Palmer City Council reprimands member for criticizing city manager over child care

What you need to know:

• The Palmer City Council voted Tuesday to formally reprimand council member John Alcantra for violating city ethics rules by publicly criticizing City Manager Kolby Hickel Zerkel.
• Alcantra criticized Zerkel for attending an Oct. 27 council meeting remotely while feeding her infant.
• The reprimand, the first under Palmer’s ethics code adopted in 2021, warns Alcantra against further public discussion of Zerkel’s meeting attendance and says his conduct exposed the city to legal and reputational risks.
• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

PALMER — The Palmer City Council voted this week to reprimand council member John Alcantra for violating city ethics rules when he publicly criticized City Manager Kolby Hickel Zerkel during a meeting late last month.

The council voted 6-1 to approve the formal reprimand at the end of its regular meeting Tuesday, following an executive session on the topic. Alcantra voted no. Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper signed the letter Thursday.

Alcantra violated the city’s ethics policy when he complained during an Oct. 27 meeting that Zerkel was attending via Zoom because she was caring for her infant, the letter states. Zerkel, was in the council chamber before the meeting but moved to her office after it started so she could feed her daughter.

“There is no reason why we're paying somebody $175,000 a year to do a job for us if that person cannot be here for finance, budget meetings, or city council meetings because they have a child,” Alcantra said during the Oct. 27 meeting. “Show up for these meetings that you know are every other Tuesday for two to five hours. Make arrangements for that to happen. Please try.”

Those comments were unprofessional and violate the city’s ethics rules, the reprimand states. Alcantra should avoid speaking publicly on the topic again, it says. 

“Your conduct demonstrated a significant lack of professionalism and judgement, and unnecessarily exposed the city to legal risk and reputational harm,” it states. “You are cautioned against engaging in further discussions on the subject of the city manager’s attendance at city council meetings, and reminded of the obligations and expectations established in the ethics code.”

Palmer’s ethics policy says elected officials “should avoid expressing concerns about the performance of a city employee in public.”

Alcantra did not respond to a request for comment.

Alcantra’s statements were also the subject of an executive session immediately following the Oct. 27 meeting, after which he issued a formal apology.

“I definitely let my frustrations get the best of me, and I apologized to her for that. It says in code, that you can't address a staff member in public,” he said in an Oct. 28 interview.

Zerkel’s remote attendance was authorized by Cooper and was “due to lactation and breastfeeding accommodations,” according to the reprimand.

City officials added the closed session to Tuesday’s meeting agenda after council member Penny Mosher submitted a letter of concern about the incident to Mayor Jim Cooper, as required by the ethics rules, City Attorney Anna Crary said in an interview Wednesday.

Zerkel filed a human resources complaint with the city this month, Crary said. Crary declined to confirm whether the complaint is related to Alcantra’s statements. Human resources complaints and actions are confidential under city policy. 

Zerkel declined to comment on the reprimand.

“Given the nature of the ethics complaint, I do not believe it would be appropriate to comment further at this time. I remain focused on my responsibilities as City Manager and serving the City of Palmer,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

The formal reprimand is the first such vote under Palmer’s ethics code since its adoption in 2021.

The ethics rules were created after then-council member Richard Best made an early-morning phone call in 2020 to Palmer police with an “unorthodox request” that they send a patrol car to his home and play Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” for his wife over the loudspeaker, mimicking a scene in the 1989 movie “Say Anything,” according to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. Palmer police denied his request.

Best resigned last year following turmoil over possible city sanctions against him in connection with a series of criminal charges.