New assembly member will be appointed to serve for several months before November election.

By Jake Dye

Special to the Homer Independent Press

Michael Hicks has resigned from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, leaving vacant the seat representing Ninilchik, Clam Gulch, Happy Valley and Kasilof.

Hicks is the second member of the assembly in as many months to resign from the body. In a resignation letter, dated July 14, Hicks wrote that he was moving to Oregon.

Applicants for an appointee to the Central district seat began to be accepted Wednesday, for a period that will close at 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 19. The assembly will select an appointee in September to serve until the November election, when someone will be elected to fill out the remaining year of Hicks’ original term ending in 2028.

This latest resignation means that, for the second year in a row, five assembly seats will be on the ballot. The filing period for the borough election begins Aug. 16 — before the deadline to apply to be appointed to Hicks’ seat. 

Hicks resigned effective midnight Tuesday, but he missed his final assembly meeting that day. According to his resignation letter, he was without cell service traveling “deep into Yukon Territory” at the time. 

Assembly President Ryan Tunseth recognized Hicks as a thoughtful member of the body.

“He was very graceful,” Tunseth said during Tuesday’s meeting. “His temperament on the dais was excellent, and I enjoyed serving with him.”

Tuesday’s meeting was otherwise light on action, though the assembly introduced several pieces of legislation to consider at its next meeting on Aug. 18. Among those is an ordinance to appropriate funds to replace McNeil Canyon School’s waterline.

Another ordinance introduced this week and set for public hearing and action on Sept. 1 would implement term limits for members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education. Those new limits would match those already in place for members of the assembly and the borough mayor, limiting members to two consecutive full terms before waiting 180 days to run again.

The ordinance is sponsored by member Dale Eicher of Sterling, who notes in a memo that state law actually doesn’t currently allow municipal governments to place term limits on school board members. A bill passed this year by the Alaska Legislature — which has yet to be signed, vetoed or allowed to become law by the governor — would allow municipalities to implement limits by ordinances like the one set for consideration. The governor has until Aug. 12 to act on the bill, but if allowed to become law it would be effective immediately.