Haines votes on whether to stop electing its planning commission

Haines voters will fill four seats on the borough Planning Commission on Oct. 6, and on the same ballot decide whether the borough should go back to appointing those seats instead.

The initiative would restore the commission as "a seven-member body appointed by the Mayor with the approval of the Assembly." Voters removed that language from the charter themselves in a June 2023 special election, making the commission elected at large. That measure passed 452 to 248.

Nobody has said publicly who wants it changed back. The initiative reached the ballot by signature, the published ordinance names no sponsors, and no reasoning appears in the record. What would happen to commissioners sitting now, or to the four elected next month, is not addressed in the documents available.

Six candidates are running for the four seats: George Campbell, Zeke Frank, Erika Merklin, Nathanael Reams, Kimberly Rosado and Nick Szatkowski. Three seats carry three-year terms and one carries a single year. The borough clerk certified seven candidates in August, and one of them, Patty Brown, no longer appears on the list. The record does not say why.

The mayor's race is on the same ballot, between incumbent Jan Hill and Douglas Olerud, along with four other measures: repealing the seasonal sales tax voters approved last October, lowering the senior property tax exemption from $300,000 to $200,000, a 2 percent alcohol tax, and a severance tax on gravel, timber and mining exports.

Early voting runs weekdays from Sept. 21 through Oct. 5. Haines No. 1 votes at the ANB/ANS Hall, Haines No. 2 at the Klehini Valley Fire Department.