e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] me me [Music] the sun's give me your give me a light another summer coming God all leave it keep me around keep me alive sunlight on my darkest [Music] I close my eyes now happen all Sun's leing oh another the S come and gone do you ever think back bab when you were young and strong do you ever think that may you're the one that's wrong we in C when you hear on another the some coming down [Music] I remember dirt and seats of our PL not going the away as fast as we can I remember kisses from he hav't f for so long mother the St are coming gone [Music] theing if I close my eyes never happen oh Sun's leing oh another the sun will come and gone do you think back baby when you were young and strong do you think that made you're the one that's wrong cry when you hear oh another the sun coming gone do you ever think back baby when you were home do you ever think that baby you're on this when you hear I now the summer coming the summer coming come I know the com I know the S will coming [Music] go another the of coming come and go [Music] [Music] [Music] the [Music] the leaves are turning fast with no sign of slowing down and the birds F sound so winter comes with the snow to blanket the town the midday skies are clear and blue with a cool trees in the air you bondle love all nice and S with something that's warm to wear and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the Fall colors to show a time to think on memories of a time I you [Music] all 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 all colors to show a time to think on me of a time I used to know [Music] and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the far of to show a time to think on meor of a time [Music] I for e e e e e e e [Music] give me a give me a [Music] oh the sun's give me your give me a light another summer coming on all sudden leave keep me around keep me alive no sunlight on my darkest time [Music] I my now happen [Music] alling oh another the S come and gone do you ever think back baby when you were young and strong do you ever think that made you the one that's wrong in when you hearone I now the somewh coming down [Music] I remember dirt in hands seats of our PL not going the way as fast as we can I remember kisses from he haven't f for so long all the St are coming gone theing well if I close my eyes and never happen now oh Sun's leaving oh another sun coming gone do you ever think back baby when you were young and strong do you ever think that may you're the one that's wrong when you hear oh now the sun are coming gone do you ever think back baby when you were holding do you ever think that mayy you're on this when you hear me I know the summer coming down the summer [Music] coming another the Su coming the coming [Music] go now the coming come and go [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] the leaves are turning fast with no sign of slowing down and the birds Li down so winter comes with the snow to blanket the town the midday skies are clear and blue with a cool breeze in the air you ble up all nice and stuck with something that's long to wear and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the Fall colors to show a time to think on memories of the time I use [Music] all is quiet with no one round but your voice is singing loud so sing away so all can hear so the ls can all be found and the Midnight Sun is gone away with the fall colors to show a time to think on memories of a time I used to know [Music] that e Mr vand are you on the phone I am can you hear me yeah thanks thank is there anyone else on the phone yeah you have Randy here Mr salt all right I need to fix the computers we'll get started in just a couple minutes e e e e e what can we mute on the phone please all right everybody welcome good evening I now call to order this special meeting of the Anchorage assembly tonight is April 18th 2024 it's 50:07 p.m. mam cler would you please call the RO chair constant here member Broly here member branga here member Johnson here member Martinez present what my understanding that member zotel is excused yeah just just so the record is really clear um Mrs alel is exclus excused because generally all of these items tonight are dealing with matters relating to her professional work and so it's just somebody not did not can whoever is on the phone that's trying to call someone please mute your phone thank you um anyhow so just so the record is really clear Miss alel was excused as effectively she has a personal or financial interest in just about everything on the agenda and it's better not to have her here when she might participate in other mans tonight so member Myers here member Perez verdia here member Rivera present member salt here member voland here Mr chair you have a quorum thank you Mr Johnson would you leave s the Pledge yes true pledge ALG to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy Justice for All Mr would you please 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 denina athabascans for thousands of years the denina has 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 cooking din thank you Mr R would be one sec okay before we take on any of the substantive items I'm going to go ahead and read number of items into the record that are supplemental items at a special meeting we do not allow for laid on the table new items but supplemental items are allowed and so I'm going to do my best to read the titles and Associate them with um the elements that they're properly supposed to go with um first I will read associating with item 4B AR 2024 -124 it's uh am 34922 4A so it's an A version a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating $240,000 of opioid settlement revenues to the opioid settlement fund to the maintenance and operations department for shipping sprung structure as shelter homeless individuals provide navigational support services for people seeking treatment and housing also to the same item item 4B ar2 24-24 is an assembly information memorandum from assembly member band a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating $240,000 of opioid settlement revenues to the opioid settlement fund the maintenance and operations department for shipping sprung structure to shelter homeless individuals and provide navigational support services for people seeking treatment and or housing and then finally um associated with item uh for a it's um a20 24-26 s and this uh is an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code section 15.2.2 to add to prohibitive campsite locations location any within 10 blocks mile of any licensed homeless and transient shelter sorry I'm reading what's on the page reducing the minimum period for posting prior to disposal of campsite personal property proper from 15 days to 10 prohibiting camp sites with more than 25 shelters or tents and provide for 72-hour abatement of camps at or near Wastewater public nuisances adding a new code section to provide for designated safe parking areas for vehicular homeless camping and amending AMC section 16.125 65 for Conformity with the foregoing amendments so those are the items that are being supplemented and we've had some debate between the clerk and myself about whether a motion to lay those items on the table or a motion to incorporate is in order and just out of an abundance of caution I would ask a members for a motion to incorporate lay on the table so moved second all right so a motion by Miss Broly seconded by Mr Rivera and I'm going to ask for unanimous consent that those items to be um laid on the table and Incorporated hearing and seeing no objection it is so ordered miss broy Mr chair I move to change the order of the day to take up item 4B before 4 a and to leave all the others in the order as as presented so there is a motion to change the order of the day second okay by Mr broy seconded by Mr Rivera Miss broy yeah thank you um just because the other items are somewhat interrelated or at least the discussion may become interrelated and this one um is a an appropriation recommendation or proposal right yeah so is there any objection to the motion asking unanimous consent hearing and see none item 4B will be taken up next item 4B AR 2024-25 resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating 240,000 of opioid settlement revenues to the opioid settlement fund to the maintenance and operations department for shipping sprung structure to shelter homeless individuals and provide navigational support services for people seeking treatment and or housing the Administration has put forward I believe an A version on this no it's there is no s version there's so just the regular version what's the will of the body move to approve move to approve so I have a motion to approve by Miss Broly or Miss branga and who was on the phone was that Mr salt yes sir seconded by Mr saltz go ahead Miss branga I um will probably be the last person who would support the sprung structure two years ago but at this point in time I really uh um feel like we've wasted a lot of money on something that was approved I have not I don't know if Hennings can handle getting it here getting it set up but I know they want to and I know that they have proven they can run a shelter and so the reason that I'd like to at least have the discussion is instead of having a wasted piece of infrastructure that could go to helping our Parks be safer this this summer um we could have this being set up if we are able to get the 56th Avenue to um stay open for the most vulnerable this summer we could look forward to possibly having this up and running by fall and I know I'm being a little bit of a poana here but um I want to I want to believe that if you step out of the way of some people they have connections and they can get things done in different ways than going through government and I feel like if something could be set up that would allow the sprung structure to be given to an entity who feels like they can make it happen we'd all be winners and that's all I have to say on it rapping is out of order um I have Mr um b in a que thank you Mr chair well a little bit it feels like Groundhogs Day um and I'll just say you know I don't love the idea of this structure that the municipality purchased sitting in storage but I certain cannot um support it being used for the proposed purpose in this uh resolution um and the reason for that is we've discussed previously as the body um I have serious serious concerns about human habitation in one of these structures um without really having an operating plan and parameters put around that um particularly I would not want this structure to be used during the winter time um in the late on the table information memorandum that members have before them um there was an article uh that a a similar structure in crusted but Mountain Resort collapsed under a pile of heavy snow and thankfully no one was injured but I'm just thinking that thinking of that in the context of you know building safety and this past winter that we had when we had several roofs collapse um and those were you know built buildings of a certain time and in construction style but um actually you know built buildings that collapsed to to the uh point where the municipality had to circulate notices to similar properties saying hey you need to shovel your roof um or the building that you're in May collapse in fact I received one of those to to my work location I don't own that building um but they really wanted to get the word out and let people know you need to shovel your roof of snow um and so looking at a structure that I just don't I'm not sure can withstand our our winter conditions I think it's time to kind of put this one to bed once and for all that this type of structure is not the ideal structure when it comes to Sheltering people um because of those life and health and safety considerations thank you Mr chair right Mr salt thank you uh I understand what member Ban's saying with regard to the uh sprung structures I mean I've seen them on the North Slope of Alaska I've seen them in Anchorage um as he also pointed out we've had um buildings collapse we've had we've seen apartment buildings like on the coast of Florida collapse um so M structure can be guaranteed safe and have especially if it's put up poorly the other challenge I have for this is is we talk one operating plan yet we operated the Sullivan we are currently operating the congregate shelter we're operating two hotels as cold winter uh emergency shelter um so I fail to see how that how those plans couldn not be translated into the Runk structure I think one of the things that we're against as a congregate shelter for Anchorage but I think it's one thing we need and I don't think it's a long-term need need I think it's a short-term need while we get through the large bulk of the homeless crisis and start finding permanent homes for homeless and start solving the root causes of why people are homeless in the first place so I I just think we' also have kicked this can around way too long and probably should have built it three years ago thank you so um the administration oh are there m than you sorry a lot of people Mr bird thank you Mr chair I'd like to invite the homeless coordinator Alexis Johnson to speak on behalf of the administration it feels a bit out of order if I may Mr chair I would invite um the homeless coordinator Alexis Johnson to speak on behalf of the administration and can you um qualify why the members have the item before us members can ask the homeless coordinator questions I think what's more important for the administration to do is move its Amendment and find two members to do that than to tell us why we can have that conversation so uh Mr chair if I may then I'd have Mario bird speak to that thank you Mr chair thank you um the the administrations has put forward a floor to um to replace the the current fund string which is to the opioid settlement fund uh we would move an amendment that would change the um the fund string so um so the the administration would ask members to move an amendment yes Mr chair thank you so there is an amendment in the packet it is Bronson amendment number one is there a motion move to move Bronson amendment number one motion to amend by Mr Meyers is there a second second seconded by Mr Sal do you want to speak to that Mr Myers I'll defer to the administration thank you Mr chair Mr Coes thank you Mr chair I'll defer to Mark Mr bird on this Mr bird thanks Mr chair so the administration was made aware um after we had sent this resolution to Mr chair through your request for the special meeting that the the fund string needed to be changed so that's what this amendment does IT addresses the um funding not coming from the opioid settlement funds but instead from a different fund string and um that is uh that's all we're seeking to do with with this otherwise the the resolution remains unchanged thank you Mr chair I have a QE who was just to speak to the amendment Mr Johnson Mr Rivera Miss Broly Miss broley yeah I just have a a question for the administration or or two questions one uh what is the total amount of opioid settlement funding that the municipality is supposed to receive and is that a one-time or a recurring basis uh through the chair to member broy I don't have that number um um Sharon Le om director is here she may have that number um of course I believe we are now not proposing to use op opioid settlement funding for this um project thank you security um through the chair we have um uh many hundreds of thousands of dollars in opid settlement monies we received one large settlement through the state of Alaska and since that time we receive annual payments from the state of Alaska but subsequent annual payments have been very small we expect to receive annual payments for um many decades to come uh but they are about $50,000 in size and the use of the um opioid settlement funds are very restricted in purposes which is why we are requesting a different f funding source uh for this purpose today thank you um and I I appreciate the the delineation um so I will say that that this is the first that I have heard about any proposed use of the opioid funds was this item um from the municipality and I understand that this amendment would change that so I appreciate the change um but just to say that that I believe we need to have a bigger conversation about what the appropriate or not just the appropriate but what would be the best investment of those funds um that the municipality receives so I would love to see that in the future and so I would support this amendment to the extent that I think this is not the best use of those funds or I should say the opad money is not the best use of those funds I have myself in the queue Mr constant thank you the administration's campaign team oh I'm sorry Communications team last meeting immediately after the assembly chose not to take this item up immediately within not even a minute put out a press release that blasted the assembly for not adopting the mayor's proposal and you had an illegal funding source so if we had taken your word and taken up the item on behalf of this Administration we would have actually violated the terms of the opioid settlement it's just shocking to me the games that are being played by this Administration that's the reality here this funding source change they tried to push this item through upon all of us at our last meeting and then blasted us in the media with press release so I'm just here to say thank you for correcting your error last week it's a good thing the assembly didn't take up your mess last week on the amendment anyone else members May proceed to vote member vand yeah member stt member Perez verdia yeah a on a vote of 10 to zero the amendment passes Miss broy okay Mr Johnson yeah thank you I guess just a few questions for the administration whoever wants to take these um first this this AR is for $240,000 but last time we we contemplated this project the total cost actually build it was more like 20 million so what what what's the plan to get this across the line like you know we so we we get it up here fine then then what happens next because there seems to be I mean this is only about 10% of what we think would actually need to complete it Miss Johnson hi through the chair to uh assembly member John so this is just for shipping the structure up here we have a private funer that is willing to construct the facility so this is just for shipping the cost estimate that we had for shipping is around 190,000 to get the whole facility up here but we wanted to add about a $50,000 buffer to ensure that that cost has not ballooned over the next you know few weeks wa so it's about 20 million to build and you tell me that there's somebody who's willing to just out of the goodness of their heart do that for the city through the chair um I'm willing to bring them up if you'd like to speak with them well I I guess I'm not opposed to hearing from them but certainly that would be useful information to have I mean so I could we can bring them up here we can take them without their word but that's certainly nothing in writing or a firm commitment or a contract or anything that actually gives us a fully realized plan right I mean we're just throwing the money at it really on just what sounds like something fairly aspirational at this point um so I mean I I'm encouraged to hear that somebody's willing to contemplate that but certainly I don't think I'm ready to to make a decision based on simply somebody's word at this point I mean do we have anything in writing any formal commitments any guarantees that you know if the work is not completed what condition you know the city will be left in what we risk we might uh accept and then taking this offer anything of that nature do we know that is even legal and permissible for us to Simply uh accept something of that nature and that magnitude um through the chair I believe there's a municipal attorney in the room but we have been discussing there will be some uh things that we need like a a land lease because it is Municipal owned land um but that's something that we're hoping the assembly will come to the table and help us work on if we have a private entity that's willing to erect this structure I think uh you know spending the 240,000 to ship this facility up here is a risk we should be willing to take we've invested millions and millions of dollars within this municipality on other projects that have not paid off why would we not invest the $240,000 in hopes that we can get a facility online to shelter people we know that nearly 900 people are going to go on shelter this summer and I'm willing to risk $240,000 and hopes to build a facility that will keep a roof over their head okay last we heard you know I think the expected time to actually build out the project was 6 months so is anyone contemplating that in any scenario this would actually be brought online in time this summer or are we really talking about something for late 2024 through the chair we have members um from that private group that are willing to speak on the construction they've been working with an architect and an engineer on timelines for that building okay well I appreciate them being here but frankly I don't even have an AM or an email or anything explaining who this is or what the plan looks like and and you know this was laid on the table a week ago why haven't we seen anything explaining this up until right here when he standing before us I mean not sure one has good intentions but frankly I'm I'm a little annoyed that I'm being asked to contemplate this when we haven't been given 90% of the relevant information I think we would need to make this decision I mean apparently you guys have had these conversations but this is the first I'm hearing of it here and and frankly it it's a little bothersome that we're being put in this position with so little to go off of yeah through the chair to Mr Johnson um I completely understand but all I'm asking is for approval for funding to ship the structure here um while it's being shipped here I'm happy to have a work session and Henning is willing to present with the outside group and we're willing to move forward and present as much information as possible during this time I don't think this is an opportunity that we should let go to waste I I will say for my part that I'm willing to have that conversation whatever happens or doesn't happen here tonight I'm willing to hear the rest of the plan but I for my part you know will not feel comfortable even spending $240,000 without understanding what guarantees we have that that money will not be wasted um I understand that that's far less than the whole cost of this project but still $240,000 is not nothing you know and I think any of us who have looked at the um the municipal budget finds that that that's not an easy sum to come up with necessarily and I think would you know necessarily uh carry cost to other programs so even though that amount may not seem that significant I recognize that it unless we have confidence that it's going to achieve something it's it's not money I'm willing to just uh take a gamble on Mr R yeah thank you Mr chair um so my questions aren't for you Miss Johnson thanks um so if I were to vote on this today I would have to vote no I couldn't vote any other way so I hope that we postpone any action on this tonight because there are way too many unknowns that could cause what's a $250,000 project or cost to ship up a structure to to cost us so much more we need to understand what's actually going to happen with this structure who's going to own the structure what are the terms of that deal in writing I need to read that before I vote on it who the heck's going to ask us to to put $250,000 of public money without us having read the deal where is it going to go how much is it going to cost to operate the structure who is paying if we have a private donor interested in financially supporting this project which it sounds like we do and I appreciate there are folks interested in it we need to know what the terms of that deal are and I need to read that I can't just go off of someone's assertions off of Hope and if it's going to be us that pays for things how are we going to be able to afford that on a systemic basis and that just really I think scratches the surface of the questions that I have so we shouldn't be answering these questions on the floor of an assembly meeting the administration should have requested a work session and presented answers to us in detail on this but they did didn't so I have to question the intent here I appreciate the sense of hope that some members have but I think we have to govern with the full knowledge of the financial impacts and that's our Duty right regardless of how we might feel about the urgency um so hopefully we can uh postpone this uh sounds like there is some intent to do that based off of another amendment that we're going to be debating here soon and then really dive into a lot of those questions thanks Miss broy thank you first I want to direct members and the Public's attention to uh this assembly memorandum attached to this item it's am 372 2024 this is an item that I prepared uh basically copying and pasting what I wrote last June on this project asking the exact same questions that we asked at that time and I'm going to read them out how much will this and I appreciate Mr Rivera already asked some of these questions how much will this project cost to build how much will it cost to operate how will we or another party build pay to build it and to operate it and with what funding sources when will this new facility's doors be open and then the two questions that have been added um as a result of the discussion last year are around whether the building official has made a determination that this building can be legally occupied for human habitation and then Additionally the implied um programmatic use of this facility in the resolution that we're debating is what treatment model and intensity is proposed at this facility because it mentions treatment so that adds another dimension that had not been contemplated in the original proposal and certainly as Mr Rivera said there are many other questions we can ask um but I want to direct folks to there because this is also a pattern this is a pattern in which uh early late spring early summer um the administration comes to the assembly and says we have a plan you need to immediately approve it we don't have the full details for you but we will get them to you after you approve it and then we are promising that this facility will be open in the past we've said by the Fall it sounds like now we're saying by the summer um which I really have a hard time believing given the backlog and limited uh availability of construction Personnel in this city um but really we are are in the same pattern as we said we're in Groundhog Day and we're being uh put in the exact same position and the same pressure is being applied so I want to state that second I would like to move Broly constant amendment number one second motion to amend by Miss Broly seconded by Mr Rivera Miss Broly yeah thank you um this amendment really formalizes the questions that I just asked so what it does um and it also basically contemplates that this will need to be postponed because we do not have the answers to these questions today nor do I have confidence that we will get them by the end of this meeting um it it's as it's adds a section that puts the assumptions for this project into the item itself and make them contingent on approving this funding for shipping so construction cost operating cost construction timeline and proposed treatment model and then the date by which the building official has approved um and so as you'll see these say two to be inserted by Amendment so what we are asking is that before we approve shipping for this Pro for this facility which we own um that we understand what the plan is so this doesn't necessarily mean that all of these need to be filled in with Public Funding but what it does mean is that we need to know the answers to these questions because the cost to ship this facility which we've already purchased is really the least of our questions it's the least of the items that need to be worked out around this and so um I really just want to put this proposal in context I want to cut the rhetoric and the future promises and I want to get down to what the actual plan is and that's what this amendment essentially forces all of us to do to say that these questions need to be answered before we vote on this item all right we have before us a motion to amend we have a pack Q anyone wish to speak to the motion to amend hearing seeing none oh go ahead Mr Bry oh Mr chair I will speak on the motion to amend okay so first Mr B was in the que I didn't know if it was on the main or the amendment so then we'll go to miss brono Mr River thank you yeah I'd like to stay motion to yeah I'd like to stay in the que for the main motion as well but um looking at this you know it's interesting because the the way that this this is all set up um I don't think I'm going to support this amendment just because we're still framing it as though it you know the requirement to shipping this thing to Anchorage the structure the the um I guess the base assumption is that we're still going to do what the title says in the underlying motion to shelter homeless individuals and provide navigational Support Services um you know if I were going to bring forward another amendment I think what I would do is just strike all of that and strike any of the the the information or the uh language from the main motion and the associated memo that makes that the uh the option the the default option and say yeah we can ship this thing up but I don't want to have a predetermined outcome um with what we're going to do for the structure you know I remember I recollect at one time there was a proposal to maybe use it for storing APD archives I think we can find a use for the sprung structure but I still I maintain serious concerns about um its Capa you know it being used to shelter people um and whether or not it holds up to our building safety standards um and so I think that being said I will I will probably um not support the amendment just because I I don't want to um add to any momentum that the sprung structure would be used for that purpose thank you all right thanks um Miss branga and then Mr salt thanks chair I um was digging around in code today and uh saw under homeless and transient sh shelter it says minimum necessities of life on on limited short-term basis so we are looking for a way to shelter people on a limited shortterm basis using this structure we are a housing First Community as our chair our vice chair has said full stop housing first but in the meantime I can't contemplate allowing people to point order has been raised sorry yeah sorry I'm just curious um and maybe you're going to get to it how does uh the testimony of the member have to do with this amendment so I'll let you figure that out it should be tied to the amendment go ahead Miss BR okay the amendment is that we have to come up with a proposed treatment model our Municipal Code says that Transit transient shelters have to have minimum necessities of life on a limited short-term basis it does not say that we have to have a certain treatment plan to have a shelter and I think what we're pondering here is Sheltering people and moving them to housing so I would ask Miss broy to clarify why that's in there yeah thank you and I will read um the second part of the the original ordinance um it is resolution sorry resolution um it is appropriating uh funding here it says from the opio settlement fund we just amended that to to maintenance and operations department for shipping sprung structure to shelter homeless individuals and provide navigational services for people seeking treatment Andor housing and then the Nexus that was provided in the original resolution to connect it to treatment and the reason we're using opioid settlement funds is it contemplates providing treatment in some way so this is a point of confusion I think the way that it was written and and so just to be put a fine point on it I would ask Miss broy to describe again what what the purpose of these blank lines is it's it's not to assert that you want these things to happen it's to assert that you want to know what their plan is is that correct yes thank you and I would offer too that if there is an S version as as is is contemplated that there may be changes to this that reflect what the actual programmatic plan is for this facility thank you Mr salt thank you it was a bit hard to if I would like to have that repeated before we vote I i' prefer have these as conditions um so approv tonight the funding is not released until these conditions are met thank you anyone else on the amendment I'm GNA put myself in the queue um Mr constant thank you so all of these items are essential to know um before we dive on to a what I would call call a slap Dash proposal that is intended to be used for purposes other than actually housing individuals experiencing homelessness and in fact one of the things that I'm I need to see here is how they're going to fund the operating costs because we actually just spent the last two meetings going through contortions where a member of the assembly had to identify funds for the operation of the shelter that we have now that's still operating and so if there's some magic money that's going to pay for the construction and the operation which is millions of dollars a year for a thousand people it's millions of dollars a year we need to know what the plan is and so these blank lines here are really clearly asking for not just the amount but the actual source of funds and I want the funds either certified by the CFO he says there is money to do this with this account as we do fund certifications on almost every other item and if it's a third party I want to see a letter of agreement at least the beginnings an initial um term sheet effectively we've been talking a lot about term sheets lately that would bound the agreement that would bring funding from an outside Source in the scope of millions and millions of dollars to raise this building so we don't have the money to operate the shelter that we have and yet we're hearing about this dream proposal there's another piece to this that warrants what Miss Mr vand is suggesting is not acting but I'm willing to give the administration a bit of time to come up with answers to these questions and that is the fact that we've been told very plainly by the former maintenance and operations director that the day we accept that tent is the day the warranty is going to be voided that we do not not any longer have the protection of that item as it sits on the lot there the day we receive it it is ours 100% And so that goes to Mr W's point but there's a lot of information that we need before any reasonable conversation can be had so members May proceed to vote on the amendment member falland no member stt yes member Perez Ria member perz verdia on the motion to amend uh bro constant amendment number one M lost them on a vote of 7 to2 the amendment has passed now we have Miss Miss B Mr chair I move to postpone to the a special meeting on on May 16th second motion to postpone by Miss Broly second by Mr Rivera Miss broy yeah thank you this gives four weeks to answer these questions on the amendment that we just added thank you we can schedule a work session with the offer who is an amazing philanthropist that is going to underwrite the city of Anchorage and we can get answers to all these questions anyone wish to speak to the amendment Mr Martinez yeah I'm sorry the motion oh yes on this motion to postpone to a certain time yes one of the things that I hope that we also uncover Mr chair in this is that uh to make things make sense it's very difficult to believe that uh someone who's willing to spend $20 million doesn't have the $240,000 you you know so like um I hope that to answer these questions uh in the time that this postponement will allow we can get some really good information that makes sense all right so on the am uh the motion to postpone I have a QE Miss branga then Mr Von then Mr salt I feel a little bit like we're stalling on items and the last meeting I went away completely frustrated and my husband's comment was is if if you're not going to do business because there may be a mayoral change let's just take a little break until the certified election I I'm from frustrated that we keep stalling on things and I would like to just make a decision on this next Mr vau thank you Mr chair yeah I'm a little bit confused by the prior statement but um you know like I said I just I maintain my concern I I'm not going to be in support of postponement because I don't think that the structure should be used um for this purpose I would rather just vote this down um but before we do that I would like to make a floor Amendment and your Amendment so what I yeah so what I would like to do um in the resolution in the title um a after structure on line number five I'd like to strike to shelter homeless individuals and provide navigational support services for people oh you know what Mr vond we have a motion to postpone on the floor so I think we have to dispatch with the motion to postpone first before a motion can be made to amend I appreciate that um I will I I'll hold on my Amendment then to see how the postponement goes um but I I think the only way for me to like move forward with shipping this thing up is that there is no language or it's it's made very clear that it's there's no predetermined outcome with this structure um and so yeah I think for me I'd rather just vote postponement down maybe have another crack at Amendment um and then just disass with the item thank uh on the amendment um miss or not the amendment the motion to postpone Miss broy yeah thank you uh two things I I would say that um I suppose one way to characterize this is stalling the other is really trying to hold the line on fiscal responsibility which is that we do not spend funds without a plan for how they are spent and that is been a challenge um even as we try to figure out how much money we have as we finish up our our acur um I've spent the the most of the day dealing with our first quarter budget which is going to be um behind our usual schedule for good reason and so so I really want to characterize this as trying to understand what we are spending public money on and why and I appreciate Mr Martinez comments does this need to be public money perhaps there's a discussion we could have around who's paying for it second I I do find it um kind of amazing that that a member of East Anchorage after all of the discussion for the last three years around the Tor narmore shelter which as I we heard in the home housing and homelessness committing that committee meeting sorry just yesterday that the intended location for this structure right now is at tutor and Elmore I find it amazing that a representative of that area would be advocating for that project given the three years of history that I remember and that I believe a lot of those constituents remember so um I just wanted to state that as well all right I have um Mr Myers sorry Mr chairo really quick Mr vand you have a point of order or something it's a point of information when when remember Broly's speaking sometimes the mic is muffled so maybe if she could speak a little less close to thanks okay thank you um sometimes you have to put the mic really close so um who did I just give the floor to Mr Myers thank you Mr chair I agree with member brona's comments I don't want to push this out I think we need to while we've had this special meeting on the books now for a week listen to the folks that are here if the funer is in the audience I would like to hear from them um I know that's not Germaine to this emotion that's currently on the floor but I think it's important to do that I also from what I understand Miss Johnson did request a work session to go over this and it was denied that's an inaccurate statement okay through the chair to Mr Myers it was actually Henning that requested a work session and they were denied okay you're out of order first second no they asked for meetings with members they didn't ask for a work session so um please stay in order now we have Mr Martinez thank you chair this uh brief conversation has has really been compelling and uh I'm going to change my position on the uh the motion to postpone because uh my values don't change with attrition you're not going to wait me out and so I knew this was a dead horse on arrival when I was elected prior to it as the as the one of the members of the community councils in our area uh this is not a good idea now it's not proven anywhere in the country all the reasons the Myriad of stuff operations the costs all the different reasons but aside from that um I would love for it to end today uh honestly but I do respect my colleagues requesting for information we don't all approach these conversations the same there's a diversity of ideas there's a diversity of backgrounds and my no will be no then uh for this to come into my community and for this to be anywhere in the community in our city we need to be having our priorities better focused on what we've already established is the recipe for Success let's just continue to do that this 3 years of of having this same conversation is exactly right it talk about Groundhog Day that's exactly the right characterization except I knew I was right on the first day I'm not going to change on the third day the fourth day or the fifth day so with respectfully I would change my position and I would love for this to uh be uh mutilated today but otherwise I do respect my colleagues request for additional information and I can support to postpone it under the guys that their requests I can't honor because it will not change my opinion in the long run I don't think this is the right approach at all thank you chair okay so um on the amendment Mr pres Ria sorry Mr chair it's on the amendment it's on the domain it's it's the motion to to to post postpone yes or no sorry I said the amendment on the motion to postpone Mr Presa thank you um well my colleagues have already said everything that I want to say but let me just repeat that that I'm I'm a no on this on on on the on the on the pur of this I I would would respect my colleagues to post postpone and but I I will be a no on on the on the project today I'll be a no um later unless there's some really compelling information that come comes forward this is this is something that we've been very aware of for a long long time and we really need to to dispense with this so um I'm happy to to vote Yes on on a post postponement but um it's it's very unlikely that I will will approve this so just want to make sure that my my voice is involved thanks by Miss Broly um thank you then I will um withdraw my motion to postpone if my second agrees I'll agree all right now we have the main motion um and we can go through this but before I would ask a motion to extend the meeting for 1 hour so moved second there's a motion to extend by Mr Rivera seconded by m broy is there any objection hearing and seeing none we are extended so the main motion is before us Mr Coes thank you Mr CH I I I heard um member Meyers ask uh if the sponsors were able to come to the podium I would like to have them come up and speak to their dedication and their involvement and their their um their thoughts on making this project successful this summer thank you we would like to invite you up but we're going to hold you to narrow bandwidth and please if um members have questions we'll allow them to ask but come forward state your name you'll have the floor the microphone is offen button there there you go through the chair my name is Ryan MCAS I'm the broker and cooner of Regal North Commercial or 12year commercial real estate Brokerage in Anchorage Alaska and we've been engaged by Henning as the owner rep on behalf of their homeless operations for facilities I'm here today to testify on behalf of several private sector uh participants and have an interest in making sure that a cost of weight analysis to stand up the navigation Center is done that's our specific engagement and to get all the information necessary in order to put humans under building because they are not there's a current abatement happening in which we did a measurement of how many people hone you in sure really the questions aren't about your vision for getting homelessness solved I think we all agree with that the question is how are you prepared to convince 9 to 12 people on this dis that there is a financial instrument that could cover what cost how it's going to be underwritten how it's going to protect the municipality and achieve all of those great things so let's Hue to those very germine matters that a broker would be able to speak about absolutely through the chair the presentation quite frankly will be longer than a five minut five minute testimony which is why Henning reached out for presentation we will have a presentation to the public on Tuesday next week at 911 West 8th Avenue from 9: to 10: a.m. available to the public and all members of the assembly that will be published that plan will be published so that we can all as a total constituency make a vote for alaskans to be under building that's all I have thank you so okay there might be some questions are there miss broy yeah I have um two questions what what at this point is the total estimated construction cost from your perspective total estimated constructions costs we'll be able to know that once we have have all the information on the facility we don't have that in our hands thank you and then the second question so my understanding is that we uh the municipality purchased this facility for $2 million is the proposal to um to also request that that the municipality gift that that facility to um to Henning and to the whoever the the owner's group would be or is it that that um that would also the purchase price of that facility would also be included in this proposal we Have Not Included the facility in a formal request what we have uh asked for is a disposal of land leas so any existing monies that were spent on a concrete por or FF that could be provided into a function of the land lease that's what our recommendation is we don't know the co total cost of what was purchased or the full plans but we have requested those and we also have reached out to the manufacturer and I do want to testify today that they have represented 70 structures in the state of Alaska everyone from conico Phillips to their largest customer across the country which is the Department of Defense they are structurally sound there are Engineers that we contacted in advance to this meeting that would like to provide testimony to the soundness of those structures that's what we do know and we're prepared to share that to the public and just to be very clear um whether it's answered tonight or in the future I would like to know whether the proposal is to purchase purch the this facility it did cost $2 million at the time so presumably that is still the the value of that facility from the municipality or if it was if it's being asked to be given at a zero cost or something in between there thank you so once again before we conclude you said 911 West 8th Avenue next Tuesday at what time 9: to 10: a.m. all right there are many questions and not a lot of faith so um other members the Q Mr Johnson on the main motion thank you um yeah thank you I mean there are a lot of questions but I'm willing to to put in the time and energy to try and at least entertain those questions and and and try and solicit answers um I don't know where I'll ultimately land on it but I'm not I'm willing to to to contemplate it seriously so with that I would make a motion to postpone until uh special meeting on May 16th uh well then I guess it was withdrawn I second I'll say briefly I I if given the opportunity to to to have a work session answer some of this you know I'm willing to to be open-minded about it but if it comes to an up down vote tonight I I will be a no all right so I have in the que Miss branga then Mr vand I like the idea of postponing it till after Hennings has a chance to fill in some gaps and if I may chair I really feel like my character as a assembly member for the east side was attacked there is no one who Champions the East Side well George is also a huge champion of the east side but I love that place and I love my parks and I don't appreciate that comment all right y thank you um it is recognized best not to speak to people's motives and uh Mr V so thank you Mr chair I'm frustrated that we're back on a motion to postpone because I do have an amendment to the underlying item um again not I'm not open to having more dialogue about whether the structure should be used to House people and I guess my question is do we have if the building official on the line because I guess for me I know the motion is supposed to pone but even to consider that I need some type of sign off for the build from the building official that says that this meets Building Safety to shelter people and then um I so I guess I would have a question for the building official than a question for the municipal attorney whether or not they have any uh concerns that this would open the municipality up to liability um based on building safety issues with the structure being used to habitate people okay um on the motion to postpone Mr Mar my question well sorry Mr chair do we have the building official is he able to be contacted can we ask him questions um I I don't think the building official is here okay thanks y Mr chair Mr Myers I'm just wondering if we can amend to an earlier date because I will be unavailable that day and I would like to be part of this conversation and I I really don't want to push this out any further so later I just don't think it's an option okay if the mo if the Mover the 15th is that okay is there could we do it before the [Applause] 10th and as the Mover I guess I you know honestly I was originally want to make a motion that we postpone this until the meeting of May 7th I I'm I'm I'm fine with that I think it's important to recognize that for the people who are supporting this um I mean there are questions that need to be answered that's a more compressed time frame to come up I think with a lot of information a lot of more uh detail before um before certainly I'd be willing to get to yes on this project ultimately but I I suppose I would consider uh if the second agrees changing my motion to postpone to the meeting of May 7th I'm open to changing the date so it appears the motion now is to May 7th um Miss I actually have myself in the queue I'll just briefly State I have been moved to I've been moved to the position where I'm not in support of a motion to postpone and we should just dispatch with this because it's a failed idea we've spent hundreds of hours on the topic we've spent millions of dollars in legal settlements and now we have a promise that is not even paper yet Mr Martinez thank you chair no but my I've been moved again I to share this with you before everyone that uh I don't mind a postponement for the sake of my colleagues benefit I can defer in that way um but I also like something else I think OPM other people's money is cool I think it's a good thing when people want to invest in our community so let's just be real clear about that if there are people who are willing to invest in our community it's great I would have loved for that to be the focus of all the conversation for the last two years I guaranteed would have been on the street already fundamentally that's how it works consistency over time so I would love for the conversation about if not this project how can those resources still come into our community I would hope that folks who have the Good Will and the heart to invest in our community don't only want to invest in a particular pet project that they want to invest in a holistic approach that we can find agreement to so that would be my hope that well postponement can produce some other vantage point of how we can utilize some resources that that want to come into our community that I don't want to lose if we can capture them effectively thank you chair Mr [Applause] salt Mr salt um can you hear me yes I guess we can't hear you we'll go ahead and come back give me that there you okay thanks there you are try again okay um so I wish I had better list that AP send me twice a year on the fatalities Anchorage we know we've already had several fatalities from exposure which this would help we also know that a congregate shelter at Solid Waste servic is not a long-term solution as Solid Waste Services has other plans for that building in the coming years we also know that I believe we won't have access to next year so those cost could transition over into a a shelter such as this we already know that we have been able to operate shelters such as this and we're making excuses quite frankly that move to a different structure throws out what we've able to ACC so far with all the other shelters and we have to start from scratch because the structure itself is different which is load of BS we all know that we need I'm call a point of order on you there Mr salt you effectively just said anybody on this Das that doesn't agree with your position is um making arguments that are BS just think about that well that's true because we've proven we can operate shelters and now we're saying we can't operate shelters I have yet to see a plan for any shelter that municipality assembly nonprofits have operated but we want one in this case which I think is a good idea so we also have a benefactor that's willing to enter discussions to fund project I honestly don't know how we want more assurances we want agreement I'm okay with postponing but to Simply dispatch this it honestly doesn't make any sense unless you're into killing homeless people which we will do through exposure in the future and I hope you can sleep at night with that knowledge thank you next in the queue Miss broy yeah thank you um so I am I am torn now I recognize that I am the seconder of this motion um but at the same time it occurred to me that that we're they're we're glomming together multiple things and saying that if we do not vote Yes on this proposal that that somehow means that that there is no uh possible way to use the structure for that purpose in the future so I just want to decouple and and remind folks that the resolution that we are debating right now postponement on has to do with shipping the structure for a specific purpose we have changed the proposed fund source and we're being asked to vote on something that we don't yet have a plan for which is why we amended this item and so I am torn because um the intent of postponing until the 16th was to give four weeks to give almost a full month um to work out these questions and to have this discussion at that point and I also hear the members um concerns about postponement at all given that that this has really been a three-year um discussion that that we keep going in circles around and so um I'm torn I think in I I'm not sure that um we're going to get answers by May 7th given that we are still going to be in the middle of first quarter budget revisions and so um I would like to withdraw my second so if there is a a different second that would like to jump in that would be fine I'll second Mo it it doesn't matter the code provides only that if there is a second the Mover can resend their their motion but not the second so um it's fine Mr Rivera yeah thanks so I'm hoping that we can end this debate and vote here shortly um you know I was going to vote Yes on postponement uh to May 16th um in hopes that we could learn a little bit more and um get away from tutor and Elmore um but now I'm just going to vote no on postponement we are at this point bending over backwards for a failed project that we have heard time and time again does not have the support of my constituents in Midtown and does not have the support of the East Anchorage constituents in hopes that this Administration is finally going to be able to get it right on the fourth or the fifth try and I'm furious that a generous donor is now stuck in the middle of this debate also we all know how these debates go they're going to take up all the air in the room period so whatever other business that we hope to on the regular meeting of May 7th done forget about that that's going to be pushed to the Wayside for this item so I'm going to be voting no and um I do hope for some positive use of the sprung structure in the future but the next time this comes forward to us please make sure that before you even put something on the agenda either this Administration or the next Administration please have a plan to present for us thank you thank you I have myself in the queue Mr constant thank you um in that conversation where a member called some folks on their motives the same member made an argument that the tent structure is going to be temporary it's a temporary structure it'll be fine we'll use it until we don't need it and then speaks against the use of the temporary structure at the cold weather shelter that we have on 56th Avenue they're both temporary the difference is we own one that's currently operating and it doesn't need 20 million to stand up and then some commitment of years for the operator to recoup those costs and pay on an annual basis the actual operations of that thousand person shelter so we have here an interesting situation ethics question where temporary is fine as long as it's the new building but temporary is not fine if it's the old building which we have a proven track record of operating but the administration couldn't find the money to operate so all of that argues that we do not postpone this item to the 7th and spend that whole meeting talking about this issue but instead we deal with this motion tonight on the motion to postpone members May proceed to vote Mr pres Ria no Mr Sut yes Mr falland no on a vote of four to six the motion to postpone has failed Mr Rand thank you Mr chair um you know I was going to make an amendment um that essentially would strike all the warehouses and remove from the title um and the resolves any um specific language about housing the homeless and provide navigation support but I think uh I think probably you know if the administration is interested in shipping the tent up um without a predetermined outcome they can bring back a separate item that would effectuate that um and instead of taking up everybody's time here to move that Amendment um I think I will just be a no vote on the main motion and encourage the administration you know if we want to ship the tent up let's confine it to shipping the tent up um we can have the conversation about what we're going to do with it at a later time thanks Mr preser thank you Mr chair just a few comments um there's so much that was said tonight that needs to be refuted but uh we don't have time we need to move on We There are op operating plans there was an operating plan developed at Sakai for the Third Avenue nav Center really thoughtful developed operating plans ensure that those projects were were going to be effective operating plans are incredibly important and we need to require them when we're going to invest this kind of resource in into something um this this plan this this big tent um has been a failed idea from the very very beginning and it continues to be recycled it needs to go away and we need to move on and have a serous proposal for how we're going to shelter people in the city um and so I would really encourage my my colleagues to vote this down and allow us to move on and um and and develop some some plans for how we're going to actually um develop real plans to ensure that folks are safe in encorage thank you okay so we are out of time for this debate we've spent an hour and that's what the code provides so on this topic who was the Mover of the main motion was it Miss Broly no the main motion this is oh it was okay is that accurate yeah the main motion I thought the main motion was moved by you and maybe seconded by I think it was Karen and Randy oh it's Miss branga that's right Miss branga and Mr salt that's who it was hour ago yeah I know just want to make sure the record is clear on the main motion yeah all right members May proceed to vote the motion is to approve $240,000 for the mayor's tent Mr Perez verdia no Mr Sut yes Mr valand no on a vote of 3-7 A2 24-24 has failed to pass the body next we have item 4 a this is a public hearing item AO 202 24-26 an ordinance amending anchor to Municipal Code section 15.2.2 prohibiting homeless camps within 10 blocks of any licensed homeless shelter wave reading thank you I'm sorry this one is not a public hearing this one is a continued item so um with this item there is a motion to approve an amendment number two is on the floor and amendment number two was moved by Miss branga and seconded by Mr vand and this one adds some wehous language discouraging camping encouraging active participation concerned citizens and allows private temp camp chair I'd like to pull that Amendment okay perfect thank you all right so then we have no Amendment on the floor we just have the main motion and no one in the queue seeing and hearing none oh now there is Mr Johnson yeah thanks Mr chair I also see that we have an an S version which which frankly I prefer to the original um however as I guess well I think I'd like to to speak to it um I would like to ask first as a point information since we have the the amended main motion before us um is there a course of action whereby we could take up the S version instead or do we need to so um was the S version on the table when we had the public hearing it was oh the motion to oh so the motion to approve is the S version according to the clerk yes so it is the one that is moved and a point of information I don't know if that's the accurate point I'm trying to raise but um if I may Mr chair briefly um I believe the the individual who moved this was not myself but rather Mr Myers thanks all right Miss broy yeah um so since uh was it just last week I don't even I can't even keep track um since last week um there was news that came out that the Supreme Court is going to be taking up the uh Grants Pass uh decision that's related to Mar Martin V Boise and it sounds like that arguments are going to start on Monday the 22nd so I I realize that that doesn't mean we would get an answer on the legality of of uh essentially abatement without adequate shelter Space by that point but my question to Department of Law is um have you done legal analysis under the current scheme that we're in and how does this uh comport with that because we haven't seen anything in writing so um I'm just asking the administration specifically Department of Law when we are going to see that in writing and and in the meantime um I've heard assertions that this is legal under that scheme but I'm just wondering what that looks like given that we um do not currently have adequate shelter space for everyone and do not anticipate having that over the summer do the chair um assembly woman do I have someone I think I have some folks here who are um helping I I don't know the answer to that I I haven't been super involved in this the drafting of these uh particular ordinances but maybe I can call someone up who is here um your Jason or Kate were you want to step up to the podium and address that if you can please state your name you have the floor is it on okay um assistant Municipal Attorney K speak real close to the mic there you go assistant Municipal attorney Kate buer um I don't remember who raised the question through the chair toy um in particular with this s version um section one and section three have been evaluated by the Department of Law as to their um consistency under current federal and Alaska um case law precedent that's binding on the municipality um these changes I'm just reviewing the S version which looks like it incorporates Amendment one okay um these changes the Department of Law um feels are legally defensible under the current binding precedent and there is a recognition that there may need to be changes in the future in response to the decision from the Supreme Court um whether that comes down in J uh June or as late as September and then my other question is um I had requested a map which I appreciate we did receive um believe during or right after last week's meeting um it did give essentially the implications for having certain buffers around trails and schools for example um but I did not see one that was um around shelters and that's really the way this ordinance is constructed is is distance from and it says license sheltered which we heard that that could be uh provisionally Li licensed so again I'm asking the administration to give us a map because I want to understand the spatial implications of saying uh up to a one mile radius around a building because I started doing the math or I started doing the mapping on my own and that that can Encompass entire neighborhoods or entire Community Council areas and so I want all members and the public to be aware of what the spatial implications of that are so that in and of itself is not a legal question um I would defer back to the administration on that so I'm I have myself in the queue Mr V I'm going to go because it's a legal question Mr um so I believe there is some elements of this that my downtown neighbors are very happy because it supposedly creates a red line around downtown that um makes it so that people can be quickly abated anywhere in downtown is that this ordinance no oh that's the criminal one okay I'll reserve my question for that one because um okay separate from that then do you have legal analysis in writing because it's hard for us as policy makers to just simply accept hey it's compliant so is there something in writing that members can see and understand the analysis that was done the laws that were reviewed the standards that were applied and how we are supposed to look at that um there's nothing currently in writing but we can certainly produce something on that thank you Mr vond thank you Mr chair um I would like to move so well first of all before I do that we're on the S version which I think to your point the downtown prohibited zone is not in the the S version it was in the original um but to the S version I would like to move Boland branga Amendment number 4 a sorry second thanks um so what this does it helps to restore um school grounds um from being prohibited campsites and um allow for expedited abatement oh you know what I'm on the wrong one let me back up propos propos amendment number 4A um would add child care facilities to the expedited list of locations um for batement so along with um protect other protected land uses like paav green belt and major Trail systems schools playgrounds um Child Care Facilities was proposed to add to that short list all right is that it that's it right so the motion was made by Mr ven seconded by Miss branga has been described any other discussion on the amendment Mr Riva yeah thank you Mr chair do we have someone from APD who can speak through the chair to member of we do not have a representative from APD here thank you okay yeah that makes this very difficult both for this ordinance and and the item 5A um because for me I want to understand um because APD is is the first step well no they shouldn't be the first step First Step should be outrage and then APD should be um a following step after that but they're the first step in terms of posting abatement and so I just want to understand if this puts APD in a bind if there are let's say some other abatement that isn't anywhere near one of these but turns out to be something that per apd's assessment needs to be a priority um are we putting them in a bind by having this pretty strict shallow language um but they're not here to respond Miss Proby yeah thank you I have a a question for the sponsors and and again it's going to go back to what I just stated around kind of the spatial implications of this I understand this is current code I also want to note it says a th000 feet and or sorry 100 ft of protected land uses and again that is in comparison to um a mile from a shelter which is about 5200 ft or or you know over 5,000 ft but my question is um it says Child Care Facilities is this intended to include homebased uh care which can also be a licensed facility um I would say yes I I think this contemplates licensed Child Care Facilities if you want to add the word license that would be amendable to that um but this still place um 72-hour notice and but just gives this list as first priority to abatement and I you know I think if we're going to look at this list you know it also includes things like abil habilitative care facilities um the Harry J McDonald Memorial center neighborhood Rec Center um and so I just don't I don't understand why we wouldn't um you know if there were a safety concern why we wouldn't add child care to that list so I guess I would again Ask I would like to see a map of these things because I would like to again understand the spatial implications because it was it's not just important for me as a decision maker it's important for the public including folks who are sleeping outside currently to understand um the types of places and if it is including homebased care um that's also contemplating residential areas and so it means that certain parts of residential areas that may have green belts or other Green Space are going to be off limits as well so again I want to make that very clear Miss brona I believe that prohibited area is 100 ft from private property and so if it is a child care homebased it already would be covered I'm very interested in child care facilities being added to this list but reality is um we had camps on schoolyards camps all these protected places last year and I want to put this in the list but I sure would be nice to know there would be enforcement constant thank you um so we have a complex proposal for abatement oh wait this is on the amendment I'll wait oh wait anyone else on the amendment hear can seeing none members May proceed to vote Mr perz Ria no Mr Sut yes Mr valand yes on a vote of six to four the amendment fails so I'm in the queue and for my part I didn't vote against that because I want to protect Child Care Facilities it's a different question so um on the main motion here we have a complex proposal for a new abatement policy that's been actually around now for plenty of time we do not have legal analysis we have a a stated legal opinion with no factual basis but we don't have legal analysis provided to us that demonstrates that this is in fact constitutional under the current regime let alone what's coming in a month or 6 weeks um we also don't have apd's analysis on what the implications of this are for enforcement how they would do it what Staffing levels they need what does it mean for them how they protect people's civil rights at the same time protecting people's property rights we also don't have a detailed map to understand what the implications of all of these changes mean do we literally create a an umbrella map of Anchorage where it's functionally functionally illegal to exist without house so for all of those reasons I am not positioned to vote on this item tonight and if I must I must vote no not because I don't support the idea of fixing the issues that we have but because I can't tell if this is lawful if this is functional if this is achievable and so it's the same issue with the previous item I would like to have the opportunity for the Law Department to provide written and signed legal analysis from one of our attorneys so there's a record of why this is legal I would also like to have a work session with the police uh the soon to be acting police chief on her Theory and approach for how this would be managed and then I would like that map but I don't know that the members are have an appetite for delay because there's this imperative to get things done because we don't want to look like this or that and we have heard and we recognize if you're paying attention to your calendar that the big issue we have to face for the next two weeks is the budget we have to get that dealt with and we have plenty of work sessions and work on that and the next meeting isn't the best time because again this will be the only thing we talk about and everything else that's on our regular business will get pushed to the side and so it argues to delay to again the week of the 10th to the 17th sometime in there to take this up at a special meeting again when we've had a chance to be briefed that's my two cents if we can't move this out I have to vote no and not because there isn't Merit because I don't understand if it's legal legitimate and constitutional Miss brona I don't know if it's all right to move an amendment at this time you have the floor okay I'd like to move BR branga amendment number six and that Amendment um having talked with people who serve um are unhoused in the downtown Corridor um this 10 blocks from the transit shelter is taking people away from the Third Avenue nav Center and I'm thinking the quarter mile separation am I in the wrong place oh no no we're just looking for the documents it's not you keep going okay we're just looking for I'm thinking a quarter mile buffer um may be more appropriate so that and we we've said that camps can be no larger than 25 so they're in theory we're not going to have an extremely large camp but maybe a quarter mile is a big enough buffer without causing undue hardship um downtown Hope Center serves 400 cups of soup a day and in the middle of the day and you know I can picture the the trooping back and forth back and forth which puts people on the street in um various sometimes various levels of being inebriated and um I just think a little closer is something that may be safer is there a second second seconded by Mr Meyers um okay so uh Mr V is in the queue on the amendment um sure yeah I'll speak to this amendment um I will probably be voting no I think what we' seen is that um proximity of camps to shelter um create some um negative interaction thanks was that it Mr Bond yeah but I'd like to stay in the queue on the main motion thanks okay um so are you here to speak on the amendment Mr rera Mr broy on the amendment okay yeah I think um this this does seem more uh practical so I appreciate that I just want to State um a quarter of a mile is 1,320 uh feet as opposed to 100 feet from other protected uses but it's less than 5,280 ft so um so that does seem to be an improvement just in terms of practicality and I I hear the arguments for that um I guess I still come back to my same questions though um I would like to see a map of what this looks like and I would like to see that with with these other discussions as well so we can understand what this looks like and and I want to call back to the marijuana licensing discussions on which during which I was not on the body but I remember there was extensive discussion about um the idea of 500 foot buffers how they're defined and then there was essentially a map and one version of that map which included um not allowing anything 500 ft of parks and and certain other uses basically Illustrated that it made it impossible to put any of those businesses in most of the city almost all of the city and so the the decision that was made after that was to walk back some of those specific things with the unintended consequence um that that is still really true that they've been concentrated in certain neighborhoods like spinard um and and that's just been the reality of the land use decisions that were made and the policy that was made so again that's why I'm I'm sticking with this question about the spatial implications of these policies um because it does affect where people can legally um or quasi legally camp and so um so I am I'm open to supporting this amendment but I'm still having trouble on on whether um we have enough information to vote on this tonight and so I'm also um I'm getting closer to wanting to see a delay as well thanks Mr bird was it on the amendment no Mr chair M motion on behalf of the mayor okay so anyone else on the amendment I'm not hearing anyone um you know I would just briefly say it's strange that the downtown would be a place that would um have a different buffer I think the folks in the downtown would argue they've already had that different buffer for the last 40 years so otherwise members May proceed to vote Mr falland no Mr yes Mr pres Ria no on a vote of six to four the amendment has failed to pass now we have the main motion before us Mr Rivera yeah uh thank you Mr chair um so on the main motion I generally agree that we need to fine-tune our rules around abatement I also believe that we need to get this right not necessarily perfect cuz I don't think we'll ever get it perfect but I do think that we need to get this right and I think it this point that means that we have to postpone it a bit Optics be damned the rationale for that goes to the questions I asked at the last assembly meeting this ordinance is only about a batement right but it really plays into an entire system and I don't think we have a clear idea at least speaking for myself I don't have a clear idea of of whether this helps the system or hurts the system I think as I put it the last assembly meeting moves us forward or moves us back and um I think because of that I'm going to have to make a motion to postpone this to a special meeting of May 16th I think that was the date we had talked about previously so Mr Myers said he couldn't attend the 15th would be fine thank you I appreciate that so then yes I will go ahead and uh change that to a motion to postpone action on this item to the meeting of May 15 second motion to uh change excuse me motion to postpone the item to the 15th of May moved by Mr Rivera and seconded by Miss broy Mr Rivera yeah thank you so um on top of everything that I that I said previously um you know I think postponing this to the meeting of the 15th will I think one give us a little bit more insight into the arguments that the Supreme Court is going to have and um although this isn't necessarily a one:1 ratio but generally you can get a sense of how the Supreme Court is going to rule by listening to their arguments um second is um I think you know we have a current system in place frankly not not even all of those laws are being enforced so I think there is a structure right now that can be used in the interim between us fine-tuning those rules and laws around abatement and today like there's a system in place there's no reason why APD Outreach all of the different players in the system can continue using that until we fine-tune the rules so I think for those reasons it makes sense for us to as I said before get this a little bit more right thank you right so on the motion to postpone in the queue I have just to be clear Mr bird I think on the main Miss Broly go ahead yeah thank you um will support this and so I've been struggling with this since since it was first brought up there there's this proposal but there's so many unanswered questions and and I know that there will probably be a narrative that we are simply kicking this can down the road or postponing it but there is real legal Jeopardy at stake here um and there's also um there's also issues of as we said of enforcement there are budget implications because a lot of the questions have been raised if we're not allowing people in certain places um are we going to be providing bathrooms are we going to be providing handwashing stations the way we did last summer and I haven't heard any proposals to essentially fund that um and I know that was a big discussion last summer as well and so and also just from procedural practicality I think we've had a couple items and I know that I have contributed to this for sure um where where um we have not really worked out what what the body would agree to we can only do that in open meetings and so often it is helpful to have that that initial kind of discussion question answer at work session and it's also helpful to have the time to integrate um multiple proposals into one oh thank you um thank you for turning off that microphone um integrating multiple proposals into one so so that was the ask originally of for multiple things on our agenda was to be able to put them together given that and it and it does take time it takes time it takes legal research it takes effort and so it is a real thing to say that that that we can gain some time and make this this entire process Smoother by having that delay and I will also note we had multiple six to four votes just now which indicates that there is not broad agreement on this body and so I don't think it serves us um to make a decision without some key information without that written legal analysis which we can not only hear from our staff but also that the public can see um and then to really again have the time and have just a little bit more time on the other side of our budget process to contemplate what's possible and I think that's true not only for this ordinance but it's true for the other items that we're going to be talking about and I just feel deeply uncomfortable and I am worried about the legal Jeopardy that we might be putting this city and by making these decisions um with the idea that that we have to move as fast as possible without doing the right and not necessarily saying that we need to do the right thing and figure that out first all right so M Broger are you on the key for the am a motion to postpone yeah I'm in the uh I'm in Q to talk about the postponement okay um I I um know that the Alex will be entirely emptied by May 7th and I come from a teaching background and I cannot even fathom the possibility of starting the school year standing outside just letting the students go in sit wherever they want grab whatever they want do whatever they want we need structure and we need to have rules in place before people leave the shelter and that's not saying anything against our people who are experiencing homelessness it's just reality they need that idea of what we're going to expect to to Abate them one place or the other because they didn't know is really quite cruel and I think that we need to just get going on this Mr Martine is motion to postpone yes thank you chair and I just want to be clear um the order of our comments that have no impact in in the sense of I'm not speaking to my colleagues um I'm speaking to this issue uh directly but um I'm challenged by a few of these items uh with respect to this and and specifically I'm I'm challenged by the fact that uh last year we couldn't do things that this year we apparently can write in law and then say we can do them I don't know how that works um one of the one of the challenges that I have the biggest the biggest things with is that one of the worst things anyone could do and parents know this is is say what you will enforce and then not do it that that's the worst thing that you actually can do and I'm challenged by the nature of the continued nature of the conversation around enforcement seemingly criminality and not being able to designate where people can be so that there is some reluctance from the administration and I'm not sure whether or not I'll support idea like that but I haven't seen the administration say this is where folks can in fact be but we're willing to say that with vehicles we're willing to say that with a thousand person tent assume the liability therein but not necessarily assume the liability about designating where folks can be we'll put we publish a map of where they cannot be so it seems like there's a lot of missing pieces still to this puzzle um I don't think a delay today uh takes away from the opportunity for us to get it right but I want to recognize that we're the assembly debating these things exactly to member brona's point at like game time like it's now time and fundamentally that's not the right position for the assembly to be in these are implementation questions that should be ironed out way earlier on so that we can deliberate these things thoughtfully and I think a little more time to deliberate this to get it right to hopefully have some degree of these answers questions and the resources in place to do a better job this summer than we have in the past is is in order thank you chair Mr Calles uh thank you Mr chair I'd like to have Mr bird speak to the motion to postpone thank you Mr chair um to the chair I want to respond to a few things um first of all you mentioned Mr chair I think that this is um perhaps warrants more legal review I just want to point out we have great lawyers we have uh Jessica Willoughby here in the audience we have Jason Thomas we have Kate dur all three of them have worked intimately on this you know Mr chair Miss Willoughby has been here from the prior Administration she worked intimately with Becky win Pearson when she was handling the The Fallout of Martin V Boise she has the um certainly the legacy of helping craft the municipal policy towards homelessness and she's a great asset she's here in the audience tonight we have not only Chuck Gunther here on the dis that has worked on this issue but myself too Mr chair who in my brief time in the municipal attorney's office this was an issue we handled I remember talking with Jessica about GR pass when it was a district court case out of out of Oregon so you have plenty of attorneys Mr chair that have looked at this and have looked at this at least since late February we we submitted this into the system back in late February we had an internal meeting uh with member branga I think member Rivera may have been there that was on March 11th um we requested a work session I believe that same day uh two days later we had an internal meeting with the cap team and with prosecution on the 26th we had another internal meeting which assembly members were invited to I believe M uh Mr Rivera showed up for that one then of course we had the work session on the 29th which produced the S version which the body is currently deliberating upon you've heard the Department of Law say that this passes legal mustard under the current regime in the ninth circuit with regard to the Supreme Court decision Mr chair I think that it was uh Miss Miss Willoughby who told me this U that Dean karinsky who often is up here for the Alaska bar convention he's one of the most well-regarded constitutional Scholars he said the Supreme Court was going to take it up before they took it up and he said it's when the Supreme Court takes up a night circuit case like this it's likely because they want to rule on it for the whole country and right now the ninth circuit is the outlier the the rest of the the legal team that is functioning as attorneys can can answer that question better than me Mr chair but I think with regard to what we can expect as a municipality we can expect that there are going to be changes but that shouldn't stop us we should shouldn't wait for the US Supreme Court to take action to make sure that we protect the municipality as best we can uh finally Mr chair I wanted to respond to member Martinez's um comments regarding why aren't we telling people where they can go and and again I will defer to um I'm sorry I didn't even mention U Mr Gates and Mr hurt they're obviously great attorneys too who are working for the municipality but anytime we tell somebody where they can go that's when the the issue of liability comes up and I I remember looking at um Lane versus city of Juno when I was in the municipal attorney's office that that's a case that should make every every attorney that works for municipality just stop and think what sort of permissions do we want to Grant to people who who want to use Municipal property in a way that um otherwise would be unlawful so um anyway I I just want to make sure that the the body is aware that this has been vetted yes it's been a a shortened timeline compared to 6 months or a year but two months is a good amount of time and we've had plenty of involvement both from the Department of Law and the body thank you Mr chair thank you I'll recognize Mr constant thank you um so it's this really is a rhetorical question Miss Willoughby do you have a written legal opinion for us to consume on the DI and I know the answer really is no it's not drafted right now but can you I bet you can if we have some time and so for my purposes all of the words in the world don't mean much trust me trust me no show me the law show me the cases show me the analysis and then let us chew on it as policy makers it's not so easy to say we have said it therefore it is true a proposition without evidence can and must be dismissed without evidence and so um I also want to say that I'm really sad to hear the administration is choosing to close the Alex by May 7th the emergency cold weather shelter season extended to May 31st and so we heard at a briefing this week that they're shutting things down that's a choice now they would argue well the assembly didn't give us money in the normal operation of a municipality that has a functional Executive Branch the executive branch brings the proposal to the assembly the assembly then considers it and then either approves or doesn't but we're not in that environment anymore instead the assembly members are relied upon by the administration to come up with the proposals to fund the ideas that they lay on the table so for my part the argument to postpone is very valid because we need information legal analysis apds analysis and a map Mr hurt thank you Mr chair and at the risk of lawyers waiting into this though we keep getting our names invoked Mr uh Gates and I have uh looked at this and or we'll be the first to admit that we're not as involved and weren't the drafters on this ordinance um but the question of legal authorities keeps getting raised and I guess our understanding of code is that the administration already has resources and authorities and has the legal department that can provide guidance under the existing Supreme Court case law to to accomplish what I think their their policy goals are and I guess I don't see what authorities this ordinance achieves that they don't already have in code or inherent to the executive and and I like I said the if the Department of Law can can can clarify that I think that might help the body in determining whether or not this this ordinance is is something that they want to codify and code um because if the the legal issue I think we're trying to address would help kind of clarify the argument as opposed to um I think everybody agrees that you know homelessness is a problem and how to address it is a great question so I guess that's just I guess it's more of a question which is not necessarily my usual role but like does does this ordinance achieve something that's not already inherently in code or inherent to the executive yeah um more questions that's the nature of tonight Mr Martinez thank you chair yes I think the questions are really important so that folks can get past any press releases that come out immediately after these votes and you can look at the whole tape and then actually listen to the whole conversation yes the press releases that come out immediately after these votes so let's just be clear I have a question for Mr bird um so this particular ordinance proposes to designate safe parking areas but you just articulated that one of the questions that the Administration has come to a conclusion on is that there's a liability around designating safe camping areas so have we done a liability analysis around the designation of the safe parking areas that now all of a sudden we can seek to do without any larger changes can you answer that question Mr bird through the chair to member Martinez um I should not be giving uh legal opinions uh but I will answer and my answer was that our understanding was that that's what item 5B is all about um Mr Gates I believe took a long look at what the best um and was collaborating I believe with members both of the administration and and the assembly trying to find a good way for how parting would work under our current uh legal regime um so my understanding was the the S version that currently has the parking there's going to be a motion to excise that or a floor amendment to excise that I haven't seen that yet member Martinez but the administration certainly supports that um removing the parking from the S version and then taking it up as agenda item 5B thank you so the question that I asked was was there a liability analysis done to move that into a position of potentially voting on it tonight considering that it had been described that we don't want to assume the liability for providing where people can SA safely Camp can you has there been an a liability analysis done I don't think I heard the answer to that through the chair to member Martinez not by myself uh member Martinez but I would defer to the Department of Law and those who are working with Mr Gates uh thank you and Mr chair I think it's I think what's important is that um I believe in grace and giving people the opportunity to work it out and come back at at another time with their story straight and their information lined up I think is is is an admirable thing that uh that we're potentially asked to vote on at this particular time I think there are lots of unanswered questions and I think uh this is unfortunate that it's coming at this particular season and it looks so political and the press releases will come but fundamentally we're talking about the lives of people we're talking about the responsibility of providing safe spaces for folk and on the one hand we're willing to do things that on the other hand we'll say we can't and I think those things need to be really worked out um a little more deliberately before we get to the day of uh special meetings or assembly meetings thank you chair all right so I have a number of folks in the queue still but I need to ask for um a motion to extend for an hour I'll move to extend for another hour to 8:00 pm moved by Miss broy seconded by Mr rman ask for anonymous consent hearing see no objection we're extended to 8:00 pm so um in the queue then I have a few people um first Mr Myers then Mr Presa then miss broley thank you Mr chair I uh I do not support the motion to postpone this to the meeting May 15th uh special meeting rather I'll be out of town that day so I will not be able to attend that day either uh but there is one thing I wanted to clear up because I heard some comments about the Alex closing and the administration closing Alex but isn't the Alex a privately Run Hotel so do we have any say in that I'm I'm asking the question because I don't know maybe Miss Johnson can come to the question through the chair Mr Myers we uh had no decision- making in the date um had we got them into a contract obligation sooner uh we could have most likely gone to May 31st but because we did not have the funding allocated to continue the progress at that shelter they came back and said that we only want to shelter through May 7th because they had heard that we had an early tourism season coming and they wanted to get back to regular standard business that answers my question Mr chair which is why I think we need to make a decision on this this evening all right thank you um in the queue um Mr pres Veria and then Mr Miss Broly then Mr band oh sorry Mr chair I was reading the press release to sent out by the mayor during the meeting I am so longing for a time when we have competent leadership in the mayor's office this is such a perfect example of of of why peac mealing these things and clowing them together at the last minute is why we are in the situation we're in in this city and why this this bundling of of managing this difficult issue of homelessness in our city has been completely gone wrong and um and and so I I am I am just flabbergasted by this conversation I I think that we need to um not postpone this I think we need to vote it down or po postpone it because I certainly am not not out favor of it there's too many questions there's too many variables and the thing that really stands out to me is once again as it always has been with this Administration is this is there's no plan there's no there's no thought how this connects to all the other pieces of we're trying to address this complex issue it's just another thrown in pece and so as a as somebody who is trying to make good decisions about the future of this city and about how to how to use our resources in a thoughtful way and how to keep the people of this city safe it's so difficult to be able to to have these pieces and parts be brought together and it just demonstrates to me that it it's failed leadership in the mayor's office it's failed leadership in in the Department of Health over home it is it's Mr CH order so I uh I uh on Mr uh Mr Co has raised a point of order go ahead no point of order if I may so let me hear the first point of order and then uh we'll take you up the second one Mr Co Mr chair I I remained silent but um when Mr Perez Veria starts attacking the the dedicated faithful employees of the health department who are just there to do a job they're not political they are they are um working tirelessly on all the issues that face the city I I find those comments to be out of line thank you I think that um there are tears of employees at the health department some are in fact de facto political and some are not and I think members would be wise to carefully construct their comments to uh protect those who are in fact line employees from such comments but I think that anyone who moves themselves into the political sphere is in fact um subject to the political forces Mr Rivera yeah thank you Mr chair so I've been doing this I think at the last several assembly meetings and so I will I will continue to do this and hope that um maybe if if point if the administration wants to raise points of order make Amendment do whatever it wants to do that the mayor should be here it is inappropriate for representative of the mayor to bring forward a point of order that is only something that is allowed to the voting members of this body thank you Mr chair if I may Mr Co thank you sir thank you Mr chair um not a lawyer I'm not an expert on the code or the charter but uh the code and the charter do say that in the absence of the mayor that the manager has all the powers Ed in the mayor with the exception of vetos and emergencies and so we have had many discussions about this and um we have determined that that communication must come in writing from the mayor each time it cannot be an adhawk action because the mayor's in attendance at an assembly meeting does not demonstrate that he is unavailable it is demonstrating that he is making a choice and so um it would be fine if he sent a delegating email before every meeting he opted not to be here but that's the ruling of the chair thank you Mr chair um wasn't aware that a that had to be delivered in writing on every occasion I do have a letter that I can deliver to the the clerk right now thank you thank you um Mr Gates I hear you may have wanted in the queue um Mr chair am I still I still have the floor yeah I'll I'll let you have the floor back as soon as Mr Gates has done things sorry thank you oh uh thank you Mr Cher I was just going to speak briefly Mr maris's um question about liability and for having designated safe camping areas okay hold on Mr Gates since it's all the way back on that I'm going to come back to you after Mr Pria finishes okay sorry I thought it was German to the topic um Mr pres thank you m Mr chair and I wanted to be very specific that that I I am I am simply talking about the fact that that that this Administration has failed to address homelessness in this city period And this is a good example that what what is in front of us and I think one of the key reasons is because again there is no overall plan and how this connects to that plan and so um I I am I am not in FA favor of it and um and and I look forward to the day where we can have things in front of us that um that are connected to an overall vision for how we're going to address the issues in our city thank you right thank you and I will just note that Mr Cole Hast in fact does have a delegation of authority dated today so he will be except for the veto having the authorities of the mayor so your point of order Mr ver is answered we have the records we need so um are you done are you done Mr Presa yeah I'm finished thank you thank you I'm going to skip you for a sec Mr Proby because you've spoken on the motion Mr Rand hasn't Mr Rand thank you Mr chair um so I want to briefly just respond to a couple things that my colleagues have stated in um on on the topic of postponement um number one you know member Broly talked about how we've had some close votes tonight and there isn't broad agreement and I'll just say you know I know that our body right now has a certain makeup of our majority if you will but we don't all agree on every topic and sometimes there won't be brought agreement but we have to still try to course forward um so just want to say that um also uh on member Martinez um points about you know telling people where they can go you know this body we convened the whole task force on sanction camping and then we chose not to Mr V I'm being prompted to PR you on that this is a motion to postpone I'm aware and I also am responding to other member comments on the motion to postpone so I don't think that there's I guess I don't think we need to wait um until we have some type of other item that comes forward that tells people where they can go because we've already taken up that item um additionally M Raley mentioned integrating multiple proposals multiple proposals into one well we had a work session on this we discussed it at the rules committee um you know we've we've delayed it now to this special meeting and I just haven't really necessarily seen um any effort to do that to merge these multiple proposals I guess I'm a little frustrated because when we first took this up members wanted to move amendments you know I introduced a couple amendments with member branga member branga um brought forward some amendments they were in our packet last time um sort of last minute but now um my colleagues have had a chance to take a look at those um and what was requested at the last meeting was that we would you know maybe pick up the Amendments later after certain members could um talk for a very long time on the underlying motion and so we we waited to move the Amendments um you know I was able to move one of our my amendments tonight but there's others in the stack and so I guess I'm just a little frustrated it's been kind of hard attending on the phone tonight too um you know just to make sure that get in the queue and and try to move those amendments so yeah I I think I'm going to vote no on postponement um I think we've had time to um to digest uh the proposals that have been brought forward the original and the S version and also member amendments if those me amendments are not adopted even via close vote that's okay um the body can go that way if the if the underlying motion is not adopted or it is um I think we can go that way as well so um yeah I will be voting against the motion to postpone thank you Miss broy yeah thanks um I just want to State something relevant to postponement um whether we vote on this tonight or whether it is postponed in a month all of this is really constructed around the idea of restricting where people can camp around licensed shelters of which we heard we have zero so there was discussion about provisional licensing so so to my understanding the shelters that exist in town now this doesn't apply unless they are licensed and there are also Provisions that suggest that that in the licensing system not all of them would ever be licensed because there is certain rules around that and Licensing is a process and so I just want to State again that whether or not we postpone this um those Provisions don't apply so I'm left with the uh the Wastewater n nuisance notice the uh limit on the number of camps and um and maybe that's about it that's what could apply today or or tonight as as of um if we voted on it which again I suggest that there is a more holistic conversation we can have given the multiple things on our agenda tonight so I would suggest again postponement put myself in Mr constant thank you any argument that this is if we don't pass this it's going to create uncertainty we have an abatement code right now we have one the thing that we don't have is Administration that has executed it Faithfully if I don't have written legal analysis if I don't have from APD analysis of how they are going to actively enforce and implement this if I don't understand that we are not literally creating a map with zero places on it that people can be and now Mr Martinez's question if I don't have risk analysis on this I can't vote Yes so for me it's delay or no which is fine that's how these things go and if it's no it's not because I don't support having a serer policy for our neighbors what I support is having an Administration that will actually Faithfully execute the code that exists in a way that results in cleaner safer neighborhoods hard to do when you're shy of 50 cops hard to do when your staff are spread so thin because there's so much emptiness and lack of answer question so for my part simply put if we don't postpone I must vote no for those four reasons Miss brona so I agree that a lot of what we are frustrated with is something that could right now be enforced but what I think this does for us is keep the Third Avenue and cdy park gigantic encampments from happening having an expectation that 2510 is Max that's still going to be a lot of people in a single area and I would much rather see that we sanctioned camps we went with how George and I think Zach went to work setting the groundwork for for a aoud camp that would be organized have services and if we are not going to do that I don't want to postpone this I want to have order that at least the not going to be the gigantic camps and that if there is a waste or the the um the Wastewater I don't know the name of it right now but the the part if they are dumping feces in the Stream we can aate because um it it's really frustrating to me what has happened Russian Jacks is my Park and I know someone's going to call point of order I don't care but um I tried to host an event at that Park four years ago for high school students sport called orienteering you give out a map compasses and run through the woods looking for Flags I consciously chose that park because I wanted people to see the park that I love at the end of the event I had made sure that we weren't going right into camps but kids who can't follow a map very well ran through several camps s through needles through trash ran into inebriated individuals the park was rented by the club for $350 and $2 a participant and after the event I was told that it could never be H held at Russian Jacks again or they would not participate as a school district and that's sad so that's why I would like to continue so that we have some expectations for this summer Mr Martinez thank you on the motion to postpone chair this a question for the administration um maybe they can help me understand this a little better maybe my colleagues are co-sponsors um where people are parking uh illegally now areas that would not be in the designated safe areas um what would happen to those particular areas um would there be a batement from an area that is not designated for parking to an area that's designated parking how would that work I'm thinking of parks in all across the community that already have activity happening and so what's the what is the actual plan for that that may determine whether or not a postponement makes sense or not Mr Coes through the chair to member martinus I'm going to I'm going to take a chance and put Mr branif on the spot Mike would you be able to help address that question and if not I'll ask the departmental law to come up um through the chair assembly member Martinez um would you mind repeating the question I'll give it a shot um what is the mechanism for abating folks from areas that are utilizing their vehicles for housing or camping but that are not in the designated area what's the process of the procedure or all of the above okay well the the process of the procedure hold on a sec um a member just raised a point of order and asked the question um how is this related to the motion to postpone Mr Martinez My Hope Is that having an understanding of whether or not they have voted on uh this well tonight determines an urgency for me um do they have an actual protocol in place does an actual uh if these things are implementable now and we can actually have a a Clarity of implementation they may determine my my vote on whether or not I want to postpone or not I see more people questioning Mr Rivera yeah thanks so I think just to clarify a little bit the current ordinance that we are debating is the ordinance proposed by the mayor there is a separate ordinance that's on our agenda uh I believe it's item 5B on our agenda that is solely the designated safe parking area so and maybe that your questions are better um for that particular item thank you Mr R I appreciate that all right so any other input Mr Martinez on this no okay thank you um I don't see anyone else in the queue the motion is postpone to the 15th of May members May proceed to vote Mr vand no Mr Sut no Mr pres Ria no right on a vote of four to six the motion is failed the main motion is back before us well we're pretty much out of time to debate um members May proceed to vote so point of information are we are we not going to be have an opportunity to move the Amendments then nobody spoke up and I called the role so um members May proceed to vote Mr falland on the main motion yes Mr Sut yes Mr pres Veria no on a vote of six to4 the motion has failed next we have I'm looking forward to the press release next we have item 4C no 4C 4C is ar2 24-13 a resolution of the Anchorage assembly recommending and urging the administration to establish a pilot program to operate and maintain a registry of properties that offers space for temporary accessory tent camping use wave reading thank you okay there's a motion to approve by Miss bras or second second seconded by Mr um Johnson Miss brongo thank you chair um this is a resolution that I um worked with with Mr Gates's help um it establishes a pilot program where we could get interested businesses nonprofits churches and I I brought this up last meeting as a possible Amendment to the main U motion but um it seemed as uh I was told by a coalition to end homelessness that it was better as a resolution Standalone um what it would do is um if we would create a registry if there is a business nonprofit church that would be willing to host up to 3/10 and um Hennings and Coalition and homelessness has committed to some level of vetting clients that are leaving shelter to go to these locations that we set up um which are not there yet um we need to know that we can do this and it will take time but we um would allow up to three t0 at these places um and apparently in title 23 we do not need any special permits to have tents on a temporary basis um and the people who would volunteer to host most um Campers at their property would um not be charging any money for this it would be it would be an opportunity for someone in our community who has been concerned about what's happening to step up and help out in a very real way if it didn't work out and the um person I understand um from having sat through town halls and and just going through through um the woods that there are people that have mental health issues there are people with drug and alcohol um issues and if it didn't work out at this site they could be removed with um warning so up to three temps can be erected real property developed by and owned by religious institutions place of worship public agencies including the municipality real property occupied and used by any organization or business primarily for nonprofit um I have also um gotten a commitment from and it's a soft commitment because this is just launching but um coalition to home and homelessness said they could do they could Envision doing Street outreaches to these um places that have offered up their property for camping and I also have a commitment from Beans uh Cafe to offer some level of meal service um for no charge so that is what I'm proposing and um and I yeah that's all I know all right have a few people in the queue um Mr Martinez thank you somebody on their phone could you mute so we don't hear your feedback thanks thank you chair uh just a couple questions uh for potentially you chair first and then uh for my colleague first I appreciate member brona's work on this um I think it's important to have Civil Society stepping up into the fold I do believe uh a lot of solutions from an entrepreneurial perspective uh can emerge and on that front I think it's important to see them first I I I would love for and I continue to say this um for us to not create Frameworks that no one has said hey we're here to do it I'd rather respond to the group coming forward and saying hey this is what we want to do how can we do something about that um but on that question what is the power of a resolution uh chair does this lock the assembly into a particular policy posture well I mean I would love the attorneys to answer that it's not the same as the code in law um but it is the policy and so um it's beyond strongly worded letter in this case but it is not an ordinance it's not ordained Mr Gates the question being the different is what's the power of the resolution um uh this resolution is basically asking the administration to undertake a project um so it does in a way uh I mean if it's passed by the assembly sort of set out that body has a policy that You' like to see this happen but it doesn't have the force of code first of does that Qui address your question yes it does it essentially it does what I imagine it is it's a little more than you describe share a little stronger than uh a strongly worded letter but not necessarily code and to Mr Gates Point um and I hope I hope my colleague just hears this with the uh with with the respect that I do have I think it was asserted that this would establish I think it was asserted that this would um that there was certain commitments that were have been locked in and from my fundamental perspective in reading of this this does a recommendation to an in uh for the administration to consider a pilot program this is not necessarily at the level of implementation and then furthermore I think um I love verbal commitments I love them even better when they're on paper and uh and I think that the level of implementation really goes to got to say it the work that the assembly members are willing to do that Administration folks are just not willing to do um it's not a knock on my my colleagues for doing the work that they see there's an opportunity to do the working um this is something that could have been brought and should have been brought should have been talked about championed and and and rounded up especially for folks that have a more conservative vantage point with respect to the role of local government so chair I think that I just wanted to be clear this is an urging a recommendation um and uh even if it were to pass today it really declares some intentionality but it doesn't have uh any ability to be enforced and uh we still have to go to work on that level so uh I just wanted to be clear about those things thank you chair thank you Mr R yeah um thank you Mr chair U I appreciate member branga bringing this forward um you know this is uh along the lines somewhat of some of the work that I have previously done although I think this really relies more on the private sector to step up and and help out uh private nonprofit Etc which I I appreciate so I guess I have a couple of questions and um I want to Echo very strongly what memb Martinez stated which really for me the important part of this resolution is section one quote that the administration is authorized and encouraged to establish a pilot program as soon as possible for summer 2024 Etc um so I guess first my question is to the administration um is this something that you would support and I ask that knowing that at least in for other similar ideas the Administration has not been supportive um so I would be curious to see where the administration stance is on this idea Mr colus through the chair to member Rivera I I would say first of all I'm very grateful to member branga for bringing forward innovative ideas like this I think that having just seen this recently we would need a little bit of time to to review it thank you okay on one sec a little more time like later tonight or a little more time like sometime in the near future uh Mr chair I would say sometime in the near future Mr yeah thanks um okay um yeah I think it would be helpful to know something before we vote because just echoing some of the arguments some of my colleagues have made um against some of the proposals I brought forward they weren't interested in voting yes unless they knew the administration was actually going to move it forward and at this point we don't have any clear indication if the administration is going to move this forward or not um so I mean I would be okay voting yes on this today fully knowing that this may not actually happen in the end um second question is uh to member branga um can you please specifically name any entities and properties that have been discussed as possible usage for a pilot program I have not gone around and gathered possible but I have heard that um Central Lutheran is planning the pallet shelter project and they do not want tents I want to be clear but they mentioned several other churches that are impatient with the progress ress of the pallet shelter and she felt like some of them may be interested in coming forward um I just I'm just judging from the volume of the emails that I've had of people who really want some way to help that um we are going to find it now as to um I don't know can I oh I got to get back in the queue for this so thank you great thank you thank you Mr chair all right so I have myself than you Mr constant yeah um so I am in the universe of people who believes that our community has a lot of people willing to get in and actually dive in and put in the Sweat Equity to make a difference and I have long believed that our institutions of Faith which occupy an important position in our community and receive incredible benefits by the virtue of the nature of their organizations in some ways have a duty to do some part of this work and so I appreciate this um offer ing to the members of the community out there that if they were willing to take this on we are willing to meet them which gets to what Central Lutheran is talking about in doing their tiny home proposal their small scale housing and also maybe this um I think if you look at American history before this country was a country the churches were the provider of Social Services and in some ways we've gotten away from that although there are some organizations who have done that work and so um for my part I can support this because it helps to distribute into the community opportunities to serve so um Miss branga then Mr B and then miss broley I was going to ask if I could bring forward the coalition to end homelessness um to verify their commitment to helping out with this welcome M zalel executive director Anchorage Coalition and Homeland say Miss bronger reached out with this proposal um we said yes we could still do Street Outreach as long as we had the express permission of the property owner to enter the property um and that if um the shelter provider was helping make connections with property owners and they let us know where folks were headed that would be another good way for us to make sure we could document that permission um and we'd be able to provide our typical encampment Outreach Services thank you still have the floor all right thanks so much um the other thing that I wanted to bring up is is to the administration this is not totally unheard of because it was brought forward um last Tuesday and it was going to be an amendment at the time to the uh main motion um at that time we were talking about following a model done in Hillsboro where um private residences were allowed to host one tent and um Miss uh Johnson got up and expressed some concern that there may be some squatters rights of people going into um residential neighborhoods into yards and maybe have difficulty um getting them out and I had received a call from um RRS that um they're very supportive of the concept but really was they were nervous about the idea of um individual yards and um I really took some time to listen to everything Kathleen had to say about it you know someone who is well-meaning but has no idea U what they might be getting themselves into so I feel like this being placed not in residential areas um is is a really nice way to go forward Mr vand thank you Mr chair so I appreciate member branga bringing this forward um I guess I just am a bit confused as to why this might be needed um other than maybe the policy statement are are private property owners currently precluded from allowing camping under or on their property so if a church wanted to host people or if somebody wanted to host someone in their backyard is that currently not allowed is my question maybe for the administration Miss brona I'm not the I can't get into the further but what this does is allows us to create a registry uh right now tents are allowed on public properties but or private properties and nonprofits but what this does is create a way to match someone who would be suitable with less supervision and the shelter um Hennings and both um Coalition and homeless homelessness know their clients they know who might be successful they they know who might um want to be staying away from the shenanigans going on in the woods and this could just I feel like be a great partnership but it has to have that level of registering people and matching them with a location and then we would know what where individuals are are um to help if if housing comes available and we know they're at uh Shiloh Baptist missionary or Baptist Church boom you go and get them okay that's helpful thank you okay um in the queue Miss Broly and then miss c yeah thank you um I do appreciate this being brought forward um I also do not have confidence that it will be implemented because of basically the discussion for the last year um around um whether or not the administration supports this I'm clearly they have not taken a position yet um we don't have the mayor here to speak to to his own they're ready to speak okay um let's pivot to the administration then you can have the floor back okay thanks thanks Mr co uh thank you Mr chair um so I forget the term you use Mr Mayor but uh in a short time is here we do support this and and again I want to express my appreciation to uh member um Bron and to um the comments from Mrs alel I think that a joint effort would make this a successful um alternative thank you a a su a successful tool thank you thank you um Miss Bry to finish this up yeah thanks um so so in response to that just specifically you say you support this does that mean that the administration is willing to put the time and staff resources resources toward um what essentially is a a permit system and and what would be the time frame for standing that up uh through the chair to member broy um yes we would start working on it I don't know the time frame to stand it up I I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily frame it as a permit system my understanding is it's a it's a registry to match um and to use kind of paraphrase member brona's words to match um um businesses who may want to provide this opportunity to people who may want to take advantage of an opportunity in in an area of town or something like that so I think there's some details to be worked out on what this would look like but yes we are we are um interested in proceeding on it okay thank you and I apologize for using the word permit it's it's honestly hard to track because we've had so many discussions even in the last couple hours um I guess I will say as I as I reflect on this item and all the things that have been on our agenda and all the things that have been on the our docket since I got sworn in and since many of us got sworn in a year ago and since really um going back to the beginning of this Administration going to the prior Administration going all the way back to the Sullivan Administration where it was made illegal to lie down on the sidewalk in downtown and when there were campers on ship Creek Trail just as there probably are today I I just want to say I appreciate this look for Solutions it feels like we're always trying to fill a void and the void is that we have no coherent plan being put forward for how all these things get put together and I appreciate the work of the Coalition for putting together the anchored home plan that is focused on housing but that necessar that organization can necessarily not address what the city's role in this is and what the city decides to do because there are legal implications and there are life and safety implications for people who right now are sleeping outside or in our shelters in transitional housing and all over the city so so I just I will support this but I really struggle because I feel like this is something the community keeps getting wrapped around the axle for every single year since I've moved here and probably many years before that and we are unwilling to step back and say what is our overall plan and then take responsibility for that plan put the resources toward it put the people toward it and then put the W the community will toward it to figure this out because what I saw in all the emails that we've gotten to support um prior items that that we already have dispatched with was really it's the Crux of them seem to be asking do something figure out what we need to do please take the leadership and take the initiative to do it so I appreciate that this resol solution is one small slice of that um but it is in the absence of of really any other kind of um larger plan that I've seen come from this Administration and that is not something that we the legislators can put together not only because we don't implement it but because we are 12 people that that can only speak as a body through policy and so I will again ask what is our overall plan and that has implications not just for our neighbors who have housing but also our neighbors who do not have housing so I look forward to supporting this but I still very much struggle with the bigger question Mr Martinez thank you chair just very briefly I'll support this tonight and I can appreciate um member brona's work on this and from drawing from our work from last summer and and just bringing things forward again uh I'm particularly excited that I heard someone in the administration said that we we like this and I'm glad that you like that um that there are folks who appreciate this um but but to that to I just want to put this on the record none of what we are asking for in terms of the urging that this resolution does means anything if you're not going to do it and fundamentally I understand this to be something that doesn't need to happen for the administration to do something and so it takes work and if this is a spark or an FIA a foot in the rumpus then let it be so and let this get things going but fundamentally the work of doing this work to organize to come to this body and say hey we've done all of this work and we'd like to move this particular piece of of of of action because it's going to enhance all of the work we've done we keep getting to the place where we're recommending to the administration good ideas and today we've heard that there's an appreciation for this one so again I celebrate that but we also get to the place where there's lots of ideas talked about and no particular coherent strategy as member Bron uh uh broy accurately pointed out so I will support this today I want to celebrate my colleague from East Anchorage for doing this work and I hope that the administration uh moving forward all administrations no matter this one next one let's let's do the work that it takes when no one's watching so that you could come back to this body with a with better products that we can actually move forward on thank you okay I think that um much has been said I only say that um by a plan I think members mean a series of projects a comprehensive strategy a budget to achieve them all in detail enough that we can approve it not just hey let's do this thing again any members May proceed to vote Mr voland yes Mr stt yeah on a vote of 9 to Z AR 20 24- 137 has passed the body we're going to take a little break five minutes oh yeah we probably do need to extend the meeting another it's 8 it's till 8 so maybe another hour move to extend to 9:00 p.m. a motion to extend to 9:00 p.m. is there a second second second Miss Broly second by Miss branga and ask for unanimous consent I'm hearing no objection we are extended till nine but still members can use a break [Music] gr peaches with a little bit of char scoop of vanilla did he make it quite far I think we might be missing one member oh there we are Mr V are you on the phone I am all right Mr salt are you there yeah all right um so the next two items are public hearing items um for much of the same reason I have a lot of questions that I would like to see answered relating to the four topics but so I I hope we get through these we'll see what happens next is item 5A ordinance number 20 24-39 an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal assembly amending anchor to Municipal Code chapter 8.30 to enact new Section 83012 3 establishing criminal penalties and enforcement mechanisms regarding prohibited camping within the Municipality of Anchorage in accord with law and conforming amendment to section 8. 05.02 public hearing on this item is now open the microphone is off so you go and turn it on welcome you'll have three minutes megalot till Anchorage Coalition didn't homeless I am frustrated to be here speaking to this proposal after having originally brought forward changes to the abatement code to the having brought forward changes on the abatement code to the administration and worked on ideas that could have improved Street Outreach efforts this summer unfortunately that effort got pulled in a drastically different direction and now we have this item given the consensus that we are facing a housing crisis in our community now is the time to unite behind the most effective methods for reducing homelessness criminalization of homelessness simply has no no place in that effort punitive responses to homelessness like the proposed ordinance displace unsheltered individuals by subjecting them to arrest forcing them to move along or compelling them to hide to avoid police harassment or arrest in that process these ordinances can inflict damage or on and sever people's access to Supportive Services and essential resources like food and shelter in March of 2024 Comm Community Solutions surveys um a number of service providers of them 66.7% reported losing track of people with whom they were working while 75.4% reported losing the trust of the people they were trying to get into treatment or services in that same survey 170 community service providers continues to care and other organizations directly serving the unhoused population in their communities um further Illustrated that 84.2% of service providers reported criminal punishments resorted res resulted in clients getting criminal records that made it harder to get jobs than housing while 77.2% reported people experiencing homelessness lost important documents like ID the proposed AO States it will be unlawful for any person to camp in any Park Street or public property and shall be enforced at all times in the following locations those locations take up a page and a half enforcement under the proposed change is not possible without consistent police presence and all these locations it would be very expensive if not impossible lack of enforcement Clarity creates more uncertainty and the current Proposal with such high sanctions and strong language will have an adverse impact on Street Outreach efforts communities like Anchorage that are making Pro progress share key strategies which include a shared CommunityWide definition of what solving homelessness looks like collaborative CommunityWide team that is accountable and working together and a comprehensive real Byam data system that tracks system performance let's continue the path to success instead of adopting this propor proposed ordinance that undercuts those previous policy choices and Investments but instead blames people experiencing homelessness um and doesn't hold our system accountable for not being able to meet the housing and service needs of the individuals in our community thank you Mr Patterson welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes minutes hi my name is Michael Patterson I live in District 5 I'm here representing the party for socialism Liberation Anchorage uh we're opposed to this ordinance just because the I mean everything the previous speaker said was spoton the simple fact that it's inhumane and it's cruel criminalizing homelessness does not solve the actual problem what solves homelessness is actually treating people like people it's it's frustrating to for the last four years to be having this conversation and not having a coherent plan and then in the potentially last few days of this Administration this is what they bring forward uh this is just a political stunt uh essentially you know I'm going to say something that probably might be surprising please please vote in the runoff election uh it has become very clear to us that this Administration is the biggest obstacle to solving the housing crisis uh it's ridiculous it has just been ordinances like proposals like these that further criminalize I used to work as a uh in court clerk and I worked at the anchor jail complex I saw so many homeless folks come through there that either they're there for violating conditions of release because they're on electronic monitoring they don't have a a place to charge that battery boom you get a uh violating conditions of release this ordinance is just going to trap people in the same cycle that they've been trapped in simply because they exist this ordinance criminalizes existing that's that's just plain and simple criminalization does not work we need a coherent plan and again as I give another testimony about housing homelessness again we need a municipal Housing Authority we need to get serious about a municipal Housing Authority a lot of these problems that we're dealing with a big mechanism that is missing is a municipal Housing Authority please stop really to the administration and hopefully what is the last few days of this Administration please stop wasting people's time with these ordinances that are simply just ideological proclamations I mean essentially it is the conservative version of virtue signaling that you don't like homeless people you don't think they're people stop wasting our time with this stuff and please with the last hopefully the last few days you have propose something that's actually going to carry on possibly Beyond this Administration that adds that contributes to a positive direction thank you thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes uh my name is Eric glad I live in District One um once again I'm very I'm so disappointed that this is among the package of proposals that this assembly has been asked to consider as this spring follows 12 years after last spring the last time the municipality turned hundreds of people back onto the streets of the city without a plan 6 months since it cleaned up the place where people were self- Sheltering downtown and knew this day was coming this the uh municipality has had plenty of time years in fact to think about what it's going to do we've heard many comments tonight that I agree with about the need for more coordinated Less ad hoc less 11th Hour initiatives things that are thought through coordinated and represent a comprehensive view of how this is all supposed to fit together but here we are today looking at a proposal to further criminalize homelessness and Anchorage and I say further criminalize in part because Mr bird last week took exception to the fact that I and others stated that the city currently criminalizes homelessness it absolutely certainly does unless someone from the administration can explain to me the public and the hundreds of people who are living outside Sheltering themselves for lack of any alternative where they can go and do that without committing the class A misdemeanor of Criminal Trespass I would be more than welcome to hear it and tell people where those locations are but in fact right now it is a class A misdemeanor Criminal Trespass to be in locations that don't have an exemption made for a particular purpose like having a camping permit and centenal camp this the very same location where that provision was twisted two summers ago to try to funnel people when the administration had no plans that year and I'll point out that at that time the administration tried to wash its hands of any association with it and just simply said well we're giving people the opportunity of someplace to go um the lack of a coherent plan again is unsurprising but no less disappointing and appalling um and again there's no reason to further criminalize homelessness and Anchorage thank you thank you welcome please state your name and what part of town you from you'll have three minutes hello I'm Lorina Grace Terry I'm third generation Alaskan and um I don't just represent Anchorage um my one of my hashtags is 907 heaven so I'm here to represent all of Alaska um um as far as criminalization for camping out that no please do not criminalize because we have a lot of people that are maybe construction workers seasonal workers whatever um just because people don't have a home doesn't mean they're not working a and this puts a barrier once you've become criminal that that that makes barriers for work and we're so short staffed in every industry right now and as far as camping U Miss bird saying but Mr martinz we do we need a like we're we're going to have tourists up here for summertime the Alaska dream is camping hunting and fishing and so we should have a map for not just our local people but when people come up here here are the places that you can go for for camping you know um and a a as far as um like bringing more structures up here there's so much building materials that are being put in the trash every day May is going to be our Citywide cleanup we don't just have a week now we do it for a whole month of Citywide cleanup I'm sure as people are cleaning up if we had like some kind of seminar before cleanup starts about you know it used to be reduce reuse recycle there's so much materials already here that we can reuse and recycle and and make buildings and shelters for people with stuff we already have here and as far as space like we're parked in the Anchorage Bowl we're surrounded by Park there's so much Park and uh like Cy Park and certain Parks like Russian Jack or whatever there should be certain parks that are family parks and you know if you're going to camp out here have it be a family Camp Zone and I am so sorry to hear what happened during that orientering you know because um that there should there should be uh uh people should be taught downtown there's a program called uh the streets to success but all of us I forget who said it uh Once Upon a Time we're all one step away from homeless and so we need a success to streets program that teaches people who were successful but are now experiencing homelessness how do you live on the street how do you camp out how do you use a Honeypot how do you wash your clothes by hand and and hang hang them up and let them air dry and stuff like that and certain skills that um maybe you know just because somebody was successful in work Zone can be successful outside living outside how to Camp how to clean up after yourself giving people more access to trash uh areas so they can put their things in in the trash and stuff like that um and thank you thank you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes Irene qu now Sand Lake I find it very interesting um and I want to point out the double standard that is being used again upstanding citizen have been arrested in these Chambers because they have not been they have not followed your rules not laws rules you made a law um a rule that we can't clap that we can't raise our voice we can't Point At You we can't name you and you have arrested people for that but we have laws on the book that says you cannot camp in a certain area and now you want to let those people the people go free either we have the law and everybody follows the laws or we don't have the laws and nobody needs to follow the laws you can call it there the victims all you want you can talk to people they say I don't want to go in a shelter because I can't shoot up there so what a novel idea to actually hold people responsible for their actions welcome please state your name what part of time you're from you'll have three minutes my would you turn the mic on hit the green button right on the top there you go my name is Roger bryley and I'm a third generation Alaskan uh local property manager property owner um I house 1,700 families right now in Anchorage so I consider myself to be an expert when it comes to housing and the issue that I'm having uh recently we've housed I believe 90 uh individuals I house five of them two of which I had to evict within less than three weeks due to situations that aroused from drug habits what I'm finding is the drugs is absolutely taken over this town it's taken over the homeless issue it's allowed Neighbors in my buildings where I house these individuals to want to move out they brought bugs in they brought things in there's no rules there's no accountability and the hardest time I have is is trying to get these individuals out of the house what I'm really focused on is is trying to help people out with the drugs and the abuse so as an example if we're going to house these people and we're going to give them Free Housing and we're going to give them benefits and and try to help them why don't we hold them accountable drug tests alcohol tests things like that we're going to give them all this kind of money why why wouldn't we have accountability there is no accountability we just continue and continue to throw money at this problem and we're not even trying to solve the real issue the issue is the drugs and the second issue is is they're they're robbing us I mean you walk out here and look at all these people that are on these roads walking around they're like zombies they need help we're not helping them all we're doing is trying to throw them into housing and think that's the solution so then you throw them in one of my buildings well then I'm stuck with them and then I'm stuck trying to get them out and then they bring their cars they bring their junk I mean go look at this whole town it's disgusting in I don't know how how how people want to live here and then we want to have camping have them camp in your yards have them Camp by you guys they don't want to camp by me and I don't want them by me I'll help people that want to have help get off the drugs get off the alcohol become a good person all house them I have 1,700 units I have 50 units every single month that are open I choose People based upon their behavior and how they how they want to interact with us and I give incredible chances I don't care about evictions I don't care about things if they're going to come and they're going to do it right and have accountability we put these people in these housing once they're thrown in the housing everyone forgets about them I have a family right now lived in my apartment building 29 years they're 80 years old they have the worst bugs I've ever seen I've tried everything humanly possible to give them help and I've been forced to a victim I don't even know what to do give us help help me I've talked all of you guys and all you guys want to do is fight with them I'm tired of the fighting I'm tired of the BS learn to get along L learn to work together as a city and come to me because we're the property managers we're the property owners and we can help solve the problems buying hotels and all this is just BS welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes uh Roger Branson a longtime mental health Advocate I'm uh living Eagle Ripper somehow some way sometime we have got to get out of crisis mode you know this is this this proposal brought here tonight just you know seems to solve a crisis in the moment and I think about the last three years of trying to work with the procession of homeless directors and different members of this Administration and haven't been disappointed so many times in the efforts that we were sincerely trying to move forward with it is going to take us all to solve homelessness we are all going to have to decide that people dying on our streets is not acceptable criminalizing the homelessness will send one message to the voting population but it will send an entirely different um message to the individuals who feel they've been disenfranchised who feel they've been dehumanized who feel that when people look at them they don't see a human being but someone that needs to be grouped into a group of of folks we that that are not acceptable to society we need to show them some love we need we need we need to to extend some some trust and allow them to prove themselves that they will not violate that when it's sincerely offered I uh the these last few years have been a pretty rough Poll for me and I'm just realizing how much the trauma that went on at Centennial Camp affected me and how it's affected me in the years since then and I am glad that I'm seeing that that I'm recognizing it and able to deal with it now and I thank you all for your patience with me during that time thank you thank you anyone else wish to be heard on this item anyone at all seeing hearing none oh you're coming up yep all right just time I thought I'd be able to say nothing about this but that's incorrect Nia wolf somebody's couch uh I am really really entertained by the like consistent notion that this excessive government overreach is this horrific quality that we don't want that the that people are you know reasonably minded trying to come up with good Solutions here but we need this order what we're talking about here is criminalizing the poor this is the most anti-liberty anti- Freedom anti-American sentiment I can imagine you know oh you broke your leg so you can't go work on the oh my God I sorry the freaking uh construction yard um sorry now now you're going to jail um you're not as you're not productive enough uh something happened to you um contracts fell through all right get out of our society or die right I can't even believe that this is being brought forward but it should didn't surprise me at this point considering the amount of times I've gotten texts in the morning saying that I need to go take the gear over to another park because someone else has died if there was enough empathy something would have been done by now that's just about all I've got to say about it thank you anyone else wish to be heard welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes yes um I'm Sophia O'Neal of Eagle River and I almost didn't speak today by being overwhelmed with the listening but I prepared something and I think it needs to be said I'm going to give you an um an example of scenario you do this when you're deciding on how to approach a very difficult situation and Implement policy you try to make the person the people understand what exactly it's like to be dealing with specific problems but you do it in regards to presenting it to their I'm still too too upset about tonight I think I need to do this next time okay I'm so sorry yeah all right thank you anyone else anyone at all see hearing none public hearing on this item is now closed what's the RO the body move to postpone second second okay so there was that was duing um there was a motion to postpone indefinitely then there was a motion to approve and then there was a second by Mr ball and Mr B who did you second sorry I'm I made a motion to postpone indefinitely I was not the second for either motion uh okay who's got the second I gladly second if there was another motion okay let's start over what's the will of the body move to postpone indefinitely I got it now Mr Rivera has moved to postpone and defitely and Miss Broly got there first with the second so the motion on the floor is to postpone indefinitely Mr Rivera uh thank you Mr chair I'll be brief uh and I hope that we can just dispatch this quickly this ordinance is not what a city that calls itself a housing First Community does this ordinance is not what a city that wants to keep the trust of the people that were trying to help does this ordinance is not what a city that is trying to show the federal government that we are serious about solving this issue does we just got a presentation on the evolution of anchored home yesterday and we've all been using this word a lot today a coherent plan to address homelessness we went that um I think we got that presentation yesterday this ordinance that we have before us is directly in contradiction to the intent behind this updated community plan so I completely urge a no vote and let's move on and try to do things that are are actually helpful thank you Miss broy sorry my apologies if I can correct my testimony I urge a yes vote on this motion to postpone indefinitely good catch good catch um Miss broy yeah thank you and I appreciate that this is the motion to postpone but I do have a question for the administration um related to whether um we should even consider taking up this item so I am looking at the memo uh for an item that we already dealt with but it but I'm reading it out because it directly relates to this provision it says internal discussions indicated that the Class B misdemeanor offense for quote knowingly camping in a prohibited campsite unquote was problematic and it was removed from the S version of the the item that we had already dispatched with and it was stated that that was a benefit that it was presented as this is a positive step toward that so the reason I'm asking this for in related to postponement is it seems like this proposal is being brought forward um when it was already basically rejected in a prior item and so what I'm trying to understand is whether we should even be debating this in the first place um which gets to the point of whether we postpone it indefinitely Or whether we um consider actually taking this up tonight and that is a question for Mr coer Mr bird Mr co uh thank you Mr chair um I would ask Mr bird to respond to that thank you Mr Bon thank you Mr Coast through the chair to member Broly um so yes this this proposed ordinance exists um after running through the Department of Law I think you'll see on the front page it says as prepared by the Department of Law Martin V Boise is referred to multiple times as is Engle versus Municipality of Anchorage we have Tak the blueprint that other cities on the the West Coast have followed when it comes to having a uh criminal component to uh abatement none of those cities I think would be there was a a speaker earlier who um said something about conservative virtue signaling but the cities that that we were looking at I don't think or anybody's idea of conservative cities whether it's Portland or c or any of those um California towns that have also had to address a a problem that has become far bigger than than anything that that anage is dealing with right now um so that is that is why this piece of legislation exists apart from uh what the body already voted down earlier tonight thank you Mr chair all right um was that sufficient all right um Mr Martinez uh very quickly I will support the motion to postpone but I I wanted to um just Shout Out Mr Brey and the other folks who have stepped into the uh into part of the framework of of the solutioning um tonight we didn't debate whe uh whether or not we should be adding additional dollars to uh landlord supports and wraparound services that was not an item of our debate um and so it's unfortunate that uh without a CO a coherent strategy we continue to rely on um the shorthand of criminalization U because that some people get their uh their fix from that it it seems and uh and I think that uh a postponement is in order here so we can actually just get back to the focus of a strategy and making sure that folks who are willing to step up with those housing units uh do have the supports that they need because housing is the answer to what we're talking about thank you chair um Administration for a second bite at the Apple Mr bird through the through the municipal manager thank you Mr chair I just want to highlight the laid on the table item um there is a letter both from anage downtown partnership and from The Fifth Avenue Mall and businesses inside it that uh supported multiple of the the ordinances put forward by the administration tonight and and I I want the body to be aware of that um of that document I also want the body to be aware that one of the things that I think we're obliged is an Administration to hear is to hear from business owners who deal with these problems on a daily basis this is something that the Administration has paid attention to and we bring this before the body to know so that you know it's m Mr Martinez said that um somebody gets their fix out of bringing forth criminal components I don't think it's anybody in this Administration um member Martinez I think as we said last meeting we are here to help provide order and the executive branch has an obligation to do that and to propose legislation that this body will review and vote up or down so that we can give our citizens an ordered po that's what we're here for thank you Mr chair all right um in the queue then I have Mr vand then miss branga then Mr salt Mr vand thank you Mr chair um you know I will say it it's disappointing that this was brought as a separate item Standalone item um because the prior item that did not pass which would have um attempted to create some more defined Community expectations around abatement policy I I voted in the affirmative for that I think that is something that could be helpful and needed for our community um in terms of uh mitigating potential health and safety issues um however that to me um is not the same as criminalizing poverty and the S version that was brought forward it was framed when we had the work session framed as a collaboration um between the administration and others including assembly members and the the piece to criminalize as member broy mentioned was taken out um and so this just seems like a weird move move to say hey we're going to collaborate with you all um and we're going to take out this problematic piece but then we're going to bring it back in a different form and um you know I I think for me um yeah I think it's a dark slippery slope to try to criminalize people who are just trying to exist um where there are you know where there is criminal activities um we have I feel uh laws on the books you know that can that can be deal with criminal activity criminal activity um whether it's theft or I whatever it is um it should be enforced and I think you know I hear from downtown business downtown business owners all the time that they are frustrated that they call APD when there's an issue and it takes APD a long time to respond and they feel like they're their concerns are not taken seriously um and so if those things already are not being are not able to be enforced in a timely manner why are we adding a criminal misdemeanor I guess something else for that should be a lower priority camping for APD to enforce especially when APD is already so severely under theft this Administration has not been able to to um help give a the tools um to staff up in in the way that they have needed to be able to to to respond to criminal activity as it is and this conation of criminal activity with homelessness I think is very problematic and a dark slippery slope um so yeah I I will just be voting um yes to postpone indefinitely uh because I do not support this item thank you all right Mr brono I think Mr ven covered a lot of what I wanted to say but um I did see the message from uh skinny Raven that had a fire um in their doorway that almost caught the store on fire a message from um one of the downtown businesses that has to clean up a pile of feces every morning before she enters the shop um another by um Centennial Park that um she's about thousand tens of thousands of dollars in Lost rents um due to issues with the campers there so it's frustrating and it kind of makes um me want it's not the the person experiencing homelessness that I'm frustrated with it's it's the behaviors that aren't being enforced that could be so um we don't need to pass this we need to enforce Municipal Code as it's already written to help make the city better next thank you is Mr salt thank you Mr chair so I again no one's for the criminalization of homelessness I think what this AO is trying to see to is to take back some public spaces for use by our citizens we we've all received emails of of how our citizens are no longer able to use some of these public spaces due to a number of issues from Needles from um human waste to just lack of Public Safety so I think that's the intent of this AO trying to claw claw back some of these spaces for the for the for the public for the citizens I can't remember which of our public speakers uh made the comment but you know I've I've traveled overseas quite a bit and a lot of these places don't have homelessness and I I will say they probably have other problems but one thing they have in common is drugs are not prevalent at all and uh I think that's something that hopefully our new police chief will be able to crack down on is drugs in the city especially those that are praying on our homeless citizens what I'd like to see is is is somehow we find a balance to where we are protecting our citizens that are currently contributing to the community and contributing resources that are going that we are using to help address this homeless problem and I also can't remember the other speaker that spoke to this we need to provide the services around mental health around weaning people off drug addiction around giving them Pride a sense of belonging back to the community not hiding them uh out of sight out of mind um I I do like the idea certainly of if a citizen were to take a homeless person and put them in their house put them in the backyard and as we spread that experience you know many hands makes light work and I think that'd be a good step forward to the solution to embrace the homeless versus uh shun them or put them in dark corners but again our taxpaying citizens our citizens that contribute still need and have right to these public spaces as well thank you Mr chair thank you next is Mr Martinez just for clarity uh chair um the on this item the role of U of of local government is not just order um it is also making sure that people have safe places to be and so on the one hand we have an attempt of criminalization as we heard tonight but on the other hand we don't have where people can be safe um so how about we uh actually make sure that we are separating out those who would otherwise pray on the vulnerable folks in our community who find themselves unhoused and enforced the law that would protect those folks like stopping the drug dealing and the trafficking and the stolen properties in places where there are people who are trying to just survive um so we can en Force laws today without doing this political moments where it seems like there's a real debate here but in fact it would be better to have a report tonight saying this is how we're working to take care of folks and provide a safe space for them so we can make sure that the the the Predators do not have easy access to some of our community's most vulnerable people and I don't think we need more laws to go do that I just think we need the willpower and the the the effective resources including those Outreach was adequately pointed out tonight with respect to the drug uh problems in our community thank you chair Miss BR thank you I'm going to state two things one is that the Department of Corrections the state of Alaska Department of Corrections has had the largest increase of any department since 2019 a few years ago the cost of keeping someone in prison for a year was over $80,000 and I suspect that has gone up just like every other cost it is not fiscally responsible to address poverty with prison we are Shifting the cost to the state we have made no such request to the state legislature to increase the department budget and in fact most of the discussions have been to decrease that but that department budget to make room for every other service that this um State needs to provide including education uh potentially housing Social Services all of those things all of those systems are increasingly broken also I do hear from the business community that desire and that plea for us to do something to make the situation better to um to not allow people to defecate in public places for example and it is important to understand that those are real asks they are valid asks this ordinance and this proposal to criminalize camping will not and cannot solve that problem not only will it not be enforced because we do not have adequate shelter beds um it may be enforced selectively and basically used to harass people um people who already have nothing or almost nothing and it will not solve the problem there is no way that putting more people in jail will ever solve the problem of poverty I look forward to postponing this indefinitely Mr constant thank you um I look forward to the third press release from the mayor's campaign team I mean his communication staff um I would like to reiterate what has been said there are many tools that the code all allows today the code is strong in a lot of these areas what is weak is the implementation of the code no wonder people are craving new laws when the administration fails to implement what we have on the books and how can they they're down 50 police officers that are sworn plus 30 support staff in the police department the frustration is real when people call and nothing happens the frustration is very real in fact this mayor is so patronizing he had a proposal that it would it would put 12 foot patrol officers downtown to secure the downtown literally a proposal to put 12 foot patrol officers downtown do you know how many officers we have on a patrol in any given shift 25 so the mayor's proposal would take nearly half of the police for the entire city and have them walking around the streets to create a performance of order in the downtown all to cover up the fact that the bleed has been happening steadily for 3 years and we don't have the staff to manage the problem that continues we don't need this law what we need is someone to Faithfully execute the code if there's no one else members May proceed to vote motion is to postpone indefinitely Mr vand yes Mr Sut no on a vote of that's not correct yeah Mr salt was a no on a vote of 7 to two the motion to postpone and definitely has passed can't hear it the last item on our agenda item 5B a202 24-40 an ordinance amending anguage Municipal Code chapter 16120 to provide for inclusion in the municipality's emergency shelter plan for homeless persons approved designated safe parking areas that allow the use of vehicles for temporary living quarters and related matters public hearing on this item is now open anyone wish to be heard anyone at all welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi my name is Michael Patterson I live in District 5 um I I think I've heard several times this reference towards order and I heard at the last meeting too order also means it's not just a a violent action of enforcement to it's not prohibitory or coercive sometimes order is just telling people hey you can go here it's okay I'm a parent a lot of times when I want to enforce order you know with I I don't prohibit my children from doing something I say yes you can go here that that is a form of order and so what I like about well let me back up what I like about this is that it actually recognizes a real life situation for people it is actually more uh tailored towards a specific population of uh folks that I think a lot of times which I heard one of the assembly members refer to um you know we have to take back our city for Citizens uh I don't know if you know people who sleep on the street are citizens some of them actually have are part of communities that have been here for tens of thousands of years and so this idea that we like with this ordinance what I like about it is that it's Humane it actually carves out where people can stay and two it's not coercive it says welcome please stay here you are valued here we recognize your situation and we want to help you and this is an actual way to to help people what I don't like is that this really should have been proposed years ago again there's no coherent plan and the way when my time starts is from 2020 and it's just been so disappointing that we are having the same conversations and when Solutions this is just a small step in the right direction but it's held up at such a large Victory because the conversation has been so inefficient and and the solutions have been so poor that something like this is like oh this is amazing this is really just one tiny small step in the right direction and I really encourage you to approve this you know but I also again every time I talk about this we need a municipal Housing Authority please it is a serious solution to this problem and just to clarify you know the crisis of homelessness is not caused by drugs cuz if you really want to if you want people to have safe places to go then we need safe injection sites for people for drugs uh and the real crisis is that we've commodified housing it's the capitalist private Market that's made housing a commodity um housing is a human right we need a housing for all solution in this city and I think this gets us in a step in the right direction and um it it's not conservative virtue signaling it's just yeah all right welcome please state your name what part of town you from you'll have three minutes melel Anchorage Coalition and homelessness um we generally support this few things may want to think about for purposes of implementation would this be seasonal and I know the health department has a lot of authority to kind of make some choices here but these are things I think that are really important to think through seasonality um we know that having to have someone move in a vehicle um as the snow flies gets a lot harder we actually see that right now with a couple of abatements that are underway um and are any of these sites going to be Tim limited if so is there a way to ensure that any time limitations on the approvals of these sites are put up out front right if it's only going to be open for 30 days 60 days 90 days that way people can make informed decisions um and then hopefully we can um avoid some sort of an abatement type action um and then finally and this is a really key point do these vehicles need to remain in running repair the entire time they are in these sites or not because that becomes a flash point if we are uncertain there are cars that people use for habitation that don't necessarily run so again I don't think this needs to be postponed to deal with those questions but I think they're really good questions to refer to the health department as they consider the implementation thank you all right welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes Irene quid now Sand Lake the capitalists are paying for all the help for the houseless people thank thank you welcome back please state your name part turn from you'll have three minutes hi yes my name is Roger Briley and I brought up the uh large amount of cars at a Fairview Community Council what Chris constant was at uh in Fairview there is a large amount of cars cars parked outside of buildings that have a lot of illegal activities that go on so I would hope that these vehicles have to be running they have to have a viable driver's license they have to have insurance they have to have a license plate just like any other citizen would have to do and that would help clean up a lot of this stuff because what's happening is is I get stuck with the burden of these cars out on the road and the city can't tow them off they can't do anything so then I as a property owner have to have this car towed and hauled off because the drugs and whatnot that are happening in these particular vehicles and I just can't imagine that we're going to be able to allow these abandoned vehicles to be put onto properties for let people to live I mean how Humane is that and then also did this go through the same process that you guys wanted the city to go through do you have a plan where where the car is going to be able to go are they do they have to be licensed I mean all the same things that you guys are asking the mayor in the offices or all these other people trying to do for a plan did this plan go through that do they have to be licensed do they have to be drivable or can someone just buy them at a junkyard have a tow truck tow it to one of these facilities and live in it because as a taxpayer and as a burden as a property owner we get stuck with the burden of these vehicles thank you thank you anyone else anyone at all seen hearing none public hearing on this item Miss now Clos what's the will the body move to approve second move to approve the S version thank you the S version is mve my Mr Mr Rivera second by Miss broley Mr Rivera uh thanks I believe there are a couple of amendments so I'll save any comments until after that which are the amendments I don't know that I have them thanks so there are two amendments one proposed by assembly member Sut and then one proposed by the mayor okay so um who is moving what Mr salt are you there yes I'll move my first amendment there is a motion to amend by Mr salt seconded by Mr Rivera um Mr salt you want to speak to it yeah think go just try to make a few uh slight changes to the uh ordinance try to clean things up one of which is I think what spoken to is make sure that no uh vehicles are towed in to the uh to where the parking area is at like we had at the old Alaska native Hospital site thank you further discussion on the amendment hearing and seeing none members May proceed to vote Mr Valen yes Mr Sut yes on a vote of 9 to zero the item is amended um is there someone to move the amendment from the mayor I I'll I'll move the floor Amendment provided by the administration second moved by Mr Johnson seconded by Mr Rivera does someone from the administration wish to speak to it Mr bird thank you uh Mr chair and thank you uh member Johnson so this was a an amendment that I was handed um pretty late in the game but I I think that it's been working on by law and by Mr gates to clarify um the uh looks like providing Authority for the Department to consider the environmental impact of particular application applicants plan and protocols so um Miss Bureau is that sound accurate as to what the purpose of the amendment than so your honor Mr chair sorry I've had a few names tonight but I do not want not me not it so um okay then any further discussion on the amendment hearing and seeing no none members May proceed to vote Mr vand yes Mr sult yes on a vote of 9 to Zer the amendment is passed we're back on the main motion as amended Miss branga I just wanted to say I really appreciated the collaborative um nature of this uh Mr bird Mr Gates had a meeting and Kate Kate was there and it just uh felt really good to have um Everybody kind of trying to clean this up so it wouldn't take forever on the floor and uh needs to happen more often anyone else Miss broy yeah thanks um I just want to say as I'm I'm looking through the S version um because I I hear the the questions about uh what how to deal with vehicles and whether they're in good operating order and I see on just a state um page three um 3B there's a a section about junk vehicles that is prohibited um and then later in the S version there are a couple other Provisions regarding um how to deal with um how to deal with those vehicles and preventing uh prohibiting non operable Motor Vehicles are being towed um anyway so I believe those things have been addressed but as was stated before it all really comes down to implementation and enforcement so I am hopeful that those Provisions are used um in a spirit of um preventing nuisances but also not um dis dis um dislodging people from where they are thanks anyone else I'll just briefly speak to this item Mr constant thank you um as we heard there was broad collaboration between the branches planning the attorneys they all got their heads together I am still very uncomfortable with this ordinance um I won't oppose it I think that um what's going to be important is the plan to implement it uh I do appreciate that the nuisance code section was PL put into it by Amendment because that will help ensure some of the environmental concerns are managed I think the simple reality that we all have to face is that in our neighborhoods especially in neighborhoods that are doing their best to um lift themselves up after Decades of deterioration and disinvestment because of policy decisions related to roads and other harmful impacts that people do move their vehicle from block to block to block to block to avoid that 24-hour time clock that the city has established sometimes they move it just half a block around the corner and it's really just depressing and um um so if this goes to achieve some form of relief that's orderly I think um to Mr Martinez I would just offer um this does move us closer to where you were last year it argues for another conversation that's my resistance to voting on this because I don't want to create a system of permanent vulnerability and I'm afraid that that's what these moves in that direction do and so but as a whole I think it's rational um it doesn't do harm because these conditions exist and it might create some order and humanity is the individual spoke about a welcoming approach and I I don't think anybody would suggest this was a large Victory um this is a small thing um the large victories are when we house a 100 people the large victories are when we set up a new unit that can take on scores of people off of our streets and we should explore the Housing Trust so with that if there's no one members May proceed to vote Mr voland yes Mr Sut yeah on a vote of 8 to1 a20 24-40 as amended has passed the body that moves the audience participation welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes hi now Sand Lake tonight it felt like a d Vu when you talked about the sprung stru structure the same old arguments like two years ago came about it's a tent it does not meet the Safety Code we don't want a thousand person place it's a failed idea and and I realized that most of you were not on this assembly when that was before you but those things were addressed at the time two years ago why did you not read about it you held it up because you don't have enough information you could just go back and read about it because it was all discussed I'm glad that for those of you who voted no on shipping the structure because it shows you true colors you are not interested in housing the homeless you are concerned about your political agenda you are concerned about power and you concerned about money and to keep the homeless industrial complex alive I have watched you now for almost four years unless it is your idea you shoot anything down that's been proposed and one of the most drastic examples is Centennial Park in 2022 we had campers and Centennial Park people from this diet said this is a humanitarian crisis and they refused to help even though they claim the homeless are their first priority a year later Clean Slate all of a sudden sanction cimes oh what a wonderful idea I mean you can't make this stuff up you are the ones who are wasting time for four years you have sat here and you said oh the homeless are our highest priority and every time there is a proposal if it's not your idea you you knock it down you only and only want your way and then at lastly in uh terms of shipping the structure up here regardless of what you use it for afterwards it's $240,000 to put this into perspective the ADN your propaganda paper says in this is from May 2023 over the winter from October through April more than 2,000 individual peoples used the city's winter shelter services in total the city has directed $23.4 million in alcohol tax revenue and a small amount of Health Department operating funds toward winter shelter and other homeless Ser homelessness Services since 20122 it spent about 8.8 million in 2022 and has directed 14.6 million towards services so far for this year and none of this has been permanent but it's too expensive to ship for $240,000 thank [Music] you welcome please state your name what part of town you're from you'll have three minutes name is Michael Patterson I live in District 5 I never got to talk this much at assembly meeting um you know I think what I really want to talk about is like when it comes to housing we really need to fundamentally shift how we look at the utility and value of housing it is something that people need it is a basic human need I really hope that the assembly and either this current Administration if it stays or the next Administration really adopts this approach that you know housing is a human need and if it's a human need it's a human right and it's the job of the government in my opinion to uphold people's rights and I just want to add that you know um if the capitalists are paying for everything which they're not they're doing a pretty poor job um and I don't even think you need the the things that this city needs to do are not even inherently socialist or capitalist or whatever it's really just competent government you can't have the situation that you have now and expect this City to flourish because it's I mean it's pretty obvious to tell that this city is is in Decline you know you have people who are my age in the 30s and their 20s who want to leave and I grew up here I don't want I it is very difficult for me to justify year after year after year after year of like why do I stay here I'm underemployed I have three children they don't want to well my two older ones don't want to stay and the reality is that you can't have this just con the only solution is enforcement because if that were true then we never enforce the fact that this Administration illegally spent millions of dollars on a hole in the ground you want to you want to criminalize and put people in jail do you know who should be in jail for illegally spending millions of dollars without assembly approval so I just it baffles me that people sit here and and I also just want to conclude that people keep complaining about people using the streets for bath rooms or these behaviors well guess what folks you voted down public bathrooms you voted down public bathrooms we did that the voters did that so you can you can complain to the government all you want the assembly gave us the opportunity to solve that problem and we didn't we chose not to you know my parents own a business downtown and I constantly had to deal with folks who are having Mental Health crisis coming into the restaurant and having to basically deescalate a situ situation and you have 19-year-old Hostess who just got a high school and it's not the fault of the person who's going through the crisis it's the fault of the government for failing to provide for these people it's not that complicated so I they say this is this is a more productive conversation and housing I've been to and thank you all right so uh this will be the last person we'll have two minutes left before the meeting ad journ so go ahead my name is Roger bryley I live in South Anchorage and I just wanted to briefly talk about you know once again all of us trying to work together to help out this community and make it better what's happening in my world is is I'm going to be forced to raise rents dramatically again last year I raised them about 15% this year I'm going to raise them another 15 20% across the board and the reason that we're have to do so is for security for safety for snow plowing for everything that goes on and to say that people can't come up here I've never paid the wages that I'm paying right now there's plenty of jobs out there there's good money you just got to be a hardw work person and want to go to work when we see these rents go up and we are we're already seeing them go across the board you're right there is a huge gap going to be between the lower-end people and the higher end people in the middle class and the only way that we can control it is to work together and to quit fighting and to think that government is going to come in and save the day when us private sector owners are the ones that take on the risk of owning the buildings managing the buildings and owning businesses is just ludicrous we have to quit fighting and start working together together and it starts with you guys I mean the way that you guys communicate and talk to one another and to talk to this to this uh municipality is just insane I mean the head nodding the the fighting I mean I wouldn't let my kids come watch what goes on here it's just it's totally absurd I grew up when at a time when the mayor was elected and the winner and the loser were in one room and everyone stood up and shook hands and said hey we're going to work together as alaskans and we're going to work hard now it's this fight fight fight we have to quit the fighting and work together because what's going to happen is is only going to get worse go walk out here walk around take a look at what's going on to this town that's why people are leaving I brought up four doctors this year three of which were absolutely High class of the four three left in 60 days because they hate living here and this place is rough so until we change and learn to work together we're just going to be on the decline with that we're adjourned