Wasilla Council considers employee reprimands

Posted by matsublog

Posted: July 11, 2008 - 2:30 pm

From Mat-Su reporter Rindi White:
Wasilla City Council will consider Monday whether to censure two employees and a former employee for apparent wrongdoing related to a shopping mall development in the city.
Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff sponsored a measure to have city staff write resolutions censuring the employees. She also was behind a measure, the City Council passed two weeks ago, asking Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller to immediately resign for her part in the issue. Keller, three months away from the end of her second and final term as city mayor, refused to step down.
An investigation by the Wasilla-based Denali Law Group released in June concluded Keller and her staff unfairly assisted Meritage Development Group in trying to develop a shopping center on property the company owns overlooking Cottonwood Creek on the Parks Highway.
The city sent a letter to business owners adjacent to the Meritage property threatening to use eminent domain to push the business owners into agreeing to a frontage road that would have split their businesses and parking lots.
The property owners refused and complained about the city's actions. Their outcry led Council members to investigate the issue.
Woodruff's measure doesn't mention any city employees by name. But the investigation focused on actions by three people: economic development planner Casey Reynolds, public works director Archie Giddings, and Sandra Garley, formerly the city deputy administrator. Garley now works for the City of Palmer.

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