Anchorage Assembly overrides 2 Bronson vetoes in dispute over Eklutna dam mitigation project

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday voted to override two vetoes by Mayor Dave Bronson, including reaffirming a resolution to give the Assembly chair subpoena powers.

Assembly leaders are seeking a document that could govern the city’s rights and access to drinking water from Eklutna Lake for the next quarter-century, and which has been kept confidential from the public. The Bronson administration insists that the document cannot legally be released.

The veto overrides are the latest Assembly actions in an ongoing dispute with the administration and disagreement with three Southcentral Alaska utilities over the legally required effort to restore water flow to the long-dammed Eklutna River.

The Chugach and Matanuska electric associations and the Anchorage Hydropower Utility own the dam, which dries up the 12-mile Eklutna River. Last fall, they proposed a draft Fish and Wildlife program to restore river flow.

In a 9-2 vote, the Assembly overrode Bronson’s veto of a resolution that allows Chair Christopher Constant to subpoena the Bronson administration and/or utilities for the document, a binding term sheet between the hydroelectric project owners and the city’s water utility.

Assembly leaders viewed the document in a closed-door session in February, and they have called on the utilities and the administration to make the document public. They plan to issue a subpoena in order to have more time to review it, and to consult with attorneys on whether it’s possible to publicly release it, according to the resolution.

Bronson and the municipal attorney have said that the term sheet is subject to a Common Interest Agreement signed by the municipality in 2017, under former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, and so must be kept confidential.

A heated back-and-forth between several Assembly members and Bronson officials preceded the votes Tuesday evening. Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel asked whether the administration would give them the documents — copies of the term sheet, any extension or amendment to the document and the 2017 agreement — immediately, without a subpoena.

Municipal Attorney Anne Helzer told the Assembly that they could have copies of the documents without a subpoena, but only if the members first sign a confidentiality agreement, or they could view them in a private meeting, she said.

Assembly members bristled at Helzer’s statements, pointing out that they have abided by confidentiality agreements governing previous closed-door sessions.

“Frequently we are given information as members of this body that we know that we are bound to keep them confidential. This is a common practice for us. So the idea that we would not be able to maintain that is offensive,” member Kameron Perez-Verdia said.

Zaletel pointed out that Helzer had made it clear that the documents could not be disclosed, and that she did not intend to.

But Helzer said the Assembly’s resolution had made clear the members’ intent to possibly publicly disclose the documents. She fears that Matanuska and Chugach electric associations would sue if the Assembly breaks the city’s agreement, she said.

“When I understand that there is a motive to make something public that is otherwise confidential, that is something of a concern to me. I have to take the precautions to protect the documents that, if released, may subject the municipality to liability,” Helzer said.

Zaletel responded to Helzer: “So are you saying I’m a liar? Are you not taking me at my word in public right now? I’m really frustrated.”

The mayor’s office, in a media statement released immediately after the vote, described the debate as “contentious” and said “Assembly members seemed to lack basic understanding of confidentiality.”

Tensions over the issue have been escalating between Assembly leaders and the municipal attorney.

Helzer on Monday sent Assembly members a scathing letter that accused an Assembly leader of “disrespectful and unprofessional behavior” during a meeting in the Municipal Attorney’s Office to view confidential legal documents.

“This behavior included name-calling, grimacing, yelling through the halls of the Municipal Attorney’s Office, and baseless personal attacks on an Assistant Municipal Attorney and on the department overall,” Helzer said in the letter.

Constant, in his opening comments at Tuesday’s meeting, said there will be a special meeting to discuss “the personnel matters relating to the Department of Law.”

“I can say that the perception that was stated in the letter is not necessarily the reality that everyone else experienced in the room, and we will have a conversation,” Constant said.

The meeting is scheduled for May 3.

Also on Tuesday, in an 8-3 vote, Assembly members struck down Bronson’s veto of an ordinance that dictates in city code the Assembly’s oversight of any changes to the city’s property rights related to water, mineral, wind and solar resources. The measure also added to code that the proposal to mitigate the dam’s impacts “shall be subject to Assembly approval” before it’s submitted to the governor.

Assembly leaders have said that the dam mitigation project has implications for Anchorage property taxpayers because the city would be responsible for paying for a portion of the project — even though the Assembly, the city’s fiduciary authority, has had no real oversight. Flaws in the process have left the electric associations with the power to levy taxes for the project on Anchorage residents, Constant has asserted.

The veto override “underscores it is only us who can levy property taxes,” Zaletel said. “Because my biggest concern is without this ordinance, this deal goes to the governor, he signs it and we turn around and from two utilities, we get a bill, and they say, ‘You’ve got to pay it and we told everyone you were gonna pay it with property taxes.’ ”

The agreement between the hydroelectric project owners and the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility would govern Anchorage’s rights and access to drinking water from Eklutna Lake for the next 25 years, if the governor approves the draft program, according to city officials.

Assembly leaders have said the Bronson administration usurped the Assembly’s legislative authority when it bound the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility to the agreement terms without first getting Assembly review or approval. The Bronson administration has said the Assembly’s ordinance took power away from the mayor.

The utilities’ proposal would bring water flow to most of the Eklutna River, but leave 1 mile of the river dry just below the dam. The Assembly, Native Village of Eklutna and conservation organizations want to see the 12-mile river fully restored, with a goal of restoring salmon to Eklutna Lake and the mountain streams that feed the lake.

Bronson supports the utilities’ proposal, which would use the city’s existing water supply infrastructure to replenish the river’s flow via a portal valve. That proposal would cost an estimated $57 million and be paid for with electric rates and Anchorage property taxes.

The governor is expected to decide later this year whether to approve the draft proposal.