Last night’s Borough Assembly agenda was dominated by the CPH expansion and a proposal to cut compensation for Assembly Members. Clam Gulch’s Brent Johnson brought forward the ordinance, which was countered by Homer’s Bill Smith.
Johnson said that after voters increased the exemption for homeowners, he was looking for ways to decrease borough spending.
Asm. Johnson(Clam Gulch): “Eventually you gotta cut government, I thought that was the message the voters sent to us is to find those cuts. And believe me, it would be tough to do but since I was familiar with our own compensation package I could start there.”
The Assembly voted 6-3 to approve Smith’s substitute instead which actually increased compensations in accordance to inflation but was postponed to the next meeting to allow for more public comment.
Johnson added that if residents had shown to comment on the discussion it may have turned out different.
Asm. Johnson(Clam Gulch): “I gave an opportunity for voters to weigh in on it, if they had filled this room with people saying yes by golly we want you to cut, then I think the vote might have gone the other way. But instead we didn’t get a single one, not a single one.”