The controversial Lutak Dock Project took top priority in the Haines Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday night. The assembly met in executive session with the borough attorney to discuss Lutak Dock issues.
Haines voters may have a chance to decide on whether ore can be shipped from Lutak Dock. The assembly voted unanimously to direct the clerk to prepare language to put the question on a future ballot.
The borough was awarded a federal grant to repair the dock, which has fallen into disrepair. Opponents of the dock’s current design say the project’s scale is larger than the community requires and that the dock will be used to facilitate ore transfer. Elected officials learned last month that the contractor in charge of rebuilding the dock, Turnagain Marine Construction, has purchased $10,000,000 worth of steel for the project without authorization from the federal funding agency. The project is now on hold as MARAD investigates the issue.
Assembly member Gabe Thomas proposed putting the issue to a public vote at Tuesday’s regular assembly meeting.
Thomas: “This is a fairly good compromise to say hey let’s keep moving forward. Continue to build the dock but we’re not going to just say we’re building it for the ships and we’re building it for ore because I’m tired of hearing that narrative.”
Mayor Tom Morphet says the decision to hold a vote on whether or not to allow ore transfer is a step forward in the ongoing Lutak Dock debate.
Morphet: “The specter of an ore terminal has hung over this project like a ghost. And it has been something that we couldn’t prove or disprove, definitively. And so it wasn’t going away. And I think enshrining, in charter, some kind of prohibition on that use would give a lot of people some peace of mind.”
The outcome of a public vote would be written into the town’s charter. Changes in charter differ from changes in ordinance. The town charter can only be changed with a public vote while the assembly can change ordinances on its own.
The assembly will decide later on the language of the vote and if the public vote will take place. If language is approved, they will have to decide if the public vote will take place in the regularly scheduled October election, or if they will hold a special election. Morphet says it costs the borough around $10,000 to hold a special election. If the assembly decides to expedite the vote in a special election, it could take place in as soon as 6 – 8 weeks.
The borough also requested a cost analysis that would compare maintaining the current Lutak dock design against maintaining the dock’s previous design plans. The assembly expressed concern that current maintenance estimates were insufficient. The range of cost provided in original engineering reports is too large to anticipate future expenditures.
Also at the meeting, the assembly discussed their relationship with the Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer. The assembly has criticized Kreitzer for not informing them about time-sensitive information on the Lutak dock project, specifically an unauthorized purchase of $10,000,000 in steel made by the contractor Turnagain Marine Construction.
Mayor Tom Morphet says that initial friction between newly elected assembly members and borough management is to be expected. Assembly members will be able to share their concerns officially during the manager’s evaluation on January 25th.
Morphet explained that each assembly member will have a worksheet where they can grade Kreitzer’s performance in different areas of the job. Morphet says the evaluation process isn’t perfect. But he says it is a step forward in creating a healthy relationship between the assembly and the borough administration.
Morphet: “And that’s what I would hope would come from this evaluation. Is that it’s not just, ‘Geez, you got an 80%, and that’s a pretty good score. Thanks very much.’ But, “We need to work together on these areas where we’re not happy, or things aren’t getting done. Or performance is not meeting expectations.”
The assembly also voted to develop an anti-bullying policy. The Government Affairs and Services Committee will take the issue up at a future meeting.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that the Haines borough will vote on whether ore transfer will be permitted at the Lutak Dock. The clerk is drafting language for the vote, which the assembly will discuss at a future date. This version of the story has been corrected.
