The decision not to sell the City of Seward’s electric utility to Homer Electric Association came down to just seven votes, unofficial final election results published Thursday evening show.
The sale needed a 60% threshold to pass and only 58.4% of votes were cast in favor. The results of the city’s May 2 special election won’t be official until certified by city council members on Monday. The city’s canvass board met Thursday afternoon to review 76 outstanding ballots, of which seven were rejected.
Of Seward’s 1,765 registered voters, just 389 — about 22% — cast ballots for the city’s utility sale. Of those, 227 were in favor of the sale, while 162 opposed the sale.
The verdict was the second time Seward voters narrowly voted down a sale of the city’s electric utility. More than half of voters in 2000 supported a similar, but not enough supportive votes were cast to meet the 60% threshold.
Seward City Manager Janette Bower told the Clarion on Tuesday that a key difference between the utility vote in 2000 and the one held this week is knowing up front who the city would be selling to. HEA conducted extensive outreach in Seward in the months leading up to Tuesday’s vote.
The City of Seward in recent weeks has conversed back and forth about the sale with city residents, some of whom have questioned the consideration council members gave to Chugach Electric Association, who also sought to buy the city utility and promised lower residential rates.
Seward voters during the same election opted to allow the city manager to live outside city limits. Seward’s city manager may now live within 10 miles of mile marker zero of the Seward Highway, which ends at the Alaska SeaLife Center.
Unofficial election results can be found on the City of Seward’s website at cityofseward.us.
Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.
