Contributed by Brian Endle
As many residents of the Mat-Su Borough know, John Moosey, the borough manager, has been pursuing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to control air quality with the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). As stated in my previous article, on April 19th, 2018, the agreement would enable the borough to regulate how private individuals heat their homes. This would negatively impact household budgets, and create new regulations for the already struggling Mat-Su economy. It would also allow the borough to increase the number of public employees, by using EPA grant money that may or may not be available in the future.
I described the junk science used by the EPA and embraced by the borough in the previous article. At its foundation, the borough is shrouding the truth with a smokescreen of deception and baseless reporting. Their true intentions of additional regulations, fines, and unnecessary staffing through misuse of tax money was brought in the clear. Although the agreement has changed since the beginning of this year, their true intentions appear to have been laid out.
Twice, the manager has snuck “air quality” resolutions past borough residents, by placing them on the consent agenda without the notice that this kind of change should require. According to MSB Code, 2.12.090(A), Mayor Halter or Deputy Mayor Beck should have been consulted before the agenda was prepared. Assemblyman Sykes was the only vote in favor of resolution 18-004 on January 16, 2018, supporting the MOU, which was on the consent agenda. We know the manager knew in advance and the mayor or deputy mayor should have known. Unfortunately, I suspect that most in the borough did not know about the previous legislation, until it hit Facebook and email groups.
Now, for the third time, the manager is bringing back a similar item with added government control, under Resolution 18-29, currently making its way through the Planning Commission. This time, the Planning Department will be usurping regulatory authority without voter approval. The Planning Department would not only craft regulations, but also create the associated fines and hand them to the Assembly to approve.
The “air quality authority” for air quality control, enforcement through fines, and the ability to create new “air quality programs” would be given to the Borough Planning Department through the MOU with the DEC. Adopting this MOU would allow the Planning Department to operate as a regulatory arm of the Borough with the backing of the State DEC and Federal EPA.
Part of the legislation would establish a zoning district in the Butte, using the Planning Department’s new cookie-cutter template. This would be done without input from the Butte community council, and most likely without properly informing residents that the rights they had when they purchased their property will be changed, once zoning is in place. Even though this method is allowed in code, it takes what little notification that currently exists away from the public. It wouldn’t take much to zone the next location in the name of “Air Quality” when the work in the Butte has been established.
The initial fines added as infractions would provide the foundation the planning department would need, to build future regulations and related fines, by incorporating them into ordinances and recommending them to the Assembly. It is very likely that the EPA and DEC would strongly encourage regulations like those in Fairbanks through stipulations tied to grant money.
The planning department, Borough manager, and those in the assembly moving these changes forward, are failing us. This is a management issue at both the borough and assembly levels. It’s time for borough residents to explain to the assembly that this kind of legislation is not desired in our borough, especially without proper notice.
This is certainly over-reach by Manager Moosey, and he may be attempting to pass this without your knowledge or consent once again. If he is successful, your freedoms will be diminished and your tax dollars spent unwisely. Please call or write your assembly members and notify them that you are not in favor of this burdensome overreach. Tell them how you would like them to vote on this matter, and ask them when they intend to hear this legislation, so you can inform others and attend the hearing.
My hope is that the assembly would reach out to community councils and borough residents if they intend to move this legislation forward. However, it would be better if they cancel the current agreement between the Borough and the DEC, and end this foolishness.
