With Stan Welles stepping down from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly earlier this year, the District 5 race has two challengers and no incumbent. Leslie Morton is one of the candidates looking to represent residents of Sterling and Funny River.
Listening and problem solving are two qualities Leslie Morton says she’ll bring to the Assembly. A 14 year resident of the Peninsula, Morton has some political experience, having been a US Senate subcommittee staffer under Senator Ted Stevens. But she also focuses on her time working with the U.S. Navy as a Natural Resources Manager.
“I helped Navy SEALs with some of their military training exercises. My goal as the natural resources manager was to protect the natural resource. But I also wanted to balance it with the needs of the Navy. After talking to the SEALs, we came to the conclusion that they benefited from having a nearly pristine jungle to train in. They didn’t want their training to have trails or signposts telling them where to go. They needed it to be very realistic, as if they were really in Southeast Asia.”
She says listening will be key in trying to solve the borough’s budget problems as well.
"The population of the peninsula has definitely grown in the last 20 years, but the number of people serving us has not. So you can combine up a few more departments maybe, but a lot of that has already been done. That’s why I like listening. I want to go out and hear from people in my community as to where they feel are areas that can be cut or whether they feel it would be better to try to raise more revenue.”
To that end, she says she’s in favor of the ballot proposition that would raise the borough’s sales tax cap from $500 to $1,000 while raising an estimated $3 million in new revenue. On the other, arguably more divisive ballot measure, prop 2 which would shutter the borough’s cannabis industry outside the cities, Morton says initially, she didn’t have an opinion. But more listening changed that.
“It’s bringing in revenue. A lot of people are employed in it. And I’ve heard stories from folks about using it that make me believe there’s a need for it in our community. I feel there’s a lot of medicinal uses in our community and a lot of people are benefitting from it, whether it’s economically or emotionally, it’s been more of a positive. And I’ve heard prohibition doesn’t work, that’s one of the arguments I hear. I tend to think I don’t want to drive it back under ground.”
One reason Morton decided to run was that she didn’t feel hers and similar views were always being heard by her representatives on the Assembly. And, she says, it’s important to have more balance. If elected, she and current Assembly president Kelly Cooper would be the only women on the nine member body.
“Women think differently than men, even when we share the same values. We think differently, we problem solve differently, we listen differently, we act differently and we need that. If you don’t have that diversity, you’re not going to come up with solutions. And husbands and wives know that they approach the same problem differently and it’s only through that team work that we’re going to be successful.”
Morton made her comments on the most recent edition of the Kenai Conversation. Her opponent in the race, Norm Blakely, declined our invitation to be on that program.