e e e e ladies and gentlemen I think it's about time oh my God so many items welcome I now call this meeting of the Anchorage assembly to order the date is October 10 2023 it's 50:03 p.m. Madam clerk would you please take the roll assembly member Meyers here assembly member Martinez present assembly member Rivera present assembly member branga here assembly member Johnson here chair constant here Vice chair zotel here assembly member cross he's excused assembly member voland happy to be here assembly member Broly here assembly member salt here assembly member Perez FIA here youth representative here chair constant you have a quorum thank you so much next I'd like to do the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Bond I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Riva would you please read the land acknowledgement happy to Mr chair a land acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the indigenous people of a place it is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy it is an actionable statement that marks our Collective movement towards decolonization and Equity the Anchorage assembly would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the denina athabascans for thousands of years the denina have been and continue to be the steward land it is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions innovation and contemporary perspectives of the upper cook and lit denina thank you Mr Rivera next on the agenda we have minutes of previous meetings and I don't believe there are any minutes oh there are I'm sorry there thank you um so I would like to ask for a motion to approve or accept no motion to approve item 4A regular meeting August 202 August 22nd 2023 and the special meeting item for be of September 9 2023 three so moved second so we have a motion by melel seconded by Mr band is there any discussion hearing and seeing none asking for unanimous consent those items are adopted unanimously next we have the mayor's report Mr Mayor you have the floor thank you Mr chair uh before I begin my formal report I want to take a moment to recognize all of those suffering in Israel due to the violent attacks by homas and Hezbollah over the last few days Israel has experienced one of the deadliest attacks since the Holocaust as of yesterday we learned that at least 11 American lives have been lost and over a thousand people have been killed in Israel since the violence began these unprecedented attacks on innocent lives are an absolute tragedy and should not be tolerated yesterday I ordered the flags on Municipal properties to be flown at half staff to honor the lives lost and to stand in solidarity with the people of Israel and tomorrow I will be joining a community members at the denina center for the Alaska solidarity with Israel event and I hope you all can attend now moving forward with official business last week I delivered to the assembly my proposed budget for 2024 during the development of this budget the safety of Anchorage residents was kept top of mind while focusing on cost efficiencies for 2024 I added funding for snow removal road maintenance and repairs and to the continuation of very popular route B bus route number 85 I made sure there were no cuts to our Public Safety departments and I lower the tax burden on property tax owners this is no fantasy budget it prioritizes the people and allows for the continuation of crucial services and operations while staying $12 million beneath the tax cap I conducted thorough reviews of each Department's budget with Municipal directors in realized spending efficiency this review allowed us to improve government spending processes and brought us to a budget that is 2.4 million less than my revised budget of 2023 we were certainly faced with a fiscal challenge through this budget process but my proposal is proof that government can always or always has room to improve on its spending practices I look forward to working with the assembly during future budget conversations the cold weather shelter plan deadline is right around the corner and the Anchorage health department has done an outstanding job getting everything ready with The Aviator and the Alex Hotel coming online this Monday uh this Monday that will provide approximately 327 shelter beds and we continue to make progress on the former Solid Waste Service admin building being converted into a temporary shelter if all things go according to plan a 10-day abatement will be posted at third and ingra on Friday that will be enacted on on October 26th of course this is all pending adequate shelter availability I want to express my sincer thanks to the Anchorage Health Department parks and Rex and the assembly and to all those involved in making sure our unhoused have a warm place to go this winter tonight on the agenda is assembly ordinance that would restore failure to appear to a Class B misdemeanor if passed this will provide another tool for prosecutors when they deem it appropriate to use with particularly difficult cases it would also conform better with State statutes currently a defendant receives a citation when they fail to appear and prosecutors can't use citation history but they can use criminal history this AO can help maintain Law and Order and sends a message that appearing in court is important and I hope that the assembly will approve it last week I had Theon honor of announcing that the municipality will officially recognize the mushing District as part of downtown Downtown Anchorage uh specifically on 4th Avenue dog mushing events have been a part of Downtown Anchorage since as early as 1948 people from all over the world travel to Anchorage for the adidad and officially recognizing the mushing District as part of downtown is good for our local businesses and great for tourists as part of the mushing District agreement the mushers arch will be installed on 4th Avenue I am confident this will Aid in the progress and vision to enhance the downtown experience for tourists and residents alike furthermore I'd like to everyone encourage everyone when the fur RI um collector's pins come out to please purchase them yesterday on indigenous people's day I had the pleasure of meeting with the mayor of inchan Korea we had a very good delightful visit and discussed our sister city program which they are part of and always our offices and how our offices can work together also recently I met with the Brazilian Ambassador and Consul the Korean Consul and later this week I will be meeting with the Norwegian Council these diplomatic visits are important in strengthening anchorage's relationship with foreign cities and countries Anchorage is one of the most diverse cities in the US and many people from these places call our city home I value the relationship Anchorage has with these offices and I look forward to continuing strengthening our Partnerships that is all for me tonight uh Mr chair thank you thank you now it's time for oh now it's time for the chair's report good evening everybody welcome and I'd like to recognize yesterday was indigenous people's day and the first time the municipality officially closed non-essential services to commemorate the holiday in recognition and celebration I'm proud to present the digital artwork that was displayed today commissioned from local indigenous artists Kata next week we will welcome the Alaska Federation of natives convention an event that brings a lot of energy to our city it's the biggest event in the state annually and we are grateful for the opportunity to be the host again this year now I'd like to talk about the akuta river restoration project this is an important time to talk about the akuta river the Anchorage assembly has been working for many years with the native Village of akuta and other partners on the restoration of the aluta river it's disappointing to learn in the past several weeks that the project Owners Group seems set on a solution that is in opposition to the expressed position of the Native Village of akuta the Anchorage assembly as well as the federal fish and wildlife and other stakeholders not only is full restoration of the river the right thing to do to respect the vision and the people who have stewarded this land long before the municipality and the dams that we put up existed but it also has huge economic potential as you heard at our meeting a few weeks ago with the native Village of auten the council and UT Inc have exciting plans to use the restoration of the river to develop Recreation and tourism opportunities in the area just imagine what it would be like when the fish have returned and we have one of the most robust Fisheries in the upper Cook Inlet right in our backyard that's why I'll be asking the assembly to join with me in the coming weeks to support our partners in their yearlong yearslong effort Generations long effort quest to restore the aluta river the restoration project stemmed from historical wrong and this is our opportunity to make a historic right anything short of full restoration is a continuation of the nearly Century long cultural and environmental destruction that we have all been working to overcome this last week we had an opportunity to meet with the uh Anchorage caucus the Alaska legislature member broy and I met with the caucus to update them on the assembly's work and present our initial ideas for the Anchor's for Anchor's legislative priorities in 2024 while the M municipality submits a program of priorities to our encorage legislators every year this year we are taking proactive collaborative steps to bring these priorities to life we look forward to working closely with the Anchorage caucus to make strategic local Investments during the 2024 session I would also like to thank Senator Kaufman and representative me for investing their time and energy in this partnership now the budget so yes the ADN decided to take me to task on calling the budget of fantasy and I will offer just a couple of areas in which this budget is still a fantasy the Administration has presented to us a fact that they need in 2024 to update the sap program to ensure that our system continues to work with the $3 million price tag they knew this months ago and yet it's not in the budget so there's a $3 million expense coming but it's not accounted for there was also a $2.5 million legal settlement for a contract that was illegally authorized by the administration that was on a temporary basis paid out of construction funds that were intended to be used for addressing concerns relating to homelessness this year but instead were spent on a settlement that settlement and its appropriation is actually not in the budget for 2024 those are just two examples the Anchorage Daily News cited the fact that the Administration has been successful at overcoming issues related to not enough staff at the municipality by Outsourcing contracts we learned at the last meeting that they knew the cost of the sleep off center the anchored safety patrol has tripled and C it's not accounted for in the budget so a million expense or so is now a $3 million expense or so but it's not accounted for in the budget so like fantasy football versus actual NFL football we have a budget process that's about to begin it's fitting to be looking towards 2024 as today's meeting is a major Milestone items 10 G3 through 10 G6 represent the mayor's proposed budget for next year before we take action on the budget during our November 21 regular meeting the assembly will hold three work sessions our first is this Friday October 13th from 11:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. followed by another on Friday October 27th and another on Thursday November 9th when we're done our budget will be a reflection of our values so over the next few weeks the assembly will work to engage the public and set a budget for next year that reflects those values there will be two public hearings on October 24th and November 7th and we welcome public input along the way you can also submit you can come in person or you can submit comments online www.muni.org assembly I want to thank very much the co-chairs of the budget and finance committee members Bry and zotel for lighting our way through this very cumbersome process in the meantime there's much work to be done before the end of the year I will note that there have been a series of items laid on the table relating to emergency cold weather shelter I'm glad that the mayor is now talking again in support of the assembly and his staff who've been working so hard to prepare for the coming winter the items that have been laid on the table I'm not sure what's going to happen with them because we just received them we've been asked to hold a special meeting and a special meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday at I think 3:10 p.m. to take these items up but if they can be taken care of tonight we probably will thanks to the hard work of the health department staff and the leadership from the housing and homelessness committee chair Felix Rivera our city has a plan for providing emergency cold weather shelter before winter arrives for the first time in a long time the truth is we're coming together on solutions that work for Anchorage providing both non-congregate shelter with services and support and Sheltering small groups in congregate settings when appropriate and investing in housing speaking of housing anchorages housing shortage crisis is in is an everyone problem last year rents in Alaska jumped by more than 7% on average the highest increase in more than a decade the median single family home listing price in Anchorage Rose 43% in only 3 years from $311,000 in January 2020 to $446,000 in May 2023 putting home ownership further out of of reach and that doesn't even begin to tap into the challenges provided to us by the increase of interest rates it's hard to find low rates these days there's supply and demand imbalance and we don't have enough housing options for everybody who wants to live here so today the assembly leadership announced an event calendar for housing action week culminating in the community housing action Summit on Friday November 3rd at the UAA Student Union housing action week brings together Community organizations policy makers and most importantly our neighbors in a wide-reaching conversation about housing policy and Anchorage I encourage everyone to participate in housing Anchorage week housing action week from the make it Monday luncheon with the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce to future cities family fun at the Mountain View Library even Chuck Marone who's coming up from strong towns there's something for everyone learn more about housing action week and browse events at Anchorage housing action.org that really concludes my report suffice to say this is a business meeting we're here to do the work of the municipality I thank you for your help in creating a climate of respect in the chambers please keep the aisles clear except when you're lined up to testify if you need to hand something to the members you can hand it to staff up in the front of the Das please stop speaking of a point of order is called so I may rule on the point of order and the record is clear if rules are not followed I may interrupt speakers for to ask for compliance if compliance with the rules doesn't occur then I may pause the meeting if there's an actual disruption I will give a warning and if the disruption persists or happens again person may be asked to leave thank you all that was a long report and next we're going to move on to the rest of our agenda so starting from my right we're going to have committee and Lea on reports Mr Myers nothing to report thank you m thank you Mr Martinez thank you Mr chair good evening everyone the the last meeting of the community and economic development committee met on October 5th and the next meeting of the community and economic development committee will be November 2nd normally we meet twice a month and that next meeting would be October 19th but we've canceled that meeting to uh to participate in afn uh and I just wanted to highlight that the things that we talk about at the community and economic development committee are really in line with uh right now we're focused on housing as you see that a priority for the uh for the assembly and our housing Summits coming up and in our committee we really get into the technical aspects of title 21 uh the changes needed and required in code and a lot of our uh the staff that attends these meetings are the technical staff in the development services and the permitting department so I just wanted to offer appreciation to the staff that participates in those meetings and to let the public know what's happening those meetings and you're invited the next one happens again on November 2nd at the permitting Center at 9:00 a.m. thank you chair thank you Mr R thank you Mr chair there's going to be a special meeting of the housing and homelessness committee tomorrow October 11th from 10: to 11:30 a.m. at City Hall Room 1 155 to kick off the next phase of the Clean Slate strategy uh which is the work to select permanent year round lower barrier shelter we're going to be catching up on the work done since this group last met and then discuss some next steps the regular meeting of the housing and homelessness committee is going to be taking place next Wednesday October 18th from 11: a.m to 12:30 p.m. at City Hall Room 1:55 we will discuss the ongoing implementation of emergency cold weather Shelter by that point by October 18th the 372 non- congregate beds and the 150 congregate beds should be online we're also going to begin preliminary discussions on the transition out of emergency cold weather shelter and we'll also have a presentation on the housing policy strategic plan a couple updates on AML the Alaska Municipal League last week members should have received their invitation to register for aml's annual meeting from December 6th through December 8th at the denina center I encourage both my colleagues and assembly staff to attend as much as you can as well as members of the administration uh this is a great opportunity to connect with other local government officials who face similar issues as we do finally member Bry and I attended the joint meeting between AML and the Alaska superintendent Association a couple weeks back one up quick update from that meeting that I think members will appreciate in the last few weeks the Juno School District received Clarity from deed that's the Alaska Department of Education and early development that in fact providing funding for community schools child care and and transportation does not count towards the disparity test and thus won't count towards the local contribution limit uh so ded's going to be sending out formal clarifications to all school school districts on that matter at some point Thank thank you thank you Mr a Miss branga nothing to report thank you Mr branga Mr Johnson report he said nothing to report his mic might be down it U Miss thank you Mr chair um I will just um on behalf of the chair uh remind everyone that there's a rules committee meeting from 1: to 300 p.m. um at City Hall in room 155 um and that the budget um committee that I co-chair with Miss broy and the Enterprise and utility oversight committee um that I um chair and work with Mr Johnson on um which would usually be set for the 19th is pushed to uh October 26th due to afn being in town thank you thank you Miss zotel um Mr Bond thank you Mr chair at our health policy committee on October 4th um we heard on a number of interesting topics we heard from director rash um uh the the standing report from the acting director of the health department um we did hear some very disturbing and concerning updates regarding the former contract holder for the management of the Anchorage Safety Center and Anchorage safety patrol on that Securitas and we also heard the rationale for changing contractors to Solem medical um I am pleased that Anchorage health department is addressing those issues and I appreciate their transparency in sharing their concerns on the record as well as walking us through their timeline for decision making although a new contract will be more expensive as as the chair um indicated in in his report I do believe we will see a higher level of service with less potential liability impacts to the municipality and a shift from a security mindset to one that is more Healthcare oriented additionally we heard an update on animal care and control some of the challenges that they are facing with um animal intakes uh we heard a briefing on AO 2023 94 regarding um an amendment to title 17 uh around le la and then we also heard uh on a briefing on AO 20231 from chair constant on his ordinance co-sponsored by member Martinez we regarding substance testing of employees um so that was our health policy committee update um additionally I'll just let folks know that this week I'll be attending the Anchorage Home Builders Association conference uh I'll be joining a a panel along with the mayor and some others um and giving a presentation on the assembly's work on housing thank you Mr chair thank you Mr vond and uh Miss BR yeah thank you um and I will not repeat um some of the updates that were already given so thank you to my colleagues for uh touching on those um just to highlight um again the budget and finance committee will be meeting um October 26th um that's a week later than we normally do um 12:10 to 1:10 p.m. in city hall5 and then um the chair already reiterated and invited the public to our work sessions on the fy2 24 budget so just a reminder that will be coming up and um the assembly uh passes a balance Budget on time every year and we are anticipating passage of that budget at our November 21st meeting so um that is the timeline we're working on um for the legislative committee um our next meeting is actually tomorrow it's Wednesday uh October 11th from 1:00 to 2 p.m. also City Hall 1 155 We are continuing to develop our annual legislative program collaboratively with the mayor's office and um we will be uh aiming to bring that final program for a vote on our December 5th meeting and just a reminder that is uh the program that the municipality develops every year identifying our legislative priorities both funding and policy priorities that we bring to the legislature and then um we spend some of our time uh during the legislative session advocating for uh for anchorage's interest um and then lastly on the AML Alaska Municipal League um thank you again to Mr Rivera for the updates and um also to note we are working on submitting some policy resolutions um for AML to consider um things that not only address uh an issues in Anchorage but things of concern to all local governments so we're working uh collaboratively with um other folks in AML on that and again uh really inviting everybody to par participate in that annual um conference on December 6th through the 8th and I believe that's all my reports thank you thank you Mr Bry uh Mr salt nothing to report thank you thank you Mr pres Ria thank you Mr chair uh two reports this evening one uh we the Public Safety Committee met on October 4th and uh had an update from the office of emergency management around the upper Cook Inlet uh tsunami study and learned about that that study and and um was encouraged to uh to reach out and and encourage the community to attend uh the events that they have coming up um also um we got a report from APD on body cameras as well as uh license plate readers um additionally there was a meeting of the Anchorage Equity committee on September 28th uh that that committee had a number of updates uh one from the acting internal audit director um regarding um uh a language access audit also um had had discussions around um a number of the ordinance that has passed recently by by the assembly namely the ordinances around language access the naming panel Etc um encourage folks to to both attend the the upcoming Equity uh uh committee meetings and the next public safety committee meeting uh thank you thank you Mr pres Veria Mr Terrell yes so the uh student Advisory Board met today and we continue discussing the uh CCL and Career Academy programs which has a conference meeting on Thursday and then Additionally the oog conference will be beginning on Friday and is being hosted at West Valley in Fairbanks and we'll have over 300 attendees from all outline six regions of Alaska and so this this is just a conference um for student Le uh resolutions to gain a bigger platform and kind of create a unified voice for the students of Alaska that is all will you be attending that meeting uh yes sir thank you very much um all right that brings us to the addendum to the agenda but before we get there we're going to address the late on the table items which incorporate any late on the table items into the agenda before we adopt it so I have one two nine late on the table items which uh are generally disfavored we have a time crunch before us relating to emergency cold weather shelter so five of those items are laid on the table today and will require us to go through the laid on the table procedure so first I'm going to go ahead and read the items that are just supplementary um that's item 10 B3 wait I'm sorry um so item 14 A2 assembly memorandum number am 753-2226 101 ordinance the anchor assembly repealing and replacing Anchorage Municipal Code chapter 3.30 part 19 rule 19 personel rules to conform the substance misuse testing of employees to federal and state regulations and provide the human resources department authority to establish policies and procedures for substance misuse testing and is necessary to publish interim guidance to employees and supervisors item 14 A3 ordinance number 20223 101s an ordinance of the Anchorage assembly repealing and replacing Anchorage Municipal Code code chapter 3.30 part 19 rule 19 Personnel rules to conform the state substance misuse testing of employees to federal and state regulations and provide the human resource department authority to establish policies and procedures for substance misuse testing and as necessary to publish interim guidance to employees and supervisors also connected is item 14 A4 assembly memorandum unnumbered am so item 14 G2 am number unnumbered 2023 in ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending certain provisions of the Anchorage Municipal Code title 8 penal code to update and amend sections for consistency with statute amendments mayor's office also we have another unnumbered excuse me it is numbered it's item 13A AR 2023-24 s a resolution adopting recommendation to be forwarded to the Anchorage metropolitan area transportation Solutions aats policy committee regarding the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation plan public review draft now back to the items that we need to consider by vote so we have item 10 B3 uh unnumbered resolution AR 2023 a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly supporting the efforts of the Anchorage School District School Board Municipal Matsu burough School District School Board student representatives to ensure meaningful student advocacy and engagement in the decision-making process um this one is unusual because it's drafted both by Mr Riva and youth member Tyrell um so Mr trell one thing I didn't brief you about is when we have a laate on the table item the sponsor has to describe why it's time sensitive and so rather than go to Mr ver I'm going to go to you for that please can you tell us why it's time sensitive oh I'm sorry Mr Rivera yeah move to lay on the table second so now it's moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr Bond Mr TR yeah so I'll keep this brief in the effort for time but uh this in support of a resolution going towards oog the uh conference which I just mentioned and uh that conference is happening this Friday and will not be in time for the next meeting uh thank you thank you any discussion oh I have Mr rera no I'm actually good thanks thank you all right anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote this item does take eight votes I was just kicked out I think are you out numbers May proceed to vote Adrian there we go you can go ahead and vote I vote you you chair constant how do you vote I vote Yes I got B boxed out so on a vote of 11 to zero uh that item has been laid oh and the youth member votes yes yes that item has been laid on the table so next we have okay thanks item 10 C2 assembly memorandum unnumbered 2023 recommendation of Award of contract for ESS DBA Statewide services for congregate shelter Food Services to the municipality of Anchorage uh $432,900 closely with um the Anchorage Health Department um we have not had any direct involvement in terms of the contract um selection for any of these items we are not the recipients of any of these items however we will um work closely with any contractors in place to ensure particularly that coordinated entry which is a funding policy set by the municipality um is carried out as we are responsible for the coordin ated entry system um as well as that the homelessness management information system hmis is used so with that I would ask that you would rule on these um possibly making a distinction between those which are food and those which are operators um and those which are Hotel owners thank you thank you Miss El one sec all right thank you so um the the the real question is are these substantially in Do you have a substant final personal or financial interest in in these items and I it's difficult to take them all up because they're they're not all the same and they're not all different and so I guess in the relationship to the Food Services your organization have any connection to the Food Service items no we did do prior advocacy um I did do prior advocacy in my role at the Coalition for the policy adopted by the assembly for purposes of the Baseline requirements for the food so you don't have any oversight or make recommendations we have made recommendations in the past but we make no recommendations as to the particular vendor or um yeah as to the particular vendor okay and then um relating to the provider of services for congregate shelter does your organization engage in the work around the congregate shelter at this time um based on the policy um adopted with the um appropriation we will oversee the hmis requirement as well as um we hold the coordinated entry list M and the same is true for the non-congregate yes there's no distinction between the types of Sheltering for those requirements if I'm remembering the assembly policy correctly so I'm going to rule that it's because we're at the point where we're granting contracts to individual organizations you will be working with for the actual and non- congregate shelters that you will have a conflict but for the Food Services it's too attenuated you're not overseeing you're not being told you can be engaged the the most I think you would do for food is if you witnessed the food service was not sufficient you would say something but I think any Resident of Anchorage who had a conscience would say something and so I don't think that has a bearing on your work so I would say you have no conflict on 10 C2 or 10 C6 but for 10 C3 4 and five you do um so clarification on 10 C5 I believe that is just the leasing of the hotel rooms and not the operations okay fair enough um I I would resend my argument and if I'm wrong on that I should be corrected is uh there anyone that's going to say any different for item 10 C5 I think that's simply awarding the contract for Miss Johnson thank you Alexis Johnson Anchorage Health Department can we ask that question one more time I was in a side conversation my apologies the contract proposed to the Alaska Hotel Group for non- congrate Sheltering operational Services just the rental of the rooms or is it for the services provided there as well it is one encapsulating contracts um so it is subcontracting as well okay thank you one contract yeah the same as 10 C4 and 10 C so my original ruling is going to stand that for items 10 C2 and 10 C6 there is no conflict but for items 10 C3 4 and five there is a personal a substantial personal financial impact there thank you then Mr chair I would request that you take up the lay down the table 10 C2 and 10 C6 together and I can be excused and then we can take up the rest when I [Applause] return just take the too late on the table all right is there any objection to the ruling of the chair hearing and seeing none the ruling of the chair stands so um next we have item 10 C2 am unnumbered recommendation of Award of a contract with ESS DBA Statewide Services ESS for congregate Sheltering Food Services Municipality of Anchorage 4 32729 what's will the body mov to lay on the table second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Miss Broly Mr Rivera I would ask the administration to speak to the rationale and so I might miss Johnson I might ask you to just stay up here for the next few put a chair down there Alexis Johnson encorage Health Department one more time please just a rational for why this is time sensitive oh through the chair to the body um this all contracts pertaining to emergency cold weather shelter are um very time sensitive we do have plans and we have communicated um that we will have shelters open and operational October 16th so the sooner that we can get this approved um the sooner we can get the ball rolling um hope that helps thank you anyone else wish to discuss the item hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on the motion to lay on the table it's just on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes that item has been laid on the table um as requested by Miss alal will now take up 10 C6 am unnumbered 2023 recommendation of Award of a contract to Majestic Alaska DBA spins for non- congregate Sheltering Food Services for the Municipality of Anchorage Anchorage Health Department $831,000 what's will the body move to L on the table second moved by Mr Riva seconded by Mrs alel Mr Rivera same R rationale as the last one through the chair of the body yes it is M Johnson says it's the same anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote shall this be light on the table on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes that item has been laid on the table second Chris I would note for turn offic for a second and having some technical difficulties to see on know sorry about that folks so um before we move on to the next items I have a question from assembly Council um so the memorandums that we just received the funding documents are supposed to come with attached Department memorandum but there aren't any attachments do you know if there are more documents coming through the chair um I don't but I can get that answer for you it could be that it's boilerplate I don't know so I just want to make sure okay so we'll continue through the process if they get laid on the table we'll have some time before we get to them we can figure that out so I think it's probably just a a vestigial language so okay next we have item 10 C3 assembly memorandum unnumbered did I do that one I'm sorry okay unnumbered recommendation of Award of contract to Hing ink for congregate Sheltering operational services for the municip of Anchorage Anchorage Health Department ITB 2023b 085 for $2,384 Mr uh what's the well the body move to lay on the table is there a second second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr B Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair I assume the same rationale applies through the chair of the body yes it does thank you Mr Johnson says it's the same rationale anyone else hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote Mr Martinez how do you vote on a vote of 10 to zero with one member recuse and the youth member votes yes yes unnumbered am TC3 is laid on the table next we have item 10 C4 a numbered am assembly memorandum recommendation of Award of contract Henning Inc for non- congregate Sheltering for operational services for the Municipality of Anchorage Anchorage Health Department ITB 2023b 086 1 million $554,500 um what's the will of the body move to lay on the table second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr vand Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair I assume the same rationale applies through the chair of the body yes it does thank you all right Miss Johnson says yes it does anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 10 to zero with one member recused and the youth member votes yes yes uh 10 C4 the unnumbered am is laid on the table next we have item 10 C5 assembly memorandum unnumbered recommendation of board contract Alaska Hospitality Group for non- congregate Sheltering operational services for the Municipality of Anchorage Anchorage Health Department ITB 2023 B 086 in the amount of 4,340 160 what's the will the body move to on the table second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr band Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair I assume the same rationale applies through the chair to the body yes it does great thank you so M Johnson says yes anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote for now on a vote of 10 to zero with one member recused the youth member votes yes yes that item has been laid on the table so um for those of you wondering in the public why did they just do all of that it's really not favored to lay items on the table because it takes up time no assembly member had a chance to really read any of those items so much of the decision- making process is being done on trust and that is not good governance but sometimes deadlines um make it so that the work has to be done with less scrutiny thankfully some members have scrutinized these deals and proposals and itbs pretty closely so the assembly has had some insight into it laid on the table is not favored I will just say that again we had a number of them tonight so if that seemed like make work it was to protect the public interest so next on the agenda I would like to ask for a motion to incorporate the addendum as printed and distributed and the laate on the table items so moved second moved by Miss zotel seconded by Mr V any discussion I'm GNA ask for unanimous consent seeing hear hearing no objection the laid on the table items and the the addendum have been incorporated into the agenda next we have appearance requests on the agenda there are no appearance requests so now we'll move into the consent agenda so the consent agenda are items number 10 a through 10f and are typically routine or non-controversial items such as bid Awards new business information reports and ordinances and resolutions for introduction ction the items on the consent agenda may be accepted or approved by the assembly by a single vote on a motion to approve the consent agenda prior to approval items may be pulled by an assembly member for discussion and separate vote on each of the items under the assembly rules of procedure all ordinances and some resolutions will have an opportunity for public hearing on a future date so now I'm going to go down the dis starting with Mr Presa would you like to pull any items no items thank you chair thank you uh Mr salt i' like to pull 10 A5 10 g12 and 10 G14 so I have 10 A5 10 G2 and 10 G14 M broy yeah thank you I have um several um 10 A1 10 A8 10 D3 10 D5 10 d8 10 F1 and 10 F3 so I have for you miss barley 10 A1 10 A8 10 D3 10 D5 10 d8 10 F1 and 10 F3 yes all right thank you Mr R no items thank you Mr chair thank you Miss alel thank you Mr chair just one moment I'd like to pull item 10 C2 which was a late on the table item 10 C1 as well 10 Delta 1 10 Delta 5 10 Delta 12 through 15 10 d8 and I believe that that is all all right so for you miss alel I have items 10 C1 and 10 C2 then 10 D1 10d 12 through 15 10d 18 is that all of them I believe so thank you um Mr Johnson no items thank you you miss branga has 10 D7 been pulled not yet okay that's it winner Mr rera thank you several of my items have been pulled but I have several more um so I have 10 D6 uh 10 C6 10 C3 10 B3 and 10 E1 really scrambling eggs going backwards there Mr Rivera so 10 B1 10 B3 10 C3 103 10 C6 and then 10 D6 is that it uh not 10 Bravo one but 10 Echo one oh okay thank you so I'll do that one more time 10 B3 10 C3 10 C6 10 D6 and then 10 E1 all right thank you Mr Vera Mr Martinez no items thank you Mr Martinez Mr Myers I believe my item has been pulled 10 D5 okay 10 D or B thank you that one pulled okay so I'm going to go through the list one last time it looks like we haven't had 10 A2 or three pulled is anyone reading those uh yes p pull 1082 I believe uh member Z's reading and then 1083 and yes we should be pulling 1083 right and so um Mr I'm gonna okay so now I have 10 A1 M broy 10 A2 Mr Johnson 10 A3 Mr Riva 10 A5 Mr Su 10 A8 Miss broy 10 B3 Mr Rivera 10 C1 Miss alel 10 C2 Miss alel T 3 Mr Rivera 10 C6 Mr Rivera 10 D1 Miss alel 10 D3 Miss broy 10 D5 Miss broley 10 D6 Mr Rivera 10 D7 Miss branga 10 d8 Miss broley 10d 12 13 14 15 Miss alil 10d 18 Miss alel 10 E1 Mr Rivera 10 F1 and 10 F3 Miss broley 10 g12 and 14 Mr salt did I miss anything oh okay youth member no items thank you all right thank you so next I'm going to go ahead and ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the pulled items so moved second moved by Miss alel seconded by Mr Rivera is there any objection hearing it and seeing none the consent agenda has been adopted by unanimous consent for The public's information other than all those items that were just pulled the assembly has now passed or accepted all the rest of the items in 10 a through 10f will take up the rest of the items next the items that have been introduced for future public hearing all the items in in section 10g except the two pulled items so if you're here to see action on the items listed on the consent agenda we not pulled those items have been passed or accepted so next we're going to take a moment of privilege and we're going to swear in the newly confirmed Chief Financial Officer of the municipality no one pulled his item so it was adopted Mr th please come with your family of course if she wants to welcome all right I'm G have you raise your right hand I state your name I Alden thur solemnly swear solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Alaska the constitution of the state of Alaska and the charter of the Municipality of Anchorage and the charter of the Municipality of Anchorage and that I will Faithfully perform and that I will Faithfully perform the duties of Chief fiscal officer the duties of Chief fiscal officer to the best of my ability to the best of my ability all right I'll hand to [Applause] you for e congratulations and welcome aboard Mr th you have already provided great service to this municipality we look forward to your Fidel going forward so next we have item 10 A1 I probably should wait till the clerk gets back but train doesn't run very well without a clerk so 10 A1 is AR 2023-24 resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing October 2023 as Filipino American History Month a time to celebrate Filipino Americans in their cultural and historic contributions um what's the all the body move to approve second moved by melel seconded by Mr Rivera is there any objection you got for an amendment oh okay that's right uh Miss broy yes I'd like to move uh broy amendment number one second so there's an amendment moved by Miss broley seconded by Miss zotel Miss broley yeah thank you um this is just briefly adding a whereas Clause um to the resolution um that uh recognizes the fact that uh this year 2023 we can update our standard resolution because the Alaska legislature passed House Bill 23 and recognized Filipino American History Month on a permanent basis so I want to make sure that we include that as well any objection to the amendment hearing and seeing none the resolution has been amended so any objection to the main motion hearing and seeing none the item has been adopted unanimously who is reading and who's presenting Miss BR you reading all right so you have the floor is someone here to receive welcome and come on down do I try to put this in here you could if you can manage it or just read it as is your your call all right whereas the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the United States was on October 18th 1587 and the first Filipinos arrived in Alaska in 1788 on the fur trading ship if Eagen nubiana with Filipinos settling in Alaska in the early 1900s in the coastal villages in southeast and in Bristol Bay and in the 1930s in Anchorage and whereas Filipino Americans have a rich history of public and military service and participation and leadership in social justice movements including the United Farm Workers movement the fight of ethnic studies the Hawaii sugar Plantation strikes the Washington Yakama strikes and the anti- marial law movements and whereas the Filipino American National Historical society's 2023 Filipino American History Month theme is 1898 recognizing 125 years of Philippine American history acknowledging the establishment of Phil phine and US relationship through the Treaty of Paris and whereas on May 12th 2023 the Alaska legislature passed House Bill 23 sponsored by representative Genevie Mina and supported by 43 co-sponsors formerly recognizing the month of October annually in Alaska as Filipino American history month and the bill was later signed into law by Governor Mike Dunley on July 20th 23 23 and whereas June 12 2023 marked the 125th anniversary of the Filipino Declaration of Independence after centuries of Spanish colonial rule and Independence that was short-lived and not recognized by Spain or the United States but which planted the seeds and ignited the desire for philppines to eventual Independence in 1946 and whereas the we recognize the advocacy leadership courage and service of Filipino Americans in Anchorage and Alaska whose passion dedication and resolve have helped to sustain our community and state during challenging and transformative times now therefore the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizes and celebrates October 2023 as Filipino American History [Applause] Month who would like to speak welcome the microphone is not on so you got to figure out which button it's like a yellow button green button there you go you're on hello welcome okay perfect mauhi my name is Joshua albea britter I've lived in Alaska since the age of three when my father who was serving the United States Navy was stationed on the island of adak after he retired in the base Clos Mo to Anchorage and I grew up here and I'm still here today I stand before you today as a proud Filipino man as a ilocano elongo man as an Alaskan and as a member of this beautiful Community I also stand here today with members of our Alaska Federation of Filipino Americans and the Filipino community of Anchorage Alaska who I'm proud to stand with as well as mana mana is a project founded by Filipino Americans Shane noesa and Tasha elazar and myself that is recording the history of Filipinos in in Alaska right now the Phil Filipinos in Alaska have been present here since well for 235 years whatever date that would be it's a lot it's a long time we have been here and we have been a involved member of Alaska building our canaries building our roads through the do Betsy angle who was the first female director of design in the Arctic we have been present throughout the state but our history has often gone Untold one book written by the first ever Filipino legislator Thelma buckholt was written on Filipinos in Alaska in 1996 and since then another book publishing our history has not been written there's a lot of history a lot of stories that have not been told but that history is valuable I told you that our group is called Mana that word is tagalag and it means the history we inherit but it also means the history we pass down on October 28th at the Anchorage Museum a first ever exhibit will be premiering titled Mana which will be featuring firstperson stories from Filipinos all across Alaska from the canaries and Kodiak to Fairbanks to uh people in AAC like me I hope that all the members of the assembly here will come and attend to hear our stories to celebrate Filipino history to celebrate the past and to celebrate the future of the beautiful Filipino community that I'm proud to be of the third biggest demographic in Alaska and one that is solidly shaping the future of that as we can see by this being the first ever state recognized Filipino American history month so so come celebrate with us on the 28th it'll be from 11:00 to 1 and I'll be looking for all of you there thank you so your event on the 28th where and when it will be at the uh the Anchorage museum at the an when free and it's free thanks to members of the FCA who sponsored it it starts at 9:00 a.m. or it starts at 11:00 a.m. 11 to1 reasonable people so um thank you very much and um look very much forward to the event I'm sorry I can't attend you know I think that there has been much conversation about where Anchorage should have its next sister city and I just can't understand why we haven't had a push from the community to have a sister city from the Philippines because you're right it's one of the largest demographics in our state and it feels like there's a hole and so just something to think about it's not exactly easy to get a new sister city because takes time and energy but it seems worth building that relationship so I don't I don't see anyone else in the queue thank you all very much thank you next on the agenda we have item 10 A2 resolution AR 20233 38 resolution of the Anchorage assembly and mayor Bronson welcoming delegates and attendees to the 2023 Alaska Federation of natives convention October 19 to 21 2023 what's SW the body move to approve second moved by Miss zotel seconded by Mr Rivera any discussion I'm seeing none I ask for unanimous consent any objection seeing hearing none this item has been adopted next who is reading and who is presenting I'm reading Mr chair and Mr Johnson is presenting all right M alel you have the floor thank you a resolution of the Anchorage assembly and mayor Bronson welcoming delegates and attendees to the 2023 Alaska Federation of natives convention October 19 to 21 2023 whereas the municip Municipality of Anchorage is honored to host the 2023 Alaska Federation of native convention afn October 19 to 21 2023 and extends a warm welcome to the delegates attendees family members and guests and whereas the 2023 afn convention theme is our ways of life which reflects one of the fundamental principles that we uphold across the state and whereas in October 1966 more than 400 Alaska natives transcended Regional rivalries to found the Alaska Federation of natives which has grown to represent more than 209 federally recognized tribes 185 Village corporations nine Regional corporations and 10 Regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums and whereas the afn convention brings together between 1500 to 2500 delegates and close to 6,000 attendees fulfilling the afn's mission to enhance and promote the cultural values and the economic and political voices of the Alaskan native community and whereas the annual afn convention is the largest representative yearly gathering in the United States of any native peoples generating an economic impact on the host City in excess of $6 million and whereas encorage cherishes the rich cultural Traditions history and values of Alaska's native people and the Alaskan n and as Alaska's largest Native Village is proud to be home to more than 23,000 Alaskan natives and now therefore in the spirit of w a welcoming Community the INR assembly recognizes and honors the traditions and knowledge of Alaska's native people and encourages the people of encorage to welcome and embrace the delegates and attendees to the 2023 Alaska Federation of natives convention passed and approved by the Anchorage assembly this 10th day of October 2023 welcome Miss Kika there yes well I wanted to thank uh you Mr chairman and and members of the assembly and mayor Bronson uh for this um resolution um we will read it at our convention on October 19th when it starts and we very much appreciate the recognition of our community I think we're up to about 160,000 um in the state we're very proud uh to be alaskans we're proud to have members in Anchorage and um was very excited to to see the the previous resolution with the Filipino community on that proud to be in partnership with other alaskans on that so thank you very much and we appreciate this and we'll read it to all our members thank you thank you and welcome right next we have 10 A3 AR 2023 339 a resolution of Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing and honoring Greg gron for more than 40 years of service in the Anchorage fire department what's the all of the body move to approve second second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Miss zotel I heard someone else but missed it um so what's any discussion on this point of information uh Mr chair oh yeah Mr Mayor you have been added as a sponsor I would note that um if that's what you're inquiring about yes it is thank you Mr chair also Mr Meyers Mr pres Veria and Mr Cross Were Somehow left off I'm not sure how so they have also all been added as sponsors so um thank you Mr Mayor and so I would like to ask for unanimous consent hearing and seeing no objection that item is adopted who's reading I'm reading Mr chair all right Mr Martinez you have the floor a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing and honoring Greg grg for more than 40 years of service in the Anchorage fire department whereas fire apparatus engineer Greg RG retired from the Anchorage fire department on November 30th 2021 drawing to a close a distinguished career of 40 years that started on October 19th 1981 and whereas engineer grona wig attained the rank of engineer early in his career and served most of his years of of service at fire station 8 on omali road so long that his initials are said to be embedded in the concrete and whereas engineer grona wig played a pivotal role in the multi year process of design engineering implementation and administration of a modern self-contained breathing apparatus program to reliably protect the lives and health of firefighters of Anchorage chugat and Girdwood and whereas among engineered Groner wigs recognitions were a mer ameritus conduct in 1998 distinguished service in 2006 and a lifesaver off duty and whereas in over 40 years at the Anchorage Fire Department engineer growick never once took a sick day whoo that the woe is not in the resolution aside from the on the job injuries and whereas engineer grona wig earned a fire science degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and a Bachelor of Science in healthc care and admin healthcare administration and whereas engineer grona was known for his dedication to his craft service to his community and compassion towards those he served often noting that firefighters frequently encounter people on the worst day of their lives and whereas engineer grona wig is a second generation Anchorage firefighter whose career followed the footsteps of his father Robert Bob grg who served with the fire department from 1958 to 1962 and whereas engineer grona wig is a lifelong Alaskan born in Anchorage before statehood at the old Providence hospital and joined in his service by his wife of over 40 years Teresa who together raised their raised four children Rebecca David Daniel and Jessica now therefore the anguage municipal assembly recognizes and honors Greg grona wig for 40 plus years of service to the citizens of Anchorage and the Anchorage Fire Department oh he's a character thank you so much what a great day great day 40 years were great nice seeing Doug shogy here we hired on pretty much the same time and uh Chief's commitment to the department is just no one's ever surp surpassed it so I thank you for that Doug I want want to thank all the support person now first you know a fireman out on the truck he doesn't get there by itself he gets here because of all the people that get in there it starts here well it starts with the with the mayor making a decision and the assembly approving it and hopefully at the end of the day we got people on the streets and I was one of those um I want to read some of these things because I don't want to miss these people I don't want to not mention them I want to thank all the support Personnel the dispatchers who had our backs the main and Shop Personnel they kept our trucks in good repair they jumped out sometimes we' come by the shop we had a problem we didn't want to go out of service even for a minute and they come out despite the fact their stalls are full of trucks to keep us on the road the admin including payroll and all those processing all that paperwork that has to be done to get a truck on the road you mentioned the amount of work it takes the in ectors visiting literally thousands of buildings looking for dangers to the public and for us in case of emergency thank you to the assembly members that learned what our job is and then could support it correctly next I'd like to mention some people that are close to me that was kind of the overview um one of those first off is my dad you want to come up I can't guarantee this won't be a little mushy yeah fire fire fire department kind of taught you to cry too first off my dad who brought me taught me excellence and integrity through example thank you thank you Dad he was an Anchorage firefighter back in the 50s when the world hadn't quite been tamed so much the life expectancy of a firefighter back then in Anchorage was 57 years old so we're doing better today I'd like to thank the men who hired me now they're they're gone now but I still want to mention their names they were good they were good men uh BC dick Penland and chief John Franklin these were rest in peace they were characters they really were then there was Tony nolles he was the mayor when I hired on and I met him in an elevator as I was headed towards the employment office as a new hire and uh I don't know how many of you knew Tony but in his prime uh uh he had that winning smile and he smiled at me in the elevator and I I felt like I was looking up at him like that even then and he said a fireman yeah that's what I want to be when I grow up my hiring class had four people on my shift who I consider friends and we would often reunite for anniversaries or 5 10 15 20 or 25 30 for the ones that uh and and uh our group made it a long ways and one of them is here tonight I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to read them out first one Gary Mack G man right in the back there Gary did how many years Gary 30 30 that's that's a lot of years uh Loretta Ryder uh Chad Kira a faster WID i' never seen uh Bob vanen he's my Dutch brother God bless him there were many folks along this there were many folks along the way but I spent years serving with two main people one was Mike Kone senior he was the best school firefighter ever saw when you got into trouble he was the man you wanted beside you tough and smart he was the Italian stalion before Rocky uh paramedic Craig Perry uh my brother in faith trustworthy and all things meet some really really wonderful people my last crew was Captain Chris Keane I didn't dream you guys would be here tonight I've been off a couple years now I guess um he's a true hero both on the job and in the military an incredible example of stature and skill and I mean that Chris URI Israel who's now living Africa with his wonderful family was the firefighter on the rig lastro and Brian Wilman a man that is something rare he has top-notch skills and compassion and that's a wonderful trait I wased bless to have been had the honor to be trusted to serve the citizens of Anchorage in their homes bedrooms kitchens living rooms Christmas middle of the night middle of the day with their loved ones we all took this very serious and I'm so proud of the men and women I serve beside folks were often in the worst of times when we were called but you saw lots of good good folks dealing with those times too the citizens support supported us in real time that's that's a Advantage we have every call every time on the street the citizens of Anchorage uh they've encouraged us for a period I was also privileged to serve in the if Nick is he is he still here he was here hi Nick Nick is the president I'm so glad he has great a really really compassionate man man who's smart too oh there 1264 I had the honor of serving with on the on the union with the union for a while and that was a great opportunity because you really got to work uh with people people the union is people I don't confuse it with some big conglomerate it's people it really is and we all stand together we help each other we work for a safer work envir you know we had our own goals with they matched the city and during that time I think we learned to work very well with the with the admin of fire and a lot of issues you know got solved by working together it was really nice after years prior I'm going to tell a story now and then I I'll be done it's firemen do two things we love to tell stories I missed the firehouse for that learned a lot in stories uh the second is we girl bearded retired it's just kind of part of the deal so I'm a little fuzzier than I was for 40 years but I finally got to let my hair grow I'm going to do see if I can do this by memory we had we have lots of Tours lots of kids that's the coolest part all going to school reading stories have them come and see the fire truck was a lot of fun but but in this particular tour it was a um a mother this this you'll see why I'm telling the story it was a mother and a daughter and I think she maybe holds homeschooled and I'm sure she had an assignment so she was there getting the information that she was supposed to get and uh towards the the very end of the tour um uh her her mom encouraged her to ask a question and the and the question was very unusual it caught us off guard I mean I was used to what color is your fire truck and I can usually get that one right or uh uh we went through a period where they were green if you didn't know um or how much water we carried but this girl asked this particular question and when something like what is the best or most important thing you've seen out there on all your calls and it set me back I mean I wasn't expecting it from a child um but uh but I was anxious to hear what the captain would say and Captain bird a very fine gentleman at the time deferred it to me as the senior member I had the gray hair already with 30 some years on I immediately reflected I I thought about revenging for the old senior thing after the story but I realized that the child and the mom were looking at me and uh and it caused me to reflect you know on on um many many many calls and and the most important thing out there is very simple really it's it's love it's out there and it keeps this city going I mean you guys are doing your part we we did our part on the street it's the same thing and it's the citizens that it's all about and uh and so I thank them they fed my family and uh they allowed me into their homes uh never beter their trust so thank you very much tonight I really appreciate this this is a culmination for me of 40 years and uh it means a lot thank you thank you Mr [Applause] Soul so while you take a picture Mr GR I think we missed something in your resolution and uh it's the fact that your father was a firefighter but also oh your son a little more in the B we have three generations right standing here and so I'm sorry we didn't get you listed in there Ryan but uh there's a son also this is three generations at least who have served this [Music] [Applause] municipality all right next on the agenda we have AR 2023-24 a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing October 2023 is disability employment Awareness Month what's the well the body move to approve second moved by Miss broley seconded by Mr bin M broy uh thank you is there any objection hearing and seeing none this resolution has been adopted uh who is reading who who is reading for 1085 Mr salt o all right all right sorry about that you have the floor going on to shake hands a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing October 2023 as disability employment Awareness Month whereas October is National disability employment Awareness Month celebrating the contribution of workers with disabilities and educating about the value of Workforce inclusive of their skills and talents and whereas the ndam theme for 2023 is advancing access and equity and whereas this year is the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in various areas of life including employment and and whereas disabilities disability can happen to anyone and people with disabilities including those with professional training can often contribute to the workforce with accommodations and modifications but are many times overlooked and whereas Alaska has a lower approval rate for social social security disability than other states yet adults with disabilties still need equal access to income and health care and whereas the past few years large scale challenges changing norms and employment adjustments prove that many employment requirements may be successfully completed in non-traditional ways and differently abled individuals have a legitimate and ongoing role in the work environment however it looks and changes and whereas hiring people with disabilities creates a vibrant diverse economically sound welcoming robust and competitive Alaskan Workforce and whereas policy makers labor leaders and employers can increase economic Vitality by training for and establishing disability inclusive workplaces with part-time professional work disability friendly technology and equal opportunity for all now therefore the Anchorage assembly recognizes October as disability employment awareness month and encourages the people of Anchorage to further their awareness about disability inclusive employment passed and approved by the anchor assembly this 10th day of October 2023 hello thank you very much for this resolution U my name is Anette alany and I'm the director of empowering education um first I'd like to invite you to the disability awareness art show put on by empowering education and Denali graphics and frame gallery near the corner of Artic and International Airport Road um employment includes the Arts so please support local artists this holiday season and you can meet the artists this Saturday October 14th from uh noon to 400 p.m. at Denali Graphics Gallery um recently somebody told me about a position that had a lot of interaction with people and hardly any technology requirements I asked for the application so I could share it with somebody and I was directed to an inaccessible website so in order to apply for a job without a lot of Technology someone needed to navigate in accessible technology so one suggestion for employers is to make websites more accessible and follow Ada guidelines for all postings another idea if someone has an inaccessible website and no it person to fix it is to allow for more than one method of application for a job this increases the ability of people to apply for jobs that they would excel at and allows for more local employment opportuni to increase um our Eon economic vitality and to speak more about accessibility I'd like to uh introduce Tori from assist of Technologies of Alaska good evening my name is Tori jingis I'm with the assist of Technology Resource Center um your assist of Technology Resource Center assist of Technology of Alaska assistive technology can be as low Tech as a pencil grip and as Hightech as itracking computer software identifying acquiring and training with assistive technology is essential for many employees with disabilities to access information communicate and perform their job tasks effectively as Annette mentioned having accessibility at the foundation of our Digital World creates equal opportunity for people with disabilities to apply for obtain and keep their jobs imagine for a moment that you no longer have the ability to touch the screen of your phone or to um read your email without considerable strain assistive technology can be the bridge to connecting what you know needs to be done uh with the strategy or device in order to do it today we come together to unequivocally say that people with disabilities are vital in all places including the workplace accessibility and assistive technology can support them to get there and stay there thank you Miss alel thank you thank you for being here um as you were raising um awareness around assistive Technologies um I want to highlight this particular piece for our youth representative Tyrell um as you go to your conference this week the place to learn about assisted Technologies and to get proficient with them is in school and schools need to provide accommodations to students um once they have an identified disab ility so staying up on the types of technologies that are available um in the workplace is a great opportunity and it's a great just like everyone else getting ready for their careers um this is a piece of that and so I'm really happy you highlighted that thank you all right thank you very much thank you next we have on our agenda item 1088 AR 2023 d345 a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage honoring Gary Smith to coincide with International e waste day what's will the body move to approve second moved by Miss broley seconded by Mr Rivera and ask for unanimous consent any objection uh Mr chair up go ahead Miss Bry um I also pulled this so that I could be added as a sponsor okay thank you and I don't know if others would like to as well anyone object to being added as a sponsor all right see no objection go ahead and add everyone and now uh with no objection this item has been adopted who is reading and who's presenting I'm reading Mr chair all right Mr Myers you have the floor come on down a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage honoring Gary Smith to coincide with International e-w Day whereas the Municipality of Anchorage lost a valuable and civic-minded businessman and Resident with the pass with the passing on May 13 2023 of Gary Smith lately of total reclaim Anchorage and whereas the waste management recycling community in the city and throughout the state of Alaska lost a generous and forward-thinking leader and whereas Gary Smith was a Timeless advocate for importance of safety and responsibility recycling spent Electronics as well as other hazardous waste so that the families in Alaska's great lands could be protected from the harmful chemicals they contained and whereas Gary Smith managed total reclaim to serve the Anchorage area in providing not only opportunity for businesses and households to recycle their Electronics but in providing free and in-kind services to countless individuals and nonprofit organizations and whereas in particular under Gary's generosity and aspiration to serve his fellow alaskans total reclaim offered free and discounted E-Waste recycling for senior citizens and Families in Need and sponsored free and discounted Community Recycling events and acreage in the greater outling area and whereas Gary was always eager to help nonprofit organizations with fundraisers supported collection events and whereas Gary was aware of the plight of underresourced rural Alaska communities that have no safe place to discard E-Waste helping make E-Waste recycling affordable for them by donating supplies and providing free and discounted services and whereas Gary was always available to provide rural communities advice over the phone and make time to present and assist in conferences trainings and other events in Anchorage and supported World Alaska Recycling efforts and whereas G uh assisted Anchorage organizations with donating training space Personnel towards facilitating e waste recycling in the state and whereas Gary attended the solid waste advisory committee meetings and was pleased with the most recent efforts to collaborate and host more community events in the multiple partners in this coming year and whereas Gary Smith's motto was always think of the next guy he followed his own advice in his work and personal life with with humor kindness and enthusiasm and will be solely missed by his wife his children his church his personal friends and his work colleagues now there for be it resolved that on behalf of the city of Anchorage the Anchorage generalist assembly finds it fitting on the sixth International ew day 21 recognize Gary Smith for the generosity given to the city and his fellow alaskans in advancing ewaste Recycling and two express to his family our sincerest condolences passed and improved on the Anchorage assembly this 10th day of October [Applause] 2023 anyone like to speak through the chair um members of the assembly Kelly to solid way Services I want to thank all of you for this opportunity to recognize and introduce you to U Mrs Mel Smith um it is the day to recognize your husband and all of his contributions and um it means a lot this is electronic waste month and so anything with a plug we'd rather have be recycled rather than going to the um the landfill and also thank you to representative Donna Mir for coming tonight and being a part and being a a supporter of this you say something thank you my name is Mel Smith and thank you for the recognizing at my husband work thank you city manager I your husband thank you that was more recognition resolutions we had in a while so next we will move on to item 10B 3 10 B3 Mr rera oh that's right I'm sorry have to read it first 10 B3 aumed resolution resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly supporting the effort of the Anchorage School District School Board and Matsu burough School District School Board student representatives to ensure meaningful student advocacy and engagement in the decision-making process Mr R uh thank you uh I'm move to approve second second moved by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr broy I think uh Mr Rivera yeah thank you Mr chair um so I pulled this item at the request of the youth member um so before I seed the floor to him I just want to um thank the youth member for this um resolution and um happy to carry this because I suppose that's uh the the system that we are in um hopefully maybe at some point maybe the youth member will just be able to introduce their own things but until then happy to carry that and uh would like to seed the floor to member Terell Mr trell you have the floor all right yeah and first I just like to apologize for the timeliness of this but um as you guys do not have access to this before I'll just quickly summarize so this resolution is in support of a another resolution going towards the asug conference which aims to um in the future create safeguards towards student voice in school boards so recently the Matsu buru um took it out of code to have their school board member which was elected by the uh sgaa U which is a collection of student Governors from across the buau and they removed pretty much the entire position including the ability to vote um the um being recognized in notes and um participation in discussion um pretty much invalidating the position um and so this resolution does not change anything but just offers the support to the resolution going towards the conference uh thank you m broley yeah thank you I just want to speak briefly in support of this resolution and thank you to uh youth member Terrell for bringing this and also to member AA for um helping helping our youth member participate um I just want to briefly share um I attended the uh Youth Court conference uh some others were there as well this weekend and really was um I guess uh invigorated and and and excited about um the participation of our youth members in government and and also made me reflect on um how lucky we are to have a youth member participate and in that system and so um so I also want to recognize that we are um making a statement about another uh local government which is not a usual thing that we do but I believe that it is really important to stand in solidarity with um the ability of our youth to participate in government to understand how our systems work and to make their voice heard so I urge your support thank you all right anyone else seeing and hearing nonmembers May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes a numbered AR resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly supporting the efforts of the ASD and msbsd student Representatives has passed the body next we have item and congratulations on your first moved item Mr trell um worth noting next we have item 10 C1 10 C1 assembly memorandum am 785-2020 recommendation of Award of a non- encumbering contract with high Mark services to provide snow applying and removal servic to the Municipality of Anchorage awwu not to exceed $351,500 um Miss alel thank you move to postpone to the meeting of November 7th there is a motion to postpone is there a second second moved by Mr alel seconded by Miss broy Miss alel thank you Mr chair um we have a really full agenda for the Enterprise and utilities oversight committee meeting but I'm hoping we can find some room for this item um I have some concerns um this is a contract um that was for labor that was previously performed by Municipal Employees um additionally it suggests that perhaps the municipality of encourage departments are concerned about their own ability to remove snow this season and I'd really like to drill down on those issues isues this is a vehicle to do that um I don't know what the status of any arrangements with labor have been have they reopen contracts around the wage that seemed to come to a flash point last year um so this is an opportunity to um have those conversations I'm not saying it's anything specific around AO but I really want to know where we're headed with the snow removal strategy for the municipality this winter um and really am concerned about Contracting out work that has previously been performed by Municipal Employees thank you all right uh next Mr Coes thank you Mr chair um this is remove snow removal from Municipal facilities um which I think folks are aware of it's not public uh public areas it's the 140 odd facilities that AO has operations at and Brian boster May was here um I I would like him to speak to the urgency of this cuz I I would hate for us to be in a situation where we need snow removal and don't have it so thank you all right uh while he comes up Mr salt I think that might answer my question was basically is this an urgent item if we were to get two feet of snow tomorrow are we in trouble I think the answer to that is yes under any condition but um I look forward to hearing uh from a and go ahead sir through the chair uh Mrs Al to explain this contract uh it is to perform snow removal services on an as needed basis so um yes it is true that aww forces have performed these services in the past uh we wanted to uh contract for snow removal services this year uh to not take away from staff's ability to respond to critical work as associated with maintenance of the water in the sewer system such as responding to brakes and keeping lines clear and things like that um in addition snow removal puts a lot of wear and tear on our equipment uh that's the same equipment that we use to respond to Water and Sewer emergencies uh it is as needed so our labor forces can perform the snow removal uh if they have time to do so and it's not taking us away for other activities I would urge that we try to approve this tonight uh because winter is coming uh after the assembly approves the contract uh we have to get it signed uh there's time associated with that um we're happy to answer any questions in a work session about snow removal in the utility uh but that is the need for the the contract that we have before you tonight Mr Rivera I don't think I'd go anywhere if I were you Mr oh okay um uh thank you Mr chair so um yeah I I appreciate your responses and I appreciate melo's concerns I had similar concerns and and um so everyone got it in your inbox just a few minutes ago so I realize if maybe you didn't get a chance to to look at it but um auu did respond um in my opinion pretty sufficiently to a question that I sent them uh and uh dealing with any possible staffing issues what that might look like for AO and then some of the rationale for this so um I again appreciate Miss Al's concern I think we should though approve this contract for today and perhaps um have this at Enterprise and utilities at some point in the future to explore this issue a little bit more thanks Miss alel thank you thanks for being here so I do have a couple of questions so staffing issues so is this related to vacancies that currently exist in AO uh somewhat the operations and maintenance division does have about a 15% vacancy rate uh so that does contribute to trying to keep uh staff on critical duties so this contract would help alleviate that issue okay and then um is that similar um because you provide in the am kind of a laundry list so product ity considerations similarly you have vacancy considerations and you've got staff that need to be doing other jobs is is that an accurate assessment uh correct responding to brakes uh key box repair uh block lines things like that okay and then um equipment maintenance concerns um I I'm sympathetic that you use your equipment um kind of in two directions here both for your regular maintenance of AO facilities um and then for removal as well um has that always been the case uh yes it has we have one example is uh our light utility vehicles like our pickup trucks uh the ones for snow removal get outfitted with plows uh as they're plowing plow trucks take a lot of wear and tear those same light duty utility vehicles are used for um everything under the sun for like summer inspection uh turning off water things like that so it is advantageous not to use them for snow plowing if we don't have to okay um and then this is a $351,000 contract is this something that was already built into ao's budget I yeah it as it is non- encumbering uh the funding used for it would be from the operation operations and maintenance division's operating budget um but it would be consumed only per event so uh we get a snow event we give a verbal go-ahead to the contractor to plow they give us an invoice and we pay it out of the operating budget Mr chair I have like two more questions am I fine okay so from the operation and maintenance budget would that include any Personnel funds that would otherwise have been um used for funding Staffing positions had they been full uh all the vacant positions are accounted or all the the way we build the budget you have a a labor section that includes uh when we project to hire those vacancies so there there are we do account for the vacancies in the operating budget if that makes sense I guess the question more pointedly put is is there money being spent on this contract that would be spent on wages had those vacancies been filled I no if I'm understanding the question question right we have to have our people working regardless so it's a matter of where we put them and what they're doing at the time so we budget for Labor uh what we want our people doing is we want our people responding to maintaining the water in the sewer system okay sorry I must you've told me you have a 15% vacancy rate at AO um and that's one of the reasons for the need of this contract so my question is because you're not paying those wages or any of these funds going into the payment of this contract not the way the budget is set up labor is different this comes out of non-labor okay great that that's helpful thank you so there's no intention of moving labor into non-labor correct okay great um that's all my questions for now Mr conon thanks I have a couple questions as well so what is your hourly rate generally for an awo employed worker just kind of range uh it depends on the employee and one who would consistently be driving one of these plow machines uh off the top of my head shooting from the hip it's somewhere like $40 to $60 an hour um okay burdened with everything yeah with the burden it could be yeah a little bit more do you know what the hourly rate is we're proposing to pay the contractor it's per event uh per unit event I would have to get back to you on how the structure goes and it the units are depending on what they're doing too so snow clearing is one unit sanding is one unit uh we can pick and choose what we get them to do so it's it's not a onet toone versus hourly versus what they're doing right so my experience with Contracting is that we see let's use an example Alaska safety they going to be proposed to be contracted to convert some Vehicles we're going to pay them $150 an hour for their service where we're going to pay 50 for our employed Workforce so okay so we don't know as the answer second question is why did this then just get laid on the addendum on Friday if in fact we know winter is coming and we know that we have issues relating to snow and we have clearly plan um why did we just see this on Friday so we don't have an opportunity to investigate the costs and understand the ramifications sure we started putting the contract together months ago it just took a lot of time to get everything uh put together and through the bidding process ideally we would have liked to have gotten it to the assembly earlier uh but it just didn't happen due to due to workloads right so okay thank you I think my question are done with you I just want to say to folks they had a lot of time and now this item is before us and they tell us you have to approve it you don't have any time you have to think about that when these items continue to come in this manner it's impossible for us to determine the actual cost it's impossible for us to know without an opportunity to investigate we have a committee structure that's set up to consume questions like this so we can understand what the actual costs are going to be and so my conscience says we can't authorize effectively a blank contract that we don't know what the terms are we're doing fiduciary mismanagement if we do that like you're just being asked to approve it so that's the choice before you now is on Friday you were given a document that you haven't had a chance to understand but we know there's a trajectory of increase costs because contracts cost more because there's a profit margin and you have to vote now is what you're being told told so that I think is the landscape of your vote if anyone else wish to speak to the item motion to postpone the motion is to postpone hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote thank you thank you sir on a vote of 7 to four and the youth member votes yes yes the item has been postponed now let's pray we don't get too feet of snow so um next item we have is 10 C2 10 C2 is am unnumbered recommendation of Award of a contract with ESS DBA Statewide services for congregate Sheltering Food Services the municipality of Anchorage in a sum of $432 729 what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Miss elel second to by Mr Mand Miss alel thank you um actually I think we need to deal with a preliminary matter and this is why I pulled the item this is for congregate Sheltering which we were told at a work session would be happening at the Solid Waste Services building and during that work session we specifically asked to see an agreement that would have the solid Services building um transferred for some kind of control or lease arrangement to the health department so then there could be a third-party contract for an operator or operator food and an operator for the shelter um we don't have that agreement so I feel like that's a preliminary item particularly because Solid Waste Services operates in a rate payer structure um and we need to know that the arrangement um is in place um so I don't know how we want to deal with that but I think it's important that we raise that question um I did ask Mr kaste if an agreement would be brought forward tonight um he has indicated it's still in the works um but I also realize this is time sensitive but I have a lot of heartburn around authorizing the use of a building that Solid Waste Service rate payers are paying for right now for another purpose without that agreement in place I think it's really important to protect the rate payers which is one of our jobs and as well as to be comfortable with the terms of the use of that building um because it's a municipal asset um we have two roles here um and one is to be fiduciaries of the municipal assets um so I don't know if there is still the opportunity for a special meeting and then there can be the opportunity to bring that agreement forward at a special meeting and then um possibly approve those related to congregate items um I guess my question would be depending on when that's scheduled can the administration commit to having that agreement before us at that time thank you so uh before Mr ver gets in the queue the special meeting is planned for 3:10 p.m. on Thursday and so Mr Co is is it possible for you to have that agreement done by 310 p.m. uh through the chair I'm going to ask Alexis to Johnson to speak to the status of the agreement thank you thank you m Johnson through the chair to the body yes we are working with Real Estate Services in law to get it done we have heard that it is 90% complete and that we just need some final uh touches to it and we can definitely have it before the body at 3:10 on Thursday with a title before that it's not go ahead Miss Al and it's not just at 3:10 on Thursday it's like maybe noon on Thursday so there's an opportunity to read it and digest it and then to have law and real estate present at the meeting in case there are any questions thank you no problem thank you very much so uh the answer to miss Al's question is yes Mr Rivera uh thanks Mr chair was that it all right um Miss broy yeah thank you I just wanted to raise um another quick Point as I'm looking at the totals and the fund sources for these various items so looking at this one and the subsequent items um which I know not all been pulled but just wanting to understand how the totals of what are being proposed and from what fund sources uh connect back to the rations that were already made so um I don't know if that's an Ask uh not something we can produce right this moment but maybe for Thursday all right and miss brona so I'm looking at the hotel one and it's 187 people in the hotels if I counted right 137 in one 50 and another and it's 831 ,600 for food and this is 150 people and it's 432,000 729 so it seems really low or the hotel the food for the hotel seems high unless my math is bad question for Miss Johnson maybe through the chair to miss branga the hotel rooms that you're seeing they're actually double occupancy so they have two people per room uh the food averaged out to be $14 and some change per person Citywide thanks so much all right um Miss alel I moveed to postpone this item to a special meeting of uh October 12th second so there's a motion to postpone to the meeting of October 12th made by m alel and seconded by Mr Rivera any discussion of the motion young seeing none members May proceed to vote the system is a little behind so just one minute members May proceed to vote on a vote of 10 to1 and the youth member votes yes yes item has been postponed to the special meeting on Thursday at 3:10 p.m. next we have excused item 10 C3 I believe yes um Mrs alel will be excused for this item 10 C3 is um assembly memorandum unnumbered recommendation of Award of the contract to hening Inc for congregate Sheltering operational Services what's the will of the body move to postpone to the meeting of uh special meeting of October 12th second so moved a motion to postpone by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr wand and so essentially the arguments are the same as the previous item we have a special meeting and we need some more information on the congregate shelter question anyone wish to speak to the item hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 9 to one and the youth member votes yes yes item 10 C3 has passed the body or excuse me has been thank you m clerk has been postponed to the meeting of um the special meeting on October 12th at 3:10 p.m. so we've already passed 10 C4 and C5 on the consent agenda so those items are done next we have item 10 C6 an unnumbered AM recommendation of Award of a contract to Majestic Alaska DBA spins for non- congregate Sheltering Food Services I think Miss zotel can come back for this one so what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Mr broy seconded by Mr vand any discussion yes Mr chair I pulled the item okay Mr Rivera uh thank you Mr chair um so I guess just a quick question and and I think for Miss Johnson before I get get to my point um and the reason why I pulled the item um so uh will there be Feud options uh through this contract for folks with special diets or dietary needs through the chair to Mr Rivera we haven't entered into that deep of contract negotiations but they have been they have expressed that they will meet some dietary needs all right uh thank you yeah definitely I think something that we should consider um and then I guess my main point thank you I don't have any other questions for you Mr Johnson so my main point in um pulling this item um I want to ask up a community provider who does food services within the municipality to weigh in on this so Mr lingal uh if you can the CEO of Beans Cafe if you can please come up so uh just a couple uh intro questions um did you try to bid for this service I guess it's just for first general question and then generally what is your organization's philosophy around providing these kinds of services for shelters so yes I had an opportunity to bid on the process um however my bid wasn't taken seriously as CEO of Beans Cafe we we were found in on a little girl who gave away food out of her pickup truck freely to people who were on the street 40 years ago with that said my mission and my goal as CEO is to take that um bring that mission back to fruition so when I said that my bid wasn't taken seriously I don't want to charge the city anything for the food we're going to give to people experiencing homelessness it's not mine to uh charge it's given to me so as an organization we've decided that we're just going to give it away that's what we do so so this money that we're talking about um how else could it be spent in my opinion a much better way I'm here to work and come alongside our partners to give this a uh more complete service beans is right where we need to be or standing with the poor we're standing with the easily despised Mr rera I'm going to ask you to tune these questions up because this seems off the topic of the award of this contract sure uh thank you Mr chair uh so next question that I had for you and so just to confirm um so you're saying that Beans Cafe would be able to take on this service which this contract we have before us is for $831,000 600 excuse me $831,000 um for how much zero um how many people no yeah and into the mic because we didn't hear you yeah no no no the the dollar figure so zero okay um and um why why would you do that that's our mission okay so um thank you so generally um I feel like we we are maybe too late for the October through December Services part of this that we're approving and because I imagine we'd probably have to reopen the bids um and then that would delay getting shelter open by October 16th which is not something that I generally support we need to get our shelter open um but I guess a question to the administration um would you be uh open to let's say specifically for emergency cold weather shelter from January through April so the second half of emerc Mercy cold weather shelter um reopening the um so that perhaps a provider like Bean Cafe could rebid for this project and their bid be taken more seriously quick question Mr Riva you said rebid do you mean that be's Cafe produced a bid at Z and was not taken seriously I believe that's what we heard yeah did you actually submit a bid no okay thank you I want to be real clear on the language it's not rebid bid cor thanks there was a question for the administration yeah there was uh through the chair to member R and to the body I I think the question was would we consider splitting the contract up and having a contract for the first the remaining three months of the year and then bidding a separate food contract for the um first quarter of 2024 um unfortunately relle and Alexis have both stepped out but um no Alexis is here so I think there's a couple of issues with that one I'm not sure how a contract would be split up like that um because we have a we have a a bid from a contractor also I would like relle or relle aler or Alexis to speak to the bidding process I think I heard the gentleman say he did not bid on the contract so that um doesn't align specifically with what I thought I heard you say Mr Rivera so I'm curious about that Miss aler through the chair um Bean Cafe did not bid on either one of these ITB itbs the original ITB was posted for a 30-day time period we then changed the itbs to a 14-day time period and uh put an addendum forth on the website and after the bid had closed my buyer had communicated to me that they received a phone call from Beans Cafe that beans wanted to bid and unfortunately the bidding process had closed and we were not able to open it back up to allow for additional biders there's a lot of folks in the queue so I'll just get back in thanks say don't go too far but miss broy yeah thank you I actually had a a question on um a different topic than U for Mr lingle um just looking at the back I wanted clarification and I noticed this isn't the only item that this says this but there's um sorry just let me get my papers right um in terms of the funds there's um specific funds listed and then it says subject to appropriation alcohol tax beverages um sales tax fund so I wonder if Miss Johnson or or somebody else could speak to um how much is this because it's uh looking ahead to fy4 and we haven't gotten to that yet or or kind of what is the relationship between the available funding and then us approving uh this item through the chair to miss broy can you state that question one more time please yeah so I'm looking at um the back on page and this there's other items that had this but it says subject to appropriation alcohol beverages resell uh retail sales tax fund so I'm trying to understand um how much of this if any is is funds that we've already appropriated in the last couple meetings worth of Time versus um this one says subject to appropriation through the chair to miss broy we are looking forward to fiscal year 2024 and making sure that we have those Appropriations as well to continue funding into the new year we just wanted to make sure that we didn't have any hiccups going into the new year and that food was seamless so just to clarify then so the 323,000 that's listed here that would be essentially between um I guess October whatever the start date is through December 31st of this year and then the remainder that you're listing is is what is needed for FY 24 through the chair to miss Bry yes ma'am you are correct okay thank you okay next I think you have Miss thank you um actually miss broy started my questions around um the fund certification so I see that the funds for this portion of the contract in 23 are from the operating funds of the encorage health department um I'm curious why that's not also the fund source for next year um I'm really concerned about committing the alcohol tax to next year before we get to the budgeting process for the the alcohol tax like we aren't there yet and so um I'm not comfortable with this contract going Beyond December of this year right now if we're going to be subject like if it's going to tie our hands into something for next year when we haven't even reached the budgeting process for it yet also um I'll just speak really quickly and then if you want to answer my question about the operating budget the other piece I guess I am concerned about is that beans has been a provider of food services for um people experiencing homelessness when we've had um shelter previously um by the municipality and so I'm a little bit surprised um that the time was missed if the time was missed and we haven't figured out an appropriation fund Source it may be a reason to um put out a new opportunity for bid for next year especially um if there's the opportunity to um save the taxpayers money um I would say Mr lingle though um what a generous offer and we want to make sure we are guaranteed for the delivery of food and it's even if the food is donated to beans I know you hire people to prepare that food so there probably is some cost and would just really like you to think long and hard about that um because the offer of something for a nominal value or no value um gets complicated for government sometimes um when we are really taking the responsibility to and I and I believe that you understand how big this responsibility is but it's taking a responsibility and for that to ensure that the service occurs so with that um I'll um provide as ahd an opportunity about their operating budget to answer my question through the chair to miss solel um we'd be happy to look at new budgets or different budgets to be a placeholder until the budget process goes through um that just secures that we have seamless transition through the next year while you're shaking your head do you want me to stop I'm just actively listening please continue okay um through the CH to molel we put it forward so that we can have a seamless transition and all it requires is a contract amendment that goes back before the body if you would like a different fund Source or you would like to wait or us to wait for that fund Source we can definitely do that for you I guess how are you able to secure $323,400 of operating funds out of your Anchorage Health depart Department budget for 23 but that those aren't possibly available for 24 I guess is question one and there had been a conversation around using um entitlement funding or um HUD based funding um for some of this and I have yet to see a fund certification on these items that suggest that any part of that process has moved forward through the chair of missel I can speak to the HUD um funding specifically that requires the contract uh or the substantial amendment I do know that CSD is actively working on that um so I wouldn't be able to use that funder until obviously it came before the body um but the to your first question um I don't have the answer to it but I am happy to investigate and get you an answer before end of meeting today thank you I appreciate that um I think with that I would be more comfortable postponing this item to the special meeting but I will the Quee is full Mr V thank you Mr chair actually I I think that is a good idea on that members doel had to postpone um I just have a few random thoughts um I'll try not to take too long here uh Mr lingo I appreciate you being here and I know that you've been thinking about this for some time because we also had an opportunity to um discuss your desire to to do this free of charge as part part of the mission for your organization um I'll just say the timing is a little tough because we did have a bid that went out and um you know the scoring was done and and uh now we have someone who was selected as the you know the least um cost responsive and responsible and so I I appreciate member Rivera bringing you here to get this information and having you answer some of our questions what I don't want this to be is sort of like a last minute one person who would a bid is now sort of undercutting somebody who got the bid and and so that makes it tough but I am certainly interested in as um other members have expressed um at some point having you um take over um this and you know I'm just I guess I'm cognizant of the fact um when we were doing the Clean Slate strategy town halls part of member Rivera's presentation talked about how you know before 2018 the municipality did not spend a lot of money on Shelter and we did rely on our Community Partners our nonprofits um to step up and meet that need and so again just appreciate um you wanting to do so um I guess yeah so what I would be interested in is sort of re-evaluating this and seeing it that there is a way that in January maybe you guys can step up but I'll just say you know it there's got to be a contract involved and and the same standards that are outlined here you know meeting um title 7 in terms of how the the food is prepared it's Etc um you know despite the fact that it would be donated I think we would have to have you guys meet that same standard and I think you know that but um anyway I think what I will do then is make that motion that um members zotel suggested to postpone this to our special meeting on Thursday second so there's a motion to postpone to the meeting on Thursday the 12th of October at 3:10 p.m. we're going to have to schedule that for an hour now and uh moved by Mr V seconded by Miss zelel so I still have the queue Mr salt the main question is postponed but you can get your points in if you need yeah thanks appreciate it um thanks Mr lingo I appreciate it I just kind of reiterate some of the comments we've already heard you know the dates for this were October 16th to April 30th with two month extensions it's uh if I things haven't changed three meals a day seven days a week um you know you you don't have the answer but can you do that have you done that and then I would I would still encourage you you can still donate food and this is for the non- congregant shelters there's still plenty of people that are not going to be in these shelters that are going to need services and uh hopefully you can you can work outside of this contract and you can still donate food and do what beans does thank you I have myself in the queue um so I think that we have a funding issue that is interesting because it starts a new funding source us at the turn of the year which creates a natural moment if we want to either supplement or have an alternative proposal come forward for support from Beans Cafe if it makes sense and so um I think from now until Thursday it might be wise to look at a proposal that runs through the end of the year that has the funds we know we have and doesn't spend money we don't yet know the source or planned for um and then in that process we can have a more full conversation about how we could accept on a contractual basis free services um I don't anybody you know would want to have free support and so I think we should do it thoughtfully we should make sure we have the contracts to provide the meals because we know what it's like when the meals aren't delivered and so um with that I would support this motion to postpone with a look at the finances and the timeline for this contract so that it runs through the end of the year maybe with a opportunity to to um amend an amendment that continues it but also we could do a supplementary proposal for this service it just there something along the lines of there's that old saying if it sounds too good to be true it probably is we have to understand what the terms are and how it would work what the Agreements are who does what and who's responsible for what so to me it argues let's move forward with this on Thursday Mr Rivera uh yeah thank you Mr chair so I just want to bring this back to a little bit of a higher level and then I'll make a comment on the motion to postpone so in total between this contract and then and the other one which is has already been postponed to the meeting of October 12th about $1.2 million for food from October 16th through through April 30th um we could have gotten this service for 0o or as members alel has requested some greatly reduced amount um through a nonprofit whose mission is this work and has the system set up to be very efficient in providing food at no cost to people experiencing homelessness so that's $1.2 million or some similar amount we could have used for housing or supports so I support this motion to postpone and I'm going to ask the administration and the health department to bring this item back to us for October to dece to December uh only for both this contract as well as the ESS food contract um so again just to repeat both this contract and the essess food contract if you can bring this back to us for October through December that would be greatly appreciated by me thank you Mr chair all right thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair I support the motion to postpone until Thursday's uh special meeting but I wanted to say I do appreciate the intentionality of having seamless uninterrupted food available for vulnerable people in our community I am troubled uh and and and other members have mentioned this as well by the the frame of awarding a contract with resources that have subject to appropriation at a future date essentially they're not in in play yet um and so I I think that's a challenge in my mind uh awarding contracts with future Appropriations uh undetermined and so I if there's answers on that uh for our work session or for the special meeting please bring those as well and to uh Beans Cafe I would I would offer a different perspective I wouldn't use the term free um I think it's a challenge for me uh primarily because we're talking about value and when we're talking about value in the nonprofit world we would often talk about in kind contribution and value so there are values Associated and I think just thinking through value helps the municipality potentially have an understanding of how to process Beyond a zero which is often challenging but thank you for being here the queue keeps gr Miss brango I just wanted to ask if ESS would also possibly be split and Mr Rivera already did that thank you all right Mr Miss broley and then I'll come back to you Mr GL Miss Brian yeah thank you just briefly um in terms of discussion on Thursday I I also want to suggest um that we can come back to this because we're postponing but to maybe uh at that time strike or or ask the administration to strike the references to the alcohol tax um and just say subject to appropriation I think that would um also be acceptable when you when we talk about this on Thursday that would fit in our budget timeline Mr Co Hayes uh thank you Mr chair we will bringing back as much information as we can for the Thursday meeting caution I would offer is that we're we're going to talk with the um Department of Law and the purchasing department on the idea of bringing back a contract that is substantially different than what was advertised and and that would be a contract that has a duration of 2 and a half months as opposed to a duration of um 6 and a half months we need to determine whether that the bids for that contract would remain valid or whether that would be substantial change and we'd have to rebid so we will investigate that Mr qu what was the timeline in which the amendments were to be executed in the contracts as proposed right because we heard that they would be am there would be amendments to allow further service through the chair I believe it was through December of this year with two two-month contracts to get us through the end of April um right so there's a built-in actual moment in the contract that says at the end of the year we'll see which way we go by Amendment and so it Law Department can figure that out but I think there's actually a built-in vehicle already okay seeing no one else in the queue it's Miracle members May proceed to vote the motion is postponed to Thursday a meeting at 3:10 p.m. on a vote of at 9 to2 in the youth member votes yes yes that item has been postponed to the special meeting on Thursday one sec thank you so next item on the agenda we have is is 10 d 1 10 D1 is am 748 2023 executive appointment confirmation hearing evu pH PHA what's the all the body move to postpone to the meeting of November 7th second there's a motion to postpone by Mrs alel seconded by Mr Rivera Miss alel thank you so this appointment well at least according to my email with the first introductory email was on June 28th 2023 that means the 60 days allowed for an acting position without seeking an extension ended at the end of August um by moving to postpone this out even further I think this puts the assembly in the driver's seat and that's fine um if we agree to postpone I think we are tacitly accepting an extended acting position until such time um partly the seventh is to give us time to F time for a confirmation hearing our calendars are really tight but we can get a confirmation hearing scheduled um I just want confirmation from the administration that the intention is for a confirmation for this position um that is correct okay so um we can get a confirmation hearing scheduled then hopefully with a postponement to November 7th um and then I'll just use this as an opportunity to say we really have to there are a number of acting positions currently within the municipality we really need to track these and stay on top of them that 60 days melts away in a moment with our piece of business um and so if we can somehow create a chart um so that we know what's coming up and we can all be on the same page not unlike what we have been working through with the boards and commissions appointments I think that would be helpful um you know I think we're all headed in the same direction but it's just a lot to keep track of right now thank you thank you so um I will put myself briefly in the queue and just say we offered a confirmation hearing but we had an email back that said they weren't ready when we scheduled the confirmation hearing for the CFO and so it's not that we didn't want to set and make time so the motion to postpone is just basically to provide us enough time to hold a confirmation hearing with all the other meetings we have going on with the budget cycle so um it's not an extraordinary motion it's just asking for time for us to meet with him anyone else seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote the motion is postponed to the first meeting in November on a vote of 8 to three and the youth member votes yes yes the item has been postponed to the first meeting in november3 November 7th nov next item we have 10 D3 assembly memorandum am 759222 Public Safety advisory commission what's the will of the body move to change the order of the day to take this item up after 14b second for purposes of discussion motion by Mr Rivera seconded by Mrs alel to change the order to take it up after item 14 D which I believe B is and boy the item to it's the sunset provision so go ahead Mr yeah uh thank you Mr chair so yes you are correct 14b is the sunset ordinance and um there is an amendment on that ordinance that could impact action on this appointment so I think it makes sense to take this appointment up after that ordinance and possible amendment is acted on point of order I believe that's 14 c yeah so it is after 14 C all right no objection to changing that it's after item 14 c m broy yeah I was going to make that point but I support that move thanks all right any other discussion hearing see none members May proceed to vote the motion to change order of the day or is there any objection I am not hearing any objection so the order of the day has been changed all right now next we have item 10 D5 assembly member an AM 76122 3 chak Eel River Advisory Board what's will the body move to postpone indefinitely second so we have a motion to postpone indefinitely by Miss Broly and seconded by Mr Rivera Miss broy yeah thank you I want to uh speak to the the purpose of this um as I was looking at the code and I believe uh maybe other members have discovered this as well the Chugiak Eagle River Advisory Board uh has seven members all of which uh need to be uh basically brought forward either through uh each of the six community councils and then there's one with the native Village of akuta so the reason I'm recommending postponing indefinitely is so that um either there can be evidence produced that that it went through this process for this individual um and or that that if it didn't go through this process that it would give those those uh Community councils time um and I'm just not sure of the answer and I haven't I did uh reach out to the administration I know it was a holiday yesterday so so I suggest postponing it definitely because it's not about this individual it's about the process thank you Mr Rivera yeah thank you Mr chair and uh this is uh included in that uh email that went out to the body very recently um so I did also have the same line of questioning as M member Broly and I did approach the administration and just based off of the response that I received from Mr Coes it does look like um was some thinking somehow that the mayor's office had a seat on this board I don't know how that conclusion was made but I think that is what uh the administration was attempting to do thanks Miss brona thank you chair um I had a conversation with Miss hawky about this um position and I she said hey someone said hey you live in Eagle River you want to be on that board and she agreed that there would Pro it would probably be better appointing someone else who's not working for the municipal government that that gives a bigger diversity she didn't have any heartburn about that when I talked with her thank you um so I want to ask the administration do you believe that this appointment meets the standard of the code through the chair uh to the the body and uh no frankly we looked at the code uh the the onboard program that we use for boards and commissions had a mayor's office seat that was part of the the 15 member slate and when it was pointed out to us that this is not this is not in code uh we asked uh one of the members to pull it and postpone it definitely so we're we're in in support of that motion understood thank you very much Mr Myers thank you Mr chair I was just going to Echo what uh Mr bird had said that they had asked us to poll and postpone that indefinitely once the error was uh mentioned so I don't think we need to labor this thank you Mr Myers M got anything seems like we have consensus I was just going to speak to uh what I reviewed in the code recently but Mr bird has got it so thank you I think we're good so members May proceed to vote the motion is to postpone inde defitely yeah Scott you could have called the question on 11 to zero vote and the youth member votes yes yes that item has been postponed and definitely next we have item 10 D6 am 7622232339 um essentially because I was unsure of the for me the essential qualification for folks serving on this board which is to have some experience uh with some lived experience with homelessness and um asked the administration and they got back to me uh during this meeting that both Miss trainer for this item and then Mr Evans for the next item do have lived experience and so with that I am fine with approval of uh at least speaking to this one with Miss trainer thank you all right thank you anyone else wish to speak to this item hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote the motion is to approve on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes uh am 762 d223 has been approved next we have item 10 D7 assembly memorandum 76422 3 houseless lived expor houseless lived experience Advisory Board Rand Els let's will the body move to approve moved by Miss branga is there a second second second of my Mr Rivera any discussion hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote yeah thought I miss brona it's okay can I go ahead I'm sorry you're fast um so I called um Mr Evans and he I really think he seems like a very nice guy but and he was homeless as a teen so he has the lived experience but he really has no idea what's happening with homelessness in our community and um and I think he's willing to learn and if that's fine for this commission but you know he hadn't heard of what Martin versus boisee is or um you know he didn't know what we were planning for shelters this winter so that's just a bit of information thank you Miss BR Miss thank you um so I view the role of someone with lived experiences different than being up on what's happening but using their experience to be a part of the conversation as things may come before this board and commission things that those who don't have that lived experience may not think about U may not have the perspective on so um one we know anyone serving on a boarding commission gets real up to speed on the issues quickly but I think the fact that perhaps he hasn't been plugged in may be actually very valuable um and he will bring his experience um it looks like um from two directions both as um a veteran and as someone who has had an experience in the youth thank you anyone else seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote motion to approve on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes uh am 764-2222 d223 Library Advisory Board what's will of the body move to postpone to the meeting of October 24th motion to postpone is there a second second seconded by Mr Miss broley yeah thank you um I was looking at the uh members of the library Advisory board and the u u uh expiration dates and noting that um that there are three current members whose uh terms are supposed to expire and so so looking at you know potentially that this this nominee may be the only nominee and so I um would recommend that we um give a little more time to to look at these as a group I also had a chance to understand that in the past um the library was directly involved in the selection of board members um and I wish I had known that a few months ago but apparently that's how things used to be done um so I have a question for the administration um did you reach out to library staff to discuss um this or any other appointments this board Mr B through the chair to member Broly um I'm not sure about this particular appointment my my general instruction has been uh I think with this board to go through the library director and I don't know whether Miss McClure reviewed this candidate um but I know that's what happened for the last time we had a slate of Library Advisory Board candidates okay thank you well I believe that we would uh benefit from a little more time and then also again understanding uh what the intended composition of this board is I'll also say that the library has indicated um and I think we know they have upcoming projects the um downtown library has been in the works there's discussion of renovation of the Alaska room and so I think the the library Advisory Board would be beneficial if we had folks who have experience with uh capital projects with uh planning and development and really being able to help um do that work because I know uh like like all departments you know we're a short staff there so um so so this is not necessarily about the individual uh being presented but um but I believe that it would be helpful to see a broader a breadth of experience in those specific areas so I would make that recommendation back to the administration thanks all right thank you Mr rera yeah uh thank you Mr chair um so I agree with everything that uh member Bry has said um except that uh and my pause for seconding the motion is that I agree that we need more time and I'm not sure October 24th is enough time there's we're in the middle of budget season there's a lot going on so the motion that I was going to make was to postpone this to the meeting of December 19th um and to allow us to have a work session with the current board and Library staff to talk about about what skill sets that they are work that they need from any new members and and what they are looking for uh so for us to play a little bit more of an active role especially considering how much attention that this particular board has gotten over the last year and over the last months in these meetings I think it makes sense for us to maybe push off any appointments until uh closer to the end of the year and for us to dive into it a little bit more so um I'll leave it at that and perhaps maybe ask member B to to mool over that and to see if we can make maybe change the postponement date thanks thank you Miss brona I don't want to postpone this um I don't really appreciate um I think at the last meeting we said don't bring three together and now we're bringing we have a single person here and then it was just suggested that we bring an a group again um I just I did talk with Miss Odum and I found her delightful she has business marketing which may be useful to the library she's got publicity um broadcast experience which could be useful she is passionate about library and books I drilled her pretty hard about um if if she would have any uh reason to ban a certain book and she wasn't in that culture at all as far as she shared with me she was kind of surprised at some of the books that I asked would she have any problem with them and she's absolutely not she feels like a library should be uh a resource for everyone not just the things that you agree with or um your values it has to be for everybody so I I felt that she would be an appropriate Choice all right thanks Mr Johnson yeah thank you my my comments largely um largely Echo what what uh member brona just said but I would also just again like to emphasize that I think it is problem atic when we get a group of candidates as a slate because we saw that recently and it led to a situation where in serious concerns about one led to the entire slate essentially getting voted down and so I I I don't think that is a good method going forward and so I I one would be happy to uh confirm his own tonight thank you um Mr Meers see spoken thank you Mr chair I would speak in opposition to postponing this it seems that we continuously do this and uh as member branga said and then Zach echoed we we're contradictor in ourselves do we want multiple or do we want one and do we need more time I I don't think we need more time I think we need to move forward with filling these positions and I would call the question so the question before us is the question to postpone indefinitely no excuse me postpone the meeting to the meeting of um October 28th 24th so there has been a motion to call the question is there a second second second of my Mr salt it's an eight member Vote or eight majority vote just point of order we are voting on the motion to call the question not on the motion to postpone yes on a vote of six to five and the youth member votes yes yes the item the motion fails it's an eight member it's an eight vote majority required so uh Miss broley thank you uh just briefly since I have the opportunity uh first to uh clarify the request it's not to bring a group of a slate of employees on one item it's to bring um multiple members each is an individual item and so that is also an option so the purpose is to look at the overall composition of the board and determine if it can uh provide the the guidance and and advice that is necessary the second is I will um uh I'm forgetting procedurally but I will recommend um postponing to the meeting of December 19th as uh member rera suggested both the Mover and the seconder agree so um the motion then would be to the 1219 the clerk was prepared so now that's the question before us um and and I I'm going to speak briefly very briefly just to say that I didn't hear the question was bring a slate or bring a single what I heard the question was is let's understand what the library Advisory Board needs and then see about getting candidates that meet the qualifications of the need of the board and so um you know we have a vote later on today to talk about extending the life of certain boards and commissions and it's always good to to know what the mission and what the purpose and how we're achieving it is with that said Mr Rivera uh thank you Mr chair so I just want to clarify because I don't want to cause confusion for the administration and sometimes they get confused when we have different messages here on the Das so um the appointments as my understanding and I'm fairly certain I'm correct the appointments uh should be as M member Bry said one agenda item at a time so 10 D1 10 D2 10 D3 can all be Library board appointments but they need to be separated separated they can't be all grouped into one 10 D1 appointment so just in case there was any confusion thanks M Mr Bronson yeah I just want to remind the the the chair in the assembly there is you can make a motion to bif for Kate uh we've done that often for the last few years so if there was a slate and you didn't like it you just bif for Kate thank you thank you Miss branga I just wondered if anybody else called Miss Odum and that you know it's not really fair to keep moving pushing these things back if if we didn't do our work to call the person and talk to him and find out a little bit about him so are we on the main motion yeah the now it's a good time for them call the question okay um Miss alel thank you I I didn't hear as justification for the motion to postpone um an inability to reach Miss odm or about Miss odm in particular but more as to the Strategic alignment of the board and how she may fit in those plans um along with other potential appointees so I think we've been I I think that the sponsors or the Mover and the seconder of this motion to postpone has been really clear about what they're hoping to achieve by December 19th and I support that thank you all right no one else in the queue members May proceed to vote the motion is postpone to the meeting December 19th on a vote of 4 to7 the motion to postpone has failed so now we have the main motion before us Bry yeah thank you I just um again not uh sorry let me think for a second so there's um nine members on this board I'm looking at the list right now three of the current members including I believe the current chair their terms expire on October 14th and and as as far as I can tell they have not yet been brought forward because we haven't seen them on our agenda so just to be clear regardless of the outcome of this vote and again I am not um speaking against this particular individual um there will not be Quorum for this board because there are not enough people on it so um so as a practical matter uh regardless of the outcome of this vote um there will be a delay in this board being able to meet and meet Quorum Mr Riva yeah thank you Mr chair so yeah I've done my homework and I'm happy to support Miss odm uh and her appointment I would say though that my request for a work session uh should still stand because I think we have some work to do with this board thanks Mr bird on behalf of the mayor thank you Mr chair um first of all my understanding of the code is that there's a 120-day grace period for all Commissioners that are not immediately reappointed following October 14th and so I I think there will be carryover not just for the library Advisory board but also for all boards that would otherwise repopulate um uh I I I do want to emphasize again we've talked about the library Advisory Board being a a citizen board um and the the assembly is very aware that it changed code regarding Quorum requirements and also regarding the substantive purpose of The Advisory Board it's much more an Advisory Board now than it was previous to the assembly changing code um all of these things make me grateful for member brona's points that I I think it's time to populate the board um and we appreciate the the support that we've seen um and we'll we'll do our best as an Administration continue to to populate all the boards that um that the that's part of our purview thank you thank you so the clerk has advised me that the main motion that was proposed was a motion to postpone so we have no motion on the floor is there a motion move to approve second a motion by Mr Myers to approve seconded by Mr vond any discussion members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes that item has been approved and we will find time to have a work session where we bring together the staff of the library and um have a conversation about the future of the board so next on the agenda we have four items that the administration is ask that we postpone it's 10d 12 through 15 and so I'm just going to ask members to make no motion so we don't have to go through the motions so next we would have td18 10d 18 is am 780 d223 Cooperative purchase from National Auto Fleet group through sourcewell contract 0915 21- Naf for the purchase of 30 Dodge Durangos for the municipality what's the all body move to approve moved by m who's seconded seconded by Mr salt Miss thank you um I have a question for APD on this item so my question is um two there's two questions one um I believe Dodge Durangos will be a different type of vehicle from us like a different manufacturer and so I'm curious if there any other considerations about shifting from one brand of vehicle to another in terms of how we outfit them how we get parts Etc um and the other is we heard at the public safety um committee not too long ago about the fleet needs of APD um can you talk a little bit about how this $2 million in a fleet purchase of 30 cars goes towards either meeting the deficit or is it keeping up or kind of where does that square Us in that conversation thank you Mr Cas uh to the chair assembly Members alel First question is there's not a lot of concern we've talked talked to uh the radio shop we've talked to uh our maintenance shop or the city's Maintenance Shop asked them what concerns they have for switching vehicles uh it's like anything else uh they're going to go through a process to make sure they get up to speed on the vehicles and what they need to uh do to to maintain that Fleet uh the big thing with these vehicles is the availability uh just last week the prices for um tahos came out for next year they e ,000 more a vehicle and uh so that's I mean that puts a dent in what we can do the Durangos haven't yet increase their prices which we anticipate they're going to do here in the next couple months and so the sooner that we can get our order in uh the the quicker we can get the lower price as for what this does this gives us 30 Vehicles it is necessary does it put a dent and not really I mean we need about $5 million a year for vehicles um in order to to annually on a reoccurring basis in order to keep our Fleet up to speed and particularly with how far we are behind with the vehicles that need to be deadlined um this is helpful but it we got a lot more needs when it comes to vehicles in our Fleet great okay thank you I appreciate that context anyone else thank you for asking those questions Miss allel members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes td18 has passed the body that's am780 d202 3 next we have item 10 E1 10 E1 resolution eror 2023 346 a resolution the Anor assembly reappropriate $1.3 million from the Anor Health Department to the real estate department all within the operating projects committed general fund 1 19000000 and authorizing a grant agreement with the Anchorage affordable housing and land trust for rehabilitating vacant and abandoned properties Mr Rivera thank you so there was just quick Preamble there was some confusion about this item and whether it needed to be set for a public hearing or not it does so I pulled this item and make that motion so I moved to set AR 20233 six for a public hearing at the October 24th meeting second second third oober 24th motion by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr salt to uh set a public hearing and continue this item to the meeting of October 24th any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes this item has been postponed to the October 24th meeting next we have item 10 F1 10 F1 aim 196-202 3 internal audit report 2023-the in 10 F3 uh before 14b before 14 c as they relate to that item second so motion to uh change the order of the day by m broy seconded by Mr Rivera um these are just reports we're accepting we're going to have the discussion on those items anyways so it could be argued that we just accept them and then have the discussion once and take care of these two items um Mr chair I would be open to that I did have a couple of questions for our auditor so um if if oh sorry um so I I'm open to to uh accepting these now but I would still like to ask those questions whether it's now or later so I think that the questions will be fair if you'll stick around for when we have the debate on the boards and commission's extension um I would I mean I think we should proceed but let's just get it done Mr Coes uh thank you Mr chair I would just note that Lee is here waiting for this item to come up and this is going to push his attendance quite a bit later in the evening thank you yeah so maybe we just hear from him now actually I think is the takeaway thank you Mr KES so we have a motion to postpone I would love a motion to accept instead would you resend your motions motion thank you so ask for a motion motion to accept second Mr Martinez has moved Mr Mr Myers has seconded the motion is to accept um go ahead Miss broy yeah thank you I would invite up um Mr Lee our our acting auditor internal auditor Martinez moved so my question relating to the public safety advisory commission as we said this will be addressed in a later item as well um my question specifically is I was um somewhat surprised to see an audit recommendation saying to only extend something by 3 months um in this case this board and so uh we had a brief conversation before the meeting I just wonder if you could speak to um the the other recent history or PRI audits of this board that had similar recommendations thank you welcome my name is just my name is Scott Lee from Office of internal audit through the chair Miss broley yes we perform this Sunset audit every 3 years for the buan commission that is that has Sunset Cloud per encourage municipal code and last two occasion no La last time when we did the sunset add of Public Safety Advisory Board we recommended the similar thing to extend it for 3 months we evaluated having the work session then consider the real authorized old Sunset the board thank you and can you also briefly speak to um the the reasons for that short recommendation for this particular time yes during the during our review for this board this board we were not able to find if they even met we were only provided unapproved meeting me minut one just one approved meeting minute and the board did not publish any resolution or the report during our review period thank you that's all my questions I just wanted to make the members aware all right thank you any other discussion for this item so don't go too far uh seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote on the motion to accept and when 6 -223 111 to zero vote youth member votes yes yes a 196-202 3 has been accepted next we have item 10 F3 am 198 2023 internal audit report 2023 S3 Port of Alaska modernization program and design Advisory Board what's the all the body move to accept second moved by Miss elel seconded by miss broley miss elel or miss broy you had questions yeah thank you um similarly this is related to an item later on the agenda um but I wanted to call the members and the Public's attention to the findings in the report um in this case it recommends uh not reauthorizing this board it will expire on October 14th and my question for Mr Lee can you speak briefly to um your findings in this audit and your recommendation through the chair Miss browley yes B on our based on our review of documentation pertaining to the matters such as meeting agenda meeting minutes resolution and member authorization and member participation we recommended The Bard to be allowed to Sunset and not be authorized we all also spoke with the bould chair or the port director is the bould chair according to the code he believes that the board has done its job and there is no purpose of reauthorizing this board thank you those are my questions so okay Miss alel thank you um so I appreciate that you spoke with the port director do you take into consideration kind of like the business that is supposed to go before the board per code because this is related to the port modernization project that is ongoing um and it's not done and so I'm curious kind of how you deal with kind of other information um outside of talking to a board chair or just the documentation for the board through the chair M Jer we also review the report and recommendation the board had submitted to the mayor and the assembly and we after reviewing those do documentation we believed we felt pretty safe The Bard had done its job okay thank you I think we'll take the rest of this up later thank you yeah this is one that we will certainly have a bit of conversation about coming up thank you and anyone else wish to speak seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote the motion is to accept on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes a 198-202 3 has been accepted I believe oh yeah we have two more items 10 g12 um 10 g12 a2023 d108 ordinance the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code title 7 to include procedures specific to certain construction contracts generally known as construction manager general contractor procurement into contracts to contracts where compensation is derived from revenues generated from use or operations of a municipal property or facilities move to introduce a motion to introduce second second third by Mr Rivera M Mr bird no there thank you Mr chair pending the body's uh resolution I was just uh asked to request the body um to hold a work session especially for the um benefit of purchasing thank you thank you we definitely will um so that item has been introduced because of the timelines I think the public hearing is scheduled for 10:24 if there's no objection I'm going to actually push that one out one meeting to actually two meetings to the 21st of November so we'll have Le time to review it and meet with the purchasing department there no objection that one is scheduled to the second meeting in November next we have U thank you for that item 10 G14 AO 2023-the believe amending Anchorage Municipal Code title 10 to add a new chapter for licensing and regulation of short-term rental operations in the municipality and amending AMC section 14.60 do30 the municipal fine schedule to add corresponding fines move to introduce for the meeting of and set the public hearing for the meeting of December 5 2023 second moved by melel seconded by Mr salt is there a third third third by miss broy the action there just took and set both of those public hearings out further in time so there's more time to contemplate and with that I can't believe it we've finished our consent agenda it's the latest one we've done in a long time we still have a lot of business items left so we'll take a brief dinner break and we'll be back what e e e e e e e e e e e I think we're missing Miss Broly ladies and gentlemen I'll call us back to order I'd like to call us back to order please next on the agenda we have item 11a notice of reconsideration ordinance number 20239 S as amended an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code section 3.2014 office of equity and justice and section 710.30 powers and duties of purchasing officer to add requirements regarding language access plans periodic reviews and Reporting compliance with Federal language access and disadvantaged business Enterprise and women-owned business disadvantaged Women's Business Enterprise yeah regulations and related matters so U Mr rera uh thank you Mr chair I move to reconsider AO 20239 second second all right so we have a motion by Mr Rivera reconsider second by Mr Martinez Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair so it came to the sponsors attention right after we approved the ordinance last meeting that there was one section in the ordinance that needed a little bit of tweaking to make it workable for the administration um so this process hopefully shouldn't take too long we have an amendment prepared that we've been workshopping with the administration for the last week and I don't want to speak for them but I think they're in agreement with this amendment uh we just need to bring this back to the table approve the amendment and then approve the ordinance again and then that's it so I'm going to urge a yes vote on this motion to reconsider anyone wish to speak NOP hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on the motion oh Mr bird on behalf of the mayor than thank you Mr chair um and I I want to Echo uh the administration's uh appreciation for Mr Rivera working with the purchasing department on that um I just want to flag two things um number one the criteria that are in the border this is not the time I believe to bring up the substance we're just on the motion for reconsideration and the item is not yet back before us I'll withdraw my comments yeah thanks I think she's right and so um but you do you do uh support the motion to reconsider Mr bird no objection to the motion to reconsider no objection thank you very much so okay um anyone else hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes item has been reconsidered now we have before us the main motion which is a motion to approve the S version Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair so I'm going to move Rivera amendment number one there's a motion second Mr Martinez second Mr rera thank you Mr chair so this amendment clarifies the process for language access complaints and puts the onus of doing the contract compliance work on contract administrators I think is the technical term and code um within each department um and although it's not in the amendment as it really is an administrative function I've been talking with purchasing and and the administration about how we can get regular reports from contract uh administrators within departments and have those reports compiled sent to oeo uh since language access issues live within that office so um My Hope Is that through this amendment and efforts by the administration we're going to be able to get a better sense of complaints being filed about language access uh and include contractors because that's not something that was currently in the code and how our contractors are doing with language access compliance so I urge approval of the amendment and um curious to see what Mr bird may have to say thanks Melle thank you a question for Mr Rivera which is will there be any training needed in order to um bring contract administrators up to speed on what's required under the language access yes thank you that was actually something that was brought up uh earlier that I had a meeting earlier today with purchasing and it's my understanding although I'd have to review the P&P that the P&P does outline the kind of necessary steps including making sure that um whoever is in charge of that that compliance within departments are properly trained and up to speed um so my hope is that we will be able to follow that P&P uh and make sure that that training happens and I did communicate that with the administration thank you and if I may ask a followup which is is there also um the same kind of technical assistance for contractor compliance with language access so I don't want to speak for purchasing but I don't see them here so purchasing oh uh uh do you want to speak to some of the things that we talked about earlier about how purchasing is going to be with contracts administrators and just to add on since you're walking up here um it since this now adds contractors to be compliant with language access overseen by contract administrators I'm curious what the technical assistance for contractors is thank you okay um through the chair let me make sure I understand the question so the question is are contractors going to be asked to be compliant is that I'm sorry can you repeat the question the language of the amendment says all departmental and contractor language access plans meaning contractors with the municipality will have to have language access plans my question is what technical assistance if any is the municipality going to provide to contractors so that they know what needs to be in a language access plan how do you plan to educate contractors about what they need to be doing okay through the chair so will what will several different things we will ask them when we when we put out an ITB we'll ask them to be compliant with the program so we'll explain in the itbs what the program actually is for and does and ask them to be compliant will we actually train the contractors no we won't that's up to them to figure out how they're going to conduct their own business and determine how they're going to be compliant we will assist the contract administrators with training showing them what they can do to to measure sort of measure me it's kind of difficult thing to measure compliance so for example we might suggest that annually the contractors receive a form certifying that they have a language Access program and it's available to um the community if they if they need to use it thank you um thank you Mr Rivera for the additional um clarification I support the amendment I just want to be really clear if we're going to be asking contractors who do business with the municipality to um meaningfully engage in language access I would um hope as we start to see the reports come in that we think about what technical assistance may need to be made available to contractors or if they feel this is terribly onus um what ways we can support them in this I think it's important that all um entities doing business with the municipality um allow for language access but I want it to be a supportive and a positive thing not something that feels honorous and unachievable thank you thank you Mr chair um and so just briefly I just want to point folks attention to the second section being amended here AO section 2 page 4 beginning at line one uh and just to clarify you know this is one of the discussions that um I had um with Council of do we want to just limit this to contractors who receive federal funds in which case they would be required to have language access or do we want to broaden that scope and I think one of the discussions that we had um with the administration is that might as well just broaden that scope because otherwise it might be a little bit difficult for contract administrators to make that determination the one determination though that contract administrators are going to have to make and that's going to that section is that it's every Municipal contract for services involving regular and substantive contact with the public via in-person virtual or telephonic communication so it's not going to be contractor right like if you're a snow P contractor um and if you don't have regular or substantive contact with the public via imperson virtual or t Communications um then you don't have to have uh a language access plan so it is going to be up to the contract administrators um to understand the contract and make that determination all right um Mr bird be off for the mayor thank you Mr chair um I'll reiterate the comments I made uh too soon which was that we appreciated the work that uh era did with the purchasing department um two things that I wanted to bring to the body's attention after we further reviewed this um the administration views the office of equity as a shield not a sword um and that means that we're here to to provide opportunities that might not otherwise be there but we don't want to attack whether it's a contractor or somebody else uh that's doing business with the municipality we don't want to attack their ability to to serve um so I think there was a floor amendment when this first passed um that dealt with the privacy issues and that's an issue that's going to come up I know before the body later tonight about the exceptionally strong um Privacy Law that exists in Alaska um we remain concerned that if there is data that we are being asked to under the opice of the equity office mine that this is It's a privacy concern and um we want to ensure that um we are we are staying within the bounds of the law uh the second thing is um while the mayor has supported being a welcoming City and everybody knows this is this is not a welcoming city ordinance even though it's mentioned in the wear ass Clauses we remain concerned about uh what certified welcoming cities mean we look at what happened in Chula Vista California as an example of of something that needlessly became uh in the administration's view a hot button topic um between the city council and the mayor there um as as you're aware Mr chair we have one of if not the most uh diverse uh student bodies in our school district and one of the most diverse cities and we think it's great um and we want to make sure we do everything we can as an Administration to continue to support that uh but but those things within this ordinance uh do do make us concerned uh about the direction that will'll be taking this data and how it will be used thank you Mr chair thank you anyone else on the amendment hearing and say none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero on the youth member votes yes yes the item has been amended so now we have before us 202 3- 90s as amended anyone wish to speak to it seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 9-2 and the youth member votes yes yes a20 23- 90s as amended has passed the body next we have 11b assembly memorandum am 7622330366 on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes am 70622 3 has passed the body next we have item 11 C ao2 23- 59 an ordinance providing for the submission to the qualified voters of the Municipality of Anchorage Alaska the question of the issuance of not to exceed $10 million of General obligation bonds of the Municipality of Anchorage to pay the cost of chash Access Capital Improvements in the CH state park access service area and the question of an increase in the municipal tax capab motion to postpone to the date of uh sorry um October 24th second so I'm moved by Mr salt seconded by Mr Johnson I'll go ahead and speak to it Mr salt so we have some meetings this week with uh with municipality and and bond Council to uh kind of tighten some of the things up around the projects and the amounts that we're requesting so there will probably be some amendments or possibly an S version coming forward Miss Al thank you um I appreciate the additional work um by the sponsors um may I suggest possibly postponing this indefinitely and bringing back a new version and the reason being is this isn't in the current form in which Bond counsil likes to sign off on things Bond Council really loves to hold the pen on these things so that if it passes from the voters Bond Council can say Yes um because that's required in order for us to sell the bonds um and um some work on a different Bond proposition Bond Council was pretty emphatic about that and it just might make your path to um just may make your path more smooth thanks Mr th through the chair Miss Alo yes uh we actually have prepared one and we delivered the draft version to uh Mr sult this evening and we have a meeting scheduled in the morning to go through it with him so I believe that is what our plan is is to um not move forward with the one you currently have but to come forward with a one that has been prepared by Bond Council okay thank you I appreciate that additional information I think an S version of turning this into What bond Council will do would be a mess and terrible to try to read thank you so if my second okay we'll move to postpone indefinitely drawing the first thank you so the motion now before us is a motion to postpone indefinitely Wise Choice is there any discussion hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes AO 2023 59 has been postponed inde definitely vant effort miss the France now will come come back and a form the bond Council will accept next we have item 11d ordinance number a2023 d80 an ordinance authorizing the retention of tax foreclosed properties for public purposes and Disposal for less than fair market value to encourage Community Development Authority Real Estate Department Public hearing was closed 82020 820 2223 action was postponed from 820 2223 and 912 2023 no motion pending Miss alel move to postpone indefinitely there's a motion to postpone inde definitely is there a second second for purposes of discussion thank you go ahead Miss alal thank you we were informed by the municipal manager um that a previous owner of record for the diamond Parcels came in um today and paid their Delinquent Tax balance repurchasing those two Parcels so the Foreclosure is not proceeding um and so real estate plans to bring this back with only the fire weed parcels and the additional information as requested thank you anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes AO 2023-the item 12a ordinance number 2023 D excuse me ordinance number 20239 for an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code title 17 animals clarify meaning by amending section 170510 and 17101 angress health department and so um I would ask for a motion to amend the motion adopted at the September 26 2023 meeting to introduce AO 20239 and set public hearing for February 7 2024 meeting by striking February 7 2024 and replacing it with February 13 2024 so moved so second so M alel has moved Mr Rivera has seconded Miss alel thank you um so this is my fault my apologies um you'll notice we now have the 2024 assembly meeting schedule up on the dis um because the date was wrong so this just is simply a procedure to correct the date that sets it to the correct public hearing thanks if there's no objection members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes the public hearing is now scheduled for the proper day which is February 13th February 13th all right next we have item 13A resolution ar20 23-29 a resolution adopting the recommendations to be forwarded to the Anchorage metropolitan area transportation Solutions policy committee regarding the 50 Metropolitan Transportation plan public review draft this item is continued from 926 2023 the public hearing on this item is open anyone wish to testify hearing seeing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will the body move the S version second motion to move motion to approve the S version Mr vand seconded by Miss zotel Mr vand thank you Mr chair so yes these would be the um assembly adopted comments should this pass on our long-range Transportation plan the 2050 MTP um as folks will remember from the work session I came forward with some some draft comments and then um other members were either able to contribute then or submit their um additions uh to uh our legislative Services Department um who put this s version together and then also um amended those uh draft recommendations to include um other recommendations and again this is just an effort for us to comment as a body so that the members of the policy committee um at Amat are not siloed from the rest of our colleagues and we all can kind of collaborate and move forward as one um to be very clear for the public us moving or passing this resolution will not AFF effectuate any of these comments the Amat policy committee would still have to vote on any amendments to the MTP and that would require the vote of two assembly members a designate from the mayor's office a designate from uh Alaska do and then uh a designate from the depart Department of Environmental Conservation um but this does give us um our marching orders so to speak as members of the policy committee um so hopefully you will be able to um go through and see some of the uh additions uh in that draft document and then also there's a memo attached um where we decided to um collect the testimony that was also submitted To Us by um various entities um like bike Anchorage or some of the community councils Who weigh in weighed in um as well as elected officials so with that I urge your support Miss alel thank you um I think the most notable comment in our comments that are being forwarded is really effectuating some prior action we've taken around the Seward Highway Ali road to Diamond Boulevard reconstruction project um this project has um been one of considerable conversation particularly um at the Abbot Loop Community Council it's a very expensive project it's been delayed um but I think this would be the opportunity to make real change because the local jurisdiction doesn't get a lot of say in in the State Transportation Improvement plan but what has to happen is those projects in the stip have to be in the MTP in order to move forward right now this project is in the State Transportation Improvement plan and um member Oland and I as members of the policy committee had tried to amend it remove it do all kinds of things try to rightsize it and we just were rebuffed kind of at every opportunity um we were happy with the delay to take further look at it but we don't really think that in the end it's based off of information and sized for what's actually occurring now and that happens with Transportation projects because they're 10 years in the making sometimes and sometimes it's hard to get folks to they're invested and it's hard to get them to re-evaluate so um I'm really happy to see this comment here that it should just not go in into the MTP it's a a project that's really contrary to a lot of the goals that the assembly has expressed around Transportation um so I hope that the policy committee members really um move this as an amendment to the MTP um and hopefully find success hopefully in Partnership either with the administration or state do because they've agreed to look at it again thank you thank you Miss broley thank you I just want to briefly say thank you to my colleagues for working hard on this and digging into Transportation policy um it's it's a tough part of planning and it's and it takes a steep learning curve so I really appreciate it and then I also want to express specific appreciation for um the last item which uh supports Transit projects including a new route uh along 36th um that will serve among other things the umed district um all the way further west so I appreciate that thank you Mr V thank you I appreciate um member zel's comments and I think for me when I was drafting the original set of comments um a Common Thread that I think we really need to hone in on and a Common Thread of many of these comments is that we need the MTP to be a living document that is responsive when realities do not fit what was projected decades ago and um I know that that causes complications when when projects are um ready to enter potentially the design or the construction phase um but we we have to continuously re-evaluate what are the priorities of the community and are we going to is that what we're going to fight for or are we going to fight just to move forward with projects because you know we're so far along or be because we're we're giving into a a sunken cost fallacy you know we've already spent this much money on maybe AC acquiring right away or or or planning or design and um so we have to finish it well no we have to be able to readjust our priorities so um again uh thank you for the comments and thank you for members for contributing to this appreciate it anyone else seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes error 20 23-29 5 has passed the body it also has an Associated aim that will communicate to do or amass excuse me the comments that we received from other organizations next we have item 133ba AO 20 23-9 an ordinance amending Section 5 and six of ao20 15-49 as amended approved May 14 2015 to extend the period of deteriorated area status of one portions of block 41 original townsite of Anchorage and adjacent real property located in the downtown business district to 2030 and 2 the site of the farmer Northern Lights in an adjacent real property located in Midtown to 2035 Community Development Department there's also a substitute version up here public hearing on this item is continued we have one person to call can we call Mr Chang hello hello there Mr Chang uh Mr constant on the phone uh we are here discussing your um ordinance I believe it's um AO so I'm going to go ahead and if we have questions we'll call you back you had signed up for Testimony I think it's preferable to have you answer questions if if any arise so we we might okay that' be great thank you oops anyone else wish to be heard on this item all right please come forward the microphone is off there's a little green button there on the there you go good dra thanks please state your name what part of town you're from left three minutes my name is Larry norin my background is assessing uh commercial appraising board Equalization and Commercial brokerage um this um this as I understand it simply extends the period for the um the designation of deteriorated property it doesn't apply the exemption at this time that would have to be applied for later but and I'm not against these redevelopments as a matter of fact as a longtime broker and Commercial I'm very much for redevelopment but the ordinance was created to um promote development not delay it so I would make that comment however I am more concerned about the information that you don't have than what you have the one thing I didn't see after trying to inquire into these issues is really a an analysis of the dollars and cents involved the impact on the other taxpayers by these larger exemptions and and the benefit to the particular property in question um what is the proposed Redevelopment you need to know that without that knowledge you're just writing a blank check and in this case for likely massive amounts of money what is the impact on the other taxpayers what will be lost from the tax base therefore creating a higher rate that the other taxpayers will pay for we have to remember that an exemption that money isn't lost the same amount of taxes are collected every year it only shifts from the exempt to the other taxpayers um I think you need to see more numbers I don't believe you been provided with an actual analysis of those things also I think you need to acquire a legal opinion as to whether any aspect of property tax systems can be withheld from public scrutiny currently the finance department claims exemptions to be confidential and not available to the public that's not in accordance with the rest of the taxing jurisdictions in this state and likely the nation you uh this the exemptions for deteriorated property and economic development are relatively new things all right thank you sir your time has expired um can you I I know you've had work sessions of an hour can a tax payer you're you're allowed three minutes minutes you're allowed 3 minutes but you can submit your testimony by email to us it's it's it's worthy thank you I see where you're coming from all right welcome sir please State ma'am please state your name for the record what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes thanks for that correction Chris hi my name is Brian witzky I go by Brie she her pronouns 13 years trans female Alaskan okay this piece of property here when I started uh understanding things in Anchorage this was still standing the motel it used to be the aces Club if I recall right probably some of the most beautiful brass work I've ever seen inside that Motel now what it brought for as far as the city goes is taxes has brought in money as a gentleman was trying to State before me uh you know there there is an misunderstanding when it comes to the the general public of how taxes work and when you do talk about an exemption you are talking about a certain portion of the puzzle no longer being there to cover the load so I completely can un relate to what he is saying and I do as much as I hate to have to say it again I I I put it to your guys' educated mind you know what what makes our city go one way or the other you guys are the the governing body with that and to a certain degree we have to respect the positions you guys were voted in on and as far as a people trying to understand things how our taxes are Diversified I can tell you this property sits pretty much with nothing on it except for building material now which is in a complete eyesore even though it's got a screen around the fence on top of that right next to this property there is illegal gaming centers that is cutting into the profits of our community that could be boasting our charitable aspects that are legal um that just goes hand inand with a lot of things uh that I I'll speak about at another time but you know uh when we change the tax code because uh a piece of property was taken away from somebody which in this case that's what it was it was taken away from somebody that owned it uh that property no longer was able to bank taxes so therefore the city or the state you know confiscates it in that aspect and now we're talking about giving it away at a less amount that would make money or to try to incite business being coming in it still doesn't seem to help out with the community being able to make up the losses that it's been setting empt it and vacant for now what a decade or more so we got to find ways to where it works with the people in conjunction of making our community better as well as inciting businesses to take over a certain amount of property if it a tax break or whatnot but I leave that problem to you guys and I do hope that you guys make the best decision for us on that um this particular property here though like I said there's things around it that because it's been sitting vacant for so long there's other businesses that have adapted alternative ways of making money that maybe we need to look at as far as the city as far as the administration over there making sure that the people that are there to secure us are aware of things that have been on the TV about it four times times thank you thank you anyone else welcome please state your name what put time from you'll have three minutes thank you my name is Lita chowski I the land use planning manager at Dal and I'm also involved in both the block 41 and Northern Lights um projects and uh this is really just a request an for an extension in the time frame in which to make application so the next step if we were granted the extension is to do the um application for tax deferral and abatement which would have all that information as far as what the development is and all the financials and then that is reviewed by the CFO and also by the assembly uh the first goal was to align the timelines for Block 41 right now they're under two different timelines the the Eastern portion uh that application period ends in 2025 and the Western portion ends in 2013 so we're looking to align those to 2030 um we're currently working on development plans for the remainder of the block we've been focused recently on uh the planning and and permitting and construction of the former Key Bank building and we are working on the development plans and planning to come into for permitting uh in January of 2024 for the remainder of the block there's also concept plans that we're developing for the Northern Lights property um but there are some projects that are either in the works or getting started uh that could impact those development plans such as the transit center site selection study this is one of five sites that have been identified to bring forward there is the Midtown District plan which is just getting started which will look at land uses and transportation throughout the area and then finally there will be um the northern lights and Benson Transportation corridor stud which is slated to start sometime in 2024 which would look at changes potentially in the um Benson and Northern Lights going from one way to two-way which could impact the access to the site so those things could change what we're planning to do um but it also could provide opportunities for Partnerships and to bring the development forward sooner I think the other thing to keep in mind too is that the downtown project is a $200 million plus project and the Northern Lights project would be similar size so given the financial environment right now it would be very difficult to finance two projects at the same time uh so we really need to be able to finish block 41 and then be able to move forward with the northern lights and property and with that I would just ask for your support for this ordinance thank you anyone else wish to be heard anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's willby move to approve the S second there's a motion to approve the S version by Miss zotel seconded by Mr band Miss zotel thank you um so um we added kind of more specific reasons um for both uh properties as to why for the extensions um I appreciated the first person's testimony I mean these are meant to Spur development and I think though over the course of the time that these opportunities have existed for these properties we've had some unprecedented things and so um I think when we're looking at extensions for deteriorated area status we need to be very clear on what justifies the extension um I would disagree with the last speaker that um the timing of the two projects is relevant quite frankly I think each lot needs to be taken on its own merits um especially if it's Midtown waiting on something to be finished in downtown because frankly that always happens however I do think there are some really specific things happening in Midtown that justify the extension particularly those Corridor studies depending on what the possible projects are that are identified and could get slated for DOT this lot is bordered on two sides one on Benson and one on Northern Lights and ask anyone trying to develop right now where they may want primary access on onto a state do Road and they will tell you it's a headache so really getting that resolved um and then of course um the other plans um and the transit center study that are both in progress I think are all big question marks and reasons to say okay you have to take a pause on your development you weren't anticipating these things um so I hope you can support this um I'm excited for the possibilities um for both projects um but particularly in Midtown thank you thank you so I have myself in the queue two things really one um the initial document the original version uh was fine and sufficient for the the Fourth Avenue property law 41 but it was insufficient a justification for why to extend the just the the deteriorated property status on the Northern Lights property because it it simply had one line that said said basically because there's nothing on it and so um both Miss alel and I separately challenged the petitioner to provide more detail on the lot on Northern Lights and was but the same questions ended up in the lap of the the the contract contractor for the petitioner and so um the justifications that were provided I think are sufficient to argue for an extension my I had or said at the work session inaccurately that they are receiving a financial benefit at this time the properties are designated deteriorated but they are not yet receiving a deteriorated property tax abatement and so that is a conversation for when there is a structure being built and the improvements start to um show up on the property so I wanted to clarify on the record that I did misstate that but I wasn't wrong that we have to be targeted in how we deliver a tax abatement going forward because what we need to ensure we're doing is hitting the missing middle of housing instead of using all of our tax benefits to um shoot out in all different directions we need to focus it and so but with that said with the updated information that Miss alil thankfully drafted into an S version I can support this item Miss broy yeah thank you and I do look forward to a larger conversation about um incentives and how they they play into our development Market um I am speaking in support of this I appreciate the additional detail and information around the northern lights in um I've been around long enough that I remember that being a building that that had a lot of problems and caused a lot of issues in that area um I've also been long enough around that I worked on this project 10 years ago under two I think it was what three administrations ago and the original answer from the administration um the in in in response to this particular idea of having deter having a deteriorated property designation um was that the government was not in the business of development so I feel like we've come a long way um over those years and I appreciate that that um that this is a long story and I I also encourage uh my fellow members to read the original memo because I think it speaks to um some of the unprecedented events as M alel said it also speaks to ways that we can improve the municipality and and hopefully also encourage other levels of government to be better business partners um because I think there's a long there's a long and complex story of all the ways that have made this development harder that makes other developments harder and so so again I speak in support of this I look forward to this being built um and one other thing I'll mention too certainly tax exemptions or tax abatement or or or essentially allowing people to not pay the full value of the tax for a period of time um does shift the the burden to other taxpayers for that moment but we're looking ahead to building a city over decades and and hopefully centuries and so I think that to understand that these are not permanent exemptions that they do kick back in at some point that this property will pay the full value of its new development and so the purpose of these is to get more buildings to get better and newer developments um in the ground in our city and then it does have a long-term payoff and this is one of the best strategies that Us and other communities can use to increase development in our community so thank you so I wanted to note that the phone chirped about 10 minutes ago that was Mr Cross joining us so he is on the phone next in the queue um we have Mr salt thank you um yeah I agree with what Miss broy said about kind of the this is how we spurn development we're going to see a great new building on block 41 a new tenant revitalizing downtown and Miss chanowski I think correct me if I'm wrong on this or come up if I'm wrong but I believe the Northern Lights property had a hotel on it the end that was blighted and as part of that agreement it was decided to tear down the building um so so if people wonder why you have a blighted lot it was an agreement made prior to tearing down that building and tearing it down is the right thing to do correct okay she's nodding thanks all right Miss brona I just wish that this Midtown was being dealt with um 21 years that Northern Lights building has been from the Clos time and nothing has been going on in that building for 21 years sitting there getting worse and worse and then eventually demoed and I think um it would just be fantastic for Midtown to see and and as far as I could read and I you mentioned that there is some plan but everything I could find online said no one's been able to say what the Changs plan is for this is there really a plan or are we going to continue to drag our feet for another 20 years for developing this so I I'm a little bit uncomfortable I was even going to suggest bifurcating this but yeah all right now I pop myself back in the queue um and I'll just say watching this company develop over the last many years I think um that the 188 Northern Lights building was a very interesting case study because that property went in development in late early 2000 late 1990s and it literally was constructed and put on the market I think it was in the spring of 2008 and that is a massive investment in Midtown and then the entire economy dropped out and they could not fill that building for four years I think took a many many years that they just sat on an empty building and so there are some arguments that justify being careful in time when you take action in certain economic climates and I think that this company has seen it at the worst the top floor of their building at that 188 Northern Lights was empty for six years I think before they finally got a tenant in there so I say it is a difficult decision to make when interest rates have doubled tripled when the economy is marginal and so I think it justifies it anyhow anyone else here I see none members May proceed to vote member cross how do you vote yesen again on a vote of 12 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes AO 20 23-9 as amended has passed the body next we have item 14a ao2 23-11 an ordinance of the Anchorage assembly repealing and replacing Anchorage Municipal Code chapter 3.30 part 19 rule 19 Personnel rules to conform the substance misuse testing of employees to federal and state regulations and provide the human resources department authority to establish policies and procedures for substance misuse testing and as necessary to publish interim guidance to employees and supervisors public hearing on this item is oh sorry Mr constant thank you um I need to declare a a potential conflict and uh put it to the chair and the body so I have discussed this at the work session and at the first conversation we had about it that I do work for a company that provides substance abuse treatment services so this ordinance if passed does create more possibility of individuals in the community seeking Treatment Services um it in my opinion is a DI Minimus amount of people we've had two or four or six or zero people who've tested positive who might Avail themselves of the small portion of this ordinance that addresses it but this ordinance does not provide any path to treatment that we are funding it doesn't create a contract it doesn't create an opportunity in any of those ways and so instead what I believe I'm bringing to this is my expertise in the field and so um that is my disclosure thank you Mr constant based on your disclosure I find that any personal or professional interest you may have in this item is speculative and in the future and um therefore you do not have a conflict does anyone wish to challenge the ruling of the chair okay we will proceed thank you velto the public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard welcome please state your name we part of T your from you'll have three minutes the microphone's off my name is Brian Whit go by Bri she and her pronounced uh allive Anchorage uh we all know that the value of a person's uh ability to do their job and if it's misuse of ATT testing to an employee Federal aspect we need Clarity of the mind we need Clarity of the body so uh whichever way it goes to keep the safety of everybody that works in whatever jobs and and and and departments they are I'd hope we do whatever we can to provide safe work environments for everybody so to misuse test one way or the other I I'm not sure what we're voting on as far as yes we're we're wanting to conform to the substance are we looking at backlash it's just hard to understand understand from the wording of this so a little Clarity on that would be helpful but overall if it benefits a safe environment I don't know why we were voting on it anyone else anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed uh what's the all the body move to approve the S version thank second second moved by Mr Rivera and seconded by uh Mr wand I would like to speak to it Mr constant thank you so before us we have the substitute version um I'm sorry for the late delivery of the am that Associates with the S version it is a comprehensive read about the changes that we made between the work session and today um RIT large what this ordinance does is it changes the posture of the municipal Al it from a an employer who fires immediately an individual who might show positive on a substance misuse test and provides them a path to um get back in the good graces of their employer by following certain procedures it creates two classes of employees one is covered employees covered employees are individuals who are subject to a federal or state rule that requires that they be tested for substances which have rules and Protocols of Their Own it creates a second category which is the non-covered employees the non-covered employees will be subject to testing as we spell out in this code so it does a number of things that IT addresses the concerns of the ombudsman's report it provides for a benchmark for testing for noncovered employees I'm looking for my a version of my my am I guess I'm just going to go through there we go so the a version of the am is the original am with a couple of Corrections so it has a couple of just basic edits because of grammatical errors and then it walks us through this ordinance prioritizes Healthcare over punitive measures treatment over termination it prioritizes compliance and safety it updates the testing policy in the context of legalization of marijuana it also clarifies that we will Hue more closely to the federal and state rules instead of our own and follow the Alaska State Police standards Council requirements for our Police Department it also regulates marijuana like alcohol now I'm going to move to the the and that's for the S version maybe it's attached to the back thanks that's it's on the back thank you so this is going to walk through the changes that we made in relationship to the conversation at the work session last week so section one amends subsection 33191 B3 to add a clear privacy protection for employees so the previous version did not have that but this it will state that the employes personal health information will be protected the S version also addresses many of the concerns raised by assembly members it amends section 33191 c to clarify that in order for a self-report to be considered voluntary notice must be provided before a test triggering event also at amend subsection 33192 B1 to clarify that testing will be prohibited for prohibited drugs listed in the 49 CFR part 655 21 which includes marijuana cocaine opiates amphetamines Fen cycline it also fixes a little grammatical error we had in the code it also amends subsection 33192 C2 to establish that non-covered employees may not perform duties on behalf of the municipality within 8 hours of consuming marijuana products studies demonstrate the best way to avoid incidental workplace impairment is to ensure ample time as elapse between last consumption and when you have to come to work the the co-sponsor and I tried to come up with a better phrase than bottle to throttle um but we weren't prepared we might have a list additionally it amends subsection 33192 c2a and B by reducing the testing methods for marijuana use by non-covered employees to only the saliva test the change was made to address concerns that blood tests are simply too invasive and studies demonstrate that urine testing cannot demonstrate active THC impairment also amends section 33193 to clarify the that except for marijuana testing for non-covered employees all testing will be conducted in compliance with 49 CFR bar part 40 the federal rules to address concerns raised by the Department of Human Resources the S version proposes to amend subsection 33193 A1 and2 in two ways it amends the ordinance to leave the chain of command for managing Reasonable Suspicion non-specific instead of designating the supervisor to determine if cause exists as the current code does while the primary sponsor well I don't think that this is the best way I'm willing to concede to the director's request second it removes the citation requirement for testing and renumbers the sections I'm almost done amending subsections 33193 A3 to clarify that the department May test as part of a return to duty process but it does not require it to do so for covered employees the process will follow 49 CFR part 40 so for non-covered employees the department is authorized to establish a policy to implement this section so this is a very interesting area of the ordinance we don't say that the municipality shall provide a return to duty process what we say is the orientation of the municipality should be towards providing a path to maintaining employment so what I'm saying here we didn't say shall or must but I want to communicate to the administration that if the if a policy is developed in a manner inconsistent with the provisions of this ordinance or enacted in a manner that defaults to generally not allowing a return to duty process I will reopen this code section and ask my peers to require that we do this so this good faith effort with the municipal with the administration finally in a number of ways this provides that the department shall develop and publish comprehensive substance misuse policy prioritizing education and treatment over separation the policy will outline how employees can use employee Wellness programs eaps to access assessment education referral for treatment the S version also clearly links the language of MC 33092 which governs the use of progressive Rive discipline and we inserted a new section that allows a waiting period before this goes into effect of a week so that the HR department can communicate to the department heads and the various trades what the new rules are so that's all the changes now I'll be brief but I'll speak to the merits we have had a policy written in the 1980s for the last 40 years last updated in 1998 the world has changed since then we cannot AF afford to terminate an employee if they are a good quality employee if their supervisor agrees that they've done a good job and they had a misstep we heard an argument from our HR department that they don't want to get in the business of managing the paper it's labor intensive for them to manage the treatment process we're not asking them to manage a treatment process we're asking them to track records if an individual is in that category and we're trying to move them back to an employable category why does this matter I tried to contemplate if we fire a an employee who took $200,000 to train what would the relative cost be to help them go through treatment and have an HR staff manage the paperwork to get them reemployed we lose all of that investment when we tell them you're no longer welcome here and so I personally believe we should move this municipality to a therapeutic and uh employee supportive perspective it's too tight out in the workforce to attempt to um create our policy so rigid that we chase away good workers so that's my introductory speech if others want to talk I might have something to say afterwards Mr Coes uh thank you Mr chair um there was a discussion earlier about uh the impacts of late on the table items and of course um this is this is one we haven't really review HR hasn't had a chance to look at it so I think to start we'd request that this be postponed so that we could have a follow-up work session and to give HR a chance to view the changes I've read through it and um um so I've looked at it but there are some changes that we would like to evaluate I would also offer that we have uh we have a very professional Workforce we value that Workforce I think that um um the number of positive test results have been very low which I think demonstrates the professionalism of our Workforce um having said that I would say that philosophically the administration uh does not support lowering the standards especially with respect to um everybody's critical but especially with respect to critical Public Safety functions like um afd um we would we would suggest that the the solution that Mr Andrews proposed his term was elegant at the work session which would be to raise the threshold for non-covered employees except for afd as a is a pretty simple approach to um to recognizing the the the I guess the legality of marijuana in the state of Alaska um we we although you did comment on it Mr chair we would if this moves forward we'd prefer that the AO be silent on where the authority to discipline exists I see on page nine of of 10 that it still rests with the the head of the department after Consulting with HR um we we believe that that should rest more likely at more appropriately at the at the manager office um I guess the last thing I would add is that if it does uh move forward a week likely is not enough time for uh we and HR and the Departments involved to implement it and then finally I would just offer that um if you there are questions for HR Matthew jender Cena from HR is here and available to answer any questions on how this the application may impact HR in the municipality thank you thank you Mr Johnson yeah thank you Mr chair I I will say I I I generally support the intent of of what this ordinance is trying to achieve um I respect to right that if there's something somebody's legally permitted to to do in their free time then then we should respect and recognize that uh just looking at the S version here though and and you know I I will ask my question here but perhaps this speaks to the need to to take a little bit more time to consider this looking at page nine paragraph B for the negative dilute test results um when I read through the original version I I thought this seemed fair and reasonable but now we've taken out essentially the the part that says sub subsequent negative dilute test result will only be a negative or construed test refusal if they do not agree to another form of testing as I read this here it sounds like essential what we're saying is a negative glute shall not be construed as a positive test or test refusal and I I know there's a circumstance that seem to arise recently where somebody um unintentionally provided SE several negative dilute test results and then perhaps should not have been penalized for that but it's also possible that there may be people recognize this as an opportunity to intentionally gain the system so I just think even if though it's an unlikely circumstance if somebody was impaired and they were involved in an accident that say caused the LI of human life and they were required to uh submit to a drug test as a result then simply by drinking as much water as possible um for as many times as they're expect to be tested they'd be able to as far as I can tell is essentially get off the hook and Escape responsibility so my question is are we creating that scenario by making this amendment to paragraph B so I don't believe so I think what it reads is that they will continue taking tests until the test is done and this is really under the state and federal rules so this would be under the stricter guidance right uh because this is for [Music] pre-employment So functionally speaking we will not count a negative dilute test as either a positive or A test refusal so if you are required to have a test done for your employment you will have to take another test sorry yeah I I I sure saying I think that answers my question but again it's just without having more time to read through the S version I'm not quite sure um if I feel totally comfortable thank you Miss alel thank you um so I appreciate the changes in the S version and I appreciate the um lengthy um am that really details those changes um um I'm actually a little bit frustrated by the administration's position on postponement um and wanting more time because something was laid on the table um goes to this item or any item right now where frankly I don't understand how we're going to get the business of the city done if we can't move at the pace that you know we had a work session um I was unable to attend the work session but I was able to listen to the work session I was able to read this item we're expected to read items from the administration when they're laid on the table um HR was involved legal I don't know if it was involved but it certainly had the opportunity to um consult with HR so frankly I'm getting really frustrated that if it's not a priority or heck even if it is a priority of the administration nothing seems to move anymore um and so I hope that we can just dispatch with this we have um business to take care of um the only thing I'm interested in discussing um in terms of any potential changes to this ordinance is maybe the implementation date um I hear 7 Days 7 Days might be a tight turnaround um we are in a government of acting employees right now so maybe they need 30 just because they can't seem to digest this that's on the table tonight so maybe we should give them 30 days in order to get their ducks in a row thank you as branga so I I imagine the on the page um six line 14 where you have the amounts like 25 NGS per milliliter um that came from your work um that's the those are the levels at your treatment place no no I we don't do drug testing where I work okay so we don't do we provide treatment services so thanks for clearing that up so I just tried to figure out if these were reasonable because I don't know anything about this and I got to National criminal justice reference Center and so it made me kind of wonder about these levels because um they did eye tracking and coordination and they said oral um 10 to 25 milligrams showed in parment and then it said that 25 milligrams of it uh only six reached a THC of greater than five NGS per milliliter so I was thinking that maybe this is really a lot but I I'm not positive I can speak to that okay so we for non covered in place eliminated both blood and urine so you can just strike those off they're not under consideration under this s version because the urine test cannot test for impairment and the blood test it proceeds down so quickly and it's so invasive that we decided for the non-covered employees not the ones required under the federal law that it would just be the saliva test now the saliva test at 25 nogs per milliliter is the standard all over Canada it's the standard in several places in Europe now in the US they don't yet use the um saliva test for driver impairment because they haven't been able to draw a line they can test impairment for just the behavioral part plus the um the kind of the chemical test together so what I did was I reached out to a handful of researchers and asked them to reality check these numbers for me and if the goal is to Target impairment then it has to be a number like this because impairment is a very short window for individuals who are using cannabis and so it lasts for 2 to four hours for someone who's inhaled or 4 to8 hours for someone who's consumed orally and so practically speaking there is no really good way to test because those numbers are just very uh transitional so the 25 has been adopted in Juris itions across the country and I can show you studies that demonstrate that that's about the line at which you can start to determine if an individual is actively and acutely impaired thank you and I had a couple other questions can I continue with those or Not For Whom yeah I'm prepared or okay so then um the other thing that I um wanted to ask so I I think at the work session you talked about this um saliva test in order to pick up other substances it would need to be specially done and it sounded like it was kind of expensive and I was wondering um if if someone wanted to do the saliva because they were worried about the urine I know you said you're dropping the urine now but like I would know that I wouldn't have any pot and I would just take the urine because I I know that you wouldn't find any and that's maybe cheap and free but if you wanted to specialize test maybe you could pay for the specialized test so I can describe that process a bit so what what the testing company that we have under contract has offered is that they have a panel test that's approved for DOT purposes the US 49 CFR the federal test and so and that's basically either a urine test or a saliva test it's a number of components so for the drug test that you would take if you were required to take the drug test you would take their standard test and then they would test the M that substance using their secondary process so it is twice as expensive $35 for one test 70 for the updated test so it's more expensive but it's very limited in application we had 200 people or so that used it last year and we showed six people who tested positive and so it's a very limited application and so maybe it could be a choice like I don't know I'm just thinking you wouldn't need to have the the extra testing for some people who just know they're right so there would be an initial threshold that would come forward which is at a lower level because that's what the federal test is so that would already come back and if that came back negative they would not need to proceed to a higher threshold test and then my last I swear this is my last thing but I I saw um online and you know I don't believe everything I see but uh there was several articles about how to pass a saliva test and it um recommended certain things like uh really scrubbing on your gums and using mouthwash and drinking lots of water and eating fatty foods and so there is out there ways supposedly to um Dodge so I have a study I could provide for you that demonstrates that using mouthwash doesn't actually get you around the test but that said the reality is the US Department of Transportation has authorized the use of a saliva test for their covered employees and so the federal government has recognized the value and validity of these tests so we're not making new ground here Mr salt thank you Mr chair so I have I have questions that don't need answered but a little concerned about the difference between covered and non-covered employees we have we have sort of double standards depending on where you sit there um again concerns around and I don't this is a change to the to the AO but um we're waiting for severe accidents before we test someone um so if they hit a light post 10 times we're fine with that till they kill someone then we actually care so a little concerned on that again same points that were brought up earlier around the possibilities to defeat the test um always a concern and and what kind of what kind of municipality do we want to be I know there's another question that goes on both sides of the fence but I guess I feel uncomfortable with this tonight and so based on what I've heard earlier I would make a motion to postpone to the meeting of November 7th there's a motion to change uh to postpone the item to November 7th is there a second second moved by Mr salt seconded by Mr Myers Mr salt you can speak to it yeah I just want to make sure that um we give the municipality time to make a response and clarify any issues that we have with this before we implement it Mr con yeah thank you so three times since the work session on Thursday or Thursday Friday I offered to reach out and speak with the director of HR and provide input he provided to us a detailed set of questions or concerns based on his comments we went through and addressed as many of them as we could and even as late as today at 3:00 I asked the HR Director if he could speak so we could have a conversation and he did not at any of those times Avail himself of the opportunity to speak so the argument for more time in my opinion is a filibuster thank you Mr constant Mr vand thank you yeah I am ready to move forward with this uh item tonight and I will not uh be supporting the motion to postpone I I feel like when I read the S version some of the changes were actually responsive to what was discussed in the work session in that conversation um that HR was present for um and so I I appreciate the co-sponsor um the um I guess intention to be reflexive to feedback um so I think this is going to be a great change for the municipality ready to vote on it tonight thanks thank you Mr Coes uh thank you Mr chair in response to um Mr Andrews failure to respond to you he's on leave this week um so he's unavailable and um I would just offer that a work session on Thursday today is Tuesday yesterday was a holiday that's one working day to respond and again we we we would support the motion to postpone we haven't had a chance to review the S version in deta detail thank you thank you uh seeing no one else the motion is to postpone member cross how do you vote Yes on a vote of 5 to 7 the motion to postpone has failed we now have the main motion before us miss zeel thank you Mr chair um I move to amend on page 10 um section 7 line 18 changing um the effective date of this ordinance to 30 days after passage and approval second moved by Miss zal seconded by Mr vand and it's to change 7 to 30 days may I speak to it Mr chair so really briefly if um as this works into implementation if there's any roadblock in its way that time for the administration to come forward um raise those issues as well as um possibly um fix whatever may be in this ordinance I don't foresee anything but it leaves open that possibility so I think it is a fine compromise and frankly based on um what we've heard about not being able to take a look at this and leave and everything else I I think they're going to need the time to implement it in any meaningful way thank you Mr Martinez thank you share yeah I wanted to uh just e just Echo support for the amendment for the 30 days as well for implementation and I appreciate the my colleagues uh different Vantage points with respect to this uh issue tonight and I just wanted to be clear I I don't see us as agents of perfection on any particular action item I think we are drivers of practical Solutions and we improve over time and uh you know and that reminds me improving over time uh I found the the the the red hat from the 200 it says November 4th 2014 regulate marijuana like alcohol yes on two so I I think that we're bringing uh the municipality up to speed with where the municipality needs to be with respect to the Public's will and I would also articulate that the federal government recently passed uh bipartisan uh Bill uh to to to stop the wholesale elimination of the workforce for having prior uses of marijuana or any consumption so I I think we're moving in the direction of uh accurate application of the will of the people and and with respect to safety and uh and and the and the and making sure that we have the strongest most effective Workforce uh I think that we we have identified those areas accurately with respect to to the covered and the non-covered and just one comment and maybe it's a question for rhetorical or for lunch at a time for the for my colleagues who are often who who have articulated a concern about gaming the system I wish we had that many people applying for jobs at the municipality that we were concerned about uh that level of of of gamesmanship I I think this is just moving us into the Direction Where We respect people's privacies and we live up to the the the reg the the way we voted on this the people voted on this a decade ago almost thank you thank you anyone else hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote on the amendment member cross how do you vote Yes on a vote of 12 to Zer this item has uh this amendment has passed so I'm actually going to propose an amendment as well Mr constant thank you so um on page nine Mr Coast nobody clearly spoke to me and I reached out many times to understand how the administration would prefer to see the delegation conversation who is responsible for the decision and my concern was that it was HR and I wasn't okay with that but you just said that it should be the manager and I think that I'm okay with that and so I would make an amendment that um changes on page n lines 16 17 and 22 to change the head of supervising Department to read the manager second So It ultimately would read the ultimate decision for employment discipline or termination should be the discretion of the manager so I think I would uh actually also eliminate after Consulting with the human resource director but just with the manager period second agrees yeah so and I'll speak to that briefly just um again this is one of those areas I tried to get a hold of detail what they meant from the notes and I think it's reasonable and I did my best where it was clearly pointed out to conform to the interests that were expressed at the work session by the administration where it wasn't against the spirit of the whole package so I would urge your support on this amendment all right members May proceed to vote M how do you vote jump in the queue there oh I didn't see go ahead Mr Johnson I'm sorry yeah just to the the amendment I was wondering if Mr Coley's had any comments out through the chair to member Johnson and others I support that and appreciate the consideration thank you all right now anyone else members May proceed to vote on a vote of 12 to zero that item has that the amendment has passed anyone else on this so I'm going to speak one last time I'll be very brief this time Mr constant thanks um I just want to speak to the assertion that this creates a double standard and I want folks to know that we already have that double standard that we have a certain set of our Workforce who are required by federal or state law to conduct all manner of tests and have pretty firm restricted Rules by which they can engage in the conversation that we've had about cannabis here so that already exists we're not making that what we're doing is receding the arm of government into the private lives of as many of our workers as possible we're actually taking government out of the lives where we must not be there where we are choosing to be there by code and instead what we're doing and for those who are under the covered classifications we're making it better for you too what we're doing here is saying if one of your workers your co-workers the people who you support in your job has a moment in their life where they make a mistake they have a little too much beer they come to work 0.05 mind you we already don't fire people if they come to work drunk we just do it if they come to work high but what we do for our our covered employees is we tell you we value you enough that we're going to give you a path back to employment if you make a mistake that your mistake isn't terminal to your employment at this municipality so to me if that's the double standard that's a double standard I'm going to Hue to and that double standard would be for either side of the covered or non-covered I'm going to try to keep you as long as we can because I value you thank you members May proceed to vote member cross how do you vote Yes on a vote of 9ine to3 a 20 23-10 1s as amended has passed the body now it's not effective for 30 days keep that in mind workers but um with that and we may have some other administrative procedures to address before then so thank you my peers next we have item 14b 14b is AR 2023-the with the Municipality of Anchorage in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 959 public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard welcome please state your name you'll have three minutes it was on turn it back there you go it's on uh through the chair into the body my name is Derek mustow I am the chief negotiator for Teamsters Local 959 and I was the lead negotiator for this agreement uh in front of you tonight we're asking for your ratification and approval of this agreement it was negotiated in good faith uh and the members ratified it I'm happy to answer any questions Mr Riva uh yeah thank you Mr chair I will have questions during debate so don't go too far all right anyone else wish to be heard members of the public anyone at all public hearing on this item is now closed what's will the body move to approve second moved by Miss elel seconded by Mr Rivera miss elel anything nothing let's get it ratified all right Mr Riv you have questions yeah I agree with that sentiment but also I have a few questions um thank you Mr chair so three questions I just want to get a sense of what happened during negotiations so um generally if you can just tell me um how did negotiations go and was the assembly guidance uh specifically uh assembly resolution 2019-47 s useful do I have more than three minutes keep it tight DK uh I'll say that negotiations at times are always contentious at times the parties do look at uh the same side of the coin and they have a vested interest in making some needed changes in this case uh we have a Workforce that works uh copious amount of hours uh we had issues with fatigue uh and the parties were able to come together and address a number of issues and I thank the administration for that um no doubt there was contentious points as we went I we were at the table for a long time this session um that being said uh the administration's team was aware of the assembly guidelines um we had read them into the record as we went but it's my understanding the administration sets the bargaining parameters but yes they were aware of that thank you um second question is did the two new holidays described in AR 20237 get brought up during nego negotiations by the administration and was it implemented in the final CBA uh ultimately they ended up in the final agreement effective 2024 there were no holidays prior to that uh it's my understanding that other groups had somehow uh negotiated a side letter to implement those early outside of bargaining uh in our case no that did not happen um but ultimately they did end up again effective 2024 thank you and then last question is did Paid Family Leave as described in AO 2023 -20 as amended get brought up during negotiations by the administration and was it implemented in the final CBA uh no not that I recall and it was not that remains to be an open item that we would be happy to have a conversation with the uh municipality yeah thank you um I'll just make a a uh I appreciate those responses and I appreciate the um the work that you did during negotiations uh it's certainly frustrating to me when the assembly passes an ordinance like paid family leave and we expressly put Direction out there and and policy and code that we shall negotiate this um and it appears that those negotiations were not fruitful um because now it looks like unless there's a administrative agreement that paid family leave for uh the teamsters is not going to be happening until until this contract comes back up again and that's very frustrating thank you Mr Cole Hayes thank you Mr chair um Matthew genderen is here and can answer the question probably more accurately than I can my understanding is that a ta a tenative agreement had been reached when uh before the parental leave was passed that's my understanding I may have it wrong but Matthew has should have the facts thank you hi good evening everyone uh my name is Matthew jerson I'm work in the Labor Relations Department in HR uh your two questions specifically through the chair Mr Rivera uh did come up during negotiations regarding the new uh Municipal holidays uh the agreements with our other other unions uh were had and agreed to afterwards and as far as uh paid parental leave that did not come up during negotiations we don't have an agreement with any of our unions currently we are still currently working towards those agreements equally across our nine unions Moto thank you um so I'm frustrated like Mr Rivera is that this didn't come up um even if there was a tentative agreement I hope we can get a commitment by the administration to um look at an administrative um agreement ment to bring up parental leave so we don't have to wait 3 years um we think that this is an important benefit to offer um employees of the municipality particularly when we're having considerable vacancies and we need all the tools in our toolbox for retention and recruitment thank you Mr Martinez yes thank you chair no I wanted to uh I was going to say that what Miss uh member zto just mentioned with respect to retention and recruitment uh around making sure that our Workforce get all of the benefits that the assembly has uh and that the public that's in the public interest so um I think it's just to be real clear to the administration uh family leave other benefits that the assembly has articulated are important because of recruitment and retention of the workforce and that is a priority of this of this assembly and that is a priority of the municipality right now and on the other note I would just say let's get this ratified thank the teamsters thank you for the work you do thank everyone uh Who as a part of the unit uh for um holding the line and continuing to show up every day and delivering uh your your service to the Municipality of Anchorage I appreciate you Mr KES uh through the chair to the body we um Matthew's clarification on what I said we have no objection and are certainly open to sitting down with um the teamsters and other unions and negotiating paid print and leave into the contract in this case through a side letter or side agreement thank you so I have myself in the queue Mr Coes literally we were just told that nobody has accured this benefit to any of the Departments yet other than the executives that is quite shocking and um it feels deceitful in the way that this has rolled out because now how long ago was that that we passed that before Austin it it was in the last assembly and so um I'm glad to hear your commitment that you will engage because I have emails in which the HR department the Labor Relations staff saywe are not interested in negotiating these things and so I have the records if you'd like to see the actual position of this Administration when it comes to sitting down in the room with these workers and so I appreciate the change in perception or perspective of this Administration in this moment because I find it very shameful that we have an agreement that we're now being asked to adopt that does not provide the workers with the benefits of this assembly and your staff have the benefit of no I should restate that that this assembly granted and that your staff has taken advantage of and they don't have it now and they've been in negotiations for months and so I'm not sure what's going on in the HR department in the labor relations department or in the executive but this has got to stop this has got to stop we're at a 30 40% vacancy rate at this municipality and there's no question why because it's not a fruitful place to work anymore this has been going on for 24 months I want to vote no and send it back to you but I know there are probably costs here that will create pain for and I don't want to do that either because there's enough pain anyone else me Mr Bronson yeah I think correct some facts here first of all uh so comments on the on the context of paid parental leave uh both parties reach ten of agreement language to negotiations prior to the parental paid parental leave being approved in the best interest to reach a successful agreement timely for the employees here to receive a cost of living and Health Care contribution increase uh since the teamsters haven't had one since 2021 so that was that's according to rilen Griffith here so the notion that we somehow uh there's some subs here uh and we're trying not to accomplish something and this spe specific thing we did that so they could actually get health care contribution and um and cost of living increases so that's for railen Griffin but we are happy to work forward uh work work with the uh the unions on this and again with nine negotiating units that we have to deal with this is very complex stuff and uh we don't um you you can't snap your fingers and make this happen and the notion that this has been going on for 24 months I get the timing of that statement but it's quite frankly nonsensical the the labor shortage that we're experiencing has been going on for several years and it's just getting worse and uh we're well aware of that um quite frankly people are are leaving jobs everywhere to include um well-paid nonprofit jobs for a lot of reasons um and um so this isn't a problem that with this Administration or just with this City this this is Nationwide and quite frankly everyone is wondering where all the employees went and so um we're doing making great efforts I think providing an extra day of vacation or of a holiday a year we did that yesterday um I supported that because all these little things add up to make this a better place to work um and and uh and so we can re recruit and retain retain and quite frankly we lose CDL snowplow drivers to the state at the airport when they add give them a 30% pay increase all at once we lose lawyers to the state because they got a 25 to 30% pay increase that's a lot of money so to retain lawyers just last year I gave a uniform across the board 25% just to retain and stop the or stem the flow of loss of lawyers for the municipality and quite frankly those were pay scales that were instituted long before I came here so I just want to set the record straight and um uh I think that's important because there's a lot of mischaracterization going on but going forward we're happy to work with Union um I suspect on this di uh I might be the only card carrying Union member up here and I'm proud of 30 years of union service so the notion that I'm somehow anti-union is quite frankly nonsensical so thank you Miss thank you um so no one's suggesting that the mayor is nonunion um what I'm suggesting is that the administration is a mess and disorganized so the new holiday was passed by the assembly on February 21st two weeks later the family leave policy was passed on March 8th so that means there had to have been a tentative agreement in place on March March 8th and it's just getting to us now in October that seems interesting timing and probably not the case so there was time to take this up it is a matter of priorities it is a matter of showing where your priorities lie do your priorities lie in finding good employees to work in our municipality and to convey all of the benefits to them that we have said are appropriate you found the time to get the holiday through why not parental leave I I'm tired of excuses I want to see action on the policy this body adopts and I want to see it in meaningful ways I am tired of doing things that just aren't being implemented and frankly picking up the slack on priorities of this Administration that can't seem to bring them over the Finish Line creating s versions or bringing amendments because it's just not happening please do your jobs thank you Mr salt thank you so I I gu some questions for you so this was a negotiation so you got you are in agreement or the Union's in agreement with this contract this agreement was bargain of good faith it would be wrong for me to sit here and start saying I disagree with ultimately we did ta it there's items on the table that neither the union nor the municipality were able to achieve that they attempted to so I guess my point is it's a negotiation so it's a give and take I mean hey let's give youall a million dollars great idea got to pay for it can't do it so it's it's give and take so hopefully you're some of your priorities met some of the administration's priorities were met so I guess if the Union's in agreement and and is willing to ratify or is ratifying this I'm willing to vote for it if you're not you want me to vote no just say it we'll vote no right now is more rhetorical thanks yeah so I have the email in which Miss Griffith said we're not interested in negotiating for this leave so whatever the record is being straightened I'm not sure anyhow members May proce Mr Johnson yeah thank you I I I certainly am amental to the idea of trying to address this this um this this failure to implement policy through an Loa but I would just like to say for my part I I strongly am in favor of ratifying this agreement here because even if it doesn't achieve everything this body would like to see happen it still sounds like it is a fair shake to the teamsters and and include some um some issues that they do want to have addressed so I I I hope that that the members vote in favor of this even if we think there's more work to be done further down the road seeing no one else in the cube members May proceed to vote member perz viia how do you vote Yes on a vote of 11 to Zer AR 20233 has passed the [Applause] body next we have item 14c AO 2023 69 an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly to reauthorize certain boards and commissions by amending the sunset Provisions AMC 454 5110 460 270 and 49010 public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will the body move to approve second moved by Miss zelel seconded by Mr Rivera Miss zelel um I believe I don't know if there are members who want to move their amendments I think we should start there Miss broy yeah thank you I'll move uh broy amendment number one second moved by Miss Bry seconded by Mr Ren yeah thank you um this is one of two amendments both of which um is implementing the recommendations of the auditor um so that is where that is the starting point this one would um uh allow for the current sunset of the port Alaska modernization program in design Advisory Board that's it thank you um so I believe that this is brought in response to the audit um however the design Advisory Board is not done um in fact the design Advisory board has a lot of work to do we're going to be presented with a 65% design pretty soon some options on Terminal to um Mr constant I had the opportunity to meet with Bob Owens um to talk about some issues the design Advisory board right now plays an issue if there are any design changes required um and so I think that while the design Advisory Board isn't maybe set up in the most ideal fashion it's better than assembly members needing to Value engineer this thing um this big project which is what happened with the petroleum cement terminal which is why the design Advisory Board was created um so I think there's an opportunity to refi refine the design Advisory Board particularly as we move into a construction um posture um and really take a hard look at whether or not it makes sense for the um director of the port to remain the uh chair of this board or if that seat um it's there's two seats for the municipality right now and whether or not that that change would make sense thank you thanks and I put myself in the queue Mr con thank you I just want to reinforce what Miss alel said you know we don't even have the 65% design back for Terminal 2 we still have conversations about the North Extension we have um a lot of questions that remain and there is an ordinance in draft phase right now if this were to pass it were to Sunset you would see an ordinance recreating it with a new structure there'll for sure if this amendment doesn't pass and and the board is extended be an ordinance coming forward that will restructure the board to more accurately reflect the phase of the design that we're going into but this body the design Advisory Board is one of the tools that brought the port project into functionality after several years of languishing because it provided a voice to the primary operators and it's of value M broy yeah thank you um and I would be open to um change ing or withdrawing this amendment I guess I I wonder it it does still give me pause um automatically extending this 3 years given um that that it it hopefully would not need that period of time although I understand um there may be discussion there and then I also um would ask that the current members of the board unless it is constitut to be brought forward for confirmation as I understand that didn't happen either per the audit but I guess I I'll leave it to the discussion with other members Mr vond thank you Mr chair yeah that was my question so in the report that uh the yeah the report that we accepted um one of the audit findings said the terms for only one member confirmed by the assembly is current so I think that is something that we should look at and I guess um while we still have our acting auditor here if I could just ask so is is the sole is it okay to ask a question okay could you come up um thank you so Mr Lee I guess my question is was the recommendation that the the um the board be allowed to Sunset primarily based on the fact that the chair said that they believe that the board had done their job or were there other findings that led you to conclude that it should be sunsetted to the chair Mr vand yes our decision or recommendation for the sunsetting the board was primarily based on the our discussion with the board the chair okay um but there was it seems like from reading the report other than the the issue I just mentioned um regarding assembly confirmation um there were not you know substantial absences of members or failure to keep good meeting minutes Etc that gave you concerns about the board is that correct through the Mr vand no no we did not find any other reason for to recommend the B to Sunset those four four members who are not properly appointed according to the code were there appeared to be some kind of confusion or misunder understanding of the code requirement because these four members had to have have a certain criteria to be become the board member but all four board members were meeting those those qualifications however there were not properly appointed you know and confirmed okay thank you that's helpful so I guess I would just you know sure I I would be interested in extending the life of the board but definitely we need to resolve the confirmation issue and we also need to resolve this disconnect between what the chair of the board is saying and the information that we need to gather as the uh assembly because that is um Troublesome thank you Mr Conant thank you and I'll briefly speak to that you know when we pulled together the design Advisory Board and one thing you'll learn you do this long enough you do your best with the the votes you have and then you figure out you could have done it better and um it never really dawned on us when we appointed the port director as a member and the manager as a member and granted the port director the chair he might have a conflict right the reality is he holds the contracts he holds the leases there's a lot of um conflict that's inherent in the organization that we created and conflict that is going to accred to power in the end and the power is the one who holds the keys to the port and so I think and it's no stroke against the port director it's not it's not a strike against him it's just we set it up in a way that was our best thinking at the time and our best thinking was in retrospect not as good as it could be and so I think there are a number of ways we we are already working on a plan to clean it up M broy um I will move to amend uh my amendment to change the Sunset date from well to as written it goes back to October 14 2023 changing that to October 14 2024 second for purposes of discussion motion to amend by Miss Broly seconded by Mr Rivera Miss broy yeah thank you and again just speaking to the the need for changes it sounds like there's work um on another ordinance so this would allow a year and then presumably if there was a need to extend it further that could be a discussion uh in 2024 anyone else here hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on the amendment member Perez verdia how do you vote yes that was the amendment to the amendment now we have the amendment back before us and I'll just say that um it's my intent for the amendment that will come forward to code proposal to have a different um Sunset date we can deal with it in that ordinance once we get there so now we have the amendment before us anyone wish to speak to it he and see none members May proceed to vote member BR verdia how do you vote yeah Mr Rivera oh I'm sorry that passes that Amendment passes 110 uh thank you Mr chair um so I'll go ahead and move Broly Rivera amendment number two second motion to amend by Mr Rivera seconded by Miss Bry Mr Rivera yeah thank you Mr chair so uh this amendment mir's uh internal audit report 2023-24 and that the quote the assembly should consider holding a work session with the commission to discuss its role and recent activities to help determine if the commission should be reauthorized Beyond January 2024 end quote um and that's pretty much what this amendment does it moves the Sunday uh Sunset date to January 31 um and uh if this is if this amendment is approved uh I would ask that the chair schedule a work session with the public safety advisory commission by the end of the year so that we can dig into this um as was brought up earlier um for folks interested in the history this isn't the first time that we had to deal with this issue with this particular Commission in 2020 internal audit report 2020-1 had the exact same suggestion and we took very similar action and in 2020 we were able to revitalize the commission and um we'll see if maybe that's the same route we take or if we go a different route but I would suggest for us at this point to approve this amendment and then we can figure out where to go from there thank you all right M alel thank you I I guess I can support this um I would like a little bit more time because I think we should take a look at the ordinance particularly around this board or the sorry The Advisory commission this commission um it really made a shift it was um really more of a s it became like it had voices of the community on it and we lost all of those voices and what we ended up with was frankly um a law enforce enforcement and X law enforcement Echo chamber and I think it's important that we get some voices from the community on this particular commission and so it may take more than just a work session it may take an ordinance change and so um I just want to be mindful that that might be the solution and so we may be back here having to extend this date out further just so that we can you know go through the ordinance process in a meaningful way um but for now I I I think this is fine it I I'm having little bit of like it's getting close to the end of the year and our calendars are getting really jammed up syndrome happening so um just want everyone to kind of keep that in mind as we're trying to figure out the time in order to um really take these issues up thank you Mr vond thank you um I have a question and then I think a thought but I want to hear the answer to my question first for the administration who staffs the public safety advisory Commission uh through the chair Mr bird will respond uh through the chair member ven it's uh Richard Whitney from the mayor's office currently okay thank you um so I find the uh audit report for this uh commission to be much more troubling than the former um I I certainly share memb zel's concerns about how this um particular commission has moved um more in the direction of being sort of like former public safety officers um almost entirely not that we don't need those voices as part of the mix of the conversation I think we do um but I don't think it's um sort of I don't think there's necessarily A diversity of voices at the table for this commission so I I find that troubling but you know the fact that in the report the the public safety advis commission could only provide unapproved unapproved meeting minutes for one meeting in 2022 and one unapproved uh meeting minutes and one approved for 2023 so pretty um uh subpar um documentation there and they also were unable to uh determine accurately if member attendance requirements were met um so for my part I would just be interested in um letting this commission Sunset and I don't necessarily even think that I'm interested in going to January 2024 I think I'd be fine doing it on a a sooner timeline perhaps even effective immediately thanks Mr Myers I guess I'm not sure who my questions for as far as how the board um operates but I do know this is an active board and they are active meeting so I'm not sure where the disconnect is between the minutes and uh the attendance getting sent to the auditor I'm not sure how that actually plays out but I would not be in favor of letting it sunset since I know that the board does actively meet so um who can answer that question Mr I'm sorry you're in the queue Mr I see it go ahead Mr B I don't think it's an auditor question you you can answer but I think it's more of an operational question go ahead if you want Mr band I'd like to offer a little bit of a CL about lack of minage and lack lack of attendance record we are not able to find however the administrative support for the board the commission had been in the past tra provided by the between the APD and afd they alternated each other one year it was APD another year it was afd then about 6 years ago afd took over the aoma support function and it was recently transferred to the mayor's office so during that transition I believe those record had been [Music] rast okay Mr Myers yeah I was just going to say I was texting a member of the board while we were sitting here and he sent me the minutes for a June July and August meeting so like I said I do know they're an active board because they participate in my community councils at least the representative from Eagle River so um I think that yeah Mr bird you are in the queue if you want to help us understand how the operation is working we have duelan perspectives thank you Mr chair um I was just looking on the onboard which is where we list where the the Commissioners when they have been appointed and uh who they are um and I I want to defend Mr Whitney who's been Staffing this um I think Mr Lee is correct previously um before Mr Whitney was Staffing it it was afd or APD they declined at some point and became the mayor's office purview that was before I was on the mayor's office floor eighth floor um since that time uh we have repopulated the board and they have been a very active board since June if you look on the onboard website since June we have had many more members we've had a quorum we've had all the seats filled um and Mr Lee I apologize I'm trying to find your audit report I'm not sure what the date of it is but I can say uh to corroborate what member Myers is saying that I think they have been a very active board but it's probably only been for the last 2 or 3 months so Mr bird if you go into your queue you go to current item and there's a little paperclip you click on the paperclip go to documents and then we're going to have it right there um actually it's not loaded up right now it's 10 F1 yes so you go to the agenda on the left and you scroll to 10 F1 and that's for Public Safety advisory commission click on the paperclip go to documents there it is thank you so we still have some folks in the que Mr band thank you so I appreciate learning that they have been more active I think that's good you know another part of the report that I didn't read was that from January 2022 through July 2023 this commission did not issue any reports or resolutions and so I guess one question that I would ask is like what value are we getting out of this commission you know if if Bo these boards and commissions supposed to be advisory to the assembly or some are advisory to the uh to the administration and we're not getting any resolutions or reports what advice are we getting what value are we getting and so for me I I guess I would just say it's another reason to contemplate um letting this board or letting this commission Sunset that's kind of where I am at on this thanks M broy yeah thank you um yeah and glad to hear that they are an active board now I would suggest um that there are a number of public safety issues happening in our community and so um you know it would be helpful for the board to for example uh hel hold an informational session about the body cam implementation or discussing uh the Mental Health First Response Team or discussing uh broad public safety issues uh related to um homelessness that are coming up in our community I mean there's a lot of topics that this board could really be taking up so I would really encourage the chair and the member of those boards and the staff um to to even if it's not taking action to really have substantive discussions and allow for uh you know discussions on the public record of of how we can improve community relations a community understanding of public safety and then really helping um dive into those topics that are hot topics right now thank you all right so we have the amendment before us and um I just want to say on behalf of Mr Whitney Mr bird um thank you for starting to get these things in order it's been a process and it goes back and it's in very many dimensions and so um these conversations about um sun setting always bring about some pointed conversation so Mr Whitney thank you for doing your best to bring it into some sense of order so um the motion before us is to set the the date of sunset to January 31 so so I think this is just an amendment so members May proceed to vote member pz verdia how do you vote I'm sorry point of information I just want to make make sure I'm understanding a yes vote is voting to to allow this to Sunset correct no the yes vote uh extends the Sunset date to January 31 providing us an opportunity to engage with the public safety commission members to thank you ask the questions that have been asked around here um why you thank you that's that's what I I vote Yes vote of 11 to zero the amendment has passed next we have the main motion before us any discussion hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote member perz fdia how do you vote yeah on a vote of 9-2 AO 2023 -69 has passed the body and um so next we have item 14d AR gotcha thank you Madam clerk now we go back to item 10B 10 Delta three all right so now we have back before us am 75920 23 Public Safety advisory commission Regina Wright what's all the body move approved second second moved by Mr salt I Believe seconded by Mr Broly any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Perez Veria how do you vote Yes member Rivera on a vote of 11 to0 am 75920 23 has passed the body now we're back to I'm 14d 14d AR 2023 d313 and 313 s resolution of the Anchorage assembly reappropriate 1, 775,000 previously appropriated to the Anor Health Department for Early Education grants and evidence-based grants to Providers and improving Grant agreements the Alaska children's trust and Native Village of includ all within the alcohol beverages retail sales tax fund 2000 20600 um public hearing on this item is now open welcome please come forward state your name what part of time you're from you'll have three minutes just be here for questions if if you're not here to testify and you're here for questions we can wait anyone else anyone at all hearing and seeing none public closed what's the wall of the body move to approve second moved by Miss zotel I Believe seconded by Miss broley Mel thank you um so we do have a representative from the Native Village of aluta here and we also have someone from the Alaska children's Trust on the phone um both should there be any questions um so I brought this item um particularly because um I think it's important to do two things one is to get this money out into the community and this money was appropriated all the way back at first quarter budget revisions um and it was unspent from the year before so $2 million was unspent the year before in prevention um and it had it wasn't moving so the idea here though isn't just that it wasn't moving here I see a great opportunity which is let's see through its Grant process the Alaska children's trust is going to work as a pass through entity it is going to conduct its own competition for this money I'm so curious who they're going to reach that we aren't reaching because we've received feedback from grantees or perspective grantees that we're just not fully accessible to them so I think it's a great learning opportunity and it accomplishes the necessary the necessary Baseline for this um money which is to get it into the community second um with the native Village of akuta um supporting their culturally appropriate um after school education opportunity Is Us fulfilling um a policy goal we've had in our government toover relationships with Native Village of UTA so I think we have the opportunity to do two things here tonight with this reappropriation and I urge your support anyone else oh miss brona I'm excited with what could happen with this pilot program with the native Village of auta but I did have a question um were other um groups youth groups able to um VI for this or was this just routed directly um I just wanted to make sure that there's a was maybe a procurement process or some way that more than one person could have possibly had that money so to answer your question Miss branga no this was this is a direct appropriation um to fulfill a policy objective that we have with the native Village of aluta there had been 6 months for the health department to put this money out on the street and it didn't happen and so that is why we're here today um so um in the future with this you know if the money continues through a continuation budget for next year um the $2 million hopefully there will be an appropriation process and a not an appropriation sorry a competitive Grant process and there will be the opportunity for folks to apply but this is because because this money was all the way back from 2022 and is still unspent um and I believe I made a mistake in moving to approve I should have moved to approve the S my apologies I hope that's okay um with the second okay yep you still have the floor so um I'm sorry I don't know your name uh I'm Brenda hu the tribal administrator for the native Village of akuta and is it all right if I ask her does she they have a plan do do you have a sketch out of what you're doing with this money I really we do and um I may have provided that to um a couple of the assembly members but maybe not all I'd be happy to send it to you too um but we will be meeting the students arrive back in the village around 3 or 3:30 depending upon which school and so we would be having them meet in our clinic conference room and we would keep them until 5:00 uh each evening and then on when we have the spring breaks and things like that we will be able to have students from throughout our areas so from the Wasilla area as well as Anchorage and we'll be able to do some activities with all the kids so um this is an opportunity to do that after school piece uh that will be which I think a lot of Studies have shown are real critical pieces for for kids and then we will also be able to do things that are larger to kind of uh keep them and be able to teach some of the aab basket values that we've been wanting to promote and um I think this is a a really great way to use some of this money and I appreciate the chance for the pilot project thank you thanks and we're talking about 25,000 right not the huge amount yeah good I just be really clear to the record that we're not proposing a grant that scale for our neighbors to the north so um Miss broy yeah briefly just want to speak in support of this and um even though I'm new to this body I'm not new to um alcohol tax Appropriations and kind of the theory behind them um so you know all the way back when the first Appropriations were made by a prior assembly the focus was um and from The Advocates as well was to say we need to be funding Upstream we need to be funding prevention programs and in fact by doing those things by focusing on on early childhood and education and other issues we will over time reduce the incidence of the downstream effects like uh child abuse sexual assault domestic violence and so that is the general theory and just to State the the grant appropriation uh to the Alaska children's trust is to create or not to create but to use their competitive process to make grants the way that they do they are a grantmaking entity and they are very experienced with it one of the challenges that that I had working as a contractor with the health department um again spanning multiple administrations was that it is a challenge to stand up a brand new grant program within the department it takes um designing what your intended outcomes are what your measurement uh factors are all of those things and and so it it's been a challenge for the last couple years and as as member zotel said um it the money just hasn't gotten out of the door as as it's intended and then I'll also note that um prior assembly decisions as far as direct Appropriations from the alcohol tax Grant um have been made on multiple occasions for multiple different organizations I'm thinking of some that were five time this amount um that I believe are still standing line items in our budget and so this is um perhaps unusual given that the intent was that we um that we are doing the grant making that the city is doing the grant making but given where we are I think this is well within the context of what's happened since uh since the tax began in 2021 thanks Mr bird on behalf of the mayor thank you Mr chair uh I'm going to defer to Alexis John joh son uh through the chair to the body first and foremost I want to correct the record um this was appropriated to the Anchorage Health Department in first quarter budget we did flag concerns that the grant uh administrative period was very small and it was a quick turnaround to dream big which was asked of us um we had alerted the body multiple times that we had drafted an 24 through the whole calendar year uh that was agreed upon that was the way that we were working towards we had an rfgptpw continuing to do emergency cold weather shelter operations so um we thought that was the most fair and Equitable way to get smaller entities involved secondly we're concerned encorage Health Department is concerned about a spend down period if this is approved tonight you're asking the Anchorage health department and then ultimately act to me solicit Grant applications enter into and enforce Grant agreements with providers receive track and distribute Grant funds and follow reporting requirements required by the ax all before the end of this calendar year if that money is not ad ad ministered it goes back into the fund balance so we have heavy concerns that in the next 60 days $2 million is going to be out so I guess the question um to the uh to the um submitters would be how do you envision $2 million being allocated to act going out into the community um without us writing a $2 million check to them with no oversight it just a matter of process and I understand why you would do this your boss just did it um but I think it's an unwise practice to continue the administration saying I want to correct the record um the administration is allowed to have a different perspective um it's a it's a pattern and I'm not blaming you I'm not coming at you for that but I'm putting it out there for folks to hear there's probably a better way to communicate difference than to say what you said is wrong so miss elel thank you Mr chair um we've had a conversation with the Alaska children trust and they're fully capable of getting this money out the door um using their Grant making process and we expect that the health department should be able to work with them to effectuate what is effectively two Grant agreements instead of a lot of them um the children's trust will receive um 1 um 1,700 $50,000 not $2 million there will be fund balance we didn't go to the $2 million Market and then finally we learned this money was unspent when it was being suggested to be used to fund the navigation Center we didn't know about its status otherwise I was shocked and dismayed to learn that it hadn't gone out the door and in response this is what I came up with and this was the solution so I think that that's very important because this ensures that these prevention funds are still used for prevention thank you Mr Rolland thank you Mr chair so I actually want to follow up with Mrs Johnson or yeah Mrs Johnson um so okay you're saying there's an active rfgptpw files it was ready to go ready to be posted great and then so was the plan then to do that process or was the plan to use that money for the navigation Center through the chair I will tell you personally I had requested that that money not be included in the navigation Center appropriation um I had clearly communicated that that money was being put forward for an process through the health department at this point I mean is it too late now to do that or like how quickly would that money get out on the street to different organizations yeah through the chair to Mr ven that's a great question we would like to put out an rfgptpw this year but the grant execution period wouldn't start until until January 1st 24 okay okay thank you so I have just a couple questions um so Miss Johnson you said that you asked that the money not be appropriated to the navigation Center but we didn't finish that line of thought it was right through the chair it was put forward in the um the findings of money that had not been spent yet thanks and so then one last question there is the $2 million or 1.7 or whatever the exact number is in the mayor's 2024 budget proposal to the assembly through the chair I don't believe so because we I was told that this money was going to be sole source to this entity okay thank you anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote ar20 23- 3133 s member perz verdia how do you vote I vote no on a vote of 7 to4 that item passes next we have item 14 actually so 15a is a must yeah so we have one must pass item I'd ask for a motion to change the order of the day to take up item 15a so moved move by Miss salel seconded by Mr Walland any objection hearing and seeing none the agenda order has been changed we're going to now take up item 15a ar20 23- 336 and just so folks know this is a quasi judicial item a resolution of the anchor Municipal assembly stating its conditional protest regarding a new recreational site license number 6164 for Michael McCormack DBA frosted ax throwing located at 409 West fired Lane Anchorage 90503 pending satisfaction of Municipal requirements and authorizing the municipal clerk to take certain actions public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard hearing and seeing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's Ro the body move to approve mov moved by Miss elel seconded by Mr Rivera Miss alel yes very briefly um I hear some chuckling and around the recreation license so a big part of this protest is the special land use permit is not yet approved it will be coming before us shortly and I think a lot of the questions you may be having will need to be answered then so I would urge your approval for now so that we get this protest in before the deadline thank you so and I'll just briefly speak to it as well um the kind of the laughter around the room is there is some question about the wisdom of alcohol service around an axe throwing event um and there are a number of questions that are involved whether it's just the sensibility of having alcohol when you're throwing axes which is like the lowest level of question but then there comes a number of other questions like um does this fit under the special license that they're proposing a recreational site license which historically has had some requirement that you have seasonality or an event or some kind of an activity but I know these things have changed slightly and so um then there's also the issue of the special land use permit and the question of is this use wise um so that will be a question for another day but that's the laughter you're hearing from people is like a bar inside of an axe throwing operation so U Miss Broly yeah thank you um and I uh I hear the consternation about that I suppose um and I I don't have specific knowledge of this business but I will note that we sure allow alcohol service in a whole lot of other places where it's not necessarily safe um nor do we adequately address the um impacts of alcohol use in our community and that's again not directed at one business or this business but um it's just true that we sure allow alcohol in a lot of places so that's my comment for now right so before us now is the license AR 20 23- 336 members May proceed to vote this is the conditional protest member perz verdia how do you vote I think he might have oh he's there good thanks on a vote of 11 to Z ar2 23- 336 has passed now we come back to item 14 e a2023 3 an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending Municipal Code section 7209 emergency procurements and waiver of formal procurement procedures providing for the assembly to wave the 48 hour waiting period for contract execution public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard anyone at all we seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will of the body move to approve move to approve by Miss alel second anyone second second by Mr Rivera um yeah I'll speak to it Mr con yeah thanks so we found um before that there was a scenario recently where there was an emergency procurement proposed but they held it because they didn't want it to be at an assembly meeting because that would trigger a 48 hour waiting period when they could just execute the contract under the emergency powers and it dawned on us that it was an IR rational Benchmark to not allow the assembly to wave the 48 hour period which would provide an opportunity for the administration to come before us at a regular meeting to ask us for a waiver approval and so this just simply provides more flexibility to achieve the goal of the emergency procurement Mr salt so I'd like to propose a floor amendment to this one and I I've sent it to Jasmine um but essentially at line 27 after waiver put a period and delete the remainder and just trying to simplify it cuz when I look at it you need it fast that's why we're doing this yet we're delaying um 48 hours and possibly 72 if you go for the 24 hours of notice and then if we decide to um unless we wave that requirement which takes 24 hours public notice for the assembly so now you're delaying delaying 48 hours so that's kind of what I'm trying to clean up to make this actually executable quickly thank you so move to propose move move Sal Amendment one point of information can the um Amendment be restated I wasn't clear I was pulling up the document as you were talking so the specific language you you wish to amend yes so it's real simple so line 27 after contract under the waiver period and then deleting the rest of the uh paragraph right okay get a second yeah is there a second second all right so we have a motion by Mr salt seconded by Mr Meyers um and I put myself in the Q Mr con thank you so we actually instituted this section of code to provide some protection the idea isn't just to allow unfettered access to quote emergency contracts by the administration because we've seen that anything can become an emergency if you want it to be fast and so we put in a measure of protection into the code what we didn't do was allow ourselves to wave that level of protection that we put in should we determine that it's worth waving and the the way that that's demonstrated to be in effect is at a regular meeting we actually had a scenario where rather than just provide to us hey we're going to do this waiver they waited when they knew they could have done it but then there would have triggered a 48 hour waiting period so to me I would support the amendment I would rather not change it at all than have that Amendment because what that would do is take us back to where we were where basically under the the determination of the mayor anything could be executed as a contract without assembly approval just I call it an emergency and so I I don't support the amendment members May proceed to vote member Perez verdia how do you vote yeah so we are adjourned no motion to extend was made it's 11:00 the meeting has adjourned by virtue of the law e e e e e e e e e e for