Last week the Assembly made appointments to the Planning Commission and Hospital Board.

While most Board and Commission appointments are initiated by the 4 members of the Assembly Human Resources Committee, appointments to the Planning Commission and the so-called Enterprise Boards (Airport, Hospital, Docks and Harbors) are undertaken by the entire Assembly "sitting as the Human Resources Committee". The Enterprise Boards supervise city owned entities that have their own budgets and raise all their own money. Board members do a lot of work and have a lot of responsibility. The Planning Commission is responsible for approving land use permits, variances, conditional use permits, and large development permits. It is guided by the Planning Department, land use law (Title 49) , and the Comprehensive Plan. It is a crucial entity, takes a whole lot of time and commitment.....and tends to be the most political appointment process-- very ideological. Planning Commission members are paid an honorarium of $150 a month since 1998 (before that it was $25). Members have often gone on to run for the Assembly (e.g. Merrill Sanford and Johan Dybdahl-- and a year ago Marshal Kendziorek who ran and lost)

The Assembly re-appointed Maria Gladziszewski, and made new appointments of Nicole Grewe, Karen Taug, and Marsha Bennett. They join current members Nancy Waterman, Dennis Watson, Michael Satre, Frank Rue and Dan Miller. Terms are 3 years (unless filling out an unexpired term). Board and Commission members, like Assembly members, are limited to three terms. More on the Planning Commmission HERE.

For the Hopstial Board Kevin Sullivan and Dr. Nathan Piemann were reappointed and and Dr. Alex Malter and Bob Wysocki were new appointments.

Other Stuff
Monday 12/1 the Asssembly Committee of the Whole meets at 5pm to discuss "Graffiti."
Monday and Wednesday there are public hearings to revise the 1997 Juneau Non Motorized Transportation Plan (walking and biking). Hearings are Monday at 6:30pm at Floyd Dryden and Wednesday at 6:30pm at the Douglas Library-- run by Sheinberg and Associates 586-3141.

The Assembly has its next regular meeting December 8th.

Snow storage, Garage art, and dollar demands

The city has an ongoing problem of what to do with the snow it picks up in the winter. Often in the past we have simply dumped it into the channel – and we still do that in some places. But the fact is that snow from the roadways is often polluted with the chemicals put down to melt ice, and with automotive and other debris. Dumping it into the channel is environmentally harmful and DEC has been pushing us to find alternatives. A couple years ago we dumped Valley snow at the site of Thunder Mountain HS. Last year and this year the feds have given us permission to dump at the bus loading parking lot at the Mendenhall Glacier visitors center. We are currently developing a site between Industrial Boulevard and Engineers Cutoff which will filter out the pollutants and that will hopefully be ready in another year. Downtown we are looking at the Little Rock Dump area. And then there is the issue of where all the private haulers should dump. Such a mundane issue- yet very complex.

Work on the downtown transit center and parking garage is beginning, and many people have been concerned that the structure will be an ugly concrete block. I have been advocating since early planning that we pay particular attention to the aesthetics and that we use the 1% for the arts (required for all public projects) to do more than just put individual pieces of art here and there. A public committee has been appointed to coordinate these efforts and includes: Paul Voelkers, Nancy Waterman, Barbara Craver, Ken Alper, Donald Gregory and Jane Lindsey. I am hopeful that their creativity will inspire positive results.

I continue to be concerned about the long term financial health of the Borough, given story after story about cities across the U.S. falling into big financial crises. I think we need to be very cautious about our spending. I mentioned previously that the Jensen Olson arboretum lost a bunch of money from their endowment because of the market downturn. Now they need to borrow from the city general fund. The Airport is looking to borrow against future revenues. We recently had a request from the Fisherman's memorial group to just forgive their debt. I can see more things like this happening in the future. This is going to require careful planning.

Upcoming Meetings
Monday the Assembly Public Works committee meets at noon. There will be an update on the progress of the Transit facility/Parking garage and the Public Works Facility at 7 mile. There is also a report regarding a second access to the Lemon Creek commercial area. See the agenda.

The Lands Committee meets at 5pm and will address issues on the Seawalk, particularly the problem of getting past Taku Smokeries where there is lots of back and forth offloading forklift traffic. The committee will also hear about the Lemon Creek access issue and about potential Wood Stove restrictions in the Mendenhall Valley. See the agenda.

The Planning Commission meets Tuesday night at 7pm and will hear a “Downtown Parking Garage and Transit Center Update” See agenda.

This week the Alaska Municipal League holds its annual meeting in Ketchikan and several Assembly members (including me) will attend. The Municipal League represents all local governments in Alaska. It tries to develop a unified front on various issues affecting communities across the state. For more information click here.
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Miscellaneous: City Manager Rod Swope announced he will retire as of April 30. The Hangar owners have purchased a controlling interest in Merchants Warf. And the Mental Health Trust is negotiating to build an office building for the Department of Labor on the Subport land area.
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Future Challenges
In the upcoming year the Assembly will confront at least two major proposals for new spending; Area-wide curbside recycling and an expansion of Capital Transit. Last year the Assembly approved moving forward to establish an area-wide recycling program, but final approval awaits an estimate of costs and how it will be paid. Currently the plan is to pay through increased user fees on garbage pickups. There is also an urgent need to expand our public transportation system. It is overcrowded and limited in its routes. However, this expansion will not be able to be covered solely through bus fares. It will require general fund money and the challenge, again, is how to pay. There is a good chance we can get federal grants to help pay for new busses, but annual ongoing operating costs will have to be paid through local revenue.

Essentially any new spending requires either cutting back on other programs, new taxes, or eliminating current tax exemptions. All three are difficult. All three have vehement opponents.

There will also be discussion in the near future about cutting sales taxes on food and utilities. Everyone likes to cut taxes, but the question is still how to pay. Will citizens accept a higher property tax to pay for sales tax reduction? Do citizens want to cut government services? (Our League of Women Voters Budget Survey says no) Will citizens accept elimination of the senior tax exemption, if food and utility taxes are eliminated. Last time we discussed the senior tax exemption there was huge opposition.

Anyhow, these are the big issues I see confronting the Assembly in the coming year. I am sure there will be others.

Assembly Retreat

Prior to tonight's regular Assembly Meeting, we had an "Assembly Retreat" - which just means we spent several 3 1/2 hours in the City Hall Conference room reviewing the "state of the Borough." This is done each year after the municipal election when we potentially have new members. There were a number of things I heard that are worth passing on.

In discussing our financial status, the Manager said our investments are very conservative, and consequently CBJ losses from the recent stock market downturn are "negligible." One exception was the independently managed Jensen Olsen arboretum endowment, which had invested less conservatively and lost about 20%. The manager also noted that if oil drops below $60 it will have an impact on our state revenue sharing allotment.

We got an update on a variety of capital projects.
1) The airport is about to engage in a three year terminal remodel and runway expansion project. There should be lots of work going on beginning next year. http://www.juneau.org/airport/projects/index.php
2) Bartlett Hospital recently completed phase 1 of their expansion and will do more remodeling and additions over the next couple years. http://www.bartletthospital.org/getpage.php?name=project
3) The Mendenhall Valley/ Diamond Park pool complex will be bid soon and be built in 2009-2010. http://www.juneau.org/parkrec/DimondParkPool.php and http://www.juneau.org/engineering/Dimond%20Park/Dimond_Pool.php
4) Work on the downtown Transit Center and Parking Garage will begin soon. The NAPA building will be demolished first and then some initial blasting will happen in early December. Site work should be done by next April and construction in 2009-10. http://www.juneau.lib.ak.us/engineering/ParkingGarageTransitCenter/ParkingGarageTransitCenter.php
5) Discussion on Cruise Ship Moorage facilities continue to go on. Currently there is a navigation study looking at the city docks, Merchants Warf, and the Subport areas. Nothing is decided about anything at this point.
6) The Consolidated Public Works Facility being built at 7 mile is about to go out for bid. Phase 1 of construction will probably be completed next year.
7) Sewer work is proceeding in the Industrial Boulevard area an on North Douglas. After those projects are completed, our intention is to continue in the Valley to Engineers Cutoff and up Pederson hill.

Other issue updates:
A) We had some discussion on the plan the Assembly approved in principle for areawide curbside recycling. Currently we are doing a rate study to figure out what kinds of rates will be needed to fund the program. Further progress depends on the results of that report. In other words, it depends on what it costs.
B) The Manager discussed a variety of ways the city is trying to conserve energy including a plan to replace many street lights with LED lighting.
C) There is a continuing problem with woodsmoke pollution in the Mendenhall Valley and EPA has again put us on notice. So restrictions will sometimes be put in force.
http://www.juneau.org/clerk/woodsmoke/woodsmoke.php

Let me remind everyone that there are 4 open seats on both the Planning Commission and the Hospital Board. Those with interest and expertise/background are encouraged to apply by November 17th http://www.juneau.org/clerk/boards/VACANCY_List.pdf

I guess that's it for now. Everyone is waiting to see how the election will shape our future.