Assembly Diary

Last Monday was a long meeting with a lot of different issues. After much discussion, the Assembly unanimously rejected the effort to rezone the MRV property across from the HS that I talked about last post. Everybody agreed it had the appearance of gamesmanship and favoritism. My point was that the Assembly should not exempt themselves from their own city code unless there is a REALLY good reason. It’s nice when things work like they should.

We also had a hearing on the mandatory garbage collection ordinance, and people came out of everywhere testifying about how they took care of their own garbage and how we should not punish them for being responsibile. I had a hard time getting too upset at $25 a month for one can. But OK. We deferred action and will have a hearing Monday night at 6pm before discussing this at the Committee of the Whole at 7pm. So if you have two cents to put in on garbage, come on down. See http://www.juneau.org/clerk/ASC/COTW/2010/2010-03-01-COW_Index.php for more info.

Several things going on in the capital budget at the state. It looks like there is a 10 million project for the Johnson Youth Center. The new Mental Health Trust/subport building is not there yet, but many are still pushing. There is also interest in funding a new Museum, Library, Archives building—known as SLAM—across from Salvation Army. Finally, the state bought the old Christian Science church building across Main street from the capital and will renovate that for offices. I like to see the legislature invest in capital infrastructure.

Next Wednesday night March 3 at Centennial Hall from 5:30-8:00 there will be a community reception for the finalists for University of Alaska statewide President. Rumor has it that UAS Chancellor John Pugh and Senate Majority leader Gary Stevens are among the finalists. The announcement on that will come out Sunday night and we’ll see how accurate the rumors are.