Alaska Legislature nears final approval of smaller city councils, budget training for school boards

Sen. Robert Yundt, R-Wasilla, is seen Thursday, May 14, 2026, during a joint session of the Alaska Legislature. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

By James Brooks

Alaska Beacon

Alaska’s smallest towns and villages would be allowed to shrink their city councils under a bill that neared final passage Friday in the Alaska Legislature.

Senate Bill 143 decreases the minimum city council size to three members for second-class cities with 1,000 or fewer residents.

It also allows local governments to lengthen or shorten the terms of school board members. Currently, state law requires school board members to serve three-year terms. 

Another section, added by a floor amendment from Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, mandates the state Department of Education and Early Development provide budget and ethics training to all new school board members statewide.

The state House approved SB 143 in a unanimous 40-0 vote on Friday, an act that sends the bill back to the Senate, which approved a prior version by a similarly unanimous 20-0 vote in April.

The Senate is expected to approve the House’s changes to the bill and send it to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for final enactment or veto.

Sen. Robert Yundt, R-Wasilla, wrote the original version of SB 143 after several years on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly. 

That local government shifted its elections to November several years ago and lengthened the terms of its mayor and assembly members from three years to four so local elections would correspond with state and federal ones. 

Because state law requires three-year school board terms, he couldn’t do the same with school board elections, and as a result, off-year elections now see much lower turnout, he said Friday.

If school board elections take place at the same time as other votes, he said the election results will be more representative of the will of the community.

At the request of the Alaska Municipal League, legislators amended SB 143 earlier this year to allow three-person city councils in small second-class cities that have had trouble filling their rosters. 

Current state law requires five-member or seven-member councils. SB 143 would allow them to choose three, five or seven members.

“Think about all the communities in Alaska that are 200, 300, 400 people — do they really need to have five or seven city council members?” Yundt asked.

When the bill reached the House floor, Coulombe suggested amending it to require mandatory training for school board members. That suggestion followed several significant budget errors in Juneau, Ketchikan and other school districts. 

Coulombe’s amendment passed unanimously, 40-0. Another amendment, which would have given the state’s education commissioner authority over local school district budgets, failed to be adopted.

• James Brooks Cascade is a longtime Alaska reporter who lives in Juneau. He previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.