On Tuesday evening, the Haines borough assembly certified the results of the special election, and decided on how to implement the change in borough charter. 

The seven outstanding votes of the special election were tabulated at the latest borough assembly meeting. All seven were a yes. The final result is 452 in favor of changing the borough charter so as to elect the planning commission, and 248 against. That is 64% in favor. Residents will therefore elect planning commissioners starting at the next general election, on October 3rd. 

The assembly still needed to decide on whether to allow current commissioners to finish their terms, or to elect all seven members in October. 

Community members weighed in during the comments period.

Here is Nick Jans

Jans: “It seems pretty clear that this last election to make the planning commission all elected officials, was a kind of a referendum  on recent planning commission actions. I mean it’s two to one. That’s a lot.”

And Tom Morphet

Morphet: “The law has changed. The only question is, how do we get about to having that election. I was hoping that election could be in October.”

Mayor Doug Olerud shared his point of view.

Olerud: “If you have different options to do something, and one of them is the one that is backed by the people that were pushing the initiative, I look at it, if the people that were pushing the initiative think it was supposed to be one way, and that was the side that won, maybe we should listen to them.”

After discussion, the assembly decided unanimously to adopt an ordinance laying out the following system. At the October 3rd election, all seven seats will be up for a vote. The top three vote getters will serve a three year term, the next two highest vote getters will serve a two year term, and the next two highest will serve a one year term. The ordinance will go through one more round of public comments before adoption at the next borough assembly meeting. 

Tom Morphet was the originator of the ballot initiative. He says Haines has a population that is very involved in local politics, and that shifting to electing planning commissioners will suit the community better.

Morphet: “We make these changes step by step, and we arrive at a more perfect union. The brilliance of our form of government was the amendment process, that you start with a set of rules, and if the rules don’t work you can amend the rules. But when the rules are written in stone you have to start over and have a whole new revolution. But under our form of government, you can change the rules as you go to fit circumstances. And it was the brilliance of our government that you can do that.”

The planning commission uses the comprehensive plan as its guiding document. A new plan will be written this year. The consulting company Agnew Beck has been hired to write the plan. Borough officials urge anyone interested in running for a seat on the planning commission to participate in the meetings organized by the consultants. The first of these meeting will next Tuesday at 6pm, in assembly chambers and on Zoom.