The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted to not amend the 2022 Assembly meeting schedule to include travel to Seward in April and Homer in September. The 2022 meeting schedule was approved as presented at the November 9, 2021 meeting. During discussions, the assembly considered amending the schedule to include travel to Seward on April 19th and Homer on September 20th.
According to Assembly Member, Cindy Ecklund, the Borough Clerk was tasked with determining if the technology solutions in Homer and Seward would allow for both in person and remote participation for attendees, but concerns were raised by several assembly members on the amount of work that gets done when the assembly goes to Homer and Seward.
Assembly Vice President Brent Hibbert said:
“What I find is that not much gets done. It’s a real small (agenda) packet. I think for the cost and what gets taken care of, I think it’s not that good. I look tonight and I saw that Homer’s own mayor was on Zoom tonight and worked. He testified.”
Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce said:
“What we would find is that participation from those communities was very, very limited. From my experience, I mean, very few people would show up. One of the initiatives that we have tried to accomplish in the borough is to have a better safety record and a lower cost component. You spent in excess of $600,000 in this room right here, which really afforded more opportunity for people in the borough to participate from home. Then there’s a risk factor that you have multiple people on some pretty hazardous roads and hazardous conditions. There’s a huge risk that comes with that. One accident, one fatality, it’s a huge, huge risk and it’s not something that I think you can justify or warrant today based on the terms and conditions that we’ve created here. I would encourage us to stay here and conduct our meetings from here.”
A vote was held to amend the meeting schedule, which failed on a 6 to 3 vote.