Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly 2020

The latest attempt to keep an easier, hybrid vote-by-mail system from coming to Kenai Peninsula Borough residents was turned back at Tuesday night’s assembly meeting. A veto made by Mayor Charlie Pierce on Monday of Ordinance 20-24 was overturned on a 6-to-3 vote.
    In defense of his veto, Pierce had previously claimed on social media that the vote-by-mail system would be mandatory, which is not the case. Assembly President Kelly Cooper called a post on Pierce’s campaign Facebook to that effect on June 13 irresponsible for its inaccuracy.

After failing to block an ordinance in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly that would provide for an expanded number of options for residents to casts votes, foes of voting-by-mail, led by Assemblymembers Norm Blakley of Sterling and Jesse Bjorkman of Nikiski, have filed a referendum petition application to have the measure repealed by voters in October.
    The Borough Mayor's Office and assembly members were notified by the clerk of the filing on Thursday.

About two weeks after the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed an expanded elections options ordinance, it came up for a reconsideration vote about four hours into Tuesday night’s regular meeting. A reconsideration vote is a final effort to change something that’s already passed.
    During the meeting, Seward Assemblymember Kenn Carpenter explained why he asked to have the expanded elections ordinance reconsidered after it passed 6-to-3 two weeks earlier.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s marathon meeting this week overflowed into Wednesday afternoon after reaching midnight on Tuesday night.
    When the body resumed its Zoom meeting, it was in the middle of debate over amendments to modify borough elections under Ordinance 20-24. The ordinance would provide for voting by mail, give more time before a run-off election, and would remove statements attached to ballot propositions.

At Tuesday night's Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting, there will be a public hearing on an ordinance to establish a vote-by-mail option for elections in the Borough. Communities all over the country are considering vote-by-mail due to the current public health crisis and because of concerns about free and fair elections. Assemblymember Willy Dunne of Fritz Creek introduced this ordinance because of a recommendation from a Borough stakeholder group that issued a report in January of 2019.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly took up debate on the Fiscal Year ‘21 budget Tuesday night, but before they could begin, the matter of not one, but two, potential conflicts of interest needed to be addressed.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted again Tuesday night to allow public roads and rights-of-way to be gated off into private streets and subdivisions. Two weeks ago the ordinance passed 5-to-4.
    After the assembly passed the ordinance two weeks ago, Homer Assembly member Willy Dunne asked for a reconsideration vote in one last attempt to sway more assembly members to his side. At the meeting he kept up his insistence that the ordinance was bad public policy due to the overwhelming public opposition to privatizing public property.

At last week’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Meeting, a final vote was called on the ordinance that could turn existing borough roads and rights-of-way into private and gated subdivisions. It is different from planning a private subdivision from scratch, as has been done along the Kenai River in several spots, such as Kenai Keys.
    However, the 5-to-4 vote approving the ordinance did not stay final. Near the end of the meeting Homer Assembly member Willy Dunne moved for a reconsideration vote.

Chapman School in Anchor Point dodged another funding scare last night. Instead, it wound up with a room for special needs students. The school had been an early target for closing last year as the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District tried to balance its budget after Governor Mike Dunleavy slashed education budgets.
    On the assembly’s agenda last night was not a decision whether to keep schools open, but a capital fund expenditure of a million dollars for new direct digital controls for Homer High School’s various mechanical systems.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly had seemingly put to bed the long-running debate over private roads and gated subdivisions in the Kenai Peninsula. The ordinance passed Tuesday night on a 5-to-4 vote. But in an effort to give fellow assemblymembers the opportunity to change their minds, Assemblyman Willy Dunne later called for a reconsideration vote. That will take place on May 5.

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly met Tuesday night in Soldotna. The borough enacted Ordinance 20-23 by unanimous consent. The borough will now join 23 other communities in the state in organizing to collect online sales tax.