“I move to accept the resignation of Terry Blake, and direct the vacant seat to be advertised… Second.”

That’s assembly member Phyllis Hackett and Mike Reif formally launching the search for a replacement for Terry Blake.

Blake submitted his resignation on April 24th. He’ll step down at the conclusion of old business during the assembly’s second regular meeting in June.

Last night’s (5-8-12) vote opened the application process for anyone interested in replacing Blake. The successful appointee will serve until the municipal election on October 9th. Voters will then elect a candidate to serve out the remaining one year of Blake’s term.

Municipal clerk Colleen Ingman told the assembly she expects the appointment will take place during Blake’s final meeting in June.

With only four members present, the assembly postponed major issues, and worked fairly quickly through less complicated business.

The assembly unanimously passed on first reading an increase in water rates for next year. Environmental superintendent Mark Buggins reminded members that the hike was the fourth of six planned increases built into his department’s master plan.

The base rate will go up over $3 for water, putting Sitka somewhere in the middle-of-the-pack compared to other towns.

The assembly complimented Buggins on his work trying to stay ahead of mandatory costs, like an ultraviolet disinfection system. Phyllis Hackett said the master plan made it easy to explain the increases to the public.

“I was asked a couple of days ago by a gentleman, Why are our rates going up? Why is our budget in such hard shape? I think we can’t say it enough up here: In the past, as well as our city has done, we have not saved for infrastructure that is continually needing to be upgraded or replaced.”

Mayor Westover and Mike Reif asked Buggins if there would be relief for rate payers once the scheduled increases were complete in 2015. Buggins could make no promises. He responded that a new master plan would be prepared at that time.

The assembly heard from the public on several important issues. Parks & Rec Committee chair Hans vonRekowski and member Tim Riley spoke out against proposed cuts to the municipal parks budget, including the layoff of manager Lynne Brandon and most seasonal staff. The cuts would leave the department with 2 maintenance positions to cover its 54 facilities.

Riley thought the cuts were going too deep.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. They’re discovering in Europe that austerity might not be such a good idea, and I think that however commendable it is to balance the budget, we know that there are good sources of revenue that the governor may be signing into the budget that may become available to us. I think that we really need to rethink how we look at Parks & Rec so it’s not always the sacrificial goat.”

Mike Litman also addressed the assembly. Litman co-sponsored a citizen’s initiative four years ago that would have required a public vote to ratify property transactions over $500,000 at Sawmill Cove Industrial Park. The same law is already in place for all other city-owned land outside the park.

The city’s legal department refused to certify the initiative. The issue eventually went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled in April in favor of Litman’s group.

Litman told the assembly that he had recently learned that the city had filed documents in Sitka Superior Court, as part of a new legal strategy to block the initiative. He wondered on whose authority the city was taking this action.

“I realize this isn’t the forum to have that question answered, but I’m sure there are a lot of voters in Sitka who would like to know the answer. What is this legal battle costing the city? And on whose authority is the legal battle taking place?”

There is no discussion between assembly members and speakers during persons to be heard. Municipal attorney Theresa Hillhouse addressed the issue during her regular report.

She characterized the Supreme Court ruling more as a misunderstanding than a defeat.

“The Court reversed the Superior Court decision finding that, as far as the language, it wasn’t as confusing as some initiatives that come up to the Supreme Court. As far as the process, they noticed that Sitka does have some conflicting sections, and to take a look at that and clean it up ourselves.”

The Supreme Court remanded the case to Sitka Superior Court, which denied the original petition. Hillhouse said the filing by the city’s Anchorage attorneys was a one-page document intended to draw the attention of the Sitka judge to a recent Supreme Court decision on the Kenai Peninsula, which denied voters the authority to veto capital projects over $1-million in value. She said attorneys made the filing at no additional expense to the city.

See full text of the Supreme Court’s ruling, a detailed response by Theresa Hillhouse, and an earlier story on this issue.

The assembly will hold its third-and-final budget work session on Thursday May 10 at 6 PM. A work session on proposed increases in electric rates is scheduled for Monday May 21 at 5 PM. The first reading of the 2013 budget will take place during the assembly’s next regular meeting on Tuesday, May 22.