Nobody Loves Whales

Captain Dave Carey has it out for white whales, but unlike Ahab, Dave doesn't have issues with a big sperm, but rather he has a thing for the baby belugas.  Darn it, they might mess up Carey's vision of an industrial and polluted Kenai Peninsula and surroundings.  Dave has been a big time promoter of the Chuitna and Pebble Mine proposals and it could be that it's not a good idea that poisonous mine tailings and coal dust get released in the Chuit drainage and into the Inlet. That might just be unhealthy for whales and other living things.

Now that Cook Inlet has NOAA's National Marine Service critical habitat designation, it is likely that the water quality in the inlet gets back to its normal silty self and not laced with toxins and human waste.  Anchorage might have to actually begin fully treating the almost-raw sewage it pumps into Cook Inlet.  Maybe Kenai and Nikiski are more SOL than those of us in SOLdotna as they get to see all of the floaters come down from Anchor town.

Dave and Pat Porter are already wringing their hands and making like the sky is falling.  Mike Chenault has jumped to conclusions and has declared that it's the end of the world as we know it.  Here's the story in the ADN and the PC.

It's curious that Sean Parnell and the State of Alaska is suing the feds about this designation and the polar bear one up north.  But they have nothing but arbitrary and uncertain figures about how many new jobs might be lost to controlling future gas and oil development.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is run by a political apparatchik, just like in the days of the USSR.  The state's own biologists are not allowed to release their own studies, well, because they are contrary to the political agenda of the Alaskan Republican Party, AKA the union for the oil companies.  DoF&G is not the only department operating under a gag order, but so is the AK Dep't of Health.  Political appointees won't let officials and scientists talk to the media. Period.  Nada.  Can't let facts get in the way of decisions.

BTW, what ever did happen to the couple hundred thousand the KPB received to study the white whales.  Did anyone learn anything? Any report ever filed?  Was the $ actually spent on the whales?

Call me Ishmael,
Whenever the hypocrites get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to blog as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the internet. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards SOL in Soldotna with me. 

apologies to Herman Melville

Suckers for Cox

photo by D Petri from the PC

It was just two years ago when Schaeffer Cox (the dapper gent in the hat pictured between Bob Bird and Tom Wagoner) came to the Kenai to promote his philosophies of unrestricted gun-ownership and sovereign citizen political action.  He was welcomed with open arms by Bob and Tom and given an email endorsement by Dave Carey.  Since then, Cox has been arrested a few times.  Once for beating his wife and then once for not informing a cop that he was packing heat as Cox responded to a Liberty Bell (the Sovereign Citizen phone tree) call when a fellow member was arrested.  Then yesterday, Cox was one of five arrested for plotting to kill five AK state troopers and a judge.  You can read about that incident here.

Those in the Sovereign Citizen movement claim that they are above the law and don't need to follow any rules.  There's been an uptick of SC related incidents since Obama became president including the shooting deaths of two policemen in Arkansas and the shooting of Gabby Giffords and others in Arizona a couple of months ago.

But this blog post isn't about Cox, it's about peninsula politicians.  Obviously, Wagoner and Bird are suckers for Cox's, um,  ideas, but so is Mayor Dave Carey.  Norm Olson and Mike McBride of ACT were among Cox's handlers and Gary Superman was recognized.

While Congressman Don Young isn't from the Kenai, he does represent us down in DC and Don has been a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment Task Force, of which Cox is the president of the Alaska chapter.

And why all of the political support?  Do they all really believe that we all need to be locked and loaded at all times?  Do they really believe that we should disobey the law?  Do they think that we should kill the representatives of the law?

Maybe they were just pandering for votes among from the right wing-nuts here on the peninsula.  Remember, we voted overwhelmingly for Joe Miller this last election.

If peninsula politicians don't really buy that gov't conspiracy black-helicopter stuff,  maybe they shouldn't pal around with those who do.

Do Tell...Don't Ask?!?

Oh, the ultimate power that being the Borough Assembly President brings.

Gary Knopp has met with Borough Mayor, Davey Carey, to begin reviewing and setting the upcoming budget and they decided that the other assembly members were not to be allowed to talk to the various borough department heads to ask them questions about their current budget needs. Carey already decided to make up his budget without input from the department heads and now ignorance will also be the borough assembly policy.

Now why would you do something so...stupid?!?

Well, why apply logic, sanity and need to political decisions?  Why not just make budgets (and cuts) according to your political agendas rather than by what might be needed to make the Kenai a great place to live?  Brings to mind Tricky Dick's famous quote: Don't confuse me with the facts.

Speaking of logic and sanity, the rumor is that Ron Long, the former borough assembly person from Seward will run for Borough Mayor this fall.  Ron, a successful businessman established a reputation as a fair, honest and knowledgeable man who was able to work with folks of various political persuasions to come up with sensible ideas and solutions to the various issues we face here on the Kenai.

Is there hope for the future?  Don't count on it.  The Kenai is the place where Joe Miller was the top vote-getter in the last US Senate race.  We live in a place where logic and sanity are about as important as fuel efficient vehicles.

Maybe Dale Bagely will also decide to run and he and Carey would split the, um, insanity vote.  Maybe, just maybe there is a chance not to be so SOL here.

OK, joke time.  A version of this made the rounds on FaceBook this morning:

The Koch brothers, a teabagger and a government-workers union employee were invited to a meeting to discuss wages. At the meeting there was a table with a plate of 100 cookies.

The K Bros., because of their VIP status, were able to enter early and before the other two had any idea that there were so many cookies, took 99 of them. When the teabagger and the unionized worker showed up, one of the Kochs pulled the teabagger aside, offered him a bite off of one of their 99 cookies, pointed to the one remaining cookie and the union guy and said "That union person wants most of your cookie"

Mayor Carey: We've Got To Keep Moving (down the road to hell): Part 2

Last week, I posted about Carey's call for the development of the Chuitna Coal mine.  Please, some one out there try to explain to me how destroying a productive salmon stream and shipping dirty coal to China to help power their factories and put more Americans out of work is a good idea? If you think developing this mine is just totally whacked, please do attend DNR public hearing this Wednesday night, January 19,  from 6-9 PM at the Challenger Learning Center.  This will be the one and only opportunity you will have to let the powers know that this is just a lousy idea.

And Mayor Davey is also all about developing the Pebble Mine too.  Once again, salmon be damned. Once again, let's destroy one of the last great ecosystems left on the planet so some multi-national mining company can make billions.  Sometimes, it is not just all about the money.

Godzilla in Japan

While reports about the hi-jinks of Borough Mayor Dave Carey and his visit to Japan are just now trickling in, the consensus has been that there has been some boorish behavior by the mayor and some borough employees.  SOL has no intention of embarrassing most people and will hold off on some of the stories that I've heard, but if you were there officially and might want to explain a thing or two before something gets posted, do send me an email.

One thing to relate - at an official reception Mayor Dave couldn't find his gift for the local mayor.  Carey then said in front of everyone that he had given the box with the present in it to a young Japanese woman there to help him.  She then carried the box up to the banquet. But the gift wasn't there and the young lady was very embarrassed as people thought she had lost some of the contents. Turns out that Carey left the gift in his hotel room.  Nothing like sloughing off blame to an underling, especially in a society that values dignity.

Maybe the funniest thing was a public FB post (now thankfully removed) of buck-nekkid borough muckety-mucks with only a small towel covering their naughty bits, but not their ample personages. I can see Jr High kids doing something like that but...?

I did save that photo, but no worries, that won't be (ur-rumph) exposed here.

Bad To The Bone: Borough Animal Control The Carey Adminisration Way

When Duane Bannock took over as Acting Chief of Staff, he promised that he was going to eliminate a position from the borough payroll.  Well, in what can only be a bone thrown to the ACT folks, the Carey administration, through Sue Wilcox, fired Ares, the search and rescue dog that CES has already spent over $10K on for training.  Technically, Ares works for the borough for free, but his handler, Dale Lawyer, a CES paramedic, is required by FSLA  (Fair Labor Standards Act) to receive 3.5 hours a week ($7400/year) for maintenance of rescue dogs. 

Part of Ares' duties  has been to go to schools and instruct kids what to do if they ever get lost.  The program has been very well-received.  

The Kenai has quite a bit of wilderness and it is reasonable to expect that eventually, some tourist, hunter, hiker, snowmachiner, skier or kid is going to get lost. $7400/year is small insurance that might help someone have a happy ending to a bad day.  Ares is also trained in avalanche rescue and we've been hammered with avalanches this year. 

Just one of the pay raises that Carey gave his staff would have more than covered the annual cost for Ares.

Who knows, maybe the dog pee'd on one of Dave's red, white and blue fire hydrants?

Pay Day at the Borough Building

One thing I don't get about Mayor Carey's support by ACT is Dave's generosity with the tax-payer's money when it comes to pay for staff. Both Hugh Chumley and Susan Wilcox pull in over $90K a year - in comparison, William's Chief of Staff, Tim Navarre, drew a salary in the $70K range. In addition, his Administrative assistant, draws a salary about $10K more than anyone in the borough that does a similar job.

How can ACT champion Mayor Dave as a fiscal conservative, while ignoring this administrative excess?

Mayor Murders Milli: A Character Assassination

It might just be the most over the top bit of writing a local politician has ever produced. Borough Mayor (and self-proclaimed CEO)Dave Carey's Voices of the Peninsula article in Tuesday's PC blasted the Borough Assembly President, Milli Martin, for denying the local chapter of TOPS, the weight loss support group, the use of the borough building for their meetings. TOPS had previously been using the building for a good long time.

Dave has divined Milli's motivation for not responding to TOPS request for reconsideration and for not permitting the group the use of the white house:

"The TOPS chapter was denied use of the people's building because the assembly president was not elected by anyone in their areas of Nikiski-Kenai-Soldotna-Sterling-Kalifornsky Beach-Kasilof. She knew it was unlikely she would ever see them and they could not hold her politically accountable. The other eight assembly members must make up their own answers for not responding to the TOPS women."

Wow - Dave, just where did you get that insight from? Did Milli tell you that? Or might there have been some jumping involved to reach your conclusion?

Ms. Martin doesn't represent SOLdotna, but she's been on the assembly for a while and she's like your favorite grandmother - mostly kind and nice and willing to listen to anyone with something to say.

I think I would like to hear what Milli has to say about this. I can't imagine that she arbitrarily and capriciously denied TOPS access. Non-profit groups have always been able to use borough meeting rooms as long as the room is not scheduled for government purposes. Could it be that some committee is now meeting at the time TOPS had scheduled their meeting?

And did the mayor really command the other eight assembly members to "make up their own answers"!?! Do we want to encourage politicians to spin any more than they already do? Dave, you're a retired teacher. Are you encouraging cheating or are you assuming that no matter what they say, their answers will be "made up"? I know that one of the assembly members was preparing for and then attempting to climb Denali during the time frame of the TOPS email request.

And are you saying that you "made up" Milli's answer for her? Now that seems plausible.

Dave has his licorice in a twist because the assembly has introduced legislation that would relegate the borough mayor to a figurehead position and hire a professional manager to oversee the daily operations. But Gary Knopp and Pete Sprague - not Milli - introduced the legislation.

There was a borough assembly meeting Tuesday night and unfortunately my work schedule has me out of town for what will undoubtedly be interesting interactions between hizonner and the assembly.

More to follow...

Mayor Davey: Do as I say, Not as I Do

Mayor Davey and outgoing Sup't of Schools, Donna P have been in a slap down of sorts lately as Dave is considering not funding Kenai Schools to the cap. Carey has accused the schools of being reluctant to share information about any budget surplus they might have. Here's an exchange reported in the PC.

"They give us a budget, they say that we need this, we give them everything they ask for right to the cap because they say that's what they need. Now to find out, and its been greatly increasing the last few years, there's $9 million more that they've been holding on to," Carey said.

Melody Douglas, chief financial officer for the district, said that presently the district has $19 million in its general fund fund balance. She explained that $9 million of that is in reserves per state statute...She also noted that information on district's budget is all available for public viewing on the district Web site.

Donna Peterson said the amount in savings could easily be wiped out by any of the unforeseen circumstances it is being set aside for.

"The way I look at it is, the amount of money we have in savings is minimal in our budget. It's more than we've had in the past, but far les than any business should have in savings," she said.

"It would take only a few things to wipe that out, like a couple months on increased healthcare costs, a rise in energy costs or if we miss the enrollment projections for next year. If we miss it, there goes the fund balance. Gone. It is not prudent to not have funds set aside."

Now, in Mayor Davey's own 90 Transition Report, the Kenai Borough has a $22 million unreserved fund balance.

Wait a minute - Davey doesn't want the district to have a reserve fund, but it's OK for the borough to have a reserve fund?

Might this be a little grandstanding by hizzoner? Gotta look like you're the little man with a plan to get spending under control. But it could be that his puppet strings are being pulled by ACT.