Lacking voter registration, council finds candidate ineligible to run for office

The Nome Common Council, in an unanimous vote, denied Rexodus Pomrenke’s appeal to overturn the city clerk’s decision that found her ineligible to run for office and thus excluded her from the municipal ballot. The reason: Pomrenke was not a registered voter in Alaska or the City of Nome at the time when she submitted her candidacy paperwork, as is required by city ordinance determining candidate eligibility.
Pomrenke declared her candidacy to run for Seat C on the Nome Common Council, a seat currently held by Scot Henderson, who is also running for re-election.
With Mayor John Handeland absent, councilmember Adam Martinson absent and excused, and council member Henderson excused from deliberation and voting on the subject as it was about the candidacy of his opponent, council members Meghan Sigvanna Tapqaq, Maggie Miller, Cameron Piscoya and Mark Johnson cast their votes after a nearly half-hour long executive session to deliberate.
Prior to the executive session, the council heard from both sides.
According to City Clerk Dan Grimmer, Pomrenke submitted her declaration of candidacy on August 26 and most qualifications were confirmed, except for the requirement to be a “qualified city voter who has been a resident of the city for at least one year immediately prior to taking office […].” At issue was not the location of her residency but that she was not a registered voter at the time she declared her candidacy.
On the declaration of candidacy form, Pomrenke did not certify that she met the specific residency and citizenship requirements nor that she is a qualified voter “as required by law in the State of Alaska and the City of Nome.”
Grimmer said a registered voter on Sept. 4 contested Pomrenke’s eligibility to be a candidate for office.
Upon the challenge, Grimmer sent Pomrenke a letter advising her of the challenge and inviting her to defend her eligibility under sworn oath. According to Grimmer, Pomrenke did not appear to defend her eligibility; thus a second letter, dated Sept. 17 informed Pomrenke that the city clerk checked voter registration rolls of both the state and the city and as she was not found to be registered at either roll, thus Grimmer found her ineligible to be a candidate.
On Sept. 18, Pomrenke appeared at the city clerk’s office to file an appeal and to show that she registered to vote that day.
In the letter appealing the city clerk’s decision, she wrote that the “defect can be easily explained by a DMV application error dated March 06,2024 and holds zero significance to the fact that Rexodus Pomrenke has held domicile in Nome for over three years now.”
 Her appeal went before the Nome Common Council to decide during their Monday meeting on Sept. 23.
When it was time to defend her candidacy eligibility in front of the council, Pomrenke said that she believed it was a simple matter to be corrected. “I did register to vote the day that I saw the issue, I believe on the 18th,” she said. “I have been here in Nome for three years, and I believe that there’s a narrative, amongst the city and going on about me, and I believe that city council is a beautiful start for me to be able to combat that narrative in a more positive way. So that’s for everybody here to understand, those on city council making a decision tonight that is a primary goal as to why I would like to find a team to join that can help me maybe better understand what our city needs are and to, yeah, just control my own narrative, I guess, about my life and what’s being said in my name or with my name, which is very important to me and I’m very proud of.”
 City attorney Sam Severin joined the meeting via Zoom and brought up two points. He said there is a question on if the appeal is even correct as the appeal was about the eligibility to hold office, rather than eligibility to run for it. Severin argued that the candidate was given notice of a possible defect of their declaration of candidacy and was then given the opportunity to defend it by coming into the clerk’s office and giving sworn testimony about the questions. “The opportunity was provided here, and that opportunity was not taken,” he said. “So what was issued was a determination of ineligibility to be a candidate that is different from a substantive determination of ineligibility to hold the office,” he said.  Severin said that timing played a part in deeming Pomrenke’s candidacy not eligible.
“I just note that the reading the tenses carefully there suggests that a person is supposed to be a registered voter at the time of the Declaration of Candidacy, not that it should just be taken care of before they try to hold office,” he said. “And it is fair to construe those things relatively strictly, because it’s designed to provide certainty in the process going forward, just so that elections can be orderly and predictable.” Pomrenke filed her declaration on August 26 but did not register to vote until Sept. 18.
The council went into executive session and then cast their no votes, based on the grounds that Pomrenke was at the time of declaring her candidacy not a registered voter, and thus not being eligible according to city code.
Tapqaq directed city staff to write up the findings and the decision to be included in a letter to be provided to Pomrenke.

Gravel purchase
In other business, the council passed two resolutions awarding contracts to Tumet Industries LLC. One resolution awarded the contract for crushed road surface aggregate to Tumet for a cost of $72,520 (4,000 tons at a price of $18.13 per ton). The other resolution awarded Tumet the contract for crushed aggregate for the port pad at a cost of $79,160 (or $19.79 per ton for 4,000 tons).

Sales tax
Two years after Nome voters  decided in a ballot measure to repeal the seasonal sales tax increase, the council finally got around to amend the corresponding ordinance to reflect that vote and update city code.
Prior to the 2022 election, the city sales tax increased from 5 percent to 7 percent in the summer months to capture more tax revenue from the increase in sales due to visitors, seasonal workers and miners flocking to town.
The council on Monday voted in first reading to amend the ordinance to reflect that change. The ordinance’s second reading and public hearing will take place during the next council meeting set for October 28.
The council meets next in a special meeting on Oct. 3 to certify the municipal election. As the next meeting would fall on Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 14, which is a city-recognized holiday, the council canceled that meeting altogether.

Interim city manager
In his first common council meeting, Interim City Manager Brooks Chandler addressed the council with profound words of appreciation for the service of volunteer council members.
“I share the same message to you folks that I told the city staff that I met with my second day here, and that is that in what you do as members of the council, there’s really an honor and purpose to what you all do, and I look forward to working with you as you serve the folks that live here at Nome,” Chandler said. “And I hope you all appreciate that you’re a fundamental part of the very basic part of the democratic system of government, which I hold is one of the best ways for people to govern their affairs.”
He then stated his first priority is to help find a permanent city manager, with a close second priority being negotiations of a collective bargaining agreement between the City and the City of Nome Employees Association. The city puts out a request for proposals for a headhunter to look for city manager, while Chandler suggested to also pursue traditional recruitment efforts by looking locally for a qualified person, but first the city needs to fine-tune it’s job description with the last draft of the job description being done in 2015.
Chandler said that the HVAC renovations at City Hall are slated to be complete on November 15 and with partial occupancy possibly starting on Oct. 15.
As this was the last meeting for outgoing council member Sig Tapqaq — she is not running to seek re-election — she gave a farewell address and summary of her six years on the council and the importance of voting.  
“I just want to leave with the council members and with the city staff and citizens of Nome that voting is so important,” she said. Individuals can make a big difference through municipal participation.  “I really hope and encourage people to continue running for council.” She said diversity of the community can be reflected in the body of the council, at the decision-making table. She added that at one time, she was the only Indigenous person on the council, and the only woman. “It’s really, really awesome to see the diversity of our community reflecting more in the body of our government,” she said. “Thank you to the council members for doing the hard work that you do. I mean, you spend hours and hours in the space, debating with each other and trying to make good decisions for our community,” she said.
However, Tapqaq also expressed disappointment. “I will say my real, big disappointment, at least in my time here, is that we were never able to pass the government-to-government ordinance to formalize that relationship between the tribes and the municipality. But I hope that if another council member can take up that and run with it.”
Municipal elections are taking place on October 1, with two Nome Common Council seats, two NJUS board seats and two Board of Education seats up for election.