e e e e e e e e e e we're just about ready [Applause] good evening everybody I now call this meeting of the Anchorage assembly to order this is a meeting of January 9 2024 we're starting just a little bit late Madam clerk would you please take the role member Meyers here member Martinez present member Rivera pres so Mr Rivera we heard you but it was really quiet pres we're working on the it here we'll go down the DI we'll come back to you Mr member branga here member Johnson here chair constant here Vice chair alel here member cross here member volen happy to be here member Broly here member salt Mr salt will be excused he should be here in approximately an hour member pre verdia here youth representative Matthews present member Rivera chair you have a quum so we heard you but it sounded very much like you were um speaking on a science fiction movie so um Mr Johnson would you please lead us in the pledge I would be honored I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all and youth member Matthews would you please read the land acknowledgement a land acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the indigenous people of a place it is a public gesture of appre 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 INE Equity the Anor assembly would like to acknowledge that today that we gather on the traditional lands of the denina athabascans for thousands of years the denina have been and continue to be the stewards of this land it is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions Innovations and contemporary perspectives of the upper Cook Inlet denina thank you member Matthews so next on the agenda we have minutes of previous meetings we have no minutes of previous meetings that takes us to the next item Mr Mayor the mayor's report thank you Mr chair and good evening everyone good to see you here I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break and was able to enjoy time with their families and loved ones uh tonight is our first meeting of the new year and like always there are some important items on the agenda I specifically want to talk about the renaming of the port of Alaska last month there was a very contentious debate I'm sorry I missed it about this topic and it was ultimately decided by the assembly to postpone in indefinitely after several different iterations of the uh renaming were presented I understand there was a motion to reconsider and for that I am thankful however I want to express the importance of reconsidering the original uh name put forward by the naming panel I know uh from my Administration and as expressed several times by the assembly processes must be followed while I'm proud of the hard work and diligence that has gone into this renaming I am extremely disappointed that it has taken this long to pass through the body from the start the renaming was an idea championed by both my office as well as former members of this assembly there were some stumbles along the way but the item you see before you tonight is a result of the the process at work the naming panel that was formed by the assembly and my Administration unanimous unanimously voted on the Don young Port of Anchorage to ignore their recommendation is against the process and against the will of the citizens of Anchorage with full support from our Congressional Delegation uh especially uh representative pel's office I urge you to pass this tonight and not delay it any further moving on to snow plowing and snow removal by now we are all well aware of the historic snowfall amounts that we've gotten so far this winter just yesterday ktuu posted that we broke another daily snowfall record on the 7th our snowfall total from November 1st to January 8th surpasses the 2012 season record by nearly 6 in today's update from Street Maintenance is a testament to just how much snow our crews have had to move since November and here's the update there have been 41,100 loads of snow hauled since November compared to 3,663 loads hauled in 2012 Street widening occurs every time we put a load of snow into a truck or push back or blow back a burm Street Maintenance has hauled or widened main roads residential areas schools and the central business district uh uh 63 out of the last 66 days since November 5th when we received our first record snowfall 85% % of all Municipal right of way has some form of Street widening completed the remaining 15% is planned and in progress upon completion a second round of widening will then continue the timeline to get areas to where we would like it to be is four to six weeks of hauling and widening barring no more snow every snow event extends this timeline snow dumps are beginning to reach approximately half capacity in four to 6 weeks we anticipate snow dumps uh are going to be near capacity Street Maintenance asks for patience from the public as we realize that streets are narrow and culde saacs are full Crews will continue to work 247 to provide service to all areas of town finally I am thrilled to announce that this Friday marks the first annual mayor's job fair this job fair is an opportunity for the municipality and employers across Anchorage to meet and hire job Seekers on the spot it will connect job Seekers with employers across Anchorage and is a great opportunity for employers to connect with candidates in this tough hiring Market we are expecting about 85 vendors to join us on Friday from a vast array of fields including manufacturing Health Care engineering emergency services and more I want to thank our friends at easy park for partnering with us to provide free parking in the parking garages on H and six Street and I want to thank our HR department and our office of equity and justice for their great efforts in organizing this event like many employers we are very familiar with the tough hiring market right now and are looking forward to meeting job Seekers and getting some of our vacancies filled thank you Mr chair that's it for me all right thank you Mr Mayor next on the agenda we have the chair's report good evening everybody and welcome this is the first regular assembly meeting of 2024 as the mayor said I hope everyone enjoyed the break and had an opportunity to rest and be with family I'm glad that you're here tonight we're starting off the new year with a bang and have a really packed agenda tonight there are lots of people here to testify on items so we'll do our best to keep on track and move efficiently through all the items that we have to get I'll start with A Brief Review of 2023 I hope you saw last week's assembly newsletter that contained a recap of our 2023 accomplishments the assembly with thanks to the administration and all of our partners saw progress in all of our 2023 priorities including advancement of the port of Alaska modernization passage of several initiatives to Spur Housing Development expansion of the fire department mobile crisis team and the Police Department Mobile intervention team passage of the online checkbook to create an online dashboard of Municipal spending and nearly 100% recovery from FEMA of the funds we spent on the pandemic again thank you Mr thur at our rules committee meeting next week this week next week this week the assembly will develop our work plan for 2024 and we'll release that to the public by next month so you can follow along with what our priorities are and our work over the next year most importantly elections are coming uh tonight uh and our next meeting are the final opportunity to make proposals and amendments to the ballot for 2024's regular election so at the beginning of the new year comes the beginning of the new election cycle the municipality will hold a vote at home election this March in April and the mayor and several Schoolboard seats the open District 2 chuak Eagle River assembly seat will be on the ballot as well as proposed Charter Amendment and several Bond propositions candidate filing opens this Friday January 12th at 8:00 a.m. and closes on Friday January 26th at 5:00 p.m. the assembly will be approving the bond propositions over tonight and the next meeting the last day of voting will be Tuesday April 2nd local elections have a very direct impact on our daily lives and include the efficiency of our snow plowing the health of our Parks the strength of our Public Safety so I encourage everybody to follow these issues closely tune in and be prepared to vote on April second or by April 2nd so I just turned to my kind of standard report that we have a full agenda I'll do my best to move us along so we can conclude at the most reasonable hour note this is a business meeting and we're here to do the work of the municipality please help to create a climate of respect in the chambers and refrain from personal attacks speaking out of turn shouting clapping or pacing if you have signs please keep them smaller than 8 and 1 half by 11 in also please keep the aisles clear except when lined up to testify please don't approach the dis here but if you have something to share with the members please hand it to the clerk for distribution also if a point of order is raised please stop speaking so that I may rule on the point of order and the record is clear if the rules aren't followed I may interrupt speakers to call for compliance if compliance with the rules doesn't occur I may pause the meeting or if an actual disruption occurs I may give a warning if the disruption persists or happens again the person will be asked to leave if you're here to testify on a public hearing item when you come forward please state your name what part of town you're from and since it's a public hearing please stay on topic and direct comments to me or other members on the dis about the item we're deliberating it's helpful for testifiers to provide comments on any proposed amendments you'll have three minutes and Community Council Representatives will have five assembly members don't typically answer questions during that period that comes later during debate as public testimony is the Public's opportunity to speak so thank you all um I would actually have another note from our legislative team um your testimony is oh never mind I'll I'll read that later thank you I'll move on now to assembly committee reports and I'll start with Mr Myers nothing to report thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair and happy New Year everyone the community and economic development committee held its first meeting of the new year on January 4th and our next meeting will be held on January 18th again we meet at the permit Center uh at the uh 4700 Elmore at 9:00 a.m. on those mornings and then also to uh talk about this weekend one of the things that was presented to us at the community Economic Development Committee was a group called The Alaska init uh independent music initiative which is hosting a music Summit focused on the creative economies and the music economy of Alaska and Anchorage and that Summit will be held this Saturday at the Nave on in spinard from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I will be opening with some opening comments that day and uh this Friday is the first meeting of the Chamber of commerce's uh board of directors meeting for the new year and it is also hopefully no meeting Friday and I'll be able to attend uh as we often have conflicts and scheduling conflicts with work sessions thank you chair thank you Mr Martinez next Mr Riva thank you Mr chair um there will be a meeting of the housing and homelessness committee next Wednesday January 17th from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at City Hall Room 155 we're going to be continuing our discussions on emergency cold weather shelter and the eventual transition out of ecws on April 30th there are a couple of items on the agenda today related to the municipal audit committee and the act for annual comprehensive financial review as I stated at a previous meeting the act for continues to be delayed the items on the agenda look to extend the contract with a third-party auditor BDO through March and adds $440,000 to their contract My Hope Is that this work will all get done by March we won't have to further extend this contract I fully appreciate all of the work and difficult circumstances that have led to this extended delay and I look forward to digging into all of that once the act for has been issued thank you Mr chair Mr Riva next um Miss brona thank you chair uh tomorrow Health policy committee meets at 9:15 at City Hall Room 155 um I also wanted to call out we are um having a resolution of action 10 B2 today about supporting Fair inflation adjusted State funding and there is a red fored um march on at Town Square on Saturday from 12: to 1 thanks thank you Miss next Mr Johnson yeah thank you Mr chair uh the next meeting of the Enterprise utility oversight committee will be on January 18th at 11:00 a.m. uh City Hall conference room 155 and also uh available online for people who want to participate that way the primary topic of conversation is going to be around the port of Alaska we anticipate being able to review the the 65% design for Terminal 1 which will uh allow us to make more informed decisions in terms of what the cost of that project will be uh which will then guide uh further conversations about what our plan of Finance is for that um as anyone who's paid any attention all the port knows knows this is a massive project and and the assembly is very much committed to making sure that we are fiscally responsible and so this will be important conversations so I would encourage people to either consider attending in person or or tuning in online thank you thank you Mr Johnson Miss alel thank you on January 18th um from 1210 to 1:10 p.m. in room 155 is the um budget and finance committee of the whole um that I co-chair with Miss Broly um this will be our typical agenda which includes an update from the budget advisory committee an update on the Moa trust fund board update on FEMA reimbursement as well as arpa Grant distribution um and then we will review our monthly budget to actuals both as to General government and the alcohol tax and then um take a snapshot of our Moa uh financial status um so it's always a lot in that hour to cover but um it's a really good way to check in and um learn about the financial health of the municipality thank you thank you Miss Al Mr cruss thank you yeah on January 3rd we had a meeting the public safety uh committee meeting of the whole where we got update from APD regarding the body cam installations and updates uh essentially as they continue to upgrade the vehicles um you know they get more efficient each time Do It um and so we're on track with that Anchorage fire department regular updates MCT hiring Wildland fire mitigation snow emergency we did hear and talk a little bit about of course you just heard the mayor talk about the tremendous snow load we have and we stressed the importance that uh business owners and individuals with older properties flat roofs built 70s 80s have that snow removed we have seen some catastrophic roof failures uh recently um and we anticipate uh more coming if individuals are not cognizant intentional about making sure that snow is removed from their properties um we're not out of we're not out of there yet uh Law Department updates uh regarding our shortage of um Prosecuting attorneys and how we're doing on filling those and then finally we discussed the uh two ordinances that are coming up later today regarding uh Anchorage modification um and Adoption of State changes and marijuana distribution laws and we heard from Chief kurl about public safety's uh concerns with some of those uh perhaps uh or potential changes if you have anyone just uh I would encourage everybody that a lot of what happens you get lost in the details I would encourage you to go to the YouTube channel where all our meetings or pres Us online if you have an item of particular concern please watch that there's a volume of information there thank you you Mr Cross Mr fond thank you Mr chair so our next uh meeting of the quarterly assembly Transportation committee is going to be on Wednesday January 17th from 2: to 4:00 p.m. at City Hall um we have an ambitious agenda uh chalk full of topics so in addition to hearing from our our standing reports um with amats the traffic department akdot and long range planning we will be talk talking about things um like uh getting an update on local control of fifth and sixth streets the Minnesota cheese grader uh track J emergency access road in Government Hill the traffic calming program safe rout to schools and amendment number two to the amap transportation Improvement program so uh a lot to discuss our motto at the transportation committee is Anchorage a place to get to not just a place to get through thank you Mr chair thank you Mr V Mr Sal still not yet here Mr Presa thank you sorry go ahead go ahead thank you Mr chair no update tonight thanks I somehow managed to jump Miss broy Miss broy thank you um and thank you um to uh Miss elel for giving the update on budget and finance uh the other committee update is the legislative committee will also be meeting on Wednesday January 17th uh 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. also in City Hall 1 155 uh we have a a briefer agenda we will be hearing a briefing from our State Legislative lvus and also giving some uh General updates on the upcoming session which will be have will have started the day before on Tuesday the 16th thank you thank you Mr Bry so uh youth member Matthews anything you'd like to report uh nothing I all right thank you very much so um that next brings us to uh the addendum to the agenda so uh before we get to the agendum we're going to address the late on the table items which incorporate any late on the table items into the agenda one second e thank you so now I'll go ahead and um address the laid on the table items we have just a handful of them small handful um the first one is a new item so we will have to go through our late on the table procedures it's item 10 d42 assembly memorandum un numbered am 2024 Soul Source Grant agreement with Alaska children's trust to provide continued support for the Anchorage Child Care Early Education Ace fund implementation uh who is moving this Miss broley yeah thank you um would you like me to give the rationale first it would be move to lay on the table a move to lay on the table second moved by Miss broley seconded by Miss zotel Miss broley now yeah thank you um the rationale for doing this it is time sensitive this project is already underway um in the um implementation of prop 14 and the uh Early Childhood fund implementation team um so we introduced a timeline which shows that we are planning to have a lot of robust public engagement in late January this item was um approved in our budget in uh November 2023 and so we just want to make sure that this is moving forward so that we don't hold up the work and and if we waited for a later meeting then um it would it would slow down essentially the um Administration process all right so is there any discussion on the item so on this this is an eight vote requirement um members May proceed to vote the motion is to lay on the table member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to zero that item has and the youth member votes yes that item has been laid on the table so next we have item uh 10 G 14 so I'm going to go ahead and read this item first so it's an ordinance submitting to the qualified voters residing in the upro alley limited road service area of the municipality at the regular municipal election April 2 2024 a ballot proposition to alter the boundaries of said service area by removing all of the Rockridge Drive right of way between omali Road and East 112th Avenue from the upper omali lursa and submitting to the qualified voters residing in the Anchorage roads and drainage service area at the regular municipal election April 2 2024 a ballot proposition to alter the boundaries of Arta by annexing all properties adjacent to the Rockridge Drive right of way between om Ali Road and East 112th Avenue both propositions to be effective only if both are approved by the voters respectively and accordingly amending service area maps and Anchorage Municipal codes section 27307 uh who's moving this yeah I would uh move to introduce and set the public hearing for January 23rd second moved by Mr Johnson seconded by Miss zotel third by Mr Cross right so that item is addressed next under item 11 unfinished business we have a supplemental item 11 B2 a223 14 S2 an ordinance providing for the submission of the qualified voters of municipality of Anor Alaska the question of the issuance of not to exceed $1 million of General obligation Bonds in Municipality of Anchorage to pay the cost of an areawide public restroom pilot project and the question of an increase in the municipal tax cap limitation to pay Associated operations and maintenance cost the election will be held in the municipality on April 2 2024 and approving an adding project to the areawide 2024 CIB to include the public restom pilot project so that item is now introduced next we have under 14 14 E2 AO 2023 d132 s an ordinance providing for the submission of the qualified voters of the municipality of Anchor Alaska the question of the issuance of not to exceed $4 million General obligation bonds of the Municipality of Anchorage to pay the costs of access improvements in the CH state park access service area at the election to be held in the municipality on April 2 2024 and approved and adding the additional projects to the 2024 CIB to include the chash state park access service area projects that takes care of our laid on the table items right so now I would ask for a motion to incorporate the dentum as printed and distributed in the lay on the table items so moved second motion is made by Miss zotel to incorporate seconded by Miss broy I'm going to ask for unanimous consent any objection seeing hearing none the addendum and laid on the table items have been incorporated into the agenda Miss alel thank you Mr chair uh prior to the meeting I asked the chair for a quick moment of personal privilege before we turn to the appearance requests right to the right to speak to your government about anything exists with very limited exception this leaves the assembly chair with very little discretion in deciding whether to Grant or deny a request for an appearance before us or to limit audience participation at the end of our meetings this means speakers may say things we disagree with things we applaud and things that leave us with questions we as your local government are here to listen to it not necessarily to act or react to the to what said before us with this in mind appearance requests which is the next item on our agenda are one of those ways residents get to speak to their local government tonight and in future meetings during appearance requests I'll listen to these speakers as they have the right to address us and I encourage you to take advantage of a similar opportunity if there are topics about topics you'd like to speak to us about um it's really down to the idea that appearance requests are the chance for you to address your local government as his audience participation regardless of the Viewpoint expressed um and regardless of whether or not we in agreement with it and I think that's really important um because we have been receiving a lot of emails about um granting appearance requests and I think it's really important to keep that in context thank you I would just add that the code does provide some boundaries around appearance requests it has to be items gerain to the business of the assembly so with that we will now turn to appearance request Mr King welcome uh the microphone is not on please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes my name is Daniel King and I live in spinard at the last assembly meeting Michael a concerned constituent came up to speak about a ceasefire resolution during an approved appearance request before he came up the chair of the assembly decided it was important to preface the speech by implying it would be anti-semitic and that the speaker may be sending threats to a synagogue in town I found this to be disheartening that not only would the assembly chair do this but that no assembly member would reprimand him for this I understand a lot of you don't want controversy I hate it myself but it's your job as Community leaders to speak up what Michael followed up with was comments that I generally agree with I may not be a Palestinian or Israeli and I may not have the strongest understanding when it comes to problems surrounding these two countries but I am an engineer and I understand numbers since October 7th over 28,000 Palestinians have been killed including 12,000 kids around 12200 Israelis have also been killed including 36 children since then there isn't time to get into the numbers before this date but know there are thousands more over the last 75 years I'm not here to talk about the past because we are actively dealing with civilian death rates daily that are too astounding to compare with other situations I am Irish and Native American so my ancestors have experienced occupation and genocide in the past this should not exclude those that haven't experienced this personally from speaking out it's our duty in every Community to speak out when we see this kind of Slaughter happening I call for SE personally because every life lost in this world is a life lost to say calling for a ceasefire is anti-Semitic shuts down conversation that could be had on this topic it also implies Jewish people at large are the main antagonist in this situation which isn't true saying this is about the Jewish people also implies this is a religious War which it is not both Muslims and Christians live in Palestine this is the Israeli government and Hamas that are fighting this is not a war between Muslims and Jews when someone calls for a ceasefire it means ceasefire on all sides it means no more bombing from anyone it means there is room for diplomatic calmer heads to Prevail I thank the assembly for the resolution passed last year calling for better education on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in schools I think had this been regular curriculum when some of our community was in school we wouldn't have the confusion we do now on this topic I'd also like to thank assembly members Karen branga and George Martinez for being willing to meet and discuss a ceasefire resolution for peace I look forward to supporting this and letting this be a stepping stone for larger change in our community both locally and nationally I'd also like to thank again Mr Martinez for letting me know we can submit public testimony manually to the clerk I think we would have had felt more heard had an assembly member elected to mention this at the last meeting we will be here again tonight and we plan to do just that please support a ceasefire thank you next we have uh David gin Mr gin welcome you'll have three minutes please state your name what part is from thank you Mr chair my name is David Godin and I live in turnig again we Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years it's human nature for people to look for scapegoats to blame for what is going wrong in their lives for Generations we Jews have been demonized falsely accused of killing Christ of drinking the blood of Christian babies of controlling banking in the media etc etc the seeds of anti-Semitism are always planted it's what brings them to the surface and allowed to Fester grow and to become a danger that I want to share with you tonight islamism is a global jihadist Terror movement to eliminate all non-muslims or infidels from the Middle East and Beyond by any means necessary even the beheading of Jewish babies its first Target is Israel its main weapons are Terror and death and to turn the world against the Jewish State through propaganda techniques that strategically combines lies and the natural prejudices against Jews Hamas purposely C causes the suffering of Palestinians as propaganda fodder to turn the world against Israel I cry for the thousands of Palestinian children that Hamas wanted dead for its propaganda War but look forward to the better future life that the IDF will bring to a million Palestinian children by liberating Gaza from hamas's tyrannical terrorist Nazi regime to be a part of this solution instead of the problem this body has to be able to differentiate between hate speech and Free Speech and not use as an excuse you didn't have an option you can create that option otherwise it sounds too much like I was only following orders a defense rejected at nberg otherwise you become an agent of institutional anti-Semitism wittingly or unwittingly we are raising generations of young children who have not been taught enough accurate history about the Middle East such that the young impressionable Minds become prey to the islamist anti-panic propagandist I am sure the dozens of students who were guided to storm the speaker line 3 weeks ago to control the narrative didn't know that the land wasn't taken from the Arabs of Palestine by the Jews in 1948 those Arabs who stayed kept their lands those who left to join the armies to defeat Israel and who lost don't have the right of return to reclaim their land that they lost in award to take all the land from all the Jews I am confident that the students who who were here 3 weeks ago have not been taught that to be clear a call for a ceasefire keeps Hamas in power and is a call for death to the Jews and the raping of Jewish Women and the beheading of more Israeli babies the slogan from the river to the sea is code for death to the Jews instead of the right answer is a peaceful two-state solution so I urge this body not to go on the record of being supportive or a victim of the jihadist islamist propaganda if you want to be educated fine but this is not the way to do it thank you Mr Kendall Scott Kendall welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes uh thank you chair constant Scott Kendall from Sand Lake um October 7th was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust over 1,200 murdered 200 taken hostage mostly civilians elderly children and infants to put those numbers in perspective it is as though 200,000 Christians were killed or 200,000 Muslims were killed and 20,000 were taken hostage what if on October 8th the UN had condemned Hamas for war crimes demanded the release of all hostages and ordered Qatar to extradite the leadership of Hamas to the heg for trial on war crimes ask yourself why that did not happen and ask why many celebrated instead because if it had happened thousands of civilians would be alive today Israel responded with overwhelming Force just as Hamas had hoped I might not agree with the scope or nature of Israel's response but they had to respond in some way it's possible to feel that Israel has the right to defend itself and to seek to rescue the hostages while still weeping for civilian deaths it's possible to feel that casualties on both sides of a war are tragic particularly those of children and that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unacceptable while still acknowledging that Hamas started this conflict and is primarily to blame we can hold both of these truths in our heart at the same time the assembly has been called on to comment about a ceasefire but a ceasefire requires two willing parties and the single biggest opponent of a ceasefire has been Hamas the conflict has been weaponized and used for personal Advantage sometimes in front of this body mostly by people who suffer no consequence and no Prejudice please remember that the way you talk about this conflict will have consequences for me my family every Jew who is less safe as rhetoric spirals into anti-Semitism and for that matter sadly the Muslim Community as well they suffer these same consequences anti-Semitism has risen 400% since October 7th the tearing down of posters threats to Jewish daycares and schools have are on the rise to be clear it's not anti-semitic to support Palestinian Liberation I myself support a Palestinian state it is anti-Semitic to justify deny or celebrate October 7th using the words zist as an epithet is anti-Semitic and finally the claim that Israel has no right to exist is anti-Semitic since Jews have an indigenous right and tie to this land this war was started by Hamas and it will only end when Hamas releases the hostages lays down its arms and surrender if this body does speak on a ceasefire resolution it must contain five parts that anti-Semitism is to be condemned that a ceasefire must be bilateral that all hostages 130 plus eight Americans must be released that Hamas must disarm and its leadership disavow further violence hold on one second we have Miss Al in the queue thank you um either could the speaker wrap up with his five points or email his Five Points to us I have only the fifth point if I could read that one line please up to the chair proceed finally any ceasefire resolution must include the acknowledgement that Israel has a right to exist just as the Palestinian state has a right to exist in peace alongside its neighbors thank you so um I have a request that you would email your comments in so that members can chew on that I think probably that's the best way to go right now thank you thank you Mr Kendall all right and I would just address comment that was made that I it was implied or stated that I made a veiled accusation that the testifier at the last meeting somehow committed some act of violence or threat of violence against the Jewish temple in this town and that was never the case that was uh a matter the reason I brought it up is because it was real and happening that night at that time and if we're not careful in these conversations that's what this conversation promotes not that I was pointing to any individual the FBI gets to find out who did that so with that we will now move on to the next part of our agenda next part of the agenda is the consent agenda items number 10A through 10f and are typically routine or non-controversial items such as bid Awards new business information reports and ordinances and resolutions for introduction the items on the consent agenda may be accepted introduced or approved by the assembly by a single vote on the 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 those items under the assembly rules of procedure all ordinances and some resolutions we have an opportunity for public hearing on a future date so we now start down the dis and uh with Mr pres any items to PLL thank you Mr chair no items this evening thank you m broley yeah thank you I'd like to pull uh 10 A2 10 B2 10 d23 10 d42 that was the late on the table item 10 e14 and that's it so just uh go back to that it's 10 A2 10 B2 10d 23 10d 42 and then 10 E1 14 yeah yes thank you um Mr V thank you chair 10 A1 for reading all right 10 A1 Mr Cross nothing to pull chair thank you Miss elel thank you Mr chair uh 10 C1 10 C8 10 C1 10 C12 10 Delta 2 10 eo8 also 10 d8 thank you all right um so I'll just go back through that list real quick 10 C1 10 C8 10 C1 10 C12 10 D2 10 d8 and 10 E8 all right um Mr Johnson uh no items Mr chair thank you Miss brona 10d 15 10 D Delta 15 thank you Mr rera thank you Mr chair no items thank you uh Mr Martinez no additional items and Mr Myers no additional items thank you chair all right I'll go through the list one more time 10 A1 Mr ven 10 A2 Miss barley 10 B2 Miss barley 10 C1 Miss alil 10 C8 10 C1 10 C12 Miss alel 10 D2 10 d8 Mrs alel 10d 15 Miss branga 10 d23 Miss broley 10d 42 Miss broy 10 E8 Miss zotol 10 e14 Miss broy is anything I missed okay so now I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus the pulled items it moved second moved by Miss elel seconded by Mr vand I'd like to ask for unanimous consent is there any objection to this item hearing and seeing none the consent agenda has now passed for The public's information the assembly has now passed or accepted all items in 10 a through 10f other than the items that were just pulled which will take up next or that have been introduced for a future public hearing which have been accepted which the future public hearing all items in 10g so if you're you're here to see action if you're here to see action on item listed on the consent agenda that was not pulled those items have now been passed and approved so uh if there's no objection we I've been asked we take up 10 A2 before we take up 10 A1 so 10 A2 is ar22 24-22 a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing January 16 2024 is national day of racial healing and reaffirming the municipality's commitment to advancing equity and creating a community where all people are valued um what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Miss broy seconded by Miss zotel again on this item I'd like to ask for unanimous consent is there any objection hearing and seeing none that item you you object okay so there's an objection we'll go ahead and uh take a vote members May proceed to vote the vote comes in pre-filled something's not right so go ahead and try to vote and see okay thank you member Rivera yes okay on a vote of 11 to1 and the youth member votes yes that item has been adopted so um point of order Mr chair just since I noticed member salt is not in attendance and his vote is recorded as yes is that correct it is not correct thank you I didn't even push a button you did not push a button okay we definitely have an IT problem Adrien so uh that vote will actually be 101 10 to one it's not t to to now you have Miss Broly marked as [Music] no yes we'll go ahead and do a Voice vote on this item while we figure out what's wrong with the system so member Myers no member Martinez yes member River yes member branga yes member Johnson yes chair constant yes Vice chair zotel yes member cross no member band Yes member Broly yes member pres Veria yes that's correct okay so on a vote of 9-2 that item has passed so um is someone here to receive this I'm told that there's supposed to be someone come on down welcome and then we have Mr Martinez I believe presenting and Mr shair I'm reading Miss broy reading thank you okay okay uh resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing January 16th 2024 for as national day of racial healing and reaffirming the M municipality's commitment to advancing equity and creating a community where all people are valued whereas black and indigenous people of color bipo communities have experienced centuries of persistent and systemic inequities and racism in the United States and throughout the world including in Anchorage whereas racis racism prevents people from living in a community where everyone has Fair Equitable opportunities to thrive and negatively contributes to educational economic and health outcomes for communities of color and whereas ideologies based on racism and white supremacy continue to pose serious threats to the well-being of individuals and communities with increasing Trends in hate speech and public discourse hate crimes and racially motivated violence which requires intentional and positive statements and statements policies and action to counteract and whereas racial healing is at the heart of racial Equity a process of Reckoning with the his with the history and ongoing impacts of systemic racism and white supremacy to build authentic relationships across diverse communities and make positive strides toward a society where all people can Thrive and whereas recognizing the need for and committing to the work of racial healing can help repair damage caused by racism encourage dialogue and build trust within our community and Bridge the divides created by Prejudice discrimination and systems that promote inequity and harm and whereas in 2017 the WK Kellogg Foundation launched laed the truth racial healing and transformation trht project and established the Tuesday following Martin Luther King Jr day as national day of racial healing first recognized on January 17 2017 and whereas this important work must take place in all aspects of our community including efforts by the municipality led by the municipality through the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission Office of equity and Justice Equity Committee of the assembly and in evaluating all local government functions with an equity lens now therefore the Anchorage assembly recognizes January 16th 2024 as national day of racial healing and encourages the whole Community to celebrate our diverse cultures and Civic life at the Martin Luther King solidarity C cultural C celebration at Betty Davis East High School on the evening of Monday January 15 2024 and to join the Alaska Black Caucus and Alaska children's trust at noon on Tuesday January 16th 2024 for a virtual event to Mark national day of racial healing passed and approved by the Anchorage assembly this 9th day of of January 2024 all right anyone like to make any comments the microphone is open if you want to say anything doesn't look like it okay thank you next we'll move on back to 10 A1 which is ar22 24-14 a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly designating January 15 2024 as Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service and recognizing and honoring the Legacy and dream of Dr King let's well the body move to approve second moved by missel second by member vand any objection to this one hearing and seeing none that item has been passed unanimously um I have I guess Mr band reading I be reading and Miss alel presenting hello welcome all right a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly designating January 15th 2024 as Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service and recognizing and honoring the Legacy and dream of Dr King whereas in 1983 a Federal holiday was created marking the birthday of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and in 1994 the third Monday in January was designated as a National Day of Service a day on not a day off and whereas Dr King stated that life's most persistent and Urgent question is what are you doing for others each year Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the Martin Luther King Day of Service to serve their neighbors and communities and whereas participation in the MLK Day of Service has grown nationally and locally with volunteers taking part in service projects such as tutoring and mentoring preparing and delivering meals building and repairing homes schools and senior centers as well as teaching and reflecting on The Life and Legacy of Dr King and whereas Dr King vested his hopes for the future of humankind in our youth in Anchorage the Youth of the Anchorage chapter of Jack and Jill of America will be honoring the legacy of Dr King by collecting canned foods on January 15th from 1:00 to 4 p.m. at the uan proloff islands Association 1131 East International Airport Road to donate to the food bank of Alaska Jack and Jill youth will also be launching an online campaign addressing food security from 2: to 300 p.m on Facebook and whereas Dr King often expressed his concerns with the disparities within our nation's legal system which is why the Alaska Bar Association will be honoring Dr King's vision of a more Equitable legal system by hosting their 15th annual MLK Day free legal clinic on Monday January 15th from 12:00 to 4 p.m. at the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club at 315 Price Street and whereas the Alaska Black Caucus will be honoring The Life and Legacy of Dr King by hosting Hoops for Unity on Saturday January 13th from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Fairview Recreation Center to build relationships between police and young people and the Martin Luther King Jor day I have a dream solidarity cultural celebration from 5: to 7:00 p.m. Monday January 15th at the Betty Davis East High School and whereas the Municipality of Anchorage proudly joins in this annual celebration of service and Community by encouraging volunteerism and recognizing community service projects with the MLK Foundation of Alaska hosting a community commemoration of Dr King's Life and Legacy on Sunday January 14th at 3 pm in the West High Auditorium as they pursue the dream of one people with one person purpose to achieve one Community the Beloved Community now therefore the Anchorage Municipal assembly resolves that January 15 2024 is designated as Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service in the Municipality of Anchorage passed and approved by the Anchorage assembly this 9th day of January 2024 you can take the mic please welcome thank you so much uh Mr chair and to the assembly proper and the mayor and his staff who and all who are uh with us on this evening I greet you and the name of the Martin Luther King Jr Foundation of Alaska of which I serve as president Pastor Leon D May the 1st and also serve ring the Desert Community Church here in uh Anchorage and uh as it relates to the to the MLK day uh of commemoration celebration uh that's to be hosted on Sunday January the 14th out at uh West anage High School 3:00 p.m in the afternoon and uh we do want to extend an invitation to the assembly and to uh the mayor and everyone else assembled on on this evening to share with us uh in that commemoration celebration in as much as uh Dr King himself stood for racial Harmony and equality and and peace among all peoples there were those in his movement that were not only blacks or African-Americans but there were all cultures that were uh had come together in the uh in in the fight for equality and equity and uh he did it based on love and nonviolence and even when he accepted his uh Nobel Peace Prize uh ackn M uh he was astounded that somebody could be uh given a prize uh for combating violence with nonviolence and uh he even took the pay that he received for it the monetary value and donated it uh because uh he wanted to further the cause and so I would say to you and I would say to us that equality and Equity is always in order and I want to commend you the assembly for honoring this year after year after year with these resolutions and uh my prayer is that beyond the resolution that the actions and or as previously stated earlier the reactions uh would uh would effectuate uh change I would say that our theme for this year's celebration is Shifting the cultural climate through cultural diversity and so each of you are invited Sunday January the 14th 3:00 p.m. West language High School come one come all thank you very [Applause] much welcome good evening Happy New Year my name is Christa Scully I'm the proo director at the Alaska Bar Association I'm thrilled and honored that this body has once again acknowledged uh our event on MLK day this is our 15th year it's also the 29th year that this was declared a Federal day on not a day off I'd like to remind the body that all are welcome for civil legal issues we'll be there from 12: to 4: I encourage people to arrive by 3:30 so they can get all the way through an intake and a consultation process and for future note we intentionally picked the Mountain View Community Center our first year because of its access to public transportation and as a walkable neighborhood this is um I think about the sixth year that the buses haven't run we would really love for people to attend without the expense of a cab ride or Uber or relying on other people to get them there we want to be able to serve as many people as possible so once again thank you very much for this resolution good night good evening my name is Kim Waller and I want to to first of all thank you to this body for this resolution and I second my colleague Christa in uh our MLK Day of Service it is indeed for many of us a day on uh not a day off so we will be busy collecting food for our uh canned food drive our Super Bowl of giving and I just wanted to actually make a correction here because the event is being held at the location of the former School District on Darbar so there does need to be a correction there I just want to make sure that people know where to come out and of course you all are invited and thank you in advance for your ongoing support of our young people in Jack and Jill Anchorage chapter excuse me Jack and Jill is a nationwide organization about 252 chapters strong Across the Nation and we are uh very honored and um emboldened to have such a strong and driving Anchorage chapter so thank you for your support thank you all right so we made a bit of an error in the consent agenda procedure because uh a couple of items three items were pulled that don't exist and um two items were approved that needed to be pulled and so I'm going to turn to um Mr Cross yes uh so I move to reconsider items d11 and D 12 and add them to the consent agenda uh so the motion is to uh reconsider and pull from the consent agenda items d11 10 d11 and 102 that's correct um moved by Mr Cross seconded by Mr vand so um um if there's no discussion uh members are asked to vote Yes on this motion to reconsider not no um and Miss elel will be recused from this vote so um is there members May proceed to vote on the motion to reconsider Clerk's just taking a second to catch the system up I guess I can oh maybe ask oh go go ahead okay members May proceed to vote the motion is to reconsider items 10 to 11 and 12 member Rivera yes so on a vote of 10 to zero items 10 D1 and 10 D12 have been reconsidered they will now be back on the cons on the on the agenda the consent agenda as we go through so um we'll get to those when we get to them and somebody make sure if I forget when we get through those those need to be addressed okay so next we have item 10 B2 10 B2 resolution ar20 24-18 resolution of the anchor Municipal assembly authorizing the assembly chair to sign a joint resolution of the anchor assembly and the anchor School Board in support of fair inflation adjusted State funding required to maintain a quality public school system and increase student performance um what's the W the body move to approve moved by Mr second second by Miss alil Miss broy yeah thank you um I pulled this item mostly just to illustrate that it is slightly different than a lot of our resolutions for Action because it is a joint resolution um and wanted to also thank uh the members of the school board who worked uh collaboratively with myself member branga and member Martinez to craft this resolution um they did really the heavy lifting on it um and then also just to say that um when this is signed this would be um it's it's relatively rare as I understand it but it would be actually be a joint action of both bodies thank you any other discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of nine to2 in the youth member votes yes AR 202 24-18 is passed the body next we have item 10 C1 10 C1 is a assembly memorandum 72024 exercising options to renew non- encumbering contracts with L engineering and Consulting Inc L and changing Technologies in CTI to provide temporary support and payrolls Services um what's the will of the body move to approve moved by Miss alel second second by Mr B missel thank you I move constant amendment number one second thank you so we have a motion to amend by Miss zotel and a second by member vand sure ahead Miss Al um yeah so this um clears up and makes more clear the language that this contract is being authorized from the period of January 1 2024 through the end of this year um the way it was worded previously appeared to authorize not only this renewal option but the subsequent ones as well and usually these come back one renewal period at a time so this just clears up the language thank you any other discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes when a vote of 11 to zero the amendment has passed now we have the main motion before us any discussion seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes am 72024 as amended as pass the body next we have item 10 C8 doesn't exist so all the rest of those are gone item 10 D2 10 D2 is am4 d224 recommendation of award to rnum consultants for amats recreational Trails plan for the Municipality of Anchorage uh what's will the body Mo to approve second moved by Miss zotel seconded by Mr ven Miss zotel thank you move zotel amendment number one second so a motion to amend by Miss zotel seconded by Mr band M zotel thank you um so briefly what this does is it um focuses on the recreation Trails plan which I know is the proper name of this plan to really be a transportation um plan a non-motorized plan um and really look at all ways in which um non-motorized transportation can be used used um and so um I read through the RFP um and just expanded a little bit of the um items that we would like the consultant to look at in creating this plan um as this Recreation Trail plan comes back to the policy committee um through amats for um adoption um I would really uh recommend to the policy committee to consider possibly removing the word recreation and figuring out maybe it's just a TR Trails Transportation plan and renaming it for now though because the RFP went out in a particular way keeping the proper name but really focusing on the fact that this is active Transportation focused um and transportation is used not just for recreation but for lots of things such as riding your bike on the trails to work or walking to work or um getting to the grocery store thank you so I have a few members than you Mr vand thank you uh just want to support everything member zotel said this is also consistent um want to provide a little background right now before the amaps policy committee uh is a proposal for tip amendment number two um an Omnibus Amendment to the already approved Transportation Improvement uh plan which is our our shortterm um or short range uh Transportation plan um the assembly previously passed an amendment on the transportation Improvement program um in support of a project that is currently programmed it's pln 000019 um and that is essentially an inventory of everything you see here so the ride of way um we actually supported expanding that project to include inventory of non-motorized easements um and to have all that information moved into arcgis um in the Amat technical advisory committee recommendations to the policy committee um they have run contrary to the will of the assembly and advised um that that project be removed uh and so I I think members alel and I share um a motivation to see this project move forward in any way that it can I also strongly support the change of language here removing recreational um our Trails as memb zotel pointed out serve a variety of active Transportation needs including commuting essential errands um and so uh that also impacts what type of funding we are able to um procure um and also what what sort of what types of right rideway you know it's something it's part of the conversation too around like the fish creek trail connection to the coastal Trail for instance um and so I think we we strongly need to emphasize that our Trails serve a um a variety of purposes and needs thank you Mr chair all right Mr Cross yeah I support this amendment as well it's really important to realize that one of the challenges in the Anchorage real estate industry is that many times private property Parcels have Public Access easements or Trail plans and they actually on the property homeowners May purchase those not realizing that's part of a larger plan that would we see that in Ram Valley we see that in areas of Bear Valley we see that along the fish creek you see that maybe even on on Campbell Lake and so if we can clarify and make sure those documents are available for private property owners as they purchase properties to know that they're adjacent or that there's plans to develop trails in their areas that may AB but or may even possibly be on the property I think it's important for us to provide that clear concise information to private property owners thank you I have myself in the queue Mr constant thanks first I would not slight scrivener's error or consistency error it's pedestrian rights of way it should be undeveloped rights of way as opposed to right away so maybe just as a scrier detail add that s after right of way and I just want to um say I strongly support this and some years ago um Mr wlon and I struck a partnership where we pulled a project um that was a priority for amats but turned out to be a major boondoggle for the city because Anchorage taxpayers were going to be asked to pay tens of millions of dollars for a state priority that we would never approve but it was in a hopper 20 years ago and the state used to pay for Capital funds and so we got boxed in and we pulled that item off and boy did it you could hear the proverbial train wreck when um the state bureaucrats realized that we were exercising some of our sovereignty and uh so I just want to communicate to um the amats team that we are about to begin in a number of ways exercising our sovereignty because it has become apparent again that projects are coming at the last minute and being approved that are harmful to the neighborhoods of Anchorage and so put on your seat bels with that I would ask members to proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a oh and I would note Mr salt joined us approximately five minutes ago um Mr salt hello you want to say you're here Randy salt here thanks right thank you and so on a vote of 12 to Z on the youth member votes yes the amendment has passed now we have the main motion before us any discussion seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes so on a vote of 12 to0 am4 d224 as amended has pass the body oh and the youth member votes yes thank you so next we have item 10 d8 we don't that one was pulled we're GNA let it die for lack of motion at this time so no motion is warranted yep so next we have items 10d 11 and 12 Miss alel thank you items 10d and 11 and 10 D12 involve the hand commission um in my position as the executive director of the Anchorage coalition to and homelessness we work closely with the participating jurisdiction which is the health department with its HUD funding often that HUD funding and those plans which also rely on um the anchored home plan um are presented to the hand commission um and we coordinate funding so I believe I have a substantial interest in um the makeup of the hand Commission in my professional job and would ask to be excused it is the rolling of the chair on this item that you do have these two items you do have a conflict anyone disagree hearing seeing none we'll move on next we have item 10de 11 10 to1 AM 15-20 24 housing homelessness and neighborhood development commission Richard mestrom uh what's the will of the body move to approve moved by Mr Cross second second by Mr B any discussion seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member having voted yes the item has passed am 15-22 24 has passed next we have item 10 D12 am 177-204 housing homelessness neighborhood Development David Rittenberg what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Mr ven second by Mr Cross any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes thank you member voland yes on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes am 17-20 24 has passed the body Miss alel can come back so next we have item 10d 15 that's been pulled am20 d224 anchored Equal Rights Commission Sharon Gibbons Miss brona move to approve moved by Miss branga second second by missel tell Miss branga I was hoping that I could postpone this to the next meeting I tried to call Miss Gibbons to ask her a question and I was not able to get a hold of her so you just make that motion so move to postpone to the meeting of January 23rd sure to postpone has been made by Miss branga to the meeting of the 23rd seconded by m elel any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote the motion to postpone member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to one am 2024 has been postponed to the meeting of January 23rd next we have item 10 d23 10 d23 is am 48-22 24 Public Safety advisory commission what's will the body or Matthew glinsky move to postpone indefinitely okay motion second for purposes of discussion indefinitely by Miss branga seconded by Miss zotel go ahead Miss branga Sorry Miss broy yeah thank thank you um so I pulled this one um and I'm recommending postponement um not so much with concerns about the individual um but this is the public safety advisory commission and um and I know that that's really been a point of um contention for the last few years um and and I know also we've seen uh major public safety issues like uh body cam implementation um you know like what's happening on our streets there's there's many public safety issues that I think this board could be taking up I do appreciate that they uh submitted an informational item that we've already passed on our agenda um but really what I would like to look at after I reviewed the code this afternoon is I would like to propose a change to the composition of this board so um so what I'm recommending is postponing this because this is a new appointment uh we already just approved a reappointment of an existing person and I did the math it looks like there's either six or seven of nine members um so that they would still maintain a quorum uh if you remember the internal audit committee recommended that we actually sunset this board in January of of this year uh we didn't end up passing that I believe we we extended it for another year to October 2024 but but all of that to say I really do think that this needs more attention um it is not an urgent issue but I would recommend um that we postpone this that we don't make new appointments to this board at this time other than reappointments and then I I again would like to have a conversation with the administration with the community uh Folks at APD and really kind of think about a better composition for this board and put that in code and so that is my recommendation um and I'm making this motion I've also reached one more thing I've also reached out to council to ask the implications for basically if somebody is Seated on a board and then the composition of the board changes does that person serve out their term or what happens and so I don't have an answer to that yet at this time um but I would like to investigate that further and so I'd like to commit to working on this um in the next few months thank you Miss Alon thank you uh thank you Miss broy for pulling this item and bringing those concerns forward um I wholeheartedly support your intent to um take up the composition of the board it was about 4 years ago the public safety advisory commission looked very different um in particular we had appointed um some women who were working on missing murdered indigenous women and girls issues and that I felt was very effective it was bringing a broader perspective um and a set of priorities that this body had said existed um into um an advisory commission that could um bring forward policy recommendations and I think we need to get back to this um particular commission looking like our community right now it is very heavy on um law enforcement ex law enforcement um and the newest appointment is uh former military experience all of that is fine and relevant but that's if that is the sole type of voice we have on that board or that commission then we're not hearing from residents who interact with with Public Safety entities whether that's the fire department or the police department um or our justice system so um I I wholeheartedly support um that work um and uh would uh agree to partner in that work with you if you need an extra set of eyes um again it and I want to reiterate this isn't about the particular nominee it is the opportunity to kind of Hold Steady right now the um Public Safety advisory commission has sufficient membership to make quorum and can continue with his work while we take an additional look and you have to start somewhere and each appointment is an opportunity um to start shaping this Commission in a way that's more reflective of our community thank you Mr Conant thank you so I have myself in the que um so I agree in the principle of organizing a set of standards for who what criteria individual members should meet but I'm going to speak against the motion to postpone indefinitely this nominee um this nominee it just so happens uh we met after one of the public safety committee meetings he's been attending just as a volunteer member of the public and I had a really robust and very valuable conversation with him about his background and interests in the field and uh he's a member of our community he uh has served some time but he's also in in the military he's also a very strong data and analytics person has a mind for some things probably more and Beyond other members that are even currently sitting and so um I'm going to ask my peers to consider voting down the motion to postpone but I will also join you in the work Miss broy of reorganizing the the qualifications of this I believe this person is highly qualified Mr bird thank you Mr chair um I'll just briefly respond uh to the question um and I'll put forward the administration's view of of this candidate um so there was a question about the the composition of the public safety advisory committee um I just want the body to know that there if this person is a uh confirmed by the body tonight there is another vacancy and we certainly would welcome a conversation with member Broly uh about what the the remaining vacancy looked like um that said uh I appreciate the chair's comments too from the administration's point of view um this is somebody who has been involved uh in the military it's true but also has dealt with uh Wildland excuse me Wildfire prevention and rescue um and so has a unique Insight I was unaware Mr chair of your conversation with him um but we think that this is somebody who's representative of the community and has uh a maintained interest in public safety in a in a broader sense um should the body vote to postpone um I just want to again make the commitment from the administration's point of view we'll we'll be happy to to sit down rather than have this sort of discussion at the dis in the future thank you Mr chair thank you uh next in the queue I have Mr pres Ria thank you Mr chair um as co-chair of the Public Safety Committee I I I would absolutely agree with um miss miss miss broy that I think that these these these commissions are are um are really important and they are of a serious commitment of time and to make sure that they are structured in a way that they're really um intentional and providing the kind of uh resource and information that we really need and I I think this is one example I think there are some other examples of of of commissions that that really need to be re rethought so I just want to add my my support for the work to to to rethink this a little bit and make sure that we're getting the the information and the resources and the and the the feedback from from community that we really need in order to make good decisions as a government so to just want to support that that that work and and happy to to participate as well thank you all right Mr Myers uh thank you Mr chair I was just curious and I think Mr bird may have answered if this uh position is filled tonight do we have one more vacancy on this board through the chair that is my understanding member Myers okay thank you so I along with Mr constant would agree uh we'll be voting no to sunsetting this I think we have a hard enough time filling boards and commissions and getting people to volunteer I think uh if you want to change the makeup of the board we should do that in a work session not after someone's tried to get on the get an appointment on the board itself I don't think that's appropriate and it does feel like that you're picking on this individual whether you are or you are not uh somebody's put their name forward they brought it before the body they're they're volunteering their time and energy to go sit on this board for the betterment of Anchorage so I think we need to vote this down and then move forward with the consideration thank you a couple more in the queue Mr Rivera you haven't spoken yet yeah uh thank you Mr chair um so I'm gonna go ahead and support member bro's motion here to postpone this item indefinitely um I appreciate the um recommendation from the chair um but my biggest concern is if we do approve this and we move forward in the future with a change in um the membership of this particular Commission um the ramifications of that um and in particular uh you know the the basically booting out of certain members so I would rather not give this potential commissioner a false hope that they're going to be on this commission um I would just rather put a pause and perhaps after the members go through this exercise to figure out the membership of this commission maybe Mr glensky fits um and he can his name can be brought back before us again um but I think that's more wise action to take rather than confirming at this point Thank you Mr Cross thank you I I would also encourage us not to postpone indefinitely vote down that and then move forward towards um Mr galinsky's um application um the only thing I see when I look at this is this individual is maybe too qualified when you look at his resume this is a public safety advisory commission um I can understand that you you know how you want that balance but we're here basically changing what we want that makeup to look like on the dis which I don't think is inappropriate so I think we should move forward to this individual either approve them or don't approve him and then we can do a work session on that but everything that I heard that was a concern this individual's application addresses as such as if you look at he he basically his law enforcement experiences in technological advance es uh artificial intelligence and how these forces are being used in law enforcement like you couldn't speak to somebody who has the qualification of research in things that are completely relevant in today's day and age with law enforcement I would hate for us to lose this individual's wisdom and expertise because we're not sure what we want this board to look like but we haven't figured it out yet so I would say um let's move towards uh utilizes this individuals magnificent uh history of law enforcement expertise thank you than you thanks Miss broy yeah thank you and I really appreciate the discussion um so again I want to reiterate my concerns are not about the individuals so I really appreciate the uh information from Mr constant and I understand there may be perception of that but I just want to be clear I also want to clarify that what I see here is really a weakness in our code and the the reason it relates to this individual appointment is as Mr Rivera also said um you know that that it does um create confusion if if we intend to make those changes in the future um and our code right now now really gives no guidance or rules about the composition of this board and I know there's been a lot of discussion over the last few years about um needing balance on boards and so I believe we need to codify that so so I will also say um that I still intend to vote Yes to postpone but I am not hurt if others do not um and and um either way regardless of the outcome on this item um I am still committed to reviewing and making those changes and I appreciate others interest um I certainly do believe this is something that um would be great to work through the public safety uh committee thank you I have myself in the queue hold on Mr constant thank you so um I will say that um this individual is qualified and also after my conversations um very interesting and and very prepared to help and a lot of the conversations we're having but I also recognize um that this Administration has appointed basically a a set of individuals who all have very similar qualifications and backgrounds and um to the point of that if you look at item 10 F1 we had discussed earlier at our leadership meeting polling this item for discussion 10 F1 it's this very interesting resolution that the public safety advisory commission advises the assembly that they would like us to hire an outof State Contractor to tell us how Anchorage deals with homelessness um we accepted that it's just an accepted report I want us to all be really clear that that item that was accepted does not create a funding vehicle does not put forward that we want to see um that done that that can be a conversation we have but um when you look at the list of members I understand the homogeny that starts to redown from it and so I still at that would ask my peers to vote no on this motion but I understand Mr salt thank you Mr chair so apologize for not being here on time but I'm curious did we also pull 10 d24 so that's also safety advisory commission so no it was reappointed okay so so to me I you know I think uh maybe I don't have better word to say it but it feels like we're speaking on both sides of our mouth by pulling one and not the other um so I think I'm not in favor of of postponing this and rather just move forward and have this person help us uh correct the board composition in the future it's unusual for third time at the Apple but I'll let you Mr broy yeah I just wanted to restate what I said earlier because maybe Mr Sut didn't hear the reason I pulled this one and not the other one is that one is a reappointment it is a current member this is a new member thank you all right anyone else hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote the motion is postponed defitely member Rivera yeah on a vote of 5 to S and the youth member votes no the postponing definitely has not been approved we have another motion motion to approve second moved by Mr salt seconded by miss zotel any further discussion Miss alel thank you um so um yes this person is more than qualified and in fact um speaking directly to the qualifications probably has qualifications that are slightly different than the other members um that said uh I do hope that with this open seat that we will that still remains that we will either see a very different type of appointment um or that um we'll work with Mr bird and and have a forther conversation about the composition of this particular advisory commission thank you Miss broy yeah thank you um I am uh happy to support this person I will just say that um and I think I I forgot to say it earlier I have already reached out to assembly Council to to understand basically the implications of uh if we change the composition of a board how that affects current seats whe so uh it's not something we need to answer now but that will be part of the discussion either way thank you and I am myself and thank you I I don't know what legal council's position on that but the code is really clear about appointments appointments are made they're done and it's hard to remove someone from an appointment if a commission were to be sunsetted fine it goes away if it were to be made into a new commission with some other function all of those members would be gone and we would start over but I think just from a practical legislative perspective assume that it's a deal once they're appointed once this vote happens it's done and um but again I'll finish by saying I will strongly support your effort to look at this and since you're the only one I know of the body who's actually read the entire section of uh title 4 there um it's good that you're leading that and I would say maybe let's not limit it just to one commission it might be fine to start with just one but there's a filter that we should be applying that is representation across any number of our various commissions so just something to think about Mr V thank you Mr chair I mean I think going through this conversation on the dis makes me wish that we would have sunsetted it um because I I'm curious about our opportunity then if we do want to make changes and and put in qualifications so that we ensure balance and a variety of perspectives I feel like we're kind of hamstringing oursel um in that regard a little bit tonight by choosing not to postpone um and now to approve the the uh the new appointment and I think for that reason I'm going to be voting no um I think it's great that that effort is going to happen but I I guess I'm just wondering so then are we going to wait for all of those terms to expire before we can reimagine that board um food for thought thank you Miss Al thank you um I think I'll use this as an opportunity to make a request to the chair that we revisit this conversation about boards and commissions um composition at the rule committee and perhaps um have a conversation there about making it a standing item um just to make sure we're progressing with the work and seeing who's working on which so that we can be consistent and we don't lose track of it because board and commission appointments they can either fall within the particular committee that hears similar items or we could take them up kind of more wholesale about how we want to be advised and what type of expertise we want on those for the uh type of advisement we would want thank you thank you and probably not this week but next month yes um Mr pres yeah just two quick points one um that happy to uh work with M Miss broy and others who want to um discuss this particular item and um try to work through the the Public Safety Committee as one one way to do that second that um not only the representation on commissions but the purpose of the commissions and I know the code speaks to that but but just here in the conversation tonight about whether that purpose is about um expertise versus um diversity of perspective Community voice Etc and so I think there's some opportunity to clarify language on purposes of commission that really align with what we actually need them to be doing thank you Mr glinsky sure has opened up a a project so um with that if there's no one else members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to1 am 48-20 24 has passed the body yeah so um next we will move on to and just as a a moment of privilege I'll speak to we did not pull items 10d 33 34 35 36 37 another set of appointments there's a little bit of gray area in the code in which um for some reason it allows a one-year appointment for initial appointments and but the read of the code makes it confusing and almost like every member is a one-year appointee and so um we went ahead and appointed one last time we we kind of talked about this a year ago and I guess we didn't really clarify it so they were all appointed for one year terms and so um we're going to work with the administration to come back on this one as well with a better way to approach the term structure for the commission but for those items we did confirm them tonight on the consent agenda so next we have item 1042 10 d42 10 d42 is am 77224 Soul Source Grant agreement with Alaska children's trust to provide continued support for the Anchorage Child Care Early Education fund Ace fund implementation and uh what's the well body move to approve second so I have a motion I think it was by Mr Ry and seconded by Mr pres verdia I know there's Amendment one sec okay so miss we have a motion on the floor Miss Broly uh move uh Broly amendment number one second motion to amend by Miss broley seconded by Miss zotel Miss broley um well I will preface all of this to say that we already dearly miss our budget analyst de kamacho um and so uh This Is A Minor error that we made in PR preparation for this item the amendment um simply removes uh the fund certification from the uh second page or actually the the third page which is the the soul Source memo itself because that was an error on um our part my part and then um also changes the fund certification to Alden thern CFO on the first page that is the only change thank you any further discussion on the amendment hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 12 to zero on the youth member votes yes the item has been amended and the main motion any discussion seeing hearing none members oh Mr vand thank you Mr chair um I wanted to ask just because I'm seeing this for the first time as it was laid on the table a couple questions for the sponsor um in the I guess on page two bottom paragraph where it talks about the communication plan launching of a website it says act contributed $60,000 toward the first phase was that monetary or in kind if you know um Miss Bry yeah thank you for the question um and this is also I will point back to um let me get my notes I believe it was AO sorry one second it's here uh sorry AR 2023 404 we laid out a timeline the um contribution was actually not directly to the municipality I suppose it would be considered in kind it was really the the time and expertise to do that first phase um to really set this up knowing that it would take time for um appropriation of um uni funds but this is really uh proposition 14 uh implementation project the ace fund implementation project so it's a a partnership um and so so uh Alaska children's just did not directly provide funding to the municipality okay great and if I could maybe um do I still have the floor you have the floor thanks um yeah I I think act does really good work I know that they've been involved in our strategic planning for alcohol tax as well um I guess I wonder you know having the same organization involved in both things I wonder a little bit about their capacity and also um as this is soulle Source you know are there other um organizations who could assist in this work um I think I'm going to support this but um yeah I I I don't know I just want to make sure that we're capturing a variety of Community Partners in this work thank you all right right um so um Mr th I just wanted to make one comment here I want to certainly support the assembly on this tonight but when an item is needed to be fund certed and it's a laid on the table item by the assembly um I'm going to I put my name on it I will be checking tomorrow but um I had a conversation with Miss Broly on where this funding actually is I would just request in the future assembly laid on the table items that have a funder that it would be great to uh to know that maybe in advance so we could try to run it through but uh I will check on it tomorrow and if everything's good we we we'll be fine but uh um if it's something issued I want to make sure I can bring it back uh at the next meeting but I understand from Miss Bry this is a time sensitive issue and I'm I'm willing to to put my name on it go forward make it happen and I have confidence that the money is there I just uh want to make a comment that now and in the future if you have a late on table item I certainly appreciate to fund CER in Advance thank you thank you someone might speak to that Mr Johnson hasn't spoken yet yeah thank you I I am in client to support this it sounds like a good program um and while I I think I can guess what the answer is just as a matter of record I would appreciate if member broy could explain why this had to be laid on the table item instead of going through the regular agenda process yeah thank you hold on I'll just note that um we did that once and that was a the beginning of the meeting and it got eight votes and now you can ask that question and I'm not judging you for that or saying no I just want to be really clear that we did actually have a vote on that question so um Miss broy yeah thank you just very briefly um first thank you Mr thern um and also to um Miss aler and the audience um we had a quick confab before the meeting so I really appreciate everybody's um collaboration and figuring it out I also will definitely acknowledge that this was not ideal process um it is something that that um we had intended to submit a little bit earlier um but also as I stated earlier um we have a a really robust public engagement process it's outlined in that prior resolution and a lot of it is uh scheduled to happen in late January um really wanting to make sure that we do some of that uh Outreach first before we get too far down the line as far as uh recommendations so that is why we're trying to expedite this as much as possible thank you is that sufficient all right thanks and I I didn't mean to Chas I just wanted to point out to the fact that we were we went through that no that's fair and then again I I I believe this could and should pass than um Miss salel thank you um I wanted to speak a little bit to um the point raised by member vand um so I think Act is in a unique position because they fund a lot of work that's very much related to um what um you know in child care and Early Education and in fact they also distribute funding so I think in a lot of ways they are a way to know the landscape it's one of the reasons we put um that prevention funding and the alcohol tax through for them to then distribute and so they're actually getting to learn who is interested in this who has the capacity for the work what is that timing where are the leverage points um so and I I think there's generally this idea that we we like to put these types of things out for so Source but this is the creation of how we want to take up this fund so I think the expertise of where this intersects with lots of other funding opportunities obviously the amount going into this fund from the marijuana tax yearly isn't going to be sufficient so how we can maximize and leverage those dollars I think Act is in a particularly unique position to talk with us about thank you so um just to speak briefly to Mr thern um I think the message from the sponsors that the appropriation funds were made available like couple weeks ago in the budget process just before and so it wasn't a new project it was a project of funds already appropriated so we'll do our better job of getting you the funder language in advance so you can have a chance to make sure there's no errors but the funder was available because the funds were just appropriated for a specific purpose so if there's no one else um on this item members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 12 to zero and the youth member votes yes a r77 d am am 77224 as amended has pass the body next I think we have item 108 108 is ar2 24-10 a resolution of the municipality of anchor appropriating $200,000 the chuak B Birchwood Eagle River rural service area subura fund 11 190000 fund balance to the Chek Birchwood Eagle River Rural Road surface area Suba fund 11900 2023 operating budget in the main maintenance and op a department to ensure adequate funding for the winter maintenance services for the remainder of 2023 due to record snowfall Miss alel move to approve second second move to approve by Miss zelel seconded by Mr Cross Miss elel thank you um I just had a question on this and I think um it's because of the language on line 17 to 20 um it speaks to record snowfall in December November and December of 2023 that a sub sizable portion of the winter maintenance budget was consumed appropriated funds will ensure adequate funding to pay invoices for fourth quarter maintenance and continued snow removal activities so I guess my confusion lies in are we using funds now to cover some 23 costs but also um making sure there's funds moving forward for the rest of this snow season is that the intent here or is it all back to um expens has occurred in 2023 Mr Wilbert I see you hanging out back there so Mr Co that's okay I'll jump right to it thank you Mr wber you just turned off the mic there you go uh thank you uh through the chair Miss alel great question um so these are expenses from the fourth quarter of 2023 um we're going to use 23 money from the um Chugiak Birchwood fund to support the expenses that they had in 2023 and the invoices are coming in now and they just don't have enough funds from their 23 allocated so we'd like to just use their fund balance okay then it it says though it says and continued snow removal activities which seems contemporaneous and that's where the confusion lies if it's not going to be continued snow removal activities in 24 I would like to remove that language um through the chair Miss alel we um we will continue snow operations in 24 but this request is to take 23 money to pay for 23 activities okay thank you that's an important clarification with that Mr chair um I would move to amend to delete and continued snow removal activities on line 20 SEC so motion to amend by m alel second by Mr wand and just very briefly that just makes this um fully within 23 and makes this document clear thank you do you have the line oh you did okay good line good okay so the motion is uh to amend the amendment is on the board to delete and continue to delete and continued snow removal activities on 920 any further discussion on the amendment hear seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 12 to zero and the youth member votes yes that item has been amended any further discussion hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 12 to Zer ar202 24-12 as amended as pass the body of Youth member having voted yes next we have item 10 e14 10 e14 is 202 24-21 a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating a transfer from the areawide general fund 10100 2023 operating budget in an amount not to exceed 400,000 to the operating projects committed General 1 19000000 in 2023 and appropriating operating projects committed to general fund 1 19000000 fund balance and the amount not to exceed 400,000 to the operating projects committed general fund in 2024 to continue previously appropriated project purposes what's will the body move to postpone to the meeting of January 23rd second so a motion to postpone by Miss broy to the meeting of January 23rd seconded by Miss zelel Miss broley yeah thank you so much to um om director Sharon lechner for the conversation this uh morning over or afternoon over email um the intent is to uh bring an S version of this or or whatever the term would be um at the next meeting with some minor uh Corrections and more information or I should say more information anyone else wish to discuss the item hearing seeing none a motion Poston is for us members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member broy on a vote of 12 to zero and the youth member votes yes um ar202 24-21 has been postponed to the meeting of January 23rd I believe that brings us to the end of our consent agenda at this time we will recess our uh regular dinner break and we'll be back in 20 to 30 minutes sure fix so we're going to call this meeting back to order we're going to call this meeting back to order she Mr River are you on the phone yes Mr chair all right are we back on the record next up we have item 11a 11a is a motion reconsider the ordinance number a223 d81 ordinance the municipality of anchor ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly adopting the public naming panel's unanimous recommendation to name the port of Alaska as darong Port of Anchorage and amending Anchorage Municipal Code 11. 50 ins other sections of the code and Anchorage Municipal Code of regulations accordingly um we have also an am with it 11 A1 which is 5852 23 we have an A IM number 150-225 the public hearing was closed 912 referred to the naming panel 926 public hearing was reopened 926 public hearing was closed 1219 postponed definitely 1219 motion reconsidered to Poston indefinitely a2023 d81 was I should say notice of motion to reconsider was given by Mr Rivera on the S1 version is on the floor if this passes with a motion to reconsider so Mr Rivera uh thank you Mr chair um do I need to make the motion at this point uh well I would ask you to make that motion okay then I'll will go ahead and move to reconsider second so we have a motion to reconsider by Mr Rivera and a second by Mr Cross I had second it for the purpose of notice uh Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair uh so I'm not going to belor this because I think we spent a considerable amount of time debating this in December but long story short um you know I do tend to think that we got a little bit wrapped around the process axle with this item um I think there are two realistic Alternatives the S and the S1 versions which withstand scrutiny I think rather than starting from scratch which is what I understood the intention of the lengthy debate that we had in December and start a new commission that hasn't even been formed yet with such an auspicious meaning which I myself have very serious concerns about I'd rather us take a breath sit down as a group out of our business meetings and see if we can sort this out I fully respect there are some members who may be totally opposed to any current or future versions of this item for their own reasons but I'm going to ask the body to please reconsider and then give us some time as a group to figure this out thank you Mr chair all right so I have myself in the queue and I'll just be very brief in this first go around to say that um I I put the note on the agenda if the reconsideration passes I'll be asking the members to vote to continue this item to the meeting of the 27th which will provide us a true opportunity in a work session setting to go through the various items the S the original the S the S1 um I have my concerns with several of these and I want to make sure we don't spend the critical time we have before this election is must be closed up and the ballot must be finalized by the meeting of the 21st so that's my initial input Miss zalel thank you I'll support the motion to reconsider but I'll be really clear I don't think it needs a work session I don't think we need to go through the options the options are before us uh there's the original proposal there's the S and there's the S1 and I'll be really clear the S1 is the only one um I am voting for so thank you Mr pres Ria thank you just I want to get a a clarification on what you said M Mr chair you said that if the vote to reconsider passes that it will it will um appear on the next meeting and that your intention is to hold a work session to discuss this more in depth is that correct I'm going to ask the members to support a motion to postpone the item to a subsequent meeting so that we can have time to really sit down thoughtfully outside of right in here when we have these two meetings dedicated to finishing up the ballot so it wouldn't be de facto we would have to take an act to get there what happens if the item is reconsidered is it is before us now okay um well then I'll just be brief because I I really don't want to send a lot of time tonight re rediscussed it in fold and I think we made made a decision and that we should stick to that decision um so uh but I'm I'm happy if if the if it's the will of the body to to to bring this back up and that there is an actual work session that we can discuss this more in depth so that when we come back to the the dis that that we've already hashed through all of it and and folks come with you know uh their ability to make may make a decision I'm that I would support that um and so I'll I had a lot to say tonight but I'll hold that um in that I I think that if we can uh dispense with this quickly um I'm happy to um to to to to report um uh bringing this back back up um if if those if those items are in place thank you m branga I do not support reconsidering I received so many hateful emails some were thoughtful and I think I responded to all with the explanation of why my vote is how it was and will continue to be um some people said he's just oldfashioned one said he's an anachronistic misogynous but we should still name the port for him um but the letter that struck me the most came from a man who said he's been following politics for 40 years and he said he agrees that he's consistently brought an abundance of federal dollars to Alaska and should be remembered for that however he was not the kind of person I would like my children to emulate confronted with anybody who was running for office opposite of him he was rude and confrontational he was cap he was incapable of participating in civil discourse and always relied on his ability to humiliate I would I would been a point of what are called um I'll go ahead and entertain it Mr Cross I don't feel comfortable with reading disparaging comments regarding Don young she can make mentions but I don't want to use this as an opportunity to bash him and if you'd like to continue I would invite an young to sit here so you can look her in the face while you do that his his wife is sitting right here so if we're going to sit here and read through your public comments and disparage a man who's done more in his life than all of us put together to help this state Mr Cross I think point of order and I think what you your point of order the general gist of it is is you don't want her to be able to say what she's saying is that fair I don't want her to disparage a deceased man with his wife in the room she can say I get the I get the gist but I wouldn't allow anybody say the same thing about you Chris and you I would hope you would protect our character we don't speak it we don't we don't typically attack people character on this on this Podium I understand and I just am going to say that the point of order is not upheld by the rules that we have a member can say uncomfortable and terrible things I spent years in this room with a member who had a seat previous to you who was an expert at that and as much as we don't like to hear some things it's our job to hear them and so the chair uh rules at the point of order is not valid so the I will skip the part that is is the most embarrassing moment of this man's uh letter that happened at a keenai chamber of commerce luncheon and just read the N that said however those of knew who those of them who knew him well could attest for the fact that similar Behavior was not unheard of by Mr Young and I cannot support someone as this man said who I would be embarrassed to point out who he was to my children in years to come thank you U Mr Cross you have the floor now well since we're going to go down that road of characterization um I would like to ask um an young who's here in the audience before that Mr Cross that the motion before us is the question of reconsideration which on her thoughts on this reconsideration and the reasons why some individuals may not want to I think it's relevant okay I think I won't um rule that out of order but we will keep it careful because we might find ourselves in a situation where um members who made a decision to put a motion to reconsider on the floor might find themselves in a place where they will just vote how they voted the other night and so I would offer that we should be um mindful of that so override the ruling of the chair okay so I Ruled that a member could have Miss Young there has been a motion to override the ruling of the chair is there a second second so a motion has been made to override the ruling of The Chair by Miss alel second my Mr pres Veria speak Miss alel thank you um I think that this is a more of a procedural motion about why you will or will not move to reconsider and is not a public testimony item or an item as to the merits of the options that would be before us if we reconsider so I think it's inappropriate um there would be an opportunity if this item is reconsidered to possibly ask the speaker to come up and speak to um her thoughts on any particular option before the body anyone else wish to speak to the motion to override the ruling of the chair the question before us now is Mr pris I just want to agree that that um first of all I apologize that that that that you're you're standing there I I think that this is we're at a procedural point where we just are trying to decide whether to bring this back or not and we need to make that that that decision once that decision is made then certainly we want to make sure to hear from folks who have a stake in this so um I think we just need to move to decide whether we're going to reconsider this or not um and then folks will have the opportunity to weigh in thanks so a yes vote overrides the ruling of the chair members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of five to seven the motion fails so um I just ask everybody to think about the cause and effect of what we're doing here Mr Cross thank you and thank you for getting up at 2 am and spending all this time traveling to be with us first thank you and so obviously you understand that we're looking to reconsider the vote um in order in in naming the port that's been postponed uh indefinitely but you know having gone through this process and seeing what we're going through now what is I would like to know you know your perspective on reconsideration and and basically what's playing out here thank you the microphone is off the there's a blue or green button there you're good my on okay I'm sorry I my voice is somewhere over uh Canada I think it was fine till about an hour out of Anchorage and then it sort of just disappeared um but I do thank you all for continuing to look at the value and the importance of naming the port the Don young Port of Anchorage um I am committed for however many flights it takes and for however many hours it takes to see this resolution this amendment come to fruition there is no one more appropriately qualified to have the port of Anchorage named after him than my husband um many of you have probably been in Alaska maybe even longer than I have I am in Alaska and I've been here for 35 years and I will continue to be an Alaskan my husband was the epitome of an Alaskan there never was and there never will be anyone any more committed to this state than he is and then he was and then he is continuing to be even into the future many people in the US Congress continue to support anything that's Alaskan that has Don Young's backing it's an admirable wonderful thing he was a gift to Alaska he was a gift to Anchorage and he was a gift to all of us the idea that the amendment is continuously being kicked down the road like a Kick the Can game is quite frustrating and very confusing and disappointing to me it would seem that anybody who has any degree of knowledge about Alaska and how we got where we are and how we're continuing to be where we are certainly should have a better awareness of what the appropriateness is for him to be named this to be named the da young Port of Anchorage all right thank you there is never anyone and there never will be anyone in our lifetimes any of us in any of our lifetimes who is more qualified to have this honor than Mr Young in fact it will probably be true that no one ever will be any more qualified ever to have the port of Anchorage named after him than my husband so my commitment is to continue to support Alaska Airlines for as long as it takes for as many flights as it takes for as many times as I get up at 2:00 in the morning to catch a 7 a.m. flight to come here and speak with you and support your uh commitment I hope to seeing and doing the right thing I mean it is I'm going to interrupt Miss so obvious I'm going to interrupt thank you it's time to move on this is 6 minutes of testimony um we have a lot of people in the queue and we want to get to the question so I will answer questions no we don't have questions for you we have to get through all of the people who want to speak up here before we take a vote on whether to reconsider the item okay so um we going to proceed through the queue Mr Martinez thank you chair I will support the motion to reconsider and we'll save any other comments for uh the the the formal part of the debate thank you Mr vand also support the motion to reconsider thank you Mr Johnson it's just been said Mr Bronson no thank you Mr chair um Ann I just got a question for you it's in and in the attempt to clear your husband's name he was called a misogynist uh tonight point of order a point of order has been called um I don't know that this goes to the merits of the motion for reconsideration about whether or not to bring the items back to the floor well the disparaging remarks didn't do that either um so I'll ask so we're trying to clear the record here to rule on my point of order and I don't appreciate being interrupted Mr Mayor thank you and I'm going to uphold the point of order Mrs alel is correct a member did make effectively a point of order when a previous testifier made a testimony you missed the boote Mr Mayor on that question if you have something to the merits of the question reconsideration I missed what I didn't hear you missed the boat on having anything to say about a previous test I don't get to vote that's i' I've I've said enough thank you Mr chair thank you you can speak to the motion to reconsider but the other matter was three people prior Miss broy thank you um I will just state that if somebody would like the port named after Mr Young then uh we need to reconsider this item first thank you I see no one else in the queue members May proceed to vote on the motion to reconsider member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to1 and the youth member votes yes the question is now backed before us the motion is motion to postpone indefinitely Mr Cross uh actually I was going to move the main the original motion we have version we have a version on the floor the floor was the S1 version I believe and until the S1 version is well I move to amend the S ver one version to mirror identically the original version I have a point of information okay so can I move to amend it so it takes it back because what was moved was a if you just allow me my the complication and part of the whole reason for this was that what was moved not was not the original proposal that was drafted and issued by the naming panel and I'm trying to get back to where we started before it was altered so so point of information does moving a different version supersede the motion that's on the table it does not so what's required to dispense with the S1 have to vote it down or vote it in or as I would hope we would do is motion to postpone to the meeting of the 27th of February so we can do this in a work session instead of here because we have a lot of business to get done tonight and this is not the business we have an agenda item so yes first we have to let me just go back because I should be recognized right so start this conversation so my question for you is you're telling me I can't move to amend the motion that's on the the the current version the S1 and amend it back to the original so whatever the if is it the S1 the S1 version is on the floor we just amend to postpone indefinitely okay another point of information if the S1 do do we have the opportunity here in the agenda to bring forward one of the other versions yes thanks Miss alel thank you I was going to say we need to vote revote on the motion to postpone indefinitely um and I believe that the only superseding motion to that would be a motion to I believe the only superseding motion to the motion to postpone indefinitely would be to postpone to a Time certain I think those are the only two options before us um so at this point um I um would urge a no vote on the motion to postpone indefinitely thank you Miss proboy um in that case then I will move to postpone to the meeting of February 7th or sorry 27th second motion to postpone to the meeting of February 27 and uh second moved by Miss broy and seconded by Mr Pres yeah do you want to speak to that um I am moving this um at the uh request or or advice of the chair um and also to say that that as was previously stated we have many business items that have a hard deadline for our election and uh given the confusion tonight both around process and the content I believe it would be helpful to have a work session to have more time to debate this thank you or sorry not debate in the work session but prepare for debate at a future meeting to identify what the path forward is Mr Rolland thank you Mr chair I think I'm ambivalent about the motion to postpone I am prepared to support um the original version tonight thank you Mr Bronson thank you Mr chair um I uh would like to speak against the notion to postpone uh I I think we all kind of understand what's going on here th this has been going on for almost two years now uh this process started March Mar 18th two year nearly two years ago um why we need more work session um I I have no idea get a figure it out uh this is look at the stack it it's nearly a half an inch thick we've been through the process three times um why the delay um just stand up and vote if you want to vote against naming at the da young Port of Anchorage just just vote Kevin's been trying to get to this um just just get to that vote I think that's a we could do this in 5 minutes so that's all I have to say thank you m Mr salt just real quick for clarification if we vote to postpone to a Time certain then we are done with this item and an S and an original version cannot be raised okay no no still nothing else can happen if we vote for the time certain it's postponed and then all the items would come back tonight if we postpone this every item in the suite moves forward with us it doesn't preclude any of the subordinate items coming forward okay so we would have the full Suite of items and an opportunity to deliberate in a way to discuss the potential pass forward so yes okay thanks and so I have myself in the queue um I am prepared to vote something after Da young but I am not prepared to call it the port of Anchorage again and the bottom line is this commission which was set up and staff by members of the administration took upon itself to go outside the boundaries of the resolution and add this message and so we are not ready tonight so if the point is rush to a vote get it done I'm afraid you're going to find just as many no votes on the item and it'll just be done and you can come back in a number of years and attempt it again and so if the argument is rush because we've got to get it done you're probably going to find results very similar to what you had on the 19th of December but it doesn't actually have to be that way way with a little bit of collaboration little bit of processing through the various documents we have and setting of a path the assembly could actually get this done but Rush at your peril Mr Myers thank you Mr chair I just wanted some clarification on what we're voting on motion to reconsider the item and postpone it to the 27th no the reconsideration passed so the item is back before us and the motion before us now is to postpone the whole conversation to the meeting of February 27th with a work session or two if we need to sort through the various versions hear from people what their concerns are and chart a final course to action thank you uh in that instance I will be voting no on that I think we are all ready to make a decision as well so thank you Mr bird speaking are you speaking on behalf of the mayor May yes Mr chair okay this is the second time for the mayor on the motion thank you Mr chair chair um I wanted to address Mr chair the the point that I think is a good one about the naming of the port of Alaska and I I'm happy to discuss this at length with you or any other members of the body but I think you that you should know Mr chair and all the other members of the body that when I was first tasked with this as the chief of staff for mayor Bronson I was specifically asked make sure that it will be the da young Port of Alaska it took a certain amount of humility from the administration's point you to hear the experts chief of whom was Jim Jansen the head of Lynden transport tell us and hear from Port director Steve Ruffo tell us the nomenclature is Port of Anchorage so I just want to make that point Mr chair we we were wedded uh as it were to the port of Alaska ourselves and I thought Mr chair your your compromise solution in the S version was that was a great Olive Branch and I I still I I still think it is um one of the things I just want to make the point on behalf of the administration is that we think there is some Merit in deferring to a panel recommendation particularly because it takes it away from the vicissitudes that affect us as the executive branch and the legislative branch and the fights we get into we choose people to represent us on a naming panel who we think will not only carry our values but also have a degree of expertise and separation from issues just like this and from the administration's point of view I can say that we got to the point where we were willing to accept the recommendation of the panel which we weren't at first that it should be renamed the port of Anchorage if the body comes back after the work session and for example like with the S version that you suggested Mr chair uh port for all Alaska I mean personally I think it's great it's a great great compromise offered and I appreciate you making that but I just I wanted to make sure that the body knew and everybody including uh M young uh that we've looked at this and we had to take a step back and accept humbly that we're not experts when it comes to naming ports um and we hope that the the body will respect the work done by the panel we certainly do and that's all thanks Mr chair you Mr Mar uh Mr Rivera actually sorry Mr Mar yeah thank you Mr ch um so I'm hoping that we can uh close off this discussion soon and vote in support of the motion to postpone uh this item to the second meeting in February in large part because I I seriously am concerned that if we vote against this motion that we will spend another hour uh debating uh the merits and and how to move forward and um find ourselves in a situation where nothing gets approved um and I want us to avoid that and I think the best way for us to do that is to sit down in a work and try to hammer some of these issues out thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair and also similarly reading the T leaves with respect to the the disagreements that we have on US Body uh I don't want to see this die I do want us to see to see us take action on this and and I want to re reiterate to the point that M uh Mr bur just mentioned one of my concerns was that the difference between a naming panel process that identifies attaching a name of a a dignitary to a installation and the renaming of the port which I remember the municipality did a renaming process those processes were fundamentally different and so a naming panel is not the process for renaming the port it's the process to attach a name of a dignitary to an installation and so on that note and just wanted to just highlight one more thing that was mentioned we are a municipality we are a local local government taking some step toward recognizing a state and federal uh representative with a local Municipal asset it's very different than the airport which is owned and operated by the state of Alaska so I wanted to just be real clear that this is a municipal asset and one of the arguments was that uh well there are other ports Mr Jensen said there are other ports and so we should change the name back to the Convention of of Anchorage but if we are in fact being asked to do this recognition of a state elected official I think it's absolutely fine to remain to to keep the name of the port the port of Alaska because that is exactly why the the the the designation and the honor to the to the representative matters if that's if that narrative is holds true so I would I would uh encourage us to get this back on the agenda and to move forward with this not changing the name of the port but just attaching if that's the action that we're taking the dignitary in this case Don young to the current name of the port of Alaska thank you chair Miss alel thank you um I have a point of information um for February 27th since we have a motion to postpone to a date certain um do we have to dispense with this or can that be amended that can be amended still right okay um so I'm going to move hold on wait hold on we're good okay I'm going to amend to postpone to the meeting of March 5th um if I can get a second I'll explain why second thank you okay so a motion to amend the amendment has been made by Miss elto seconded by Mr Presa to March 5th y okay so the reason being is um I'm going to be back I'm going to miss a meeting in February I will be back for the meeting of the 27th but I'm afraid I'm going to work miss the work session on this and I don't want to because the discussion here goes deeper than this item it's the role of a naming panel is it advisory is it um where we are in a position where we can't propose anything different and so I think the conversation is deeper and I would like to be a part of that conversation um and I think we also need to have a part of that convers also be about how this naming panel proceeded um what really struck me from Mr Bird's comments were we we should follow the naming panel because that basically takes us out of the picture because we put some people on the naming panel however the mayor put forward the initial proposal and the assembly had nothing to do with that and I think this proposal um is salvageable but was flawed because it named it suggested a person and the place and I think in order to do this correctly you have to say we want to honor this person what things could happen to be named after that and that would be the job of the naming panel or we want to rename this place and what are the options for that and so I want us to have a conversation we're here we're in this moment how do we reconcile these things what is the role and the weight we want to give the naming panel and I want to be a part of that conversation so I will admit that my MO to postpone the amendment to postpone to the 5th is is self-serving um but if it's not till the 27th I will apologize if I missed the work session but that might mean longer debate on the 27th thank you all right so um I have a number of people in the Q still miss brongo okay so then uh the amendment is okay so if I have a couple of people in the queue but the question is Miss broy yeah thank you um I just want to observe ve um that this is an unusual situation where we have two meetings that go uh week basically week to week um usually we have two weeks between meetings so functionally what we're talking about is postponing in an extra week so I just want members to be aware of that the February 27th to March 5th is a week's time I think that still allows for plenty of time for a work session um I am indifferent as far as which date we choose um but I see the rationale for this item and then I would also add that um if we have the opportunity to have this discussion in a more informal setting and with more generative conversation than I would anticipate that when this comes back for a vote um if if and when it comes back for a vote um if we vote to postpone this that it will go much smoother in the assembly meeting so I am in favor of um something that gets us to a resolution quickly thank you all right all right so anyone else on the amendment to the meeting of the 5th of March I don't know that were you on the amendment to the 5ifth of March or were you yeah I didn't think so so uh Mr Bronson yeah thank you Mr chair uh again uh the The Narrative kind of holds that this is just slipping uh maybe if we had a meeting uh on the 18th we could actually make it a two two-year exactly to the passing of Don young uh that would but there's unfortunately no meeting on March 18th uh I I don't don't understand why we need more time it's been two years we've been working on on the formal process more than a year so um have at it um that's fine but I think the public understands what's going on here so thank you Mr I would say if the public understands anything we're trying to salvage this process this uh so anyone else on the amendment hearing and members May oh Mr thank uh so I'm not going to um support the um postponement to a Time certain simply because I am not optimistic um that even if we have a work session it will really change folks minds I think um my colleagues know what they're willing to support and not support we have three different versions We have the original recommendation of the naming panel we have the s- version that changes it to um you know port for all Alaska and then we have the late on the table item from the previous meeting that suggests naming the cargo docks and so we have three options to choose from and um I actually think we could move one of those tonight and get it done with thanks anyone else on the motion to postpone to the meeting of March 5th heing see none of the amendment yep members May proce to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 7 to five and the youth member votes no the amendment has passed now we have the amendment Mr chair I procedurally uh veto that uh vote thank you very much you're going to earn a no vote on this okay Sor moved over the veto chair con can I change my vote to a no vote I meant to hit no instead of yes motion to reconsider it's too late the veto has occurred all right we're going to not get Park Bonds on the ballot or Casa or because of this because we're going to talk about this tonight so there is a motion to override The veto is there a second hearing no a second oh is there a second Miss BR okay so there's a motion to override any discussion members May proceed to vote yeah that's Al tellas probably member Rivera yes vote of six to five the override fails youth member votes yes so now we have we have the motion to postpone to information Mr chair who's that Mr Myers Mr Rivera voted yes didn't he still it's insufficient thank you for the clarification we'll make sure the record is clear so um I am sad this is going this way because you're going to make me vote no on naming after Don so we have a motion to um postpone to the meeting of the 28th members May proceed to or 26th 27th right February 27th 27th it's yeah so it's back to the 27th so um members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes y on a motion uh a vote of six to six and the youth member votes yes the motion fails we now have the motion before us the motion is to postpone indefinitely members May proceed to vote Mr chair I moved the original version it's too late the question was called we have an item on the floor the motion will be dispensed or not member Rivera sorry can you remind me what motion what motion we are voting on postpone indefinitely Yes actually mistake mistakenly voted I'm going to vote no I veto this uh Mr chair I let the clerk know before the mayor spoke that I had changed my vote the motion to postpone fails so now we can vote on this item members see to vote move the original yes you can't you have to vote it down it's a main motion or you vote it up your choice the S1 it's the S1 point of border Mr Mayor Mr chair on behalf of the mayor um I'm looking at Robert's Rules 1269 a substitute offered for a main motion a resolution when there is no other amendment can be offered as member cross attempted to offer earlier the question was already called it's out of order members May proceed to vote point of information Mr chair Mr Myers what can you give us some clarification of what we're voting on now the motion to approve the S1 point of information Mr if this vote fails then can we bring forward a substitute version immediately after I think we need Mr gates for this conversation but let's take the vote um don't I had already called the question please raise the question yeah that has a both Vol affects our vote that information member Rivera uh if this is the vote on the S1 version then I vote Yes point of information Mr Martinez chair please U normally when we're making a vote sometimes uh most of the time some speaks to it can someone speak to exactly what we're talking about right now S1 as amended S1 which exactly is the item that we're focused on at this point sh it's the S1 which is the main motion that was on the floor before we voted previously to postpone indefinitely it's the docks yes it's the docks so cargo dogs cargo dogs I'm the sponsor of the s Mr chair may we request a five minute break sure actually we're in the middle of a vote so um the vote had already been called the question is up before you the question is shall we approve the S1 version are we still waiting for the answer to my point of information no that I think that materially impacts how I okay okay Mr Gates they want to know if this item passes or fails can if the item fails can they bring back one of the other versions the s or the S the original uh Mr chair I'll try to answer best I can but I want to answer in two parts um first part is the wording of this actual motion is uh moved to approve the S1 version if I understood correct um another possibility here is an amendment to that motion it says it replaces S1 with the original AO I think that's what Mr Cross was trying to do so that's one way to amend it not the wording of the document itself the wording of the motion and then getting to your first question um if the S1 is voted down the motion as worded right now to approve the S1 is voted down it do not PR making a motion for approval of the s or the original those could still be alive thank you so the question had already been opened the votes are before you we voting yes voting corre on a vote of five to 7 the motion fails I'm going to go ahead and clear the queue so motion to move the initial version second to approve the main original version moved by Mr Wallen seconded by oh moved by Mr salt and seconded by Mr Myers Mr salt I just uh simply want to hopefully get this tonight and move on thanks first Miss alol then I move to call a question second there's a motion to call the question in a second clerk will bring the question up no we need to vote on the oh motion to call question it yeah and she's got to bring it up so the question having been called open it up please members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 5 to S the question has not been called Miss Al oh um so I was in the cutic call a question but since you gave me the floor again I'm only was only willing to vote for the S1 I believe we should stick with normal naming of conventions for the port um and I thought the cargo docks was a reasonable alternative so I will be a no vote thank you Miss brono I just wanted to clarify something um for Mr Bronson and whoever else heard that those were my words those were words that I read that came from a supporter of Don young who called him those things but said let's still name him so I'm sorry if you thought it came out of my mouth um my conflict with this naming is for other reasons that I'm not going to say out loud but what I want to say to you is we do honor all that Don young did for our state in many ways he has March 18th named as Don young day a volcano has been named for him the job Don Young Job Core Center has been named for him and the da young Federal Building so he has had a lot of honors and there are more people in our world who also want to be honored and so I I personally feel like the port doesn't have to be named for him because he has had a lot of honors so far thank you for letting me clarify Mr [Applause] Riva yeah thank you Mr chair so um I won't go into some of the other debate points that I um wanted to get into regarding naming things after politicians naming process all of that all I will say is that I plan on voting no on the original version because since December I have made my position clear that there are two versions which I think pass muster both the S and the S1 version so what I am hoping to do um to hopefully um scrap some victory from the jaws of defeat here is to vote down the original version and move the S version thank you vand thank you Mr chair um I guess I'll ask you a question first um Can a motion for the S version supersede this motion for the original version I think Mr Gates has to answer that question so I'll that again that's a parliamentary move I've never seen occur in this body can can a motion for the S version supersede the motion that's on the floor for the original version can a motion for the S version supersede the motion that's on the floor now for the original version and for clarification Mr Gates I would ask Mr Mr bird had cited a rule from Robert's Rules I would like to have him restate that for your benefit Mr Gates through the chair um Mr Gates and I have been communicating electronically but for the sake of the the body and the good of the order here um I was quoting uh Robert's Rules 12 colon 69 which has to do with offering a substitute when there is no Amendment pending on the main motion that is what I believe the disposition was when Mr Cross offered the original as a substitute version and I think it may be Germain to member of volan Point thank you now Mr Gates um uh if I understood Mr ven's question whether the the current motion on floor is motion to approve the original AO and question is whether a motion to approve the S version would supersede did and um I think that's more in the form of amending that motion to replace original AO with s so it's a motion to amend would I think would be proper rather than um it doesn't really supersede it it's a different motion so you want to amend that motion to replace original AO with s version okay thank you um I I guess for my part I I can support either the original or the S version I think from comments that I've heard from my colleagues on the dis there would be more support for the S version um so perhaps if those who moved the original version would would be willing to withdraw um I would be willing to then move the S version Mr chair is can you give us the difference between the S and the original is it Port of Alaska and Port of Anchorage because I'd be willing to withdraw my second for the S version for Daniel to make that motion but we don't have those documents in front of us so I would just like some I ific think a need need to take away your motion I think what I'm hearing is a motion to amend can occur again Mr Cross I apologize I've never seen that happen since I've been on this body in eight almost eight years I've never done it and so um I didn't mean to overrule your rights um but that said um the difference is Da young Port of Anchorage and da young port for all Alaska so that's the two the number one is D Port of Anchorage the original and then the second one is port for all Alaska okay mhm thank you okay in that instance I will amend the original version that's on the floor before us now to be consistent with the S version in in Conformity with the S version so there is a motion to amend by Mr ven is there a second I would second second okay Mr Meyer second and I guess I'll just speak to the amendment then briefly I think that um this is this is a path that more members would be likely to support and we can move forward thank you Mr Bronson thank you Mr chair just want to clarify um with assembly one branga I did not in any way interpret that is your statement so I I just hopefully uh you know we're good on that the other issue is is I know there's a lot of things around the country that are named after Don young um in fact in the State of Florida they're they're making efforts to name some stuff after him there the difference with this one is that uh don young uh asked for this one and um in in his in in actually in a very humble way he says Mr Mayor there's a lot of things named in our state after ten uh Senator Ted Stevens he says if you ever get and this was a week before he died he was in my office and he says if you ever get around to name that Port i' I'd like to throw I'd like it to be named after me if if You' all would mind and quite frankly that's why we're here today is because Don was a friend of mine he was a gentleman of the highest order and um and I I just thought it's right that the dean of the house got the port named after him that he actually requested so um I I just want to say Karen I I didn't think you were saying that Mr Martinez or Mr Mr pres I'm sorry wait Mr River did I get to you yet you did thank you Mr chair thank you I'm sorry Mr pres Veria thank you Mr chair um well I I I'm really disappointed with what's happening tonight because I think that um first of all the the characterization that this is a debate between people who respect him and don't respect him or people who um you know um that that is is just completely uh um false I I I knew him my whole life um and uh as as a kid growing up I knew him and and so because he's been in office for most of my life um and so um this is not about that this is about um this is about making a good decision and um and so any characterization that this is being kicked down the road or that this is about a debate about him that doesn't hold true for for me at all um and so I'm disappointed because it feels like we're being being bullied into a decision that's not a very wellth thought out decision and um and that there was a process yes the process was more or less followed but we've also determined that that process especially for something of this scale is inappropriate that's why we change the code because it's not a good process to have four people make a decision about the name of our Port as as much as I respect those four PE people that that is not that is not the way to do this um and so I'm frustrated because we're being forced into a decision and I will not um vote for this and it has nothing to do with my um respect for for Don young it has nothing to do with um with whether I I think the port should be named after him or not it's because this is a poor process C we're going through and it's not a good decision to be made tonight we should have postponed this we should have had a better conversation so that we can come to a decision that actually makes sense um and so I unfortunately am in a position tonight where I have to vote against something that I probably would have voted for because um because it we're not ready for that that decision and I apologize that you're having to be a part of this because the should be disparaging that this man who's done so much for this state um and so unfortunately I I'm I'm going to have to vote no and uh but it has absolutely nothing to do with my respect and my love for a man who did so much for for the state that I love so my hope is is that we can vote this down and then we can bring it back and do it the right way uh and and do it in a way that actually um honors the man that we're trying to honor thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair and I'm not sure if this go goes to this uh to this amendment but I'll ask for your guidance chair in in my vantage point the the yes version attempts to say what the port of Alaska is today which is essentially the port of Alaska um versus the the change to the Convention of the port of Anchorage um and without the without the poetic language of a port for all of Alaska um no respect to the poet and you uh Mr chair uh I think it would be simple to just have uh the uh if we move this forward where would we have an amendment to just say we will just change Anchorage back to Alaska and call it a day yeah it would be now well let's go through it then so I would offer an is it an amendment to the original to the version Amendment to the amendment it's the S version and it's an amendment to the amendment an amendment to the amendment to drop off for all and leave it Alaska yes then it would become da young Port Alaska of Alaska Port of Alaska right so it's not just strike off for all Alaska you have to add of right on sounds good yes add the of so there's a motion by Mr Martinez is there a second second seconded by Mr Meyers so um I have a quick question for Council um Mr hurt does this item have the clarification in it can you verify the S ver has the track J clarification so um there's a motion that's been seconded so um is there any discussion about the motion I don't see any discussion so members May proceed to vote on the amendment it's so this amendment is it doesn't have the lines of every time it's in the document what it does is directs that every time it says in the document port for all Alaska it it adds strikes for all Alaska adds a word of it makes it Port da young Port of Alaska so that's the clear because this is we're going to have to authorize the clerk to go back in and and make conforming amendments this is terrible to be doing on the floor so um that's the proposed amendment can we just add up it up consistent with s version strike for all ask put that in quotes since you and then also add another phrase um and allow was conforming amendments so we do it all at once and the conforming amendments just go through the document to make sure it's consistent across so Mr Meer seconded right yeah members May proceed to vote poor Jasmine we have our relief team pitching tonight member Rivera yes on a vote of 9 to three the item passes the amendment passes the amendment to the amendment passes so now we have the amendment just quick question to councel again Mr Gates or excuse me I'm sorry Mr hurt it's in there okay no need to worry about my other Amendment and now we have back before us the amendment any disc discussion members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 10 to two and the youth member votes yes the motion passes I'm GNA just speak real quick Mr constant thank you um I have never opposed renaming the port for Mr Young um he did a lot for Alaska he also was a human a man I don't like the act of saood that's been going on sanctification it's not been fair to the members of the dasas not been fair to the community and it's not been fair to an honest record of Dong's life and story in Alaska it was great and it was terrible and it was everything it was life and we should not practice hagiography in undoing the stories and making false narratives about people instead we should embrace them for who they were and I can say in the last votes Don young took I found great respect in his commitment never more in my life than this moment do we need people to stand up for the fate of our Republic on the days after January 6th 2021 this man stood up against his party and said no this will not happen we are not that and no matter how far the country has slipped to that he didn't and when his party was so extraordinarily partisan that they would drive against infrastructure projects that would build the future of our state and our country rebuild roads where bridges are falling down he said yes when all of his party said no so this has never been a partisan issue for me but I also don't stand for what effectively was bullying or emotional extortion or all manner of gross attacks against the assembly for doing its due diligence in this process that's not right we are in fact a sovereign government we have unto ourselves the right to make this decision no one else not some panel of four people that were set up and handheld to get to a decision but instead we have before us the question of do we do this for Congressman young and I can vote Yes on that because I saw a man at the end of his life stand up for our nation stand up for our state stand up for our city I'm sad that our city has failed to make application towards the wealth that was generated by the infrastructure act that passed we haven't really gotten any of it because we don't have leadership to apply it's a tragedy but that all said I think through all of this this process as chaotic and interesting and whatever you want to call it is really symbolic of Congressman young because in the end he got the job done so for my I can vote Yes on this members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 10 to two and the youth member votes yes that item has passed take a f minute break e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Miss alel thank you Mr chair I move to change the order of the day to take up item 11 Bravo 13 F 14 Echo 12 Alpha 15 Alpha second it would be 11b 13f 14 e 12a 15a very briefly to it if I may Mr chair so there's a motion to change the order of the day by Miss elel seconded by Mr vand Miss elel thank you this would dispense of dispense with the bond and ballot propositions as well as anything that is time limited and then when we only have one um 15 it would and that is a must-pass item it would let us get the time sensitive items out of the way to those of you who are here for other public hearing on M and have been waiting a long time sorry sometimes this happens um and the members and any discussion on the motion to change the order of the day hearing is seeing none uh is there any objection to that motion I'm not seeing any objection so the motion passes the order has been changed so next on the agenda we will take up item 11b 11b is AO 223-14 S1 an ordinance providing to the for the submission to the qualified voters of the Municipality of Anchorage Alaska the question of the issuance of not to exceed $9 million of General obligation Bonds in Municipality of Anchorage to pay the cost of an areawide public restroom project in the question of an increase in the municipal tax cap limitation to pay Associated operations and maintenance costs at the election to be held the municipality on April 2nd 2024 and approving and adding a project to the areawide 2024 CIB to include the public restroom project uh Miss Alo um is the motion to approve the S1 already on the floor no there is no motion so mov approve the S1 second so moved by Miss alel seconded by Mr vand Miss Al thank you um there is an amendment for this item um and I would like to move that Amendment second so motion to amend by Miss alel seconded by Mr wand thank you um the amendment is constant zotel broy amendment number one this reduces the amount to $5 million um and the amendment really goes to my comments about the bonds so it's a tiny bit of latitude from the chair um I'm hoping to kind of just get my comments out of the way um so I think that this $5 million figure is important um because what we have coming before um the assembly today and on the 23d um are a number of new Bond propositions whether it's the Anchorage goes Bond whether it's um the chat um access Bond whether it on January 23rd is the cemeteries Bond these are all new um items and each each of these uh Bond mechanisms um address issues that have long been identified as needing some sort of response and all fit nicely into our assembly priority area to improve quality of life for Anchorage residents um and as we approach these three new Bond propositions to tonight and one on the 23rd I ask that we do so strategically and in a manner that sees the big picture for these pressing issues to that end as we debate these items you'll see me present a similar path forward Each Bond in a$ four to5 million range which is not different from our annual parks and wck bond and I request that if we move these bonds for forward to the ballot that members commit to engaging community councils in the implementation of these projects and that we look at a change to our Capital Improvement program that includes these three types of bonds as mechanisms moving forward so that our neighbors can weigh in annually on which projects should be funded with Bond money B Bond money and not necessarily just adding projects to um big bonds like adding everything to a Parks Bond or adding everything to a facilities Bond um none of these um proposed bonds that I've mentioned the encorage goes Bond the casa Bond or even the sary bonds are really one and DS so I'm hoping that we can be strategic commit to a path forward that bets on our community being the kind of place we want to live work and play and really commits to a community that supports residents from the beginning to the end of their life so that is really the rational for me for this $5 million figure this $5 $5 million figure brings this in line with a strategy that I think we should apply to all the three new types of bonds it also allows us to purchase enough toilets and install them that we would have enough to make sure we can still have a municipal wide impact we can get some good data on utilization one of my concerns is if we reduce this figure too low for only one or two toilets that if you have one place and maintenance wasn't sufficient or you end up with a Manu manufacturer's defect it's not enough to get a true sample of what the impact could be um and finally $5 million put out in an RFP for a Portland loose style that language is important it opens up the possibilities as we've started to talk about this ideas for a variety of types of public restrooms have come forward um to me that's exciting that means our request for proposal is likely to generate interesting ideas that could meet our needs um and actually um end up saving money um so I would ask for your support of the $5 million figure I think it brings in line I ask for your consideration of the larger strategy for these three um bonding mechanisms that we're we're using and are new some new Tools in our toolbox are never a bad thing um and I hope that you can support um this amount um the last thing I want to say is um I don't know if you all know this book Everyone Poops if you've ever potty trained a child this is a classic um it is from our library it's very popular book I was fortunate it was uh on the Shelf um but that's the truth everyone poops and $5 million gives us 10 opportunities to at least to be able to use the restroom to be law-abiding residents and not go anywhere else because frankly Anchorage goes thank you Miss broy thank you um Miss Cel covered a lot of um the key points but I just want to highlight a couple other things um one is that uh we know unfortunately especially in recent years money does not get cheaper in the future uh so one benefit to um reducing the total number again recognizing um that we need to be mindful and we need to think about the other Bonds on the um that that are potentially going to be on the ballot um but also that that we would want to have opportunity to um to be able to purchase a few of these it doesn't mean that we would purchase them all at once um and also would allow for um for example one thing the sponsors discussed we didn't end up putting in the ordinance um to put before voters but um to say that there should be at least one in each district um so if there were 10 that would allow for a placement of at least one in each Assembly District um looking at places uh Parks other public facilities or public places where they could be placed um as well as a few uh additional ones and then I think member zotel covered um other reasons why having uh multiple of these units available uh would be helpful um and and I will just Echo that Everybody Poops thank you Miss brono so I am really happy that you've come up with this different dollar figure I had originally first off when we had the work session and the Portland L presenters were there there is genuine enthusiasm and lots of cool things about that bathroom but they are so expensive and when I'm confronted with this 500,000 per restroom um it just gives me chills it's just too much um and I heard from people that are so so supportive of public restrooms but also concerned about cost and now that I'm seeing that your your ordinance actually says Standalone sidewalk restrooms not specifically saying Portland lose I'm happier with it um I did get some messages from people that talked about how gross those are down in Portland that I should fly down this weekend and check one out um but another option came up there's a ROM Tech that's the knockof of the Portland L that's half the price and they have to actually pay 5,000 per toilet they sell because it's so much like the other um Urban blue sent a lot of information today they look amazing so I do want to do this but I I wanted to buy less to start with get a chance to see how they operate in Anchorage um and if we actually are able to maintain them we have so many things in our city that are not wellmaintained that we see things happening in our parks and we let them go um I want these restrooms to be there for everybody and make sure that we can maintain them so I I do think I'll support your um Amendment for the 5 million and um I thank you for compromising there thank you next in the queue we have Mr vond thank you Mr chair yeah I I am strongly um supportive of the the tailored Amendment um you know I I hear from business owners downtown all the time who are frustrated because tourists who are not patrons uh will will try to use their restrooms because there is nowhere to go if you're downtown unless you're kind of in the know you can go to the Captain Cook hotel but then you got to go all the way downstairs to know where they are or you can go through to the federal building but you got to go through security first there's not convenient places for for tourists who we want to be welcome you know welcoming to downtown to to alleviate themselves uh when duty calls so I think this is something that could be very beneficial for downtown um I have had the opportunity to use Portland L and and um my experience was very different than what member branga um described um I thought they were great they're industrial they're you know they provide enough privacy for you to to to do your thing but it's not a place where you want to hang out um I think they're engineered they can they can really take some AB abuse um easy to clean Etc so I I appreciate the co-sponsors for bringing this forward as a solution thank you thank you Mr Cross yeah so um not against the idea of public restrooms but I can't support this Bond request and simply because I did some research um the city of Kodiak purchased four of these three years ago and they have not been a wonderful experience I talked to two assembly members and I contact the public works and I spoke to them and said tell me the good bad the ug they open design attract snow drifts they've had issues they shut them down most of the year and just open up two of them out of the four for a few months during the peak Seasons the best ones are near the port where there's lots of people anything where there's not lots of people to to police it there's vagrants they get vandalized and they're very expensive to repair so I would I would say that we uh do a little bit more research on a product that we're going to go and ask the the the the taxpayers to fund I'm not against it but I think we should be researching we've got people who have purchased them 410 miles away they should have been invited to our our work session to talk about their experiences on them because they it was it's not a glowing review from my conversations thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair I wanted to uh offer my appreciation to the uh to the sponsor of the amendment I think it brings the Val the dollar amount in line with where I'm comfortable the current bonds are but I wanted to be clear Al as well and and maybe the uh members altel can respond uh this is not calling for any more a particular product it's calling for bathrooms and funding for the associated uh maintenance is that correct yes that's why it specifically says Portland loose style to describe a self-standing toilet thank you and I just wanted to make sure that we were clear about that because um I think it's an obligation for members of the assembly to be really thoughtful about what goes on the ballot but I also really think it's important that the people of anage have an opportunity to vote on their values and this is this bringing it in line uh the way you've done with this particular version I I'm very comfortable with uh I recognize that we don't take care of all the bathrooms today so I I also want to be clear to the administration and to the municipality at a whole moving forward on Innovation doesn't mean you give up what you're supposed to be taking care of today and uh there is no silver silver silver magic bullettin anything that we do but we can make progress by having a focus on public health Public Safety and the idea that when we talk about choosing Anchorage and visiting Anchorage the idea is to really have people stay here a little longer go a little further in our town and make sure that those amenities are available for visitors and uh the members of our community as well so I would be supporting this tonight thank you Mr salt thank you Mr chair um so I reiterate a lot of the things that have been said um a lot of the objection to this has been due to the cost but we've received numerous numerous other options that are less expensive than what was initially proposed we've also received options from um instate construction units that have been deployed on the North Slope of Alaska and functioned so there's a lot of research out there a lot of other um units we can look at this will go through the normal purchasing process um so we got the RFP we may decide to do more than one style um and at the end of the day I think like Mr Martinez said uh the ultimate bellweather is the voter and it's pretty hard to convince me otherwise to not send things to a voter thank you thank you and for my part I'm in the queue I just want to say that uh it's not a $500,000 toilet it's $500,000 per unit or so that would pay for all of the installation costs the shipping costs the um Plumbing costs everything and so um it's easy to get in your mind they're going to spend half a million dollars on this thing that's not it it's the whole Suite of everything that goes into the process and that was just the best number we could come up with all evidence that we have found shows that the price will actually be less than that and we will get more if we act in a timely manner before as miss elel or Miss broy said the cost of money goes up to the point where it makes the cost change and so I'm I'm a strong supporter and I urge your yes vote thank you anyone else oh it's yeah on the amendment still okay so anyone else on the amendment hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to1 the youth member votes yes the amendment has passed on the main motion Miss broy yeah thank you um and I appreciate Mr constant you mentioned some of the points I wanted to hit um one key feature of this ordinance as as Mr conson just stated is that a significant portion of the total cost per unit is built in maintenance costs for the life of the bond so not necessarily the restroom if we keep it for 40 50 years hopefully it lasts that long um but really for the life of the bond that's similar to how we bond for road projects um in terms of uh um budgeting for a certain staffing needs and also for our fire trucks um we've done that recently so there is some precedent for that um it's probably not a perfect metaphor but one I keep thinking about is imagine if that when you're buying a new car and you're financing it you're getting your car loan um that you were able to build in to that financing cost your oil changes your tire changeovers other routine maintenance on your car not if you total your car right but just the stuff that you expect to do over the next few years as you own it and that all of those things were built into the monthly loan payment for your car it's it's the same general idea here it's not that we're going to pay for all of it um all unexpected events um but really that we know we need to maintain these and really I think that's been the common theme that we've heard from folks who um both love this idea and don't love this idea is um how are they going to be maintained and I think that's really key and again that's why we we paid attention to it um and as Mr Martinez said I think it is really important to recognize that it will take um commitment over time to continue to maintain these and so the best we can do right now is make this proposal uh and hopefully bring it to the voters and so I hope you support it thank you anyone else seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 10 to two and the use youth vote youth member votes yes AO 2023 d 114s one as amended has passed the body next we have item 13f a 223-228 in ordinance of the Anchorage assembly submitting to the qualified voters of the Municipality of Anchorage a ballot proposition amending the home Rule Charter to require assembly confirmation of the chief medical officer of the municipality this a public hearing item public hearing on this item is now open welcome please state your name or part of town you're from you'll have three minutes wait are you speaking on behalf of community council I am you are you a leadership of the council then you can have five minutes but you got to turn the mic on really slow you turn the mic on and you got there's like a blue button or a green button there green button you're good thanks okay all right well good evening Mr chair and members of the assembly my name is Scott mcmurran president of the Rogers Park Community Council I'm here to support ordinance AO 2023-24 the proposed ballot proposition to require assembly confirmation of the Anchorage chief medical officer or the CMO you previously heard testimony from Dr Pete MOS the immediate P president of the Rogers Park Community Council he's a leading he is leading Health and Fitness meeting tonight and is unable to attend he's had previously presented the Rogers Park Community Council resolution dating back two years which urged this assembly to require assembly confirmation for the CMO this body unanimously supported our resolution thank you Dr mios was emphatic the position of our CMO is critical to the overall health and safety of our community in in addition to understanding and implementing the latest medical and Public Health Science the CMO must recognize emergent Public Health threats for example the ever evolving SARS Corona virus TB and sexually transmitted diseases among others moreover the CMO must be ever Vigilant of air food and waterborne diseases and pollution our CMO must possess Poss unimpeachable credentials including graduation from a fully accredited medical or osteopathic school and residency a professional work history and experience in related fields and solid verifiable recommendation the position of chief medical officer must be a political and unencumbered by any anti-science or anti-public health ideology our CMO must have the TR Trust of the community thank you for embracing the critical nature of the CMO position and the necessity of assembly confirmation thank you Mr mcmurren I was hoping you would talk about airplanes we could go there if you want another day yeah all right so anyone else wish to speak on this anyone at all seen hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will the body move to approve second moved by Mr bins seconded by missel Mr Rolland thank you I I'm going to try to spare you all the Waterworks this time but no promises um this role is very important and it's very important that Anchorage residents can trust whomever is in this role to make good recommendations uh when it comes to policymaking around Healthcare important duties of the chief medical officer include advising the mayor when exercising special powers during a state of Public Health Emergency advising the Human Resources Director in development and implementation of employee drug testing policies providing information and advice to the mayor and assembly as requested on any matters involving public health during a public health emergency this role becomes even more consequential as concurrence of the chief medical officer is required to compel testing screening or examination of a non-consenting individual for contagious diseases that concurrence is also required should the mayor should the mayor order treatment or medications or mandatory quarantine of individuals or groups who refuse said treatment so this is someone that we uh really want to be able to trust and who in this room doesn't value the ability to choose our own doctor right and so requiring assembly confirmation of whoever is in this role gives additional public process it creates a situation where members of the public can view that publicly available curriculum V resume and weigh in with their assembly members and say you know here's why we support this person or here's why we don't um you know and I'll just say for me again on a personal note it's all about restoring trust in our health Care Professionals and I just you know it's so important I when I was running as I mentioned last time when I was running for this position um that was something that was so important to me I had the opportunity to to write an oped with my really good friend about how the vilification of healthc Care Professionals has no place in Anchorage um and I I I wholeheartedly believe that to be true and I I want to do whatever I can in my time on this body um to to lift up the role of healthc Care Professionals so that we can get good advice I want the policy makers for Anchorage to to get really solid advice from our healthc Care Professionals and I think this is one path to doing that so I urge your support thank you all right thank you Miss Al thank you um I appreciate um member ban bringing this forward um in my view public health is the Third Leg of the public safety stool um we confirm our chief of police we confirm our fire Chief it makes sense that we would confirm our medical Chief if we want to be consistent particularly as we approach Public Safety thank you thank you Mr prisia thank you I'm going to vote in favor of this but I I do want to take this opportunity to make a point uh as it relates to this and and that is that um I am concerned that because of our both because of our current Administration and because of the the health care crisis that we experienced um this body finds itself making decisions that um that may have uh repercussions later on down the road and um and and I think that that this I think is a good choice but I think that the continuing to um pull more and more decision-making away from the administration is something that this body needs to be very cautious with and that that um that as we proceed forward that we um are making those decisions very care carefully I think that um so that's that's the point I wanted to make that I'm I am seeing a trend that is concerning me and um and I want to make sure that we're not just thinking about the situation we're in now but how that's going to impact the the future of this city and the future of this body so I want to make sure to put that on the record thank you all right uh seeing no one else Mr V you can have a second com by at the app thank you I I I appreciate member Perez for Dia's comments I'll just say that you know that's part of checks and balances right is that we have accountability on our side too um but I think that the scrutiny that comes with checks and balances is appropriate for this role thank you Mr chair anyone else seeing and hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes two thank you on a vote of 9 to3 and the youth member votes yes a2023 d128 has passed the body and we'll move on to the voters next we have up item 14e 14e is AO 2023-24 million $900,000 General obligation bonds of the Municipality of Anchorage to pay the costs of access improvements in the chugas state park access service area and the question of an increase in the municipal tax cap limitation to pay Associated operations and maintenance costs in the Chug gash State Park service area at the election to be held on the municipality in the municipality on April 2nd 2024 an approving and adding additional projects to the 2024 CIB to include the chash state park access service area uh public hearing on this item is now open welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes i r qu now encourage Sand Lake um this is the sixth ordinance that asks for the increase of the tax cap limit just on the agenda tonight so last year you had the early childhood education on the bond I mean on the ballot and one of the things was part of that was that you said you were going to lower the tax cap for 2024 by $1 million you didn't mention that by moving the marijana tax out from under the tax cap you created a hole of 6 million so lowering by 1 million brings it down to 5 million that you were able to spend without asking for the increase of the tax cap and now you have six ballot propositions that ask for the increase of the tax cap so the $1 million reduction is basically nullified so um I just want people to know that you got six million by moving out the marijuana tax without asking for the tax cap increase then you said you lowered it now you're asking on six propositions on this agenda alone for the increase of the tax cap thank you all right so we anyone else in the room welcome come on down please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes my name is William minis I'm the chair long-term chair of the be Valley limited road service area been added a while we're on the very south end of the hillside it's a small Ura 2 and a half miles uh low mill rate we about 1500 18800 ft and we have dirt roads that are underlaying with brush water and trees these poor construction issues exacerbate Damage Done by The increased park access travel the extra traffic on our roads dramatically increases the required maintenance of one of our two main road systems we're in full support the chukat state park access service project since it will improve our ability to maintain over half of our lursa roads for both visitors and residents we support CH gate start Park of course and most of us use that mq Peak trail head but the extra traffic does take a toll on our roads we appreciate the possibility to mitigate some of that nonresident damage thank you please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes good evening my name is uh Carl Portman and I'm a 40 5e resident of uh Rabbit Valley I am here to support the original cassa bond proposal uh which I believe includes four projects I support a robust bond that would include improved Road access and trail head improvements on the hillside uh projects supported by the original bond proposal would be good for tourism would improve access for alaskans relieve pressure on local neighborhoods and provide for SA Safer travel corridors I am confident voters would approve such a bond by a comfortable margin chukiat state park is a crown jewel in anchorage's backyard it attracts more visitors than any other public land unit in Alaska including denalii National Park visitation has increased immensely uh putting significant pressures on the few Hillside Area Trail heads and the road corridors leading to the park there are often dozens to even hundreds of vehicles parked at the end of Canyon Road the attraction is the new Sunnyside Trail up flat top the improved Trail to Rabbit Lake and the surrounding Peaks Rabbit Valley has become another Glenn Alps with a crush of Park visitors but with poor Road access and virtually no trail head facilities while I appreciate the inclusion of upper Canyon Road in the Costa bom on proposal many residents in our area were disappointed when upper dearman was dropped from the uh package it is one of the few major roads on the upper Hillside that is neither a state road nor in the Anchorage Road and drainage service area it was paved in 1987 through State Appropriations given it is a park access route and has not been paved since we're going on 40 years with uh no repaving upper Arman is a COR the upper dearman Corridor is the only way to get to the Rabbit Valley Trail heads it is a poor it is in poor shape and getting worse due to drainage issues and heavy Park traffic given the Glen Alps Road service area is sparsely populated and even with one of the highest Mill rates in the city it does not have the capacity to uh properly restore this Corridor although it does Prov provide your round maintenance therefore I ask the assembly to include upper dearman in a subsequent Casa Bond or help us to find another path forward at the current cost it would be approximately $4.80 per year on a $500,000 assessed home assessment value thank you for your time thank you sir come on down welcome please say your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes thank you probably want to pull the mic down just a little bit you pull it down a little bit yeah perfect thank you okay uh my name is Mark June I've lived at 8801 upper de Arman Road for 45 years and upper dearman is the exclusive Road access to five different chugat Park Trail heads flattop Sunnys side peak one Peak 2 rabbit Lake and tarmigan Peak I'm speaking in favor of the bond package the bond is the first Bond under the cassa program recently authorized by a strong majority of Anchorage voters I am hoping that your actions in approving the bond will make it the first step in a successful program all access to chuat state park is through local Road s and to date the burden of building and maintaining those roads has fallen 100% on local residents and the roads are all in various states of disrepair made worse by the increasing use of the park for example upper dearman is not just narrow and not just in bad condition it is a one mile straightway where everyone is either in a hurry to get to the park Trail heads or in a hurry to get home from the Park Trail heads the more Park visitors the more the road conditions become worse over time the more there is a safety consideration between the pedestrians and Road Walkers with no room for them and oncoming traffic dodging the potholes and each other my criteria for a good Bron project is whether it will make Anchorage a better place to live this Bond and these types of access projects will do just that the bottom line is the Anchorage voters should be allowed to say whether they want to pay for these access projects or not and I'm hoping that the bond package starts a path forward for other good park access projects for the good of the entire Community thank you very much uh thank you sir there's a question for you miss thank you thank you Mr June um you said first Bond and successful program are you aware you said first bond that you hope this is the first Bond and that there would be a successful Casa program um are you aware is there some strategic plan or sequencing of projects from now kind of out into the future because I haven't seen anything so I'm curious well well you're in a better position to know that than me okay yeah thank you fair question Fair answer thank you so um I'm sure more will be made of that in the conversation ahead I I I would say that there is the opportunity for future Bond projects under the same criteria and I would hope those be followed up on thank you thank you very much sir so we have a couple oh come on down and we still have a few on the phone we'll call but since we have people in the room welcome please state your name what part of time you're from you'll have three minutes thank you Mr chair um Bruce tbet I'm speaking for myself I've lived up in stuck in an area for the last 30 years and as you probably know the neighborhood is within the Basher local road service area in addition to the U the trail head at Basher the road uh goes through Bicentennial far North Park which is also paid for by lursa our our neighbor our neighborhood includes one of the main entrances of chash State Park including uh the most accessible uh State Park entrance uh to Northeast Anchorage residents the Basher trail head is proposed to be improved in it and it it's included in the casa during the winter weekends it's often full and uh and on almost every day in the summer months the uh parking lot is is um is on top of a hill uh with a blind entrance um and uh it can only accommodate about 15 cars so often cars are parked alongside the road um and it it is the only entrance to the uh the neighborhood um the U so the parking lot needs to be expanded and redesigned fortunately the property adjacent to it is actually within far north by Centennial Park and is owned by the city uh that parking lot also uh includes some access to Bicentennial Park along the power lines and down South toward south bwac if the uh Casa Bond passes um it would also include uh improving part of the U uh Campbell airstrip Road which uh floods in the middle of winter because of overflow and uh as I said that is uh in within the lursa but it's actually maintained um by the lursa but it is in Bicentennial Park um uh the Municipal Traffic Department's traffic counts also show that uh uh many of the times about 50% of the traffic coming up up that Campbell airstrip Road is not to our neighborhood but is for access to the park so nonetheless uh lursa maintains most of the road within the municipal far north B Centennial Park it's about 3 miles worth of it but the state does not have the funding for expanding the existing U uh Basher trail head and it's beyond the uh the ability of our local mill rate for the lursa to pay for sir I'm going to interrupt and I didn't start the clock give you 30 more seconds okay I noticed that okay so in conclusion uh I support the uh I support the casa as particularly as it applies to the Basher uh lursa thank you so much um don't see any questions anyone else in the room for now all right seeing hearing none we'll go ahead and go to the phone can we call Miss marks angel hello this is Roger hello Mr markx this is the Anchorage assembly we're here in a public hearing on AO 2023 132 the casa Bond program you'll have three minutes thank you ready now go ahead please can you hear me okay please okay um yeah good evening my name is Roger marks I am the acting chair of the board of the Glenn Alps Road service area or Gara Gara operates and maintains The Glenn Alps upper dearman and Canyon Road quds that go up to chat State Park I speak in support of the pro of the proposed Bond ordinance to fund Capital Improvements for access to the park to the two gat access service area or cassa mechanism last year the assembly unanimously approved the ballot measure proposition that would create Casa and Builders overwhelmingly approved the formation of it ca became the only funding mechanism to improve the patchwork of four roads that lead into the park it's time to put cter to work it is the road service areas or rsas on the hillside which access the park that are responsible for the Capital Improvements and maintenance of the roads within their service areas the rsas are self-funded from local residential property taxes and receive no funding from the city yet most of the traffic on these corridors is Anchor residents who live outside the rsas going to the park many of these roads are important shape and these rsas are partially populated and even with the highest Mo rates in the city we don't have enough funding to properly maintain the roads du the low volume of residents coupled with the exceptional wear and tear that High Park traffic puts on the roadways if you want to support the tourism sector you should support this there are more visitors at Chat State Park than Ali National Park is a very very popular park with very very few access points the park is beneficial to hotels restaurants car rentals Outdoor Outfitters tour operators and other tour tourism related businesses not to mention the annual 1.5 million 1.5 million Anchorage residents and visitors who reach the park by TR traversing the rsas to hike Bike and Ski our area has two of the most popular Trail heads and only 300 homes so you know the traffic to the park originates outside our area essentially these roads should not be thought of as RSA roads but as park access roads that happen to go through the RS says the proposed bond package will begin to fix this it will allow voters to weigh in on these projects the 5.9 million in the current proposal would amount to only 12 cents a month for $100,000 in assessed value many residents outside the Anchorage Bowl such as an Eagle River chugat Indian or gwood would vild on the bond proposition but will not pay for it the mechanism provides a match between who uses the road and who pays for the roads two of these projects on Basher and Canyon roads include parking enhancements which will also enhance Public Safety in summary without the bond No meaningful access and parking improvements are going to happen and the roads will deteriorate further finally in order to have a fair chance to gather broad public support is important that the bond package contain the diversity of projects from multiple rsas so again please let the voters have their say thank you thank you sir all right next on the phone we have Miss pce hello this is Nancy p hi Miss piece uh this is the Anchorage assembly uh we're hearing the C ofon conversation a223 -132 are you speaking on behalf of yourself or the council myself this evening all right thank you you'll have three minutes yes thank you for this opportunity I fully support ordinance 132 to put the cast of bonds on the ballot for the four projects and to raise the tax cap by the tiny percentage necessary for future maintenance um the reasons are quite simple number one safety there are acute blind spots on upper Canyon Road for example and we've um the assembly has already heard about the occasional obstruction of the roadway at Basher drive so safety number two is public health the dirt roads in be Valley and upper Canyon Road create dust that coats the neighborhood of course this is a public health hazard to those passing through it creates I guess some extra car washing but um it's it's generally um bad for public health third Equity I like this package because it's Equitable to have a package that serves East and North Anchorage at the bashard trail head as well as South Anchorage this improves access and it also protects the park resources and the quality of recreation by Distributing visitors to several entry points and distributing visitors is part of Chat State Park Resource Management plan so this this this works for equity and finally um the economic benefits from decent Park access a really good investment so for visitors to Anchorage what better way to get folks to stay one more day than an easy outing to chat State Park which then leads to another local meal and an overnight stay and for residents and especially for a vigorous healthy Workforce what does Anchorage offer compared to other cities say Seattle or Denver or Minneapolis Anchorage has wild mountains in our backyard so let's give residents and our Workforce a safe convenient way to get to Trail heads at shat State Park and that's what this Bond will do so I hope you will all support it thank you thank you I had a question for you miss piece um you submitted testimony uh or you submitted that you wanted to provide testimony and it was interesting what you called the item the casa Road Improvement Bond and um I wanted to hear your thoughts on whether or not this is actually a Road Bond I'm sorry I just did you hear that question no you cut out please repeat yeah so you submitted for testimony on the website I read that and what you called it was the casa Road Improvement bonds and I wanted to hear your thoughts about access and Road improvements because I never thought of this as a road Bond but it's clear from the projects that were nominated by the luras that there's a set that thinks this is a road Bond so I just want to hear your thoughts on access and Roads and just briefly of course well the um the improvements are except for the Basher trail head um they're outside of Chat State Park I guess maybe I can't um there's a design package as part of Basher so I'm not sure how much of that is within the park and how much of it is within the roadway but um because they're they projects within the roadway um I think that's the reason I called it a road Improvement Road Improvement project um and certainly that's that's what lures do that's one of the reasons the lures are supporting it the cost exceeds local resources to do these upgrades yep exactly okay that's what says do it's a great answer thank you Miss pce so um thank you I don't know if there's anyone else in the room who wishes to testify on this item at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's all the body move to second say move to approve all right so there's a motion the S approve the S version second the uh original version if it's which I don't know who got in first but got so I believe that and I hate to do this but I think Miss alel was the first to pull the trigger on motion to approve um and then Mr vand was second so um that's the motion the S version is the motion on the floor this time okay thanks I'll speak to the motion um so I think that the S version that myself and members zotel are bringing forward is a really good compromise um the Canyon Road uh Improvement is one of the the the bigger items in terms of dollars um I still think this keeps the overall dollar amount sort of consistent with you know being around the amount of a Parks Bond uh just like we did with um with the bathroom Bond um and for those who are who are reading this what I'm referring to is what's also called the sunyside trail access Improvement project um I will say for I have a number of concerns on the whole process of this Bond it's a new Bond right so there's been some Kinks to work out um but I I can't support the original version um because of those concerns um one of the testifiers here mentioned nonresident damage to roads the lures well the equity piece I don't think is quite there uh having all four projects um that the original version lays out what about the nonresident damage that folks in the lursa cause when they drive to Costco when they drive on the gamble ingra Corridor um what what about the maintenance that's required on those roads that everybody use this if the folks who live in the lures don't pay for what about the unpaved alleys in Fair View and Mountain View you want to talk Equity let's start a bond that can pave some of those alleys um you know I think another concern that I have is that there is no CIP process outlined I I was not satisfied with the answers of the co-sponsors um when asked you know how did you look at the transportation Improvement program did you look at the CIP list what is the justification for these projects other than yes a lot of people visit the park what's the justification for these projects being Advanced ahead of projects in the Anchorage bow you know we have flooding in Midtown for instance projects in Eagle River projects in Girdwood and I don't see a sequencing of projects in forward years um I also am greatly concerned that there is no mechanism to ensure Arda input on the selection of projects as currently presented the luras are choosing which projects they do or don't want whether that is Road improvements or the access amenities that when we debated this and we put this the idea of this service area before voters um that's something that we debated on the dis and there was a strong call for we don't want to just see Road improvements we want to see those access amenities so parking yes but you know also things like covered uh shelters for people to wait you know public restrooms Etc [Music] um so the you know I I just don't see how the Arts of folks who are essentially being asked by the lures to cover part of this cost how they were consulted I don't think any of the co-sponsored co-sponsors visited my community councils to ask for feedback um perhaps member branga did because we have some overlapping um so I'm sure that she probably um discussed these um but I just I'm not sure how these projects are prioritized you know not just by lursa but by by Aras um and then housing density you know there's been sort of this like pervasive narrative through all of this of well these four houses at the end of this road can't cover the cost of this you know this maintenance and I guess I just have little sympathy for that because some of the community councils that are in these areas are the ones who consistently come against any infill density um if you have low density of housing that means you have a very low tax base to be able to cover the cost of these of this maintenance these repairs these new projects um and so what I want to hear from some of the you know these parts of our community is what are you going to do to put more housing in your area um and so for for all those reasons I can't support the original version but what I can support again is that Canyon Road I think that the timing is there lining up with I know the state is going to be putting in some expanded parking at the end of that yes a lot of people do use that access point for rabbit Creek I myself I got to partake in that beautiful um Backcountry ice skating season that we had um and and so I get it um but I I think we need to take a more measured approach and then build out this bond in future years to say okay here's how we're going to get maximum Community input in the coming years and we can stack these projects and we can see how they interface with other CIP uh projects so um I would urge your support for the S version thank you Miss thank you um I spoke pretty um much to my concerns about how this intersects with the Anchorage Road um and drainage service area artsa um for particularly for my constituents in Midtown um and what I learned recently one project that I've been looking um at in the artsa is to help my neighbors who um Neighbors being a term for all the constituents of Midtown whose basement floods at least twice a year um seeing if we can accelerate that project or anything um because it's been going on a really long time and and the answer is no they're going to have to wait till 2026 to probably get their flooding that affects their quality of life day-to-day um dealt with um and that's too bad they have to wait in line that's fine um however what we have here is the opportunity I think with the S to time a project that is going to make a big impact this Canyon Road access with some work that the state is going to do and it will alleviate some of the need and that is the key here when we bond for projects in the municipality we never take care of the whole thing all at once usually it's always incremental and we try to find the biggest impact for the dollars spent and how are we leveraging it and timing it often um you want to ensure that you are timing hopefully a drainage project with a road project because you don't want to repay of a road to turn around and tear it back up to put in storm drains um and so here I think the Canyon Road or Sunnyside um Trail access is that opportunity and and the opportunity is ripe what I think we have here in the original version um which includes the Campbell airstrip Road the mchu he Trail mchu Peak mchu Peak Trail project and the Basher trail head are opportunities opportunities that aren't um lost if they are put off a year or two and included in a capital Improvement program I had asked the question about this being the first Bond um out of a successful program because I think it is going to be a program I think they're going to be that the Costa bond is not a oneandone it is going to be a successive tool that we can bring forward in a strategic way to address Chet access um and I think that that needs to become an option in our CIP list it needs to become an actual option just like restroom bonds and Cemetery bonds um and I mentioned that earlier um and we can change code to make that that that's an option and that it's codified into our CIP so that way when Community councils take up their annual lists and they're thinking about chat access along with public restrooms along with cemeteries along with Parks projects along with their Arts of projects um they can prioritized all of them because what we didn't get here and what would have gotten me to an unqualified yes even for the original amount put forward um or discussed at 10 million would have been a stack of community council resolutions throughout the community saying this was discussed this is highly important to us um and that's life right we don't always get the opportunity to do that kind of Outreach or um get that kind of traction all of the testimony we have heard from the most part were from people who live in lursa limited road service areas um and I get it you're most impacted um but you all still drive to the drove to the library here today and you were driving on Arts of roads and you don't make the contribution to those so it is all about balance um so I urge your support um of the S version I think it will make um a substantial Improvement to the chugat state park access it leverages this state's plans um and I see real material things to be worked on in the interim but particularly if the Basher trail head overflow would be contemplated and we own the lot next to it like let's have that land disposal conversation and have those conversations so that we have all of the incremental pieces in place so when we go to the voters and ask them for money we don't have any other things to do and we can actually convert on those opportunities um to make real improvements thank you all right now the other side Miss branga how do you know over there um thank you I am a little bit Gob stocked with the the comparison of this Casa package of projects and alleys um it's not like the city of Anchorage is driving personal alleys every day to get to their grocery store or to go for a hike so that's the first thing the next thing is this Casa project list was supported by rabbit Creek community council Basher community council chugat state park Anchorage Parks Foundation Alaska trails and the project manager for City Hillside District plan among many others if you did not get letters of support by from other community councils it's probably because they thought it was kind of a no-brainer we had 60% vote less than a year ago of people who were supporting the idea of making the ability to get to a trail head easier anyone who's gone to a trail head on a sunny afternoon knows that you're just praying that you're one of the well up at the top of Campbell Air strip Road there's a place where there's five spots and you you don't know if you're going to get up there in time to get one of those five spots or else you're going to have to park way down the road same thing with that mchu we are with this Casa package we are putting forward ways to to get to the mountains which is the crown jewel of Anchorage the other thing that's really disappointing to me is the equity Equity the East Side to carve out the Basher area where we need parking is really offensive to me we if we don't go up Basher to get into the chukat state park or to get over to the Abbott Trails we are driving completely around through more and up which doubles the travel time which puts more people driving on the road which is exactly what we don't want in this city we want people to be able to access Trails as quickly as possible if you work with the Basher parking area there is a possibility for chugat State Park to sign uh moou that they would partner with us and do the ouse and help with maintenance and I think it's it's really shortsighted to carve some of these things out thank you Mr Johnson yeah thank you Mr chair um first off I I I just want to say and this is slightly tangential I do not care for this tactic where we essentially try and interrupt each other to to move a particular motion I worry about going down this road I mean at which syllable in the chair statement do we get to jump in and move a particular item this feels like it is a dangerous path to go now I think historically we've been somewhat differential to the people who have proposed the ordinance uh to to give them the first bite at the Apple and twice now with with Kasa we've seen um see ourselves kind of subverted with that and so I I don't know if that's really the debate for today but it's it's not the way I want to do business um and so I'll say I'm a little disappointed uh I'll also say too with this and in the project list um you know it it's fair to have a conversation around what we want to include but to to member vand I'll say that in our first work session you know we talked about what kind of mix of things do we want to see in here and it was a pretty Road heavy package to start with and I thought you made a good point that we wanted to see more of a mix to include more parking so when we the co-sponsors sat down and talked about what change do we want to make we wanted to reduce the dollar amount we did that and we also wanted to figure out how do we include more more access and parking things right and sure we can do more like there will future opportunities but this list here was meant to to incorporate some of that feedback we got and so to to chop out some of those things and really dial back to a more Road oriented um stance I I'll I'll just say I I we tried to take your feedback to heart and I guess I'm just a little disappointed that um in fact those efforts were apparently not um not sufficient in your mind as far as you know how does this mix with the the the necessary projects for for artsa like yeah okay I said in the work session I think we all agree this is a really weird system we have and if we want to talk about how to to do it better as a city at some point fine but that's not really the question that we have before us today and I like to emphasize this is not an either or right like we we have also um Bond measure that would support road projects within the artsa we can do both it's ultimately up to the voters to decide whether or not they want to do both what is their appetite here um yeah there have been some projects that have been on that list for a long time and they're lingering and I I sure would love to find more ways to to uh pay for them to fix people's um prevent people's basements from flooding like that's all all well and good the fact is is cassa hasn't even had these projects haven't had a chance to even get on that list they've been excluded from the opportunity to even really be up for consideration or to be included on the road Bond historically so I don't think of it in terms of like they're trying to jump ahead head a line like they haven't even had the opportunity to get in the line until now so I I think it's kind of apples and oranges in my mind and again I I said it before I'll probably say it one or two more times before I'm done I believe we should let the voters decide whether or not they think these projects have Merit like we we put some thought into this list now are there other projects that would be good to include sure you know and and we can talk about if we take this up again in 2025 or 2026 um a better different way to do it like honestly a lot of what we do is a process of continual refinement and I I'm here for that but I look at these projects that we have proposed here today and I think they are all good I think they all have value I think to borrow uh the question that that Mr June asked will it make Anchorage a better place to live and I feel confident that if we fund all of these projects they all will go towards achieving that goal um you know what what gives me confidence that that this is is good and that in fact I think the the breadth of angor supports it I mean the fact that 1.5 million million people a year Village at chugach State Park like that's an extraordinary number um and that's about a million residents that's essentially everyone in this town going to chash State Park like at least three or four times that's pretty extraordinary and then also there's the fact that 60% of Voters last April said hey we are supportive of the concept of of the the casa Bond now it didn't include specific projects but that is a pretty strong mandate I think from across the bull I mean again it was not just the people in the lursa areas who voted on this it was not just the narrow cross it was everyone in Anchorage was afforded the opport everyone in the bll really was afforded the opportunity to vote on this and they I would say resoundingly supported uh moving forward this so if we want to talk about how we want to manage it a differ in 2025 hey I'm I'm I'm here for that but these are good projects they they have Merit uh I would encourage us to support the original version so honestly I I would take the S version over nothing but I strongly hope that that we can um that that we can go back to to the original proposal on the table and I don't know if there's a process to do that other than simply voting on the S and if it gets voted down moving the original uh I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on that we'll keep going to the queue for now Mr Cross thank you so uh yeah spoiler alert I don't support the bond and here's why and isn't because I don't support what you're trying to do it's because for whatever confounded reason which brought up when we created the Chugiak area Ser or the chak road service area Casa 50% of our chuak Trail access according to 2012 chuak access plan are on Eagle River and you Exempted all those neighborhoods from the road service area all of District 2 is paying Highland pays for it Skyline pays for it Peters Creek pays for it all these individuals that are underneath there they cover theirs through our road service they're not covered by Casa they they will not benefit from this Bond but they're being asked to pay for it they're not not not through this bond does you're saying this Bond Eagle River will not be because I was told Area Wide no it's no it's not so here so let's have a question so I want Clarity because I was told it was Area Wide so I'm being told it's area wide by Meg and not by Chris excluding areas currently contained River and oh well then I apologize because I was told very adamantly and I could show you that this was areawide and so in which case all right gra you guys spend all your money all you want tax yourselves to Oblivion you go Mr Sal okay thank you um so I guess so it is it is Kasa it is a chat service area area that pays for it which there's a map that shows it but so I guess why are we in this boat a couple things one the state builds a great Park puts great Trail heads and then doesn't think about how to maintain access to those Trail heads so like Mr Mark said there's these are access roads that pass through road service areas that are not allowed to bond for Capital Improvement so as Mr Johnson said they they don't have a a means to pay for these projects or even a seat at the table so that's why Casa was created um almost two years ago voted on a year ago and I'm just going to read some language from the ballot proposition creation so we're all clear creation of the service area would allow the municipality to submit to voters Bond propositions for projects that support access to portions of chugat State Park that are located in the service area and amarate the neighborhood effect of access by Park users projects could include Road and parking improvements park access and park access supporting amenities okay so pretty clear we can build amenities down the road but if you can't get to them you can't get to them the reason why you're seeing the projects that you see is we did take the slant of access and we went to the lur say for what projects they had on the books and they have wanted to get done but couldn't fund and that's where we got these projects from um the the initial list was I think almost 10 million um which we've cut down to 5.9 uh like Mr Johnson I I I would like the original version but of course can live with the S1 version um in my view of the long-term history of this is we'll see some projects come in the next several years and then eventually it should hopefully die off and then I guess the last piece is just a a word of warning and caution we have a CIP and we have a CIB process and we're violating that and we're going outside the norm and I think it's a unique year and we're probably treading on Dangerous Ground should we continue going down this path and we probably there's a reason why we're going down this path we probably need to take a step back and look at the CIB C process to see if it is fit for purpose thank you Mr Conant thank you so I personally support the main version or the S version this year um I agree very much with Mr salt that the process um that was gone through is perilous because it doesn't really engage the community um what my first impressions were with the process I was quite shocked when I saw a list of nominated projects all by the leadership of Lura limited road service areas I was just shocked because even in their list in the documents they listed all the road services in the in the PowerPoint except for the one that is really the payer artsa is a road service area and so they only communicated with the leadership of the beneficiaries of the resource the money not the payer and so um an argument could be made they they have an impact that no one else does because they live up there and people drive up there but we've already heard testimony that well this is an interesting town because the people who live at the top drive down here and don't pay those of us who live down here drive up there some of us it's just the way it is set up and so to those who did the work of coming up with this list I would say thank you for doing that work and never want to kind of kick at people who are volunteering but also next time you have to also include people from Arta at some level and I I've had some discussions with Mr Johnson about next year's process maybe a convening by the parks foundation with key stakeholders from the service areas in artsa so that whatever list of projects is generated is generated meaningfully for people who are in all parts of this new Casa service area not just the ones who stand to receive money I don't agree why we didn't hear from folks from artsa because it was a no-brainer it was because they never were asked never had an opportunity to make it to them I can assure you as soon as I saw the list I shared it but it was already done at that point like we're already in the last phases of the conversation and so I have been saying to the membership as much as possible for our bonds and ballot processes I'm trying to move it all back a couple months in Time start earlier so there's more opportunity for people to hear and again I'm only in the midpoint of my comments I'll say again that I do support this either one whichever one makes it to the final finish line um but again my concerns are Germaine and have to be spoken about we have had great testimony from the folks from the road service areas one gentleman said that basically the projects in the project would maintain half of the road service area's roads that's a huge subsidy from Arta to a lursa we had another testifier say we've had roads that haven't been upgraded in 40 years so you should do this that's not fair 40 years you deferred your maintenance waiting for someone to come along and pick up the bill for you I'm I'm looking around around I'm not pointing at anybody but so then I think of like Chuck Marone who was here for our housing policy conversation and what he talks about and it's just a reality we all have to face when you build up out way out into the suburbs at the end of these long roads your sugar daddy is us we who live down here pay for you to exist and yet we get beat up by you all the time it makes no sense to me your roads are effectively paid for by us except for the very end which you come to your utility lines it's because we buy in a 10 to an acre that you are able to buy in for your acre at the price you can so there's this so heavy disconnect between who pays and who benefits I agree with Mr ven we need more density of housing all over this town but I guess that is fairly a separate conversation although it is tied to this conversation so I will wrap it all up to say that I will be very um invested in ensuring the process going forward is representative of the whole Community who are the stakeholders those who pay those who use and those who benefit and um to answer your question Mr Martinez or excuse me I'll just look at the C Mr Johnson I think there is a way to have that other conversation but um you just have to figure out the Parliamentary procedure you saw tonight in action so um so um with that I'll tell you whichever one gets to a final vote I'm a yes so Mr Martinez uh thank you chair um I'm not sure about uh the using the term sugar daddies with respect to uh the municipal government and uh and making sure we have the city that we all want to live work and play in um but I understand your point about funding uh outside of areas or for areas that often find themselves at odds with the Innovation that we try to take on on behalf of this body but I do want to say I will be supporting the original I I think the original uh I don't find it I don't find the arguments for going into this particular uh ordinance compelling to change it lower uh I think we should uh keep it at the original uh number with the original project list and I do take your point Mr chair uh I hope folks will improve the processes moving forward if they see deficiencies in the process I do want to take one exception and just make sure we clarify the record U Mr Cross you mentioned uh tax yourselves into Oblivion I think that was your exact phrase and uh we are not voting to tax we are voting to allow the voters to then vote on these particular items and so back to the Holy Grail of democracy let the voters decide let the voters decide let the voters decide thank you don't think we've heard yet from Miss broy on this we have no we haven't okay Miss BR you have the floor yeah thank you I was uh hanging back for a little while um uh first I would also uh support either version of this Bond although I will say um and if you've been watching any discourse that I've brought up um I am interested in having bigger conversations and I know it will take time um but I do have a question why do we have so many very small limited road service areas um can they be Consolidated um can we have a conversation about more equ quable funding and and covering of what is essentially all public services um and I don't say that because I'm proposing that right now and I understand that those are in um those are also an act of the voters so this is not um something that I'm saying is contingent on my vote um I also went back to the hillside District plan and I was just skimming um the portion around the policy um and also I just want to note you know one of the pros and cons of doing District plans it does allow for more localized um public input and and working you know working out those local issues communicating what you want as a small area but the consequences like like this process um it focuses on the needs and desires of the folks um who live in that area um but but they also AB but a state park right and so there's a challenge and this Hillside District plan was passed the chugat um state park access plan which it references has not passed is my understanding there's a draft out there uh it was never finalized and so I think that's an fortunate thing um because it's a missed opportunity to use what would be an adopted plan to help guide this process and really give those those broad guidelines to have that conversation um so just a plug for for why planning is good sometimes um but also I would really hope that we have that conversation in the future around around things like the service areas they are not considered really a best practice from a governance standpoint in pretty much any other state in the United States in fact there's um there's uh some literature out there so again know we can't undo what we have but I think um we we can hopefully feel empowered to make those changes in the future and again that said um I support putting this before voters um I can see the rationale for having it lower um but I also see the rationale for having multiple projects and then one qu final quick note it strikes me as um something that's worth putting on the record that road projects are just very very much more expensive than Park projects $14 million road project that we're talking about um which is in the S version and the original version is basically the same size as our entire Parks Bond um and and when you look at the parks numbers and you reflect on actually how small they are to put these interventions in our Parks I think it shows you the scale of how expensive road infrastructure is and again I'm not saying that because it isn't necessary certainly in this area we don't want roads that continue to crumble and and cause safety issues but I think it's important to think about the scale of our investments and where our money goes and I know that's a challenging thing often for the public and for members of this body to put our minds around um Public Finance can be complicated but um it is something to think about that uh one road project for park access is going to be about the same size as the entire Parks Bond um unless we make amendments thanks thank you um I don't think anyone else hasn't spoken that's in the CU so Mr Rand thank you Mr chair I'm glad member broy brought up parks and the cost of parks because just a handful of years ago member wlon when he was on this body brought forward uh a proposal where lures would join the Anchorage Parks service area and they would have to and so I'm going to hit the equity piece again you bet I am because Lura pay very little for our Anchorage Parks the parks that are in the Anchorage Bowl so those parks that are in Russian Jack Airport Heights moldun Etc um so my personal perspective is is if you want to live in Al lursa you need to be prepared to deal with the cost of doing so um I'm also still very concerned and I I certainly appreciate member Johnson's comments to you know wanting to be responsive to some of my original feedback I appreciate that it's just I want to make sure with this Bond we are setting a good precedent one that is Equitable one that everybody can support um another concern that I have is we're still allowing some of these luras to essentially have vetto power we heard at the first work session that residents near Grand View Trail head at the end of Honey Bear Lane rejected cost of funding they said we don't we don't want parking at the end of our trail trail head we only want um you know the road improvements and so again that artsa input is severely lacking and we have so much room for improvement which is why I'm saying yes I want to support what I think is the the most important and the biggest project um but I can't support the whole package and that's nothing personal but it is about viewing the community as a whole and having more of a bird's eye view and so with that I will call the question second question has been called by Mr volen and seconded by Miss zotel had a couple more people in the queue the question having the motion having a mover in a second we'll proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 10- two the question has been called so we'll now proceed to vote on the motion to approve yes members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 7even to five the bond is passed soot the ballot question excuse me has passed that's uh item AO 2023 d132 on a vote of 7 to5 has passed the S version thank you madam clerk I'm GNA and clear the Q that's fine um next we have item 12a 12a assembly action on mayal VTO of ordinance AO 2023 -1 129s an ordinance the Anchorage assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code section 23030 to clarify the authority of the assembly to manage its premises and resources with body move to override second Mr band has moved to override and missel till has seconded in harmony double uh does you want to speak to that first Mr wand uh no just support the the original motion um I I feel like we do have authority over the time place and manner of our meetings thank you Mr chair thank you anyone else wish to be in the queue Miss broy yeah this is just a very small anecdote but it illustrates the challenges with this um I accidentally sent some papers to the wrong printer uh last week and I sent them to the library printer which is out in the hall which we uh really have access to during our meetings it's not our typical printer um I went to uh pick those papers up thinking I don't want to waste um you know a bunch of paper and print them again um the library staff do not have access to that room um the security do not have access to that room and so I was only able to pick up those papers tonight and so again it really illustrates the limits on our ability to do business even with a printer that I am allowed to print to um and so this this ordinance does not specifically solve that issue but I just want to give an example of um again why it is important for us to be able to do our business and have access to premises thank you I don't see anyone else I'll speak a little bit to it mam chair Mr constant thank you so um I want to thank my Aid who um many couple years ago now I set him to the worst job and that terrible job was reviewing in detail the public hearings around the mask mandate which really brought out in some ways the worst in Anchorage and he did that then and then since the veto I asked him once again to go into that breach and review the content so I could help my peers who didn't come through that time understand why it's important that we move to override this and that we assert in the code a process by which we determine our facilities and so to my Aid who experienced that trauma again I say thank you and I'm sorry so I'm going to start by reading briefly just the dialogue that happened on the dis between Mr Martinez and miss helzer Mr Martinez asks who is affording excuse me Mr Martinez asked why is this the assembly's chamber Miss holler said quote the assembly has [Applause] provided the place to hold meetings and to engage the public and the assembly is afforded both this chamber and also spaces in the in the municipal City Hall so Mr Martin is asked back so who is affording with respect to the separation of powers and that really does get to the heart of the question Miss haer replies the charter provides the assembly have a place to conduct legislative function and so you do have the ability to have space for that function but again that space according to that read of the law we are afforded we are provided it is not ours so Mr Rivera asks and the determiner excuse me Mr Martinez asked and the determiner of that SP who Miss heler replies the designation of space is an operational function in the city so the operational functions are covered under the executive branch Mr Martinez asked so it's the case that the executive branch controls the space and the meeting time of the separate and equal branch of government is that your argument she says they coequal yes but there's a balance of power and the balance of power is because there are separate distinct powers and the operational function is the executive branch Mr Martinez replies so to follow up to go to Mr Conan's point is it the opinion of the municipal attorney that the administration should cut shut down this room today right now and eject members of the assembly from conducting its business Miss heler replies I don't believe so because that would result in an impediment of the legislative function and the assembly is entitled to conduct public meetings and to conduct to operate and the charter gives that to the assembly I really appreciate where she ended I don't think she realized what she said the assembly is entitled to conduct and to operate that is where she ended which I don't think she meant to say that but you can review the she got it right by mistake so back in 2021 this chamber was a whole different place it was not a pretty place we actually had a meeting in which we attempted to schedule a meeting on Saturday and we were told by the municipal manager not this Municipal manager I won't ascribe these actions to the current public servant in that job and I don't think he would but the code in their interpretation would allow it when the assembly wished to hold a special session on a Saturday the assembly declined excuse me the administration declined to provide APD saying thank you through the chair assembly member Allard as I previously stated it would incur overtime for the cap team to be here that's who's here today the fine men and women of Anchorage Police Department frankly we might be able to pull one or two officers but we will not be incurring overtime again it's just not it's it's not a resource that we'll make available this weekend so the administrative Authority according to their read is up to the municipal manager whether we have the resources to to host a meeting the administration further declined to provide Audio Visual and Technical for the proposed meeting telling us that I would have to double check with the fire chief what the actual footnote cost would be but I want to caution this isn't a game this isn't a joke there are real world security issues that the Anchorage police department has gone over with me who has discussed the crowd is going to be much larger and I'm just encouraging the body to really think about security the resources that will be needed will be dramatic it's more than what Miss elel would have in her account all I'm saying is I recognize everybody wants to get through this we're asking you to make a thoughtful Choice an assessment trying to keep you safe but I want to let you know that you will not have audio visual Mr Krab is not available having spoken with Mr Krab I can tell you he was available it was the administration asserting its hand on our business to tell us when and how we could meet not going to even read the details of the screen being moved the screen was absurd but it was really amazing to typify that moment but I'll tell you the Crux this really is the Crux through it all thank you Miss deboski says through the chair Mr Presa it's an excellent question I want to point out Chief McCoy is here if you have direct questions for him but there's one thing to point out if we go into the weekend it will Cur overtime will be a direct cost which the administration will charge here's the part but I would suspect and this is very mob the fastest way to diminish the police resources is to vote no on this ordinance so what the administration was attempting to do at the time was create a hostile environment to receive proed and tell the police not to participate or respond tell security to go home cut off the video feed and then tell us we can't actually meet on Saturday when we want to get the work done because they will not provide security and in fact really the best way to get this all done is just to vote how we want you to vote this is not just a bad relationship over time this is an orientation to power and at the time they Charter excuse me they cited the exact same Charter section when they did all of this to us in this community as they did in that vetto message thank God APD said we're going to follow the law and we're going to enforce the law thank goodness Mr Crab was the Line in the Sand and the video did not get turned off but the reality is the code needs to be really clear and I believe we've done that with the ordinance that was vetoed to ensure that there is a clean and clear process by which we can assert the administration can follow their administrative process by vetoing or not what our Chambers what our facilities where we conduct our business and just one last note our business is not just when meetings are convened and we are in open session it is not just when we are at assembly meetings that's an absurd read otherwise we wouldn't be able to notice a meeting would be subject to veto by the administration or being told you don't have that Authority so ultimately this is a common sense solution and I urge your support Miss thank you um thank you Mr chair for that recount I'm still kind of reeling from having to even listen to what occurred here quite frankly um we have a strong mayor form of government and but it's not absolute and we're a co-equal branch of government and that's what this really comes down to we have to be able to conduct our business and to me and I asked this question to the chair today um about conducting our business um if we don't have the ability over premises to to conduct our business in theory our offices could just poof go away and frankly as a member who used to have to go to the coffee shops to conduct business I'm so thankful for the Mr Rivera and those offices they were named after him for a reason and it wasn't because the prior Administration um when those offices were created were supportive that Administration didn't like the idea of the offices thought they were too expensive didn't see see why we needed offices but gez if I am not internally grateful for that and that really goes to the conducting our business portion of this I'm able to have a meeting in relative confidence um and have a candid conversation with a constituent not necessarily out in public I'm able to meet with up to two other fellow members to work on something um and I'm able to confer and we're able to have legislative staff where would our legislative staff go um so I think it goes beyond just what can occur in this chamber and I think that piece really has to be underscored because we're here every other Tuesday but a lot of our time is spent at City Hall thank you I don't see anyone else in the queue members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of 9 to3 that veto has been overridden I than you my peers next on the agenda we have item 15a 15a is resolution number AR 20 24-9 a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly approving alcohol special land use permit for beverage dispensary use and license number 1666 for pink Cadillac LLC DBA pink Cadillac wave reading thank you the public hearing on this item is now open any wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none the public hearing is now closed what's the will of the body move to approve second move to approve by Mrs alel seconded by Mr vand any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross yes on a vote of 12 to0 a r 202 24-9 has passed change the order yes um Mr chair I move to change the order of the day to take up item 14 Delta it's one more Bond item that I missed for the Anchorage School District second thank you there's a motion to change the order of the day to take up item 4 D moved by Miss zeel seconded by Mr vand is there any objection to that motion hearing see none the agenda the order of the day has been changed we now have before us item 14 D AO 2023-24 an ordinance providing for the submission to the qualified voters of Anchorage Alaska the question of the issuance of not to exceed $2,370 th000 of General obligation bonds the municipality of anchor to pay the cost of Capital Improvements for the Anchorage School District the election to be held on at the in the municipality on April 2nd 2024 the public hearing on this item is now open welcome please state your name for the record what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi my name is Brian witkey I go by Bri sheer her pronouns 14 years currently residing at the Alex not that I have a lot of information on this as far as the insurance goes or anything of ASD I do not have a whole lot of skin in the game I have no children but I can tell you this one I am a member of the transgender community and as of recently the state has made a lot of decisions on what those children can do so when it comes to any support for ASD I have to stand here and say other than the future of our children maybe they need to remember to include everybody equally in all aspects so if it means that they need more insurance money to make that happen let's do it hum drumming about everything killing all our time for everything else if that's what it makes them happy let's make it happy thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes Irene quid now Sand Lake um I have trouble with this because in 2022 the school district asked for a bond to um can't remember if it was rebuil or uh renovate I think rebuild the Inland View School the voters voted no and now they're trying again and my question is if they don't listen to the voter so why do they keep asking they had it already on the on the ballot and now they are trying to do it again against what the voters already decided and what they all also are doing which is practice I guess common practice is putting it together with other stuff that's important so that people have a harder time voting it down because the other things are important to be done and I'm really sick and tired of these games make it separate and if the voters say no then abide of what the voters say if you don't want to listen to them why do you put it to a vote thank you thank you anyone else wish to be heard come on down so if other folks want to testify please come on down and line up welcome please state your name what part of town you're from I'm La Morris I'm the planning and design supervisor for the school district I'm your volunteer to answer any questions you have have okay so all right so was that your testimony no testimony all thank I'm just here in case you have some perfect thanks anyone else 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 motion to approve by Miss zelal seconded by Mr Rand anyone wish to speak to this item M broy yeah thank you um one thing that I need to train myself to do better um on bond items is to basically look back and see how much Bond debt is being retired um because I think that's often a critical part of the it's it's a critical part of the story and it's often missed um and it's basically that our bonds um you know year-over-year are rotating you know so we um over time retire the bonds that we voted on you know 20 or so years ago whenever it was um and it takes time because these projects are large um but it's important to remember that it's not we're not just always adding on to the stack right we clear we clear the stack eventually um and so I'm just looking at this is in our our memo um I just wanted to Briefly summarize this it says as of June 30th 2023 the district had $428 million of um outstanding Bond debt that's down $170 million from the same time 10 years ago so generally speaking that and and that's not adjusted for inflation I'm assuming that's all nominal numbers um and so that means that really we have less um Bond debt than we used to in the last two fiscal years as has paid off $1.4 million of debt and also uh the district has received $ 37.7 million in new V voter authorization um there was no bond that was approved in 2023 no um and and the memo also goes through some details of how they've been able to save money over time um it looks like maybe re refinancing essentially um and it's important to also understand that um provided this is still um this still exists and that it's not vetoed um there is a thing called State Bond uh um debt reimbursement um from schools and so that is a cost sharing mechanism for the state and communities um many many of whom don't necessarily even bond for capital projects so they're in a worse position that we are um but in for the ones that do that there is cost sharing um and in fact there was um a reduction in our property taxes or at least the the math worked out such that um that it was able to be reduced uh when school bond debt reimbursement was restored so so first just to note bonds are a rotating um a rotating cycle and so we're not just continually adding um we haven't added as much as we used to we've paid off more than we used to and also um you know provided that the state continues its commitment um there is a cost sharing there for our local schools which have a Statewide um implication for our economy for our well-being all of those things and so I just wanted to State um that those are really important facts when looking at our bonds and and I understand it can feel feel like a sticker shock when you're looking at these numbers um but really this is how we pay for things and this is how we've paid for things for a long time so I support this Bond thank you thank you Mr salt thank you so I do have a question for you um so as was pointed out Inlet View Bond was voted down by the voters um I think last election cycle so I guess what's the justification of the reasoning for including it in this bond package knowing it might carry a negative uh connotation or stigma to it thanks all I can answer on that is that's what the decided to do so would you say your name again quick H would you say your name again for the record oh Larry Morris thank you Mr Morris um thank you Miss Al thank you Mr Morris I do have a question attachment b as in bravo in our packet has this chart it's the capital project allocation and it talks about DW unallocated SBD R funds which are school bond reimbursement funds is how I understand so are these um basically additional funds that will be leveraged against the bond funding or is are we asking the voters to approve the allocation of that money to these projects on the one that you're looking at is projects that were funded by the school bond debt reimbursement program is in Hiatus until 2025 however those bonds that were approved prior to 2015 and we still paying on those still are being reimbursed because they were passed and so the state had shorted the that reimbursement because it's due to legislative each year and so that caught up on three years of it and they took that money and reallocate or allocated it to new projects okay yes I got that um and those projects are the ones that are also in the bond package no because rebuild Inlet View says DW unallocated sbdr at $26 million so is a portion of the capital cost it's part of the fund stack yeah the total project is $50 million of which 26 million they took from the sbdr to go towards it perfect okay thank you I'm going to make a quick comment so the attachment B is actually really interesting because um quite a few of these projects are leveraging either unallocated general fund or this um unallocated school bond debt reimbursement in order to make um these projects go um which I think is important for voters to know before um thinking about the bond proposition um because it's not just saying hey taxpayers we want you to pay for these there are other funds in these projects Mr salt you're back yeah sorry I don't think you'll have the answer to this but it it would be good to know um as this Bry said there's 428 million in bond debt out there but there's also Bond authorization that we've approved in the past that may not have been issued so it' be good to know and I I don't know if you would know that but what that additional potential debt that if we just issued it could be out there I don't have that good all right anyone else question before us is approval of the Anchorage School District bond oh there you go Miss brona go ahead thanks um I just want to say strong schools make a strong Community we've hear heard that a lot from our housing conferences that you first thing you do is you look at the schools and when you have strong schools it attracts people and um they want to raise their families here so I fully support doing what we can to maintain our schools and make them more attractive to the public and educate our school kids well all right anyone else seen hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross [Applause] no on a vote of 9-3 ao20 23-1 123 has passed the body so this rolls us on our agenda back up to item 11 Mr chair uh I'd like to propose changing the order of the day to take up item 14 I okay um there's you should make that motion and get a second if you got it I make the motion to change the order of the day to take up item 149 is there a second who was that Mr Myers okay so we have a motion to change the order of the day by Mr Johnson and seconded by Mr Meyers so as there any objection to the motion heing seeing none the agenda has been changed the order of the day next we have item 14 I uh 14i Is AO 20231 37 an ordinance authorizing the competitive disposal of portions of Heritage landbank parcel 6- 011 6-16 and 6-17 W reading thank you so just a Clerk's note on this it is the intent of the sponsor to continue the item to the meeting of January 23rd so if you speak tonight it's possible you won't be able to speak at the next meeting unless it it's likely you won't be able to speak at the next meeting unless there are substantive changes in an S version so you may speak tonight and you can only speak once to the item so with that the public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard tonight yeah here that's why he changed the order get through and they can't speak again welcome please St your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi my name is Betsy canel I've been a resident of Girdwood since 1989 I've worked at the school there um since about that time with a few years off I've been active in the community and challenge Alaska for Valley's Community Schools PTA food pantry land use committee pole worker Girdwood Forest Fair attender of the Girdwood be a board of supervisor's meetings in other words I really know about Girdwood I'd like to speak about the late on the table ordinance 20237 there are a number of reasons that the methods used to re reintroduce the Holton Hills issue appear to be disingenuous number one laid on the table items are usually those with a quick need or with a need for a quick turnaround time this doesn't apply to the hotton hills ordinance number two a laid on the table item is not publicly available ahead of time whereas an item on a new business in new business would have been on the agenda posted on the M MOA website for all to see both of the South Anchorage assembly members were unaware of this item until shortly before the December meeting obviously that gave them no time to consult or talk to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors or into inform GD wians that this was happening the timing was certainly inconvenient number four the late on the table uh item was at the last assembly meeting before Christmas and then addressed tonight not long after New Year's and number five no communication Town Hall public meeting brainstorming session or work session has occurred between M MOA or hlb and the community of Girdwood during the 11 months that this ordinance has been tabled over that time Girdwood goodwood's volunteers have been busy working on housing issues and the necessary infrastructure for increased housing the board of suit number one the Board of Supervisors has created an advisory committee the Girdwood housing and economic committee some of the immediate housing issues that they have been working on include looking at looking for viable Parcels for Workforce housing getting an accurate count of the unhoused Girdwood residents and also account of how many short-term rentals we have um thinking about in incentives for converting short-term rentals and adus into long-term rentals and investigating getting gravel from a local source to reduce the cost of producing housing number two the use of the Girdwood food pantri has continue to grow we know that some of our clients are unhoused if that's the case we work on asking them what their cooking accommodations are so that we could give them the right kinds of food number three a group of Gans is looking into the possibility of creating an RV campground uh down the road from the fire department in the public library AC along gler Creek it would have Drinking Water Sanitation and supervision the idea is to create a legal camping spot for submer visitors and a legal winter location and I will send the rest of my comment to all of you tomorrow thank you very much all right and welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi there my name is len Dorne I'm also a Girdwood resident um I've lived in Girdwood since 1994 and I'm also a small business owner um I was here last year advocating for Holton Hills to become a development project that would benefit the community of Girdwood despite gird woodan being called nimes including that of the Anchorage Daily News you saw yourselves last December that we are yimes yes in my backyard we asked for this development to address our housing needs we asked for affordable housing we asked for dense housing which I heard many times tonight that you say we need we want multifam homes condos dense living we also asked for the development to be designed like other ski Town ski resort towns and address our needs for commercial space so businesses could grow in the valley we asked for a certain percentage of housing to have deed restrictions so that our community could grow and not just become the land of the second homeowners and vacation rentals over the past year gwood has been working to find temporary short-term ways to address our lack of affordable housing but we can't do it alone and we need your help we also need to have long-term Solutions having the Holton Hills project be laid on the table before you with no Outreach to our community is upsetting for the past year neither the administration nor the assembly has reached out to work with the Girdwood Community to re-envision the project to address our needs the way this is coming before us is being laid on the table feels as it did a year ago without concern to address the needs of the community to build houses that become second homes does not address a housing problem to build short-term rentals does not solve housing problems to build homes that aren't affordable for community members does not solve housing problems as I understand it nothing has been done over the past year to change the development proposal that Girdwood objected to last year once land is developed it is it cannot be undone please please please listen to us and use this opportunity to solve Girdwood house housing problem so that our community can grow and prosper as a quaint ski town like other communities in the lower 48 thank you thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes my name is Matt cheer and I'm a Girdwood resident there are many financial reporting issues I've raised in the past with the assembly I have two Financial issues with this AO the first is the fair market value of the land of 2.1 million is stated based on the interest disclosed in the financial statements from last year I estimate the loan to see why to be basically 7 7.5 to8 million for the development project a common metric used in real estate lending is loan to value a bank usually issues a loan with a loan to value between 50 to 80% if the loan is for $8 million the bank lends with a loan to value of 80% then the bank thinks the land is worth 10 million ion if the loan to value is 50% the bank thinks the land is $16 million why would a bank issue an $8 million loan on land with a value of $2.1 million and a loan to value of 400% if the project went bust based on a $21 million value the bank would only recover 25% of its $8 million alone in my opinion the Val the value of the land is drastically understated and is being given away to the developer my guess is the bank financing this project would agree with me second how will see why Investments pay off an $8 million loan with uh within this AO as 1.2 million in profits are disclosed from phase one and phase two of this project what event happens in phase three to make this issue go away when phase three has no Financial estimates I would also note that JV profits in Phase 1 and two look to be declining in the past 18 months if hlb is expecting to get 1.2 million per this AO it compares to 2 million in February 23 and 2.7 million in August 22 is the mo MOA on the hook for the loan if the to the bank if Holton Hills goes bust the Main Financial issue with this AO is that there's no ordained path to more dedicated rental apartments for those who work in our community as well as the ability to regulate short-term rentals cwood is only 60 dedicated apartments in one complex and including Workforce housing and a small parcel of mobile homes about 236 units in total that compares to 350 short-term rent which are 20% of the available roughly 1700 homes town homes and condos and cabins in gwood I personally have no issue with vacation homes and strs and and I want development very much it just needs to be a transparent deal with detailed Str Str regulations and dedicated rental apartments for workers in the community I also want to thank all the assembly members who have given uh me their time both in person and on zoom and via email to discuss issues communication will continue and though we could disagree on issues hopefully compromise can come and maybe creative ideas as well thank you again thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes good evening assembly members of Anchorage thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to AO 2023 137 my name is Grace Pleasants over 336 days ago this body the Anchorage assembly voted in a 7 to5 vote to indefinitely postpone AO 2022 103s on February the 7th the community Girdwood was thankful for that action and took forward looked forward to working with the mo MOA and the assembly on several key issues dealing with housing over the coming months the assembly should also note that numerous meetings should reflect that the Girdwood Board of Supervisors imagine gwood and the newly formed Girdwood housing and economic committee have been addressing and constructing solid housing solutions to be brought forward to the mo MOA the hlb the planning department and to our assembly members that have been have been occurring unfortunately over the Christmas holiday this new AO was resurrected to the dismay of the community the basis of this new and unwanted assembly action is very disappointing the arguments of incompetency and between the dissidents of your assembly and the mayor's office and the mayor and the mo moa's General position of vacancies is still applicable no trust TR and no confidence is present in this action I Revisited the an the assembly's members comments of the April the February 7th meeting and through many of the assembly members voted gave acknowledgement to Girdwood housing needs it appeared that the needs of a resort Community differ substantially from the anchorable neighborhoods and that they continue to be ignored the problem is lack of land being brought forth in a manner to allow for an organic growth of Girdwood to evolve I want to thank assembly member Mr Perez ver ver on the correct assessment that Girdwood is working on their problems and that the public lands do require a higher level of purpose for all the good of all he clearly heard the voices of Girdwood come out to you in public testimony written testimony and personal Outreach on this Holton Hills development was unwarranted and unwelcomed we have been talking to the hlb for decades now and they do not tend to listen to this community for a more organic approach even when the bulk of the lands are in Girdwood the development of Holton Hills has continued down the path of poor public process lack of transparency and not listening to a community that the lands are in do better was stated last time around nothing has changed except for the date on this AO please remember that over 700 people in goodwood's Facebook page voted against this project over 250 signs were bought paid and put in yards in Girdwood residents that said halt Holton Hills hundreds of people attended public meetings in front of you hlb against this disposal in 2023 and we'll do so again in 2024 I'm a single family owner resident of gwood with no ST Str ownerships please vote against this disposal and listen to the community that you represent thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes thank you members of the assembly hi my name is Dave nyman I'm resident of both Anchorage and Girdwood uh this ordinance before us is nearly the same ordinance that was rejected previously after nearly two years of study and attempts to negotiate with the development the ordinance was rejected by the Girdwood boorder of Supervisors the Girdwood land use committee the Girdwood Holton Hills housing subcommittee Girdwood Chamber of Commerce Girdwood Inc and a great majority of Girdwood residents at large in fact The hlb Advisory commission did not support the same ordinance without significant changes to the development agreement this uniform lack of support for this ordinance is in part due to the absence of meaningful engagement with the community as can be observed by the only minor changes to the project since it was introduced lack of process to transparency and developer and transigence on what amounts to be one of the largest if not the largest privatization of public lands in the history of hlb has contributed to the lack of project support gwood is a community that's virtually surrounded by hlb lands and seeks to develop these lands to benefit all of Anchorage this proposal squanders public lands and opportunity to prevent mistakes that have plagued Resort towns throughout the United States project is a throwback and it robs Anchorage and geret of opportunity to develop the land resources that will serve all Anchorage residents not a private developer for example the first priority for development of land adjacent to our school could be for other institutional needs such as daycare senior housing Workforce housing uh as pointed out in a recent ADN opinion piece by a member of the ger Board of Supervisors hlb seems to be wildly off Mission the joint venture formed by hlb with the private developer Cy Investments has proven to be a Juggernaut of disregard and disrespect to community objectives here's a couple of examples hlb developed the H Holton Hills RFP with no input from the gerd Board of Supervisors hlb despite many requests has not released unredacted versions of the winning RFP award even though it involves public lands hlb has not released a development agreement between hlb and pomoy the owner of alasa Resort this represents a huge unknown to the town that wants to support the resort but balance that objective with smart development Girdwood residents uh request Girdwood request changes to the project were rebuffed by then hlb director Adam Trombley who now works for COI Investments the biggest failure of all in this is not the ordinance it is a disaster of the development agreement hlb ex executed with Cy Investments that your vote will Embrace should you choose to approve this ordinance this agreement is full of liabilities to the mo MOA taxpayer I encourage you to take the time and review it one such provision is the mo MOA shall indemnify and hold the developer harmless from against any actions suits claims penalties losses liabilities damages and expenses this really is backwards usually it's the other way around the developer has control of the site they're the ones that should be indemnifying the city um there's a lot of other uh well thank you very much thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're you'll have three minutes hi my name is Gabe shat Farnsworth and I live in spinard area I'm speaking today for myself and also as a uh member of Carpenters Local 1281 and a representative of the western states Regional Council of Carpenters um I've spoken on these issues previously I just want to reiterate um my appreciation for this body for the work that they're doing to come up with Creative Solutions to solve our housing crisis here in in Anchorage um and specifically for this ordinance and Reviving it bringing it Forward I want to thank memb zel and uh is exactly this kind of a creative solution with a private public partnership that I think is going to help us to solve our housing crisis um I unfortunately I'm not able to speak in favor of this ordinance as currently written but I would like to offer a couple of uh proposed changes and am or amendments to the ordinance that would allow me to get behind this 100% and uh those those two two changes would be to amend the ordinance to uh add two additional items to the terms and conditions of the developer agreement with C Investments one would be that the construction of these units be subject to prevailing wage requirements for all the construction labor on the project and number two that all contractors performing work on the construction of these units employ participants that are uh in federally federally registered uh partnership programs um as far as the prevailing wage requirements go we have an Statute in at the state level little little Davis bacon act which says that all public construction projects will have prevailing wage requirements followed for all labor on construction projects unfortunately the statute does not uh include this kind of a project because it is just the disposal of public land but I would argue that this is a public resource and public investment for the public good um even though it's being delivered by a private developer and and I think the uh this body has the opportunity to require prevailing wage requirements on these projects um in the development agreement and I think uh I would ask that you do that the second aspect is on the apprenticeship uh requirements um we don't only have a housing shortage and crisis in this community we have a worker shortage and uh requiring that the contractors employee uh apprentices would allow you to solve both problems on this project so miss hold on thank you thanks for the test and the specific suggestions my question is are you speaking to the actual home construction part of this or the development like the infrastructure piece of this or both both okay thank you yeah anyone else in the room so we'll go ahead and call there's the last person on the phone list hello hello Miss bden we are taking testimony on a2023 d137 hton Hills you sign up for Testimony we have 3 minutes and I'd ask you to mute your TV okay please tell me when cuz I can't go ahead okay hi my name is Paula Bogden I am a full-time Girdwood resident uh thank you for allowing my testimony on a02 2023 can you hear me yes go ahead okay I'm sorry um 2023 without okay okay thank you um thank you for enourage assembly for allowing my testimony my name is Paula Bon I'm a full-time Girdwood resident um shame on you for how this item was resurrected without any prior notice to any Girdwood Representatives any agencies or residents the fact that all previous testimony on this item his loss is even more of an insult the Holton Hill disposal will do absolutely nothing nothing to alleviate and CR your gird with housing issues in fact as it is planned without any developer investment into Girdwood Services schools and infrastructure and without any regard to any of the inprocess activities to update gird Wood's comprehensive master plan and gird Wood's housing and economic analysis this project will only worsen food security issues in Girdwood will worsen goodwood's homeless issues and will exacerbate issues Girdwood has been attempting to get under control with short-term rentals gw's resistance to the Holton Hills project has been characterized by the assembly and the developer as nimi or not in my backyard thinking opponents have also been accused of being a small group of wealthy and privileged birdwood homeowners opposed to the project in order to protect their own interests and to keep Girdwood ex sorry exclus IV it that Viewpoint is far far from the truth there's a misconception that Girdwood residents are wealthy and privileged only 20% of the homes in Girdwood are actually owned by full-time residents as their primary residents of the 25 homes built in Girdwood in the last year 100% of those are second homes or short-term rentals nimi is very far from the truth do you know how many homes sold in Girdwood in the last two years that are owner occupied primary residences no then why are you even laying this issue back on the table without any consultation with the groups that have this information and are working to develop the right solutions to liate goodwood's housing issues please let them do their jobs and give us the time to work with the developer to make sure that decisions are being made are correct Girdwood residents are not opposed to Housing Development Girdwood in fact we welcome it but we want it done right because when it's done wrong our community and a jewel of a town that we love will be lost thank you you will be spending any income on Holton Hills project building time has expired ma'am thank you thank you anyone else all right Miss alel thank you move to continue the public hearing to the meeting of January 23rd second there's a motion to continue to January 23rd by melel and a second by Mr Walland um and put myself briefly in the queue just to say um the item was laid on the table two weeks ago clearly there's notice enough that people heard and it's being delayed so um the item is not going to be even begun to be deliberated until at least the meeting two meetings after it was laid on the table so I just want to dispel that Miss branga thank you chair I just have concerns that this meeting was really packed the January 23rd is going to be very packed should we maybe move to the February could I make a motion to move it to the first meeting in February if you could hold that thought for just one moment um I moved to extend this meeting to midnight sorry we're getting down to the wire motion to extend to midnight and by Miss elel seconded by Mr band um any discussion on the motion any objection to the motion sorry what is the motion extended midnight no no I second did that yeah yeah you did that is why we do our best not to go to midnight because it gets loose so um there is motion no objection I want to object but I'm not going to so um we are extended to midnight Miss salel okay um yeah you you can certainly make that motion if you would like um I will not be at the February 13th meeting I will be gone and I've already informed staff so that means this would be pushed all the way out to the 27th um I very much would like to see this get going I think A month's notice is fine um we can hear additional testimony if there is um a request for a work session it needs to be made it's been noticed to members since the 19th um and lots of items get noticed for introduction by being laid on the table um so um I am okay with the 23rd I have communicated that I communicated that very early on on the intent to move it to the 23rd so um not only through the clerk's note but through a press release um and have been commun communicating with the community that the 23rd thank you Mr vond thank you yes so just want to the chair said when something is laid on the table for introduction that causes it to be publicly noticed and you all are here tonight to testify on that because that's what happened it was made public so coloring is it it is some sort of conspiracy I don't think it's fair um I think it was in line with our normal process um I don't support delaying it further I think we are ready to take this up on the 23rd thank you I myself in the queue Mr constant I I think that the measured approach would be let's put it on the agenda for the 23rd and if it's an overwhelming presence and we don't have time to get through the ballot process we'll make the determination then to continue the item and then um it's possible because actually miss elel and I will both not be here on the 13th that of February that um I'll be on the phone Mr Rivera will be chairing and Mr pres verdeal will be Vice chairing um that we could have a special meeting in advance of that after the 23rd If there's a time constraint in much the same way we were prepared tonight if we do our diligence tonight I think we can get through our whole agenda and not have to have a meeting on Tuesday so for all those reasons I would argue we should maintain the tiller at this point for the 23rd and then be prepared to extend if we need anyone else on the motion no hearing see none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross yeah on a vote of 12 to Zer on a AO 20231 137 will be contined public hearing on the item will be continued to the meeting of January 23rd now we roll back up to item 11 C 11c is am 9556 2023 that's am 956 2023 Anchorage Community Development Authority board of directors Evelyn Russo the public oh no there's no public hear on this item there is no motion pending what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Miss zotel seconded by Mr Myers is there any discussion hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross yes member salt I would note that he made a thumbs up gesture so um on a vote of 12 to0 9 56-22 3 has passed the body next we have item 13A [Applause] item 13A is ao2 23-17 an ordinance the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending chapter 1080 of the Anchorage Municipal Code for retail marijuana stores to allow acceptance of internet and telephone orders for sales to be picked up at the licensed premise only with identification check wave reading thank you public hearing on this item is now open welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes my name is Brian Whit I go by bre she her pronounce 14 years transgender again I reside at the Alex uh not that I am against any businesses as far as goes marijuana sales and whatnot I am again I will stress uh to make any control substance available through a drive-thru and or uh any other easier way than what we are doing for alcohol without the proper controls and INF Factor it it concerns me um you know free samples we we're not allowed to give out free samples of alcohol why are we doing it for marijuana if we're going to do it for one we got to do it for the other I know tobacco we have drive up pullup places but again tobacco is not such a controlled substance it is taxed even higher than marijuana fre I'm going to interrupt you I'm Sor but my point being is I'm going to interrupt you I'm sorry you actually already testified on this item I was just notified I'm sorry so at the previous sorry about that bouncing around so much I'm having troubl keeping up so thank thank you Bri no thanks Madam Vice chair welcome please state your name what part of time from you'll have hi my name is uh Nick Miller uh my wife and I own a marijuana establishment here in Anchorage and I'm here in support of this change um it's a little confusing uh A and B are kind of wrapped together so I assume I'm talking on a only which is mostly the free samples um I would say effectively today um retail stores are giving free samples they're just charging a penny uh we're not allowed to give it away but we can buy one get one free for or buy one get one for a penny uh come in on your uh birthday and get a free sample damn it I keep saying free uh get a a penny sample of penny pre-roll so effectively all we're doing is uh I feel like making what is already happening today more effective for the businesses to actually say buy one get one free comeing in your birthday get a free sample um these are businesses you know I've heard a lot of uh concern about oh my gosh someone could come in and get a free sample well no business is going to do that we're here to make money uh we are trying to attract customers but you got to be practical no one is going to give somebody an ounce no one is going to give uh a half ounce for free but it does give the business the opportunity to run promotions um just like any other business would do um there are also you typically one or two uh industry events here in town uh they rent typically The Egan Center and other places um it would be a nice opportunity for a business to hand out a business card that says uh stop by and get a free pre-roll on your way home uh you know this is really about marketing uh and effectively I guess changing the regulations a little bit to what's effectively happen happening today thank you thank you right welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi my name is Stephanie Underwood I'm an inor resident um I became interested in cannabis and cannabis cannabis legislation after my spouse became disabled in 2018 um he began to use cannabis to treat his seizures and since then ease of access in getting this product has been Monumental to keeping him healthy um I believe that drive-throughs are an improvement for customers to purchasing cannabis um for Access and mobility issues and they can't be overstated snow ice and thoughtless drivers um or other customers can impede disabled alaskans and Anchorage residents access to cannabis um drive-throughs have worked in 18 other states without an increase in incidents or issues the responsibility for enforcement does not fall on the business the business verifies age and eligibility eligibility to purchase both of which can be done through a drive-thru as has been done in other states or in a drive-through Pharmacy currently there are purchase limits as well however there is no tracking or enforcement that is also subject to an honor System alaskans value their freedom and their privacy passing this resolution tonight is a vote for both thank you you thank you welcome please state your name what part of John you from you'll have three minutes good evening my name is John Ren I'm general counsel of Great Northern cannabis and I'm here to speak in support um I guess we're speaking on both A and B um you can you have three minutes okay thank you um I don't really have anything to add to the other two comments um except for I would draw attention that the alcohol and marijuana regulations are slightly um different and that um um in a cannabis dispensary a minor is not allowed into the premises and what happens sometimes is um people um leave their children in the car in some dispensaries um unattended and while we definitely um do not encourage this type of activity on our own um we do notice it in practice and so having the drive-thru would definitely give people the opportunity to um shop be our customers and to safe take care of their miners um and also to the uh prior speaker comments you know we do have a fair number of of you know cannabis is a recreational um industry in Alaska but we do have a fair number of people who rely on it for therapeutic benefits uh often many of them are immune compromised and having access to a drive-thru would give them safe access to our products so thank you thank you and welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hello my name is Will Schneider I live in East Anchorage um I think it's always a good idea to bring state law and local law into uh consistency and um have them mirror each other the municipality did this at the beginning of the industry when they made some changes on separation distance rules to align them with State rules and state regs um Amco temporary the Alaska marijuana control office temporarily allowed drive up window sales during covid and then later added it to the permanent regulations because they saw it as a good as good for businesses and did not see a significant risk to the public they were an operation in Willow I know Midnight Sun had operations um window sales they have recently modified their application to be able to allow them now that it's became part of the state regs I talked to the owner of that operation they said they had no problems when they were in operation during covid as Stephanie mentioned 18 states already allowed drive-through window sales at cannabis dispensaries uh there are many elderly and medical users of cannabis some of whom have conditions that require them to keep a distance from others or have mobility issues they would benefit tremendously from the convenience and the safety of drive-through options this even more true in Alaska where we have icy and snowy conditions despite our best efforts as a Canabis business owner we have had members of the community and customers uh fall in our parking lots and in our store our storefronts this would be a tremendous benefit to them drive-throughs will not lead to an increase in people driving while impaired people who choose to consume in their vehicle and then drive will do so whether they buy in a store or at a drive-thru we have laws against driving while impaired and those who violate those laws should be punished drive-throughs will not make it easier for miners to buy cannabis laws on cannabis sales are stricter than alcohol dispensaries closely follow these laws as to not lose their license to operate all employees within the Cannabis industry have taken a marijuana hand Handler permit class that teaches how to identify a person impaired by consumption of marijuana how to determine valid photographic identification and how to intervene to prevent unlawful marijuana consumption if Pharmacy employees can be trusted to verify ID when serving customers at drive-through Windows why can't Marijuana store employees privacy is something alaskans cherish someone to keep their canvas purchase confidential with the drive-through option customers can maintain a higher level of privacy than by making a purchase inside a store and finally Drive through also can offer better security I'm a owner and founder of catalyst canas company and we have a store in malun where at night time we have um sales that we operate through a window in our lobby this allows us to operate with a lot less fewer employes and we can L close down the majority of the store while making it safer to our patrons and to our and to our employees so as a business owner and a l I would encourage the assembly to allow business to provide drive-through Windows service to our customers thank you so much thank you anyone else wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what will of the body move to approve second motion to approve by Miss zotel seconded by Mr w m al thank you um question either to the sponsors or I understand we may have an Amco board member with us uh tonight how when we were at the public safety advis the public Public Safety Committee we had a conversation that Amco was still making changes and I guess I want to know where this intersects with those proposed changes um are those changes far enough off into the future that we aren't back here in 3 months or is it that we would be back here in three months if we pass this to update again based on what Amco may do thank you Mr Miller was that a question for if you have the ability to answer you would be the best source despite your reticence um at the last meeting say your name and your role what hat you're wearing right now my RO uh my name is Nick Miller chair of the marijuana control board thank you and uh there is an amendment being drafted by Amco to um there's some safety concerns I think what I guess we all had in mind what we envisioned when these regulations were written and I think the concern is is there are going to be businesses that have a brick and mortar building and they're going to apply for a drive-thru in a coffee hut type situation and I think it's the will of some of the members of the board there they don't want the Cannabis to leave a restrict restricted access area go across an unlicensed area into a into a uh coffee hut so I think they're going to make it to where it's has to be a contiguous restricted access area so just a possible small tweak to the overall plan correct okay great that resolves my question thank you thank you uh Mr B thank you I move ven amendment number two so there's a motion to amend by Mr Ren and a second by Miss broy and um yep I'll go ahead and speak to it uh so this amendment removes language that would authorize retail marijuana stores to have a walk up or driveth through exterior window um and i' like to explain why it has nothing for me to do with the industry and everything to do with land use and transportation um drive-throughs I think are not the highest use of our finite land in the Anchorage bulll um they cause traffic they are idling engines are bad for the environment they reduce our air quality they contribute to an environment of strods and sprawl they eat up valuable land that could be used for housing or other uses I hate to invoke strong towns again and again but you know they are opposed to driveth throughs for all of those same reasons um and so for me I just don't want to expand drive-throughs to any other uses um there a number of different jurisdictions cities municipalities are actually looking at their zoning laws and prohibiting drive-throughs in certain zones and that's something that I think that we need to explore for the future you know if we're saying we want this to be a a dense mixed use residential and Commercial Zone maybe we don't allow car infrastructure there um and so I I'm less concerned about the you know control of of the substance and just more concerned about um how do we how do we plan our city around people and and not cars so um hopefully you will support this thank you so um I have a few folks in the que but I think they're on the main Mr B on the amendment okay yeah thank you um and I'm I'm torn on this one but I will say um that I do have concerns about the drive-throughs and and like Mr band it's it's um not so much about the specific product but my concern is that this would open the door to drive-thru alcohol stores and and I know that that is a common thing in other states however it's also really seen as a public health risk in other states um and I actually from my former role um and familiar with public health evidence base I was digging into that one I will say it is not one of the top five interventions um to limit drive-throughs um so it is not the strongest evidence based for alcohol however um I did find there was one study for example in the state of New Mexico that found um that for folks who were uh DUI offenders they were most likely to have used a drive-through store to get their liquor so again I'm not saying that these are the same products but I am also going to say that um driving Under the Influence is a problem and I think there's a lot of misconception it seems among cannabis users that it makes you a safer driver or that it makes you a better driver driver that's certainly not the case um that's not the case for alcohol it's not the case for being extremely tired it's not the case for distracted driving all of those things basically uh slow your reaction time so again when we're talking about operating vehicles um I guess I'm I'm still deciding on whether to support this one but I do want to really put on the record that I have serious concerns about that and I do not want to see this state or this city move toward drive-through alcohol thank you uh Miss brongo on the amendment or the main uh well if okay it's your call go ahead you have the okay I'm G to go ahead and speak to it um I I have the exact same concerns as Miss Broly it seems like this is a slippery slope to alcohol Drive UPS in general we are a society that we have a lot of number one isms alcoholism child sexual abuse problems that are not great and anytime we are allowing substances to be easier to get to I don't think could be great for our society I taught health for 14 years and during that time we had a lot of lessons from kindergarten to 6th about ways to deal with stress anger um sadness that didn't involve using substances and that's not the only reason I know that people smoke marijuana or drink alcohol heaven sakes I drink alcohol and I can tell you when I want to drink less alcohol I make sure that it's not available in my house easy to grab and I think when you make going through a drive up is an easier way to get a hold of substances or if we ended up with drive up alcohol it would just make it easier more people using more people flowing around and I got to tell you when I taught it was it was pretty shocking you get a an interesting glimpse into the household of your students and when you ask a kid what is one of the chores you do at home and they say that I hold Mommy's hair while she pukes because she drank too much or what's that Daddy what's daddy holding in that picture it's a blunt um it's concerning and I don't think making marijuana more accessible is the answer Mr Johnson yeah thank you I won't belabor this I think uh the last couple members have made good points I think member of Allen Mak some interesting points which would be great for another conversation um but through all that I I I support this amendment and I just want to add to the conversation that it was something that was highlighted by the Anchorage Police Department when we were discussing this that trying to evaluate the intoxication level of a of a driver in a vehicle is much harder than when that person is required to actually physically walk into a store and I'll tell you haven't been in that position myself um that that that is just correct and it's not necessarily because the people working the windows have bad intentions or poor training it's just harder for them to make that determination and I think for uh those safety reasons and others I I support this amendment Martinez thank you chair so on the amendment I just wanted to uh I wanted to distinguish the difference between long-term land use planning and strategizing for the City and a starting point right now it seems to me as a weird place to start the land use conversation on one industry's uh head at this particular time so I am I'm a little torn by uh not necessarily leaning in that direction but I'm torn by why we are highlighting land use at this point when we can always get to land use and we can always change the code to reduce the amount of drive-throughs across all sectors and different types of businesses that utilize them I don't know why we would be singling out one industry as the starting point for long-term land use and um drive-thru uh discussion so that's a little odd to me on the amendment so I would not support the amendment on that front I I also want to say this is a little more complex than just uh most people's readings thus far and let me just put two fine points on it one point uh originally when the uh state of Alaska decriminalized let's do a little history it was decriminalized way before it was brought into legalization uh of full Recreation but the gray area with full Recreation is medicinal purposes and we know that we have a we have a community that has lots of challenges with the physical ailments and I know directly from folks who have served in the military who have separated who have PTSD this is one of those things that have been helpful in their area so when we talk about apples and oranges and comparing uh cannabis with other things I think it's difficult because it's more complex and we should be in that complexity uh Walgreens drives through for medical purposes and often those medical uh thing medical and the pills that are picked up in Walgreens are part of an opioid epidemic in fact so so I just wanted to say I don't see this as Germain to being able to highlight Public Safety uh at this particular level and the other thing I wanted to just make sure we were real clear about is um if we're comparing marijuana to on to to to alcohol with respect to drive-throughs then we are really having a conversation about on-site consumption for marijuana and I welcome that as well miss salel thank you um try to be very brief um I don't support the amendment um but I applaud Mr ven's consistency and commitment to the cause um and the two reasons are uh disability access I think that that's important um for some of the reasons Mr Martinez raised as well as um testifier um who spoke um and also security and heightened security particularly in the later night hours if there's the opportunity to open up a smaller portion of the store um I can see that being advant agous um to various operations as one individual testified um that kind of idea of um kind of shrinking the footprint during certain hours makes good sense um and I think that it's really important to acknowledge that this is something that is legal that there are rules and safeguards around it and we have to legislate within those parameters um and I don't like to legislate with the idea that the sky will fall let's get data let's get um actual facts and if we find that there's a problem we can always come back and fix it thank you I haven't spoken yet um on the amendment and so I'll put myself in the queue um I have been going back and forth on all this as a sponsor I had some great areas I had to sort through and I have found compelling the safety arguments and the disability arguments in the community um it hasn't happened here but it's happened in other communities some pretty terrible stories about um what happens when um kind of it goes sideways and the less of an aperture the better at Key hours of the night and I think Mr Martinez makes an exceptional point when he talks about Walgreen and access to the pharmacy so I will be voting no Mr V thank you um I I do want to respond to Mr Martinez look we can all bring the lens to legislation that we want to bring and I will be consistent because I care a lot about land use and transportation and I think small decisions that we make today impact the future of our city and I would argue that this is not a small decision this is expanding drive-throughs to an entire use type where they're not currently permitted there's a lot of marijuana dispensaries now in Anchorage I think that's a good thing it's a thriving industry and like I said for me this is not about the public safety issues or about the industry but it is about how can we reimagine our city in a way that is people Centric on the topic of disability access um you know that is something that's very important to me too for instance when we um brought forward the proposal to repal parking minimums we actually increased the proportion of when parking is provided What proportion would have to be 88 spots um and so for me that was a way to prioritize um accessibility so uh anyway I I think when we're looking at different topics of legislation there's sometimes the obvious arguments but there's also sometimes the other tangential things that that do matter and are important to the the future of our city thanks all right on the amendment I don't see anyone else in the queue and I'll just point out to folks we have one three five six seven eight 8 9 10 11 or 12 items some that are not insubstantial so it's becoming clear that Tuesday next week is um becoming a reality so on the amendment members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of six to six the amendment does not pass we're back to the main motion Miss Broly yeah I'd like to move Broly Amendment one second I don't have it okay thank you broy has moved her Amendment and we have a second by Mr wand Miss broy yeah thank you um I and I put a rationale on the amendment but I will summarize it um essentially I appreciate that the prohibition on free samples was removed and I think Mr Miller gave a good example of how um uh businesses can get creative uh with the rules and that is something that that we see in every industry um and just to say that it is still legal what they were doing um but also I believe that it is appropriate to consider uh rational limits and the other thing that I heard and I might have Miss heard in our work session or sorry in the the Public Safety Committee meeting is that um the state was also considering potentially some some rules or regulations around free samples and I may be mistaken on that if that's not true um I still believe that it's uh behoove us to either look to the state to put those rules in place or um that we take the time as the municipality as the assembly to craft those rules um and what I mean by that is uh limits on the amount of sample that can be provided uh perhaps the hours uhu making sure that someone's ID is checked you know any any of those kind of rules I I'm not going to make them up on the spot so what this amendment does is it restores the language that does not allow uh delivering free samples but I want to just State very clearly uh my intent is not that this uh prohibits this forever it is so that we can pause and come up with either rational local rules or follow the state if and when they take up those rules um and again I will point to the example of alcohol um before January 1 uh no one in Alaska besides a manufacturer was allowed to provide a free sample now um the rules have been changed the law has been changed to allow package stores to do that however they need an endorsement on their license and there are rules around it and I believe that's appropriate and that was a a great the result of a great discussion and compromise among the public health folks that had a lot of serious concerns and Public Safety as well as industry folks who made a good case for why we should do that um and so I believe that we should take a similar approach here so what this does now is if this ordinance passes it does not allow free samples but again my intent is not to close close the door forever it is to come up with a more rational set of uh limits on that Activity thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair I don't support the uh Amendment primarily because of exactly the rationale you described we can always come back and tighten things up um I think we have a pretty straightforward approach now but but my it raises the question this this thing about the sampling and a lot of gaslighting going on honestly and so uh I just and not with my members but just in the in the public where people are concerned that people are just going to go to all the businesses and get what they can for free um they can try but uh when they do that in Fred Meyers it doesn't work out often because that's called shoplifting uh when they do it in other places so you can't do that in the business because they're these are controlled establishments and but I wonder when I think about the comparison again to alcohol I think of what the heck is happy hour like at a bar what is happy hour if happy hour is not a dis account or a free drink that Associates with buy one get one free or some other sort of uh discount so it's an interesting perspective I do c i do uh acknowledge that the businesses are creative but I rather them not necessarily feel that they have to be creative skirting our law I rather them be aligned with our our law and then work with us to improve uh these uh or these conditions as we move forward as we all learn uh together so I would not be supportive of this because I think we can just move forward on the whole package Mr Ron thank you um I think as we heard in public testimony um some of the marijuana stores are already you know offering their own version of a happy hour doing bogos or birthday discounts and so um restoring this is not saying that they can't do sales or promotions um it's specific to free samples and instead of passing something and then having come back and fix it later um I will support the amendment because I would rather wait and see what the state does and then we can really get it right thanks I'll just briefly speak that um I was the one who said that the state was looking at doing something because I'd spoken with the director and she said that they would at some point be coming back to this question because they didn't put much bounds around it and there questions in the industry but I don't think it's contemporaneous we heard from member of the Amco board that it's not on the table and so um for my part the penny is like a loin cloth um it's kind of absurd so thank you members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of seven to five that amendment has passed next we have the main motion before us any discussion seeing and hearing none members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of 7 to five the item is passed or 0 2023-the 13B item 13B is a2023 d118 an ordinance the Anchorage assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code section 21315 21555 and 2.5.7 to allow drive-through service at marijuana retail sales establishment we reading thank you the public hearing is now open welcome please state your name what party time from you'll have three minutes uh Nick Miller my wife and I own a mar marijuana retail store here in Anchorage uh as a safety thing you know we've talked about armed robberies we've talked about uh crimes on the uh licensed p uh premises uh 13 months ago our business was a victim of an armed robbery one of my employees was shot you know thank God he wasn't killed but I can tell you if it continues someone will this is an opportunity to do something meaningful to improve the safety of the businesses and their employees um as everybody knows our businesses uh don't have the access to the credit card system or anything else we're a cash heavy business wouldn't it be nice if 7 o'clock at night you could lock the door not let consu not let customers in uh and serve them through a window where you could uh hopefully be better protected we're not talking a coffee shop drive-through window these are windows that are you know basically a bank window um so for me this is really about safety uh I take it very personally and uh you know we don't talk about it a lot but these the businesses here in Anchorage have a lot of uh I I would say crime committed against them and uh you know the other issue I or the other reason I support it so much is uh I think everyone here knows that there is a an unlik licensed Market is what I'll call them unregulated I can call them and uh have product delivered to my home to my office I can meet him somewhere in a parking lot um that product is not tested a lot of the time uh when you do things like that you get subject to other crimes right whether they uh set you up kind of you know to uh rob you or steal from you in these areas um and it would also increase the tax Reven Revenue uh for the city so the products are tested um it's about convenience nobody wants to go home and make dinner so they stop on their way to get it or they'll call and have a delivery service so if we can make it more convenient um I do think that's a benefit but the the real reason I support this is for safety of our employees um it's important to me thank you anyone else wish to be heard anyone at all see hearing none caring on this items now close vot SP the body vot to approve second motion to approve by Miss elel who's a second oh okay Mr Martinez Mr Rolland thank you um I would love to hear the rationale from the co-sponsors for waving planning and zoning want to take it um I think that the rationale at the time this was introduced in actually the project for me started months and months ago um was that the reality was that the state was moving forward and we wanted to keep pace and we were behind them and so that's it okay in that case um I would move to refer this to Planning and Zoning because I'd like their input on site plan for drive-throughs and where they think we should expand drive-throughs or not second so there is a motion to refer to the planning zoning commission by Mr Walland and a second by Mr Johnson go ahead any yeah I I just think there's opportunity here to have a you know our commission that's advisory to us again coming from that land use perspective effective uh to weigh in um and and potentially an opportunity we've seen a sort of a shift in Dynamic with the Planning and Zoning commission that I think has been really cool where the assembly co-sponsors can act as petitioners on issues of land use um and give a presentation and sort of explain why this is important how you envision this um impacting um the future of our city on you know whether it's Transportation or um different types of zoning what it means to traffic to allow many more drive-throughs in um Midtown for instance where we already have some traffic issues so I I think that their input would be valuable for us as policy makers thank you Bry yeah thank you um and I understand the intent and generally speaking I do believe that title 21 changes should go through Planning and Zoning because that's what our code says however um I'm I'm this is an area I'm less familiar with um is regulation of these uh marijuana establishments but I see in one of the whereas Clauses it does State the Planning and Zoning commission does not review applications for special land use uh for marijuana and so they they don't see individual applications and so they won't have necessar necessarily a lot of review context um because these run through staff and then I guess the other thing to say is is this ordinance simply puts um this into the these types of drive-throughs into the same review process that um applies for other aspects of a marijuana establishment so I'm not sure um what input they would give that would be meaningfully different if if if this body just already decided to allow drive-throughs um so really what would happen is it would reopen the question of drive-throughs and so um so I I appreciate the intent um I know we're we're often together on land use issues but I'm not with you on this one Mr band Mr Martinez thank you chair yeah no that I appreciate uh member Broly's um comments now I was going to go into that space with respect to uh the land use and special land use but I also wanted to highlight that um this item has come before this body twice and we've been referred to the community and economic development committee two times so I I feel like uh considering what member Broly said and considering the time that has taken us to get here uh I I see that this amendment is more of some ability to delay it and I'd rather not do that when uh I think the the arguments are compelling to continue to just get this done thank you Mr vond yeah thank you so I'm not asking that the Planning and Zoning commission advise us on special land use permits for marijuana what I'm asking them to advise us on is the expansion of driveth to another use um which I think is to totally in their remit when and where should we have more drive-throughs um I I think it's it's worth them taking up so just I guess I'll take one more crack at it I I I don't see any um you know urgency in in pushing this through I I think that they can advise us on it and they can take a little time and do that and I I'm sure that they would be amenable to working with the co-sponsors to get it in their workflow thank you I have myself in the queue just to say that the two tours of um the visit from referral from this body to the the community and economic development committee had the entire leadership of the planning department and so uh they were quite involved it wasn't a specific question as Mr B is asking but there has been a lot of executive planning time spent on this question so I would urge us to proceed and vote no on this motion and get to the main anyone else hearing see none members May proceed to vote on the am Chris Mr C Kevin cross sorry I see that now Mr Cross go ahead yeah um you know I I don't think that's a unreasonable request when I served on the platting board it was often a point of contention when new drive-throughs moved into an area I can tell you how uh you know how frustrating it was in hust Business Park when Sonic was introduced and it it was set to disrupt the flow and so I mean depending on the number of drive-throughs I mean I think it's a a reasonable request that Dan has proposed here I wouldn't mind expanding it and being prevent I mean being preemptive and saying not just expand it to marijuana but maybe getting ahead of the ball here if the state were to amend that to allow drive-throughs for alcohol just so that we have some sort of plan in place if that were to happen but um yeah I think that's a reasonable request just understanding from the platting board perspective every time a new business a drive a fast food restaurant with a drive-through moved in there was always a lot of heated debate with residents and others surrounding business owners of the unintended consequences of that traffic it it might be it might be interesting to have the perspective but thank you so I put myself back in briefly and just to say that if there is a broader question it shouldn't be based on the back of this ordinance but it should be a question brought more broadly about the Effectiveness utility purpose where drive-throughs should be allowed and so um I think that gets back to what Mr Martinez was saying that this imputes onto this industry and this potential use an entire city-wide conversation that they should be the vehicle by which that conversation is held and I don't know that that's fair anyhow we're getting close to the end so um on this amendment members May proceed to vote or this referral member Rivera no member cross yes a vote of 5 to 7 the referral does not occur next we have the main motion before us anyone else he see none members May proceed to vote I would note before that just I think it's a really good question to send and I'm not sure in what form that question comes but the nature and purpose of drive-throughs and it's it's fair bigger picture conversation anyhow now members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of six to six that item has failed all right go ahead Miss alel thank you next item 13 C involves um funding to the Anchorage Coalition and homelessness of which I'm the executive director and therefore I have a conflict and would ask to be excused it is clear that this is an item you have a personal and professional interest in so you are excused next we have ar2 23- 421 resolution of the Anchorage assembly appropriating $1,500,000 from the alcohol beverage retail sales tax fund 20600 fund balance the real estate department 2024 operating budget and $500,000 from the alcoholic beverage sales retail sales tax fund 20600 to the Anchorage Health Department 2024 operating budget all within alcoholic beverages retail sales tax fund 20600 and authorizing Grant agreements with the Anchorage coalition to end homeless less for the anchored home next Up pilot program $1.5 million into restorative and re-entry services for operation cost of its pilot shelter pilot program the public hearing is now open anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will the body move to approve move Mr Rivera seconded by who Mr salt any discussion on the item is there an amendment uh may I Mr Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair I move Rivera amendment number one a motion to amend by Mr Rivera seconded by Mr broley Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair um so although I believe that this appropriation should be considered as a package just based on the reaction at the December work session I brought this amendment forward as well as another item on our agenda item 14b tonight to have the full conversation so this amendment will effectively take out the transition shelter concept and leave this item simply as the next step pilot program appropriation thank you Mr Johnson uh on the main motion Mr Martinez I support the uh Rivera Amendment thank you uh any further on the amendment members May proceed to vote on the amendment member Rivera yes member cross no on a vote of Nine to2 the amendment has passed I bumped someone out of the que was it Mr Johnson go ahead Mr Johnson you have the floor yeah thank you I um so I wasn't at the uh um committee meeting where this was first uh brought out but I did go back and I watched the presentation and and I sent uh some followup questions to the Coalition which I I haven't heard back from yet and um you know to be candid this is something where I think I could potentially get to yes but based on the information I I have right now if we vote on it tonight the answer is no and my primary concern is this as I understand this we're talking about um creating a mechanism to move sounds like I believe up to 150 people currently experiencing homelessness uh through a subsidy program into Apartments now I I generally like that idea I recognize the the value of housing first but the fact is is we have this extraordinarily tight rental market right now in Anchorage last estimates I saw from the state of Alaska is around 333 vacant units uh which about a 4.1 vacancy rate which is really low so if we're talking about potentially taking away half of those and filling them with tenants who um uh have the benefit of being subsidized by uh the local government and these braided programs my concern is what impact does this have on the people who are currently renting who are just getting by uh you know and when I dug into this a little bit you know just to kind of check my assumptions here I did find an interesting article from from strong towns which we all I think mostly large fans that really drove home this point that scarcity reduces competition for landlords and increases the cost for tenants and there's one quote I want to read here what the evidence does support is that the vacancy rate in a given Market tracks remarkably closely with weather r are increasing or decreasing so when we take an extraordinarily low vacancy rate and we push it even lower I think inevitably this is going to increase cost for currently people who are are you know making their way in the rental market and so you know when we're talking about uh Hotel conversions or or Pall shelters or um bring on Emery cold weather shelter these things I I have an easy time supporting because we're creating new space um for homeless people and I I do see a lot of value in that and I want to continue to support efforts to find housing space for homeless people but I do not want it to be at the cost of people who are currently just getting by and that's what I'm concerned this will do and so again if there's an opportunity to have further conversation and there are some controls in place to make sure that that does not happen I'd be willing to um consider supporting this at this time uh at that time but with what I have right now I just I I I worry too much about the people or house but just making in what this will do to them thank you so I'm just going to step out of the debates we're having on this item and speak briefly to process and procedure going forward um I am going to um call a meeting for the 16th Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. to address all of the remaining items on this agenda and so everyone prepare your calendars hopefully without objection so with that we'll come back to the que Miss Broly yeah thank you um just uh briefly and then I have a question um in response to Mr Johnson's comments I think it is important to understand um that many of the people in our community are on uh housing vouchers or or at least they would be if they were able to get through the housing vouchering system um and that also includes um you know V vouchers that go with tenants and it includes vouchers that are part of a Project's financing and so and there's also um many other subsidized housing that exists right now so I think it's important to understand understand that a lot of folks who are on the margins um the folks you're describing are already part of a system that has this um that said I do have a question for the sponsor um I would like to understand the rationale for um putting this through the uh real estate department as opposed to the health department and I say that not because I advocate for or against that I just want to understand the rationale thank you Mr robero yeah thank you Mr chair uh so since this item is primarily dealing with um housing issues and not necessarily um dealing with um let's say uh homelessness per se um I think this fits better under the real estate versus um the health department also I think the health department is quite burden right now not to say that real estate isn't but I think there's probably more uh breath more r for Real Estate to handle this kind of work um and to to help manage this contract than there is in the health department thank you and I'll also point out that this is um essentially seems to be one of the strategies that Houston was using with housing um to to really work with landlords and find those units so that folks can get housed thank you all right Miss branga I share the same concern that uh Mr Johnson shared about taking more more Apartments off the market but then further um when we're giving those landlords a bonus to um take on people that are um maybe have had problems with uh leases previously then we're also raising the rental if if people can get a higher rent um they're going to start charging that um and I um I really like the idea but I am concerned that they have individual leases with these landlords and there are some landlords that if they get paid that's all they care about um and I know this is wraparound service people are coming in and checking on them periodically as it once a week um but if they're dealing drugs from this apartment or they're doing other illegal activity um and the land Lord isn't Vigilant they're not around a lot um there's nothing in here that says where is the line where they keep these apartments um with public funds I believe that we need to make sure this is really a tight this is an opportunity and that there can be rules for it I know that at the Alex they inspect bags they're trying to keep it so that there's not a lot of drugs and alcohol around because people are trying to get sober um I talked to a person from Hennings and she had shared her experiences of having had trouble with drugs and she said if I was given an apartment that I could have just gone to at a certain point in my life I would be dead today and so she was really hoping that there will be some you know screening of people who really want to make a change that go into these apartments and I had asked the sponsor I'm kind of a co-sponsor on here but um we all know Mr Rivera's the one but um I asked for some um amendments to this and didn't get a response and so for me I can't move forward with this unless my ideas for amending this were considered thanks Mr vond thank you Mr chair um so I'm also Co sponsor on this and I would just say every member has the prerogative to bring forward amendments even if it's something that you co-sponsored um so you could have done that um I I know we're running out of time here but briefly I have a couple questions I think we have somebody here from the Coalition Jessica if you could come forward and just based on some of the the discussion um so number one how many people have been placed in housing currently through the next step initiative um because I I think this is something that's ongoing now and number two can you speak to your process for placing or screening folks um so they can succeed in this program absolutely thank you through the chair uh currently the next step has housed 17 individuals uh with the funding that we had uh available right now um the target population is the residents of the Alex uh at the emergency cold weather shelter there uh so that is the identified population uh to be served through the next step all right I am going to call it at this point I'm going to ask for unanimous consent that we take audience participation up for the last five minutes come on up welcome please state your name what part of time you from you'll have three minutes the microphone's off hi my name is Brian whky I go by Bri she her Brown all 14 years transgender I am of the Alex so I am one of those people you speak of and this brings me next point I do work an incredible amount of hours driving taxi you guys hold the keys to being able to make sure we make a affordable rate I can only encourage the fact that we have been at the same meter rate for 10 years there has been a 28% increase in the price of living and I'm telling you I don't make enough to even be able to pay my bills let don't think about getting an apartment that being said it's essential that we have taxis in this town so I please I urge you I urge you I urge you to look at this because even at a maximum level there's not enough meat on the table and we're losing more and more cab drivers the cost of their business for our cab owners is going up and it's only going to fall on us drivers if you don't want us taxi people here that's fine Uber and lift is going to continue to gouge everybody so I give you that the other thing I give you is in the reality of it I every one of y'all can look at every part of y'all's little areas of town and I know that our snow removal is not where it needs to be I argue in my own head if this is your responsibility the administration responsibility or the fact that our Manpower is gone that is a million-dollar question where did our Workforce go that is something that I I with all my knowledge of 29 years and and Anchorage I can't tell you where our manire are gone that that used to work this I can tell you that I do believe our youth is not coming back our youth goes out to college they don't come back I encourage that this body finds ways to be able to inight our youth to come back if that's supporting our colleges supporting better schools whatever it takes I know our population is getting older and the only other population that we have out there you guys keep pulling the rules that give the fundamentals to make better decisions if it be to put people in jail when they do something wrong so that way we can step in and a corrected action if it be the administration it be the assembly I don't know who's who who who who do say on that one again you guys are a higher education than I am I am a simple Street person work my butt off trying to do what I can where I can I encourage that you guys continue to look forward in the most unique ways to try to help find solutions for everybody I wish everybody to remember that as the citizen body there's a lot of overreach that these folks are doing and they're doing it for the betterment of us because we are not stepping up as a citizen body we need to step up as a community we need to continue to move forward we need to get away from our video games we need to pay attention to our community I do encourage growth in all SE sectors of business over 12 gas stations closed at night now thank you all right I'm going to go ahead and reiterate what what I said earlier that all of the unfinished items on this agenda will ACR to a special meeting January 16th at 6:30 p.m. thank you Miss queno welcome please say your name what part of time you got three minutes Irene qu now Sand Lake um in regards to AO 2023 129s the meetings from a couple years ago with the masks were mentioned I want to add two points well one point for those particular meetings I was there again and again it said the security was sent home there were at least six to eight police officers here for the rest of the meeting when security was gone so to say that this was an unsafe situation is just not true the other thing that was mentioned several times was that the administration messed with the audio and the video in September there was a meeting where I testified and the video stream of that my testimony because what I said was not very popular and the testimony of the person behind me there were only two was completely cut off the Record supposedly because of technical issues and then um there was a big outcry and a week and a half later all of a sudden the testimony was there there was no audio issue there was no Video issue it was perfectly fine so um I guess I could also claim that you guys mess with the audio and the video and it's a public public uh not document but um anyway and then through the chair Mr Paris VI I want to thank you that you put on the record tonight that there is a trend of taking decision-making Powers away from the administration um that trend has been on record for over for the three years I've been in here and the most drastic example Is AO 20226 where you guys voted to take to to be able to boot out a duly elected mayor you spend taxpayers money I'm sorry we're adjourned yeah e e e e e e e