In the race for Assembly Seat G, residents in the Fairbanks North Star Borough have a choice between a tax-pushing public employee — incumbent Kristan Kelly — and a private sector contractor, Jimi Cash.
Both have served on the Assembly but their records are different.
Kristan Kelly is a counselor for the Fairbanks North Star School District. On the Assembly this year, she has served as finance chair, and led to the borough to a budget that was on the brink of busting through the tax revenue cap.
In February, she voted as a member of the Assembly to hold a special election to raise taxes for the school district and never declared a conflict: Her salary comes from the school district.
Even worse, Kelly also participated in the secret “ad hoc” meetings that took place in January over Zoom, a videoconference web tool.
In those meetings, a group of Assembly members and school board employees, organized by School Board President Brandy Harty and Assembly Presiding Officer Savannah Fletcher, worked to draft a set of joint “legislative priorities.”
As the public records request made by Aaron Lojewski revealed, Fletcher was leaving voicemails for members and School Board member Erin Morotti would tell fellow school board members to check their voicemails from Fletcher.
Information among the “formal group,” which included Assembly members Kelly, Scott Crass, and David Guttenberg, among others in a texting chat, was relayed by Morotti in a separate private group Facebook Messenger Chat, which included Assembly member Liz Reeves Ramos. It was a daisy chain meeting, all in violation of the Open Meetings Act.
While the Borough Clerk and attorney Jill Dolan had ruled these meetings were “legal,” and refused to forward to the Ethics Committee, there clearly was a chain of activity that would qualify for violations of the Alaska Open Meetings Act, as well as school board policy in force at the time relating to Ad Hoc Committees and Legislative Committees.
Assemblywoman Kelly was a major proponent of the $33 million animal shelter replacement project, known more widely as the Puppy Palace. In a recent Assembly meeting she discussed how much she loved the current project and voted to give more money to the project, despite the assembly voting earlier to freeze spending on this budget-busting project.
Kelly has a dim view of property rights. She stated in a recent Chamber Forum that if you bought land in the borough, your rights are subject to the needs of the borough, even for recreational trails going through your property. She seems oblivious to the 5th and 14th Amendments that provide assurances to American citizens on their property rights.
Kelly also appears to have violated campaign laws: Her recent ads had to be pulled off the air because certain statements were misleading and involved other campaigns. She has consistently tried to suggest that Jimi Cash was against trails when he actually voted for Trails Plan 2022-47.
Kelly claims she is for economic growth. Her votes show she is for tax growth. Kelly she sees growth of government as the path to growing the economy. She voted against a resolution stating that payment of the Permanent Fund dividend is important to the wellbeing of borough residents and is an important borough priority. She believes having more defined pension benefits for public employees like herself is a borough legislative priority.
In contrast, Jimi Cash has shown himself to be a champion of private property rights and fiscal conservatism in the borough. Cash traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with EPA officials on the subject of air quality to explain to bureaucrats in the nation’s capital that the EPA rules are detrimental to borough residents. Unlike Assemblyman David Guttenberg, who travels on taxpayer dime, Cash used his own funds, not the borough’s. He was successful in getting some of the restrictions on borough residents lifted.
Cash has been a supporter of trails, but wants it done right, respecting the rights of property owners. The original trail plan had some serious flaws that needed to be resolved; Cash voted to support 2022-47 the trails plan after significant changes had been made to protect the rights of property owners.
Cash has been a major supporter of putting property public lands in the hands of private owners. One of the biggest challenges the borough faces is revenue, and yet the borough has kept substantial amounts of land in its possession and not used that land to earn additional property tax revenue.
Cash has also supported the tax cap, and favors keeping the government small and efficient. For Cash, the key to economic growth is growth of the private sector, not growth of the government.
All Assembly seats in the Fairbanks North Star Borough are vote on “at large,” which means those who vote can vote on all of the seats. The election ends at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
Thanks for weighing in, Suzanne, and Amen. Lots of big money and dark money trying to turn Fairbanks communist over the will of the people.
Its really nice to see MRA putting some focus on what happens in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. This is outstanding reporting.
Of note, borough voters rejected the property tax raise Kelly wanted by a 2 to 1 margin this spring. This shows how out of touch these governmeng employees/liberals are.