On Tuesday, an ordinance passed in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, tightening restrictions on residency requirements for those who run for public office. Previously, the residency requirement had only been 180 days prior to an election.
The first section of the ordinance, 2020-01, moves to enact several changes for potential candidates within the district. The one consistent change is moving to a one-year residency requirement before filing for office, as well as being a qualified voter in the state of Alaska during that same duration. This qualifies for candidates for borough mayor, borough assembly, school board, and service area board.
Ordinance co-sponsor, Assembly Member Brent Johnson: “This ordinance really does two things. It lengthens the duration, the resident’s duration from 180 days to a year. That’s pretty straight-forward.”
Section 2 of the ordinance allows for more flexibility in the event of a residency challenge: “The other thing, though, is that, in existing code, there is no vehicle or no apparatus for somebody to challenge a person’s residency, a candidate’s residency. So, it’s a very clumsy thing to handle without that. If you look in the ordinance, you’ll find that in Section 2, it begins to talk about the way a challenge would take place, and that goes on for a couple of pages. That’s because the legal department has now established a way for that challenge to take place. So, that’s really the heart of this thing.”
The ordinance passed with eight yes votes, zero no votes, and one absent vote.