[Music] that you take me seriously. I know that nobody stays mad at me. I know that you take me seriously. Oh, [Music] do good. It'll do good. It'll all do. It'll do. It'll all do. [Music] Do good. It'll do good. It'll all do. It'll do [Music] [Music] It's not the lack of your judgement that makes you a kid. It's the lack of your substance that keeps you locked in. Oh, and keeps them talking. [Music] Oh. [Music] Oh. [Music] Find out a way to spend your whole life holding hands with empty faces that you'll never see again. Search out a way to find a version of you you like. Why aren't you getting tired of me? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why don't you talk to [Music] when I get home? Can I see? I'm scared that I'm not ruining everything left on my own. See, you're getting tired of everything. Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me? Why aren't you tired of me? Why aren't you tired of me? Why aren't you tired of me? Why aren't you tired of me? [Music] [Music] Is it a sign [Music] or is it just me? All of my life waited for a sign to arrive. [Music] around her eyes. [Music] All of her life call out my name. She Lightning strikes and diamond minds. A bloody stone adorn. A morning wasted on trivial, an evening wasted on primitive things around here. Everybody knows everybody. The past lives documented to the closest topic. At what time does the conversation start and end? Yeah. Always the good guys coming to save us. Promise a good life. Thank God that you came. Always got uncle say I'm ready to save us. Thank God you came. Thank God you came. Thank God you came. We want we want God. Hello everyone. We'll get started in a couple minutes. Um, Mr. Constant and Miss Mr. Perezia, can you hear us on the phone? >> Yes, I can hear you. >> Okay. I heard Cameron and Chris, are you there? >> Yes. Okay, we can hear you as well. Okay, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Anchorage Assembly uh to order. Uh today is Tuesday, February 29th, and uh we will conduct our regular business this this evening. Um first, I will turn to the clerk and ask uh her to call the role. >> Member Myers >> here. >> Member McCormack >> here. >> Member Martinez >> present. >> Member Baldwin Day >> present. Member Johnson >> here. Member Constant >> here. >> Chair Broly >> here. >> Member Voland >> happy to be here. >> Member Silvers >> here. >> Vice Chair Rivera >> present. >> Member Girker. >> Uh he is excused. >> Excused. And uh member Perez Verdia >> here. >> Cher, you have a quorum. >> Thank you. Next we will do the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Martinez, will you lead us in the pledge? >> Yes. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Um, Mr. Villain, would you please read the land acknowledgement? >> Yes, Madam 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 Aabaskcans. For thousands of years, the the Denina have been and continue to be the stewards of this land. It is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations and contemporary perspectives of the upper Cook Inlet Denina. >> Thank you. Next, we will move on to minutes of previous meetings. We have two sets of meetings uh before us. Uh the special meeting of July 11, 2025 and the regular meeting of July 15, 2025. May I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Myers and second by Mr. Rivera. Um I will ask is there any objection to approval of the minutes? Not hearing or seeing any. So we will consider those approved by unanimous consent. And next we will move on to the mayor's report. Madame Mayor, thank you chair Broly and good evening everyone. We appreciated the robust discussion at the work session yesterday. I want to highlight several things related to both shelter and housing. You will see the ordinance to help encourage the rehabilitation of vacant and abandoned residential properties on the agenda. At a time when housing is expensive and hard to find, it makes no sense to have our housing stock sitting vacant and suffering from neglect. This policy will create opportunities to repair these homes and bring them back onto the market. We also plan to introduce on August 12 zoning changes that will make it easier for folks to repair their homes. The first will wave the nonconformities process for those who just want to make interior renovations. The second will make it easier to repair mobile homes. Both were recommended for approval by the planning and zoning commission. As you heard yesterday, my team has been working to solidify a yearround safety net of shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness. To significantly reduce the number of people sleeping in our parks and on our streets, we must ensure that Anchorage has a yearround stable and coordinated shelter system for those who need help. The contracts you have before you tonight establish yearround stable shelter. And unlike recent years, we're putting forward a plan months ahead of winter. Having two yearround licensed low barrier shelter sites means improved conditions and access to services for clients as well as fewer impacts on surrounding areas. It also allows for flexible surge capacity at each site in winter and keeps shelter sizes in line with municipal codes limit of 150 beds. This plan actually reduces by 100 beds the number of municipally funded beds in downtown from what we have had January to June this year. This is on top of the 100 shelter beds at the Alex Hotel which were funded with state funds through the end of the year with the assembly's approval. Additionally, the municipality is supporting hundreds of beds at private shelters and dozens of supportive housing units in Anchorage to prevent homelessness and move people out of shelter. We've supported hundreds of families with $5.5 million in rental assistance with federal funds. In a bit of good news, our recovery residences microunit pilot project will soon start construction. We received proposals from 12 biders. We will be announcing the selected bidder on Thursday and we anticipate bringing at least 24 micro units online this fall. This transitional housing and treatment program will be a bridge to stability that for the people it serves. We believe this will be a lowcost model that can be copied by other groups in our community. It'll take all of us working together and trying out new ideas to make real progress. And while we're talking about housing, we heard members at yesterday's work session that you have concerns about the reappropriation taking money from housing for shelter. We will look at other funding to options to keep the housing money intact. Thank you, and I look forward to a productive and respectful meeting tonight. Now, um, I'd like to invite team members from our youth employees and parks program to come up and give a brief presentation. And thank you, Chair Broly. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, yeah, if we can have the youth come up as well. Um, we'd like to get uh brief introductions from folks, but first we'll hear from um uh from staff. Go ahead. And please remember to say your name uh and uh what part of town you live in as well. >> And I'm sorry, you need to turn the mic on. There's a button there. Yes. Go ahead. >> Good afternoon. My name is Michelle and I'm with the Anchorage Park Foundation. I'm here because my role at the Anchorage Park Foundation is the director of philanthropy. So, what that means is I raise dollars for the youth employment and parks program. Many of you know that as Yep. And that's something that many on the assembly and the mayor's office have supported and been champions of year after year. it. As you know, the YET program is a partnership between the municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage Park Foundation. And that's been a strong partnership since 2007. And that it is a youth conservation core program that brings teenagers from all across the city together to work in the summer in our parks and trails. And they do everything from plant trees to remove invasive species. They help protect our streams and they improve uh the trails that we all enjoy. And um part of that work is um you know an opportunity to really build job skills. And for many of these teens, this is their first work experience. This is their first job that they've had. And it's a summer of bonding. It's a lot of leadership opportunities. And so we really appreciate the assembly's support for this program year after year, as well as the mayor's office. and we bring the the teens here every year so they can experience um how what it means to be part of um sort of civic engagement and to be active members of the community in the future. Um so we have the opportunity to meet some of the crew members and you can they will tell you what district they're from and what project that they have enjoyed thus far this summer. But before we have the teens come up, I also want to introduce our yearround program staff who work really hard with the youth employment and parks project. So Meredith Guutierrez who's with Anchorage Park Foundation is really helpful in keeping this program going year after year. Also Brad Mir and Emily um Cucatan are here and they are really those that help make this program successful. So I'm proud to um introduce our 2005 crew of teenagers. um they're all between the ages of 16 and 19 year olds and they've been working really hard today especi and every day this summer to really help our um spaces become beautiful. So, thank you again to the assembly and to the mayor for allowing us this time. And if there are any questions, there'll be some time at the end of this for questions for the teens. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, thank you. Um and so folks can come up and just again say your uh your name, what district you're in or what part of town and your favorite project. And then I will also note we have um some handouts that were provided with a map of projects. Um and there was a a kind of printing uh snafu and the larger version. So the map uh the the dots are a little bit off of where they would normally be. So please look at the booklet version if you want to see where the projects are. Um and so go ahead. Uh we'll start with you. >> Good evening. My name is Liam Wood. Um I'm from District 4 and my favorite project this summer was the Virgin Falls. Thank you. Hi, I'm Rosa Hoppy. I'm from District 6 and my favorite project was Earthquake Parks. Hey, I'm Pia McCarthy. I'm from District 3 and my favorite project was Virgin Creek Falls. I'm A Bier. I'm from District 6 and my favorite project was also Virgin Falls. My >> name is Ruby Price. I'm from district 6 and my favorite project was in far north by Centennial Park. >> My name is Javon Jodet. I'm from district 3 and my favorite project was Virgin Creek Falls. >> Hi, my name is Austin Ward. I am from district 6 and my favorite project was Virgin Falls. >> Hello, I'm Logan Sabbo. I'm from district 5 and my favorite project this summer was helping Alaska Trails construct a bridge at far north by Centennial Park. Good evening. My name is Eli Ward. Uh I'm from District 6 and my f favorite project this year was Virgin Creek Falls in Girdwood. >> Hello. My name is Marcus Kitner. I'm from District 3 and my favorite project was the Arnold Moldun project. >> My name is James Dassic and I'm from District 4. My favorite project was Baxterbug. My name is Elijah Moore. My I'm from Pro District 2 and my favorite project was Earthquake Park. >> Hello. My name is Josiah Williams. I'm from District 5 and my favorite project was an Earthquake Park. >> Good evening. I'm Patrick Farthing. I'm from District True. And my favorite project was our work at Far North by Centennial Park. Hi, my name is Haley Block and um I'm from District 2 and my favorite was Earthquake Park. >> Hello, my name is Mason Loy. I am from District 6 and my favorite project was Russian Jack Park. >> Hello, my name is Kieran Dubie. Um I'm from District 6 and my favorite project was Bsentennial. Hello, my name is Auggie Martinez. I'm from district 6 and my favorite project was Virgin Falls. >> My name is Sherman Jackson and my fa I'm from district 5 and my p favorite project was the Mun project. >> Hello, I'm Nvea Funk and my favorite project was Oh, wait. I'm from District 5, sorry. And my favorite project was the Virgin Falls. Hello, my name is Sterling Smith. I'm from District 5 and my favorite project was Baxter Bogs. Um, I'm Audrey Parker. I'm from District 5. My favorite was um, Vision Falls. >> Hi, my name is Faria. I'm from District One. My privilege project is planting tree at Shreing Park. Hi, I'm Esa. I'm from Discret One. My favorite project was gra at Bordon. Thank you. Hello, my name is Meredith Gutierrez and I'm from district 6 and um I am the field educator for youth employment parks in the youth engagement manager for the Anchorage Park Foundation. This is my seventh summer and some things I'd love for you to know about these teens is that this summer they planted over,200 trees. They um they moved over 30 dump truck loads of gravel by hand and they also rehabilitated almost 19,000 ft of trail in Anchorage Municipality this summer. So, thank you so much for your support. If you have any questions, we would love to answer them. All right. Thank you. I see one member in the queue. Sorry, Mr. Rivera. Sorry, as you can see, we have some growing pains up here. It's >> okay. >> Um, I don't see any members in the queue. Um, but thank you so much for being here. We always love to see our youth working for our parks, making our city better, um, and also coming and sharing um, a little bit about you yourselves uh, every year at this meeting. So, thank you again for being here. >> Thank you very much. Okay, we'll move on. Next on the agenda is the assembly chairs report. Um, and as you will see, I am not chair constant. So, um, good evening everyone and welcome to our regular business meeting. Uh, Mr. Constant is unable to attend this meeting in person tonight. So, I am serving as chair for this meeting. and uh Assembly Member Rivera has been gracious enough to serve as vice chair. So, thank you, Mr. Rivera. Uh I look forward to this opportunity to usher us through a productive meeting and also ask members patience as um I learned this new uh chair. Uh first, for downtown safety, I want to begin by acknowledging the shooting that happened downtown last week. Um my condolences go out to everyone who was affected by that incident. It must have been very scary for the people at the scene that night, but I'm glad to see that APD is increasing their presence downtown on weekend evenings, and I hope that increasing downtown safety will be a long-term endeavor for all of us. This goes beyond uh any one bar or any one establishment, but this has been a larger issue in downtown for many years. Some of the problems downtown in the evening uh obviously run counter to our goals to create a more vibrant, active downtown where people go to have fun and also feel safe. As an assembly member, um I personally can commit to reviewing the areas that we do that we do have control over in terms of safety and um licensed establishments to see if there's work we can do to make our bars and downtown overall safer. Um then some some positive news for downtown. We're excited to see uh growth downtown. It is important to address our safety issues because we're really on the cusp of some great grow growth and vitality in our urban core. Uh in a presentation last month at the community and economic development committee meeting, we heard from the down Anchorage downtown partnership who pointed out a number of new businesses that have opened downtown recently and several new buildings and renovations, including the Wild Birch Hotel, the Hilton Hotel remodel, new housing developments, and a new facade on the office building that's now known as the Santos building on Fifth Avenue. And last week, we heard that the block 41 project at the site of the former Fourth Avenue Theater and that surrounding block is set to begin construction construction for a mixeduse tower with retail and potential housing. After years of stagnant development downtown and what folks have called a hole in the ground for a while, uh it is great to see this revival and I'm hopeful that we are finally turning a corner on bringing downtown back to life and creating that vibrant hub for our community. And uh speaking of housing, if you didn't catch the Anchorage Daily News article a couple weeks ago on housing development in Anchorage, I encourage you to read it. And I know that the mayor spoke to this um in the last meeting a couple weeks ago in the discussions earlier this month on the camping ordinance that we uh took up last meeting. Uh we heard from a lot of folks uh members of the public who had great suggestions for things Anchorage could do to be addressing homelessness and the cost of housing. So, I'm pleased to report that after a lot of work in recent years, we've made significant progress on many of those ideas. It will take some years to see those results, but housing developers have been starting to announce new projects and expanded projects that have been made possible thanks to recent code changes, tax incentives, and other process improvements. In just the first six months of this year, the municipality has permitted 146 residential units for projects with four or more units. That's a huge increase over the 79 that were issued for all of last year. So, while things feel tough right now in the housing market, I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to start seeing more affordable housing options for purchase and for rent in the next few years. And hopefully all of that really helps us start to address or continue to address our other problems like homelessness, out migration, filling our workforce shortages, and making sure that we have a community that folks can afford to live in. Um, next we'll return back to the topic of youth. Um, we want to say congratulations and goodbye to our assembly intern this summer, Martin Carman. Um, he was present up here on the DIAS the last couple meetings. It was great to have him up here so he could learn the ropes um, and really understand more about the inner functions of local government. And with this transition coming up to fall soon enough, we'll be uh, welcoming some new assembly youth representatives to our meetings. Uh we have a work session on Friday, August 8th, where we'll be hearing from a few of the candidates of of folks who applied and really um get to understand their priorities and and help us um determine who's going to be sitting there at the youth representative seat in the on the DIAS for that next school year. It's great to have youth and young adults involved in our processes and sharing perspectives as well as the work of the youth employment and parks and other ways to get youth involved in government. Finally, I'll wrap up by saying the municipality will soon kick off the 50th anniversary celebration of the unification of the forter former city of Anchorage and former greater Anchorage Area Burough governments into what we now know as the municipality of Anchorage. The exact date of this anniversary is September 16th. Uh and but the municipality and our partners will be hosting events um all the way through September to November to commemorate the good, the bad, and the wild of the formation of the municipality. A website will be launching this week with events, activities, and history stories at mun.org50, the digits 50. And with that, I will uh just give some our usual announcements. Uh so we'll be doing our best to move us through tonight's agenda so that we can conclude at the most reasonable hour possible. So just our usual reminders. This is a business meeting. We are here to do the work of the municipality. Please help create a climate of respect in the chambers. Please refrain from personal attacks, speaking out of turn, shouting, clapping, and pacing. Please keep signs to 8 and 1 half by 11 in in the chambers. Please keep the aisles clear except when lined up to testify. Please do not approach the dis directly, but if you do have something you'd like to share with members, please hand it to the clerk um sitting down below uh for distribution. And to members, please and the public, please stop speaking if a point of order is called so I may rule on the point of order and so the record is clear. If the rules are not followed, I may interrupt speakers to compl to call for compliance. And if compliance with the rules does not occur, then I may pause the meeting. If there's an actual disruption to the meeting, I will give a warning. And if the disruption persists or happens again, the person will be asked to leave the chambers. And with that, we will uh I'll give the reminder about public testimony when we get to that point. And so then we'll go to committee reports. And I will start down at the dis with uh Mr. Myers. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Nothing to report. nothing to report. >> Sorry, I needed to uh acknowledge you, Mr. uh Thank you, Mr. McCormick. Mr. Martinez, >> thank you, Chair. The next meeting of the community and economic development committee will be held on Thursday, August 7th at the permit center at 9:00 a.m. And uh I just wanted to also pause a moment uh to echo a little bit of the word about housing development in our community as as it was reported by the news. And I mentioned that I would uh report back at this meeting that I had recently attended the National Association of Counties annual conference joining colleagues from across the nation and fellow Alaskan leaders including the mayor of Kodiak Island. And the experience reaffirmed what many of us in Anchorage already know that we're not just part of the national policy conversation. In some ways we are positively leading the curve across the country. Local governments are urgently trying to unlock economic potential, remove barriers to housing, and address child care shortages. These challenges are not new to us, but what sets us apart is that we have been responding with clarity, coordination, and creativity. I wanted to also highlight that counties across the country are beginning to now prioritize child care as essential infrastructure. Anchorage has already taken that lead. We understand that access to child care is not just a family issue. It's an economic one. Our investments reflect that. The national spotlight is paying attention. Breaking down barriers to housing. Chair communities everywhere are seeking to increase housing supply by modernizing development codes, re-evaluating permitting processes, and promoting infill development. Anchorages are ahead of the curve. Again, we've already begun to address these systemic challenges to spur development of new housing units and increase our city's livability and resilience. And lastly, I will report that our recently adopted economic development framework, a values-based, community aligned rubric that helps to guide decision-making and investments, is not just something that we passed here as well. It's something that other communities are paying attention to as well because the conversation is around how to get diverse communities with diverse interest to a shared conversation around development opportunities. We have a framework that helps us do that. I just wanted to shout out the work that people in this municipality have been doing, members on this body. And the last word to the administration, mayor, thank you for keeping your word of listening, being responsive. I appreciate the commitment to maintaining uh investments into housing uh and into vacant abandoned properties. Thank you for that work. Nothing further. >> Thank you, Miss Baldwin Day. >> Thank you, chair. Uh the infrastructure enterprise and utility oversight committee met on July the 17th. That's a lot of words to say that we spend time talking about the port, about um the utilities that are a part of our city. Uh and things like Merryill Field. Um we received an update for Melfield and a rate increase that's going to be coming. Uh it's a very small rate increase. And in fact, in case you were wondering, um if you want the absolute cheap cheapest monthly parking in Anchorage, you'll find it at Meill Field. Uh I don't think they're actually accepting cars at this time, only if you have an airplane. Um but there uh it was actually astonishing to see how low the rates are at Merryillfield compared to other monthly parking other places in Anchorage. Um we also heard an update from the Port of Alaska on some projects that are not necessarily related to the Port of Alaska modernization program but other things that are going on at the port to make sure that operations continue to run smoothly. Uh we will also we also received an update on some things related to the port modernization including uh the insurance that's required for that project to move forward and we'll be seeing some um appropriations around that as well. Uh we also heard um an update on our waste to energy program uh which is really exciting. Uh if you were not aware that we are exploring options for how to burn waste both the waste that comes through the toilet and the waste that comes through the garbage uh to create energy in Anchorage. That is a project that is currently happening cooperatively uh here in Anchorage with solid waste services. And um I just lost help me. Did you guys electric? >> Oh um so the waste energy program is moving forward and we are actually hoping for a $1 million appropriation in congressionally directed spending to be able to move that um forward with design and permitting. Uh and there is also uh an RFP uh study for study that is live and that's set to close August 6th that will help us learn more about what exactly we can and cannot burn. Uh so that um our next meeting for that committee will be happening on August the 21st at 11:15 a.m. at city hall. Thank you. >> Right. Thank you. Next we have Mr. Johnson. >> No report. Thank you. >> Okay. Next I'll pivot to uh the phone. Mr. Constant, do you have a report? >> Nothing to report. >> Thank you. Uh, next, Mr. Aa. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, no committee reports, but one quick leaison report. I'm looking forward to attending the Alaska Municipal League summer legislative conference from August 12th to 14th in Ukavic. I think we're going to have a good group there and I'm looking forward to the discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Boland. Thank you, Madam Chair. The Assembly Budget and Finance Committee met on July 17th. Um, in addition to hearing our normal standing reports, we notably heard an update on the fiscical year 23 audit, the ACTUER. Um, where we are on that, the administration is working very diligently, very hard on um getting that completed um as timely as possible. Um, and we also had a preliminary conversation at that meeting around assembly priorities for the upcoming budget cycle. We had a follow-up uh to that conversation at a work session on the 25th of July. Um, and we were able to capture some good input from our colleagues. So, co-chair um Broly and I of the budget finance committee will be working on a draft resolution um where we can essentially voice our priorities and values um what we'd like to see in this upcoming budget and um however that lands, we will transmit that resolution to the administration um and then we will anticipate receiving their 120day memo which will express um their values and priorities for the budget. So that work is ongoing. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. Next member Silvers. >> Nothing to report. Thank you. >> Thank you. And uh Mr. Perez Reia. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh just one quick update. Uh the meeting of the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee meeting will be on August 6th at 3M in room 155. We encourage people to attend. Thanks. >> Thanks. And I have one additional report. >> Member Broly. >> Thank you. Um I am reporting uh as one of our National League of Cities liaison. I am a member of the Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee. So I was able to attend the summer leadership meeting in Columbus, Ohio as part of that committee. Um, in addition to being uh my hometown and getting to learn a lot about housing construction and and really how that city works from a new perspective, I also was excited to connect with peers across the country as we worked on draft federal policy resolutions uh specifically on uh topics within that committee's purview such as water and wastewater policy, uh weather monitoring, uh disaster mitigation, renewable energy, and other important topics that I know um that I know uh are of interest to the municipality as well as the rest the the country. Uh so the committee and other committees like it are working to prepare these policy position resolutions uh that will be brought to the full membership in um November at the national organization uh the I'm sorry the national city summit which this year will be held in Salt Lake City. So um so that uh federal advocacy work is an important part of NLC and giving guidance to staff as well as folks who who participate in that advocacy. Um so that's my report. Thank you. Okay. So, next we will move on to the addendum to the agenda. Um, but before we get to that, we are going to address one laid on the table item this evening so that we can incorporate that into the agenda. Um, so there is only one item. It is a supplemental item tonight. So, I'm just going to read it into the record. It is supplemental to an item that's being introduced uh 10 G6. It is resolution number AR2025221S, a resolution of the municipality of Anchorage appropriating operating projects committed general fund balance in the amount of $1,300,000 to the office of the mayor community development uh for rehabilitating properties that are vacant. We had an echo there. um to make them available to and assist with transitioning individuals or families out of overnight emergency sheltering. And can I just confirm, did we lose members on the phone? >> I'm sorry that was me somehow two lines constant here. >> Oh, no problem. Glad you're still here. Um okay, so that item has been read into the record and it will be part of introduction. So next we will move on to the addendum to the agenda. Um, okay. Sorry. So, I would like to um ask for a motion to incorporate the agenda as printed and distributed, including the supplemental laid on the table item. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Moved by uh Mr. Rivera, second by Mr. Voland. Um, is there any objection to adoption? Not hearing or seeing any. So, we have uh incorporated the addendum to the agenda. And next, um, we, uh, would normally have appearance requests. We do not have any on the agenda tonight. So, we will move on to the consent agenda. And just one moment. Okay. The consent agenda items numbered 10 A through 10G are typically routine and non-controversial items such as bid awards, new business, information, reports, ordinances, and resolutions for introduction. The items on the consent agenda may be approved by the assembly uh by a single vote to in a motion to approve the consent agenda. Prior to approval, items may be pulled by an assembly member for discussion and separate vote on each of those items. Um so next I will go down the dis and ask members if they would like to pull any items and I will start with Mr. Perez Villa. >> Thank you chair. 10 D3 10 D7 >> Okay. 10 D3 10 D7 Next uh Miss Silvers >> 10B3. Okay. 10 Bravo 3. Next, Mr. Boland. >> No items. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Aa. >> 10 Delta 21. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. constant. >> No items. >> Thank you. Next, Mr. Johnson. >> No items. >> Miss Baldwin Day. >> Uh 10 Bravo 1 and 10 delta 6. >> Okay. 10B1 10D6. Next, Mr. Martinez. >> No items. >> And Mr. McCormack. >> No further items. >> And Mr. Myers? >> No additional items. Thanks, chair. >> Okay. So I will read the list back. So I have 10 Bravo 1 uh pulled by Miss Baldwin Day, 10 Bravo 3 pulled by uh Miss Silvers. Then I have 10 Delta 3 and seven pulled by Mr. Perez Villa as well as 10 Delta 6 pulled by Miss Baldwin Day. And then 10 Delta 21 pulled by Mr. Rivera. And did I miss any items? Okay, not hearing any additional items. Then I will ask for uh so we will consider those items pulled. Then next uh I will ask for sorry I'm checking my script here. >> Okay. Um then I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the pulled items. >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. I heard a motion by Mr. Rivera, second by Miss Baldwin Day. And I will ask again if there's any objection to um uh passing the consent agenda minus the pulled items. Not hearing or seeing any. So we will consider the uh consent agenda approved. So uh for the public's information, the assembly has passed or accepted all items in 10 A through 10G or sorry 10F other than the items that were just pulled and then we'll take those up next or those have been introduced which were the items in 10 G. If you were here to see action on an item listed in the consent agenda that was not pulled, those items have been passed or accepted. Uh so next we will move on to the pulled items. So starting with 10B1, let me get my agenda in front of me. Okay. 10B1 resolution AR202527, a resolution of Anchorage Municipal Assembly approving deteriorated real property tax exemption under AMC 1235 for parcel 0041465700, City View number two, block 5, lot 1A. Uh, what is the will of the body? >> I'm sorry. Uh, this was pulled by Miss Baldwin Day. >> Uh, yes. Move to approve. >> Second. >> Second. Okay. Moved by Miss Baldwin Day, second uh by Mr. Boland. Uh Miss Baldwin Day. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair. Um I was I was hoping to ask a couple of questions of the administration uh pursuant to some um questions I received from constituents and other folks who are interested in uh particularly deterior deteriorated woo real property tax exemption. Uh so whomever would like to answer. Thank you. Yeah, as we are uh as we are contemplating additional incentives for for property rehabilitation in English, I was hoping to put on the record uh just a little bit of context for uh what exactly the the purpose of the deteriorated real property exemption is and and how that is how that's actually applied um and what the what the considerations are for deciding that that that sort of tax exemption is appropriate. So, if you would just speak to that, that would be great. Uh yes, through the chair to member uh Baldwin Day. So this incentive under um under chapter 1235 in code exists to incentivize the redevelopment of deteriorated property um especially in cases where it's not financially viable to um redevelop the property. So to mitigate some of the negative effects of deteriorated property that have on on neighborhood uh um you know local economy and um and and other factors in nearby property values. So the the purpose is to encourage redevelopment of those properties. >> And when a when this um exemption is applied, there are particular considerations that that that the municipality and the the municipal assessor consider. Correct. >> Through the chair to member Baldwin Day. Yes, there is an application process and there are specific requirements and code. And if you'd like, I can describe what that looks like. Um so they the application requires it has to be uh submitted in writing to the CFO. Um and an approval can be granted. It is recommended by the CFO and submitted to the assembly. So it's the assembly is who decides on these things and that's what the current measure is. Uh the the application requires that it demonstrates that the property meets the requirements in code. So there's a definition of deteriorated property that has to be met. Uh there also has to be a a demonstration that the uh that that there's that the exemption is necessary for the redevelopment. And there's a few different ways that that can be done. In this case, the the the justification is that it was necessary for the ongoing viability of the business operation. Um there's also a um a requirement for the u that it produces public benefits that can be described um you know job creation or other kinds of impacts reinvestment uh requires a financial statement as well and then any other information that might be requested or required by the finance department. And with respect to this um this particular tax exemption specifically, this was a this represents a pretty significant investment of capital in this particular property that that has been undertaken by the property owner. Am I am I correct in in that statement >> uh through the chair? Yes, you are correct. This did require a significant investment by the applicant. >> Excellent. And and the time frame for this tax exemption is 10 years. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. And can you speak just briefly? Um I've heard some you know some rumblings in the community that uh that this tax exemption will be um will be borne that that the burden will be borne by the community u that this will increase tax exe taxes for other real tax property payers. Can you talk a little bit about the impact to the community? >> Uh yes through through the chair the impact to other property taxpayers in Anchorage will be non um will will be negligible. There will be no discernable impact in fact. Um, so what so there's kind of there's kind of two ways to think about how a property tax abatement could impact other other taxpayers. And and if if I take something that's currently being taxed and I remove it from the tax roles and then everybody else has to pay higher taxes to make up for that, then you know, everybody could have a a higher rate from that. In this case, most what's being done here is a lot is new value is being added um and then we're giving a tax break on that. there is an underlying property value that's negligible that that I think is is contributing about $4,000 a year in municipal revenue. So, we aren't going to be able to get that going forward. Um the new value created won't be taxed for 10 years, but at the end of the 10 years, it does get added to the tax roles. And so, with them demonstrating through the application to our satisfaction that this is necessary for the for for this to be an ongoing viable operation, you know, we're doing is we're we're sort of investing in the growth of our property tax base in the longer term. >> Excellent. Thank you. So $4,000 in annual property taxes spread across the entire municipality would be the de facto tax burden. >> Uh yes, essentially. >> Great. Thank you so much. Those are all my questions. >> All right. Thank you. Next I have uh member. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I am happy to support this item. Um and I I hope that my colleagues will as well. Well, I did want to mention so um something that we just um accepted on the consent agenda under information and reports was an item um from myself, item 10 F5, which is uh recommendations on the proposed transit supportive development overlay. It's just a memo of my own recommendations on that project. Um but I think it's relevant here because as part of the next steps outlined in that memo um was to develop a design template and menu of incentivized neighborhood market uh vertical mixeduse prototypes and referenced as that uh was using K Street Market as a a study of these sort of types of um walkable retail u mixed use that we'd like to see more of, at least I would like to see more of, in the transit supportive corridors. Um, and I I guess I just say all that because I would encourage the the administration to be looking at how we might use um similar tax abatements within the the transit supportive corridor. I know that we the assembly recently adopted um multif family tax abatements, but I think it would be um interesting to look at how you know if there are other deteriorated properties that can have a a better use um that serves the community um within you know looking ahead if if that transit supportive overlay is adopted um I think we can get kind of creative with how we bring some of these properties um back up to to use and there's a lot of them I'm thinking particularly in like the Spanard area for instance. So um anyway I support this but I also want to see it maybe go a little bit further in the future. Thank you. >> Thanks. Uh next I have Mr. McCormack and then Mr. Constant. >> You had a question. Is this bakery uh still operating today? >> Uh through the chair to member McCormack to my knowledge. Yes. >> Okay. And then it looks like in the memorandum that talks about in 2015 they did a renovation maybe found the asbestos but are now deciding that they would like to do a renovation that's going to require removing this >> uh through the chair. That is that is my understanding. Yes. From their application. >> Okay. And then u my question kind of mirrors u member Baldwin days in the property taxes that we will be um forgoing here. It sounds like it's about 4,000 a year. uh through the chair. Yes, that's the the value the tax that's the tax revenue from the current building that was that was there prior to the to the renovation. And so that's what we're giving up that we would that we have historically collected. >> Correct. So that does not include the valuation after the renovation. >> Correct. It does not. >> Okay. And then it looks like in their statement of like economic impact here, they're claiming if they did a $ 1.7 million renovation, their return on capital without this tax abatement would be negative.6%. And then it sounds like maybe $40ish,000 tax abatement that they'll do a positive return on capital of just under 1% my understanding. >> Yes, from the I believe yes, that's correct in their materials. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Next, Mr. Constant. >> Thanks. And I want to speak a little bit to the public benefit part of the equation. As has been suggested, the taxes will be foregone for the next 10 years on the improvements, which is an investment by the municipality. And there's one thing that is undeniable if you work in real estate or have friends in the neighborhood. Fire Island is listed as an asset on nearly every property listing in the neighborhood. Why? Why? Because that asset in the neighborhood is an attraction to the neighborhood and it actually keeps and sustains value into a neighborhood because people it makes it desirable for people to want to be there. And so what does that mean? That means that all of the properties surrounding that for quite a distance are actually going to see their valuations increase because of the value of that asset that's in their neighborhood. Which means ultimately everybody benefits in the long run because your property is worth more. We collect marginally more taxes off of a thousand different properties which adds up substantially. There is a true public benefit to seeing this project conclude from start to finish and that value is important because for a number of reasons. Anyhow, I'll just leave it at that and say that the public benefit is actually acrewing across many properties and the whole neighborhood and in my opinion Anchorage as a whole. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next I have Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah. Quick question. If during the 10-year period for which the taxes are abated, if the current owner of the building FIRB um who applied for and received this exemption or or may receive this exemption, does that abatement um the tax exemption transfer with the title for the property to to the next donor? >> Uh through the chair to member Johnson, this tax abatement is transferable if there's a new ownership. That's correct. There are some there are there are some nuances to that if it's if it it has to be transferred in whole. It can't be like subdivided and transferred in that manner but it but it can but the the exemption can be transferred um with the sale of the property. >> I don't think it affects my thinking necessarily on this particular item but it does raise an interesting question. Right. I mean, if if part of the argument for this is that this particular business creates value for the neighborhood that if they sell the property and it's used in a different purpose, it may not create that same value for the neighborhood, but the future owner will receive the benefits that tax abatement. So, that's an interesting question, which again isn't going to affect my my support for this particular item, but does feel potentially problematic >> uh through the chair to member Johnson. Um and I think um Ben Bowman from law is here and he may be able to address um some specific aspects of that that I might have missed because I believe the use of it would have to there may be some additional qualifications that I think he could be um able to address from. >> Good evening to the chair to assembly member Johnson. Uh the section specifically which addresses the transferability of the tax exemption is 123550 beta. Um and it's an exemption may be transferred in whole only. So as uh Mr. Cloud stated, it cannot be split up uh to another entity or owner after substantial completion or beneficial occupancy or earlier when the change in ownership is required for the inclusion of lowincome housing. So generally there is some transferability under certain conditions and uh factors but it's it's not blatantly and blanketly transferred. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll I'll take a closer look at that section. >> Okay. Thank you. And I have Mr. Constant in the queue. >> Thanks. And I'm sorry I keep getting kicked out and keep calling back in. I think that since the question of the future of the business has been raised, I believe that the petitioners in the audience, I would like to ask them to come forward. >> Yeah. Thank you. Is somebody from um the owner in the audience who could speak to this and answer questions? >> Yeah, I do see u Miss Flechman if you can come up. >> Okay, she is approaching the DAS right now. >> So, >> yeah, thanks Miss Flechman. the question of uh what your plans are essentially for the next 10 years has been raised. Um I just wonder if there's any kind of horizon that you're imagining that you're selling the business outside of the corporation in the next 10 years and maybe take a minute just to tell us about your operation and celebrate it a little bit. >> Yeah, thank you. And please make sure the microphone is on with the button, the light will turn on and then uh please also u say your name uh on the record. >> My name is Janice Lashman. from the owner of um the entity that's applying for this. The building is very specifically built for a bakery. It would be kind of ridiculous to think we the amount of electrical and plumbing and um the way it's designed. I hope you've been there to see it. It was built in order to create a community space. It's being used that way. I was there on Saturday and there must have been 50 kids there, let alone the adults bringing them there. So, it was built to be a bakery. We've been in business now for 17 years and uh we've built the K Street Market and again we built that with the intent of creating a community space, a place that enhances downtown. This building was way out of our reach um in terms of financially, but it was what we felt the the neighborhood deserved because they came to that shoddy old asbestous fil inadequate building for seven years. Um, so we did what we felt that we would be able to do. Um, but it was at a great cost. Um, because it's a very difficult place to build. >> We're have we have absolutely no plans to leave it. >> I want to thank you for your investment and belief in that part of town. So, thanks for your comments, Miss Placement. >> Anything else? Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. I don't see any other members in the queue, so um I will um call for the vote. >> Member Constant. >> Yes. >> Member Presfordia. >> Yes. >> Okay. On a vote of 11 to zero, that item passes. or I should I believe I need to read the AR number. Is that correct? >> Okay, thank you. >> Feels right. >> Yeah, great. We'll go with it. Um, okay. So, uh, that item has been approved. So, next we will move on to item 10B3, uh, resolution AR20252022, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly expressing support for maintaining the previously approved and current expanded shelter capacity of 200 individuals at the congregate shelter located at 111 East 56th Avenue in affirming the municipality's role in ensuring adequate emergency shelter. Uh, this was pulled by uh, Miss Silver's. Uh, so I will turn to you. Move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Miss Silvers, second by Mr. Boland, and um I'll turn first to Miss Silvers. >> Um so I think if you look outside, if you look at our point in time counts, uh if you look at the utilization of our current shelter capacity, I think it's abundantly obvious that we need more shelter beds as well as housing. Um this right here deals with the shelter portion of it. Uh it's really concerning to me that we would contemplate opening up a new facility but just move people from one place to another instead of actually expanding our capacity when we have the room for expansion. Um and especially on heels of passing a new ordinance that asks folks to camp away from playgrounds, schools, and trails. I do understand that the administration wants to fix some issues in the um SWS building so that it can safely shelter more people and that they don't want to exceed the capacity that is allowed in our shelter licensing and they also believe that clients can be better served in the SWS building at a capacity of less than 200. Uh so um in the spirit of compromise um I have two amendments uh and I will move um amendment number one. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh Silver's amendment or Silver's volen amendment one moved by Miss Silver, second by Mr. Voland. Uh go ahead if you want to speak to it. >> Uh and what amendment number one does is it just moves um the initial 200 down to 150. Uh so it says that we support a shelter capacity of 150 um which is uh what is currently in code. >> Thank you. Next in the queue I have uh Mr. Bolan for the amendment. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I hope my colleagues will consider supporting this. Um, I think that, uh, the shelter at 56th Avenue has really been an asset for our community and I appreciate that we've been able to um, sort of you use utilize it in a way to break out of this pattern of emergency winter shelter that goes offline um, every spring. So, I'd like it to continue operating. um you know in in conversations that I've had with the administration and also in the work session um I hear the concern about 200 people um being being in a bit of a tight squeeze and I also appreciate um the desire to be consistent with our shelter licensing requirements and so um yeah ultimately want to want to utilize this place as as best we can um and hopefully keep it at a capacity of 150 individuals. Thank you. >> Okay. Next, I have Mr. Rivera in the queue for the amendment. >> Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so clarifying question and then a comment. Um, so member Silvers described two amendments. Um, I don't see two amendments, but are we looking at both of the sections in amendment number one? Is that what we have before us? Um, amendment two is lower on the paper and I plan to make that after we deal with the first one. >> Okay. Um, as I guess as long as the clerk understands that that's what we're doing and the body understands. >> Oh, I I could move it all as one. >> Yes. >> If you I guess if you just let me speak to the second part of it as well. >> Yeah. It sounds like um this was presented to us as one amendment. So, >> okay. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Yeah. Go ahead, Mr. Bear. >> I'm after. >> Okay. Thank you. Yes. So, uh, Miss Silvers, please explain your amendment, then we'll go back to Mr. Rivera. >> Okay. Um so the second portion of the amendment uh adds a section two um which basically uh says that we support uh and urge the administration to uh do the renovations that would allow um increased capacity. Uh and so some of the things uh that they may need to do is um fix the elevator um put in uh industrial toilets um and stuff like that. And so this basically uh gives support um and urges them to look at making those repairs. >> Thank you. Um so yeah, getting back to the comment that I was uh originally going to make. So I came into today's meeting um prepared to advocate uh to bring this number down to 100 and add 50 simply for the winter. So 100 year round, 50 for the winter. Um this does 150 year round. Certainly, it is um something that I will consider and I could see myself supporting something like this. Um over the years, uh I think much to the chagrin of my constituents, I have certainly put up the Midtown District as part of the solution and uh it has done so over the years. Um, I guess my my concern is that if this amendment is supported and approved and the overall resolution is supported and approved, um, that the intent here is to be additive to our total number of shelter beds and not to, um, say yes to one particular thing and no to another particular thing. So, I hope that this just means we will have some additional shelter beds. I guess I do sort of have a question for the administration. Um, so this I imagine that these additional 50 shelter beds weren't planned as part of what the administration was putting forward in terms of appropriations. Um, could you speak a little bit to how this changes the dollar amounts that we're looking at? Yeah, and I'll ask um not sure who's most appropriate to speak to that. >> Okay, I see Miss Agnu approaching the dis. >> Good evening uh through the chair. This in some ways mirrors our proposal because our proposal is to have a hundred year- round beds at that location with a potential surge capacity for up to 50 additional beds and that those could be authorized by the health department director on an emergency basis. So it could be we know there's a twoe cold snap coming up. We can authorize some amount um over that period. And for 2025, the budget that we have available to us is really for 200 congregate beds. That's why we're proposing having two sites with 100. Um the surge capacity we believe, and I would let the OM director speak to this, but we believe we'll be able to um find that for the latter part of this year and then work with the assembly for 2026 to include that in the budget for next year. But um in 2025, just to be clear, we do not have budget for 150 at this site and 100 at a different site. We have budget for 200 congregate beds for the remainder of 2025. >> Okay, got it. Thank you. >> Okay, next I have Mr. Perez Via and then we'll turn back to the cube. >> Thank you. Um we're on on the amendment, correct? >> Yes, we're still on the amendment. >> Okay. I I just I'd like Miss um Agnu Ben to come back up because there was one question that I I don't think I got clear on. Um um so the the her last statement was was we don't have budget to increase to uh this to um can can she just say her last statement again? I I wasn't clear what she meant that we don't have the budget for this or we do >> uh through the chair member Perez Via. So, in 2025, we were planning on 200 congregate beds. And so, that's the budget that we've that we're working with. And so, in order to get to, as the mayor shared at the beginning, a year-round shelter system, uh, this facility, East 56, is authorized for 200 beds only on an emergency basis. And we know from the fire inspector by Indeed, that that is not something that can be perpetually renewed. It's not for a year-round use. It's for an emergency authorization which has been in place. So our goal is to reduce this site to 100 beds on a year- round basis. Part of the reason for that also is that this is potentially a site that the municipality could own for shelter, which is something we've understood from the assembly that you want us to investigate. And so by reducing capacity to 100, we'll actually be able to make some of the improvements um repairs really to the facility to make it function better. Um, right now it's being um there's very expensive repairs happening on a monthly basis because 200 people is just too much for that location. It's also quite crowded. So, there isn't a place to move 200 people if you want to do work on the building. Um, so by reducing capacity to 100, we'll be able to evaluate the long-term um value of this for the municipality. Bring this bring that proposal to you. It'll also allow us some space to make improvements to the building while people are still in it. It will also make a much more habitable shelter for the people staying there. We'll be able to have more separation between um different genders and generally a better um calmer place where people can get better case management and better um exits from shelter. So that is why our goal is to have a 100 year round beds at this location for the time being with a potential surge capacity of up to 150 beds um if and when it's needed. >> So just just to be clear, can you talk about the impact of this amendment? I I I want you to be really clear about how how this amendment would impact our ability to to to function as you've planned. >> Sorry. Do you mean to our budget or to the plan? >> Both. To the budget and our plan. How would this amendment impact that? >> Well, I'll speak to the plan, then I'll let OM Director Browse speak to the budget. Um, this essentially accords with our plan. Um, if the assembly is willing to approve a contract for 100 beds at a second site, which is also on the docket this evening. >> Thank you. And then how would this amendment impact our our budget >> through the chair to member Perez Verdia? This is Ona Browse uh director of office of management and budget. Um this amendment is not limiting for the proposal that we have brought forward to you. If this amendment is intended to allow for up to 150 at the East 56 site with additional beds available in another location, then this would be totally within the bounds of the proposal and we would work with the assembly to find additional funds if we were able to um contract with our vendor to go up to 150 on a full-time basis. So, this amendment doesn't limit our operations in terms of the um double site proposal, but it would limit operations if it were intended to only be at East 56 as shelter alone because that would reduce our number that we would were available to um have at the East 56 site from 200. >> Thank you very much. That's all my questions. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, next on the amendment, Miss Feldman Day. >> Yes. Thank you, chair. Um, I I have a couple of questions for the administration as well. Um, is there an expectation that there will be demand for shelter beyond the 200 beds that uh are currently proposed irrespective of cold weather surge needs? uh through the chair to member Baldwin Day. Um it's not an easy thing to measure demand for shelter. The demand for the number of shelter beds is really a function of how long a person stays in a bed. So if someone stays in a bed for one week, the same bed could serve 52 people. If they stay in a bed for four months, that bed's going to serve three people. So, our goal is to have a year- round system that is very tightly coordinated. We've been working since the fall with the assistance of our third party oversight to do very robust, very on the daily, seven days a week coordination of our beds to use them as efficiently and as well as we can. That's both to divert people out of shelter who don't need to stay there for very long. For example, we just recently got two people plane tickets to the lower 48 who had places to go and that was the way out of the shelter bed. And then it's also to provide robust case management services, connections to treatment for people who have more complex needs. And we believe that with that type of coordination and a year-round system that stabilizes the system. Also, one thing that isn't immediately apparent is that when you're only operating for five months of the year, it's hard to hire year- round staff. So, it just limits your ability to have a really good team and training. Um, so all with all of those things, we believe that we can um function with uh fewer shelter beds than we had last winter because we won't be turning on additional hotel rooms. Um, we've put more of our resources towards transitional housing and housing and rental assistance to have exits from shelter and we believe with that robust coordination, we will be able to meet demand. Um and then you know when we have cold snaps when we have other things we will need to use emergency powers to to to manage that but that's why we want to have some surge capacity in our low barrier shelter sites which we currently don't have. >> Thank you. Um so I I'm in support of additional shelter capacity um during winter months um especially as temperatures drop demand increases. Um, I think one of the things that I noticed was in the the point in time count uh that we saw at the last housing and homelessness committee meeting, it was actually shelter that was underutilized. Uh, everything else, transitional housing, um, non- congregate shelter, those were the places where we had 100% utilization, it was shelter that was not utilized at 100%. So, I'm I'm really in favor of the mayor's intent to operate two smaller sites as opposed to one for a variety of reasons, but one of which is there there is significant impact on Midtown having this shelter at 200 people. Um and and I I agree with my colleague on the dis um that Midtown has Midtown has done some work uh to to support the shelter needs of our community and I'm really proud of that. Um I'm not sure that having 150 people at the with the current building condition is a wise move. Um, so this is this is not this is not an amendment or an item that I will personally be supporting. Um, I I I think we're we're coming to a point of of pushing the envelope on what is financially responsible for the municipality to undertake. Uh, so this will this will be a no vote for me. >> Okay. Uh, next, I know Mr. McCormack hasn't spoken. Is this on the amendment? >> It is. Yes. Um it sounds like this number, the 200 number, now the amended 150 is an up to in the administration. It says it doesn't limit um what they can do or how they can use it. It's just kind of an upper threshold. I guess my question is to the the mover of the amendment of it sounds like we agree needing more shelter beds. Why are we lowering the limit that they can put there? So, um it's 200 now, which is um 150, which is the capacity that we are allowed by policy, and then a 50 surge. Um and they're lowering it to 100. And so, what my amendment does is tries to bring it back up to 150. So, it it's basically it's a compromise. And if we did not amend it though, would it remain at the 200? >> It would remain at the 200. >> So we are lowering it. I I I'm still confused, I guess. >> Yeah, it sounds like Mr. Ven wants to provide clarification. >> Yeah, thank you. So, um, in other items that will be before us tonight, there are proposals from the administration to lower this, um, lower the current capacity from 200 to 100 and to move 100 folks um, to a different location, maintaining the same sort of overall shelter capacity of at least of municipally contracted um, shelter to 200. I think that there from some of the answers that we've heard here um from Miss Benin and from Miss Browse, there appears to be a little bit of a disconnect between the sponsors of this item and the administration. What the if if this were a amended um the language reads, it is the policy of the municipality of Anchorage to maintain to the maximum extent feasible not less than the emergency shelter bed capacity permitted by municipal code for a low barrier congregate emergency shelter. So our intent in bringing this forward is not just saying oh we can surge to 150. Our intent in bringing this forward is saying no, it's it's going to be a goal, you know, so long as there is a need of capacity um in our overall system that this would be there would be 150 clients at the location on 56th. >> Okay, Mr. McCormack, any other question or >> No, thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Um next, uh Mr. Johnson has not spoken, so I'll go to you. >> Yeah, thank you. I think I also have a question for Miss Benben or whoever else wants to um tackle it. For section two, the repairs and renovations. I know you've mentioned that there there is some thought long term about um making improvements to this facility to accommodate more people. Um this amendment and and the resolution if it's passed through amendment specifically calls for those uh renovations to take place. Do you have any sense ballpark what the approximation of the cost of of such upgrades would be? through the chair to member Johnson. Um we would absolutely need time to evaluate um what those renovations and repairs would need to be and what the cost and kind of phasing of that would be. I imagine that some of the things that have been really problematic as we've been operating in this facility would be the bathrooms. There are two large g doors on one end that let in a lot of cold air in the winter. So, um, we've had to replace a lot of windows. So, I think dealing with that. So, there's some near-term things that just to make it more operable would probably want to be done first. And then I think if we were going to evaluate it for long-term use, especially if the assembly wanted to authorize more than 150 beds in there, well, there would need to be a change to code. We also have some zoning issues to deal with there. we'd also probably need to do a replat um because of how it's configured with the other um uses on that that parcel. So all of those things, none of those things happen quickly. Um and then to get a cost estimate, of course, we need to do some type of structural and architectural review of the building. So again, part of our uh approach here is that by reducing to 100, it makes it possible to do some of those things with people still occupying the facility. um with 150 in there, it's better than 200, but still pretty tight. So again, also just to reiterate, we budgeted for 200 beds this year. So if we're suggesting to run East 56 at 150, you know, we didn't really find a feasible option through our congregate RFP for operating at 50 beds anywhere. Um, so I'm not sure if the solution then would be just reduce overall capacity or um if people if you want us to go back out to bid, that's a lengthy process. We just spent three months negotiating to try and get the best locations and the best price for the municipality from the two biders that we got. There were only two biders and we negotiated hard with both of them and we looked at many, many sites around town that they brought to us. So I don't think another RFP process is necessarily going to produce different results. >> And if I might add something briefly to what Miss Agnu noted, we have asked for an initial review of the facility from our operations and maintenance team. The initial estimate they've come back with is as high as $1 million to fully renovate the building. So it's not a simple task. We've looked at the elevator itself is not the simple barrier to the operation of the second floor. There are fire code concerns about the layout of the walls on the second floor that make it inoperable as a location for sleeping humans. So even if we fixed the elevator itself, there would be a larger Jenga puzzle of how we actually made the entire building operable. So as Miss Agnube noted, the idea here is to have a lower capacity in the building to allow us to take a real run at the what repairs would be required. It's part of the calculus here to assess what we could potentially do to make it a longer term operable facility at the higher level that I know the body is interested in. And the challenge is it's just not simple. There's lots of different moving pieces. And it's also not a simply located amount of money. I mean, if we had $1 million to fix the facility, that would be fantastic, but it's certainly not something that we're going to identify in the next few months. So, this is part of a conscious overall long-term plan to try and assess how we can make change in this facility to be able to make it something that is again responsive to this desire to have more long-term shelter beds. But it's just not simple. That building was not designed to be a place where people slept long term and it has been a short-term solution with some real challenges. And so this moving around of the population that's in that facility is a conscious part of a long-term plan that will allow us to reach the desired goal um thoughtfully and um while addressing the again the significant hurdles that are part of that process. >> Thank I I appreciate that information. So, I'll say I I am disincclined to support the amendment or the underlying resolution um because these are serious questions that I think need to be answered at least fleshed out forally before we take a position as this body to support this action. I mean, even if we don't have precise numbers related to the repairs and renovations, this resolution, if amended, would call for that to take place and would create, I would hope, um, an impetus, if not a mandate for the administration to pursue that, which we know the cost would be some millions of dollars for those renovations. Additionally, we can assume that it would increase the operational cost for the facility. And just if I extrapolate um from the contract before us to increase that by 50%, that's around half a million this year, a million and a half for next year. These are large numbers which I think if we were to consider going that route and and perhaps we can, but it is enough that it will impact the budget, the municipal budget in other places. And so to not even consider that before taking a position feels a bit reckless to me. Nowhere in this resolution or the amendment is there any mention even of the additional costs that the municipality is contemplating taking on here. Um, let alone actually digging into the numbers and and and the impacts there. So, while I'm not necessarily opposed to long-term contemplating operating this facility on a more permanent basis and perhaps at a larger capacity, um, I simply do not feel like we have anywhere near the information we need to to take that action today. and I think to do so would be um a bit reckless at best. >> Okay, thank you. I know we have a number of folks in the queue. We've been dealing with um as you've probably heard some consistent phone issues for members on the phone. So, um I'm going to uh recess us briefly so that we can reboot the phone system. We'll pick up where we left off. Um and then I'll just note we do have our stack of folks in the queue, all of whom have spoke before. So, I'll keep running through that process. Um, so folks on the phone, if you just hang tight, we're going to reboot the phone system. So, we'll take about a five minute break. Thank you. >> Here's something weird. This new computer is not keeping time. Let's see if it does it now. [Music] of a time I used to know. [Music] Sat by the lake [Music] on the summer days. The wind through the shade. Wait for a cool place [Music] to watch your subtle ways. What do I really care about? Am I afraid to make a known? What if this were forgotten? I hope there was none. What do I really care about? Nothing at all. [Music] I hope it was none. [Music] The dogs are all I play. Tell me it won't change. while putting off the work. To lame to just simply wait to be taught some way. What do I really care about? What do I really care about? Am I afraid to make a known? What if this world forgotten? I hope it was not. What do I really care about? Nothing at all. I hope it was none. What do I really care about? Nothing at all. I hope it was not [Music] there's nohere [Music] to go. Don't let them take your shine. Don't let them steal your mind away from you. Said if they owed you money, I will need a B from you. Oh, you you're stronger than you think. Don't let these on stro cuz you're four, five, six on your roof and your house in nobody else at fault. Think I did something bad. I did something bad. If they owe me money, if they owe me something. Let's go and it say [Music] I'm so very lost on things that going my way up and the grass is over the side. Let me take you down. Looking after every turn. It scares me like it do, but it's all the rules I always lose. I wake up and begin to choose. I don't know what do you dreams to and nowhere to go. Don't let them take your shine. Don't let them steal your mind away from you said if they owed you money I will need a B from you. Oh you you're stronger than you think. Don't let these ones sting up soon. Cuz if four, five, six times still in your house and nobody else falls. Think I did something bad. I did something bad. Never question. If they owe me money, if they owe me something, let's go and spend it all. I'm not very lucky. If they owe me something, let's go and spend it all. Let me tell you a secret. Let me tell you, let me tell you a secret. Let me tell you, let me tell you a secret. sinking. Oh secret. I keep it all alone. I keep it all. I keep it all alone. I keep it all. I keep it all alone. I keep it all alone. I keep it all alone. I keep I keep it. Keep it. I keep it all alone. I keep it all. I keep it all alone. I keep it all. I keep it all alone. I keep it all alone. I keep it all alone. I keep it. Keep it. I keep your room is in your eyes. Nobody else. Thank God something bad. I did something bad. I am owe me money. If they owe me something, let's go back and spit [Music] [Music] my up. Watch the sunset. Now I'm done relaxing. Time's chasing after me. I need a little substance. Not sure where it's headed, but I know it's going somewhere. Take a cabin. Don't look. I'll move through all the silence. Now I'm colder than the weather. Steady going under pressure. I'm finally overseers. [Music] >> Okay, I think we almost have our phone issues resolved. Mr. President or Mr. Conson, are you there? Cameron, you're there? >> Yes, I'm here. >> Oh, yeah. We can hear both of you for now. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, I think um we should call the meeting back to order. >> Okay. Yeah, if members can come back. I think we're um I think we do have our members on the phone. So hopefully we can get through the business while they're still there. So um and I know they're still walking back up. So where we left off, we have um a queue of folks. Um everyone in the queue right now has already spoken. So I will move through see if it's for the amendment. And then also just to note, Mr. Perez, I have you third in the queue. Um so first uh >> Oh, sorry. Can you can you uh both on the phone confirm that you're still there? >> Still. Okay, perfect. Okay, so Miss Silvers, you're next in the queue. Did you still want to speak to the amendment? >> So, just to clarify, a new RFP is not necessary. An amendment could be negotiated in the contract. Um, and as stated in this resolution, it would be subject to assembly approval. So, that's something that the administration would uh explore and then put before us uh for approval. The purpose of this amendment is for expanded year-round shelter. Otherwise, quite frankly, I don't see the real benefit of bringing in a second operator at another location if we're just going to pick people up and bust them across town and not expand our system. The other purpose is to get away from winter only sheltering, which as you know means that people go out into our parks in the summer. Almost every person on this dis about half of them said two weeks ago in reference to another ordinance that we passed that we do not have enough shelter to pass this ordinance. And so now I'm hearing that there are too many barriers to even explore adding more beds to our system within a facility that already has those beds. So I guess in the end the question is do you want people in shelter year round or do you want them in shelter in the wintertime and then in Cuddy Park and other parks during the summer. >> Thanks uh next Mr. Voland. >> Yeah, thank you Madame Chair. Um, I appreciate M. Silvers for bringing up the the point about an a new RFP not being necessary. Um, you know, in response to um one of my colleagues from Midtown suggesting that, you know, Midtown has really stepped up. I think that's true. Um but I I you know when we had a work session on other topic top topics that'll be before us tonight other items and this is related um you know I had questions about what is the current capacity where are people being sheltered now so I guess I would maybe like to invite Athea back up and get some clarity on that um because although Midtown has stepped up and West Anchorage has too. Um I know that there is still a a lot of folks um historically have been sheltered or or housed um in Fair View and East Downtown. So um how many people are sheltered in Midtown right now versus how many people are sheltered in downtown and Fairview >> through the chair to member Valand. Thank you for the question and I did work on this today between when we talked yesterday at the work session. Um, and I'm not yet in possession of a map which I would love to produce. It's a great idea. We've definitely done them in the past. Um, the most recent one I could find was 2018 which didn't seem quite up to date. Um, but I did make notes from other sources to try and answer this question. So, if we first look at our municipally contracted shelter, um East 56 currently has 200. Our proposal is it goes down to 100 with a surge of up to 50. That's in Midtown. Um the proposed location that we'll be talking about later, Linda's Place is technically in Mountain View, but it's right on the border of Fairview, Mountain View, and downtown. We're saying proposing that have a 100 beds plus a surge of 50. Um, we currently have a hundred non- congregate beds in Spannard at the Alex that are funded with state money. We're hoping that could be funded year round next year. Um, and then we do family cold weather shelter. That's also municipally contracted. Um, that one is more of a scattered site approach. They do have a I think it's a forplex. Um, and I'm apologize, but I don't actually know what district that's in. Um, but that does uh support about 68 people um during cold weather. And again, we're working with that vendor to see what it would take to operate that year round because we know there's demand for family shelter year round. Um, when we look at community shelters, our complex care facility is right off of Fireweed and Sea. I think that's also Midtown, right? Yep. Nope. Yes. Yes. No. >> Yeah, that's not Midtown. >> It's on the border of of district one and and the Midtown District. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um that's eight that is 80 83 beds there. Um Brother Francis is another community operated shelter. That's 120 beds. That's definitely in downtown. Um Covenant House has 40 beds now of shelter. They've converted part of their facility into um longerterm transitional housing. So their actual shelter beds are down to 40. That's also in downtown. Um also in downtown is our Anchorage Safety Center. So that's right at the jail complex. that's technically could house 50, but really it's closer to 25 because 50 would be a lot in there. Um, in Gospel Rescue Mission, um, that that is a high barrier shelter in Midtown. It doesn't receive any municipal funds. It is licensed. That's 92 beds. Um, for family shelter, Clarehouse is another 20 beds. In Spanard, um, we have the McKinnel family shelter, and I'm sorry, I don't have the occupancy for that. Um we don't put any funding into that currently either and that's in downtown. Um we do have uh VA supported um it's called VASH Veterans Administration Supportive Housing. They do a permanent supportive housing model that's a scattered site. So that's really all over Anchorage. Um you asked yesterday about other types of health care facilities. Um a lot of that is concentrated in the UMED district. So again in kind of the border of east east Anchorage and Midtown um that's where we have for example Alaska Psychiatric Institute we have um res inpatient mental health uh in at Providence we have uh detox beds we have residential treatment uh we have um that's where the two crisis stabilization centers would be located. Um assisted living is another um service that we actually have about 3,000 beds of assisted living in Anchorage. those. According to the 2019 um study I looked at, we had assist of living in every zip code except one. Um partly oftentimes you see assist of living more in um for example, Eagle River or Hillside where there's larger homes because assisted living um operators often have between six to eight uh need to have rooms in the house. So they often purchase larger homes and um provide those services there. Um, hang on one second because I know I had a few others. Uh, let's see. Oh, I think those were all the ones I counted um for you. So, I'm sorry I don't have a good um Oh, I guess we also because you also asked about supportive housing. Um, we just did emergency rental assistance that is going out kind of all over town because it's we're getting people into any unit that we'll we'll we can we can find. Um, so that again is a very much a scattered site model. Um and then another sort of investment that the municipality has made over the years um with the assembly support is the um it's not it is kind of supportive housing. It's really low-income rental plus case management. So um the Barrett Inn is an example of that. Lakeshore is an example of that. Those are both in Spanard and really Golden Lion is operating that way too which is also in Midtown. Um so I mean I think that's a kind of big picture. Does does the guest house still have >> guest house >> some permanent supportive beds? >> No, guest house is operating again as that kind of uh lowincome permanent housing, rental housing. >> Yeah, >> I seem to recall because I was one of the co-sponsors of um assisting with the purchase of the guest house. At the time there was 110 beds of extremely lowincome housing, 20 units of permanent supportive housing. So I don't know if that has changed that proportion or what. Um I I appreciate that. So I guess uh you know just to maybe drive the point home, do you feel like it's fair to say that the of congregate shelter that the majority of congregate shelter capacity is in district one east downtown Fairview area? >> I really would say it's Spannard Midtown downtown >> of congregate. >> Yeah. I mean in so for downtown right now we did have 90 beds at H heading house which is downtown. We had 45 slots of warming and we had 50 beds at Merillfield which is also I think that's probably also in Mountain View but kind of right on the border. Um those have all closed so we don't have any of those and we're not planning to reopen any of those. So, we've really taken 200 beds off offline as of June 30th. And then our year round system, we're proposing the 100 beds at East 5th at Linda's Place, 100 beds at East 56, and then the same plan of that surge capacity up to 50 as needed in each place. >> Okay. Ju and I guess just to be clear like I'm talking about not just municipally contracted congregate shelter but including places like Covenant House or um Brother Francis. >> Those are both in downtown. Yes. >> Right. So proportionally >> Well then we also have the 83 beds of complex care >> which is shared between I think technically that falls in district one. I think it's on the south or the north side the north side of fireweed. >> I have to look I have to look at a map. >> Okay. I know. I was trying to find I'm sorry. I was trying to find the map over there so I could give you this more precisely. But >> I just I I guess I hope that gives context for this item and as we consider other items is looking at um where in our city do we have capacity already and where are the best candidates for areas to look at to grow capacity. Thanks. And if I could just speak to that last comment through the chair. So I just really want to impress upon you that we put out an RFP. We got two biders and the reason it took us from April until July to come up with a intent to award is because we asked those biders to go back and back and back to find properties that potentially could work. and that though that's really the so in addition to that prior to even putting the RFP out we did a really comprehensive look at what are the buildings the MUN owns what are the locations that we have that potentially could support um the different things that we're trying to bring online and for MUN owned really the only options we >> point of information >> go ahead Mr. Radia, >> I'm Are we on the amendment to the resolution? >> Yes, thank you. We are on the amendment. >> I don't believe we're speaking to the amendment on the resolution. >> Um it sounded like you're raising a point of information. So yes, we are on the amendment and then I will also remind um all participants here that we should stick to the content of that amendment at this time. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Right. So, um I also will note that we I know we had to take a break. Uh we've been at this for a while. We have not reached our hour um of debate, but we may need to extend debate um shortly. So, just making a note. Um next, I have actually two members who have uh or one is not in the queue anymore. Uh one member who has not spoken yet. So, I'm going to turn to Mr. Constant and then go back to the queue of folks who have spoken already. >> Thank you. Um I can't help but have some feelings about the debate. Um the there was a I would say a shortsighted view that suggested look back at the last meeting. There is a small minority of you who voted against that item because it's criminalizing that whole argument and yet here we are putting up burdens in front of people to have enough shelter. I rebut that argument simply by saying look further back. And the argument then was having too many people in a a small space that isn't effective for those people is not good. In fact, it's cruel. And I believe that the 200 number in this facility has served, but only an emergency capacity. And the 150 is cruel. It works in an emergency because that's when we don't have any other place to have anyone go. But it should only be in an emergency. We've been really clear in our code to try to reduce the size of our shelter capacity and not capacity our shelter spaces having distributed services so that the humanity of people can be respected. I believe if we stay anywhere near 200 in surge capacity or actual capacity and even this 150 number is just looking back towards a previous administration's idea of bigger is better. I don't support this amendment. That's generally speaking my comment to the overarching resolution. >> Thank you. Um next I have Mr. Rivera. >> Yeah, thank you Madam Ch. I'll be brief. Um you know generally there is a value to diversifying our system um even if we're not necessarily increasing the number of shelter beds. um for I think many of the reasons that member uh constant stated uh we've we've had this debate many times around capacity and what's the right number and so it makes sense for us to look at that diversification from that standpoint. Um, you know, one of the things that we haven't really talked about is um, and uh, Miss Ben has impressed this upon us that it took many months of negotiations to get to where we are right now. Um, I certainly would hope that going back to the negotiating table and asking for 100 to go up to 150 um, that that wouldn't set this back. Um, so there's just a lot of I think unknowns at this point. There's what does the provider uh want to do in this scenario? What are our budgetary concerns? Um, and in the end, I think we need to make a decision on what makes mo the most sense for the system and for the clients. So, I'm open to the idea idea if it makes sense to boost East 56 up to 150, but I just think based on today's conversation, we're not there just yet. And um that's I think a conversation we can have again in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Martinez hasn't spoken yet. Mr. Martinez >> just quickly uh question to the sponsor of the amendment and the overall item. Um what are the best practices that you're following with respect to the number of of folks that you are looking for? Originally the item was 200 and then the compromise that was described with this particular amendment is 150. In your research, what is the number related to the best practice for a congregate shelter before it turns into a warehouse model where you don't actually help people? You just h you just put them into a space. Do you have any background information that suggests that the best practice is 150 versus the 100 which had been vetted by prior uh folks for some time? Well, actually, I would say that the 150 has been vetted because that is the best practice number that this assembly put into code. So, that's the number that's in code. That's the number that's been vetted. That's the number that's been put forward as best practice. So, I mean, I guess we could change code and say that we need to cap out our shelters at 100 if that's now the new best practice. So in my vantage point and I appreciate the the the comment the assembly is a policymaking body and sometimes we get best practices connected to the policy well other times not so well but I don't necessarily look to my colleagues here for the best practices with respect to homeless response coordination and work. I think there are other experts and professionals who do that. But I do remember post pandemic when brother Francis was lowered, the amount of folks at Brother Francis was lowered. I remember very specifically the the more people in a space with limited operator and limited training folk, the more difficult it is to meet the needs. So small as a value proposition smaller is better because it's more manageable in in the sense of that and so the surge then capacity gives us the ability to do the 50 and 50 in both places. So I think that that is essentially the same position is a is a rub there. the the numbers don't essentially change, but the day-to-day operation is different than the surge capacity. And and I don't I'm not the expert on that, but I do know that a value proposition suggests the smaller the uh the facility, the less folks, the more opportunity for case management and resources to reach individuals. That was one of the big lessons we definitely learned out of um the reorganization of brother Francis uh downtown. But thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Press Fredia, do you still want to be in the queue for the amendment? >> Yeah, I just have a brief comment. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, yeah, I just want to share, you know, we we I think the administration has a really solid plan and we've heard that and and and um and the concern I have with this amendment and the underlying resolution is that it feels like it it binds them in in some way to to to a certain um capacity. And I and I would really prefer to to allow them to move forward with their plan as is. Um, it I appreciate that their willingness to work with with this with with it the amendment, but but you know, I I'd like to see the plan as as stated move forward as is. So, I'm I'm I'm on the camp of not necessarily supporting this this amendment and the the underlying um the resolution. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. And Miss Baldwin Day, go ahead. >> Yes. I'm I'm curious if either of the sponsors of this amendment have actually physically visited the East 56th Avenue shelter in person in the last 3 months. Because if if the answer to that is no, it's really easy to throw darts at a number and to say that this number sounds good, but if you have not physically been to the facility if you have not observed the conditions in which people are being sheltered and it's very difficult to have an appreciation for the difference that a 100 people would make to shelter operations and certainly the difference that it would make to have having the capacity to renovate a building during the winter months in order to make it a a a better shelter. for the community at large. So I I I I really struggle with this assertion that that we have that that that arbitrary an arbitrary capacity of 150 people as as a requirement as a threshold is wise for this space. Um, having been there, I I struggle to envision how 200 people has been a workable option for the amount of time that it has. And let's be clear, there have been 200 people at that site for the entirety of the summer. We did not spin down East 56 this summer. We literally are we are in the midst of creating a year-round shelter model. So, so the assertion that we don't have summer shelter this, you know, is is functionally inaccurate. Um, so again to the sponsors, if you have not been to the shelter, I question the choice of this number and why and and o and beyond that the questioning of the administration's plan to operate two sites at 100 beds a piece um really really >> struggling to the shelter. I have I have been to it >> and and you believe that I have toured the upstairs which is beautiful. >> Okay. Um I do want to note for timing as I mentioned um we've reached an hour for debate. So um we could entertain a motion to extend or we could take a a vote on this amendment and the underlying item. Okay. Um seems like people are ready to vote. So let's go ahead and vote on the amendment. So we are voting on uh Silver's volen amendment one. Member Presfordia. >> No. >> Member Constant. >> No. >> Okay. On a vote of five to six. Um, that amendment fails. So, we are back on the underlying item. As I said, we've reached an hour for debate. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, seeing that there's someone in the queue, Madam Chair, I'll go ahead and make a motion to extend debate by 10 minutes. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion to extend um by Mr. Rivera and second by Mr. Miss Mr. Boland. Um any objection. Okay, not seeing your hearing. So, um next we have >> Yes, I want to vote. Sorry, I was on mute. >> So, there's >> Okay, so there is an objection. So, we will take a vote on the motion to extend uh debate 10 minutes. member pres. >> Yes. >> Member Constant. >> No. >> Okay. The motion to extend has also failed on a vote of five to six. So now we are uh through debate and we are back on the vote for the underlying item 10B3 resolution AR20252022. So members may proceed to vote >> member constant. >> No >> member pres. >> No. >> Okay. Okay, on a vote of 4 to 7, that uh resolution fails. So, next we will move on to item 10D3. Let me get back to my agenda. So, that is assembly memorandum AM562 2025, recommendation of award of a contract to MASH property management LLC, MASH, uh for the congregate shelter services for the Miss Valley of Anchorage, Anchorage Health Department. Um uh sorry >> not reading the rest. >> Okay, not reading the rest. Okay. Uh so this was pulled um by Mr. Perez Villa. Um Mr. Perez Verdia. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Perez Via. Second by Mr. Rivera. >> Information chair question. Is it your intent to move the A version or the original version of the AM? My intention is to move the the A version. Is that is that that correct? I'm looking at it now. >> Yes. Thank you. The A version was the most recently submitted version. >> Yeah. Yeah. The A version. Thank Thank you for that that clarification. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And thank you as well. So we are on the A version. So 10 D3 number or letter A. So go ahead Mr. Perezia. >> Thank you. Did you want to make comment to that? >> He might have gotten kicked off. >> I'd like to hear from the administration um specifically um for them to um um review this this contract briefly um and then also speak to the need of it. >> Okay. Thank you. Yes. So somebody from the administration could speak to um the contract and the necessity of it from their perspective. So I'm not sure who would be the appropriate person to speak to that. Okay. I see Miss Agn approaching the dis again with uh Miss Rash from the health department. Kimberly Rash Anchorage Health Department. Uh so this a version of the contract here is uh for 100 beds at uh 1911 East 5th uh at a uh per day flat rate of 10,800 which is 108 uh per person per day. The contract would be starting on uh August 30th and going until the end of this year. And it does have two one-year contract extensions, uh, which would be subject to appropriation. The funds would be subject to appropriation. Um, the services provided at this facility by the contractor would include um, making sure that each person is connected through the CE process, working with the third party oversight. They will be providing food um, to the clients that are residing at that facility. Um they will also be having uh they will be meeting shelter licensing requirements which is uh specific to ratios as well as um making sure that they are working with the other shelter operators um again through that partnership with the third party oversight and Thea will speak to the need. >> Thank you Director Ash uh through the chair and member Perez Verdia. Um, as we've discussed at the work session and as I've heard members say tonight, the goal is for Anchorage to have stable year-round shelter so that we don't have ups and downs in the summer and winter. I shared this statistic yesterday, but I'll share it again here today. Um, when I looked at the APD data for the 50 people that died outdoors in 2024, it might surprise you to know that 44 of them died between April and October. Um, that's also the time of year when we tend to have fewer beds. Uh, so I think this type of low barrier shelter is a life-saving intervention. Um, it's also in some ways the duty of the municipality to provide this level of shelter because without it, not only do people run the risk of dying, but they also end up interacting with our police officers, with our fire and EMS, our mobile crisis teams. And by providing a shelter where people can get navigation and support, connections to treatment, housing, um other services they might need, we really reduce the burden on our first responders. So the need for this particular location is because as discussed, East 56th Avenue is only allowed to have 200 people on an emergency basis. That's not a year- round option for us. 150 would be the maximum we could have there. Um our budget this year we have budget for 200 congregate beds. Our proposal is to split those 200 beds into two 100 bed sites with surge capacity in each of them. The value of having the surge capacity in a shelter site is that last year the assembly authorized warming. Uh warming was only available at night and people couldn't sleep there. Um it did serve a vital purpose but I think we can all agree it's not ideal. It also occurred uh in a downtown location which was not preferable because it created a lot of traffic because people couldn't stay there there. Um so this alternative um is to provide that year- round stable location where we can surge if we need to on cold days. Um we also this facility would be operated by MASH. MASH has been I think had a very uh good track record in terms of operating this type of facility. They're also operating at the Alex right now. Um we heard from the the community council meeting that member of Voland convened. Um the downtown community council has had a very good relationship with MASH through their good neighbor policy that they have for the guest house which is also downtown. That's when we were just talking about that's that's really permanent housing. Um because these would be licensed facilities. This facility would also have a good neighbor policy required. Um, at that same meeting, I heard folks from Fair View say that they would really like that policy framework to be beefed up. I'm 100% in on that. We can work on that together and provide a good framework for those um, policy agreements for all of the license locations. Um, the other advantage to uh, this site is that it would be part of our year- round um, operation. It therefore would be subject to the third party oversight that the assembly asked us to ensure was available to make sure that that the beds are operating well and that there's oversight by licensing. It also would be overseen by the health department. And then there's a third layer of oversight which is because this would be a contract um with the municipality. So the health department would be managing it as a contractor as well. Um so I think I've probably spoken to the need for it. Thank you, Chair. Just one additional question. Um, you you've heard some at the the work session we held some some concern around the location. Can you talk to us about the the choices you had and the process you went through and how you ended up choosing this location as opposed to others in Anchorage? >> Yeah. So, we did um ask the two biders to bring multiple different locations to us for consideration. Um, and there were locations in um parts of Spanard, uh, parts of Midtown, parts of downtown, um, and kind of the Ship Creek industrial area and in Mountain View. Those were the the locations that were brought by those two biders. Again, we don't have control over that process. We can't find other places in other parts of town. Um, so those were the the areas of town where facilities were brought for consideration. And after a very exhaustive process, these two seem to be um the most advantageous. Um, some of the advantages of the East Fifth Avenue property are that it isn't um it's it's not it's surrounded by commercial uses primarily. Um, it does have the the operator is planning to put a fence around it. It has multiple floors which will allow us to separate genders which is a pretty important thing. An emergency shelter. Um they will be adding adequate bathrooms and showers. Um I think those were some of the main reasons why this one came to the top. And also I think the size just one other thing. Um I guess what I was saying earlier about the we have budget for 200. So if we did 150 in one location, then we're only left with 50 in another location. And what we found through the process is that 50 is not really a feasible size to operate um like freestanding. So it's okay if it's like part of your operation because you're doing it, but it just I don't think we could find an operator that would just do one 50 bed shelter. Um so that 100 and 100 made the most sense for that that reason, too. Thank you. Thank you for for for that. I just would like to add uh there's probably going to be a long queue, but but I just want to add that um that I'm I'm supportive of this. I really want to encourage my my colleagues to to support this. It's part of a of a comprehensive plan of how we're going to really seriously address homelessness here in Anchorage. Um it it it aligns with our long-term vision of scattered site. Um, and I appreciate the work that it took to to negotiate this and and and to to get this contract in in front of us. I really want to encourage my colleagues to seriously consider this and approve this this evening. Thank you. Thank you, chair. >> Chair, could I add one thing that I forgot to say about the location? >> Um, I think we need to move on to the next person. >> Um, next I have Mr. Boland in the queue and then Mr. Constant. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I completely disagree with member Perez Verdia that this is aligned with a scattered site model unless scattered site means continuing to scatter in East Downtown and Fair View. Um, we have policy guidance which I brought to the work session on this from 2018 indicating that we should look to other places of town first. Um, you know, going back to member Martinez's comments on a prior item about best practices and having smaller locations. So this is proposing a 100 people less than a mile from brother Francis shelter who has a capacity of 120. That's brother Francis just down the hill from the hope center. We also have Covenant House downtown. So are we just looking at locations? Are we looking at these locations in context? Um yeah I am opposed to this. I I I feel frustrated by the answers that I'm hearing from the administration tonight because it feels like they're trying to put us in a very narrow corner. This is the only thing that will work. We looked at these locations. No other locations will work. No other capacities will work. We can't do 50. So if we're saying that, you know, our our goal is to do these smaller scattered site. I guess we mean we're locked in at 100 plus. I I'm not hearing the the research and the best practices about the the capacity proposal here, especially so close to where we already have a lot of folks being sheltered. Um I think there's a lack of creativity, frankly, and I feel like the administration is taking a passive role by just saying, "Well, we'll let the providers um bring up the locations for us." Um so, yeah, I'm frustrated. I won't be supporting this. I also feel like this is not the best use of our very limited municipal resources. Going back to the guest house, $3.4 million. We joined with other funders. How much does the guest house cost the municipality annually? Can I get an answer from that for that from the administration? How much does the Golden Lion cost the municipality? Not the not the treatment center that we're bringing online, but the housing of the Golden Lion. How much does that cost a municipal municipality annually? And here we're looking at $9 million for three years of shelter. The Chelsea Inn is for sale right now in Spannard for $1.5 million. There's a proposal that has come forward from the community um from a community member. Uh the name of the group is Outreaching Lives. They have 10 units in Mountain View that they want to rehab deteriorated properties. We've been talking about that project. Um they want to rehab to get 10 units. So I'm looking at Okay. Chelsea in there's 30 34 units. This um proposed rehab in uh Mountain View, there's 10 units. That's 44 units. 2 million about $2 million of capital cost involved. And we are considering $9 million three years for building we still won't own. It won't be a long-term asset to the municipality. So, I cannot support this. And um I think there's there's more questions than answers um that I have about this. Thank you. >> All right. Next I have um Mr. Constant. Go ahead. >> Thank you. And uh it's two meetings in a row then that the members of North Anchorage have a difference of opinion. Um I believe that the scattered site approach has been implemented and is an ongoing uh process that we've seen shelters set up in Midtown. We've seen shelters set up across Bernard and it's the downtown as the urban core does have a responsibility separate from the issues relating to equity and other questions that we are addressing in an ongoing manner. But I do have a question for the mayor and that is mayor you mentioned in your report that you'll you'll do your best to find an alternative funding source because for me I can't sacrifice housing for shelter and there is money available for housing that's being requested to be used for for shelter and I just can't get to guess if that's the case. The question I have for you, mayor, is um how committed are you to finding an answer that provides funding for shelter that doesn't reduce our ability to provide some housing rehabilitation funding. >> Go ahead, Madame Mayor. >> Through the chair, to member Constant, um you have my word. I'm committed. Um, Director Browse and I had a conversation earlier today before this meeting looking at um, potential sources and I don't know if you want to hear um, I'm hoping we can have that conversation later, but um, Director Browse is here right now. >> Madam Mayor, I'll just say this. Your word is good to me. >> And with that, I will say I would urge my peers to support this matter. Okay. Um, I don't see additional members in the queue or on the phone. Um, so members may proceed to vote. >> Member Constant. >> That was it for me. Oh, yes. >> Member Presilla. >> Yes. Okay. On a vote of 8 to three, uh that item passes or 10D3 passes. Next item we have is 10 D6. Um that is assembly memorandum AM566205 intergovernment agreement with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities for project management of the planning design and construction of um AOT and A.puff uh CFHWY01291 AAT's Dale Street and Fulkar Street reconstruction. This item was pulled by Miss Baldwin Day. >> Chair, is this a move to accept or move to approve? which is the language. >> Uh this would be a move to approve. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Seconded by or sorry, moved by Baldwin Day, second by Rivera. Uh Miss Baldwin Day, you want to speak to this? >> Uh yes, please. Um I was actually wondering if anybody from AATS is here this evening and if so, would they be willing to answer questions? >> Mr. Young and Ellen is approaching. Excellent. Hello, I'm Arian Ganilan. I'm the executive director NP coordinator for AATS. >> Hi, Mr. Nelan. Thank you for being willing to answer questions. Um, I'm curious if this uh this particular project incorporates uh pedestrian crossings or active transportation crossings that would include tutor as part of the Dale Street and Folker Street reconstructions. >> Um, so I'm looking at the project description. It doesn't specifically call out at the intersections of Tutor for these two. It does say that it'll connect with the non-motorized facilities already existing on Tutor and 40th Avenue where possible. >> Got it. Um so yeah, that that that was one of the things that I that sort of raised my radar a little bit that the the scope of the project as it's outlined in this memorandum is to reconstruct from Tutor to 40th, but not necessarily tutor inclusive. Um, so, um, would it be would it be possible for AATS to consider amending the transportation improvement plan to actually include the intersections of Dale and Fulker at Tutor Road um, as as potential additions to the project scope? >> Um, yes, that could be considered as part of our next TIP amendment. Uh, we're anticipating starting that next one in October of this year. So, it'll be before the body in December later this year. We the the policy committee has done that for other projects where they've specifically designated that an intersection will or won't be included as part of the project most specifically on Spanard. >> Excellent. Okay. Well, given um given some of the the developments that the municipality is considering along Tutor and the existing issues that we know we have with respect to um active transportation safety along that corridor. Um I would I would love for that that to be reviewed as an option um at whatever the next available meeting might be. I will leave that in your capable hands to decide. >> We'll do. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> I have nothing further. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't see anyone else in the queue. So, members may proceed to vote. >> Member Presfordia. >> Yes. member constant. Okay. On a motion of or sorry, on a vote of 10 to zero, um item 10D6, AM566 2025 is approved. Next, we have item 10D7. Um, that one is Assembly Memorandum AM5672025, recommendation of award to a contract to Henning, Inc. for congregate shelter services for the municipality of Anchorage. This was pulled by Mr. Presfordia. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Moved by Mr. Presia, second by Mr. Martinez. Uh, Mr. Presidia, do you want to speak to this? >> Yeah, thank you. Just just briefly, similar to the last item, um this is part of a of a comprehensive plan that the mayor has been working on. Um I'm looking forward to uh to to see this unfold and I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing this facility um upgraded as as it's been mentioned before in the few times that I've been there. Um it it is of ser it's in serious need of re repair and of upgrading and reducing the number of of occupants is going to be a key part part of that. So, um, I'm I'm excited about the the this this next step for us in our overall plan and really want to encourage my colleagues to support this item. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I have Miss Baldwin Day. >> Thank you, Chair. Just wanted to correct something on the record uh that was that was said at the um the work session on this item yesterday. Um and there was there was some difference in things being calculated on a per day versus a per month basis. And and there was a a number thrown out um that uh $171.89 was the true cost per day, the total cost per day of um of operating shelter at this site. Uh and I I I just wanted to correct on the record that that is that number is the cost per person per month of additional facilities use at this site. It is not the total cost per person per day of operating the shelter. And I felt like that was very important to correct on the record um out of deference to, you know, first accuracy in the public eye, but also um to make it clear what the the contract really looks like as far as comparing apples to apples between um this particular contract and the MASH contract that we just uh that we just contemplated. So wanted to make sure that that was clear. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, Mr. Martinez. >> Thank you, Chair. Just briefly, I wanted to say thank you to Henning. Uh you've stepped up in in difficult times under shifting circumstances and um in a building that is not designated for people and made that work and uh you know good days, bad days. I just wanted to make sure that I was on the record of thanking you. And I also want to say that it was very compelling when at the work session the question was asked about keeping the cost the same with any increase or any expanded capacity that we may need and the answer was we will work with the municipality to keep the cost the same because essentially you're doing the work that we need to get done and there's and that's what's the value and I just wanted to Thank you on the record. Um I know it's difficult and there's a high degree of public scrutiny around all of these things, but um thank you. >> Thank you. I don't see any other members in the queue, so members may proceed to vote. >> Member Constant. >> Yes. >> Member Presfordia. >> Yes. Okay. On a vote of 10 to one, item AM567205 passes or is approved. Um and then our last um consent agenda item tonight is item 10D21. That is assembly memorandum 5862025 amendment number one to the contract with BDO USA to provide professional audit services to the municipality of Anchorage. This was pulled by Mr. Rivera. >> Move to approve. Second. >> Okay. Motion to approve by Mr. Rivera, second by Miss Baldwin Day. Mr. Rivera. >> Yeah. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. So, I pulled this item just simply to put on the record that the funding for this contract amendment won't just be coming from the legislative branch, but rather will be coming from the executive branch. Um, that has been my understanding based on conversations with the chief administrative officer, and I just wanted to the record to reflect that. Thank you. Encourage a yes vote. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't see any other members in the queue. So members may proceed to vote >> or we all abstained. Stand by momentarily. Okay, why don't we do a voice vote? We'll get the record corrected and then it'll be time for dinner break. >> I apologize. Uh, member Myers, >> yes. >> Member McCormack, >> yes. >> Member Martinez, >> yes. >> Member Baldwin Day, >> yes. >> Member Johnson, >> yes. >> Member Constant, I think, has left. >> Yeah, I believe he's he's excused the rest of the meeting. >> Member Broly, >> yes. >> Member Voland, >> yes. >> Member Silvers, >> yes. >> Member Rivera, >> yes. Member Presio. >> Yes. >> Okay. On the actual vote of 10 to zero, this item is approved. And with that, we have concluded our consent agenda business. And so we will take our dinner break and return in about 20 minutes. Thank you. Don't let these stones [Music] at fault. Thank [Music] Okay everyone, we are going to reconvene the meeting. >> Um so thanks everyone. Okay, so we are on item 11A and then I will also note um we no longer have our members on the phone. Um I believe they're excused for the rest of the evening. Um, okay. So, we are on item 11 A. All right. Are members ready to go? Okay great. Okay, so 11A, resolution AR20251 192, a resolution of the Anchorage Assembly strongly encouraging the administration and the Anchorage Health Department to develop a dedicated strategy for engaging individuals living unsheltered who suffer from untreated >> reading. >> Uh, thank you. And I will note we have an original version and an S version. Um, we have no motion pending. What is the will of the body? >> Move the S version. >> Second. >> Okay. S version moved by Mr. Martinez. Second by Miss Silvers. Mr. Martinez. >> I will ask member Silvers to speak to the S version. >> Thank you. Go ahead, Miss Silvers. Oh, and and while she's pulling up notes, I will also note that this item was originally postponed from June 10th um and July 15th. So, uh we are back on this item. Thanks. Um okay, so uh George uh or member Martinez through the chair uh will have to speak to um the substance. Um but I will speak to the changes in the S version. Um, so as originally written, I had some concerns. Um, one of the concerns that I addressed in the S version, uh, is that current outreach is done by several professional teams. It's done by the hope team, MCT, MIT, um, and those operate out of our police and fire departments. Um, I think a lot of planning and effort went into standing up those teams and I think they're doing good work. Uh, and I think as originally written, the resolution just kind of says, let's throw all that out. Let's do it this new way. Um, you know, so let's switch to a field-based model directed by the health department. Uh, and so that wasn't something that I was willing to support. Uh, but I like the basis of the resolution and, you know, the focus on mental health care. And so I wrote the S version. um just to make some of the changes. Uh section three calls for facility proposals. Um and I made some changes there. Um I think it's a bit premature to call for facility proposals. Um right now we have the Anchorage Center for Treatment which just opened and is expanding. Um we have the South Central Foundation facility opening in 2026. Um, and we have the mini residences uh proposal that's moving forward. Um, and so I think that what we really need to do is take stock of what facilities we have, identify the pathways for treatment, and that's what that um amendment um paves the way for. Uh, and so then identify the gaps that need to be filled. uh and then you know looking at a budget for filling them before we actually do the work of looking uh for facility proposals. Um and then the final change in the S version um proposes discussion at regularly scheduled public safety committee meetings rather than a report uh which I thought was a better venue uh to work with the information. >> Thank you. And Mr. Martinez, do you want to make a additional comment? >> Sure. Thank you. Um, so the original item essentially does speak to the calling for the administration to provide a strategy for dealing with some of our most vulnerable folks in our community. This is a complimentary item to another resolution that I've introduced around uh looking at the state's responsibility for the failed behavioral and mental health response statewide and how that has impacted us in Anchorage. So essentially this is a complimentary item to that which has been postponed to the next meeting. The um the S version is essentially a three amendment crafted as an S version. >> Yeah. >> And so the three amendments were some additional less language in one area, a little more language in another area. Um and they were generally fine with me. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Next I have Mr. Boland. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I am not inclined to support this. Um, for a couple reasons. Um, number one, frankly, I don't think the administration, um, well, I'm unsure, but I I don't believe that they had that they have the capacity or the expertise to deliver on this. Um, and I think we need to be judicious about these resolutions that direct the administration to do things to produce work product. Um, I think there's maybe times when, you know, the policy guidance is appropriate. Um, but to me, this kind of is a little bit outside of our lane. Um, also we did a lot of work of convening a whole task force on complex behavioral health needs um, just a couple years ago and I think I'd really like to build upon that work and revisit that document and move forward with some of those recommendations. I don't want to sort of retread ground that we've already covered. So for that reason, I think I'll be voting no. Thank you. >> Next, Mr. Johnson. >> Yeah, thank you. I think my thinking is similar to member Volins. Uh but I would like to ask the administration since this is being presented as um a framework we would help hope that they would utilize if it was adopted if anyone from the administration be willing to speak to whether they see this as helpful, a hindrance, if this models um their current practices, if there's any necessity or benefit to this in their eyes. um through the chair to member Johnson. This is Thea Agnuen. Um I think this is very compatible with the work that we're doing. Um, I think as you all know, part of the mayor's strategy, both in the homelessness and health strategy and in the public safety strategy, is to really um expand our capacity and our connections to behavioral health care and spec and specifically as this states for people who are currently unsheltered or living in um shelter or other kind of untreated circumstances in the community. Um, evidence of that is we've been convening a crisis response workg group since January that we've talked about. Um, this summer we have a outreach pilot project going on that I think we've talked about too. So, um, I think with the changes that member Silver has proposed, this feels really compatible with the work that we're doing and supportive and I don't have any problem with it. >> Okay. Thanks. I appreciate that answer. >> Thanks. I don't see anyone else in the queue. So, members may proceed to vote. Okay. On a vote of 8 to one, um AR 2025192 passes the body. Next, we will move on to our public hearing items. Um beginning with 14A. But first, I will read these reminders. If you are here to testify on a public hearing item, please come forward and state your name, the community council or area of the municipality in which you live. Uh please to everyone stay on topic and direct comments to the chair or to other people on the dis. Um and I or someone else will interrupt you if you're off topic. Um if there is a point of order called um it is helpful if testifiers would provide comments on any proposed amendments if there are any items tonight. Uh for those testifying you will have three minutes. Community council members have five minutes. And just a reminder as well, assembly members do not typically answer questions during the testimony uh during the public hearing. that comes later during debate um and maybe um a time for uh time for answering those questions. Otherwise, public testimony is the public's time to speak. So with that we will move on to item 14A that is AO 202584 an ordinance of Anchorage Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 1260 tax incentives for housing and enacting um uh an um so the public hearing on this item is now open. >> Does anyone wish to testify? Please come forward. Okay. Okay. Uh, does anyone wish to testify? Anyone in the room? >> That's Thank Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I'm going to move to continue the public hearing to the meeting of August 12th. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Rivera, second by Mr. Johnson to uh continue the public hearing. Do you want to speak to that, Mr. Rivera? >> Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So, this is being done at the request of the administration. They're going to be taking this item to the CEDC meeting on August 7th and are requesting more time. Thank you. >> Uh, member Broly. >> Thank you. I wanted to also share um that uh in addition to the administration's request um that I support this request, I am working on um a couple of amendments. um one regarding definitions of which properties would qualify under this ordinance as well as looking at how to incentivize building more units. And so uh for that reason I would also ask that the body consider postponement so that those can be discussed at the committee and then come back at the next meeting. Thank you. >> Okay. Oops. Sorry. Clear out the queue. Um okay. I don't see anyone else in the queue. U members may proceed to vote or I should actually sorry uh we uh I'm going to ask uh for unanimous consent to uh postpone this to the meeting of August 12th. Is there any objection? Okay, not seeing any. Then this uh item will be continued and the public hearing will remain open uh for the meeting of August 12th. Next we have item 14B, ordinance number AO202579, an ordinance authorizing the sale of properties foreclosed on for delinquent taxes and/or special assessments. The public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Okay. Seeing and hearing no one, the public testimony is closed or the public hearing is closed. What is the will of the body? >> Move to approve. >> Second. Moved by Mr. Rivera. Second by Miss Baldwin Day. Mr. Rivera, do you want to speak to it? Okay. I don't see any other members in the queue, so members may proceed to vote. Okay. On a vote of 9 to zero, that item uh AO202579 passes the body. Next, we have item 14C, ordinance number 20 AO 202580, an ordinance authorizing retention of a tax foreclosed parcel for public purposes legally described as lot 8 block 1 Georgeville Estates. Uh public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing no one, the public testimony is now closed. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Move to postpone indefinitely. >> At the request of the administration. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Moved by Mr. Motion to postpone indefinitely. Moved by Mr. Rivera. Second by Mr. Johnson. U Mr. Mr. R, do you want to elaborate on that? >> Yeah, thank you. So, this one's actually a good news story. Uh, the delinquent tax has been paid and this item is moot, so no need for us to take action. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I see no one else in the queue, so members may proceed to vote on the motion to postpone indefinitely. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. Uh, let us ask for unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the motion to postpone indefinitely? Seeing and hearing no one, this item is postponed indefinitely. Next, we'll move on to item 14D. Ordinance number AO202581, an ordinance authorizing retention of a tax foreclosed parcel for public purposes legally described as lot one, block 11, Laurel Acres Subdivision. Public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing no one, the public hearing for this item has been closed. Uh, what is the will of the body? >> Move to approve. Second moved by Mr. Rivera, second by Miss Baldwin Day. Uh Mr. Rivera, would you like to speak to this one? Okay. No additional comments. I don't see anyone in the queue. Members or actually I was yet again ask for unanimous consent. Is there any objection to approving this ordinance? Seeing and hearing no one, we will consider this item passed. Um so AR AO202581 passes the body 9 to zero. Next we have item 14E. AO202582, an ordinance authorizing the municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility to convert a portion of a sanitary sewer main to a privately owned sanitary street extension located at a 20 foot alleyways to the south and east of A Street and within a street row. Public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing no one, the public hearing is closed. What is the will of the body? >> Move to approve. Second >> moved by Mr. Motion to approve by Mr. Rivera, second by Mr. Johnson. Um, any additional comments on this one, Mr. Rivera? Okay. Also not seeing anyone in the queue for this item. So, I will ask unanimous consent. Um, is there any objection to passing this ordinance? Okay. Seeing and hearing no one, we will consider that item passed. Um, so AO 202582 has passed the body with a vote of 9 to zero. Next, we have item 14F, AO202586, an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code to reenact chapter 1070 and enact section 1070110 to include and standardize municipal inspection fees regarding license processing. Um, the public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing no one, the public I public hearing on this item is now closed. What is the will of the body? >> Move to approve. >> Second. Motion by Mr. Rivera to approve. Second by Miss Baldwin Day. Uh Mr. River, would you like to speak to this one? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the only thing I'll say is um the sponsor is not available tonight. Uh so if there are any questions, we will have to postpone action on this item, but otherwise if we're able to vote today, that's also fine. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Rivera. Um, I do not see anybody else in the queue. So, members, so members may proceed to vote. Okay. On a motion of 9 to zero, a sorry, AO 202586 passes the body. And uh next we will move on to item 14G, resolution number AR2025213, a resolution relating to the proposed issuance and sale by Civic Ventures of a series of refunding bonds for the purpose of refinancing the Civic Ventures revenue refunding bonds. Uh the public hearing for this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, uh this item or the public hearing for this item is now closed. What is the will of the body? Move to approve. >> Second motion by Mr. Rivera to approve. Second by Miss Baldwin Day. Any further discussion on this item? >> Actually, I would like to make one brief comment. >> Sure. Um, member Broly. >> Yeah, thank you. Um this item uh has a an oblique uh title, but it is important because it is essentially the bonds and uh funding source that pays for the um debt on the Dinina Convention Center. And so um every 10 years this is reauthorized. And there's also a number of um rather specific um policy pieces in it regarding how the funding is used because in order to uh secure the asset that has been um uh that has this loan on it um that there's there's certain policies or certain u ways we need to use the funding etc. So I had an extensive back and forth with Mr. Falsy. So thank you so much for your information. Um I think this is an item to that there's not a policy choice really for the assembly to make here but I would urge members to keep an eye on um this particular piece and other pieces related to our bed tax um our our our room rental tax um as it's all related to kind of the big picture of how we use those funds to promote tourism and other uh uses including building our convention center and operating it. So um so I would just make a note that that is relevant. There's not a lot of um room for us in that item, but hopefully in future moves uh we can consider uh policy changes. Thank you. Oh, and I see we also have Miss Baldwin Day in the queue. Miss Baldwin Day. >> Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I was um I was curious about the the summary of economic effects that is attached to this item. Uh and I I just want to be sure I'm reading this correctly. Um, so I'd love for whomever with the administration would like to answer this question. Um, so the the the operating expenses of the current debt service that are shown here, uh, if I'm reading across, it looks like we're actually the this reflects the annual savings or the savings on an annual basis for the debt service. So $624,000 would be the savings. Am I reading that right >> through the chair to member Balden Day? Yes, that is correct. in the first year. It's a little bit lower in the out years, but you've got the story essentially correctly. >> Excellent. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. I don't see additional members in the queue, so members may proceed to vote. Okay. On a vote of 9 to zero, item 14G AR 2025 213 passes the body. Um, lastly, we have our um our alcohol license. So, I'm just making sure. Okay. Um, so we'll read from the script. Um, so we have item uh 15A. There's only one of these today. So, the next item on the agenda involves an application for a liquor or marijuana license andor a special land use permit for alcohol or marijuana. The process to review these items is different than the assembly's legislative role because they these are administrative or quasi judicial hearings. um and uh require us to make a decision only on the record before us and and any testimony today. Um so just for the record um we're in the quasi judicial category. So uh I will open the public hearing on this um for resolution AR2025215, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding a new restaurant eating place license number 16816 with restaurant endorsement for TMT Real Estate uh DBA High Tide Coffee. Wave reading. >> Thank you. Uh public hearing on this item is now open. Does anyone wish to testify? Anyone at all? Okay. Seeing and hearing none, public testimony on this item is now closed. What is the will of the body? >> Move to approve. Second. >> Moved by Mr. Myers, second by Mr. Rivera. Um any commentary on this one? Okay. I don't see any members in the queue. So members may proceed to vote. Okay. And on a vote of 9 to zero, AR 2025215 passes the body. That concludes our business items. So now we will move on to audience participation. So if anybody would like to uh participate in audience participation, please come forward and you will have three minutes to speak. And please remember to uh give us your name, what part of town you are from, and then you will have three minutes on the clock. And also, please remember to turn on the microphone. Uh there's a button in front of uh on the base of the microphone. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. You have three minutes. >> Thank you. Um Don Morris, Mountain View. I speak to the 11 million dollars plus for congregate shelter. My burning question tonight is why are we even looking at this? Why are we not investing in 30 tiny home installations for 10 to 15 people each modeled on in our backyard? We know the need is housing. We know people thrive in community. We know they disappear in hopelessness in mass shelter. We have a successful pilot project showing that quality tiny home installations can be built inexpensively, beautifully, and spaciously creating natural supportive community. I saw more than a hundred faith leaders at the MUN hosted convening excited about collaboration. I heard a Methodist pastor offer church property for consideration at last month's assembly meeting. Instead of moving forward with constituent enthusiasm, the administration proposes awarding Henning and Mash $16 million to perpetuate mass shelter, where clients are treated as numbers and the funding goes to management who in no way represents demographic that they purport to serve. This is not the best value use of MUN funds. Let's be honest, it's a convenient use of Mooney funds and a terrible waste of resources if we want to actually address the crisis. To fix this, I ask Mayor Lef France to set up a simple proposal process with meaningful funding awarded to small community groups staffed by people with lived experience who actually care about the people who live in their neighborhood rather than proposals that strongly favor large established vendors. Is the objective to make things better for community or is it to maintain the status quo? I spoke with an unsheltered neighbor yesterday afternoon. For more than three years, he's been shuffled through the systems with many promises and no help. Four major organizations, the coalition, 3 RNC, Rural Cath, and Henning used him in their statistics, seven project entry and exits in HMIS. Without adding a single word about him as a person, his needs, or how they might help, he said, "I just need a case manager. I'm a bit like Forest Gump. I'm no expert, but I can tell when something is wrong. In two hours of research, I found three solid housing options. One with full support training. He's meeting tomorrow morning to set up the training and support for everything. He could hardly believe it. I could hardly believe it. It took just a tiny bit of will. Not one of those big agencies could be bothered. I propose our city fund new groups, people who know the streets and what it takes to move from them to success in the world. I propose that we support the humanity of neighbors and not use them as our statistics. I strongly oppose funding mash and henning to perpetuate mass shelter. I support using significant funding for tiny home installations in my community managed by staff who care. Now, thank you. >> Thank you. Does >> Thank you. Does anyone else wish to testify? Please come forward. >> Yeah. Yeah. And if you are here to testify, I'll ask if you please come to the front so we have an idea how many folks would like to speak. Thank you. Good evening. >> Go ahead. Please state your name uh for the record. >> Sure. I'm Kai Holland. I'm the uh House District 9 representative to the legislature and just came tonight to just check in and say hi, but I've got a couple minutes, so I thought I would take a couple minutes if you don't mind. Um I think I have three things I want to just bring to your attention. Um well I'm here first off is just an awareness of the work that we're doing and the energy related issues for the South Central area. Um there's a number of us that continue to be very concerned about the gas supply and the issues that have been exacerbated with the changes to the renewable energy policies at the federal level that have thrown many of the projects into disarray that were being developed that were beginning to create a pathway towards the diversification of the energy that we need and perhaps some relief on the gas supplies. So, we'll be continuing to do more work on that and if any of you have interest or thoughts on that, I would welcome your input as we plan some work in the interim to prepare for the next session on that. The second thing is I want to make a opportunity to just give a shout out to the Anchorage Fire Department, the work they're doing on the wildfire mitigation efforts. We've had a a a good summer from the standpoint we've had plenty of sunny days, but we've also had plenty of rainy days. And from the standpoint of wildfire, it's been a little more relaxing than it might have been at the beginning of the season when we were very concerned about the dry conditions and what we might be in for. But that notwithstanding, they've done some outstanding work. The East West Connector um fuel mitigation project has come out really well. The community wildfire protection planning process is going well. And I just want to recognize that we're continuing to meet um once a month on the fourth Mondays. It's now a group called the Wildland Urban Interface Citizens Advisory Team, the WOOCAT, uh that's continuing to work closely with uh the uh agency and the department on these projects and trying to keep the community mobilized on the work that we're doing to not wait for a community wildfire protection plan, but in fact, we're already doing the work that a plan might have done. And the u folks that are helping facilitate that have recognized that Anchorage is way ahead of most communities they ever get to work with that generally wait for the plan and then get to work and they've come to a community that's already at work and now we're building a plan to help integrate all the pieces. Final piece of this is just to recognize that tourism is so important to our economy. A lot of my work has been focused in on economic development because at the end of the day, if we're not excited, inspired, and looking forward to the growth in our community, it gets hard to do a lot of the other work that you're doing. So, I'm working on challenges around creating 1,200 new startups. I'm supporting a tourism focused startup weekend, the first weekend of September, the 5th, 6th, and 7th. And I would urge you to support the work we're doing to try and grow the tourism industry. So, thanks for a couple minutes of your time tonight. Yeah, thank you. Um, one brief question. Uh, Mr. Holland, if if one would like to become part of the WOOICAT group, how can they do that? >> Thank you. Um, you know, you can reach out to me and I can introduce you. Um, we can get you on a mailing list that comes out um with the meeting announcements. There's also a website that's woocat.org, I think, but I can follow up with you and get you some contact information. And I think also assembly members uh Johnson and uh McCor probably are also aware of the the group and have been following along with that work. >> Thank you. Um thank you for your testimony. Um please come forward and uh reminders to state your name, what part of town you are from, and you will have three minutes on the clock. Thank you. >> My name is Jeremiah Crawford. I'm a resident of South Anchorage and own several businesses in downtown Anchorage. uh wanted to bring to your attention tonight. We we operate a several businesses that are adjacent to the proposed Fifth Avenue uh 100 100 bed homeless shelter. Um the the obvious objections that might come from a business owner with regards to safety both from my employees and my customers might seem somewhat obvious and and selfish to bring up. Um, what I would take the time to do though is implore to you, I heard humanity mentioned several times tonight and shifting from a from a 200 bed to a 150 bed. It seemed like there was a lot of conversation surrounding this this idea that, you know, 100 seemed to be like such a a more manageable case load um versus the 200 bed. I I operate every day for 15 plus years in the downtown area, Mountain View downtown area. I I've firsthand seen Narcan be administrated. I've firsthand seen uh pedestrians be hit by vehicles. In every one of these tragic instances, it was always someone that was experiencing homeless. I mean, that's a bit of an assertion, but based off of the the evidence at at hand, it would support the fact that we're dealing with cases of homelessness. We're dealing with an extremely congested area with homeless and and mentally disabled people within that area, people that are that are affected by, you know, drug addiction. And I think that there's a serious oversight in in the concentration of it. I think the idea of going to a small case model, a small small case uh you know smaller beds per uh per housing um will will yield to less workload on emergency services, less workload on your case workers. I mean that the talk to any social worker that's that's had to go into these bigger and in 100 seems like less than 200 sure but it's still extremely large by comparison to a lot of the other cases that are coming out of other communities that are having success in homelessness. So I would implore you to look at the proximity to Fifth and Sixth Avenue, the drive drive to SWS on any weekday and see the sheer volume of people on the streets like do a dump run. just go do it in the middle of the day. And the amount of people that you have to avoid and that's a much slower street. I promise you, I've seen people die on Fifth Avenue. And I feel genuine that if if we go forward with this Fifth Avenue location, it will be not the first, not the second. It's going to become a systemic problem because of the sheer busyiness of Fifth Avenue and putting that many people that are displaced in in in an area that explore the building. I would challenge you. I've been around that property a lot and it I could see a lot of challenges with trying to house a hundred people without exponential issues. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your testimony. Uh, anyone else wish to testify, please come forward. That's okay. And Ryer, please state your name, what part of town you're from, and you have three minutes. >> Okay. Uh Jamie Lopezy Sage formerly coalition and formerly homeless. So the bread and circus um the start of every meeting you know there's a formal land acknowledgement and it uh tries to pay tribute to the people uh that this land belonged to. Uh never would I never would I have imagined uh that the CEO of the Alaska Humanities Forum essentially has no humanity and voted to make Alaskan natives criminals on their own land. I know at the basket denina personally as a result of AO 2025 74S2 passing that are now criminals that cannot camp outside cannot essentially start a fire to stay warm and this debate was never about uh you know the schools the playgrounds the lic and childcare facilities that was a red herring because now everything is protected and so now everybody is going to be going after any particular state and so while I did watch work session yesterday and I thought there was some good honest discussion. I did not see that tonight. Um, essentially when you describe shelters, you're essentially describing 250 beds of uh congregate shelter uh in addition to the 1, excuse me, 100 at the Alex Hotel. So, total 350 uh that that you're talking about. But you're basing these on numbers uh that you're getting from people that aren't necessarily accurate. It's sometimes the best guess data sampling. So again, Anchorage Coalition and Homelessness, this was May 31st data and they updated it. Obviously, the last time 556 are in shelter, that represents people within a 30-day period that essentially were touching one provider or any number of providers in the system of HMIS. 734 is set to go inactive. Those are people between 30 and 90 days as of May 31st that they had no idea where they went. They've just gone back outside. uh 5 to 10% self-resolve, who knows where they go. And then once they hit 90 days, 333 uh inactive, that means that they stop counting. And so essentially, if you had those numbers up at 1623, I missed at one point in time, but anyways, the whole point is those are hits within a 90-day period, and that's the true number of people that are outside. And so you've gone from this to essentially this where now as of June 30th, 600. Anytime I see an increment of 25 or a zero, it's automatically suspect. This is best guessed if somebody in an office with little field experience and then instead of counting heads and beds, now we have 100% housing uh completely full. Is that two bids? Is that 10,000? Who knows? And the set to go inactive number is, you know, removed because they don't want you to know how many people between 30 and 90 days are actually there. And so we've gone back to obscuring the true number of the homeless outside so that it drives policy to make uh essentially the easy decision of not trying to uh support the people that are outside those that are abandoned, forgotten. So I would ask you to please try and think about that in the future. Thank you for your testimony. Anyone else wish to provide testimony? Okay, not seeing anyone further. Um then lastly we have member comments and I will start um down with Mr. Myers. >> Thank you Madam Chair. No additional comments. >> Mr. McCormick. >> No comments. >> Mr. Martinez. >> No additional comments. >> Miss Baldwin Day. >> I just like to thank Vice Chair Broly for serving as our chair this evening and piloting us through um a meeting. I know that's a really tall order and definitely some pressure on your shoulders and I think you did a brilliant job. Thank you, >> Mr. Johnson. I'll just second member Baldwin Day's comments. >> Mr. Rivera. >> Thank you. No additional comments. >> Mr. Boland. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have a couple comments. Um, one, yes, good job, Anna. Um, two, you know, I I I do have to express my concern. It's a growing concern that the mayor and her team do not fully grasp the challenges that are facing downtown and that saddens me. Um, I also am a little bit mystified tonight that certain colleagues of mine who moralized at length about us not having places for people to go took the first opportunity they could to reduce capacity in their district. That also saddens me. Thank you, >> Silvers. No additional comments. All right. Thank you. And um I'll just say uh thank you everybody for a great meeting. Thank you to Mr. Bear for serving as vice chair and have a good rest of July and we'll see you um uh we don't have any work sessions uh this week. So uh we will have a quiet week I believe and and take care and I'll see you next time. Uh can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> All right. And we are journed. Thank you. Somehow you kept me. Guess I cried enough. Let me love you. [Music] Let me love you. >> I never came over. I dream so bad. Let me love you down. Let me love you. >> I never came over. I I hate when I'm sober. >> Let me down. Let me down. Let me love you down. Let me love you. Let me love you down.