A special election to revisit the idea of making Soldotna a home-rule city has been set.
The Soldotna City Council adopted a resolution at its Wednesday meeting to set a special election for the public to decide whether to create a charter commission that would work for a year on drafting a home-rule charter.
Only council members Keith Baxter and Meggean Bos-Marquez voted against the resolution, both saying they would prefer the charter commission issue be decided during the general election in October.
“Not that I’m against the home-rule effort, I would just rather see it on the general election in the fall when we could take advantage of the voter packet and have to expend less city funds potentially for a re-education effort,” Baxter said.
In approving its consent agenda, the council introduced an ordinance that seeks to allocate $3,400 to support the special election. The entire election is estimated to cost $5,900 according to a memo to the council from City Clerk Shellie Saner, which includes the costs of ballot printing, paying election employees and advertising. The ordinance requests $3,400 to supplement $2,500 left over from last year’s special election, according to the memo.
Before the resolution was adopted, the council approved an amendment proposed by council member Linda Murphy to shift the date of the special election from Monday, May 9 to Tuesday, May 10.
The shift in the special election date will not affect the nomination petition filing period, which will be open from March 14-25, Saner said.
Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.
