As of last night, Nome city employees can be paid for their jobs and for elected or appointed positions, such as being a city councilman. This ordinance was read for the second time, opened up to public comment, and passed all during the City Council meeting on Monday night.
City Manager Tom Moran points out that this ordinance will not include, “fringe benefits, retirement or insurance packages, etc…”
Moran said, “it really is just saying that if somebody is going to serve on the planning commission and be an employee — or the port commission and be an employee — they can get their regular employee salary for showing up and doing a 9-to-5 and then their $40 a month for giving up their evenings to work on the port commission.”
There was discussion around the councilmen’s table regarding conflicts of interest for potential councilmen. Mayor Beneville said he wouldn’t have been able to be mayor and run his city tour business unless this ordinance was passed. But Councilman Matt Culley stated future conflicts of interest and legitimate concerns that come up can be addressed thanks to this ordinance.
“So I wouldn’t see them double dipping, now we can all sit here and nod and say of course not, but those are things that if a legitimate concern is brought up then I would expect they would be addressed, and if there is information to say that you forced them in a direction, you’d handle it,” Culley expressed to his fellow councilmen. All six councilmen voted yes to pass the ordinance.
On August 30th, the Planning Commission had passed an ordinance to rezone portions of blocks 109, 110, 125, 126, and 127 from general use to commercial use. The ordinance then passed to the city council, who allowed for a public hearing on this piece of business during their regular meeting. All of the public comments came from the Council and City Manager Tom Moran, who explained that spot rezoning is illegal, so the Planning Commission had to include additional blocks other than Donny Olson and G-O Development’s property.
The vote was all in favor, except for Councilman Tom Sparks, who expressed his concerns about not knowing Senator Olson’s intentions for the property.
“It would seem that the only reason Mr. Olson approached us was that he saw it as a liability on a proposed sale, and he had no idea about what he actually might do on that property, and I’m concerned about that. I think that is not what we ought to address our zoning changes about; I think if he had a legitimate business interest in front of us, then I might be much more in favor of that,” stated Sparks.
Another piece of business on the agenda was an ordinance in its first reading phase to prohibit the sale of liquor products in containers smaller than 750ml at all locations south of 3rd Avenue. Since no discussion is currently allowed during first readings, the vote was taken quickly and resulted in four councilmen saying no to moving the ordinance forward.
Nome’s City Council will convene again on September 26th for their next regularly scheduled meeting.
