Palmer voters to decide on scrapping city manager residency rules

What you need to know:

• Palmer voters will decide Oct. 7 whether to eliminate a rule requiring the city manager to live within city limits — a provision that dates back to 1951. Rather than expand the residency zone, the proposed change would remove the restriction entirely.
• If approved, the change would affect City Manager Kolby Zerkel, who said she has not yet moved to the city from Anchorage because she has been unable to find suitable housing. Zerkle said she plans to move to the Mat-Su area near Palmer if voters approve the change.
• A separate update approved Tuesday removes all residency requirements for city department heads, including the police chief and fire chief. That change does not require voter approval.

PALMER — A question headed to Palmer city ballots asks voters whether to lift all restrictions on where the city’s manager can live.

The question will appear on ballots as part of the regular election scheduled for Oct. 7.

Palmer’s charter requires the city manager to “be a resident of the city,” a phrase historically defined as living within the city’s official boundaries. The rule was created in 1951, when the city was first incorporated under then-territorial law.

But the requirement is outdated, city council members said Tuesday, because modern technology allows city officials to stay connected regardless of their proximity to City Hall. They also said it makes finding housing difficult for new hires due to the limited market within the city’s roughly five square miles.

Instead, council members said they want voters to remove the rule to allow for more flexibility.

“It still bothers me that even in today's society we have a restriction on where the city manager lives,” Council member Jim Cooper said during the regular city council meeting Tuesday. “My guess is that the city manager is not, at five o’clock when the bell rings, getting in their car and high-tailing it to their house.”

The City Council approved the ballot measures 4-2 Tuesday, with Council members John Alcantra and Josh Tudor voting no. Council member Carolina Azilotti was absent.

Alcantra and Tudor said they want to loosen the restrictions, not remove them entirely, and support extending the residency requirement to a 5-mile radius of city limits.

“I think we're kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater by just saying there are no restrictions on anything anymore — because you can live in Talkeetna, live in Anchorage, live in Chistochina if you want to,” Alcantra said. “As long as you can drive here and get here, we're going to allow you to live wherever you want — it just doesn't seem right.”

Both Tudor and Alcantra said they think voters will reject a no-restrictions proposal.

“This has to be approved by the voters. I see it having a better chance if we do a 5-mile boundary,” Tudor said during the meeting.

Current City Manager Kolby Zerkel, who started the job in May, has not yet moved within city limits from Anchorage because she cannot find suitable housing for her family, she said. Her contract gives her until the end of October to relocate.

A voter-approved change to the city’s charter would eliminate that requirement and allow the council to update her contract, Palmer City Attorney Sarah Heath said last month.

Zerkel said she supports the update and plans to relocate to the Mat-Su area near Palmer as soon as possible, regardless of whether voters approve the charter change. Lifting the city-limits-only restriction would make that move and house hunt significantly easier by expanding her search area, she said in an interview.

The proposition also includes updated gender language in the charter by changing male-only manager references of “he” and “his” to include “or she” and “or her.”

The question joins council and mayoral races already on the ballot. Voters will select two candidates for three-year council terms, one candidate for a one-year council seat, and a candidate for a three-year mayoral term. A candidate filing period opened Monday and closes Aug 1.

Updates to residency requirement for directors

The council also voted on Tuesday to lift all residency restrictions for the city’s directors, including the police chief, fire chief, public works director, and city clerk. That change does not require voter approval because it updates city code, not the charter.

Previous rules required directors to live within five miles of city limits.

The city is currently interviewing fire chief candidates, Zerkel said during the meeting, and is nearing a decision.

Interim Fire Chief John Prevost, a candidate for the job, does not live in city limits, in part because his family owns a large number of animals, including a potbellied pig — which is prohibited under city law — his spouse, Jessica Garner, told the council Tuesday.

No other Alaska municipalities have similar restrictions on where their directors live, Heath said.

The measure was approved 6-1, with Alcantra voting no.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com

This story was update July 23 to include the correct name of John Prevost's wife. Her name is Jessica Garner. It was updated July 24 to reflect Prevost’s correct proximity to the city.