the assembly’s District 9 – South Peninsula seat, which he held until hitting his term limit in 2021. Dunne wasn’t able to attend Tuesday’s meeting and will take his oath of office at a later date.
Baisden will fill the assembly’s District 1 - Kalifornsky seat. He currently serves on the Kenai City Council. He’s never been an assembly member. But he did serve as chief of staff to former Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce.
Current Borough Mayor Peter Micciche thanked the three candidates for running.
“Folks out there can complain all you want to – put your name on the dotted line,” he said. “Work the thousands of hours a year that these folks work to try to represent you the best they can. And if any of you are perfect, cast the first stone, put your name on the dotted line, and run. These three individuals did.”
At the same meeting, the assembly also bid farewell to its outgoing members.
That included former assembly president Brent Hibbert, who thanked assembly members and borough staff for making the assembly “look good.”
“Well, it's a bittersweet night tonight and I will miss all of you guys today – or in the future,” he said.
Also leaving is Mike Tupper, who’s represented the southern peninsula for one term. He agreed that he’ll miss the people, but said he’s also ready for a break.
“Switching to just the fact that this is my last meeting, I'm not sad to be setting this down, because I am kind of exhausted,” he said. “But I will miss a lot of people here, and I have had a pretty good time learning a lot of new things, so I appreciate all of you and thank you.”
The assembly’s swearing in ceremony unofficially kicks off a handful of others around the borough.
The City of Soldotna is scheduled to certify the results of its election at tonight’s city council meeting. They’ll swear in two incumbents who ran unopposed — Jordan Chilson and Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will swear in newly-elected school board members at a special meeting next week.
