The Chugach Board of Directors held a special board meeting Monday 5/21 to address and perhaps resolve the residence issues with Board Chairman Bettina Chastain and member Stanislava “Sisi” Cooper. Six of the seven Board members were in attendance. Two of them, Chastain and Cooper recused themselves from voting.
You can find the minutes of the 5/21 Board meeting here.
The Board went into Special Session. They hired an outside counsel, Jim Torgerson, to prepare a series of questions for the Board members to ask. Along with those questions were a pair of resolutions regarding whether the Board member was qualified or not to continue on the Board. Director Cooper was voted disqualified 4 – 0. Chastain was voted qualified by a 4 – 0 vote.
As this portion of the meeting was in Executive Session, nobody outside the participants has access to either the questions asked or the answers given. While the Board can vote to release this information, they have so far chosen not to do so.
In my mind, the only two relevant questions are as follows:
- Please explain your voter registration address outside Chugach service area
- Please detail how many days a year you reside at the outside address.
- As a follow-on to the second, ask where you get your mail delivered, run your businesses from, and register for the PFD
Bottom line, is that Director Cooper should resign the Board sometime before June 21.
As to Director Chastain, I have the following information on her:
- She has been registered to vote outside the Chugach service area since 2010. No explanation what her answer was to this question or if it was even asked.
- She is claiming a residence in Girdwood, which is in the Chugach service area. It appears that it is owned by a recreational real estate company located at the same address she is registered to vote here in Anchorage, also outside the Chugach service area.
- There at least two other people with the last name Chastain claiming the Girdwood address or a related PO Box as their residence.
All this is available via public record.
What appears to be taking place is that Director Chastain has a recreational property in Girdwood via which she is claiming residence in Chugach service area. Once again, due to the questions and answers being locked up in special session, there is no information on where she has her primary, bona fide residence. The problem is that there is no way to prove which one is which outside active surveillance over an extended period, which I strongly oppose.
But remember that this sort of discussion does not even start unless there is some question, some little game going on.
My dime says she is and has been gaming the system since she ran for the Chugach Board in 2015.
Keep this in mind when you hear the Chugach Board opine on the great deal they are able to negotiate with ML&P and the Municipality on their acquisition of ML&P. If they are unable to follow their own bylaws, how can we trust them to negotiate anything on our behalf as Association members? While this Board has chosen not to take appropriate action, a future Board can.
Many thanks to Chugach CEO Lee Thibert and Jim Torgerson for taking the time and effort to walk me through these difficult issues. Also thank you to concerned Chugach Association members who have provided assistance in putting this information together.
From my perspective, it looks like we are on our way to a partial solution, which is a Good Thing. Unfortunately, the other part looks like it is going to fester for a while which is not. Hopefully Chairman Chastain’s personal decision will not put the upcoming merger at risk, though at this time, it is difficult to see how it can’t.
Final thought: Chugach needs to tighten up its vetting procedures a bit to ensure this sort of foolishness does not happen again.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
