Kenai Peninsula Borough and Soldotna man agree to end lawsuit over trespass ordinance

The Kenai Peninsula Borough and Nicholas Conner, a Soldotna man who calls himself a "First Amendment Auditor," agreed Sept. 4 to end his federal lawsuit over the borough's trespass ordinance, according to a litigation status report from Borough Attorney Sean Kelley.

Kelley wrote that the two sides agreed to a "walk-away dismissal with prejudice," with each paying its own costs and fees and no other settlement conditions. A dismissal with prejudice means the claims cannot be refiled. Once the settlement agreement is finalized, the report says, the case will be dismissed and closed.

The deal came about two months after the borough asked the court to rule in its favor without a trial. No court ruled on Conner's free speech or due-process claims, and the ordinance remains in borough code.

The assembly passed the ordinance 9-0 on April 16, 2024. It lets the mayor or a designee bar a person from borough property for up to 24 months on a reasonable belief of threats, violence, crimes or interference with borough services. Kelley's memo to the assembly said it would "provide a tool to address behavior or a course of conduct that doesn't currently exist under KPB code or state law."

Conner sued the borough and Mayor Peter Micciche in March 2025, arguing the ordinance violated his right to film public officials in public places. His complaint says he was refused entry to the borough's River Center on Jan. 10, 2025, and that the mayor barred him from borough facilities for 12 months that evening. The mayor's order cited "erratic, disconcerting, threatening, profane and aggressive behavior toward Borough staff." The complaint called that description inaccurate.

In June 2025, Senior U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland dismissed Conner's claim that the ordinance was a bill of attainder, a law that punishes a specific person without a trial. Holland wrote that Conner may have inspired the ordinance but wasn't singled out by it. "Plaintiff was free to avoid a trespass order by conforming his conduct to the law," he wrote.

In February, U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason denied a second borough motion to dismiss Conner's remaining claims, saying the borough could have raised those arguments the first time. She did not rule on their merits.

Kelley's report is on the assembly's Oct. 20 agenda. So is a proposed rewrite of the general provisions in borough code that would add a way to contest a trespass order: a person could ask the mayor to reconsider within 10 days, and the mayor's decisions could be appealed to state Superior Court. The current trespass section has no such process. A hearing on the rewrite is set for Dec. 1.