The Haines Borough will not have any state lobbyists during the current Legislative Session. The Haines Borough Assembly plans instead to dedicate energy and resources to obtain funding for infrastructure projects at the federal level, where grant funding opportunities are at an “once-in-a-generation” high. And, Mayor Tom Morphet gaveled a member of the public into silence at Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting. Morphet said the man could not address assembly members by name, raising concerns of free speech in the Chambers. KHNS’s Jenn Shelton reports.
The assembly voted down two contracts with state lobbyists at Tuesday’s assembly meeting, leaving the borough without a state lobbyist for 2024.
Assembly members split the vote 3-3 on whether to renew a $48,000 contract for Theodore Popely, a former Haines lobbyist. Mayor Tom Morphet’s vote broke the tie. And they voted 4-2 not to contract Reid Harris for $36,000, who would have been a new hire.
Debra Schnabel and Craig Loomis were the tw oassembly members who voted in favor of hiring Harris. Loomis told KHNS that he was impressed by the pre-hire interviews with Harris.
Loomis: “I just thought he would be more in line of what the people of Haines would like done in the borough.”
State lobbyist’s primary function for a community like Haines is to meet with legislators and procure state funding for local projects. Lobbyists have access to legislators who can add local projects to state finance bills.
But state funding for rural communities is currently at a low, said assembly member Kevin Forster, who described state funding as “miniscule.”
Forster: “Like we’ve seen with the Governor just vetoing all of the education funding. And there was no effect garnered last year in education funding with having a lobbyist. And the state is tightening its belt for all rural areas. And I think that’s pretty clear to everybody.”
But while funding for rural communities is low at the state level, infrastructure funding is abundant at the federal level. This is due to the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. The law authorizes $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending.
Instead of lobbying for dwindling state funds, Forster told KHNS that the borough will get a better return by applying for grants currently available under the IIJA. He said he learned about these grant opportunities while attending the Alaska Municipal League this fall, a statewide conference attended by the new assembly members.
Forster: “Particularly in regards to fund procurement with a lobbyist is that they get you into the meetings, right? They get you an audience. Well, what these federal agencies are saying is that it’s not even about that right now. It’s not about a competitive process. It’s about, ‘Get us these proposals so that we can disperse this massive amount of money that we’ve never seen.”
There’s a quickly approaching deadline to get these grants drafted. The grants need to be submitted to the IIJA by the end of this funding cycle, which is this October. Forster said that moving forward in hiring grant writers will be on the next Government Affairs and Services Committee meeting agenda, of which he is a member.
But what does not having a state lobbyist mean for Haines? Assembly member Gabe Thomas expressed disbelief at the end of the meeting that Haines will not have a state lobbyist this year. He told the assembly that the borough was going into the state’s legislative session with only one shoe on its feet. Thomas was not immediately available to comment.
KHNS spoke to Harris, one of the lobbyists whose contract was voted down. He said he considers Haines a community, not a client and that his door was open if Haines decided to change its mind or needed a consult. But he cautioned that if the borough is looking to secure state funding for capital projects, it’s important to lay the groundwork by the end of January.
Harris: “I think in the long run that Haines is probably going to realize that having a lobbyist, whether it is myself or whomever else, is probably going to be beneficial to them.”
Several assembly members voiced that they are not against lobbyists, but that for the current year it appears that Haines would do better to focus on federal grants. The assembly did vote to renew its contract with federal lobbyist Windward Strategies for $36,000. Windward Strategies has been instrumental in the process of obtaining funds for the replacement of the Public Safety Building.
The assembly’s Government Affairs and Services Committee will discuss the borough’s next steps for procuring contract grant writers as they shift away from relying on funding procured by state lobbyists at a February 6th meeting.
In other assembly news, mayor Tom Morphet disallowed a member of the public to speak during public comment. Don Turner Junior had planned to speak about assembly member Natalie Dawson. In past meetings, he’s expressed criticism that she’s communicated with the federal Maritime Administration in her role as an assembly member. Dawson has disputed that claim. On Tuesday night, when Turner spoke her name, Morphet interrupted him, saying he wasn’t allowed to address Dawson by name. Morphet consulted with assembly member Debra Schnabel, who said the two should hash it out in private.
Turner told Morphet that he overstepped his authority by disallowing him to speak. Later in the meeting, assembly member Gabe Thomas later said that Morphet violated Turner’s First Amendment rights.
Dawson has said in past assembly meetings that public comments have left her feeling bullied and unsafe in the Chambers. The GASC committee plans to discuss an anti-bullying policy at a future meeting.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that the assembly voted 5-1 not to renew the contract for Reid Harris. The assembly voted 4-2, with votes from Loomis and Schnabel in favor of hiring Harris. This version of the story has been corrected.
