Assembly Diary

This period before the City Elections is always a bit slow as people wait to see what the new make-up of the Assembly will look like. City elections, particularly in an off year from state and national elections, usually have quite low turnout. Beginning this Monday September 21 you can vote in person at either City Hall or the Mendenhall Mall. Hours and location details are at http://www.juneau.org/clerk/elections/Absentee_Voting.php

Here is a sample ballot http://www.juneau.org/clerk/elections/documents/2009-10-06_Sample_Ballot.pdf There are three Assembly races, the school board race and two propositions (Tobacco tax and School bond issue). Please vote and encourage your friends to vote. Because of the expected small turnout your vote is truly significant.

The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is created by DOT every few years to guide their construction programs. There is always a lot of debate on this because DOT is populated by engineers who have very clear ideas of the “right” or “optimum” answers to things. They ask for citizen and local government input, but many people are pessimistic about the influence of that input. The City has sent their priorities to DOT for years, but the actual STIP often bears little relation to local preferences. For instance – the most massive project Juneau has had for years (Sunny Point) was not built because of any great demand from Juneau residents, but was based on DOT priorities.

Be that as it may – the current proposed STIP is now posted online and DOT requests public comments by October 16. http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/cip_stip/index.shtml The Juneau proposed projects are summarized on page 44 (49 of the pdf) with page references to the individual projects. While I might have wished for funding for other bigger projects (like the North Douglas Crossing) I support all the projects listed. Comments can be emailed to dot.stip@alaska.gov

Monday 9/21 is a regular Assembly Meeting at 7pm. We will again take up the Animal Control ordinance which has gotten a lot of feedback because people love their pets. There has been some confusion about the proposed ordinance which basically puts current parks and recreation regulations into an enforceable ordinance. First of all – this applies only to city parks and recreation land. It does NOT apply to federally owned National Forests or Dredge Lakes. There have been a lot of comments about the Airport Dike Trail (always a hot topic). The regulations on dogs for that trail come from Airport Policy written by the Airport Board. There are still issues of concern, but those two areas are under different jurisdictions.

Additionally there is an ordinance up for adoption revising the Building Code (see particularly a list of changes at http://www.juneau.org/assembly/agendas/2009/2009-08-24/documents/2-2009-07-31_Signif_Chng_Summary_2006_Codes_2008_NEC.pdf) and regulations and fee changes for Docks and Harbors and the Airport. If these relate to you please look at the information in the Assembly Agenda and Minutes for 9/21 (see link at right).