The voters of Anchorage will ultimately decide the fate of a series of municipal labor negotiation changes proposed by Mayor Dan Sullivan and passed by a narrow 6-5 margin in March 2013 by the Anchorage Assembly. But it won't be in five weeks -- the date of the upcoming municipal election.
On Tuesday night, members voted 6-5 to move the referendum to coincide with the November statewide general election. The Assembly action also suspended the ordinance to avoid a charter requirement that it appear no later than 75 days after the Alaska Supreme Court ruled it was valid. (That date would have been March 31 -- the day before the upcoming municipal election.)
The "Responsible Labor Act" also known as AO 2013-37, would set in city code a limit of a 1-percent raise per year for municipal employees above the cost of inflation, as determined by the Consumer Price Index. It would also eliminate some performance and seniority bonuses for city employees and set the Assembly as the final arbiter in contract disputes. Although the Sullivan administration has been using the act's main tenets to negotiate with seven of the city's nine municipal unions, the act has been suspended since April, when union supporters gathered enough signatures to put a recall referendum on the ballot.
But the suspension action taken Tuesday night at the Loussac Library by the Anchorage Assembly was still needed to prevent the ordinance from requiring a potentially costly and possibly under-attended special election. A previous attempt to put the recall on the upcoming April ballot failed after it was vetoed by Mayor Sullivan and his veto upheld in Alaska court.
The Assembly remains divided on when the matter should be put before voters. Some Assembly members wanted it on the upcoming statewide November ballot, others want to see it in April of 2015, some wanted voters to see it in five weeks.
"Our community came out signed their names on a petition," said Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson. "A year later they still have not had an opportunity to vote on it. We are spending so much time dealing with this election issue, when our community is going to hell in a hand basket. We need to worry about protecting our community."
Proposal to move election tabled to 2017
A parallel effort, championed by Assembly member Chris Birch, to move the entire city election – which this year contains ballot propositions, and six Assembly seats -- to November, during the statewide general election failed for this year. Birch said he wants to make the move because statistics show that more Anchorage residents vote in statewide elections than those with just municipal matters. Birch's efforts have been opposed by the Anchorage Board of Ethics -- who ruled the change should not be enacted until after sitting Assembly members left office -- and even some on the Assembly itself. Birch co-sponsored an ordinance that would move the election date change to 2017, to avoid opposition and the Ethics Board decision. That ordinance will be opened for public comment at the Assembly's meeting on February 25.
"The evidence is compelling," said Assembly member Chris Birch. "Almost 60,000 more Anchorage voters show up at November elections than they do for municipal elections in April. Whose interest is it in, to have a low voter turn-out election."
Proponents of AO-37 said having the repeal referendum decided when more local residents were at the polls would keep unions from stuffing the polls with supporters who want AO-37 to go away. But even staunch opponents of the ordinance said it will make little difference when the referendum goes before voters, that the result will be the same with high voter turnout or low voter turnout.
"This (trying to move the election date for the referendum) is an attempt to get around the public," said Assembly member Dick Traini. "22,000 people signed their name on it. This is a sham. The public is not going to be confused, they will repeal it."
Contact Sean Doogan at sean(at)alaskadispatch.com