(Not) Waiting For Superman

I think I should tie each of my blog titles to some song.  The last posting about Dave Carey not seeking re-election could have featured Paranoid by Black Sabbath.  I'd have to go with the Flaming Lips Waiting for Superman, something a bit more innocuous, for the news that Gary Superman has decided to make it a menage a cinq for the borough mayor job.

I don't think anyone is surprised by Gary's announcement and each candidate offers the voters something quite different.

First to announce was Dale Bagley. Dale is sane, which is a not a claim all of the candidates can make.  One of the most worrisome things about Dale was that he ran Joe Miller's Kenai Peninsula campaign.  Joe has been one of the sleaziest, dishonest, self-serving, full-of-crap office-seekers since Jerry Ward.  That someone would back Miller despite all the BS, is beyond belief.  Oh, wait a minute, most all of the voters from the peninsula voted for Miller.

Then you have Debie Brown.  Anyone who has heard her testify at a meeting knows three things: she can't ever get to the point or be clear; she has a whacked sense of what is important; and she cannot make the claim that she is sane.

Ron Long is the sole progressive of the lot, a guy that makes decisions by learning as much as he can about an issue and then applying some logical thought to the process.  But so far, he is running a lack-luster race and doesn't really seem to have direction.  He's not that well-known in the central or south peninsula and that could be problematic.

Fred Sturman, along with Ms Brown, a fixture at borough assembly meetings, has one thing to say- times are tough and we have to cut everything.  Fred wants us to live without schools, roads, police, firefighters, EMTs, garbage dumps, hospitals, and any sort of regulation. Good luck with that.

And now Gary Superman is in the mix. Gary transformed a bit when he was on the assembly and actually seem to come around and understand the purpose of the borough government.  One thing I want to know is what he did to get the ACT people to dislike him so much? As far as I'm concerned, being on the ACT hit list is a good thing!

Political Junkies on Political Junkets

You know the conservatives are in charge when the state and borough credit cards come out and the politicians fly off to DC to meet with lobbyists.  The big story is that 28 state legislatures are off to Washington DC to attend the three 1/2 day Energy Council sessions.  Really - 28?!?  Included in that list is the central peninsula's Tom Wagoner, asleep at the wheel ever since elected, who has forever sat in the sidelines of the state senate and just got caught unawares about the Conoco LNG shutdown.  Is there a golf course nearby?!?

Couldn't a small committee be sent and reports then filed? And three 1/2 sessions are all that is on the agenda? 

Our local borough assembly members, all nine of them, are off to DC next week to attend sessions for some national counties organization.  The borough had to appropriate some $16K for this junket.  Again, do all assembly members really need to go?  And when budget cuts to essential services are in the works, how does this make any sense?

Someone please tell me about the connection between republicans/teabaggers and fiscal responsibility.

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"

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?

Acting Chief of Stuff: Duane Bannock

There they were just a couple of days ago, Charlie Pierce and Duane Bannock, parked in one of the handicapped spaces at the OEM Building and deep in conversation.

And the Press Release today maybe reveals what that conversation might have been about: Duane is the new acting Chief of Staff, replacing Scooter Chumley who resigned a couple of weeks ago.

Mr. Bannock is a former car salesman, who served on the Kenai City council, was fired as Director of Alaska's DMV, and most recently, the political appointee in charge of the Spruce Bark Beetle Mitigation Program. In the shuffle, Michael Fastabend will act as head of the SBBMP, and Susan Wilcox will be the Admistrative Officer for the KPB.

Some of Mr. Bannock's political views have included his support of industrial pig farms for the Kenai, state issued ID cards, private prisons, Moms, Apple Pie, and Dodge trucks.

Included in his business views was selling cars "to not very smart people". But this practice came to a legal halt, when a developmentally impaired man, under the legal guardianship of his parents, bought a car from Kenai Chrysler when Duane was the general manger. When the parents tried to return the undamaged car the next day, Mr. Bannock refused to recognize the validity of the guardianship and would neither cancel the sale nor return the man's trade-in. The parents took Mr. Bannock to court where Duane lost the verdict and the appeal.
But maybe it explains why he was parked in a handicapped parking space.

ACT Won: A Peninsula Travesty

At last night's borough assembly meeting, upon reconsideration, the assembly defeated the measure that would have put the mayor vs manager style of government on the ballot this fall. Homer's Bill Smith was the swing vote, as he changed his mind from last month. He noted that no one from the public came to an assembly meeting and spoke in favor of having a borough manager over a strong mayor.

ACT, however, testifies at every borough assembly meeting held in Soldotna and their message is that they are the voice of the people of Kenai.

They sure as hell don't speak for me. Here's a sampling of some of their testimony.

Viki Pate has no trouble justifying ACT's flip-flop on this issue (remember, ACT was for having a manager before they were against it). She stated that when ACT was for it, it was because they wanted competent government. But when the assembly tried to move the issue to the ballot for people to actually decide for themselves, Pate accused the assembly of being fascists. Huh?!?

Fred Sturman attempts to come across as a folksy voice of reason but is full of unsubstantiated statistics to support his idea that borough needs to cut the budget. He never offers any specific cut options and is blind to pay raises Mayor Carey gave to his staff and the deficit spending budget Carey proposes. Fred offers the occasional verbal gems like last night's declaration that the 80s were so like the.....80s.

Debbie Holle Brown only speaks to the assembly when something is very dearly important to her - but she seems to have something to say about everything even when she has noting to say. Well, maybe she has something to say, but darn if I've been able to figure out exactly what that is. She usually tries to make her point by yapping on about something else and then as her 3 minutes are winding down, rushes to tie together the loose ends that she spun. Last night she even had the audacity to ask for "A special eduction IEP for testifying"so that people like her could ramble on forever. So, she spent about 2 minutes saying that she couldn't get her point across in 3 minutes. Geez, just stick to what is pertinent and maybe you could.

The angry Kasilof woman who sometimes is in too much of a hurry to put all of her clothes on is another example of those speaking as the voice of the Kenai. When I hear her rage, I wonder if there should be a metal detector at these meetings.

These folks have become the most powerful force on the Kenai - but just what are they promoting? Viki Pate would do away with all public schools, Fred Sturman would eliminate most all borough services. It's a mystery what Debbie Brown wants as she is not capable of articulating a clear thought. Those who have followed her political career when she was a member of the school board know that she doesn't know much of anything. And those whose nuts are about to slip off of the remaining threads of their sanity are easily manipulated. The Kenai is not immune to crazed gun-wielding whackos.

In other assembly news, the ordinance that would have put the sports dome on the ballot this fall was tabled after the group that brought the measure forward withdrew their support for now. Despite being tabled (and any attempt to bring it back would have to start the process anew), Debbie Brown and others spoke against it, maybe just to hear themselves talk. I don't think the ordinance would stand a chance to pass and I wouldn't support it because there are so many winter sports to enjoy here - why create an expensive artificial indoor environment in these days of high fuel costs. We are a northern state with tremendous winter sport opportunities.

Oh no, did I just agree with ACT on something?

The Fate of the Borough

Mike Nesper, the cub reporter for the PC, opened his article about tonight's assembly meeting with a bit of hyperbole and declared that our fate rested on if voters should decide if we want a manager or mayor.

Really - like, are we gonna die if we do something?

C'mon Mike. You're supposed to be a real reporter - just the facts, man. Leave the slant for us bloggers, the news comedians like Jon Stewart, or the propagandists like Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.

What's really the motivation behind this ordinance?

It's kinda funny that groups like ACT are so opposed to letting voters decide this issue especially when ACT was all about having a borough manager a couple of years ago. ACT has also been adamant that voters should decide things. For ACT and their ilk, it depends on which way the wind blows. If it is something they don't like, they declare the borough is thwarting the will of the people. If it is something they don't want, they are all about suppressing debate.

The vote will probably come down to Gary Knopp, who introduced the ordinance, but has shown that he will wilt under pressure. During the last assembly meeting, he changed his vote which originally supported an appeals process for borough department heads who sometimes get axed for only dubious reasons, and failed to support the override of Carey's veto that would have established a way for folks who are doing a good job to challenge politically motivated termination.

And maybe that's the reason to move to a manager form of government. The last few borough mayors have brought in their political cronies to do jobs that some are unqualified for - how does that make for better government?

Duane Bannock, the appointed head of the Spruce Bark Beetle program is the most blatant example of the Mayor Carey's cronyism. Duane, a car salesman, replaced a person fully qualified to run such a program, and by all accounts, the former head was doing a fine job. Duane then had the brass to speak up at last month's assembly meeting to voice his support for the mayor.

Of course he did - he owes his job to the mayor, what else is he going to say? It did come across as more than a bit self-serving.

Apparently there are 8 disgruntled former employees that may have been darn good workers who have been let go and replaced by folks not-so-qualified. Certainly, a new mayor should be able to bring in his/her own staff, but one might hope that politics would not interfere with competence.

I dunno, I sure would like to avoid the political grandstanding that the current mayor is so very good at. And why not just let the voters decide?

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...