Leadership to change after vote in Togiak

MARY LOCHNER

October 16, 2008 at 1:03PM AKST

Togiak residents voted in Oct. 7 City Council elections to shake things up the former power regime.

Former Togiak mayor Gary Carlos lost his City Council seat to Norine Antone in a three-way race, gaining 65 votes to her 158. Isaac Tuday, the other contender in the race, received 28 votes.

Unlike many communities, the city of Togiak does not directly elect its mayor. Instead, the seven members of the City Council do. They vote for one of their members to be appointed mayor.

The City Council holds a vote for mayor every time a new City Council is elected by the people of Togiak, city clerk Margie Coopchiak said. A new mayor is appointed by the City Council a week after the election, she said.

Carlos’ son, former City Council member Sean Carlos, who was also up for re-election, was beat out by Andrew Franklin, who garnered 177 votes to Carlos’ 75.

George Arkanakyak Sr., who ran unopposed for the remaining city seat up for election, got 222 votes.

The other four seats on the seven-member City Council, which were not up for re-election, are held by council members, Kevin Ramey, Leroy Fox, Anna May Ferguson and Evelyn Yanez.

The election results break up a four-person voting bloc on the city council, observers say. Gary Carlos and his son, Sean Carlos, along with city council members Yanez and Fox, often voted together, forming a majority to push items through the council, said council member Ramey and community member Olia Sutton, who often observes City Council meetings.

Sean Carlos, Fox, Ferguson, Yanez, and former City Council member Stanley Active Jr., who did not run for re-election of his seat, could not be reached for comment.

Gary Carlos said the election results show that people do not want to be held accountable to the law, something he’s said in previous interviews that he and his son tried to do.

Sutton and newly elected council member Franklin described the results as a referendum on Police Chief Aaron Parker, whom Carlos hired and kept on after the Togiak Traditional Village Council made an order of banishment against him.

“There was a banishment, and they went ahead and kept him on, even though he was very brutal to the ones he took,” Sutton said. She described the election as the people of Togiak “putting their foot down,” because “they want their village back.”

Parker could not be reached for comment.

In interviews with The Bristol BayTimes, Gary Carlos often described criticism of the police chief as emanating from people who didn’t want to be held accountable to the law.

In a Friday, Oct. 10, e-mail to The Bristol BayTimes, Gary Carlos wrote, “This is what a large part of what this last election is about. Being held accountable is not what a lot of people want. A task force to send a platform to reform and define corruption in local and state government and to apply consequences to clean up pervasive practice in rural Alaska.”

Franklin said the police chief issue was one of the main reasons he decided to run for City Council.

“I see some wrong things going on, that my people weren’t feeling right about the cop here,” Franklin said. “I just want to make sure that my people are comfortable with the City Councilmen and police here. I know there will be a lot of changes, so the people will be comfortable again.”

Sutton said she observed City Council “picking on” a minority in the council, composed of Ramey and Ferguson, which was “hearing the people’s needs.”

Ramey was the target of an investigation and report prepared by Parker for the City Council, which made reference to a past criminal record Ramey said is decades old, as well as alleged “misconduct” on the part of Ramey.

Nothing in the report prepared by Parker related to any criminal complaint against Ramey.

The report was passed out at the Sept. 23 Togiak city council regular meeting, at which Ferguson was the only absent member. After reading and discussing the report, the other five council members voted to sanction Ramey, essentially expressing official disapproval of his alleged misconduct.

E-mails from that time show Carlos sought legal advice as to whether it was possible to kick Ramey off city council (“Togiak mayor tries to oust Ramey from City Council,” Bristol BayTimes, Oct. 9).

“It can only get better,” Ramey said after the election results came out. “There’s been opportunity for people to stand up and work together on what’s right. It would be nice to see people, instead of trying to dig up skeletons in the closet and using mean ways of dealing with things, to start loving one another and helping one another again. When people work together, the sky’s the limit.”

Franklin said a lot of people seemed relieved and happy about the change in City Council after the elections. Franklin said he thinks that, with the three newly-elected members, the city council will be more responsive to the needs of the community.

The other two newly elected council members, Antone and Arkanakyak Sr., could not be reached for comment.

Sutton agreed with Franklin that the mood in Togiak after the elections was positive.

“I’m excited because I know the ones that are on there now are very culturally sensitive,” she said.

The City Council selects a new Togiak city mayor at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 6:30 p.m., city clerk Margie Coopchiak said.

Mary Lochner can be reached at (907) 348-2438, or (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.