Leslie Morton will represent Sterling and Funny River on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly through October after a 5-3 vote by sitting members secured her appointment to the group on Tuesday.

A vacancy on the assembly was created when Rep. Bill Elam, who served in the seat since winning an unopposed election in 2020, resigned effective Jan. 7 after winning election to the Alaska Legislature in November. After a roughly monthlong application window, eight candidates were vying for the seat. In addition to Morton, the assembly considered Marty Anderson, Jill Craig, Dale Eicher, Dr. Paul Marks, Ed Oberts, Greg Olcott and Craig Schwartz.

During a Tuesday committee meeting and again during the assembly’s full meeting that evening, each of the candidates answered questions and spoke to their goals, ideas and qualifications.

Morton told the assembly that she thought she would be good at the work they do. In the past she’s enjoyed long-term planning and digging into budgets — as a previous board member of the Tsalteshi Trails Association, the Kenai Art Center, the Kenai Watershed Forum and Central Emergency Services.

“I’ve been trying to be an active and engaged person since I moved to this community 22 years ago,” she said.

In some of those roles, she told the assembly, she helped develop strategic plans, hired executive directors and wrote grant applications that returned hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The borough’s biggest challenge is a struggle to attract and retain skilled employees, Morton said. She said that the borough isn’t competitive with wages and benefits — that when she was a board member at CES she saw people receive training locally and become highly skilled before moving instead to work in Anchorage.

She called for efforts to improve retirement programs and stability in schools without necessarily increasing borough spending in a major way by leaning into recently adopted Social Security policies and allowing teachers to roll paid sick leave into retirement.

Seniors are important to the borough and its community, Morton said, “but we should also be looking to attract and keep young adults and families.” That means competitive wages, affordable housing and good services.

“I don’t have all the answers,” she said. “I absolutely drool at the idea of having the opportunity to help solve some of these problems — to roll up my sleeves and to work with the assembly on a lot of the concerns on our peninsula.”

Each member of the assembly cast secret ballots for the eight candidates. If no candidate received a majority total, the lowest vote-earner would be eliminated and the assembly would vote again. Morton prevailed with five votes on the first round. Other vote-getters were Eicher, Oberts and Marks.

Morton was sworn in by Borough Clerk Michele Turner within minutes of the votes being tallied and joined the assembly for her first meeting that night. Almost all the legislation before the assembly during the meeting was adopted by unanimous consent, but Morton cast a vote in favor of an ordinance approving the acquisition of 80 acres in Seward, alongside seven other assembly members.

Speaking to the Clarion after the meeting, Morton said she’s “thrilled” to have the opportunity to be part of the assembly and their process. She said there would be a steep learning curve — she was quickly getting up to speed on the supporting documents for the Seward land purchase even as the assembly deliberated — but she’s looking forward to getting to work.

Many members of the assembly congratulated Morton for her appointment during the meeting, but even more praise was voiced to all eight candidates for stepping forward and putting their names in for consideration. During the last borough election in October, there were three assembly seats up for consideration and all three seats were uncontested races with only a single candidate.

Assembly President Peter Ribbens said during the meeting that of the last seven seated assembly members, only two ran contested races.

“Thank you, everybody who put your name in for the Sterling seat,” member James Baisden said. “All of you are qualified. Come out and do it again if you get a chance.”

In October, the District 5 seat will be up for election to the remaining year of Elam’s original three-year term, through 2026.

A full recording of the assembly meeting and the candidate interviews can be found at kpb.legistar.com.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Borough Clerk Michele Turner administers an oath of office to Leslie Morton after Morton was appointed as the new Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly representative for Sterling and Funny River during an assembly meeting in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)