Haines Police Department
The Haines Borough Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday to interpret how the borough charter defines the authority of the local police department. The decision was not reached without disagreement. After the meeting, Sean Maidy announced his resignation from the assembly on Facebook.
The authority of the Haines Borough Police Department has been a subject of debate recently. Until two years ago, a state trooper stationed in Haines policed areas outside of the townsite. When the state removed that position, it raised the question of whether the local police department could legally respond to emergencies outside the townsite.
The resolution adopted at Tuesday’s meeting aims to answer that question, at least for the time being.
The Haines Borough Charter states that local police departments can only operate within a service area. Right now the only police service area lies within the boundaries of the townsite.
The charter also states that the borough can provide emergency dispatch across all areas of the borough. Last month, assembly member Brenda Josephson drafted a resolution to interpret emergency dispatch to include police service.
“I worked with the clerk [and the] the borough manager on this. The borough attorney has weighed in on this as well. I think this is a good solution for right now,” Josephson said.
The resolution states that the assembly “interprets emergency dispatch as allowing the police department to respond to emergencies outside the Townsite until the Haines Borough voters have settled the question of emergency police services at the October 6, 2020 regular election. These emergency services shall be paid for from sales tax revenue.”
Assembly member Sean Maidy strongly disagreed with this interpretation of the borough charter.
“I’m concerned that if we change this definition, what it’s going to be doing is not meshing with charter. That’s like making a law that doesn’t work with the constitution,” Maidy said. “I have to argue whenever I hear someone say that providing dispatch means that we can provide service. It specifically says in charter they’re labeled separately.”
The borough’s attorney Brooks Chandler agrees that police and emergency dispatch are separate services. In an email to Borough Manager Debra Schnabel, Chandler wrote, “Actual police officers responding beyond townsite limits are a component of the operation of a ‘police department’ not a component of ‘dispatch communication services’ or ’emergency dispatch.'”
In a follow up email to Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton, Chandler wrote that formalizing an alternative interpretation of the charter is “better than doing nothing” but it would not protect the borough from a lawsuit.
At the meeting Tuesday, assembly member Paul Rogers said that the resolution’s interpretation of the charter was correct and posed minimal legal risk.
“I think it is highly unlikely that we are going to be sued by someone who received police services outside of the townsite. I think that is one of the most remote possibilities that I can think of,” Rogers said. “It’s already in our charter. A lot of people can’t see it that way. Well, it is. I think we need to move forward and this is the right way to do it.”
Some assembly members see the resolution as a temporary solution until charter can be amended to make the local police an area wide power. However, that would require a vote of the people. At this time there’s no ordinance to put the proposed amendment on next year’s ballot.
Even if the issue did make it on to next year’s ballot, there’s no guarantee it would pass. In 2018, voters living outside the townsite rejected a proposal to create their own police service areas.
The assembly adopted Josephson’s resolution with assembly members Zephyr Sincerny and Sean Maidy opposed. Following the meeting, Maidy announced his resignation from the assembly.
“The manager put it best last night. This issue has been blown up. It’s not so much a police issue as much as it’s a how government is run issue,” Maidy said. “I can’t be a part of a government that operates in such a way.”
Haines Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton confirmed that she received a letter of resignation from Maidy. In an email she wrote that the assembly will have 30 days to accept the resignation and act to fill the vacancy. The assembly will then decide how to appoint a new member. In the past, the assembly has solicited letters of interest from the community and chosen an interested resident for the open seat.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated as more information has become available.
I can understand frustration but quitting before the term length you agreed to just stresses an already taxed pool of assembly members. It would be nice if folks felt that they could register disappointment with a vote or a speech while still serving out the time frame you agreed to. Sean just made government even more challenging while changing nothing.
This story is inaccurate. Two years ago, in January 2017, the state Department of Public Safety reduced the number of troopers stationed in Haines from 2 to 1. A Fish and Wildlife trooper, who holds all the same law-enforcement powers as a “blue-shirt” Alaska State Trooper, is still stationed in Haines and responds to emergencies and crimes. In addition, regular, blue-shirt state troopers come to Haines routinely for search-and-rescues and other emergencies. The issue of policing outside the townsite was fabricated then exaggerated by townsite police chief Heath Scott, who has conjured all kinds of bogeymen attempting to expand his power and his department’s jurisdiction. Scott is on the record supporting an expansion of city police throughout the borough, and expanding the police department from 5 to 8 officers. Adding “policing'” to the borough’s areawide powers will have the effect of expanding funding for the police department, something chief Scott wants badly. (With a salary of $110,000 per year, Scott already has seduced borough leaders to pay him $33,000 more than any other police chief in town history.) As the borough is currently losing funding, funding additional police will cost the Haines Borough services it already provides. Want more police? Kiss goodbye to your library, swimming pool, school activities travel, open gym, etc. Also, KHNS would do well to look into what happened to officer Chris Brown. Why did he leave town? Did he bring honor to the Haines police department? What are we getting for the additional $250,000 per year the police budget has grown since 2016?
Chris Brown’s house was for sale for a long time. He gave notice that he was leaving once the house sold. No scandal there. His daughter graduated from Haines High, doing very well in getting scholarship money. I heard her talking at Rusty Compass once, that if her family moved before graduation, she wanted to stay and finish in Haines. No scandal there.
Also, your math is poor, as Gary Lowe made $84,000 a year in 2013. There is a thing called inflation, too.