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Voters in
the Kodiak Island Borough weren't the only ones to vote down a measure that
would allow officials to use less stringent financial disclosure forms.
Propositions were on the ballots in nine Alaska communities, and it failed in
five of them.
The
movement to exempt officials in municipalities around the state is the result
of the Alaska State Legislature passing anti-corruption legislation last year.
It requires elected officials, some appointed officials and some hired
administrators to fill out a 12-page disclosure that requires the listing of
all their financial dealings that total 1,000-dollars or more, as well as those
of their spouses and dependent children. It has been called intrusive by some,
and is widely considered to be the reason for a dearth of candidates in Kodiak
elections.
A community
can exempt its elected officials from the more strident reporting requirements
by a vote of its residents. If passed, the community can fill out the simpler
and less detailed forms with their own clerk's office.
But, the
residents of Kodiak voted the measure down 1,070 to 985 on Tuesday.
Unofficial
results show that similar measures also failed in Seward by 46 votes, North
Pole by 40, Wrangell by 195, and Haines by 163.
The people
of Sitka, Ketchikan and the city of Kenai passed measures exempting their
elected officials, however, and in Delta Junction, an exemption measure is
ahead by five votes. Residents of the Denali Borough will vote on the issue
November 4th.
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