Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche wants to overhaul the group that advises the borough assembly on environmental issues like recycling.
Assembly members will consider his proposal on Tuesday. Right now, Micciche says it’s an “independent, do-whatever-you-want” group.
“I don’t want anyone to take this negatively, just the way the ordinance was written … that didn’t understand our processes, they were kind of set up to fail,” he said.
Assembly members created the borough’s nine-member Resilience and Security Advisory Commission, or RSAC in 2020. At the time, assembly members wanted a group to advise the assembly and administration on development of sustainability solutions.
Since the catastrophic failure of the bailer at the Central Peninsula Landfill last year, the commission’s been the sounding board for community members wanting to share their concerns and ideas about the problem. The bailer failure halted cardboard and plastic recycling on the central peninsula.
Micciche says his ordinance will make the group more effective by working with his office on initiatives.
“I think they felt like they were wasting their time for the last several years,” he said. “So I think that’ll change.”
The ordinance says the commission would only collaborate with the mayor and his staff – removing agencies, utilities, universities, the private sector, communities and the assembly. And it changes the group’s scope to say it will evaluate, rather than increase, the use of local, clean energy.
The commission would also newly fall under the mayor’s and clerk’s offices, rather than under the Planning Department, and would meet less frequently.
During a committee meeting earlier this month, Cindy Ecklund, who represents the eastern peninsula, pushed back.
“Mayor Micciche, you said that this would be helpful and working with the assembly, but in the changes, you’ve taken the assembly out of it,” she said.
Micciche said he already gets the final say on any projects commissioners propose.
“I will bring you projects that need to be funded, but if you’re to approve a project that RSAC decides is a good idea – without my signature, it doesn’t move forward,” he said.
Micciche says the ordinance re-envisions the commission as a “second hand of the administration.”
“They’re still going to have some autonomy on things that they want to look at,” he said. “It’s not like we have to approve everything that they do, but it’ll be a hand-in-hand effort, versus a sometimes out-of-the-blue effort on something that may not be a priority for the borough at this time because we can only have so many first priorities.”
Dana Cannava, the mayor’s director of constituent relations and special projects, would be the group’s liaison. She introduced herself during the commission’s Wednesday meeting.
“Our whole goal in proposing this is we know that you guys have a lot to offer, and we want that to be able to have more momentum,” she said.
At the same meeting, commissioners walked through their understanding of the proposed changes. The ordinance gives more flexibility to who may serve on the group, which commissioners were optimistic could help fill some of their current vacancies.
Commissioner Bretwood “Hig” Higman says he’s open to working more closely with Micciche.
“I think, to me, all of this hinges on whether there’s an effective collaboration with the mayor’s office, and so I’m game to give that a try,” he said.
More information about RSAC’s work can be found on the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s website.