FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly on Thursday upheld a pay freeze for more than one-fifth of borough government’s payroll, positioning 83 nonunion employees for no cost-of-living raise in July.

Assembly member Natalie Howard, who successfully proposed the May decision, had said she wasn’t trying to single out nonunion workers for punishment but instead saw the freeze as a starting point in addressing long-term spending concerns.

“We need to start being responsive to the public and watching out for the taxpayers,” she said Thursday.

Opponents criticized the May decision for coming weeks after budget deliberations and minutes before the assembly ended its early summer budget review.

Those attending Thursday’s assembly meeting were split. Eileen Cummings, a former assembly member, said the freeze amounted to a “small discriminatory action” against a fraction of the public workforce.

“You didn’t give the public time to hear, testify, understand the actions you were taking,” she said.

Geoffrey Bacon, a representative with the Alaska Public Employees Association, said reductions to public benefit programs have already handcuffed public managers’ effort to recruit good workers. He and others said the May decision will only encourage more public workers to unionize, and would therefore backfire.

Bacon said were he one of the affected employees, he would “find the nearest union hall and start passing out cards.”

Nancy Webb, another former assembly member, said budget-consious public officials should find more deliberate means. She suggested forming a committee to seek administrative efficiencies — perhaps available through the consolidation of the Community Planning and Land Management departments.

“But study it” before voting, she said.

Yet many who spoke backed the salary freeze and opposed Thursday’s unsuccessful measure, sponsored by assembly members Tim Beck and Nadine Winters.

Resident Bill Zorb said university, state and federal government agencies have generally looked to contain costs over the past few years.

Given that, he said, the assembly “did the right thing and acted responsibly” last month.

Mike Prax, also a former assembly member, pointed to unofficial analyses circling Thursday’s audience that suggested public employees to be affected by the freeze — including most top directors and managers — average twice Fairbanks’ per capita income.

He said policy makers should guard against a tendency of workers to grow expectant of and “entitled” to regular raises.

Prax backed the salary freeze as one step toward trimming the borough’s budget, which is built largely on salaries and benefits. “The assembly has to start getting control of the labor costs,” he said.

Howard and assembly members Joe Blanchard, Michael Dukes, Diane Hutchison and Matt Want voted to keep the salary freeze in place, as they had last month. Want said the May decision was not a “back door” effort to “rob anybody” but followed the public process allowed during budget amendments — amendments generally made after public hearings. He said his vote was not a “shot” at unions.

“It is a separation between government and the people that pay for it,” he said.

Most borough employees belong to unions that negotiate salary packages every three years and are therefore guaranteed a raise.

Public managers have said the pay freeze could injure worker productivity and turnover, with long-term consequences threatening to easily outweigh short-term savings.

Howard said the proposed freeze was smaller than options allowed — courts have generally backed Alaska legislative branches’ ability to leave sections of union contracts unfunded, a right exercised by the 2003 Fairbanks City Council.

But she said upcoming union contract negotiations offers the opportunity for broader budget savings.

Downtown zoning

At press time, the Borough Assembly was still reviewing proposed land-use and development rules aimed at implementing the Vision Fairbanks revitalization plan.

The measure would add two new classifications to public zoning books, a watered-down option compared to an ordinance that failed three months ago.

Sponsors say it relaxes proposed restrictions on parking that caused headaches in March.

One new zoning designation would set ground rules for development on and near a central stretch of Cushman Street — a site viewed as a potential retail “hot spot.”

Architectural and design standards in the broader ordinance have caused friction between borough and city government agencies. The measure includes explicit design standards covering, among other things, the position of exterior walls and building facades.

David van den Berg, who directs the Downtown Association of Fairbanks, said the new rules would help Fairbanks attract new retail investment.

“We’d like to see downtown do better. ... We’d like to see it continue to grow and thrive,” he said.

But skeptics raised caution flags Thursday, calling the proposal overly “restrictive.” City Mayor Jerry Cleworth has said the standards would duplicate what his Building Department already does.

The assembly three years ago adopted the Vision Fairbanks plan, with proponents saying it would stop short of actually rezoning properties. Cleworth said Thursday’s move breaks a promise that decision would not incorporate the plan — a “guide” — into local law books. Proponents say the move would guard against future neighbor-on-neighbor fights that accompany loose land-use rules in play downtown today.

Thursday’s ordinance also eased proposed restrictions, compared to the March version, on first-floor window tinting.

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The Borough Assembly was also poised late Thursday to broaden a year-old, home heater trade-in program that anchors the community’s pollution prevention program.

The assembly was also set to talk of suing state government over tentative political redistricting maps. Critics said Thursday the map would inappropriately dilute Ester and Goldstream Valley residents’ voting power.

Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.