General contractor Jeremy Williamson won a seat on the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly in last month’s municipal election with 602 votes. He was expected to be sworn in on Oct. 15, during the Assembly’s regular meeting.
But the borough attorney concluded this month that the road service contracts Williamson's company has with the borough are disqualifying conflicts of interest under borough code.
Williamson co-owns AIM Maintenance LLC with his wife. AIM is responsible for snow removal, road repair and other services in Service Area No.1, Monashka Bay Road Service Area, and Bayview Road Service Area. The borough pays AIM a variable hourly rate, depending on what needs to be done, but it averages about $140/hour according to the road service contracts.
During the Borough Assembly’s Nov. 5 meeting, assembly member Jeremiah Gardner said he supports Williamson joining the assembly, but borough code is clear.
“I finally found the subsection in the code that defined what services were, and unfortunately, the way the code is written, he's simply not allowed to take office," Gardner said. "It's unfortunate. I wanted him up here. I voted for him.”
Williamson told the Kodiak Daily Mirror, that the borough attorney is misinterpreting the code and that he thinks he’d win a legal fight in court. But he said the cost to Kodiak taxpayers makes him, “deeply uncomfortable."
Williamson also told the Kodiak Daily Mirror that the Borough Assembly can take action to let him take the seat without giving up his contracts. Gardner, the sympathetic assembly member, called a special meeting tonight to consider code changes to allow that.
And for transparency, Borough Mayor Jared Griffin is also the general manager at KMXT. Per KMXT’s policy, he does not have any editorial influence over news stories and doesn’t review them before they air.
