The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted 7-2 Tuesday night against an ordinance that would have gotten rid of invocations before its meetings.
Assembly member Willy Dunne, who introduced the ordinance, said based on public testimony at the meeting, it appeared people were still divided on whether to have invocations.
"I was very disappointed that the ordinance failed, but I was very encouraged by the public testimony," he said Wednesday. "There was a lot of testimony that leaned towards changing our invocation policy."
The invocations have been the subject of debate in the borough since last summer, and are also at the center of two lawsuits against the borough — one filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and one from Dunne.
Right now, the borough restricts who can give invocations before meetings to people who are chaplains or members of Assembly-approved religious groups, and who fit specific parameters.
[Kenai borough Assembly votes — again — to change invocation rules]
Dunne and Assembly member Kelly Cooper voted in favor of the ordinance to toss invocations altogether, and Assembly members Paul Fischer, Kenn Carpenter, Stan Welles, Dale Bagley, Wayne Ogle, Jill Schaefer and Brent Hibbert voted against it.
Fischer said he voted no because he wants to get the process for invocations "as close to the past as we can."
Before changes to the policy last year, usually Christian pastors delivered invocations. The Assembly decided to make changes over concerns about excluding people with different beliefs.
"In the past … every week a pastor would come up, no problem, everything worked well," Fischer said. "I'm satisfied with the way it is now. It's a compromise."
Cooper said the borough received "several hundred emails" about the ordinance, and about 40 people testified on the issue.
This wasn't the first time an Assembly ordinance has been filed to get rid of invocations. In June and August last year, the Assembly voted against officially introducing ordinances to eliminate invocations.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, Anchorage-based conservative advocacy group Alaska Family Action sent out an email urging people to "stand up for prayer in Alaska" and show up at the meeting or email Assembly members in support of the current invocation policy.
Mike Crawford, an applications developer with the borough, decided to do an analysis of the IP addresses associated with comments emailed to the Assembly via the link Alaska Family Action sent out, which led to a public comment section on the borough website. He wanted to do an analysis because of how some of the comments were worded.
"It was a tremendous volume, and I saw some weird things like saying the 'Kenai Borough Association' (not 'Assembly') should do this and this, and other things that didn't say, 'I'm a local resident,' " Crawford said.
He found many of the IP addresses weren't in the borough or even in Alaska. But just because someone's IP address doesn't come from the borough doesn't mean the person who sent the comment isn't a borough resident, he said.
"There's really no way to verify that," he said. "There's no conditions based on who can submit any public comment, just that they have an opinion and an internet connection."
Cooper said she has scheduled a work session for April 4 for the Assembly "to review this policy and see if we can come up with something that is agreeable."
Dunne said he plans to introduce a resolution at the April 4 meeting "that would amend the current policy and allow an invocation to be given by any borough resident, and not have it restricted to approved religious associations."