Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Matanuska-Susitna Borough Clerk Michelle McGehee was served this week with a lawsuit over a ballot proposition Matanuska Electric Association has been trying for two years to get on a municipal ballot.

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Wayne Carmony's lawsuit calls borough clerk Michelle McGehee's decision to deny his application for an initiative petition "erroneous, arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable or otherwise inconsistent with the law."

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The lawsuit has nothing to do with MEA plans to build two power-generating plants south of Palmer by 2015. But it's indicative of an ongoing battle between MEA and the borough.

The suit, filed Aug. 27 by MEA general manager Wayne Carmony, claims McGehee was wrong to deny an application for initiative petition Carmony filed July 31.

Carmony, in his application, seeks to change borough law to require any new plan or law affecting land use or any platting law be approved by Mat-Su voters, not just the seven-member Assembly.

MEA administrators have worked to get similar legislation on a borough ballot since July 2006. They've submitted four applications for a ballot initiative petition since then. McGehee has denied all four.

"The proposed initiative ordinance is not a true initiative but rather a blanket referendum for laws which have not yet been created," McGehee wrote in her most recent rejection letter.

She gave three main reasons for denying it:

• The initiative conflicts with state law and the state constitution.

• The proposal relates to an administrative matter, not a legislative one. Administrative matters cannot be changed by referenda.

• The proposal is not enforceable as a matter of law.

Former MEA spokeswoman Kim Floyd filed the first application for initiative petition. At the time she said the attempt at requiring a public vote for every land-use law change stemmed from a 2005 dispute between the Mat-Su Borough and MEA. In that case, MEA proposed building a high-voltage transmission line through the borough Central Landfill and Crevasse-Moraine Trail System to serve Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

The borough balked at providing the easement. Borough and utility leaders, after a court battle, agreed on a route around the landfill and park. After the agreement was struck, borough planning department employees in 2006 proposed rules requiring utilities building new transmission lines go through an extensive public process and obtain a borough permit. After many changes, the Assembly passed those rules June 19.

In response, MEA sought to exempt utilities from borough land-use laws and community plans unless specifically required by voters. McGehee said the 2006 application for initiative petition is similar to Carmony's recent application.

Carmony's suit calls McGehee's decision, "erroneous, arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable or otherwise inconsistent with the law," and said it violates his referendum rights. The borough attorney's office, representing McGehee, had not yet filed a response Thursday.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709. Find Daily News reporter Andrew Wellner online at www.adn.com/contact/awellner or call 352-6710.