In an unusual procedural move Tuesday, a passing vote was taken back.
Assembly members initially voted 4-2 in favor of adding a cease-and-desist letter from Thomas Bay Power Commission President and borough assembly member James Stough to the New Business portion of the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. However, after Mayor Jack voted in favor of, he told borough clerk Kim Lane he had misunderstood the motion’s intent to mean it would be added to the next meeting’s agenda. As a member of the majority, he was allowed to take back the vote, essentially changing his vote. On the second role call, Jack and member Maxi Weiderspohn changed their votes, and the measure was defeated 2-4, with members Daniel Blake and Julie Decker the only supporters.
The letter was sent Friday to members of the Petersburg and Wrangell borough assemblies as well as the chairman of the board for the Southeast Alaska Power Agency, to whom it was addressed.
Stough pointed out Jack and other members initially tried to stymie him when he read a letter from TBPA Manager Mike Nichols into the record under correspondence at the Jan. 28 reading. Jack had at that point tried to prevent Stough from reading the letter, with Stough eventually prevailing on a 6-0 procedural vote.
Blake and Decker both expressed dismay at Stough’s attempt to order a halt to negotiations over the future of the Tyee Lake facility.
“What Assembly Member Stough did was totally inappropriate,” he said. “This assembly talked about the issue. There was readings on it, a public hearing, we voted on it and it passed.”
“Even if he doesn’t agree on the action, he has an ethical responsibility to support it, since it was passed by the assembly,” Blake added.
Both Blake and Stough had read the letter, which claims that statutory authority to amend labor contracts and other motions rests with the TBPC, tasked with overseeing the Thomas Bay Power Authority. Decker disputed that claim.
“I think there’s two things at play,” she said. “There is a procedural-timing issue. Our borough manager looking into that with the attorney to get some guidance about legally how it would be best that we go about this. My impression is that there’s something else going on here — it’s not about the ordinances — because if you read the ordinances that he’s referencing, there’s many things that aren’t happening in those ordinances that he’s not upset about.”
Ordinances pertaining to the commission are in Chapter 3.4 of Wrangell Municipal Code. Sections of the ordinance task the Commission with supervision at Tyee Lake. Section 3.04.01 says that the Commission is created by ordinance in both Petersburg and Wrangell. No section of the code specifically vests either the borough assembly or the commission with the ability to negotiate and end to either the Commission or the Authority.
The letter and procedural debate were an attempt to influence the overall direction of negotiations, Decker said.
“To me, it seems like there’s an issue with the direction we’re going, and he (Stough) is trying to either change that direction or slow it down,” she said.
“It’s perplexing,” she added. “It’s been months since December.”
Both Decker and Stough alluded to the fact that the letter was apparently undertaken without consultation with other members of the TBPC. Several commissioners interviewed for a story about the letter said they were
In other business, the borough also unanimously approved on second reading three ordinances pertaining to the harbor, and a special meeting scheduled for 12:15 p.m. tomorrow to award the Cassiar Street Roadway and Utilities Improvements Project.
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