Michael Tavoliero: Tribute to my Eaglexit colleagues

By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO

A tribute to Catherine Margolin (Chair), Nani Palmer (Vice-Chair, Secretary), Linda Leigh (Treasurer), Gordon Banfield, Michelle Banfield, Lee Hammermeister, Matt Hickey, Melissa Hickey, Lance Roberts, Rob Timmins, Sean Murphy, and Susan Crane

Back in late 2018, I approached Matt Hickey with what, at the time, sounded like a half-mad idea: that Eagle River and Chugiak should detach from Anchorage and form our own borough. Matt could just as easily have smiled politely and changed the subject. Instead, he leaned in.

The more we talked, the more obvious it became that if this community truly believed it could govern itself better, someone had to test that proposition. It was not a casual project. We knew almost immediately that what we were contemplating would be a massive grassroots undertaking demanding time, patience, and a certain stubborn faith in our neighbors.

We started small. A few of us met in a side room at Piccolino’s, the local Italian restaurant no longer in business. There were no consultants, no pollsters, no paid staff, just a handful of residents with legal pads, laptops, and too much coffee. It was at times almost a food fight.

Those meetings grew into a white paper that laid out the basic justifications for detachment and incorporation: differences in values, in service levels, in fiscal priorities, and in the kind of future we wanted for our children and grandchildren. We were not inventing the idea from whole cloth. We drew on the earlier work of Lee Jordan, who asked in 1975 whether the people of Chugiak–Eagle River would ever truly control their own destiny, and Fred Dyson’s 2019 reminder that our area’s value system is genuinely different and might be better served if we governed ourselves.

From those early evenings at Piccolino’s, the effort grew into an organized board, and I want to name my colleagues, because this work has always been a team effort: Catherine Margolin, our Chair; Nani Palmer, our Vice-Chair and Secretary; Linda Leigh, our Treasurer; Gordon Banfield, Michelle Banfield, Lee Hammermeister, Matt Hickey, Melissa Hickey, Lance Roberts, Rob Timmins, Sean Murphy, Susan Crane, and myself, Michael Tavoliero, serving together as Directors.

Each one of us said “yes” to something that offered no guarantee of success, no salary, and plenty of criticism, but carried the possibility of leaving this community better than we found it.

Catherine, as Chair and my wife, has shouldered the burden of leadership; the endless agenda setting, the difficult conversations, the need to keep us focused on the long game when the news cycle or local politics tried to pull us off course. Nani, as Vice President and Secretary, has kept us organized and accountable. Linda, as Treasurer, has guarded our limited finances with care, insisting that every dollar be spent in a way that honors the trust of those who donated.

Those formal titles matter because they reflect the structure we built. But every director has carried some share of the load: long nights reading statutes, answering skeptical questions from neighbors, showing up at meetings when it would have been easier to stay home.

Matt and Melissa Hickey were there at the beginning, when this was still just a “what if” scribbled on scratch paper. Lee Hammermeister, our youngest Director, brought a steady, practical persona. Gordon and Michelle Banfield, Rob Timmins, Sean Murphy, and Susan Crane each brought their own networks, skills, and viewpoints, making sure the project never devolved into a closed circle. As a group, we do not agree on every political issue, but we share a conviction that Chugiak–Eagle River is capable of self-government, and that our neighbors deserve the chance to decide that question for themselves at the ballot box.

What united us from the beginning, and still does, is the conviction that detachment and incorporation are not about resentment or nostalgia; they are about responsibility. If it is true, as Lee Jordan asked fifty years ago, that this community should have the opportunity to control its own destiny rather than simply accept what the Anchorage government decrees, then someone must do the hard work of drafting charters, compiling financials, building petitions, and facing the Local Boundary Commission. If it is true, as Fred Dyson observed, that our values and expectations are different from much of the rest of Anchorage, then we either accept being permanently outvoted, or we build a lawful path to a different arrangement. The board members named here chose the second path.

Eaglexit’s critics and supporters together make one thing clear: this effort will succeed or fail on whether we can prove four things, the numbers add up, the leadership is trustworthy, the plan is realistic, and the motivation is good government rather than a culture war. Those are not hostile questions; they are exactly what any serious proposal for a new borough must answer.

On the fiscal side, it is not enough to say, “it’s feasible.” We must show how: clear revenue projections, line-item estimates for police, fire/EMS, roads, schools, libraries, and buy-out or sharing of MOA assets and liabilities. People need to see the base case, the assumptions, and the margins for error so they can judge for themselves what taxes and services will look like in a Chugach Regional Borough.

Credibility also rests on tone and openness. Some residents worry this is an ideological or exclusionary project, and at times the rhetoric online feeds that fear. If Eaglexit is framed as “getting away from Anchorage people we dislike,” it will rightly lose support. If instead it is presented as taking responsibility for our own budgets, infrastructure, and schools, as a local self-government project that still honors neighbors and legal obligations, skeptical but fair-minded people can engage it on the merits.

Ultimately, the goal is not to “win an argument.” The goal is to give every voter in Assembly District 2 enough solid information to decide, in good conscience, whether a Chugach Regional Borough can deliver more accountable, proportional, and fiscally disciplined government than the status quo.

None of this guarantees that Eaglexit will ultimately succeed. The LBC process is rigorous by design, and the voters will have the final say. But whether this effort is remembered as the beginning of the Chugach Regional Borough or as one chapter in a longer story of local self-government, I want it recorded that we are a team; that my membership and association with such exemplary people as Catherine, Gordon, Lance, Lee, Linda, Matt, Melissa, Michelle, Nani, Rob, Sean, and Susan answered the call; and that we have completed the first step, which hopefully will lead to our communities’ ability to examine the opportunities presented and determine for themselves if this will be the best for them and their progeny.

We sat through the long meetings. We read the dense documents. We absorbed the praise and the criticism. We kept going when it would have been easier to quit. Whatever the outcome, that is worthy of gratitude and, in my mind, a tribute.

Michael Tavoliero writes for The Alaska Story.