The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly earlier this week voted to remove a planning commissioner for making racist remarks at a public meeting.
Darlene D-Svenson made discriminatory comments towards the local tribe during a planning commission meeting late last month. Community leaders, state lawmakers, and local government officials immediately condemned her remarks and requested her resignation. But she did not resign.
Borough Mayor Austin Otos co-sponsored the resolution for her removal and introduced it at Tuesday night’s assembly meeting.
“Elected officials or appointed members sitting behind the dais representing the [Ketchikan Gateway Borough] are held to a higher standard,” Otos said at the meeting. “If any of us were to utter these words, I would hope that the same standard be applied to any one of us.”
The Ketchikan assembly has already passed a resolution denouncing D-Svenson, but because planning commission seats are appointed by the mayor, they can not be recalled like an elected official. The assembly had to change the municipal code in order to remove her from the position, which required two public hearings.
The resolution to remove D-Svenson passed unanimously.
In response to a parking variance requested by the Ketchikan Indian Community last month, D-Svenson asked “how much more white people will have to pay for KIC in this community.”
D-Svenson has since said her comments were on behalf of concerned business owners and not racially charged. She did not immediately respond to KRBD’s request for comment.
D-Svenson was appointed to the planning commission in 2023 by former mayor Rodney Dial, who now serves as an assembly member.
“I had hoped and prayed that Ms. Svenson, realizing the near universal public condemnation of her statements that were further supported by her social media posts, would accept responsibility, publicly apologize, ask forgiveness, and resign, and then use this as an opportunity to grow as a person,” Dial said. “But that didn’t happen.”
D-Svenson’s removal is effective immediately and she has until Oct. 30 to file an appeal with the borough clerk. If that happens, the appeal will then go before the assembly. If they choose to uphold the appeal, D-Svenson would serve the rest of her originally appointed term, which runs until March. If she does not file an appeal, the planning commission will declare a vacancy next month.
