Call to order: State should work with municipalities, not against them

Each of us has had a different path to service, but all of us have served as both the mayor of our local government and as a president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. We no longer are able to speak for or on behalf of our communities, but we can apply our experience to the conversation that Alaskans are having more broadly. It is clear to us that this is a time of transformational change, with unprecedented divisions between Alaskans about the role of government in framing Alaska’s future.

Battle lines, where they’ve been drawn, don’t have to define us. As mayors, we understood firsthand that the way for us to be most successful was to pay close attention to our residents and taxpayers, and to work toward compromise with our fellow elected officials. Politics was always about compromise, and policymaking about finding win-win solutions. As presidents of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, our roles were often to build consensus, challenge policies that negatively impacted even just some of Alaska’s communities, and advocate for structural changes that increased resources and ensured that all communities were better able to adapt to change and challenges.

We believe this experience has parallels that legislative leaders and the administration could benefit from. We’ve never encountered an assembly or council that surrendered its role so that the mayor could advance his or her own agenda. Each has separate responsibilities and serves as a check on the other. Collaborating, or working together, means that both approach their responsibilities independently but in the public interest, which they both serve. Similarly, across communities, local government leaders advocate independently for their own interests, but together on issues that are positive for all or don’t negatively impact another.

We are not blind to partisanship. Local governments, too, have fiscal conservatives and progressives. Frequently, the elected officials are of different minds, but at the end of the day, budgets are passed and legislation enacted — invariably through compromise. Compromise is arrived at after careful review and analysis of unintended negative consequences vs. intentional benefits. Understanding the trade-offs, and the microeconomic effects, is critical.

As a group of prior elected officials, we can’t stress enough our continued commitment to and support for the important role that local governments play in Alaska and encourage their ongoing collaboration and cooperation. We must also stand firm in the belief that this administration and Legislature have to come together and work through their differences of opinion in the public interest. That means figuring out the Permanent Fund dividend, but it also means delivering on economic development, transportation, and infrastructure needs, alongside Constitutional obligations of education, health and welfare. It means that budget reductions should be negotiated and spread out over time to ensure adaptive strategies are in place for those impacted. And it means that local governments are turned to as partners.

We urge our state leaders to come together to work toward solutions for a future that all Alaskans can be part of and benefit from.

Luke Hopkins is a former mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Willie Goodwin is a former mayor of the City of Kotzebue. George Wuerch is a former mayor of the Municipality of Anchorage. Denise Michels is a former mayor of the City of Nome. Shirley Marquardt is a former mayor of the City of Unalaska. Mike Navarre is a former mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Bruce Botelho is a former mayor of the City and Borough of Juneau.

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