When it comes to
the public process in the borough these days, there seems to be two
choices. No public process or the
"The Good Ol’ Boy Public Process".
Both of which smell like a spawning salmon washed up on the shoreline on
a hot summer day. And both lead to extraordinarily bad public policy.
TO BRING YOU UP TO SPEED…
Take the recently
passed version of the Borough subdivision code, Title 43 for instance.
Last summer,
Assembly member Jim Colver, a surveyor by profession, led the borough down an
ugly, muddled path when he initiated a reversion to the old, badly outdated and
widely discredited subdivision code (aka Title 16). Under Title 16, subdivisions were developed
according to low standards for things like roads and fundamental infrastructure
such as placement of utilities. We have referred
to Mr. Colver’s subdivision obsession as the Bad Roads
and Taxpayer Exploitation Act. The
end result is that the borough now has a new subdivision code… named Title 43,
presumably to remove the stigma associated with Title 16.
THE HEAD CHEERLEADER
In his zeal to
dismantle the code, Mr. Colver got everybody in a tizzy: staff, planning commission, platting board, road
service boards…. all frantically trying to figure out the implications of
reverting to this lax and woefully inadequate Title 16 code; trying to identify
and patch up the worst of it. Mr.
Colver, taking the lead, convinced a large majority of the assembly to jump on
board. It didn’t take much convincing,
though, since most of the assembly’s policy decisions are driven by an extreme
ideology of development with no rules and a get the public out of the way
attitude.
So, instead of
listening to the pleas of the platting board, planning commission, road service
boards, and staff recommendations to fix the relatively few problems with the
then current Title 27 subdivision code… Jim Colver pushed on, not just with the
old Title 16, but with the old Title 16 as modified by the Mat-Su Business
Alliance, a special interest organization with a narrow focus, one that is not
exactly concerned with the broad public interest. It was the MSBA version that replaced Title
27 and became the working copy of the subdivision ordinance.
Thus, Jim Colver
and company supplanted the public interest with a narrow special interest. That was pretty easy to do when you have an
Assembly that doesn’t care much about either the public interest or the public
process. This switch to the MSBA version, complicated and made more
unwieldy the public, staff and board review because there wasn't a clear
connection, through amendments, between the Colver version introduced in
June/July and the MSBA version. Not to
mention this kicked to the curb the then present Title 27 subdivision code,
which on the whole did a pretty good job of providing for the orderly
development of the borough while protecting the taxpayer. Oh and let’s not forget that developers,
surveyors, engineers and the public drafted and supported Title 27. The underlying problem is that lax rules give
the developer a break at taxpayer expense.
Relaxed subdivision road standards (a la Title 16) means, among other
things, bad roads and infrastructure (you know…. mudholes, bad drainage, poor
road material, etc.), which the taxpayer must ultimately pay to fix, while the
subdivision developer enjoys umbrella drinks in Vegas.
Most everyone
acknowledged that some modification to Title 27 was in order but that changes
should be considered in a thoughtful, straight-forward, clear manner, so that
the public knew how our subdivision code was being changed. The result would be a better code. But no, not
good enough for the assembly wrecking crew who chose to throw Title 27 out
entirely. You know the throw the baby out with the bath water scenario, which
seems so popular these days.
THE BACKUP SQUAD
To make a long
and painful story short, at the last meeting, your assembly by a 6-1 vote,
listened largely to a narrow special interest group rather than paying meaningful
attention to the general public, planning commission, platting board and road service
boards. (which soundly opposed the roll back in code) And then the good ol’
boys contingency of the assembly in one dramatic instance ignored the advice
from their own borough attorney and created their own subdivision code from
this growing paper pile we would wager few of them had even read or had a good
grasp of.
More
astonishingly, the Assembly, also by a vote of 6-1, turned down a request by
their own planning commission presented to them to run the final subdivision code by the road service boards, planning commission,
and platting board and to hold a
public hearing. That’s right…. after the substitution of the MSBA version of
our subdivision code and after several months of amendments BY A VOTE OF 6-1, THE ASSEMBLY SAID “NO” TO A
PUBLIC HEARING…. So much for the
public’s basic right to participate in the decisions that affect them.
The result of
this horrendously flawed process was the outright repeal of Title 27, a code
that was not perfect but one that had been developed over a number of years
with broad public and stakeholder participation. This was summarily cast aside and replaced by
the Bad Road and Taxpayer Exploitation Act, otherwise now known as Title
43.
This raises the
question… WHY? Why would the assembly steamroll
this process so it could force on the citizen’s of this borough a Subdivision
Code that favors a narrow special interest over the public health, safety, and
welfare, at the expense of orderly development of our borough. I think you all can figure it out..
JUST GIVE IT A NEW NUMBER WITH THE OLD
RULES
Here are a couple
of glaring problems with the new subdivision code that the assembly even saw
fit to give a new code number (Title 43) much like that touted lipstick on a
pig.
1. Serial Waivers are now allowed, even
though according to the borough attorney and an outside law firm this practice
is illegal under state law. Sounds complicated but really isn’t. Specifically
allowing the practice of serial waivers [a Waiver Subdivision is the division
of a single lot into not more than four lots, as allowed under Alaska state
statute, where normal subdivision rules are “waived.” A so-called “serial
waiver” a series of waivers of previously waivered parcels, enabling the
creation of far more than the four lots.] facilitates the development of a full
fledged subdivision without having to comply with normal subdivision
development rules. This
has in the past and will no doubt in the future lead to road quality, access,
utility, drainage, water and septic problems…..just the “Full Monty” of issues.
Issues someone has to suffer through and more importantly pay for long after
the developer has made his money.
2. Public notice period “mailing at least
15 days before a public hearing” reducing it from 21 days in the previous Title
27 code. This means the public, and in particular the road service boards, the fire
service area boards, and the community councils, is, as a practical matter, now
effectively deprived of the opportunity to be heard on platting issues. The shorter comment period will in many cases
conflict with meeting schedules, doesn’t
account for mailing time or the need for the platting department to receive the
comments in time to prepare and distribute the platting board’s packet.
MAD ENOUGH YET?
There is much,
much more to be stunned and outraged about, which you’d see and hear if you sat
through the scattered and disjointed meetings that the assembly held on this
issue over the last 9 or so months. Chances are you didn’t since many of them
were scheduled during a time of the day not likely to have much of an audience
other than their cheerleaders for development with no rules.
It is a sorry
state of affairs, but the voters elected them…. we only report on it. It is decided at the ballot box. It is time to get mad and get active.
Just to be clear,
Assemblyman Colver had plenty of help getting this hot mess through the goal
posts. The ceremonial mayor has reminded
us repeatedly we need to "take care of the people that pay the bills"
because apparently in his monarchy homeowners and small business owners are the
"takers" of the borough. Even
with Assembly member Arvin giving his personal assurance that "this didn't
go idly by the public and get slipped into code one dark night" just doesn't
begin to pass the straight face test. We
can understand his confusion though as he is largely participating
telephonically from a different time zone. We're guessing his attendance record
at community council meetings, road service boards and other opportunities for
public input is not impressive on any day or night. Assembly member Salmon seemed pretty
uninterested in the whole process, the inefficiency of it all and agreed that the
lack of urgency at this time of year will have little effect on the upcoming
construction season. However he
completely reversed himself at the final vote and gave it a shove through.
At the end of
this debacle, comments by some assembly members such as, we know there may be
problems with this code but we need to pass this, we can fix the problems as
they come up and we need to get it passed because of the construction season
are all bloviated, empty gestures and an admittance that they didn’t do a very
good job.
This failing
patch quilt of an ordinance was brought to you by one assembly member, guided
by a few fellow surveyors, a handful of noisy small time developers wanting
access to more land on the cheap, and a "big hat no cattle" so called
business organization. Well they got the full attention of the assembly and the
process that they wanted. The rest of us
get to live with and later pay for the results of what can only be described as
a pretend process and decisions made by elected officials that will be long
gone down the well traveled political road.
Once again..You
voted them in. We only call it like we
see it.
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