Ketchikan Gateway Borough offices are in the White Cliff building, shown here in a 2013 file photo. (KRBD)

Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly on Monday called on Canadian regulators to pause permitting, development and expansion of transboundary mines. The assembly is also urging a permanent ban on tailing dams along streams that flow into Southeast Alaska rivers.

Ketchikan residents, along with tribes and environmental groups, have been pushing Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly to pass a resolution calling for changes in British Columbia’s mining sector. But a passage in the nonbinding resolution that calls for a ban on tailings dams – structures that hold back mine waste – had been the source of some disagreement.

The borough manager’s office offered a substitute resolution removing the request for a ban on tailings dams after a resident wrote in with concerns that a ban could restrict future mining projects on Prince of Wales Island.

But all nine citizens who testified at the beginning of the meeting regarding the issue urged the assembly to retain the language. One was Ketchikan resident Clay Bezenek, a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Northern Panel. He said he was concerned that a dam failure could hurt salmon stocks.

“So I don’t have a problem that the mines go in. Trust me. It’s going to employ a lot of people. But, it has to be done to the satisfaction of the people that are going to be on the tail end of a catastrophic accident,” he said.

Assembly Member Austin Otos agreed that the resolution should pass as written and said it would not impact mine prospects in the southern panhandle. He noted that the proposed Bokan and Niblack mines and others on Prince of Wales Island would not have tailing dams.

“To say how this would apply to our economic situation here, I’d be the first one to see some kind of processing facility of mining on the industrial part of Gravina (Island), but I just don’t think this applies to that and I’m in full support of that,” Otos said.

Assembly Member Judith McQuerry suggested wording that would not specifically suggest a ban on tailings dams, but would instead urge Canadian regulators and industry to adopt a zero failure objective to tailings storage facilities.

Assembly Member Jeremy Bynum made a motion to amend the resolution with that wording.

“I think member McQuerry made a very good point. That that really is the objective here. And I think that that language is more in line with not taking a specific policy stance on any particular design or engineering aspect, but more of an outcome. And that is something that I can support,” Bynum said.

Otos disagreed.

“I do not support the amendment; I think we should go forward with a permanent ban on tailings mines. To me that has more teeth to it, and makes more sense in this resolution,” Otos said.

The amendment failed 5-2 with Bynum and Assembly Member Jamie Palmer voting in favor.

The resolution, which included a minor amendment by Bynum, identifying a Canadian official was approved 6-1 with Bynum voting against. The resolution will be sent to Alaska’s congressional delegation and the Canadian government.

Ketchikan’s borough joins several other Southeast communities, including Craig, Sitka, Petersburg and Wrangell, along with environmental groups and a consortium of tribal governments, in approving resolutions calling on Canadian regulators to change mining practices.

This story has been updated to clarify that Clay Bezenek is a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Northern Panel and to remove Juneau as one of the Southeast communities that have signed similar resolutions. 

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Ketchikan’s borough offices are located in the White Cliff building. (Maria Dudzak/KRBD)

Health officials say it’ll be months before a COVID-19 vaccine is available to the general public. But in the meantime, Ketchikan’s elected officials have introduced two resolutions that cut to the heart of a debate over vaccines.

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines is already here. So far a small group of pharmacists and nursing home residents have received the first dose of the Pfizer treatment.

Ketchikan Borough Mayor Rodney Dial says he’s concerned that people who choose not to be vaccinated could be publicly shunned.

“So the resolution simply asks merchants and other service providers in Ketchikan to refrain from discriminating against any individual by denying that person access to goods or services based upon their vaccination status, or their failure to provide that information,” Dial told KRBD earlier this week.

The resolution is non-binding; it has no force of law. In fact, Ketchikan public schools and state-licensed daycares require certain vaccinations.

But he says the decision to receive this vaccination is a personal one.

And citing that desire to protect medical privacy, Dial won’t say whether he himself plans to take the shots.

The resolution, Dial says,  is not aimed at cruise passengers that might visit Ketchikan. Cruise lines have said in recent weeks that vaccines will be essential to restarting the business that powers much of Ketchikan’s economy. Norwegian Cruise Line said earlier this month it’s considering whether to mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for all passengers.

Dial says the vaccine shouldn’t be forced upon anyone.

“This all boils down to trust. So if we have the trust of the people, you know, we’re likely to get more people that are willing to be vaccinated,” Dial said.

But  Assembly Member Austin Otos says he’s worried the borough mayor’s resolution will reinforce people’s skepticism for modern medicine.

“I don’t want to say anti-vax, but I think there is a tinge of that hidden in Dial’s resolution — that it is, you know, questioning or somehow saying that vaccinations are unsafe or ineffective,” Otos said in a phone interview Friday.

To remove all doubt as to whether the borough is pro- or anti-vaccination, Otos said he worked with Assembly Member Judith McQuerry to craft a similar resolution.

“We wanted to present a balanced resolution that encourages vaccination and respects the right of people to not be vaccinated,” McQuerry told KRBD on Friday.

She says getting as many people vaccinated as possible will be key to overcoming the pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastated the economy.

“Assembly member Austin Otos and I believe that the best and fastest way to get our schools open full time, no problems, and our churches open full time, and our community back to work full time, and our economy working is to encourage people to get a COVID-19 vaccine,” McQuerry said.

McQuerry and Otos each said they won’t support the borough mayor’s resolution.

But Dial later told KRBD he sees both his resolution and that from McQuerry and Otos encouraging vaccinations as something he can support.

“I’m going to make a case for it. And I really hope that as a community, we can support both resolutions because they’re similar, but they also address different segments of our population,” Dial said.

Meaning those who are enthusiastic about vaccines and those who are apprehensive.

Dial says he’s not against vaccinations.  

“But I am a very pro-rights person,” he said.

Ketchikan’s borough assembly meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday by videoconference. Residents who’d like to make public comments can call the borough clerk at 228-6605 prior to the meeting. Dial’s resolution can be viewed here; Otos and McQuerry’s resolution is here. See the full agenda at the borough’s website.

The post Assembly to consider pair of resolutions outlining borough’s position on COVID-19 vaccine appeared first on KRBD.

On Monday, Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly took up a resolution asking the Alaska Legislature to add police officers to the state’s anti-discrimination law.

But as members of the public testifying were quick to point out, this resolution was in response to an equally contentious one.

“Make no mistake: this resolution was drafted as a direct backlash to a minority group challenging those in power and demanding that they deserve equal rights and protections under the law,” Ketchikan museum curator Ryan McHale said in front of the assembly on Monday.

“It comes two weeks after the assembly overrode Mayor Dial’s veto and asked the legislature to protect individuals from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression,” McHale said.

The borough mayor had justified his veto of the LGBTQ rights resolution by saying it unfairly afforded protection to one group over another. A 5-2 majority on the assembly overrode the veto.

In response, Dial requested a similar resolution that would urge police officers and Christians be specifically protected from discrimination. The retired Alaska State Trooper insisted — without evidence — that police officers face more persecution than any group in the United States.

He repeated this assertion on Monday.

“I support this current resolution as an alternative and as a statement that the rights of the most persecuted group in America currently by far — law enforcement officers — are as important to this body as LGBTQ rights are,” Dial said.

Four residents offered comments at the meeting, one of which submitted a letter in place of live testimony. Of those, three opposed the mayor’s resolution.. A fourth said he was undecided but cited comments from an unnamed state trooper opposing the measure. No law enforcement officers spoke up during public comment.

In an unusual step, Dial cross-examined each of the critics of his resolution.

“If I could ask you the same question — Do all rights matter? And do police officers deserve the same protections as members of the LGBTQ community?” Dial asked McHale.

McHale replied that LGBTQ individuals — and other groups protected by the state’s human rights law, like disabled people, people of color and women — have faced discrimination throughout the nation’s history. He argued that laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, gender or sexual orientation exist precisely to ensure that everyone is afforded the same rights.

“Police officers have not historically been marginalized. Police officers hold power in our society. Not only hold power, but enforce that power,” McHale said.

The co-sponsors of the resolution were a retired police officer — Assembly Member Sue Pickrell — and a state corrections officer, Assembly Member Alan Bailey.

“The reason I put forward this resolution is the alarmingly negative attitude towards law enforcement nationwide that has led to increased discrimination,” Pickrell said. She’s a former Ketchikan Police Department detective.

She offered — without offering any specific examples — her perspective.

“It has become common for law enforcement officers to be denied services that provide food, lodging, exhibition, entertainment and other goods for public consumption,” she said.

Others on the assembly weren’t swayed. Assembly Member Felix Wong acknowledged that law enforcement officers face criticism and are under heavier scrutiny.

“But it’s not to the point where it’s a systemic disenfranchisement of people in uniform,” Wong said.

Wong also pointed out that attacks on people in uniform are already illegal under state law. Ketchikan City Council Member Janalee Gage noted that Alaska law sets harsher penalties for some crimes against police.

Assembly Member Austin Otos also opposed the resolution. He said it unnecessarily politicized policing. He suggested a mayoral proclamation was a better way to show the assembly’s support for law enforcement. Wong and Assembly Member Sven Westergard agreed.

Assembly Member David Landis cast the lone vote in favor of both measures — supporting state protections for both police and LGBTQ people in the community. He pointed out that the resolution’s supporters — Dial, Pickrell and Bailey — have worked in law enforcement.

“These are people that treated their jobs very seriously and understand the job that many of us don’t,” Landis said.

He said it wasn’t his place to determine whether the three had actually faced discrimination.

“If someone thinks they’ve been discriminated against, they have. I’m going to take them for their word on that,” Landis said.

But after public testimony had wrapped up, he called out the mayor for questioning members of the public that had criticized the pro-police resolution.

“I know how hard it is, your honor, for citizens to get up at the podium and speak. And I would just request that they don’t have to answer any questions if they don’t want to because it is just so hard to do,” Landis said.

With the assembly deadlocked 3-3, the borough mayor broke the tie. It passed with a resolution calling on the the state Legislature to add police officers to the list of classes protected from discrimination.

Assembly Member A.J. Pierce was absent and didn’t vote. That was notable — she had introduced the original LGBTQ rights resolution that sparked the debate.

The post Ketchikan Borough Assembly passes pro-police resolution seen as response to LGBTQ rights measure appeared first on KRBD.