Less than one week after a posting announced Rexodus Pomrenke’s disqualification for running for the Nome Common Council, a formal appeal on the decision was denied. Pomrenke, who was running for Seat C of the council, made her case before the council at its September 23 meeting.
“I believe it was a somewhat simple matter that was an issue at the time, and it was me not being registered to vote. I did register to vote the day that I saw the issue, I believe, on the 18th, and I'm hoping that should squash that and reopen an opportunity to hear the voice amongst the council, and I guess our city members,” Pomrenke began her comments.
Included in the meeting packet was a copy of Pomrenke’s Declaration of Candidacy, a form required to be completed by anyone running for a seat on the council. Pomrenke appeared to skip two checkboxes regarding meeting the residency and citizenship requirements and her status as a qualified voter in the State of Alaska and City of Nome.
Pomrenke mentioned in her remarks that after being notified of her disqualification, she attempted to resolve the matter by subsequently registering to vote on September 18, three weeks after turning in the declaration.
Just before City Clerk Dan Grimmer turned the meeting over to the city’s attorney, Sam Severin, Pomrenke made one final plea.
“I have been here in Nome for three years, and I believe that there's a narrative about the city and I believe that city council is a beautiful start for me to be able to combat that narrative in a more positive way,” Rexodus Pomrenke said.
Severin then laid out much of the legal grounding the city stood on in making its initial determination. For over eight minutes, Severin fielded questions from the council members before the council opted to enter a private executive session to deliberate further.
21 minutes later, the larger-than-usual gathering of the public were ushered back into the Richard Foster Room. A motion to grant the appeal was made and a roll call vote was taken. All present council members, save for Scot Henderson who was excused from the vote due to his conflict of interest in running for the same council seat as Pomrenke, voted no to granting the appeal.
Pomrenke then made one final remark to the council before hastily exiting the room.
“I realized that it was an assumption on my part, assuming that I was qualified to vote, maybe overseeing it that cost me the candidacy,” Pomrenke admitted, dejectedly. “I hope and expect that we can always use just the facts to come to a conclusion rather than allowing assumptions, presumption, and hearsay to really hang somebody like I've just experienced today.”
The council promptly moved to its next item on the agenda, a resolution authorizing Interim City Manager Brooks Chandler to sign checks for the City of Nome’s accounts.
