Carey Prevails – For Now

By one vote, the borough assembly failed to override Mayor Carey’s veto of the ordinance that would have given borough middle-level management an appeals process when they felt they were fired for unfair reasons. Mili Martin and Gary Knopp originally had supported this ordinance, but decided not to overturn the veto. Ms. Martin did have strong words for Mayor Dave and warned him to address concerns of his mistreatment of long-term borough employees before the August assembly meeting or she would re-introduce the ordinance. Apparently there are 9 disgruntled former employees.

Earlier in the meeting, several members of ACT pleaded with the assembly to prevent the ordinance to move to a borough manager system from being presented to the voters. Before they were against this, ACT was a big proponent of a borough manager system. Members of ACT seemed completely oblivious to their flip-flops, but any borough resident with some memory cells intact can recall other times when ACT was for something before the were against it - like taking issues directly to the voters.

Several ACT members also spoke against establishing a recreational area service board, in this case to look into a new multi-sport complex, and asked that their districts be exempt if that district voted against the establishment of one. Ms Martin pointed out that that several assembly members, who were overwhelmingly re-elected by their districts and whose districts voted against term limits, were bound by the term limit ordinance passed by the ACT initiative.

ACT wants rules to be arbitrary – let the voters decide, unless it is about something that ACT doesn’t like, change the rules, unless ACT changes its mind, and that ordinances should be applied borough-wide, unless the ordinance is something that ACT doesn’t like.

And this group makes Mayor Dave dance. They show up in force at assembly meetings. They visit the mayor in his office. They rant on Sound-Off. They write to the PC.

Souldotna has no issues with fiscal conservatives - who can be in favor of waste? But ACT is being played by Mayor Dave as much as they are gaming the mayor and residents of the peninsula. Dave postures and pretends to cut the budget and becomes ACT's champion. ACT then protects the mayor as he practices cronyism - putting his political friends in borough positions that some are unqualified to fill. Dave then increases his own staff's budget and not one member of ACT cries foul.

Kudos to assembly members Long, Sprague, Superman, Smith and Smalley for understanding that having integrity means to be consistantly fair and honest.