Borough requests petition changes

By a narrow 5-4 vote, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved a measure last week asking the Alaska Legislature to change state law so municipalities can alter local requirements for collecting signatures on future borough initiatives and referendums.

Resolution 2008-11 asks state lawmakers to amend Title 29, the part of state code that governs how municipalities operate. Specifically, the resolution seeks authority from the state allowing municipalities to require sponsors of local initiatives and referendums to collect signatures from a wide geographical area, not just areas of dense population.

That would be somewhat similar to the rules sponsors of statewide petitions have been facing since voters passed an amendment to the Alaska Constitution in 2004. Since then, petitioners have had to gather signatures from qualified voters residing in at least three-fourths of the house districts in the state, and in each district those signatures must equal at least 7 percent of the number of people voting in the preceding general election.

It isn't clear how new municipal-level signature rules might work. That would be determined later, if state lawmakers agreed to the change in state law. Unlike at the state level, municipal initiative and referendum rules are controlled by state statute, not the constitution. Ron Long, sponsor of the resolution, said the borough assembly could adopt new signature regulations only if the state law were changed.

Long said it was appropriate for the borough to impose somewhat stricter signature-collection rules in order that initiative petitions reflect the wishes of the entire municipality, as opposed to just the more populated centralized areas alone.

Political activist Vicki Pate, a member of the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers, a group that has sponsored several initiative and referendum petition drives in the past several years, took issue with Long's proposal at the Jan. 22 assembly meeting.

She said that when the state changes its regulations, the move was touted as a way to curb the power of special interests especially those from Outside by making it more difficult to gather signatures. The new rules were meant to ensure petitions had broader appeal.

"Did this legislation accomplish the goal? No it didn't," Pate argued. "Since 2004, only special interest groups with money have had a very good chance of getting an initiative on the statewide ballot," she said, adding some good ideas had fallen by the wayside because supporters could not afford to gather signatures in remote areas.

Pate went on to say she believed that residents of municipalities would have nothing to gain from the changes proposed in Long's resolution. She said the rules applying to second-class boroughs already require ballot measures to have boroughwide interest.

"Adding additional hoops to jump through only makes the borough clerk's job of certifying the signatures much more difficult," she said.

Pate said she has worked on many initiative drives and has always attempted to secure signatures in all areas of the borough.

As he has said before, Long noted again that the resolution was not aimed at the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers or their activities, but was something he had contemplated since 2004 when he learned there was no authorizing language in Title 29. He said he delayed filing the resolution seeking that change until a time when the Legislature was in session and ACT members were not actively engaged in a petition drive.

"I believe this is doable," Long said. "I don't think it creates too high a bar, and in fact I think that all of ACT's initiatives and referendums would have met this easy challenge over these last several tries."

If the Legislature adopts the authorizing language, the borough would propose specific signature-collecting rules and send those to borough voters for approval, Long said.

The resolution urges the state Legislature to amend Title 29 and authorize municipalities to require that petitions be signed by a proportionate number of registered voters residing in various districts throughout the municipality.

Assemblyman Pete Sprague, of Soldotna, said he didn't see a real need for the change.

"I don't know if it necessarily raises the bar too high, but I think it creates a bar when I don't really think that we need one," he said. "There are just too many questions."

Borough Clerks Sherry Biggs was Outside on family business. Deputy Clerk Johni Blankenship said she was not aware of any research determining how geographically diverse signature collections had been in recent borough petition drives. She said Biggs might be able to answer that question when she returned.

If the Legislature acts, Long said, "Then we can proceed down that road, flesh out the research, answer those questions. If they don't, we don't need to waste the calories."

When it came to a vote on the resolution, the assembly split. Assembly members Margaret Gilman of Kenai, Gary Knopp of Kalifornsky, Milli Martin of Diamond Ridge, and Bill Smith of Homer, joined Long in support.

Sprague opposed it, along with Assembly President Grace Merkes of Sterling, Paul Fischer of Kasilof, and Gary Superman of Nikiski.

Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net.