Palmer mayor selects new member for vacant council seat

What you need to know:

• Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper will appoint longtime Palmer resident Rick Allen to fill the vacant Palmer City Council seat. Allen was selected from eight applicants and will serve until the next general election. He also serves on the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission.
• Cooper said he chose Allen for his level-headed approach and understanding of the council’s nonpartisan role. The seat was left vacant after the resignation of Council member Victoria Hudson earlier this year.
• Allen said his priorities include exploring annexation to grow the city’s borders, paving potholed neighborhood streets, and protecting Palmer’s parks and recreation assets. His appointment marks the third mayoral appointment to the council in less than a year.

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PALMER – Longtime Palmer resident and Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission Chairman Rick Allen will be appointed to the Palmer City Council this week, filling a seat left empty last month by the resignation of Council member Victoria Hudson.

Palmer Mayor Jim Cooper said he selected Allen from a pool of eight residents after a two-week application window and a follow-up interview process. He will be sworn in during a regular city council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Cooper said.

Allen, who said he has lived in the city for about 22 years, works full-time for the state’s Public Defender Agency as a supervising attorney for the specialty courts. He was appointed to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission in 2021 and was unanimously elected chair in August, according to borough documents. 

Cooper said he selected Allen for the open seat because he believes Allen will carefully consider the issues that come before the council, understands the seat is nonpartisan and is likely to bring a sense of calm to the position.

“He takes time to analyze things and think things through,” Cooper said in an interview Monday. “He’s very levelheaded — he wants to do what’s best for the entire community.”

Vacant Palmer City Council seats are filled by mayoral appointment and do not require a council vote, according to Palmer city law. Appointees hold the seat until the next general election.

Allen said he has considered running for a council seat before but didn’t want to place the burden of campaigning on top of his family’s already busy schedule. A direct appointment means he can see whether sitting on the council is a good fit before he decides to run for the seat in October.

“I saw this as a neat opportunity to be able to try it without going through the rigmarole of campaigning and all that,” he said.

Allen said his priorities on the council are exploring how to grow the city’s borders through annexation, paving some of the city’s deeply potholed neighborhood streets, and safeguarding Palmer’s parks and recreation assets, including the city’s golf course.

Allen’s selection is the third mayoral appointment to the Palmer City Council in less than a year.

Other applicants for the vacancy included Cachette Garret, who lost an October bid for Palmer mayor to Cooper; former Council Member Richard Best, who resigned from his seat last year; and Sarah Tudor, the spouse of former Council Member and mayoral candidate Josh Tudor.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com