Kenai Peninsula assembly president proposes rewrite of rules for filling assembly vacancies

The Kenai Peninsula Borough has had to fill empty assembly seats over and over this year, and now it wants to change how it does that.

Assembly President Ryan Tunseth is bringing an ordinance Tuesday that would replace the borough's current rule for appointing a successor to a vacant seat. The agenda does not spell out what the new rule would change.

The borough has leaned on the existing rule repeatedly. Scott Griebel resigned before the July 7 meeting. Michael Hicks resigned ahead of the Aug. 4 meeting. The assembly interviewed three applicants for the Kalifornsky seat in August and took up the lone applicant for the vacant Central seat on Sept. 1. A District 5 seat came open early in the year. Each time, the assembly appoints a replacement, who is sworn in on the spot, and the district goes without an elected voice until it does.

Tunseth is also bringing a companion measure on how assembly meetings themselves are run.

Kenai is not the only borough rethinking this. Kodiak Island Borough is weighing its own changes to vacancy rules after a snag filling a recent seat. "We had a little hiccup this time around, so I'm glad we're right on it to address it," Kodiak assembly member Chris French said at an Aug. 27 work session.

A public hearing on the Kenai ordinances is set for Oct. 20.