A Palmer Superior Court judge ruled against an initiative to require Matanuska-Susitna Valley voter approval of all land use, platting and planning regulations adopted after July 1, 2007. The March 26 decision by Judge Kari Kristiansen came in a case filed by Wayne Carmony, general manager of Matanuska Electric Association, against the Mat-Su Borough. Under the rejected petition, recent land use laws would have taken effect then automatically expired unless approved by voters every year. Mat-Su landowners would not know until the day after the election each October which land use law would remain in effect. On Aug. 13, 2007, then-Borough Clerk Michelle McGehee rejected the MEA petition, saying state law specifies how questions are placed on the ballot. MEA's proposed law would have circumvented the process as outlined by the Alaska Constitution and state statute, McGehee said. Kristiansen found that the proposed law does not address the substance of anything enacted, but is only concerned with their enactment. Because the clerk was sued in her official capacity, the case now bears the name of the current clerk, Lonnie McKechnie.