Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Addendum
Representative Munoz just contacted me to say that Senator Stedman's hold on the Mental Health Trust building was not because of any issues with her or the Trust. She told me she believes there may have been some agreement between Senator Stedman and the owners of the current Department of Labor building, but there was absolutely no truth to any story that Senator Stedman had issues with her.
The legislature has adjourned after throwing a lot of money here and there. Now we wait and see what the governor will veto in an election year. One interesting thing for the city is the maneuvers around the Mental Health Trust office building that was planned for the subport – in front of the Coast Guard building. Senator Stedman had issues with both the Trust and with Representative Munoz and so he held up her legislation in Senate Finance. In the end 5 million was allocated to “study” SOME location for an office building. If that makes it past the Governor’s veto pen, there will be more fun and games as locations are lobbied for. One competing alternative location is said to be in the Valley in the Vintage Park area across from Safeway. More on all this once the veto pen has been wielded.
In my last post I noted the Assembly Committee of the Whole was talking about a possible Enterprise Board to run the new Diamond Park pool as well as Augustus Brown. There are a number of interests at stake here including who will control what events and activities are scheduled for the pools. CBJ Parks and Recreation is implicitly criticized as too bureaucratic to be good managers. This moved out of Committee of the Whole and will go to the full Assembly. Establishing another Enterprise Board would require a Charter amendment that would go before Juneau voters in the Fall ballot.
More politics – this time surrounding Bartlett Hospital. The management team that took over after Bob Valliant died has been criticized by many as being heavy handed, top down and insensitive, especially to nurses. Others have come to the defense of management. We had a meeting with the Hospital Board last week where a lot of this came out. The Hospital is trying to implement a process of employee involvement to deal with some of the criticisms. The Assembly said it wanted to meet with the Board again in six months to hear of progress.
The Assembly sitting as the Finance Committee continues to meet Wednesday nights. Various groups who have been funded in the past come to the Assembly and ask that their funding be continued. The Assembly does not review the budget line by line. The City Manager by law submits a budget that is balanced – and this year that includes all previous groups funded at the same level as last year. The city has made up its deficit by not filling positions, cutting travel and using tobacco tax money, and it is unlikely to question any of the various budgets. It will probably only talk about requests for more money. That is difficult because there are few sources for “extra” money – particularly in the current year. The one place where there is some wiggle room is in the anticipated increased income from the higher tobacco tax. We used some of it to balance the budget (along with reserve funds). But there is a few hundred thousand more that remains unallocated at the moment and the Assembly will have to deal with the many groups that want a piece of that. It will probably be bounded by a self imposed intention to only use that money for substance abuse or other social service expenses. [Of course if everyone stops smoking we won’t have any of the money!!]
The City Streets Department that was located under the downtown bridge will soon move out to the new Consolidated Public Works building at 7 mile. Now we have to decide what to do with the space under the bridge. We have begun a public comment period to get feedback from citizens. Please take the time to review the plans and offer comments. There is competition from multiple interest groups on what to do with the land. Docks and Harbors wants it. There are proposals to commercialize it. Look at the power point presentation. [Unfortunately it is a huge pdf file, but it is worth downloading.] Use the feedback form or contact Skye Stekoll.
Docks and Harbors is continuing its plans and permitting for Statter Harbor renovation. Right now there is a public comment period from April 2 – May 3. If you are interested in this project please review and give your feedback
CBJ began its Junk Car Roundup April 19 and it will go to May 31 or until we reach our maximum. So if you have a car to dump, do it now.
Is that enough for you????
In my last post I noted the Assembly Committee of the Whole was talking about a possible Enterprise Board to run the new Diamond Park pool as well as Augustus Brown. There are a number of interests at stake here including who will control what events and activities are scheduled for the pools. CBJ Parks and Recreation is implicitly criticized as too bureaucratic to be good managers. This moved out of Committee of the Whole and will go to the full Assembly. Establishing another Enterprise Board would require a Charter amendment that would go before Juneau voters in the Fall ballot.
More politics – this time surrounding Bartlett Hospital. The management team that took over after Bob Valliant died has been criticized by many as being heavy handed, top down and insensitive, especially to nurses. Others have come to the defense of management. We had a meeting with the Hospital Board last week where a lot of this came out. The Hospital is trying to implement a process of employee involvement to deal with some of the criticisms. The Assembly said it wanted to meet with the Board again in six months to hear of progress.
The Assembly sitting as the Finance Committee continues to meet Wednesday nights. Various groups who have been funded in the past come to the Assembly and ask that their funding be continued. The Assembly does not review the budget line by line. The City Manager by law submits a budget that is balanced – and this year that includes all previous groups funded at the same level as last year. The city has made up its deficit by not filling positions, cutting travel and using tobacco tax money, and it is unlikely to question any of the various budgets. It will probably only talk about requests for more money. That is difficult because there are few sources for “extra” money – particularly in the current year. The one place where there is some wiggle room is in the anticipated increased income from the higher tobacco tax. We used some of it to balance the budget (along with reserve funds). But there is a few hundred thousand more that remains unallocated at the moment and the Assembly will have to deal with the many groups that want a piece of that. It will probably be bounded by a self imposed intention to only use that money for substance abuse or other social service expenses. [Of course if everyone stops smoking we won’t have any of the money!!]
The City Streets Department that was located under the downtown bridge will soon move out to the new Consolidated Public Works building at 7 mile. Now we have to decide what to do with the space under the bridge. We have begun a public comment period to get feedback from citizens. Please take the time to review the plans and offer comments. There is competition from multiple interest groups on what to do with the land. Docks and Harbors wants it. There are proposals to commercialize it. Look at the power point presentation. [Unfortunately it is a huge pdf file, but it is worth downloading.] Use the feedback form or contact Skye Stekoll.
Docks and Harbors is continuing its plans and permitting for Statter Harbor renovation. Right now there is a public comment period from April 2 – May 3. If you are interested in this project please review and give your feedback
CBJ began its Junk Car Roundup April 19 and it will go to May 31 or until we reach our maximum. So if you have a car to dump, do it now.
Is that enough for you????
Monday, April 12, 2010
Lots of stuff going on. Of course the Legislature is on their home stretch, and everyone is running around in a dither and millions are being thrown here and there and NOT thrown there and here. It looks like Juneau will get a significant chunk of change thrown into various projects as well as supporting schools.
The Juneau schools have caused me some concern as an Assembly person. In the past I have not been convinced that their money was managed well. We now have a new Superintendent (Glen Gelbrich) who I am impressed with and who I believe is committed to good financial management. And the current School Board President Mark Choate is similarly committed. I like that. However, their budget comes to us for approval and in a year when the city operating budget is cutting millions, accessing reserves, and not filling positions, I don’t see similar cutbacks by the School District. In FY 10 the school district added 22 positions and in FY11 they propose 11 more. This at a time of declining enrollment. But the schools get funding from a formula—the state gives a bunch and the municipality also gives a formula driven amount. Neither one has declined. And they continue to ask the city for more than their formula amount. We really do want to give our kids the best education possible and I support that. I just want to know that money is being managed efficiently. The Superintendent and Board President told us last Wednesday that they would probably come to us for permission to put one or two school bond issues on the fall ballot. That translates to a higher rate for property taxes. Normally, I would say that if the citizens vote to approve something, then that is the way it should be. But I am not always sure citizens connect the dots between “support for schools” and higher property taxes.
The full proposed budget is now online I encourage you to at least read the City Manager’s Budget Message and Executive Summary in the Overview section. The Assembly will be meeting as the Finance Committee every Wednesday evening for the next six weeks to work through this.
Tonight the Committee of the Whole meets to talk about whether to establish an Empowered Board to manage the swimming pools similarly to Eaglecrest’s management (I mentioned this last post). I still think this is a bad idea. Fragmenting administration is not the path to government efficiency.
Immediately following that meeting we convene the Assembly for a Special Joint Meeting with the Planning Commission to talk about their recommendations to us on Downtown Parking, Wireless Communication facilities, land use regulations and capital improvement projects. If you are interested in the Wireless tower issue, you should read the proposed ordinance.
During this month of many meetings and budget considerations, I will try and post a bit more frequently. At this Wednesday’s Finance meeting (5pm) we will look at the general departmental budgets with special presentations by the Fire Department, the Law Department.
The Juneau schools have caused me some concern as an Assembly person. In the past I have not been convinced that their money was managed well. We now have a new Superintendent (Glen Gelbrich) who I am impressed with and who I believe is committed to good financial management. And the current School Board President Mark Choate is similarly committed. I like that. However, their budget comes to us for approval and in a year when the city operating budget is cutting millions, accessing reserves, and not filling positions, I don’t see similar cutbacks by the School District. In FY 10 the school district added 22 positions and in FY11 they propose 11 more. This at a time of declining enrollment. But the schools get funding from a formula—the state gives a bunch and the municipality also gives a formula driven amount. Neither one has declined. And they continue to ask the city for more than their formula amount. We really do want to give our kids the best education possible and I support that. I just want to know that money is being managed efficiently. The Superintendent and Board President told us last Wednesday that they would probably come to us for permission to put one or two school bond issues on the fall ballot. That translates to a higher rate for property taxes. Normally, I would say that if the citizens vote to approve something, then that is the way it should be. But I am not always sure citizens connect the dots between “support for schools” and higher property taxes.
The full proposed budget is now online I encourage you to at least read the City Manager’s Budget Message and Executive Summary in the Overview section. The Assembly will be meeting as the Finance Committee every Wednesday evening for the next six weeks to work through this.
Tonight the Committee of the Whole meets to talk about whether to establish an Empowered Board to manage the swimming pools similarly to Eaglecrest’s management (I mentioned this last post). I still think this is a bad idea. Fragmenting administration is not the path to government efficiency.
Immediately following that meeting we convene the Assembly for a Special Joint Meeting with the Planning Commission to talk about their recommendations to us on Downtown Parking, Wireless Communication facilities, land use regulations and capital improvement projects. If you are interested in the Wireless tower issue, you should read the proposed ordinance.
During this month of many meetings and budget considerations, I will try and post a bit more frequently. At this Wednesday’s Finance meeting (5pm) we will look at the general departmental budgets with special presentations by the Fire Department, the Law Department.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Today (Saturday 4/3) the Assembly had a five hour meeting on solid waste management. Recall that an ordinance for mandatory universal trash collection had been tabled when many citizens protested. Today we tried to put everything on the table to get a firm idea what is our next step. Recall also that both the Landfill (Waste Management) and trash collection (Arrow Refuse) are currently private operations that the Borough has no control over. There was general agreement that the next action needs to be a negotiation with Arrow Refuse to acquire their Certificate of Convenience and Necessity. That is the state permit to collect garbage. Unless CBJ has that, they can do nothing. A lot will depend on this negotiation and the terms of the agreement. Arrow is a private corporation and their goal is profit. There was no agreement other than proceeding to negotiate to acquire that Certificate.
Next Monday night’s (4/5) Assembly Agenda has a number of items you might want to glance at. First is the introduction of the proposed FY10-11 Budget. [There is a link at the right for Assembly Agendas – click on April 5 – Ordinance 2010-11 is the operating budget]. Second is the proposed school district budget Ordinance 2010-12. Third is the mill rate ordinance 2010-13 which proposes a mill rate essentially the same as last year. [the mill rate is what determines property tax rates] Those three budget ordinances are being introduced and will have future public hearings. Take a look at them. Throughout April the Assembly will be reviewing the proposed budget at Wednesday night Finance Committee meetings.
The Diamond Park pool in the Valley is coming along. An issue before us is how it will be managed. Some want to have a citizen controlled enterprise board, similar to the airport, hospital or Eaglecrest. The argument is that a citizen controlled board will manage more efficiently and effectively than professional staff under the city manager. I think it is a mistake to fragment city government, runs the risk of managing the pool in the interests of one group rather than all citizens and favoring money making practices over access for all citizens. We will discuss this more at our COW meeting April 12.
We recently hired Rich Etheridge as our new Fire Chief after Eric Mohrmann took a job in Kenai
We are moving toward a new election season. [I know—you really didn’t want to hear that]. This year there will be three elections. The state primary election is August 24th. This will be important because citizen initiatives are voted on in the primary rather than the general elections. The general election is November 2nd. The CBJ Municipal election is October 5th. Three Assembly seats will come up. Randy Wanamaker’s District 2 Valley seat is open, as Mr. Wanamaker has served three terms and cannot run again. The other two seats are held by Jeff Bush and Johan Dybdal. Neither have announced whether they will run again. Also every ten years the city asks its citizens whether they want to call a Charter Commission to amend the City Charter – and this will be on the 2010 ballot. Probably the main issue is whether to continue as a Council Manager system or to change to a Executive Mayor system like Anchorage. I strongly favor our current council manager system. There may be other issues on the ballot. The final date for us to decide that is August 23. Make sure you are registered.
You may have seen that the Mental Health Trust is working on a land trade with the US Forest Service. In Juneau, the Trust would trade several parcels of land including a large swath in Douglas uphill from all the condos, in exchange for land on Prince of Wales Island that they could log. Click HERE for more info.
If you haven’t already done it, make sure you fill out your Census form. That will really help us keep our representation.
And finally, if you have stumbled on this blog – you can get notification of any new posts by sending me an email requesting notification. I tend to do a new post every couple of weeks.
Next Monday night’s (4/5) Assembly Agenda has a number of items you might want to glance at. First is the introduction of the proposed FY10-11 Budget. [There is a link at the right for Assembly Agendas – click on April 5 – Ordinance 2010-11 is the operating budget]. Second is the proposed school district budget Ordinance 2010-12. Third is the mill rate ordinance 2010-13 which proposes a mill rate essentially the same as last year. [the mill rate is what determines property tax rates] Those three budget ordinances are being introduced and will have future public hearings. Take a look at them. Throughout April the Assembly will be reviewing the proposed budget at Wednesday night Finance Committee meetings.
The Diamond Park pool in the Valley is coming along. An issue before us is how it will be managed. Some want to have a citizen controlled enterprise board, similar to the airport, hospital or Eaglecrest. The argument is that a citizen controlled board will manage more efficiently and effectively than professional staff under the city manager. I think it is a mistake to fragment city government, runs the risk of managing the pool in the interests of one group rather than all citizens and favoring money making practices over access for all citizens. We will discuss this more at our COW meeting April 12.
We recently hired Rich Etheridge as our new Fire Chief after Eric Mohrmann took a job in Kenai
We are moving toward a new election season. [I know—you really didn’t want to hear that]. This year there will be three elections. The state primary election is August 24th. This will be important because citizen initiatives are voted on in the primary rather than the general elections. The general election is November 2nd. The CBJ Municipal election is October 5th. Three Assembly seats will come up. Randy Wanamaker’s District 2 Valley seat is open, as Mr. Wanamaker has served three terms and cannot run again. The other two seats are held by Jeff Bush and Johan Dybdal. Neither have announced whether they will run again. Also every ten years the city asks its citizens whether they want to call a Charter Commission to amend the City Charter – and this will be on the 2010 ballot. Probably the main issue is whether to continue as a Council Manager system or to change to a Executive Mayor system like Anchorage. I strongly favor our current council manager system. There may be other issues on the ballot. The final date for us to decide that is August 23. Make sure you are registered.
You may have seen that the Mental Health Trust is working on a land trade with the US Forest Service. In Juneau, the Trust would trade several parcels of land including a large swath in Douglas uphill from all the condos, in exchange for land on Prince of Wales Island that they could log. Click HERE for more info.
If you haven’t already done it, make sure you fill out your Census form. That will really help us keep our representation.
And finally, if you have stumbled on this blog – you can get notification of any new posts by sending me an email requesting notification. I tend to do a new post every couple of weeks.
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