APOC Reporting Question To Face Voters

Jay Barrett/KMXT

Voters in October will see a question on the ballot that would exempt Kodiak Island Borough elected officials and candidates for office from filing new, more comprehensive financial disclosure forms required by the state.

Some have called the new forms intrusive, and Borough Clerk Nova Javier says some communities are seeing declining interest in public office because of them.

— (APOC 1 20 sec “… above a thousand dollars to be disclosed.”)

Kodiak school board president Betty Odell told KMXT in March that the intrusiveness of the new forms is causing her to rethink running for re-election.

— (APOC 2 23 sec “… don’t know if I’m going to go there or not.”)

Javier said the requirements of the new ethics law took municipal officials by surprise when they first found out about it at the Alaska Municipal League meetings last fall:

— (APOC 3 16 sec “…local officials, but that is not the case.”)

The new requirements would make candidates and elected officials not only report their and their spouse’s finances, but those of their children, too, whether they are still dependents or not.

And then there’s the Internet:

— (APOC 4 31 sec “… going to be listed and are going to be online also.”)

The only way the borough can exempt its officials and candidates from filing the new reports is by a vote of the people. The city of Kodiak made that change several years ago.

The ballot question would not keep local officials from reporting at all, it would just allow them to file the old form with the borough, instead of the new form with the state. The forms would still be available for public review in the borough clerk’s office.

The assembly is expected to approve the ballot measure at Thursday night’s meeting, which can be heard live here on KMXT.

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