Second class borough limitations is one of the agenda items on Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce’s Mayor Report on tomorrow night’s Borough Assembly Meeting.
Pierce is planning on bringing up a letter sent to Acting Alaska Attorney General Ed Sniffen from six second-class borough attorneys across the state, including Collette Thompson of Kenai Peninsula Borough. The letter takes exception to comments that second class boroughs have powers to enact mask mandates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter reads that enacting mandates is not legally allowable under Alaska law in stating that they haven’t seen any legal analysis from the Attorney General’s department on the issue.
According to the letter, “Second class borough powers are enumerated by statute. AS 29.04.020 provides that a general law municipality ‘has legislative powers conferred by law.’ AS 29 does not confer upon second class boroughs all other powers not otherwise prohibited by law. The powers we do have are listed in AS 29 (as well as in a few other statutes); we also exercise those powers approved by the voters in our jurisdictions. Not all of our voters have approved such broad powers for our communities such as you are suggesting.”
The six borough attorneys wrote that second class boroughs can open emergency shelters, activate its Emergency Operations Center to assist with calls, maintain a website with information for residents and coordinate with private and public agencies engaged in disaster response. They also write that second class boroughs can not order citizens to isolate or quarantine, close private businesses or place restrictions on their operations, halt evictions or similar proceedings and order utilities to not shut off service.
The full agenda for the Tuesday night Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting can be seen here.
