Common Council mulls changes to election ordinance

In a regular meeting on Monday, the Nome Common Council passed in first reading two ordinances that would amend current ordinances dealing with elections.
One change seeks to extend the time when people can declare their candidacy. The reasoning behind the change was to avoid a last minute rush in ballot printing, programming of the voting machines and testing ballot counting machines. The issue was addressed in a work session last Wednesday and the Council’s collective sentiment was that more time to file for candidacy would be beneficial to the civic process and avoid last minute hiccups that may occur when printing of the ballots is done in a rush. The proposed ordinance language reads: “ A candidate for election to a municipal office shall execute and file a declaration of candidacy in the office of the city clerk at least 35 days and not exceeding 60 days prior to the municipal election in which the candidate seeks to be elected.” Under current rules, the time frame to file one’s candidacy is between 45 and 21 days prior to elections.
The other proposed ordinance amendment dealing with elections seeks to do away with electing candidates by seat and replace it with at large designations. This would affect city council, school board and utility board elections. The argument for changing the council to at large seats was to make it less competitive or intimidating for individuals to run for office. One ‘whereas’ of the amendment reads, “Nome has experienced decreased interest in running for local office,” and “It is in the public interest to change from a designated seat system to an at large system in hopes of increasing the number of Nome residents who seek to hold public office.” With seat designations, if a new challenger puts his or her hat in the ring, it creates an adversarial atmosphere running against the other person, rather than running on a particular platform for certain policies. The at large designation would then put all candidates on a ballot running for at large seats that are up for election. Proposed language reads, “Municipal voters may cast votes for as many candidates for city council, school board and utility board as there are seats to be filled.” The amendment was also addressed in a work session on Wednesday and the council agreed that it may be a good idea to do away with seats. However, in discussion the sufficient plurality came up. New language added reads that nobody shall hold office without receiving a majority of the votes cast for the office. For mayor, that means 40 percent of all votes cast plus one. The amendment for common council, school board and NJUS board “a majority is defined as forty percent of the votes cast for all candidates of a particular office divided by the number of seats to be filled plus at least one vote.” If the number of candidates with a majority is less than the number of seats fill, there will be a runoff election.
The Council passed the ordinance amendment in first reading. Both ordinances will be up for second reading and public comment in the next council meeting.
In other business, the Council passed in first reading an ordinance to adopt the Alaska Remote Sellers Sales Tax Code. The body also passed resolutions authorizing the city manager to enter into a five-year agreement with Boynton Office Systems for leased copier and printer services for nearly $72,000; to allow Nome Public Schools to reallocate unspent CARES Act funds that were not needed for the salary and benefits of an Extensions Homeschooling teacher of record; a resolution to buy a 2021 Ford Expedition for the Nome Police Department for $53,000 plus shipping and a resolution in support of Asian American and Pacific Islander Community members. Finally, the Council passed a resolution to accept a $171,000 grant from the federal Dept. of Health and Social Services in support of COVID-19 activities such as testing, vaccination, and public health information dissemination at the Nome airport, among other things.
In the city manager report, Glenn Steckman said the effort to combat rabies yielded 35 foxes trapped and euthanized, a number of them tested positive for rabies. Twelve pets were vaccinated for rabies in vaccination clinics held at City Hall. He also reported that the City of Nome will receive about $1.7 million in American Recovery Plan money, although there is no concrete information available how it should be spent.
For the first time this year, the Council met entirely in person, with most council members present but Mayor John Handeland. Youth Representative Zoe Okleasik participated via Zoom. Councilman Jerald Brown presided over the meeting. The proceedings were still streamed on YouTube and via GCI community channel. Brown opened up two public comment periods at the beginning and the end of the meeting, but nobody called in or had any comments in person. In the work session the week prior, the council also discussed to formalize the public comment process, but did not discuss or take any action on it during the regular Monday meeting.
At the conclusion of business, the Council went into executive session to discuss contract negotiations.