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W of 1 inner Awa0* 201 Exc rds fo 8 e r Rep llence i o n rt * Ala ska P i n g ! res
P E N I N S U L A
Vol. 50, Issue 32
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 • Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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State’s union dues change stalled Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Dan Beck (center) poses with his award.
Assistant principal honored By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
Kenai Middle School’s Dan Beck was named the 2020 State of Alaska Assistant Principal of the Year by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals. Homer Middle School Principal Kari Dendurent was also named the Region III Principal of the Year. “It is great to be involved in a career that I love, and I wake up each morning feeling good about going to work,” Beck said in a Tuesday press release from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. “As a school principal, there is so much variety in my work, and two days are never the same. I really enjoy that I am not See principal, Page A3
In the news
Recall group challenges application denial JUNEAU — A group seeking to recall Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy filed a legal complaint Tuesday, alleging a state elections director erred in not allowing the recall effort to proceed. Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said Monday she relied on legal advice from Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, a Dunleavy appointee, who found the statement of grounds for recall to be “factually and legally deficient.” Clarkson’s opinion concluded the allegations failed to meet the listed grounds for recall, which were neglect of duty, incompetence or lack of fitness. Among its claims, the Recall Dunleavy group said the Republican governor violated the law by not appointing a judge See news, Page A2
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By Peter Segall Juneau Empire
An Anchorage judge granted a preliminary injunction against the state Tuesday in a case over Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Sept. 26 Administrative Order seeking to change the way union dues are collected. Judge Gregory Miller issued the injunction in favor of the Alaska State Employees Association, which was sued by the state shortly after the order was announced. When the state informed ASEA
it would no longer automatically deduct dues from members’ paychecks, the union threatened legal action but the state filed suit first on Sept. 16. The Administrative Order followed an opinion written by Attorney General Kevin Clarkson concerning Alaska’s compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31. The Janus decision said nonunion public employees no longer
have to pay dues or agency fees to the unions that represent them. Clarkson’s August opinion said the state’s existing method of having those employees opt-out of union dues was a violation of free speech, and that the state would be creating an opt-in system for public employees. The opinion went a step further and said the opt-in process would apply to active union members as well as non-union public sector employees. On Oct. 4, Judge Miller granted ASEA a temporary
restraining order (TRO) saying Clarkson’s opinion had misinterpreted the Janus decision. Miller wrote that other states or counties had examined whether Janus was applicable to unions and their members and each case had found that it was not. “Every one of those decisions expressly rejected the idea that Janus goes farther than addressing agency fee arrangements,” Miller wrote. On Oct. 7, the state filed its opSee dues, Page A3
Diplomat now acknowledges quid pro quo By Lisa Mascaro, Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalonick Associated Press
WASHINGTON — “I now do recall.” With that stunning reversal, diplomat Gordon Sondland handed House impeachment investigators another key piece of corroborating testimony Tuesday. He acknowledged what Democrats contend was a clear quid pro quo, pushed by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, with Ukraine. Sondland, in an addendum to his sworn earlier testimony, said that military assistance to the East European ally was being withheld until Ukraine’s new president agreed to release a statement about fighting corruption as Trump wanted. Sondland knows that proposed arrangement to be a fact, he said, because he was the one who carried the message to a Ukrainian official on the sidelines of a conference in Warsaw with Vice President Mike Pence. “I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland recalled. His three-page update, tucked beneath hundreds of pages of sworn testimony from Sondland and former Ukraine Special Envoy Kurt Volker, was released by House investigators as Democrats prepared to push the closed-door sessions to public hearings as soon as next week. Trump has denied any quid pro
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press file
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland (center) arrives for a interview with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 17.
quo, but Democrats say there is a singular narrative developing since the president’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he first asked for “a favor.” That request, which sparked the impeachment inquiry, included a public investigation into Ukrainian activities by
Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden and his son and Trump’s allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said the House panels conducting the inquiry are releasing the
word-by-word transcripts of the past weeks’ closed-door hearings so the American public can decide for themselves. “This is about more than just one call,” Schiff wrote Tuesday in an See diplomat, Page A13
Elementary students could move to Soldotna Prep By Victoria Petersen Peninsula Clarion
The borough and school district are considering moving Soldotna Elementary School and Soldotna Montessori school students to the vacant Soldotna Prep School building. The borough and district are in early conversations about the potential move, Superintendent John O’Brien said at Monday’s Kenai Peninsula
Borough School District Board of Education meeting. “It’s extremely early in this process and no decisions have been made,” O’Brien said. A memo from O’Brien included in Monday’s school board agenda says Mayor Charlie Pierce and Borough Land Management Officer Marcus Mueller approached the district with the idea to relocate Soldotna Elementary and Soldotna Montessori, who
share a campus, to the Soldotna Prep building. The move could save the borough money, but the Soldotna Elementary School facility “will require significant capital expenditures to extend its useful life,” the memo said. Soldotna Prep building is also bigger than the Soldotna Elementary and Soldotna Montessori building, is in better physical condition and has a longer expected useful life.
The borough is also interested in the land where the two elementary schools are now, and think it could be an idea location for “a new state-ofthe-art Central Emergency Services fire station and headquarters,” the memo said. “The Borough is very interested in the land location where the current Soldotna Elementary and Soldotna See move, Page A2
‘Pretty lucky:’ Man survives bear attack near Homer By Michael Armstrong Homer News
A local man is recovering after surviving a bear attack Monday afternoon that happened when he was out walking his dogs on trails below Diamond Ridge Road. A member of the U.S. Coast Guard, the man in his mid-20s suffered a laceration to his scalp and had other non-life threatening injuries, said Homer Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mark Kirko. Kirko is one of the medics who responded to the call. “He was alert and oriented the whole time we were there,” Kirko said on Tuesday. “He seemed to be in good
spirits. I would say he got pretty lucky.” A homeowner off Nearly Level Road about a mile down from Diamond Ridge Road near Rucksack Road made a 911 call at about 3:50 p.m. Nov. 4, saying that a man had been attacked by a bear. The man hiked on a system of trails in the Diamond Creek drainage south of Diamond Ridge Road and north of Rogers Loop Road. Kachemak Emergency Services crew members were sent out first because the attack happened in their response area. Because HVFD could get there sooner, the Homer department provided mutual aid and went to the scene. Kirko had been nearby
and responded directly, as did several KES volunteers. Kirko said the homeowner drove the victim up to the Homestead Trail parking lot at the corner of Nearly Level Road and Diamond Ridge Road and medics met them there. The Homestead Trail in that area connects to the trail network. The HVFD ambulance and crew, including a KES medic, took the man to South Peninsula Hospital. The dogs ran off, but were later recovered safely. The man had been hiking further down below Nearly Level Road and Monroe Street when he and his dogs encountered a sow with multiple
cubs, according to KES Chief Bob Cicciarella. “I don’t know if the dogs played a role in it or not, but the bear did attack him, probably to protect the cubs,” Cicciarella said. He said the victim ran up the hill and found the resident who called 911 at a house near Monroe Street and Nearly Level Road. “The bear spared him,” Cicciarella said. “The bear could have done a lot more if it wanted to.” Alaska State Troopers also responded. Sgt. Daniel Cox of the Anchor Point trooper post said in the See attack, Page A2