e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e palm trees good you was on your own coming don't stop running burning the leaves in the backyard flowers and Breeze keep warming me tired of the pr keep warning me second from least it's hard to treat I'm too scared to breath my the land of fre the land for me too scared to seek too scared to be my you see I know I just need I need give me truth to what I know give me ruthless wait all these paper wa all secet faces AC strangers wasting while acap it i'ms I dream and else the Tiss [Music] myght keep turning on and on and and and [Music] I'm too scared to Brea from my Bel the land of Freedom the me too scared to see too scar be I me ru wa all [Music] all Strang s [Music] lightning strikes Diamond Blood Stone AED onv an evening wasted on Prim things here every [Music] knowbody what time good Tove us promise good life God [Music] you ready Tove usk God you came God you came God you came [Music] we won we W thank God the red now we working for the a whole damn house on praise God like 15 on your a place of chasing what you want you if it's up D in the Chas [Music] hon God wek God always a good guys call save us promise good [Music] godle us thank God you came God you came God you [Music] came be a friend till the end and will fight look fight and the lives You' changed the effects you've made is this the life you made for me good goding promise a good life thank God that you came always got Uncle say I'm ready to us thank God you came thank God you came God you came always good guys us promise good God that came us God God God [Music] [Music] [Music] I need a little substance not sure where it's headed but I know it's going somewhere [Music] [Music] in another world [Music] contr the seat don't release the opp [Music] [Music] now passing dancing how the Am I Still Standing keys [Music] are not playing are [Music] inting cover now I'm back I'm better steady going under press sit back and watch the paint take time and watch the [Music] [Music] the leaves are turning faster with no sign of slowing down and the bird down so win comes with the sow to blanket the town the mid skies are clear and blue with a cool breeze in the air you ble up all nice andu with something that's War to wear the Midnight Sun is gone away with the Fall colors to show a time to think on meor of the time I is quiet with no one round but your voice is singing loud so sing away so all can hear so the L can all be found and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the Fall colors to show a time to think on me of a time I [Music] and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the to show time to think on meor of a time I [Music] nothing's better than being home with your LED ones you w't be alone when it's C out you'll [Music] warm [Music] stor home is calling when you feel a drift it'll always be there and never missed life is got you all around you never feel you got your feet on the ground home sweet home is where I want to be home sweet home a place to find you are worried of what's to come but you never know until it's all said and done you can stay home all night and day resting your mind keep all bad thoughts away home swe home is where I want to be home sweet home my place to find [Music] some home sweet home where I want to be home sweet home a place to find home with your you won't be alone when it's cold out you'll be in warm in your B in from the [Music] [Music] stor e e e e e thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody welcome I'd like to call this meeting of the Anchorage assembly to order tonight is November 19th 2024 uh we're um we're scheduled to meet from 5:00 until 11: Madam cler would you please call the role assembly member Myers here member Martinez present member Littlefield here member Rivera it's my understanding he will be joining us later yes member Johnson here assembly chair constant here assembly Vice chair zalel here member branga here member vand happy to be here member broy here member Sut here member Perez Vidia here youth representative Belle she is here they're here youth representative Bookman here and youth representative Grady here here thank you Mr chair you have a core thank you we have Pledge of Allegiance Mr lilfield would you please lead us in the Pledge yes sure pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible and justice for rememberable would you please uh read the land acknowledgement yes Mr chair a land acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the indigenous people of a place it is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy it is an actionable statement that marks our Collective movement towards decolonization and Equity the Anchorage assembly would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the of the dinina atab Baskin 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 Mr fand so tonight we have uh our one of our biggest meetings of the year it's the budget so um I apologize for all of the paper shuffling and chaos and late start it's always tricky to get it all in order so next we have minutes of previous meetings uh tonight we have items 4A special meeting October 4 2024 item 4B regular meeting October 8 2024 addendum item 4C regular meeting October 22nd 2024 item 4D special meeting October 31 2024 I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the minutes so moved second moved by Mr alel seconded I Believe by Mr band is there any discussion on the minutes hearing and seeing none I'd like to ask unanimous consent for the approval of those minutes seeing hearing no objection uh the minutes for items 4 a 4 B 4 C and 4 d are now approved next we have the mayor's report Madame mayor thank you Mr chair and thank you all for this opportunity to speak tonight good evening everyone I appreciate that we are here on land stewarded past and present by the denina people and I'm grateful to call this place my home let me start by affirming our team's commitment to serve the people of the municipality and work with the legislative branch to move our community forward thank you to our Congressional Delegation Senator Dan Sullivan Senator Lisa marowski and representative Mary Pala for continued support of the Dawn young Port of Alaska last week they announced that the port of Alaska modernization project will receive $50 million in federal transportation funding this is great news we are really happy to see this investment the port is a key piece of infrastructure serving 90% of Alaska's population as an access point for goods ranging from fuel cement groceries and heavy machinery headed Statewide to people from firsttime visitors to the movement of military personnel it's hard to overstate the port significance for Alaska as a whole and great to see that this support reflects that tonight's agenda includes the S version of my administration's first budget we recognize that a budget is not just a reflection of values and priorities but the way they become results our team focused on building a budget that provided long-term strategies for addressing big challenges while delivering quality Public Services each day the top highlights include improving snow removal increasing operator pay to improve capacity expertise and reliability for snow removal adding capacity for Community engagement and Communications on snow removal prioritizing Public Safety increasing Recruitment and Retention in prosecution to bolster the public safety system expanding the mobile crisis team which responds to Residents in crisis to 24-hour service tackling homelessness funding the winter shelter plan which is is aligned with my homelessness strategy funding yearound shelter at 56th Avenue matching State funding increasing the healthy spaces budget for more Camp cleanup funding housing so that fewer people are sleeping on streets and trails in the spring good government adjusting wages to make Municipal jobs more competitive creating a new grants team focused on securing large federal and state Investments including infrastructure dollars and I want to stress that working together is key to serving the public well the S version of the budget Incorporated many of the assembly's Amendments as well as a few changes from the administration so thanks to the members for your collaboration and all your hard work during this process this month the municipality completed a Workforce study about 1100 employees 45.8% of the municipal Workforce participated in the survey this is a great response rate and thanks to the legislative branch for their help in this project some of the FI findings are positive and encouraging respondents shared that his strong commitment to public service and positive relationships with co-workers are two of the best parts about working at the municipality even so we've worked since July 1 to address Workforce issues some of which appeared in the report we implemented a broad effort to make the municipality a more attractive and effective employer despite limited resources we convened an ongoing interde departmental workg group to explore and Implement wage and salary Solutions we implemented paid parental leave for Municipal Employees as well as telework and remote work for Municipal Employees we heard from the community that navigating the municipality's job listings can be tough we're working to make it easier to find and apply for jobs and are starting a project to update our website we want our Workforce to reflect our community and you know some of the feedback we heard was that it was even hard to tell what jobs are being advertised because the descriptions are a little bit confusing in other exciting news the municipality is seeing a renewed interest in Municipal jobs last month there was an increase in applications for open job postings with 639 people applying for 79 open jobs next week is Thanksgiving and as we spend time with friends and family it's important to remember that there is much to be grateful for and that more unites us than divides us one of my favorite holidays is the day after Thanksgiving shop small Saturday our local businesses are the backbone for our community and give us our unique flavor when you shop at small businesses 68 cents of every dollar stays right here in our community supporting our friends family and neighbors with jobs sponsoring local sports teams or Charities and boosting our environmental sustainability shop small and keep Anchorage vibrant thank you so much Mr chair thank you madam mayor next we have the mayor's or excuse me the chair's report um good evening everybody and welcome to our regular business meeting um first I'll start to say that a few of us last week attended the national league of cities City Summit in Tampa which was an in experience great City very vibrant and high energy Lots going on lots of growth lots of people in the streets um and um National League of cities celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and works in partnership with cities towns and Villages across the country to strengthen local leadership Drive Innovation and influence federal policy that impacts us locally Anchorage has been a member since 1960 and has benefited from this organization's research technical expertise and advocacy and opportunities and in fact uh the funding that we received through arpa uh was directed to the local government because of the advocacy work that we did as part of this organization and I think my takeaway from this conference is that um growth takes a lot of moving parts and a lot of very important inputs and there's a lot to be said for a city with strong leader is pushing hard to see that growth curve happen the the Tampa mayor is quite a character to understand and see how she's done what she's doing um next tonight this is very important meeting for us it is uh the final action on the 2025 budget and that's items 11 C through 11i on the budget crafting a balanced budget that meets the diverse needs of our communities no simple task especially in this area of disinvestment from um former part Partners who have had a strong role in the financial fate of our city but are no longer there or there marginally despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars less from the state of Alaska just a decade ago the municipality still needs to keep the lights on the roads maintain the libraries and public health clinics open and the parks clean we need to provide Public Safety during our times of need and we also need to keep our economy running through Speedy processing of development permits and business licenses knowing how tight our Municipal resources are stretched I want to thank everybody who's worked to develop this budget especially um the OM director onab Bross and the finance committee co-chairs mag zotel and Anna broy who have done Line's work of getting this budget Steed to where we are today um I know there are some last minute amendments coming forward that weren't briefed at our meeting last week or two weeks ago um and this is the budget process we'll we'll make our way one step at a time uh through every vote we need to to get the budget adopted tonight I also want to thank other staff and members who've worked so tirelessly as well as members of the public who've testified and submitted comments careful review by staff and feedback from the public are essential to crafting a responsible budget and it has been much more collaborative transparent process this year and I look forward to our debate and vote on the budget items later tonight uh also in the light of uh State investment challenges in our local government that I mentioned earlier it's good to see the assembly Administration working together to craft Anchorage to craft the Anchorage Le legislative program to work with our Anchorage delegation of the legislature to put together a strong legislative approach in 2025 the draft program can be found in your meeting documents under item 10 B5 and although it's it will be postponed tonight to our meeting of December 3rd so that we may have time to make final adjustments at a work session this Friday um it's important for Anchorage to present a unified front and be strategic in our request to the state legislature so that we can build or begin to build back more of the state support that we um that helped our city to develop in our history and finally as we near Thanksgiving I want to highlight the assembly's thankd Gratitude project on Facebook Instagram Twitter and threads it's spelled thankd t h n k o r a g e the social media project features Neighbors from across the municipality recognized by the assembly through resolutions or Awards and I encourage you to follow us on your platform of choice and meet the people who make Anchorage a vibrant City finally uh this is a business meeting we have a full agenda tonight I'll do my best to move us along so that we may conclude at the most reasonable hour possible please help create a climate of respect in the chambers refrain from any personal attacks or speaking out of turn or shouting and clapping and pacing when clapping is not warranted keep signs 8 and 1 half by 11 in in size please keep the aisles clear except when lined up to testify on public hearing items also please don't approach the dice if you have information for us please share it with the clerk over here so um if a point of order is called please stop speaking so the chair May rule on the point of order and the record is clear if rules are not followed I may interrupt speakers to call for compliance if compliance with the rules doesn't occur then I may pause the meeting if there's an actual disruption I'll give a warning if the disruption persist or happens again the person will be asked to leave with that I think we'll go ahead down the dice now for committee reports starting with Mr Myers thank you Mr chair nothing to report thank you Mr Martinez thank you chair the last meeting of the community and economic development committee uh I just want to encourage people to go take a look at that uh that that meeting we had great presentations from uh St Mary's on a housing project that potentially could bring 90 units of housing into our community we also had presentations chair from uh Mr Edgington out of Girdwood uh talking about uh giving us an update on the gwood comprehensive plan and we had a robust discussion on Transit supportive corridors I encourage folks to uh go back and check the materials and the uh the online recordings of those meetings you can find that available through the Committee website and the next meeting of the community and economic development committee will be held on Thursday December 5th at 9:00 a.m. at the permit Center and uh we'll be talking about special limitations with Mr volan and other items of importance thank you chair thank you Mr Martinez Mr Littlefield thank you chair on uh November 7th the amats technical advisory committee met and had a very lengthy discussion regarding the safer Seward Highway project specifically mile 98 through 118 on the seart highway the overall cost of that project one has been on the books for over 20 years has grown substantially and the amats TAC will be sending their motion with some suggestions to accept the cost of the project to the amats policy committee the Amat policy committee meets this week on the 21st from 1:00 to 300 p.m. in the city hall and Conference Room 180 to discuss this and other concerns that the TAC has submitted thank you chair thank you Mr L I think that meeting is 880 all right all right thank you Mr Johnson yeah thank you Mr chair the uh next meeting of the infrastructure Enterprise and utility oversight committee will be this Thursday November 21st at 11:00 a.m. at City Hall Room 155 and also available online several presentations lined up uh for one we're going to hear from uh awwu about proposed increases in the rates for water and wastewater for next year uh that item is on the agenda tonight for introduction with action by the assembly planned for next meeting December 3rd also from the port of Alaska uh going to hear two updates one we're going to get a briefing on the petroleum and cement terminal fuel line silk and flush effort this is part of their effort to bring that facility um make it fully operational and then also we're going to get a recap on how operations went this year for the small boat launch and what the ports plans are for operation of the uh the launch next year and then finally Solid Waste Services is going to be uh leading a discussion on how they structure and set their pricing for collections and tipping fees and with that compare how our rates compar to uh the rest of Alaska and the west coast thank you Mr Johnson Miss alel thank you Mr chair no formal report but but um I was with uh the delegation that went to the National League of cities and um those of you who've heard me speak about the port I love ports um and we were uh granted an opportunity to take a tour of the port Tampa Bay Port Tampa Bay is a very interesting facility uh it's 5,000 acres is a very large area and it handles everything from petroleum cement Aggregates to pineapples and fruit because it's Florida um as well as oil Metro uh cargo um but the really interesting thing about Port Tampa Bay is it's not about the items that necessarily cross its docks it's how it uses its land and how it uses its land to support the community it is fully integrated into its Community it has a great partnership with its aquarium um it is not a port that is off to the side it is um really a part of the heart of downtown in Tampa Bay so I want to say thanks to Mr abuo our Port director for getting us a tour and to Mr Hobs the chief of staff um he was very generous with this time and um toed us around for about 3 hours so um if you're ever interested or ports are as fascinating to you as they are to me Port Tampa Bay is one to look at thanks thank you m Miss broy thank you a couple reports first on the budget and finance committee our meeting will be Thursday November 21st 12:10 to 1:10 p.m. City Hall room5 uh we anticipate most of our standing reports will just be provided in writing uh so we will use our briefer meeting time to discuss uh some REM remaining items to be taken up um by the end of the year including arpa Appropriations and finishing out the 2024 fiscal year um I'll also note that the chairs intend to cancel our last regular meeting of the year which would uh be December 19th 2024 so this will be the last of the year uh second legislative committee uh we met last on Thursday November 7th to review the LA the draft legislative program which was introduced or will be introduced on tonight's agenda uh but we intend to postpone that to the December 3rd meeting uh the assembly is hosting a work session on the legislative program on Friday November 22nd from 1:10 or 1: to 2: p.m. city hall room 1:55 and this committee uh is not anticipated to meet again until January 2025 uh when we will resume meetings during the Alaska legislative session um last lastly I'll note um or not not quite lastly uh first I'll say I was also one of the attendees to the uh NLC uh Summit in Tampa and really enjoyed the time there and was uh really grateful to connect with our peers in other cities uh towns and Villages as well as learning learning a lot about housing Downtown Development and Port operations um then lastly I will say uh for as one of our Alaska Municipal League liaison the Alaska Municipal League or AML annual convention will take place uh downtown at the denina center as it usually does uh this time of year uh the week of December 9th through the 13th uh most of the conference events will happen on Wednesday the 11th and Thursday the 12th so uh our assembly members uh members of Staff members of the administration um and anyone who is interested in local government I encourage you to attend and those are my reports thank you thank you Mr vand no report thank you Miss brona thank you chair um I just wanted to do a brief report I'm going to definitely be uh putting something together more but I just travel down to Albuquerque New Mexico and Austin Texas to check out homeless facilities in those areas um I'm happy on Sager report that um there's no secret sauce no matter where you go but um one thing that was very clear in both those committee or communities is the parks were clear and felt safe and there was no camping within them I I searched high and low to try to find the person and they have camping bands in both of these communities um in alberquerque um it it's not working so well because they just cluster and camp on the street right near where services are provided um Austin found it a little bit frustrating because the providers can't find the people when they're being invaded constantly um and but the things that um were really bright spots were were the Community First Village in Austin with the tiny home model um they're on their fourth phase of it it offers dignity to older people experiencing homelessness um they pay rent they have rules and um it's working very well um Albuquerque um is doing a motor home buyback which sounded like an interesting program I've heard so many of the motor homes being in neighborhoods and they uh pay $4,000 for a motor home and that money goes to their first month's rent and the deposit and um it seems like that's one thing we could possibly look at um both communities like Anchorage are dealing with a lot of substance abuse um and struggling to figure out how to curb that um what Albuquerque shop owners that we interviewed said it's like a zombie apocalypse in the evening here um and um it's something that I really feel like we need a national effort to help these communities like ours with this thank you all right Mr salt thank you Mr chair just want to report that tomorrow be housing and homeless committee meeting at noon to 1:30 in room 155 at City Hall thank you thank you Mr pres thank thank you just a reminder that the public health and safety committee will be um coming up uh on Wednesday Wednesday December 4th that's at 11:00 a.m. in room 155 thank you and tonight is a little bit unusual we appointed this year three youth members and um they are on a rotating schedule but because tonight the significance of our our meeting tonight the budget uh we decided to invite all three youth members here to participate in the conversation as again this is the most significant meeting of the night I would argue and so um tonight's 9 on the agenda is uh youth member uh Grady and so um but I'll hand you the mic if you have anything to report or would like to report and then the other members can also speak up if you have anything to report anything you're good okay thank you all right so I also I'll take a moment to um put some youth on the spot I believe we have some youth here from their government or Civics classes anyone here from your government or Civics so we're going to ask you all to come to the mic introduce yourself tell us what classes and what school you're from so come on down everybody leading the way so in order to make the mic work there's a little green button on it just press the green button again just tell us there's a green button on the mic you see it on the mic there you go little you press it and the red light should go on keep pressing it the is there a green button there yeah there you go you're good so now just leave it on and everyone just tell us your name what school you're from what class that kind of thing welcome my name is Troy I'm from luming Christie and uh this is for government's class thank you hello my name is Colton I'm also from Lum chrisy and this is also for US Government welcome hello my name is Lan Holman uh I'm also from L Christie and this is for government welcome hello I am Kyle I am also from mman Christie and this is for US Government welcome hello my name is Austin I'm also from Lumen Christie and I'm here for my US government class welcome hello my name is Carson and I'm also from Lumen Christi and this is for government class welcome uh hi my name is Bryce and I'm from Lumen Christie and this is for my government class welcome hi I'm Sonoma and I'm from service this is for my USG class welcome I'm Bailey I'm also from service and this is for my us gov class welcome I'm Ryan and I'm also from service and this is for my USG class welcome I'm Aaron I'm from service and this is also for my USG class welcome I'm Paige I go a service and this is for my USG class welcome I'm Luke also from service and this is my UF USG class welcome I'm Marvin Cano this is for um I I go to Lumen Christy high school and this is for my US government class welcome my name is Liza Alderson I'm from service and this is for my USG class welcome my name is Koo Wilson and I go to service high school and I'm also this is also for my USG class welcome I'm Bjorn I'm here for government and I go to service welcome I'm Heidi I'm from service and this is from my go class welcome hi I'm Clara um I go to service and this is for my USU class welcome hi I'm Max I go to service and this is also for my usup class welcome um I'm Skyler I'm from service and this is also for my usup class welcome I'm will Simpson I also go to service and this is this is for my usgov class welcome I'm Hatcher I I go to service this is for my usgov class welcome I'm Scott I go to service and this is for my usgov class welcome I'm Morgan I'm from service and this is for my go class welcome my name is Robbie Rachel I'm from South Anchorage high school and I'm here on my own accord well glad you're here thank you all right uh it's quite a crowd of students that we have here tonight everybody Welcome uh yeah there's there's going to be an interesting night if you stick around past when we take our dinner break and get to the budget you'll see um kind of one of the core functions of government occur which is the passing of a budget so um thank you everybody I guess next now that answers the question why are all these people here government class thank you so um next I would like to move on to the addendum to the agenda the addendum includes items to be added to the agenda and is prepared the Friday before the assembly meeting the assembly formally does this through a motion to incorporate the addendum as well as possible laid on the table items consistent with the assembly's rules of procedure so before we get to the addendum to the agenda we're going to address the late on the table items which will incorporate any late on the table items now so I will go ahead and we have a mix of items some new some supplemental I'll start by reading all of the supplemental items onto the agenda so first we have item 10 d4a information memorandum unnumbered 2024 additional information for am 992-2244 the home for good program in the Municipality of Anchorage Anchorage Health Department um next supplemental item is item 10 f4a which is a supplemental information memorandum aim 189-202 24a public testimony for November 6th November 19 2024 meetings next is 11 C4 information memorandum a am a numbered update regarding s version of the 2025 proposed budget next is 11 D4 information memorandum aim unnumbered 2024 AO 202 24-9 3 Midtown Community Council Capital Improvement project request next is item 11 D5 information memorandum aim unn numbered 2024 transmitt of Planning and Zoning commission resolution number 202 4-28 regarding the general government 2025 Capital Improvement budget and 2025 to 2030 Capital Improvement program so next we have um two new items one is a resolution that will require a vote of eight members to add to the agenda and then one that is just an ordinance for introduction so um I'll start with the ordinance for introduction it will require a first a second and a third so it's item 10 G4 ordinance AO 2024 unnumbered an ordinance adopting the gwood comprehensive plan to update the gwood area plan and amending Anchorage Municipal Code title 21 land use planning section 21.18 B1 table 21. 01-1 comprehensive planning elements is there a motion motion lay on the table second third no move to introduce yes motion to introduce move to introduce move by Randy second second by I think I heard Zach in there you didn't get in there George is second Mr Martinez second salt first who was the third miss salel all right so um that item will be on the agenda for the meeting of December 3rd all right so the final is a um item 10 B7 resolution AR 2024 unnumbered a resolution the anchor Municipal assembly concurring with the temporary legation the chief Equity officer position in the office of equity and Justice to Kim Waller um this item is new uh is there a motion move to land the table second motion by Miss zel second by Mr pres Veria um who would like to speak to the time Sensitivity I I can I mean it says that the 60-day limit is up an extension is required otherwise the um appointment lapses per code and I would just add add a little flavor to that I think that the 60-day period has in fact expired and this item I'll retroactively clarify that it is acceptable so yeah we have done this before but it is time sensitive for that reason in my opinion uh so um there's a motion to lay this item on the table um is there any objection to the motion to lay this item on the table I'm seeing and hearing no objection so um that item will be laid on the table okay so now I'd like to ask for a motion to incorporate the entum as printed and distributed in the late on the table items moved second moved by Mrs alel seconded by Mr vand is there any discussion seeing hearing none I'd like to ask unanimous consent any objection seeing hearing no objection the addendum as printed and distributed and the laate on the table items have now been incorporated into the agenda tonight we don't have any appearance requests so we'll move right into the consent agenda the consent agenda includes items number 10 a through 10f and are typically routine or non-controversial items such as bid Awards new business information reports and ordinances and resolutions for introduction the items on the consent agenda may be approved accepted or adopted by the assembly by a single vote on a motion to approve the consent agenda prior to approval items may be pulled by any assembly member for discussion and separate vote on each of those items and under the assembly's rules of procedure all ordinances and some resolutions will have an opportunity for public hearing at a future date so now we'll go ahead and go down the dis for pulled items we'll start with you Mr Presa no items thank you Mr Presa no items Mr Sal no items no items Mr salt Miss branga 10 B4 and 10 D5 that's it that's 10 B4 and 10 D5 Mr vand thank you Mr chair 10 A2 for reading thank you um Miss broy uh 10 A1 for reading and 10 B5 all right so that's 10 A1 and 10 B5 Miss alel thank you Mr chair uh 10 Delta 4 and 10 Delta 5 but it's been pulled uh just one moment Mr chair um and then 10 B4 has been pulled it does have a scribers error but since it's been pulled it can be handled during that time okay um and then it's my intention um when we make the motion unless the member wishes to pull it uh to move the a version of 10 F4 in the motion okay thank you um Mr Johnson no items thank you thank you Mr Littlefield no items chair thank you Mr Martinez no items thank you Mr Myers no additional items thank you thank you I'll go back through the list now we have items 10 A1 by Miss broy 10 A2 by Mr vand 10 B4 by Miss branga 10 B5 by Miss broy 10 D4 by Miss alel 10 D5 by Mr broley or branga sorry and then 10 F4 we'll just have a motion specific any other items did I miss okay next then I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus the pulled items um so moved including um approving item 10 F4 a version second okay moved by Mrs alel seconded by Mr band the motion is to approve the consent agenda and antenna for the a version only all right so with that I would like to ask unanimous consent is there any objection to the adoption of the consent agenda minus the pulled items seeing hearing none the consent agenda has been adopted what that means for the public is that the assembly has now passed or accepted all items in 10 a through 10f except for the items that were just pulled which will take up next or that have been introduced for public public hearing and future meetings so if you're here to see action on items listed in 10 a through 10f that weren't just pulled uh those items have now been passed or accepted so next we will move on to our consent agenda items that were pulled first we have item 10 A1 come on down item 10 A1 is uh AR 24- 344 resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing November 20th 2024 is transgender day of remembrance and honoring the memories of those lost anti-transgender violence is there a motion I guess this item was pulled by Miss broley move to approve second moved by Miss broley seconded by um Miss alel is there any objection like to ask unanimous consent seeing hearing none the item is adopted folks come on down everybody who's here for this one come stand and be seen and I think Miss Bry you have the floor thank you Mr chair a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing November 20th 2024 as transgender day of remembrance and honoring the memories of those last lost to anti-transgender violence whereas in 1998 the brutal murder of and subsequent lack of justice for Rita Hester a transgender woman of color inspired gwendelyn Anne Smith a trans Advocate to create a web project called remembering our dead and the following year she founded transgender gender day of remembrance and whereas transgender day of remembrance raises public awareness of hate crimes prejudice and discrimination that transgender and gender expansive people face in their daily lives and is a day to honor celebrate and mourn the Lost lives of transgender family members friends and loved ones and whereas violence against transgender people particularly black indigenous and Latina transgender women of color is a systemic and societal issue that we must collectively commit to acknowledging and ending whereas in 2023 at least 73 transgender or gender non-conforming people in the United States died by violent means with many cases unreported or misreported and in previous years most lives taken were black and Latina transgender women and whereas in 2020 the US Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity was illegal and the Alaska state commission for human rights updated their guidelines to reflect this however in 2022 the commission reversed their position announcing the decision on Election Day through Twitter and then began refusing to investigate complaints and whereas currently Alaska's human rights statute does not include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes and does not provide civil rights protection to Gay and transgender people and whereas many nonprofits in Alaska and Anchorage are working tirelessly to restore and expand basic human rights health services and safety for the the transgender non-binary and gen gender expansive people of Alaska and whereas we recognize and honor the bravery and resilience of anchorage's transgender and gender expansive community and advocate for the equal treatment safety respect and dignity that they deserve now therefore the Anchorage assembly recognizes November 20th 2024 as transgender day of remembrance passed and approved by the Anchorage assembly this 19th day of November 2024 [Applause] good evening to the entire assembly uh my name is Reverend Dr Denise sudbeck I'm a retired pastor and a lgbtq advocate here in Alaska I am one of I think four currently ordained clergy in the state of Alaska who has who is trans identified the people you see around me I think is the largest group since I've been doing this here in Anchorage probably for close eight years now is the largest group I think we've ever had uh of solidarity and support of of our entire community in this group of people there are representatives of numerous organizations within uh the Municipality of Anchorage uh which are either lgbtq oriented or lgbtq adjacent uh numerous organizations and they are represented here sometimes by executive directors their own leadership in this community there are numerous parents of transgender youth uh who have been uh enough courage to be able to come out here in public and to be visible in this place to let you know who they are also within this community uh are numerous uh Faith communities uh their clergy are here present and these are are all Faith communities that um are uh welcoming and affirming of lgbtq plus people also in this group of people right here tonight there are a number of us who are transgender or other lgbtq uh plus Veterans as well including myself we have a a diverse Community uh and we are determined to stand together as one people we have faced the violence that comes with transgender day of remembrance but I want to convey to the assembly and to the entire audience tonight that um we are also people of resilience and we will be here and we we are still here even now and on behalf of the entire Community I want to say again thank you to the entire assembly for uh again remembering us on this day thank you thank [Applause] you thank you everybody stick around for the budget it'll get interesting best show in town next we have item 10 A2 resolution AR 2024 - 356 guess we'll take just a moment all right so next we have item 1082 resolution AR 2024 356 resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing November as Purple Heart month and remembering and honoring all the military personnel wounded or killed in combat with hostile forces this item was pulled by Mr vand yes Mr chair move to approve second moved by Mr ven second by Mr Johnson is there any discussion I'd like ask unanimous consent any objection seeing here no objection the item has passed uh Mr ven is reading Mr Johnson's presenting is there someone here to receive this resolution on behalf of veterans who've received purple hearts or earned I should say okay I don't see anyone here so we'll go ahead and start the reading Mr wand a resolution of the Anchorage welcome sorry go ahead great a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal assembly recognizing November as Purple Heart month and remembering and honoring all of the military personnel wounded or killed in combat with hostile forces whereas created in 1782 the purple heart is a combat decoration originally known as the badge of military Merit and is the nation's oldest military medal and whereas the Purple Heart Medal is awarded to members of the Armed Forces who are wounded in military combat or killed in action or die of wounds received an action and whereas Purple Heart day is August 7th when the nation acknowledges and remembers the sacrifices made by the brave wounded members of our military and on November 5th 2019 the assembly passed AR 20109 386 which designated the Municipality of Anchorage as a purple heart city and November as Purple Heart month to recognize and honor all of the Purple Heart recipients within the Municipality of Anchorage and whereas although the exact number of Purple Heart recipients in the Municipality of Anchorage is unknown the members of the military order of the Purple Heart local chapter number 593 are all Purple Heart recipient veteran volunteers who work to identify and provide Aid to all Purple Heart recipients and their families within the Municipality of Anchorage and whereas there are many organizations services and recognitions for the Anchorage Purple Heart recipients including the military order of the Purple Heart chapter 593 free parking at easy Park garages paw for purple hearts and the tribute Highway of the Alaska highway from Fairbanks to the Canadian border to be part of a nationwide Purple Heart Trail now therefore the Anchorage assembly recognizes November as Purple Heart month and honors all of the Purple Heart recipients with an Anchorage passed and approved by the Anchorage assembly this 19th day of November 2024 [Applause] welcome please share your name and you have the Flor uh good evening to the assembly and uh your honor of the mayor uh thanks for doing this uh I'm Dan Collins I'm the current commander of the local chapter U and with me are two Vietnam Vets U waywayne Anderson and and uh and Bill mlan um I want to thank you on behalf of all Purple Heart members in the municipality and and for the the remembering us honoring us and uh and keeping us in your hearts and Minds so thank you very much thank thank you gnan all right next we have item 10 B4 was pulled by Miss branga which is ar202 4- 349 a resolution of the assembly stating its policy intent for public restrooms of the municipality and accepting the Anchorage areawide public restroom project final report go Miss branga move to approve second moved by Mr branga seconded by Mr V Miss branga so I understand that we're just accepting a report but I this worries me because the voters clearly stated that the cost of the restroom were not acceptable and it looks like we're looking still at four different um bathrooms that are pretty high price point we're talking about having plumbing water in them that um would really only be suitable for the summer months um the I read through the reports from different communities including Smithers and ketchican that found that they could not keep them um running uh 20 you know 365 days a year um and the bathroom that we have down at ship Creek um 18,000 to maintain for just summer months and then it's closed and it's closed in the evening um it's it's not something that's going to be available um in a way with our Midnight Sun and fishermen when we close a restroom at I think they say they close at 5:00 p.m. down there at ship Creek anyway I'm I'm concerned I look around at um different places where there are bathrooms that are never open that we already have that have plumbing and so I just wanted to point out that there are locations that would be much in my opinion much uh better to have a pit toilet they work at Trail heads and um in our climate I think they'd be a lot more appropriate thank you m al thank you so a little context for this resolution is this money was appropriated for a bathroom study um long before we ever tried the bond initiative um what it does is it gives us information gives us information about where people perceive the need for public restrooms um you are right Miss branga they certainly don't want to pay for them um but that doesn't mean we can't have the conversation and know what the Alternatives might be um and raise the Spectre of if we're redoing something already like a new park or something can we find the right um the right solution doesn't necessarily have to be one of these um so I think that this is information it's um something useful someone's now done the research um and pretty in-depth research with experience in looking at these types of things um and so hopefully we can use this and not shove it and continue the conversation um Mr chair there is a scrier error in this item um if you could please direct the clerk to fix the scers there Mak sure that we list gboss or the Girdwood Board of Supervisors as a mun an entity within the municipality so directed thank you any discussion further are you trying to get the Q Miss prob okay Miss you're good okay uh anyone further um gonna ask well wait till the clerk's back Miss brona so I know that um huddle looked at four restrooms in this did they did they look at pit toilets at all and the cost of Chet State Park and when they put one in and do you have any idea yep and you can also reach out to huddle if you want to look um further behind or I would recommend talking to CLA Ross our legislative Services director she really guided this project through thank you all right anyone else see here none members May proceed to vote I'm going to call on members Broly and banga because we have an issue with your member branga yes member broy yes on a vote of 11 to Zer in the youth member votes yes yes all right and that's uh you member Grady uh ar2 24- 349 has passed the body next we have item 10 B5 10 B5 is AR 202 24- 350 a resolution Anchorage assembly adopting the 2025 State Legislative program for the Municipality of Anchorage this item was pulled by m broley uh move to postpone to the item of or meeting of December 3rd second motion to postpone to December 3rd by Miss broley seconded by Miss alel Miss broley want to speak to that yeah just very briefly um our intent is to uh pass this at the next meeting there is already a work session scheduled uh this Friday that I described uh previously under committee reports and the ask is just to members to review this program in advance of the work session this week if at all possible please bring any changes to the session that you'd like to propose um the reason is because we adopt this program as a fully formatted document as you can see in the item uh in the attachment uh so making changes early in the process helps the the staff turn the document around once it's final so thank you any further discussion on the motion to postpone seeing no further discussion I'd like to ask unanimous consent any objection to the motion see no objection item is postponed to the meeting of December 3rd so uh the next items I'll just go ahead and read them both quickly and then U we'll come back and do them each individually we have item td4 which is am 992-2244 the home for good program um and then TD5 which is am 91320 24 recommendation of Award of a grant to in our backyard for operating modular units as trans shelter Miss thank you Mr chair um I'd like to disclose as the executive director of the Anchorage Coalition in homelessness um we have a staff member who sits on the steering committee of the home for good program um and on in our backyard we are a Fiscal Agent as well as have provided technical assistance I'd ask to be excused all right I'll go ahead and uh rule that you do have a substantial personal or financial interest in the question you'll be excused from the debates on both of those items so next I'll go back T4 am 912 d224 Grant agreement United Way of Anchorage for the home for good program in the Municipality of Anchorage um this item was uh pulled by Miss alel she is determined to have a conflict so is there a motion move to approve move Mr ban seconded by Miss branga um do you want to speak to it uh I would actually like maybe the administration someone from the administration to to speak to this that's kind of cool we heard in our previous public hearings um from advocates in support of this program um and it it looks like we were were able to receive a grant so I feel like this is uh sort of exciting news maybe the administration would want to highlight do the chair to member vand I would ask uh director Kim rash to come up I think it's slightly less exciting than it may seem and that this is the appropriation of previously received grant money that was anticipated the receipt of which was anticipated by the organization is separate from some of the concerns that were raised in previous meetings but I'll let don't even worry about it Kim um all that to say you know happy that uh at least this good work will be able to continue uh for the time being thanks so um I I'll just speak briefly that reading the aim that comes with it that suggests that this money a million dollars will allow them to expand by 150 units um certainly is a big number relative to the impact that our investments have made over the past years and so um I'm excited to see that number that they're able to achieve that with this amount of money um and I am curious why then uh we didn't have that kind of success for the past five years and so there are a lot of questions related to this that this raises for me um and I'm glad that we have a third party coming in to fund these services so Mr salt you looking for the queue no okay anyone else wish to speak to the item seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 10 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes and am 912 d224 is passed the body next we have item 10 D5 which is am 9913 d224 recommendation of Award of a grant to in our backyard for operating modular units is Transitional shelter for the Municipality of Anchorage um this item was pulled by Miss branga Miss branga move to approve moved bya seconded by Mr salt okay Miss BR you want to speak to it yes I um was super excited about this project in our backyard went to the ribbon cutting my amazing and wonderful friend um was a person who really spearheaded this my concern is um due to the timing um I think I'm not even positive if they have their clients in right now but um this they applied for a grant that they expected to cover three months and now we're basically at a month till the end of the year and 56850 for seven individuals to me is um unacceptable um and I think I I think it's supposed to be for operation but I guess it's a kind of an economy of scale if you only have seven clients then it gets more expensive because you have staff for a very small amount but um I just wanted to batter around with you all because it also says that there's 113,000 um that they would receive next year I I would like to see we have so many people that are needing housing right now that as cool as the project is I would like to see the funds spread around a little better in my personal opinion all right thank you um in the queue Mr salt I'll let uh Miss Becky went Pi go first good Miss wi Pearson thank you Mr CH Timber branga and I apologize I realize you had some Outreach before this um meeting with some questions about this that we failed to answer timely so we'll answer them now um and I think for this I would ask director rash to come up and speak to it um big picture I would say that the 56,000 is going to cover more than kind of a month and a half of operating expenses I understand it to cover some expenses including supplies equipment some Outreach some marketing some insurance to cover that will that will be not simply kind of the ongoing operating cost of that month and a half period but I will director rash is the real expert so I'll ask her to come up and speak to it welcome Mr Ash thank you for the question so working with the grante and looking at um their budget uh we had determined that this amount really covered not all of the um line items within their Grant budget um but a bulk of them so everything from contractual services to Staffing that they were needing uh supplies equipment uh snow removal uh trash removal um Outreach marketing uh Utility payments insurance and then some ministrative cost so they have determined that with that time frame that is how much money would be needed for those Services all right um does that answer the question was there a question no okay so Mr salt was next in the queue okay thanks nothing nothing for you but I um this is the first of these uh pallet shelter individual shelters that we have going up to the community we just passed I think the ability to do this about this time last year uh really excited to see what they do with it I've toured some of these in lower 48 they've met with a lot of success as far as building some Pro some ownership and um I really want to see how this goes and of course to the cost I think as we start this investing at first I do expect the cost be a little higher and hopefully it'll get more efficient as these communities grow and and build up their own infrastructure and own ability to take care of themselves thank you thank you Mr vand thank you Mr Sher so I think part of member brona's question was do they just have the month or so to spend the money and I believe it they may have a little longer as this is written can we get some clarity around that so currently this agreement goes until the end of this year and then they are they do have the option year added into that um which is the not to exceed amount of 13,000 so if it's sorry yeah I think I'm good with that thanks all right thank you m branga I'm good with that as well okay then um if there's no further questions members May proceed to vote on am 91322 24 on a vote of nine to one and the youth member votes yes yes am 91322 24 has pass the body I'm going to ask the members Indulgence that we take up the first two items in the 11th before we move on to our dinner break Miss alel can you come back can you hear us can we retrieve there we go so um next we have item 11a 11a is am16 aim 16722 24 internal audit report 4-06 annual Municipal procurement Card review Miss alel move to postpone to the meeting of January 21 second okay so there's a motion to postpone to January 21 by Miss alel second by Miss broley Miss thank you Mr chair um what we would like to do in the meantime is refer this back to the auditor to address some outstanding issues specifically around um how split purchases are viewed um this issue continues to persist till through today actually um and we would really like the auditor to take another look um as well as come forward and back maybe with a revised um report that outlines um any policies and procedure updates that might be needed as well so want to give enough space and time um if that is not enough time let us know but I figured kind of set it out a bit um I was unable to reach the auditor today um but um happy to give as much time as is necessary um and look forward to working collaboratively between the branches on it thank you all right uh any further discussion I'd like to ask unanimous consent on the motion to postpone to the meeting of January 21 is there any objection to the motion see hearing no objection that item is postponed next we will take up item 11b 11b is am 880-22 24 Eagle River Chugiak Park and recreational service area Board of Supervisors appointments there's no motion pending on this item is there motion move to approve second Mr Myers has moved to approve the second was Miss elel Mr Myers want to speak to the motion originally we had some concerns but they were all resolved so we are comfortable moving forward as is the Board of Supervisors awesome thank you any further discussion on the motion seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote Mr pres Ria on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes am 8 80-20 24 has passed the body and with that I think that we will conclude to take our regularly scheduled dinner break and for the young people who are here from your government classes um who are still here I recommend you stay because the interesting part's about to begin and I know it's tempting to go home you've probably met your commitments but I do recommend stay because uh the budget is like the most important document we pass in any given year so that's tonight tonight we'll be back in about 20 minutes thank you e [Music] so um all right so um for members of the body um we had a bit of a a error in the consent agenda process where we set the public hearing for the Girdwood plan for the third we're coming back to order now please um so it was intended to be scheduled for the second meeting in December which is December 17th because the code requires a 21-day publication please come to order so the purpose of our um what I'm asking is that if no member objects that we could just change the public hearing date for the uh Girdwood comprehensive plan to the 17th as it was intended by the planning department is there any objection okay there's no objection so Madam clerk it is so directed all right next we have on the agenda item 11 C item 11 C Is AO 224-9229 government operating budget for the Municipality of Anchorage uh there is no motion pinning let's all the body move to approve the S second motion to approve the S version by Miss zotel seconded by Mr band Miss thank you um before we get underway with debate I just thought I would do a little run a show of how we would like to handle the S version of the operating budget um so we've moved the S um I believe there is a text Amendment to the am that uh we'd like to start with then we'd like to move through the alcohol tax which would be amendments number two and amendment number 14 potentially um the marijuana tax and then move into General government and end with a conforming Amendment so it just gives you a heads up of the way we'd uh like to move tonight um I'd like to start out um I am one of the co-chairs of the budget and finance committee um I'd like to start out with some thanks um thank you to the administration for a collaborative approach to the budget this year it is a uh refreshing change versus the assembly needing to put its heads together and figure out a reasonable Budget moving forward um it does not always play to our strengths but we have stepped up in the breach but we are happy to have you all back um second I would really like to thank the membership for thoughtful amendments bringing those amendments forward um and again collaborating with the administration about half the amendments were incorporated into the budget and many others found other funding mechanisms or timing um to effectuate our priorities as well as those of the administration and what that really underscores and what this budget underscores is that we do have some shared priorities we communicated those early um in the new mayor's Administration um that we want to rebuild our Workforce that we want to ensure that our roads are plowed and that we want to focus on housing and and this budget is a reflection of those priorities there are some points in here and we will have some good debate tonight I look forward to that um and with that um the first um amendment is to an AM and that is by the chair Mr constant um that Amendment I'll just make a disclosure now involves a housing and homelessness program um to which I could in the future have a financial interest and I think it is best if I were excused I will go ahead and make that determination you can be excused all right um so this amendment I'm hoping someone will make it on my behalf Miss Bry yeah I'd like to move um constant amendment number one to the am second moved by Mr broy seconded by Mr vand so um I'll just briefly speak to it it it just um it broadens the definition of what that funding could be used for from one very specific service to General housing supports including that plus other service that are related which will give the administration more flexibility in implementing the funding so um that's the purpose of that Amendment any discussion on the amendment moved by m uh Bry seconded by Mr band seeing hearing no discussion I'd like to ask unanimous consent any objection seeing hearing no objection um that amendment has been passed all right Miss [Applause] alel Miss alel can you hear us all right with that um Amendment out of the way next is the alcohol tax do we have Mr Rivera Mr Rivera you on the phone we do not have Mr Rivera okay then okay then let's we can change it up a little bit so there are two separate taxes that are appropriated in um sections of the operating budget for the municipality one is the alcohol tax and one is the marijuana tax um I believe there are some amendments on the marijuana tax I believe amendment number five is intended to be moved yes move amendment number five so amendment number five is moved by Mr vand is there a second second who is a second m Mr Littlefield all right um motion to amend by Mr ran second by Mr Littlefield it's amendment number five in the packet Mr Rand thank you Mr chair so um Mountain View Boys and Girls Club I I'll speak to Mountain View um specifically however uh from the outset I should make it clear that this is an appropriation in support of Boys and Girls Club of South Central Alaska and would include be inclusive of the Mountain View Community Center Club Northeast Community Center Club Woodland Park club and Eagle River Club locations um like many nonprofits Community Partners in Anchorage um this is an organization that does very valuable work uh in our community but is facing a funding shortfall um I've been working with my constituents in Mountain View as well as uh members of the administration for some time uh to try to address the level of service um That Mountain View Boys and Girls Club is able to provide um folks may know that the marijuana uh sales tax fund um or the ace fund um is aimed at providing child care after school programming um stabilizing that sector um there are a number of issues that have arisen um due to Mountain View Boys and Girls Club shortfall um and adjustments in the ASD ancorage School District schedule so things that are happening right now is that Mountain View Boys and Girls Club will no longer be providing before school care uh or transportation to school in the morning and also um something that the the community is worried about um and particularly lower income families that I represent in Mountain View is that services that have been free for some time to the community um in order to to make up that that budget shortfall um the Boys and Girls Club has proposed fees to families for things like their drop in um after school program those fees I think are going to be hard for some of my constituents um to it's going to make it difficult for them to be able to participate and this is uh particularly in Mountain View and I'll let other members who who want to speak to their communities do so as well um but this is one of the few safe places for kids to go in this neighborhood um this neighborhood has faced a a a series of public safety concerns um there are kids who are afraid to hang out in their Parks right now um because of those public safety concerns and so I want to make sure that they are able to continue to enjoy this programming um and have a safe place and a in a place that they can be around um positive adults who who are supervising them um and uh programs that can help um reduce exposure to um adverse childhood experiences so another additional layer that I I would highlight is that the Mountain View Rec Center is a municipally owned property um and the boys and girls club currently has an operating agreement in that location until 2029 so unlike um the spinard rec center or the Fairview Rec Center where the community sort of has access to that property and at any time um that you know during open hours they can do drop in basketball or whatever this Rec Center really does um function differently and I want to make sure that that boys and girls club although their work is very valuable that as they continue to operate that location um families having to pay for for membership fees doesn't preclude them from being able to enjoy their rec center in their neighbor neighborhood bringing this forward as one time um and I think that's important because we do have a a recently impanel Ace board right and I know that we are going to really value their Rec recommendations as we move forward in the future for how the marijuana tax funds should be spent um but I hope this will get support in this budget cycle because we have some money sitting uh in there and we have a ve very real need I think to to uh continue this work um and allow kids to be able to access this programming I also feel like this is consistent with the access for youth uh program resolution that the assembly passed that was uh co-sponsored by myself and member Martinez to explore both alcohol and marijuana tax funds uh in support of after school programming so with that I urge your support thank you myself in the queue Mr constant thank you um and I just want to put a really fine point on this I I support this I was had an amendment originally in the packet to to begin this conversation and want to make sure we do this these funds are not for boys and girls club effectively the funds are to underwrite the participation of young people in the neighborhood who would otherwise not be able to because of the fee structures that Boys and Girls Club is creating and so I want people to understand really plainly that the intent here is not to provide a grant to the Boys and Girls Club for their operations in the bottom line but simply to ensure that the young people in the neighborhood have their fees underwritten so that's the specific restriction that's written within the document and I think that that nearly tailor the value of this appropriation to um a very specific and targeted need not like a I mean there are probably 100 organizations doing important work with young people this is not that kind of a grant it is literally to directly Aid and support the youth in the neighborhood and also separately I'll just note as kind a predicate next month I I wish it was tonight on the agenda but next month there will be a small proposed shift of internal Branch dolls to support a strategic planning effort for um the the building that the mun has the land leas to the Boys and Girls Club so that we can start to um ensure that in 2029 there's a harmonious process whatever that might be the outcome of the Strategic plan so with that I would urge your support now I have a bunch of people in the queue um youth member gr um yes I would be in support of this amendment I had actually want to bring it up because in I live in Mountain View and as someone who works and also as a working parent it would be hard for my siblings to like have somewhere to go after school and like know that they're safe especially with the things that are happening around Mountain View that are like deeming it unsafe for them to be even outside so knowing that they're inside with people that we know and trust would help me like keep work be able to work as someone who does work and also my mom so that she's not worried about them um and it's not just about meic oh it's not only just about me but other children that are that live in Mountain View or go to that specific Boys and Girls Club or really any specific Boys and Girls Club cuz I went to there and it was never you know any type of fees that you would have to pay there's people before me who went there and it was the same thing so having that would really how do I put this it would really like disconnect parents from being able to have their children go somewhere that has sort of like just basically free child care because it's already expensive enough um thank you thank you member Grady next in the que Mr salt thank you I guess for the sponsors I apolog if I missed it but how do we come up with the 400,000 and then also a general question do we know what we have as far as um available on the Alcohol oh marijuana sorry thank you Mr Rand yeah um I will say this will probably not go far enough to offset all the fees um I think my um and what's the right word my my rationale was defined um a number that I thought was realistic um that would not tie up all the funds that are currently uh in the the marijuana tax funds um that we have um but hopefully make a meaningful Dent um how it remains to be implemented I I think that's yet to be seen whether that's a scholarship program set up by the Boys and Girls Club um or if it's just a a sort of reduction across all of the fee schedule um this won't do all of all of what we needed to do but um I think can can make a sizable Dent thanks and to your second question in terms of um how much funds there are available for this in the marijuana sales tax fund maybe Miss Brouse could speak to that hi Ona brous director of Office of Management and budget through the chair to member sult and member Ville and after the S version changes the remaining balance in the marijuana tax Ace fund is $2.33 five million thank you Miss broy thanks uh I appreciate my colleagues bringing this forward and I understand um the rationale for looking Beyond uh kind of the initial issue that was raised um with the Mountain View Club um and looking more broadly um so I was a member of the implementation team with the ace fund um working to really help support um that that group figuring out uh recommendations uh going forward that can be given to the board and of course now we have the board uh in place um one of the big um priorities that came out of that discussion which again included uh parents providers folks who have a lot more expertise in early childhood than I do um was really to say that we need to stabilize the sector um that that certainly we need to grow the amount of child care the amount of prek all of those Services over time available in the community but um also we know that a lot of operators are struggling in various ways um and so this does seem to be squarely within that I will also say um there was a lot of discussion um and and the reason why that implementation team did not make specific recommendations about organizations was um the ongoing conversation about alcohol tax with directed grants meaning uh putting one organization's name in the budget versus using competitive bid or other kind of vendor vendor neutral processes um so so I wanted to to just raise that as something to think about going forward um I do understand this is onetime funding and I do think it is a worthy use of the funds and I intend to support it um but I think it's also um important for us to contemplate kind of when when we're making those choices um especially when we do make them on a recurring basis which this is not um but when we make those commitments on what looks like a recurring basis kind of how we how we deal with that on the other end um because that has been a challenge as well so uh anyway just wanted to say thank you um but also this is not the end of the conversation as far as what the um what the best uses of the ace fund tax are and I look forward to uh the board doing its work thank you all right Mr Martinez thank you chair um I appreciate the my colleagues uh Daniel voland particularly for working uh so diligently on this and um clearly uh we're meeting the needs for Working Families in our Community today and for the young people and for the young folks who visit the Boys and Girls Club in moldun we I see you um obviously we see you in all of the clubs but I wanted to just thank the colleagues and encourage them to support this but also to send a message to the Boys and Girls Club and to all the other organizations that didn't work with us to close this Gap that didn't come from my vantage point uh in a clear way uh I first heard about the the cuts to the Boys and Girls Club as a parent from other parents who were concerned about what they were going to do and so I didn't see a strategy I didn't feel like they were really working comprehensively to develop something and so I don't want to send a message that we're going to clean up the message for organizations that didn't necessarily do the their full due diligence I think there is an actual Gap here for resources we can step in but I want to encourage organizations like the boys and girls club uh to come to the table sooner more often so we can work to mitigate any changes that will impact Working Families thank you chair thank you and I put myself back in the queue Mr cons thank you um just note that um I have had extensive conversations with the um boys and girls club leadership and they they said that um 300,000 was the amount needed to close the gap at the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club and so uh that's an answer specifically to to one part of Mr Salt's question um that there are several other organizations I don't know what the gaps are I think Mountain View is the one that has the highest number of young people in it but um so this goes a very far away to Bridging the Gap but it doesn't go all the way like it has already been said but that's the number that I have is 300,000 for Mountain View Boys and Girls Club so um again folks I strongly urge your support on this and again this is literally to eliminate fees for children directly so thank you everybody if there's no further uh questions or concerns members May proceed to vote we waiting for no not on the amendment go ahead I'm sorry yeah on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes that amendment has passed ready Miss Alto thank you Mr chair um we're to be joined by Mr aera here shortly I just um heard from him but what I think is important with regard to the alcohol tax is um I know there's an amendment that may or may not be moved by Miss branga so would uh like to turn to her to speak to her her plans around amendment number 14 thank you um so amendment 14 um I am excited to hear that there is a possibility of finding funding in unspent alcohol tax and so I would like to remove this amendment from the budget and I will work with the administration to find that funding and this is for the Arch program the security doors they need for their new um detox facility Miss thank you um I want to just speak to the alcohol tax generally um so the alcohol tax um this year has um some exciting things in it that I think are important to highlight um for me um one is additional funding for the mobile crisis team to truly get it to a 247 U posture um as well as there was restoration of the prevention funding for a number of programs we heard from including a number of amendments that were proposed by membership um to include the Youth Court the diaper Pantry New Life Center among others um and so I I appreciate the collaboration on and getting those together um I think we should just wait a few minutes Mr chair unless anyone else wants to speak generally about the alcohol tax to get Mr Rivera on the phone all right so um I'm GNA kind of flip the script slightly and um big Miss zelo's indulgent Indulgence to move uh an amendment that is not in the alcohol tax and so um Mr martinz Martinez and I have proposed an amendment this one is new to you and your packet so I'm going to go ahead first and move uh constant and Martinez Amendment which is amendment number nine second second all right so amendment number N9 moved by member constant and seconded by Mr Martinez Mr constant oh and I want to note this is on the general government portion of the budget yeah so um this is a neutral cost neutral proposal so it doesn't increase the budget or take from alcohol tax or other funds instead um we received or I received I should say the October 2024 executive director report from the eagle Rights Commission and in it it states that um essentially most agencies do this work their case loads are 120 to 150 cases per investigator and they stay current that's a quote out of his report and um in the same report it's demonstrated that we have four investigators operating and we have 20 open cases okay 20 open cases for professionals and his own report says the capacity should be about 120 cases per investigator and so we also happen to have one vacancy in the department at this time he has an open position and so what this amendment is proposing to do is to take that one position on a one-time basis and um move it to the office of equity and Justice and allow uh half of it to be for um the our office of equity and inclusion I think is the new term and uh allow them to have some funding for non-labor expenses and to provide a small Grant to through them to the equity center and so that is the proposal that this amendment does again it's Revenue neutral it sweeps one position temporarily out because the case load is so low it doesn't justify having four people in there what are they doing kind of a thing and then we had a work session with the director and I think most of us uh took away some impressions of that office and so this is to be a little bit more efficient with the resources that we have so that's the proposal would anyone else like to speak to the amendment Mr Rivera did I just hear you on the phone okay um Miss branga you're in the queue thanks I wish I had a little bit more time to um have dug into this so at the um ribbon cutting for the equity center it appeared that they had some equipment in there and um so I'm just not sure exactly what um this money is going to clarify yeah sure 50% of it will go directly to miss Waller and her operation so that's 50% of the money is staying in the munity and supporting our new or soon to be confirmed hopefully Equity officer so that's half of it the other half um in your email you should have received a a proposal from the director of the organization that detailed out a request for support for their kitchen and we didn't move to try to buy it all it's just um about $60,000 out of a $200,000 request and so it's kitchen equipment and supplies I don't I I assume it went to all members but maybe it didn't yeah I didn't see it but I'm I'm just concerned that that I'm hoping speaking of equity that any group that was in need of something similar had an opportunity to you know I had no idea this money was there that could possibly go to something like this so y um that's that's my concern I hear you thank you Miss broy thank you um yeah I don't I was trying to recall if I had seen that but I I did attend that event and I do recall that um one of the issues was uh Rising costs and there was a shortfall of course like anybody who's doing a home improvement or a building Improvement you know you cost it out and then and then you move forward and then um the costs increase but my question is actually um on the other portion um I understand uh what the the duties and the kind of General function of the aquus and Equity of inclusion and inclusion is um is there a thought at this point at how those funds would be programmed are they labor non- labor or um is that up up to the new director to uh determine as it's been presented to me it's non-labor but um I think that there is a proposal but the idea is leave it General because there is no budget for that office at this time yeah right thank you other than labor all right anyone else on the amendment Okay so and hearing no one members May proceed to vote on a vote of 10 to one and the youth member votes yes yes that amendment has passed Mr Riva are you there okay Miss Al thank you um so since we're already we've moved to General government um would like to turn to our colleagues either from South Anchorage or Eagle River Chugiak to discuss um their amendments either amendment number six or amendment number seven who would ever like to go first Mr Myers I'm happy to go first um and actually ask director brass to come up here and she's going to discuss this Meg do want need a motion not if you intend to move it yes but if you don't intend it but want to discuss it just keep going Ona brous director of The Office of Management and budget um amendment number six is one of two amendments in your packet that deal with uh component units within the fire department for um Eagle River chak Eagle River and for Girdwood Valley um this one that we are talking about right now is specifically for oh excuse me amendment number five I believe is specifically seven specifically thank you for um Chek Eel River and uh as part of our budget process this year we received funding requests from both chuak and Girdwood and the emergency uh medical service response that they have in those areas there are challenges within those um divisions because of the funding mechanism within fire service versus areawide funds ever increasing costs of goods and um the reality that some of these divisions have not seen some thorough budget attention in a very long time um because we got requests from both uh ends of our community and we are working to focus with the Anchorage fire department at large on their operations and their budget it is a very large portion of the municipal budget what I propose to the members from chaki River and South Anchorage was to work with them and the divisions over the the next 5 months in advance of first quarter budget revisions specifically to determine what the needs within those divisions are potential programmatic funding plans as we move forward and if there are other opportunities for funding whether they be um you know federal funds state funds private funds and how to True up the balance between our fire service funding and our EMS service funding at large within the fire department I have talked with Chief Shi and deputy chief parch for uh the last couple of months focused on spending this next few months with the fire department to figure out what that looks like for the future so I'm hoping that we will be able to postpone these amendments until first quarter and bring more information uh we would also incorporate the conversation about chair constant amendment that was presented at the um Amendment work session on the 8th there is um a lot of work to be done uh on the Anchorage fire department budget and its subsidiaries in order to make sure that our budgets reflect reality I want to jump in there real quick and say the amendment that I she referred to for myself was the firefighter wellness program just so we really specific thank you um who had the floor uh member Littlefield and I are fine dispatching this and bringing it up again in April during first first quarter budget revisions at least our portion I'm not sure what uh Zach and Randy plan to do okay I heard Mr Johnson say he's okay and so those amendments will not be moved okay Mr chair that is all of the Amendments except for the one we're waiting for Mr Rivera on for the alcohol tax Mr Rivera so if there's no [Music] objection if there's no objection we in order to give Mr River an opportunity to get on the phone um it's an option that we move on to the capital budget before we conclude the discussion on the operating budget and so if there's no objection that's what we'll do miss brona go ahead I just I'm fine waiting for it um Mr Rivera to come for the vote but I just would hope that we'd always extend that to someone even if they were possibly voting the other way and they weren't quite here so um I don't know how the membership is on the amendment that he's proposing but it is his Amendment and so I give no consideration to that it's just that um we have a bunch of items and uh we can move on and take care of other items while we wait um Mr Boland thank you Mr chair um while we wait um I guess before we move on I think that this is one where potentially more colleagues might want to be added as co-sponsors would now be an opport opportunity time to do that or amendments don't work that way yeah what do you mean like all you need to do is say I support this as we come through the debate the documents relating to an amendment disappear they won't be part of the public record okay okay thanks yeah no again the question is is there objection to moving on to the capital budget at this time while we wait for Mr Riva to come on this main vote okay I am hearing no objection seeing no objection so we will go ahead and proceed to the next item the next item is 11d D it's AO 202 24- 93 an ordinance adopting the 2025 General government Capital Improvement budget there is no motion pending move to approve the S second motion to approve by Miss alel seconded by miss broley and miss alel thank you Mr chair there are three amendments uh 11 11 and 12 and then number 10 um amendment number 11 is actually by myself and Mr vand I'll go ahead and move that at this time if I may second it's amendment number 11 moved by melel seconded by Mr voland um Miss elel thank you um this amendment increases the proposed bonds to provide funding for the Midtown Park Chalet the Midtown Park Chalet is a project that's um been underway for a little while um it proposes to put an ice skating Chalet and Recreation um next to the skating oval at Midtown Cy Park um Mr AA and I last year moved to put this into the capital Improvement program and budget um and it uh was a tricky one and disappeared um and wasn't in it was part of the capital Improvement program when it was presented this year the request is for $400,000 the intent is if we move this into um our program is to ask the state in our legislative program um if membership agrees for matching funds thank you any further discussion Miss broy yeah thanks um I support this and I I do remember um when when you guys made that move last year so I was a little surprised to see that it wasn't in the um in the the budget for this year um and I do think that it is important um to recognize how much of a um a Community Asset that Park is um next month there will be the winter solstice Festival just as one example um and that Park comes alive with hundreds of people even in the depth of winter so it's an amazing thing to see um so I uh support this and also um will note that it's in the draft um version of the legislative program so depending on what the amount is we might need to change it um but I am supportive of this I know this is a District 4 uh Midtown priority thanks all right M brona I support this also I've had many conversations with Mr ranker about um his advocacy for the program and I know last year when we were looking at potentially um moving money forward for it they were not in a place where they felt like they were ready um I do have a little concern that um unless this the street scene continues to improve um that that facility could be vandalized it's it's uh in the heart of where a very large Camp recently was and um I'm hoping things will be better next summer but um I would certainly like to have some assurances prior to putting money forward on a structure like this Mr thank you Mr chair I'm excited to support this and to be a co-sponsor of this amendment um I I I think uh Nordic skating is something that is really gaining in popularity um here in Alaska in fact I'm a co-founder of the Wild Ice Skating Club of Alaska U there's no conflict because we don't receive any money for anything never have um I don't know if we ever will uh but this is I think a really cool way to support um a recreational opportunity uh and a growing sport um and I do appreciate the work that Mr rankert and his fellow Advocates um the fundraising that they've done and happy to support this project thank you thank you Mr W any further discussion on the amendment hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote that I pass that Amendment passes 11 to zero on the youth member votes yes yes thank you um next is amendment number 12 with members John uh Johnson and Sal is there a motion motion to move Amendment 12 second motion to amend by um Mr salt seconded by by Mr Johnson Mr suton I assume this is the uh Timberline Road Safety Improvement yep okay so the the ask here is to take this out of our request and move it towards uh 2025 bond proposal Mr Johnson yeah thank you um I I support this I might have some comments on but first I'd like to ask budget director brow to maybe speak to uh the impus since the uh Administration was helpful in crafting this uh through the chair the administration is supportive of this move the Girdwood Board of Supervisors recently voted to move this uh project request out of the state funding program into the bond program specifically so that the birdwood Valley service area could vote on whether or not they wanted to tax themselves to be able to make these Road improvements we're supportive of that option and the question while it does go to both uh Anchorage and gwood the cost is only borne by the voters within the gwood valley service area and the ballot makes that clear so um we wanted to make sure that gboss had the opportunity to take that vote yeah thanks I'll just thank you for those comments and just EMP don't go too far just again emphasize the fact that this is something that was requested by the Girdwood Board of Supervisors you know as as the elected body uh in the valley and the cost for this would be only affecting people in the Girdwood Valley service area so um as it has no you know consequence directly to the mill rate or taxpayers and Anchorage bull I would encourage members to support thank you Mr constant y uh simple question it's kind of generally been touched on but I don't think it's been directly they pay it's their program it's a bond so it doesn't affect the mill right so it's not going to affect the M ly for the mun correct okay that's simple question thank you all right any further discussion on the amendment as proposed he seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes that amendment has passed Miss alel thank you I move amendment number 10 to the capital Improvement budget second motion to amend by Miss elel it's amendment number 10 seconded by Miss broley Miss elel thank you this is a conforming Amendment so what this allows is the Office of Management budget with the agreement of the municipal clerk or their designate to make conforming changes reasonably necessary to implement approved amendments um to this ordinance and any attached um memorandums or exhibits and you'll see one of these for each of the S version budgets that we will be making amendments to tonight thank you and to the youth members this allows the clerk and the OM director to make fixes on any incidental errors that might have been made in the process of updating by Amendment something that might have been different in this column or that it just allows them to authorize them to make make those fixes all right so anyone else on the amendment see here non-members may proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes uh amendment number 10 has passed I believe that concludes the Amendments on the capital budget so any let's actually debate it and yeah let's debate it and pass it any debate on the capital budget anyone Miss broy yeah thanks uh just briefly um one amendment that I had brought forward um originally during a work session and and opted not to was um on the theme that that keeps returning as I talked to constituents and and and we discuss our needs as a city and that is our dra drainage and maintenance backlog um so the original amendment that I had was to increase Bond funding for drainage projects within the artsa service area um I also understand that we have time to work on those bonds and that we need to be mindful of what we put to voters in terms of asking them um to pay for these things um but we also have a a like I said a massive backlog um of drainage issues in particular um so I am really happy to see um a long- awaited Midtown drainage project moving forward in the S version um the C project that we heard from several um several folks about um but I also know we have a big backlog of Maintenance um not just for drainage issues um you know installing facilities there but our vehicle Fleet aging facilities roads and sidewalks but I just want to make sure that we don't lose sight of um how importantance drainage is dealing with water that uh pools uh uh after rain after snow after breakup um our ground water issues you know that's really one of the big themes um of issues that we hear from constituents um when their their basement floods uh when it impacts quality of life in our neighborhoods Etc so uh so I opted not to bring that but I just wanted to bring attention to that again that it is something we need to continue working on uh that hopefully we move quickly toward actual implementation of our storm water utility that would allow for more um sources to address these issues and really uh build the drainage system that we need in our city um but in the meantime um that is a conversation that we can leave for another time thank you anyone else I'll just add you know there's an ongoing conversation about how projects make it onto which bonds and um really much of that is an administrative function but I think it's a conversation that we should have as we go forward so that we kind of all agree on the nature and scale of these bonds and um maybe look at some creative packaging that we haven't done in the past but with that if there's no further input members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ao20 24- 93s Mr chair has passed the body hi Mr Rivera welcome yes can you please record my vote as a yes sure on a vote of 12 to z uh AO 202 24-9 3s has passed the body that's the capital Improvement budget okay so since you're here let's go ahead enroll back to 11c 11c Is AO 204-9207 S as amended has passed now we are on 11c AO 2024-25 General government operating budget okay Miss salel thank you Mr chair um we are um we have been through all of the Amendments for the operating budget except for um yours Mr Rivera amendment number two so would you like to move amendment number two yes uh thank you madam chair I will uh move Amendment number two second thank you so Mr Rivera has moved Mr vand has seconded what is amendment two in the packet um Mr Rivera yeah uh thank you Mr chair um so what this amendment seeks to do uh is to use uh approximately $75,000 of unused alcohol tax funds uh to enter into a soul Source contract with nle um nle is the leading National Organization when it comes to um civilian oversight of law enforcement and um they have an extensive history of working with many Juris itions uh working positively with uh many law enforcement agencies around the country to develop various types and use various models of what folks call civilian oversight what others call Independent oversight what some call Community oversight there's a variety of names and feelings that people attach to um this work um frankly I believe that um we are in a position as a community that this kind of work is very much being called on um the community is calling upon us as the leaders of the municipality to move forward in this work in tandem with not in opposition to all of the work that Chief case and the LEF France Administration are currently undergoing so I want to underscore that this amendment does not not um work in opposition to anything which the police department is working on in fact I believe it adds on to that work and it adds I think a crucial missing element um essentially what this amendment will do if passed um there is an attachment to this amendment which lays out what the contract agreement would look like um possibly between nle and the Municipality of Anchorage and so we will begin in a lengthy uh phase of work to explore what community oversight would look like for the Municipality of Anchorage um I don't believe that we should wait uh to pass this amendment um we are I believe in a point in our community that we should move forward we should not delay this amendment and um regardless this is going to be a process that takes time um so let's get started and it's lot delay and um I encourage everyone to vote Yes on this amendment thank you Mr V thank you Mr chair um I I definitely support this amendment and as Mr Rivera um was getting at I think this is an opportunity for collaboration to bring stakeholders together the community APD the administration the assembly um and to have a conversation about exploring what is a best model for Anchorage residents to have more input um frankly I think we are in a a place and time here in Anchorage when it comes to policing where our best practices are lagging um behind other jurisdictions I I'll be frank um and I think you know even going back to a a sort of slow and frustrating roll out and body warn camera policy I certainly appreciate the efforts um that Chief case and APD um have have gone through to shore up that policy and to have a dialogue with policy makers on that um and all the work that they are doing to provide more public information but I I think that we are at a juncture a critical juncture where we need outside expertise to weigh in respectfully I don't think that our body has that expertise as policy makers right now I don't think that the Administration has that expertise I don't think that APD has that expertise I think now is time um to bring in um the experts and help have a dialogue that can be collaborative uh with the community um and to explore um what do we want to do civilian oversight more public input um perhaps this can be very helpful in reimagining the public safety commission and so I really hope that um uh my colleagues will be in support of this and we can move forward and I'll just highlight that this is very responsive to much of a testimony that we heard in the public hearings on this budget and of course we can see there are many advocates for this in the room here tonight um so thank you to all of you for showing up I'm hope we can support this thank you Mr chair M broley thank you um so we have heard a great deal about this proposed amendment um since it was brought forward um and I want to share that I understand the concerns about um working with this particular organization I also understand concerns about what the possible outcomes of that process will be I'm also not naive about the work ahead I know that um these kind of conversations how a community engages with law enforcement what that relationship looks like will be tough conversations um and it will need to weigh all of the costs and benefits so I'm really approaching this project which has already been underway uh minus this funding of course um as really exploring options so I don't see this as a foregone conclusion or driving toward a specific outcome I believe that this is funding a conversation a process and one that can meaningfully involve community members law enforcement Municipal departments and staff um and I have been part of tough conversations and stakeholder negotiations before so I know that it is possible that if people come to the table with even with disagreement but a willingness to talk even if that's very strong disagreement you can work toward shared Solutions and in the end um come to something that everybody supports I I truly believe that that can be possible um so for all those reasons I do think we need a thoughtful and intentional process to explore these options we need to engage the public on what is both effective and realistic um I know there's a lot of um a lot of folks I think have a very clear idea in their minds at this point what um what they want or what they believe should happen um I am not one of those I I think that there are there's more information that we need and there is more more exploration that we need to do but I think we can greatly benefit from Lessons Learned um from other places to look at what the more and less effective paths other communities have taken and also so that we are clear about what the resources needed to implement any of the recommendations that are made um before we take any action so I believe that this will help us move through that process thank you Mr pres thank you I apologize for my voice um so I um agree with everything that my colleagues have said more or less I think the intent of this is is is good I think that again it was stated that this process has already started we've already started to explore this um my my concern with this amendment is two things one that it that it that it names the agency that we'll work with um and I don't think that that's the the process that we should go through I think that we need to uh explore who we should work with um maybe this agency I I i' like to identify experts and and people Lo locally that that could help so my one concern is that it so sources this particular organization the second thing that it does because this particular organization um really moves towards um a version of Citizen oversight that is one version um and so that's the other challenge that I have with it is it is it in many ways for me pre supposes the outcome so I I am actually um um going to suggest that we not vote for this I I would encourage my colleagues to vote this down I have a second amendment that I would like to to bring forward W with with some colleagues that that changes the language in that it does not name the organization that we would work with it allows us to go through a process of figuring out who that organization should be and what the it does is it is it fully describes the process that we would go through that would be collaborative that would have the police department and the union and the community and the assembly and the administration working together to identify what that should look like here in Anchorage because I don't think we know to miss miss bro's Point um I I think we really need to be open to what this looks like but at the end of the day what we're looking for is Meaningful involvement of the community in the engagement and oversight of police and I think that that's really an important role for the community to have um and we've tried that in the past we've tried advisory councils we've tried commissions um and so we need to look creatively about what that should be moving forward so my my suggestion to my colleagues is that we vote this down I think that this is too specific in terms of the the organization and um and and consider the amendment that was passed out earlier as as an alternative which gives us a lot more um space to be able to do this in a collaborative way thank you all right thank you Mr Pres pres um Miss brona thank you chair um I did a lot of digging and I have read all of your emails and I I apologize that I did not get back to people um I know that this is a huge Community issue and um I found a statistic that um per capita we're the third highest um in this police related shootings and that's not acceptable that's where we want to be but I do think that this sets forward this this motion prior to letting Chief case and our new mayor have an opportunity to really establish what they're going to do I believe in both of them being able to come to the table they're fresh to their jobs and to say that they can't handle a way to put citizen o oversight forward um is you know something that I I'm not willing to say um one of the things that I found in my digging today is there's a really Excell excellent article by Lonnie shabel um he's a PhD in criminology and sociology at University of col Colorado Denver um it's just put out this summer and it talks about this particular organization nle and the challenges in impediment ments and civilian oversight that different communities who have taken on this um group have had and you know the bottom line is they feel like there is some great value to it but some of the challenges that I want us all to think about um is that there's we're really highly amped and they said the it's least effective when there's an Us Versus Them happening when it's not a collaborative when the blame game is going on it's hard to sit at the table and get things worked out so that's one cautionary Tale the other is um the chief is he's the he's in charge of managing discipline and in the structure that we have there is no way we can move forward with a civilian group that can decide to put an officer on um administrative leave we have a Union that protects officers and people from that kind of action and if we are going to be messing with how their system works we are going to have to renegotiate and that will be costly um it is the other thing that they talk about in here is how you lose police officers and there's like the other side of the coin you know people saying well everyone's going to quit we won't have officer I don't believe that is true but there is a cost when people feel like they are constantly being assessed judged and fingers pointed at um that job policing our community is not an easy one I would never do it I would never allow my kids to do it and one of my best friends does it and I worry for her every day um it is not easy walking into unfamiliar scenes and making Split Second decisions and so um that is that is one of the other things that I wanted to say um the other thing that concern me is the groups that have taken on civilian oversight according to this gentlemen if they're going to be effective at all it's a 500,000 a year cost and they said I um that if they actually are investigating several cases is they usually need three times that amount so this could be something that feels good it feels like we're doing this but then we won't have the funding to keep it going um the other thing that I wanted to point out that I just learned today um is that I got to find my paper um that 25% of Seattle officers left after um they went went to this civilian oversight with nle and the other thing that I wanted to to talk a little bit about is that alas Anchorage Alaska has 1.48 officers per 1,000 and the state average is 1.65 per th000 the national average is 2.31 per th000 and similar populations to ours it's 2.41 per thousand so what I'm saying here is we have a police force that is underst staffed and when we have people doing more than their share that are feeling stressed because they're getting called in on their days off and whatnot it's a recipe for people having trouble with making good decisions and feeling good about their job and are we going to keep them on the force I would love to see our efforts go into doing whatever we can to make policing our Community safer for the police officers as well and get us fully up to staff so that my constituents when they call have someone come the biggest complaint I have in my whole time on the assembly which is not that long it's is people calling and not getting response and it's not because someone doesn't want to help them it's because we simply don't have enough officers thank you all right Mr salt I don't think I can say it as well but um um we do have oversight we have the Attorney General we've implemented body cams we have voter oversight we've implemented a new mayor and that mayor has made changes we have a new police chief and that police chief is making changes and we need to let these changes take effect again ultimately the voters have the oversight I also agree when we when we let in specific organiz ations or special interest groups it's like a consultant the answer is always more they already know the answer they got to justify the their recommendation and I also agree with I think this will have increased bureaucracy we be slower to respond there'll be more um uh red tape in front of our officers and that is affecting recruitment we already have a hard time getting officers to come it's a very difficult job we do recently had an officer suicide in the past week um and we're we're almost at critical Staffing levels as remember banga pointed out some of the emails I get on calls that APD would respond to if they could is absolutely amazing um one uh someone showed up at a resident's door who had come from a suspected drug house and had been beaten up bleeding profusely and it took over two hours for response to come to that person I know and I've followed up I know that's a high priority call I know they will send someone and that just goes to show how underst staffed we are and this will affect recruitment thank you m al thank you Mr chair I actually have a couple of questions maybe for Mr fsy because they have to do with whether this might be a grant or contract in the dollar thresholds and the process that applies to them and I am not fast enough on the fly to read code um so the proposed amount in and the next one um is both $75,000 um this amendment says contract the other one doesn't specify and I know we treat grants and contracts slightly different whether or not the so what I'm most interested in knowing is what vehicle is necessary at this dollar threshold to ensure that the item would come back to the assembly for approval and not just be awarded or if that would need to be an added term on the appropriation through the chaired members alel if the budget is amended to provide a certain amount of money which will later be granted currently title 7 provides that no Grant um can be awarded to a private organization in for more than $50,000 unless the assembly receives an approval memorandum but what about a contract because this some of this language says contract and right and that's that squishy space between grants and contracts so if they put out a request for proposals to enter into a contract then when does it come back and if it is a request for proposals and we've used competitive procurement either invitation to bid or request for proposals then I will have to quote you chapter and verse but right now $150,000 is when it would come back to the assembly for approval if it was done with Pro competitive procurement thank you Mr FY um the reason I asked those questions is it's a small distinction but I think a very important one um because as I look at what we have are two options before us um one is competitive um but one says a contract and I think that there are things I like in each and neither I like on its own and so I want to share those things that I like in each like going out for um competitive process because it wouldn't prevent nle from bidding on it and what I see in the letter um attached to Mr aa's amendment is a phase one in particular that I really really like I like how they want to set the stage for the conversation um and kind of move through what I like about amendment number eight that I know is not before us yet but is a different version version of this is that it goes out to see who else might be up for this and what might they propose um what I don't like about amendment number eight is it's a tiny bit well it's squishy it doesn't have enough guard rails like phase one does in the N proposal um and it doesn't say whether or not the intention is to award a grant or a contract I would really want to if we're going to move forward and either of these to ensure that the final version of what might be awarded comes back for our approval to make sure it meets what we're expecting it to do I don't want it to Simply Be a contract under $150,000 that's reported in an information memorandum because that's how we learn about those I wanted to come back at the very least in the consent agenda if not something right because then we can scrutinize it look at it before it's actually approved so I'm going to sit with those if anyone wants to respond to any of those concerns or has any ideas um that's where I'm at I'm undecided between um the two I think both have some merits and both have some faults and I don't feel terribly comfortable with either unless I can reconcile them thank you uh Mr Myers thank you Mr chair uh my question is for the administration I see mayor Le France is back in the queue so I wanted to find out if the administration felt this was necessary given that they are relatively new in the role but um Madam or mayor LF France was on the body previously so she's sat here on the dis and if she felt uh that Chief case thought this was necessary thank you m member Myers the administration is taking unprecedented action to obtain outside expertise to review APD training tactics and operations and build public trust I've implemented two layers of outside review an outside investigation of the August 13 2024 officer involved shooting and a comprehensive outside review of apd's use of force policies and training which will be open for proposals via a public RFP soon both of these will result in recommendations for APD which will be made public APD has also completed its own use of force review and is implementing a series of additional changes under the direction of Chief case we are focused on the completion of these reviews and the work APD is already doing to engage with the community and keep Anchorage safe I do not support funding this appropriation and I urge members to vote no on this amendment thank you Mr Myers nothing further thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Johnson yeah thank you and first I want to say I really appreciate the mayor's response to uh Mr Myer's question um and applaud mayor Le France and also Chief case for their proactiveness their engagement with the community and various stakeholders to try and continue to to build a a better department for all of us um so for my part I would encourage them to continue that work and I have full faith and confidence that they will um whether this passes or not and I um also appreciate a lot of the comments my colleagues have made I I just want to add one one piece to it for my part as we weigh the various costs and benefits of a proposal like this and and something that I think should be articulate as a cost is what it means to the men and women uh who put on the uniform and and I I'm sure all of us have heard from them recently about how they perceive this what they believe this says about our valuation of them and the job they do um and I know well- meaning members probably don't intend to do harm to our Police Department or t don't intend to disincentivize them to keep doing the job but that is a cost that we have to consider here we already have an Department that is down 50 something officers we are struggling to find people to want to take the job we are struggling to hold on of the people we have and and we talk about paying benefits and that's part of it but I will tell you as somebody who was a law enforcement officer for eight years yeah that matters but every day you have to get up and ask yourself am I ready and willing to risk my life perhaps sacrifice my life for this community and and it's a tough choice and and nobody even considers the job unless you deeply love your community but what your community says about you and how they feel about you affects your decision whether or not you want to keep doing that job and this and and some of the other statements and actions this has taken a sent a message as the leaders of this community to the men and women in APD that we don't appreciate them that we don't have faith in them um and it has harms it's I I can't point to this and say Here's how many officers I I know we will lose if this passes but I can say with confidence that probably for some of them this will be one more thing on top of a large list of things that just gives them one more reason to not get up and not keep going and not keep doing that job and and we see the consequences this has for our community even if we don't necessarily bring it into the conversation here people don't feel safe on their roads we spent a lot of time talking about that people don't feel safe in our parks and on our Trails our businesses are getting broken into at staggering levels and and people complain that we don't have a police response the fact that we don't have enough officers to do the job really is having everyday meaningful impacts on the quality of life in our our city and so I I I know there members will support this but I would just encourage you as you weigh those costs and benefits your mind you have to also weigh the impact this has to the people doing the job and recognize that there will be probably fewer of them showing up to do it in the future if we uh if we continue down this path Mr Rivera we're on our second tour through the queue before I hand you the floor I'm going to ask for a motion to extend debate by 15 minutes moveed by Miss alel seconded by Miss is there any objection heing see none we are extended by 15 minutes Mr Rivera thank you Mr chair um I I appreciate all of the discussion that we have had um you know I really do worry about folks making some Grand assumptions about this amendment and what it will do uh passage of this amendment possibly leading to officers leaving leading to disciplinary control of the police Department being turned over to some Shadow board it's quite a in my opinion a very Doom and Gloom story and narrative I'm going to ask the members to think a little bit more broadly why can't we as a community recruit more officers and improve relations between APD and the community why can't we have better response times and see better results from our officers and improve our policies and trainings these are all things that we can do these ideas are not in conflict with each other um so I'm really going to ask members to think more broadly about this um to really put aside this Doom and Gloom narrative um and to think about what is truly best for our community and what we can do together um last really I'm just going to um uh be open to some of the changes that members alel described I don't think anything that members alel described I was um opposed to so I if she has an amendment uh to bring forward uh I would be welcome to it an amendment to the amendment I should say Thank you Mr chair all right Mr pres thank thank you um boy I couldn't agree more that um the idea that the the goal here is to have meaningful involvement of our community and and the idea that that will lead to um officers leaving or that will lead to um all of the things that have been described I I just don't think it's a fair um characterization of what's going on here what's going on here is that right now what role does the community have there's no commission there's no real advisory Council if what what role do they have and why wouldn't we want to make sure that they have a meaningful role in being involved in this and and what harm would that would that b have um that's the thing that I'm trying to understand and we're not even actually saying what that would be we're just saying we're going to look into it we're going to explore it we're going to we're going to learn more about it that's all this is so I'm I'm concerned that that we're taking this way beyond what it really is and what it really is is just an effort to get more information about how to how to have a meaningful role of the community in our oversight of our police department and ultimately we all work for the community right so this is what we all should want um again I I prefer the Second Amendment because it does not have a sole source um and all the things that I said but at the same time I think it's really important that we not blow this out of proportion this is simply an exploration into how to have a meaningful role of the community and that's it um and so and what we learn we'll bring back to the assembly and we'll have a conversation about whether we should move forward with that or not and I think that likely will be some group some commission some panel some community group that will be able to be involved in looking at things like policies and bringing a community perspective to those it'll be things like you know there's a new training program that the that the um the police force going to do let's have community members look at that and talk about it and share their their thoughts about it um how about you know there's something going on that that is a concern about by the community so this this group will will learn more about it and they'll gather more information about that and have a a role in actually trying to see how we can solve it so I I don't think there's anything um uh Sinister going on here I think this is simply an effort to try to gather more information and have a meaningful role with the community so but again I I I think unless we amend this we should vote this down and look at the Second Amendment thank you so I'm going to skip through the queue to youth member Grady um whether there is already oversight doesn't matter it isn't working whatever prosecution from the attorney general oversight from the chief all of it isn't working when we talk about subjects like this and see stat statistics about officers learning about changes in the force we shouldn't let that distract us any system in which a public servant shoots a teenager is so vastly fa that we cannot let it be this is not a commitment to any later board or a project just a single chance to do what's right thank you you Mr Martinez thank you chair Thank You Youth member Grady for your words I appreciate member Cameron uh member is Veria for describing Grand assumptions and I think we've fallen into the Trap again sir where uh it seems like if we if people the choices are today about a step forward or not and I don't think that's what the choices are but let me Begin by establishing how my morning routines are so that folks can get a a sense of my background to this this is not a theoretical operation for me I have been training my son how to interact with police for 16 years I have been an expert for the United States of America to work internationally with law enforcement across different countries training them on how to not be the police that I grew up with in giuliani's New York in the amadu Dio aftermath or the Central Park 5 aftermath just the other day I had to educate my son how to make sure that he got a bust to stop for him see a bus drove right past him and and he thought he was just waiting at the bus stop and and the bus didn't stop for him and I had to ask him what did he wave did he do things that to some folks might seem like it's excessive but I've been doing that training my whole entire life so this conversation is real to me it's a life or death conversation for myself and for my family I just was reflecting on a photo from a about decade ago give or taken I was in town square park with members of our community together standing not for an issue that was locally based but it was a national issue at that time Mike Brown y'all folks remember that hands up don't shoot that's the training I still give to my son make sure his hands are completely clear and seen and and so I have to do this training and some might say well that's ridiculous that you need to do that training we need to do better as a society right on Amen but I'm still going to do that training because it's matter of fact to me so let's just get real clear with this where I stand with this and I do celebrate my colleagues for bringing this forward but I don't need any third party to tell me how to have this conversation cuz I know how to have it today and I do reject the premise that we don't have the talent and the capacity in our community to do these conversations well I have been waiting my entire life to see whether there was going to be an Administration that's going to be responsive with a police chief that had a proximity to the community I don't want a third party to get in the way of that opportunity I want to go directly to the chief rather than do this old work I want to empower the local conversation again well what does that conversation mean well let's just go back historically how many people know on the deis on the body Cal Williams by show of hands in the in the room cassal Williams 1986 we're going them back to the 80s well in in the 80s there this is not a new thing in Anchorage it's not new right there e and flows there was a shooting of a person named Cal Williams this helped to change the laws of Alaska where the fleeing felon chained so that you could not shoot a fleeing suspect in the back the end of ACP of Anchorage got together and worked with the Department of Justice they built a platform at the time didn't have what we know nowadays didn't have the the the insights the tools but they tried their best they built a police Community civilian task force it didn't go far enough everybody got lazy and complacent and some of the elders that sat on that board died on that board retired after 20 years of sitting there so there had been apparatus but they've been defunct I would love us to take this these dollars and turn them into ourselves Chanel them back into capacity building because inevitably we're going to get a report potentially from a third party that says this is the work that you all need to do anyway I just want to get to the work I just want to go right to the actual work I know there are people in our community that can do this work that we can work together on this and the good thing about organizations like nle is they publish all of their information on white papers online and the good thing about organizations like the Alaska Black Caucus is that they're inviting one of the the the first uh people who uh operate in the office of oversight and another city coming up here we have access to the information we have talent in our communities I don't want us to get sidetracked on having conversations to Mr Cameron Perez verious point where we're thinking that this is the end all we have debated this we'll talk about it and then essentially even if it approves we'll be waiting for the next part of the process to go when I want us to go now we have the proximity with the police we have the the accountability with the mayor let's bring them all together and let's build the apparatus that we don't have that we need to have but we could do it ourselves that's my disposition today and I will continue to encourage all the folks in the community don't get lazy thinking that everything is cool continue to train your children on how to make sure that they're safe in our community thank you you Mr vand thank you Mr chair um yeah you know I think I see where this is headed and I it's unfortunate you know I I feel like some colleagues who have talked about um during a previous administration lack of expertise around um issues of homelessness for instance and how it would be beneficial to have um expertise um so I I don't know I here's one of the few uh organizations that has experience working with other jurisdictions um in this space so I guess okay we'll put out an RFP and then we'll wait for that how many more months and who knows will happen in the meantime I will say that I completely reject the notion that you cannot support APD or that somehow calling for more oversight or more trans Arcy and accountability to the taxpayers that they are sworn to Serve and Protect is in any way a signal of lack of support for APD and in fact I think that this body has time and time again from a funding perspective sought to support our police force whether that's upgrades in their Fleet upgrades in their technology Etc and I will continue to do that and I think it's important to have a robust Public Safety response when and where appropriate but I will say that government benefits from transparency and accountability and that extends to every area of government for example that's why I co-sponsored with uh member constant the online checkbook so that Anchorage residents have more insight into how our money is spent I don't think that there is any area of government that should have more transparent transparency and accountability to the public that it serves than policing with great Authority has to come great responsibility it is the area of government that can take someone's life and that can be determined legally Justified there's no higher mantle um and so I think we've heard loud and clear at this point I feel you know I can appreciate wanting a a really uh deliberative process but I think again we're behind the ball we have an opportunity here to take a meaningful step forward and to say we're going to get some help some expertise and if you read the scope of work that's put forward that's attached to the amendment here it's very intentional the way that it's laid out um and you know to to convene state holders to conduct interviews to put together summaries on community needs Etc um so I I guess I'm disappointed but I I do want to say that I totally I I share the opinion that we can support our police force our men and women in uniform while also recognizing the need for increased transparency and accountability and I think we've seen in in the wake of these multiple shootings um a lot of community frustration and and for my part my interpretation of that what we're seeing right now is that trust is already broken and I'm very concerned about folks not seeing our police force as those who will intervene and make a situation better if you have a loved one in crisis if you have a family dispute I don't know if the message that the community is getting right now is call the police they're going to help the situation is not going to be escalated you're not putting a loved one at risk I don't know if that's the the me message that our community is receiving right now and I want to help move us in that direction but I think for Anchorage residents to have more input um I think it is time is of the essence thank you Mr chair so I'm going to ask members Indulgence to extend debate by another 10 minutes um is there any objection hearing I see none we're extended Miss alel thank you Mr chair so I've listened to the debate um and I'm just going to kind of head One Direction and probably Veer another Direction so I am someone who um in my five and a half years on this body has been critical of the police force who has questioned why it works the way it works has had I think pretty deep conversations with our current chief of police and the uh head of the apda or the union um to better understand because it's not a natural disposition I have um and I've supported APD I have brought every training dollar they have asked for I have supported efforts for mental health integration and other um opportunities I have been there I have shown up contrary to what I believe many on the force believe and I have been stalwart in that even when there was opposition from prior administrations to support our own police and their training that said I have the same conversation with my child that Mr Martinez has with his child and anyone who has to have the convers with their child knows that you make a calculus every time you see an officer you make a calculus of will my child act the right way my child is now where she is out more independently in the world I worry because you know what my kid knows to call mom if there's a problem but what if she reaches for her person or cell phone it keeps me up at night and that's not to say that I don't think that we have very professional officers but they are trained in a particular way and I understand that some of that training is going to change that there's going to be a review of the use of force policies but I don't see this as a binary decision I appreciated this idea that we built a platform previously out of tragedy but I think it needs a modernization program and I think that modernization program is one that is frankly additive to the capacity we have in the municipality I'm not going to support the current amendment I would like to bring the next Amendment forward and amend that amendment I don't think I wish we could do it ourselves I wish we had the capacity and the time to just simply do it ourselves but I don't see anyone stepping forward to do it it's been months I don't see anyone sitting down and saying what are we doing how are we making sure the community is involved how are we having these conversations it's not happening it's not happening with the urgency and robustness that I hear members speak to thinking it needs to be done so I think this gets to be this is the opportunity for our community to have the yes and proposition yes I trust the mayor and the chief of police to look internally and make changes yes I also trust the community to engage in a thoughtful conversation about what will help restore the relationship if you do not have to have the conversation with your child or a loved one then you don't know hard stop I'm sorry it is a place of privilege to sit and not have to think about that I can't put you in my shoes I can't put you in those shoes until you have to do it so I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment let's bring the other one forward and I plan to run an amendment against it thank you Mr Martinez thank you members Alto and and I appreciate the uh the words and the reminder to the folks in the audience to have Grace for each other that's what how I heard it because everyone doesn't have the same lived experience um but I have a question and maybe the sponsors maybe uh folks who have more seasoning on the body and maybe even members of the administration can help um MCT mobile crisis team uh how was that developed did we hire out ofate folks to give us uh the work around building a platform and then kind of take those recommendations into the MCT or what was the genis of that program we did that yes we um appropriated money to consult with Steph coulston and she um worked with um the chief of uh fire at the time miss hetrick and they came up with what the appropriate platform looked like um examining what had been implemented in other parts of the country and how we could also use Medicaid to do that um Miss Kon was one of the um people who had worked with the state to develop our 1115 waiver so we used her expertise excellent and what I heard parallel something that member Perez Veria described which was um rather than being in Conflict but working in alignment with with a department essentially uh not extra departmental um and it seemed that that seems like a different Genesis a different process and then also to fundamentally describe that we moved the funding from the for the MCT out of the alcohol sales tax bucket and put it into General operations so we formalized it as well so a good idea got formalized and it was working with the Department I just wanted to highlight that because we do have track records real time of how we can get Cutting Edge with responsiveness to from local government different set of issues clearly um MCT is a different space than what we're talking about but it also speaks a little bit into that in that there's a different response from the municipality that goes along with uh the mobile intervention team and so I just wanted to just get a little bit more of that background I appreciate memb Alto for having that history and it just describes to me that there are other ways forward working with each other uh rather than uh opposed to each other thank you all right so um I see no one else in the queue for the amendment members May proceed to vote on a vote of two to nine Mr chair Mr rera sorry I vote Yes I CL the button okay um and the youth member [Music] votes on a vote of three to nine and the youth member votes yes yes so that Amendment fails to pass Miss alel we probably need an extension of another 10 minutes is there any objection no okay Miss Sal next um and the remaining item for the alcohol taxes amendment number eight the sponsors are broy Perez verdia and Rivera is that a motion to amend move to amend Number Eight Second moved by Mr broy who is the second Cameron Mr Presa okay Miss broy I guess yeah I'll just very briefly highlight the differences with this one um first we removed reference to a specific vendor uh it specifies that the contractor will be uh chosen by competitive bid I think we already discussed um potential Amendment to the amendment on this item second we made it clear that this process will explore multiple options uh in a range of functions from advisory to oversite You'll note that it says that the working group uh that is described in this amendment must recommend at least three different models or options for the municipality to consider again speaking to the idea that this is not driving toward one specific outcome and then lastly I'll note um that as has it already been discussed um myself Mr Perez verdia and Mr Rivera um have have actively been forming a working group um uh not and that will not uh be dependent on whether this amendment passes we intend to continue that work into in 2024 and into 2025 whether or not we have additional resources uh this funding would help us increase our Outreach to the public um especially really having those public conversations and understanding before we dive into what the options might be um it'll help us do information and Analysis and it'll help us understand what other places have done um as well as as we've Ted talked about costing out what these options might look like um so whether there's resources to support this we do intend to uh continue this discussion to involve the community in this effort and to again really go from uh I think where folks are starting and maybe have a clear idea or a clear uh set of things they would like to see and move us all through that process so we all better understand what our options are and then we can hopefully come to something that people can generally agree on is a better place than where we are now Mr pres Veria thank you um Mr um Martinez is gonna um read my my statement on my behalf thank you chair I'm going to read a statement on behalf of Mr Perez Veria who's having a voice problems today exploring Community engagement and accountability in Anchorage policing as representatives of Anchorage we acknowledge the vital role our Police Department plays in ensuring Public Safety and fostering Community Trust the the Anchorage police department has taken significant steps towards continuous Improvement including independent reviews of policies and practices these efforts are commendable and reflect a commitment to Excellence and community service at the same time we recognize that community members desire a more meaningful role in shaping Public Public Safety and ensuring accountability past efforts such as advisory councils and commissions while well-intentioned have not consistently provided the depth of engage engagement or influence that the community seeks this has led to frustration and a sense that their voices are not fully integrated into the processes that guide policing and Anchorage to address this we propose a collaborative exploration of new models for Community engagement and accountability this effort is not about identifying wrongdoing or diminishing the good work of the police department and its officers instead it is about building on existing successes to foster a stronger relationship between the police and Community they serve our goals include identifying best practices engaging with experts and organizations to learn how other communities have successfully implemented models of meaningful Community involvement and accountability collaborative development working in partnership with the police department the police Union Community organizations and the mayor's office to co-create a framework that reflects anchorage's unique strengths needs and strengths three creating a meaningful role for community members moving beyond advisory input to explore Avenues where the community can participate in a way that ensures transparency accountability and shared responsibility for Public Safety four building trust through engagement ensuring that any framework developed is rooted in trust mutual respect and shared commitment to Public Safety and Community well-being we propose an inclusive process to explore what is possible for Anchorage while while engaging Consultants or experts to guide the conversation and developing recommendations while this amendment is neutral on the vendor providing Services we will seek contractors not only with facilitation and process experience but also expertise with law enforcement policies this process will prioritize collaboration ensure all stakeholders including community members City leadership the police department and labor organizations have a voice our intent is to create a model that is supportive constructive and rooted in the shared goal of making Anchorage a safe and thriving Community for all that's the end of the statement shair thank you Miss alel thank you I would like to amend this amendment um in the last paragraph of the text of the amendment um at the end of that paragraph I would like to continue the sentence so it says that includes the specifics as outlined in Phase One of amendment number two the attachment to amendment number two and requires assembly approval of the contract or Grant awarded regardless of the amount second motion to amend my Miss alel seconded by Mr V Al thank you um so I won't reiterate the reasons for my support of something moving forward but what I do want to respond to from the last debate that I think is Germaine here here is something like this can really catalyze our internal efforts and it is what catalyzed moving the mobile crisis team from an idea into something real into something that is now a valuable community resource um and I don't think often that members who are even passionate about ideas um or doing the work understand the capacity it takes um or what it sometimes takes to sit in that role of trying to reconcile various interests um and so by doing this we've added a little bit more of specifics what I really like out of the phase one of the other is the community survey and Analysis and qualitative feedback if you cannot show up to meetings I want there to still be a way to go out and get input from you I want there to be that engagement because not everybody has time to sit in a meeting not everyone feels comfortable talking in a meeting not everyone feels like they are um able to be a true stakeholder um or um able to participate to the fullest extent possible especially when sharing stories about interactions with police these are sometimes traumatic things or bring up trauma um then I want to make sure whatever is awarded or is proposed to be awarded comes back to us no matter what I don't care if the final thing is for $10 before we spend a dime on this I want us to make sure it's going to do what we intended to do so that's what this amendment does thank you any discussion on the amendment to the amendment Miss broy um I'm going to suggest on the the advice of council to just add addition and one additional phrase um and that is the phrase notwithstanding any provision of title 7 to the contrary regarding uh requiring assemble assembly approval title 7 is our procurement code um he wants before that last e again another 10 minutes if the members don't object hearing no objection we're extended 10 minutes it's just fine it's the amendment Mr Rand thank you um I'm going to support this um you know I I am a little worried about it just in terms of okay I I hope I I see both in the the language of the amendment and then the attached statement um that the entity who was contracted to do this work will have experience in law enforcement policies I think that that's crucial um so I really hope that we get a response that has the expertise that we're looking for um I see that the proposal says that multiple models will be considered and the working group must recommend at least three different models or options to me that kind of locks it in pretty tight um looks like we're going to come up with a a menu of options maybe um and I think something that can happen with that formula is that something gets watered down essentially and you you choose maybe the least offensive option um or or the weakest option um so I don't know I don't know where this is going to lead or or how strongly I feel about this not knowing who's actually going to be doing the work um but I hope the work can be meaningful thank you anyone else in the amendment to the amendment he n members May proceed to vote Mr Rivera yes on a vote of 11 to one and the youth member votes yes yes the amendment has passed back on the amendment as amended further discussion here up marily Le France thank you Mr chair we don't see a substantive difference between the two amendments and uh we remain focused on the completion and implementation of the ongoing reviews that I spoke to um in the prior Amendment and that in the work that APD is already doing to implement recommend commendations to keep our community safe thank you any further discussion on the amendment as amended hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote Mr Rivera yes on a vote of five to seven and the youth member votes yes yes the motion fails to pass right we have one more Amendment Mr chair all right Miss Al I move amendment number one the conforming Amendment second there's a motion to amend by Miss salel seconded by Miss broy it's amendment number one miss alel thank you this language is the same um as the prior conforming Amendment it just allows Office of Management and budget and the clerk to make conforming changes is thank you any discussion on the amendment hearing see none um members May proceed to vote Mr Rivera yes on a vote of 12 12 to0 the amendment has passed and the youth member votes yes yes all right so now we're back on the um main motion as amended which is the uh General government budget which is item 11 C any further discussion Miss broy thanks um just want to again recognize that both the process of going through the budget and the product that we've arrived at tonight is both a return to normal and also a big step forward toward meeting our community needs into the future um let's not lose sight of all of the good choices that are made in this budget um it focuses on stabilizing our Workforce ensuring we can plow our roads and provide core services and keeping our most vulnerable safe um but also it it means making hard choices when we have limited resources the rising cost of doing business not only for uh folks in the community but for us as a city as well we must prioritize um among very me very many priorities uh which can mean that it's difficult but um but I am very excited about the uh Investments that we continue to make in early childhood in our kids and families um and I have um a lot of appreciation for the new version of this budget um particularly with the alcohol tax and the marijuana tax funding um that we are making good on grants that were already awarded that we are funding early childhood programs um and then we are also leaving space for our Ace fund board to make recommendations of how we can be additive and how we can fund um uh additional priorities in the future um two amendments just very briefly that I did again did not bring but wanted to mention um one was kind of a retrospective looking backwards but also uh looking ahead uh and that is our 50th anniversary of uh what I'd like to call Anchorage area burrow um and so as we approach 50 years in 2025 I think there's a lot to celebrate and also a lot to reflect on how we've gotten here and the place that we've been able to build together but it is equally important that we look ahead um to the the next half century and beyond uh what challenges we're facing how things have changed since 1975 and how we should consider changes uh to the way that we do things as well as what our community should be in the future I think we should decide our community's vision but equally important we should look at what resources we need and what choices we need to make to get there um so I'm hopeful that in 2025 we can uh look back and celebrate kind of where the path that we've been on but also plan ahead and really have real conversations with the whole Community about our fiscal future um so again these are not amendments that I am bringing back for the budget but I intend to work collaboratively with the administration to determine um what that can look like and to really again engage the entire community in 2025 um in where we want to be for the next 50 years thank you Miss brona thank you chair I had I looking at my page 11c I have great in the margin because it was so nice to read uh mayor LEF Fran's um homeless hit homelessness head-on mobile crisis team fully funding the Anchorage safety patrol affordable child care Innovative pilot projects the grants team and uh making Municipal jobs more competitive and I just it's a really thoughtful um budget in my opinion and I it's just really nice to be working as a team anyone else seeing and hearing none I'll just say thank you again to the chairs and to miss brous members May proceed to vote member Rivera yes on a vote of 12 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes a2024 d92 S as amended has passed the body so um are there any students left who are here from their class anyone anyone two back in the corner you here from your class there okay so when we take a break I want you to come up and I want to make sure we get uh your teachers email so we can send a note that you stuck through a really intense and meaningful debate about the future of our city our budget and so you win the award tonight for sticking around so stick around a little longer and come up when we get a break um with that we have just a few more items on the budget um nothing will be as uh challenging as that was I don't think because we've already dealt with most of the Amendments next we have item 11e 11e is ao20 24- 94 an ordinance adopting and appropriating funds for the 2025 Municipal Utilities Enterprise activities operating budgets in the 2025 Municipal Utilities Enterprise activities Capital Improvement budgets there's no motion pending move to approve move by Miss elel second by Miss broley Miss elel oh sorry move to approve the S my apologies thank you um so this is our Enterprise and utilities budgets so this includes our hydropower utility our water utility uh Wastewater utility and solid waste collections as well as the collection and Disposal um Port of Alaska Merill field um um so these are all um utilities or Enterprises that pretty much pay for themselves or with rate payer fees um and so their budgets are taken up separately I do have a verbal Amendment on this it is on page two at line 11 after the words Anchorage Hydro power Capital um I wanted to read this appropriation is subject to assembly approval of the 19 91 fish and wildlife program budget for 2025 period second to amend by Miss salel seconded by Miss broy do you have that Madam clerk all right so we'll hand it over to you so while the clerk is typing I'll ask the mover to describe the amendment sure thank you Mr chair so the $325,000 in the capital Improvement program um is the money we put forward each year to pair our proportional share of implementation of the 1991 fish and wildlife program um we have through investigating kind of how those payments have been made in the past learned that there hasn't been a lot of oversight um or Clarity on what's been paid um and so so and we've never received any budget although we have an financial obligation in the fish and wildlife program we have not received a budget um from the three utilities working together about what they intend to spend in a year I don't know if year-over-year we spend the $325,000 if we've rolled it over and we have a pot of money that hasn't been spent and so as we're going to move forward um particularly to effectuate the governor's order which includes um exploring pump storage Hydro um in addition to the idea of moving forward on the portal valve I'd really like to know and this amendment is intending to do that what are we PRI prioritizing when and how much are we intending to spend um and it's my understanding that the utilities are all meant to get together soon um the hydr power utility chugat mea um to have this conversation about what is the budget for this next year and what will we actually be spending this money on thank you all right thank you Mr Johnson yeah thank you I appreciate the spirit of this amendment and then what it's trying to achieve I just wanted to to check with the administration though um does this feel workable or is there some flag potential you know second order consequence that we're we're maybe not seeing here through the chair Johnson the administration is fine with it we've discussed this with members and uh I think this degree of transparency is completely something we can we can absolutely live up to great thank you I just want to add a little note on the back end of that that it's an act absolute horror that this municipality has operated in the manner that it has to date with the fact that we're writing checks we're spending money we're shipping it off to uh the local utilities without questioning what we're spending that money on so it's the opposite of you know is this uh something that might cause some problems the fact is it has caused us problems we have paid money to the attorneys who have been fighting us we have literally paid our opponents attorneys fees for them because no one bothered to check an invoice that had detail on what we were paying for and so um this is the opposite of how fuer responsibility is supposed to be it's government in the dark and we've been LED this way we've been LED this way for a number of years and we're trying to lead ourselves out of the desert of failed policy here and um we're not in a good place um because of the way this whole thing has been run so the age of us writing blank checks to the utilities is over demonstrate to us what we are buying any further discussion on the amendment hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes the amendment has passed so we have now back before us a2024 d94s as amended any further yes Mr chair amendment number 13 I move amendment number 13 second motion to amend by Miss alel seconded by Miss M broley number 13 yes thank you Mr chair this is the last conforming Amendment because this is an S version just in case we the clerk and om need to get together and make any changes that are to make it work thanks any discussion on the conforming Amendment seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote someone stuck Mr Pria on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes the amendment has passed now we have back before us AO 2024 d 94s as amended any further amendments any further discussion members seeing hearing none members proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes AO 204-9416 no motion pending Miss elel move to approve second moveed by Miss elil seconded by miss broley any discussion see hearing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ao20 24- 95 has passed the body next we have ar202 24306 a resolution adopting the 2025 to 2030 General government Capital Improvement program no motion pending move to approve by Miss salel second by miss broy any [Music] discussion is it the S is there an S I don't think there's an s on this one no it's just 202 24-36 G G3 is an S so approve the S okay thank you madam clerk there is an s okay so we have before us AR 202 24-36 s any further discussion on the matter seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes AR 20 24-36 s is pass the body final budget item next is 11h era 202 24-37 a resolu ution adopting the 2025 to 2030 6-year fiscal program Office of Management and budget move to approve Miss alel seconded by Miss broy um anyone wish to speak to the matter seeing hearing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ar20 24 4-37 is passed the body next we have 11i which is resolution eror 202 24-38 resolution approving the 2025 to 2030 Municipal Utilities Enterprise activities Capital Improvement programs move to approve second moved by Miss elil seconded by miss broley any discussion hearing seeing none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ar22 24-38 has passed the body Madam mayor thank you Mr chair for this moment of personal priv I wanted to call attention to the unanimous unanimous budget votes um that have just transpired and say thank you to the members of the assembly and also to Echo thanks to om Ona Brouse Marilyn bons off and the budget and finance co-chairs Meg zelal and Anna broy and really to thank the members for your thoughtful inputs and the collaboration and also the public input um I am grateful for the outcome of these budget votes and look forward to continued collaboration thank you all right thank you I think now we'll take just a quick maybe five minute break before we handle the last five items on the agenda hold on yep we're GNA get started in as soon as the clerk's hand goes down ready all right everybody welcome back next we have item 14a 14a is a202 24-100 an ordinance am in the zoning map and approving the rezoning of approximately 3.37 Acres from PL public lands and institutions District to b2c Central business district periphery for the southern portion of lot one block 36 East Edition Anchorage townsite per preliminary plat case S12 780 generally located east of Eagle Street south of East First Avenue rway alignment west of the gamble Street rway alignment and north of East Third Avenue in Anchorage the public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard on this item anyone at all welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hello my name is Kate Silber I'm a land use planner with Dal representing South Central Foundation um the applicant for this rezone um for 225 Eagle Street in Northeast downtown um we're close to recording a plat to split the lot into two the reone is for the southern portion of this lot and would be effective upon recording of This plat after the plat and re Zone the Department of Health and Human Services which is the current owner of the property will transfer the property to South Central Foundation for the continued operation of medical and related uses on the property um the zoning that's proposed is Central business district pery or b2c it's consistent with the current land use surrounding zoning and the inridge 2040 land use plan um the rezone was supported by planning staff and unanimously approved by Planning and Zoning commission and I just want to say that I'm available for any questions and we also have two representatives from South Central Foundation here tonight they are also available for any questions thank you thank you anyone else wish to be heard anyone at all all right welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi good afternoon or good evening my name is Max dochuk I work for C Center Foundation and facility planning construction I'm a project manager um I am here tonight because the rezone is very important to sou Central Foundation and um we appreciate the support for the rezone um available for questions if you have any all right thank you anyone else wish to be heard anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now Clos what's will the body move to approve second moved by Mr Wen seconded by Mr broley any discussion all right hearing seeing none members okay go ahead Miss branga I just wanted to ask since we do have people here um so South Central Foundation it seems like that zoning you can do pretty much what you want so I'm wondering why um the business doing the b2c is important is it the is there some sort of building that's going to go in that isn't consistent with the zoning that is there now sure I can speak to that um so the current zoning is public lands and institutions which um you might not expect this but it actually doesn't allow by right all of the healthcare related uses that you might think that you could develop in that zone so b2c does allow more Healthcare and related uses that South Central Foundation might consider for future expansion of services on the property um just looking towards the future it's a better fit thank you very much I was just seeing if you were going to go with a luxury hotel or something okay I love that you're being um flexible with what you can do in the property thanks M Bry thanks I just had a brief question um so you mentioned that the land will be transferred ownership um from I think it's US Department of Health and Human Services um to South Central I was just curious um because it's not that often that federal land gets disposed of so um just curious the backstory of that very briefly sure so this is the part of the former site of the Alaskan native hospital in North downtown um so Department of Health and Human Services still owns this land but South Central Foundation has operated uh criana clubhouse on the site for over 20 years um so with this transfer they would continue to operate um but they would own the land thank you any further questions from the assembly no any anything else no members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ao2 24-100 has passed the body next we have ao20 24-17 an ordinance authorizing a threeyear with two one-year lease options between the Municipality of Anchorage tenant and nem equities limited lesser for premise is located at 1251 mold Road for continued operation of the moldun library the public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none the public hearing on this item is now closed what's the will of the body move to approve second moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr Myers any discussion on the matter see hearing none members oh Karen go ahead I am sorry um I tried to push that button so I was looking at the price of this property um $259 a square foot which um comes out to I think it's 20 48,6 40 a year and um there is property at bonfice center that is cheaper $2 a square foot um and it's 100 so it' be 192,000 a year and I just wondered if there had been other options for U property knowing that um we want to move the mun Library anyway to a Transit Comm Community Center and if we could save a little money while we wait for that to come to fruition um I just wonder if we're just falling into the same three-year lease or was there any other options looked at is the real estate I don't know who I'm asking I guess is Tiffany around I believe we may have someone online I'm not sure if we have okay someone on the phone this if not if you'd like to continue it over a bit I can there's no look for an answer I don't know specifically what other properties we did consider this is the existing location of the moldun library and we did seek to continue that for current you know continuation of service there um but I'm happy to look for more Nuance into what other options were potentially considered so um we have three more items on the agenda is that an answer you think you can get within three more items on the agenda or does this item need to be continued to another day I can try if you can move it to the end of the agenda Mr chair right is there any objection for us to move on no objection then we'll go ahead and take up item 14 C which is ao20 24-18 an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code chapter 9.30 and 9.34 to provide free on street parking for persons with disabilities or Mobility impairments increase fines for legally parking and spaces reserved for person with disabilities and adding a new section EST lishing a disability with parking privileges permit the public hearing on this open anyone wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's the will of the body move to approve moved by Mr vand second second by Miss broley I want to move that Amendment Mr B would you oh sure um move we'll call it constant Amendment number one motion to amend by Mr ven is there a second second second by Mr Bry all right you want to speak to it or would you like to speak to it Mr Gates you want to speak to it you can um well I I could Mr share I don't have much to say this simply makes a few little um grammatical and punctuation cleanups so that the text of the code is I guess uh clearer and cleaner and less I guess subject to misinterpretation and uh I would recommend these as well as the attorney that assisted acda in this battle right thank you um Miss Bron is it on the amendment well I would like to know um I haven't read this amendment but um my question with the original which you could tell me if it fixes in the amendment is I'm not sure why if you have a placard or a plate you also need a special acda something to hang on your car if you have a handicap um plate seems like that would cover and it's just one additional step which I don't think people need but I don't know if your Amendment does that I I didn't think you had to have multitudes or multi multiple layers oh you do that's how they set it up I needed to give that a closer read then maybe we should table this item to the next meeting and fix that yeah um yeah I thought it was any of them it says apply at um the anage Community Development Authority parking services department for issuance of a disabled parking permit for the use of metered Time parking spaces at the central business district yeah I didn't catch that should have read it more closly so uh a motion to postpone would be in order unless unless you can think of how to fix it on the floor but I don't like making sausage on the floor probably commas and an or but yes move to postpone to the meeting of December 3rd second some commas and an or would work but miss alella is saying some commas in an or could get us there um yeah so why don't we just ask the members to resend the motion if that's okay I think we have that motion okay so um Miss elel I'm not prepared to make the amendment just yeah give me a second yeah we we'll just take a second we're gonna land it okay Mr or Mr so yeah unrelated to what we're doing right now um I'm I'm in I'm in favor of this but one of my pet peeves is is I guess nonhandicapped or or friends and family taking advantage of having a sticker and I and you say that doesn't happen I've actually been with someone who did that um not that I think it's something you can fix but just a general comment to Citizens um it's for people who need it and not that you might not be handic be running an erir and picking someone up great but just you know practice some some ethics around this thank you all right so ACD you want to come up and talk about it I see your hand in the air all right I've got it there's no mic on you got to hit hit the green button great there you go thank you my name is Jeff Reed I'm the parking director uh for acda easy Park and I may be able to answer the question on the digital permit if a Parker is allowed to park in any parking space do only way in inclement weather windshields covered in snow they would mean that the Enforcement Officers would have to scrape the snow off of virtually every car downtown in order to uh do enforcement because they can't see the Placer through the snow we've made the the placard free we'll walk people through the process and what it does is it will allow the enforcement team to just put a license plate number in they'll verify that that person has been vetted and that they have the proper um handicap uh designation that allows them for parking and that's the reason that uh that we put the digital permit in place and I'm happy to answer any other questions that you might have if if uh it might help clear it up you're in the que Miss brona do you want to ask a question no okay so I I I am going to just assert that um I have myself in the queue there that um you have to move the snow off the license plate to take a picture of it to write a citation some some of those permits though are required to hang on the mirror right so at least a good measure of them are not going to be an issue because you already have to do the manual work to get there and then um I think that it's reasonable that those folks could appeal and on appeal they would win because they have a legal placard they have the thing itself and so while it's a pain for those who might receive a ticket when they shouldn't um it's easy enough to correct I think it's better than forcing everybody to come through acda to become a certified client of you anyhow that's what I think but um so miss broley yeah I had a question uh for the acda person um I was curious about time limit so I understand it looks like the current code allows for somebody to park there for 1.5 times what the limit would have been um and then there's also in this ordinance a proposal to allow ESS unlimited I saw other parts of code that said you can't park for more than 24 hours um in the same spot unless it's a weekend I guess I just want to understand how long are we allowing somebody to park for free um knowing that this has benefits but I just want to make sure that we understand because we're allowing beyond what others would be allowed to do the current designated uh handicap spots throughout the municipality that we all see the blue meters in the blue parking space allows them to park there for 3 hours The Proposal would be to allow them to park at any meter for 3 hours so it does I hope that answers your question it would allow them to park for for three hours okay thank you I saw there was I think it's the on page the top of page two it describes um uh where is it um essentially allowed more an unlimited period of time um I'll have to go back and find it I'm sorry all right we can come back to you Miss Al all right so I would move to amend on page two at line 13 where I would after the word signs add a semicolon and the word or second motion to amend by Mel seconded by Mr band it's page two line 13 adding a semicolon in the word or I speak to it Miss so what this does is it separates out the two clauses I believe um so you can um display a valid plate or placard issued by the state Division of Motor Vehicles or display a mobile Mobility impaired parking permit issued by acda why I think this is important Beyond just the extra hoop is if I am not a driver but I qualify for disability parking and I am getting a ride I should be able to bring my Mobility impaired parking permit from acda um to uh hang um for those spaces um often people don't necessarily get the state placard if they're not regularly in a car let alone the plates and so if I know I am going downtown because that is where my doctor is located and I'm always getting a ride this gives me a third option and I actually think that is the value in adding The Ore thank you all right tell me again where it's going line page two line 13 not in the amendment oh sorry it was in the main do we have the amendment BS Chris do we over jump you Amendment the amendment must for us oh well sorry it's not in the amendment it's in the main no it is here look sorry my apologize it should be delete unless and add the word or in the amendment my apologies all right so on the amendment anyone no okay Mr Gates on on the amendment uh the second was yeah it was vent um well on the amendment that Mr alel just moved uh I was going to suggest that might not work but I think it will work the important thing to I think keep in mind here is uh as she was speaking these are two different things the disability with parking privileges permit provided 93331 that's the new one also by CDA and then ability um impaired parking permit also is should by acda that's a different thing and they have two different allowances for the time allowed and I think as he was speaking to uh anyways I think that or will work here so this amendment I think is fine I originally asked the speak to point out something else but I'll wait till done with the amendment thank you all right any further discussion on the amendment any objection to the amendment see hear none the amendment is adopted um Mr Gates then Amendment to the amendment and the amendment to the amendment thank you m clerk is yours on the main motion or the amendment Mr Gates uh the uh the main motion okay so we have the amended Amendment before us any discussion on the amendment nope okay so um I'll ask unanimous consent and objection to the adoption of the amended Amendment seeing and hearing no objection the amended amendment is adopted so we are now back on the main motion as amended now Mr Gates uh thank you I just asked to speak because there was uh some members comment and Mr Rolland asked me here about acda issuing another permit another plard and this new um disability with parking proes permit uh on page four section subsection 3 uh page 4 line 28 um it says the per permit may be created a digital form only and that's the acda how they explained to me their intent that there wouldn't be a new physical tangible plard or anything to issue they would simply be taking your existing license plate when you register with them put it in their system it would be a digital form so if they looked at your license plate and connect it to the permit they've issued from the parking enforcement officers handheld uh then they can verify that you're entitled to the parking privilege uh is that correct sir um that is correct and I just wanted to point to someone asked where's the language about this and that's right there in that subsection pleas stting it can be in digital form only gotcha okay um all right so we're back on the main motion as amended Miss BR you're in the queue yeah thanks sorry I found the item it was on page five um it describes that that there's a time limit Allowed by the perer placard and then no time limitation if it is if it is a Mobility impaired parking permit issued by acda um and and I'm asking about that because um not because I again I I I understand the need for folks um especially those with mo mobility challenges to um not feel rushed and have to get back to the meter Etc um but I know the general principle of parking uh on street parking is is is that you should not allow people to do it for unlimited amounts of time so I just wanted to register that um concern um and just would like to hear a little bit more thanks a Mobility impaired permit is different than what we're discussing here a Mobility impaired permit is a a a raised level of disability and uh there is not a time limit for them that's someone with much more severe limitations in physical ability okay than yeah thank you thank you for the clarification all right Miss alel thanks so that Sparks the question are you making that call or is someone else making that call and you're just verifying it happened that's already in code no the The increased level of Mobility impairment is that something you're being the judge of or is that something externally validated it's external by who I believe that it's written by the by a physician and then it goes through DMV so it's all through DMV okay great thank you all right Miss brona well that leads me Anna's questions leads me to um if we would have problems with you said it's already in place this unlimited time period but if you would have trouble with on street parking down camping downtown based on you know that it seems like a slippery slope to me and then the other question I had is um I go around I bring mom my mom downtown quite a bit and getting her out on the street is a cluster usually and I think garages are much easier does this also include someone parking in one of your garages it doesn't but we would certainly consider it most again what we're trying to do here by extending it beyond the 75 handicap spots that are designated around Downtown Anchorage right now we're trying to let them decide what is the best location for them to be able to have the easiest access to where they're trying to get too could I do a floor amendment to add the garage so um as a possibility Mr Gates is shaking his head and I think there are a few things that change in that calculus first of which is a cost factor that would have to be analyzed and um so Mr Gates well um I shook my head intuitively I'm not sure where I would put that here I don't think this is applies to garages all these sections we're looking at apply to on street parking all the sections in this ordinance so that would be separate okay so I think the answer is it could be done and it probably should be done with a new ordinance because the way this one is structured or we would delay and have a new public hearing and get it redrafted no I'm locked out um okay other anyone else okay um so we're back on the main motion no further discussion members May proceed to vote logged out and Chris your vote is yes or no I vote Yes on a vote of 10 to one and the youth member votes yes yes AO 2024-25 as amended has passed the body all right now uh we have AO 2020 or ar 2024 d331 a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating an amount of 8,827 one tendered from the Federal Aviation Administration airport Improvement program Grant an appropriating 587,589 for the rehabilitate Runway 725 Construction so public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's will of the body move to approve second all right so there's a motion to approve by Miss zalel seconded by I think it was Mr Johnson any discussion here I can see none members May proceed to vote on a vote of 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes ar20 24- 331 has passed the body next we have ao20 24110 an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code chapter 1.35 3.20 and 3.30 relating to the organization of the executive branch setting forth the duties and responsibilities of executive branch agencies public hearing this item is now open anyone wish to be heard anyone at all seeing hearing none public hearing is now closed Miss alel move to postpone to the special meeting of uh November 27th second there's a motion in a second but I think the Administration has asked for the meeting to be moved to the 26th Tuesday and since we had no other ordinances that were laid on the table that were essential for Action um if there isn't objection I would ask the members to to um consider making it the 26th Tuesday instead of Wednesday the 27th all right so um the sponsors agree so the motion is to continue this or to postpone this to the meeting of 11:26 U moved by missel seconded by miss broy any objection to the motion see hearing none that item is postponed to a special meeting now yall are on for a special meeting on Tuesday um there will also be a second item on that agenda um it we're intended to see the second procurement for the um point of information Mr chair shelter um go ahead what time is that meeting going to be it hasn't been set is there you have a prence do you have a preference not night no it would no it would be it would be a lunch meeting yeah the intent is to hold it in one of our regular hours yeah perfect thank you and so on a vote of 11 to zero in the youth member votes yes yes I think that did I this item has been continued to the or postponed to the meeting of 11:26 so and again we'll be taking up the question of um further winter shelter at that meeting as well so now we're on to audience participation any member have to go back to the item with m we didn't finish it oh okay mold Library the moldun library item Miss that's right sorry jump the gun thank you for catching that folks we are back on item um 14b AO 202 24-17 um continued operation at the mold Library do you have an answer thank you Mr chair and thank you for the additional time to consult with the team so you did talk with them um and they did not consider other locations for this lease and the reasoning was because of the long duration of time we've been here we've been in this facility for 18 years and so this is where we have you know we've designed the space to work for the mune library and so you look at mean the term of the lease is three years with the option to extend for two so it does give us some flexibility to consider some of the things thata that you mentioned in terms of potential realignment of the facility with Transit Center um but it um was the rational choice for the real estate department to extend in this location just because of the duration of time that we've been there um and the relatively honestly brief nature of this uh further extension of the lease at just 3 years um to not consider moving the facility that was their rationale I appreciate that and um Mr chair can I ask that my vote be changed on um 14 C I was thinking that I was Voting no so that I could add the garage parking so I'd like to vote Yes on that is that procedural or do we have to do a reconsideration can we do it after r yeah so um finish this item and figure that procedure out uh so is there any further discussion on this lease no I'm satisfied now that makes sense so on this question then members May proceed to vote so on ao2 24-17 uh member that item is pass 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes yes all right now um for vote on 14 C do we need a reconsideration or is that something you can administer if it's a big deal I don't need to change my vote that's okay one sec it's been changed okay I just will note on the record that the vote has been recorded as affirmative yes not no there you go 11 to zero and the youth member votes yes okay now to conclude our agenda we'll move on to audience participation any member of the public wish to be heard any member at all all right then we'll oh come on down welcome please state your name what part of town you're from um you'll have three minutes it's on oh you just turned it off there you go Eric Gurley I work in fair viiew I live in Ocean View I'm here to follow up on uh the plan for snow removal and I'm I'm not sure what the status or the plan is for the Ada advisory commission so I i' just like some clarification on both in terms of the snow removal I just wanted to know how folks thought that went and um uh it's important that the Ada commission is in place so that they can give feedback when it comes to such things so I'm trying to create and utilize our formal processes by which that could be heard versus trying to just have everybody come down to speak to it so I'm looking for an update we don't do back and forth question and answer but when the meeting is done I'm sure we can connect you with the administration they can give you an update perfect I have been informed I would hear from a particular employee but I can't seem to get a response so I'll ask that as well thank you right anyone else wish to be heard welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes thank you Mr constant my name is TJ beers I live in District Ron you are my representative Mr conad I've been severely traumatized this past week and I'm glad that we have the head of the coalition to end homeless here miss zel I have done everything I could possibly do this past five years as a homeless man to find a home and I went through three states Maine Washington and Alaska homeless I was partially homeless in Orlando Florida before I came to Anchorage I did everything I was supposed to do I went to the solvent Arena I I stayed there for five months transferred to the guest hotel in a wonderful program that gave me the opportunity to get out of that nightmare place I went to work got a job but because of my health issues I had to quit my job but I got a voucher through neighbor Works health or neighbor works I'm sorry neighbor works I got my rice voucher through them it was a long process to get it they had to record all of my homelessness for the past four years and it was ugly I had been shot at out there I was nearly stabbed to death in Waterville I was raped and held against my will in the hotel for two days days in Seattle Washington and I went to Virginia Mason hospital and when I told them what had happened to me and I was drugged out of my mind from what these people did to me Virginia Mason inserted a catheter in my penis because the drugs that these people drugged me with had shut my urinary system down and my kidneys had stopped functioning after Virginia Mason they did a rape Kip on me and they saw nothing they called their security guards and had five security guards at 3:00 in the morning throw me out while I was half drugged out of my my mine I'm sorry sir but your time has expired okay I will be back next week to finish all right thank you but neighbor Works Alaska has got a lot of the incompetence they served a bunch of his eviction notice and I'm severely traumatized and they have no recourse to comfort me or any of you other tenants at L stone please and after this past summer I've being bitten to death by the bad bus and they want to this because of their incompetence no nobody is going to bully me anym thank you sir all right member comments Mr pres Veria no comments thank you Mr salt no comments thank you Miss brona no comments Mr Boland no comment Miss broy no comment m al Mr Johnson uh no comments thank you Mr Littlefield no comments thank you Mr Martinez chair I just wanted to thank the administration for the work that they've done on this budget and um particularly the one of the items that I was tracking for New Life development services uh the program with women and children I just appreciate their support for that program and the other things they did tonight thank you for the work Mr Myers no additional comments thank you chair comment I have this uh like a baby we have a budget thank you everybody we're adjourned e e