Ballot wording tweaked

Final ballot language for four propositions headed to voters in the Oct. 2 municipal election was approved Tuesday by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly.

Two of the propositions, Nos. 2 and 3, required difficult tweaking by the assembly in order to address problems with original proposed verbiage while remaining true to the intent of initiative sponsors seeking to limit assembly and Kenai Peninsula Borough Board of Education office holders to no more than two consecutive terms.

Those propositions would establish term limits, specifically defining a term to include not only a typical three-year elected period, but also terms of any lesser length as might be required to fill vacancies either by election or appointment.

In both propositions, the assembly addressed problems with clauses applying to elected officials who would have served two or more consecutive terms by election day in 2007, 2008 or 2009.

Initially, language prohibited these former office holders from filing to run for office until three years had passed since they last held the office. But because the filing deadline of Aug. 15 would be short of the three-year waiting period by a couple of months, the language effectively could bar a person from serving for as long as six years, that is, his or her initial three-year waiting period, plus the term of whoever was elected that year.

The assembly changed "filing" to "serving," thus permitting a candidate whose waiting period would end by the time an October election was certified to file and run in that election.

The assembly also added language clarifying that terms already served by current sitting members would apply retroactively to their consecutive term total.

Three sitting members of the assembly and two members of the school board who have chosen to seek re-election could actually win office, but be barred from serving if the two propositions are approved by voters.

They are assembly members Gary Superman, of Nikiski, Pete Sprague, of Soldotna, and Paul Fischer, of Kasilof, as well as school board members Sunni Hilts, of Seldovia, and Sammy Crawford, of Kenai. Their campaigns are likely to focus attention on the fact that voters who cast their ballots for them would negate their own votes if they also successfully supported term limits.

Assembly and school board candidates are elected by district. However, voters across the entire borough will decide on the term limits. Thus, it will be possible for people outside an assembly or school board district to decide the fate of that district's campaign.

That, and other issues surrounding the controversial term-limit proposals, could lead to post election court challenges.

Superman, who faces no opponent in the upcoming election, said Tuesday he expects this campaign to be the toughest, and perhaps the most expensive he's had to run.

Borough Mayor John Williams noted that election district residency requirements for running for assembly or school board seats was a mere 180 days. Thus, he said, a person who had lived here all his or her life and had all that experience to draw from, but who had served two consecutive terms, could not run, but someone brand new to the community could. That made little sense to him, he commented later.

The office of borough mayor already has a two-term limit. Former mayors, however, must wait only 180 days before becoming eligible to hold the office again.

Language amendments to the other two propositions, 1 and 4, were technical in nature or fixed typos.

Proposition 1 proposes setting a limit on the senior citizen property tax exemption at $300,000 and provides for an exemption from any property tax above that in financial hardship cases.

Proposition 4, headed for a vote of Bear Creek Fire Service Area residents, seeks approval for the sale of up to $1.4 million in general obligation bonds to help fund a new fire station. Sale of the bonds is contingent on acquiring $2.1 million in grants for the project.