Assembly Diary

Things are a bit slow at the moment. The budget is done as are the vetos. Juneau did well, even if we did get a few things reduced.

I had an interesting experience with DOT. They have a process of rating transportation projects which they call the STIP or Statewide Transportation Improvement Projects. Many communities complain that DOT ignores them while they respond that they just follow their scoring criteria for projects. Of course there is the rub – what is the scoring criteria. Every few years they ask for public comment on these criteria and here is where communities can try and get them to alter those. That happened recently, and I submitted my comment calling on them to make the process more democratic. I browbeat CBJ to submit a comment. Bottom line was there were a total of 3 comments from the whole state. Sigh. You can view the comments and criteria HERE Yes, it is a bit “wonky” but this is how things actually happen. If you don’t respond to requests for comment, it’s hard to justify complaints – sort of like voting.

Monday night 6/28 is our regular Assembly meeting. I don’t see anything too controversial, although I encourage your review. There is a link to agendas on the right column of this page. One of the things on the agenda is art for Harborview School. We have a law that says 1% of a project’s cost must be allocated to some form of art for the building. We renovated Harborview a year ago and are just getting around to finalizing the art awards. See them HERE (big file)

I have been really interested in the 1% for art process for the downtown transportation center. So many people complained that they didn’t want another concrete box. Now I am really interested in seeing how this process turns out. We always appoint a citizen’s committee to select the art projects and the committee for the transportation center consisted of Paul Voelkers, Barbara Craver, Jane Lindsey, Donald Gregory, Ken Alper and Nancy Waterman. The projects looked great on paper, but I am anxious to see the final results. I also am interested in the final results of the park to be created on the top of the hill. I will follow up.

We finally made a decision about managing the new aquatics center. Through a series of 5-4 votes we decided to make it simply an advisory board. Lots of time and energy spent on something that doesn’t seem that big a deal.

There is continued concern with the organizational culture at Bartlett Hospital. I attended several Board meetings and subcommittee meetings. The Board hired the Foraker Group to assess the situation and they have just given their preliminary results. Now it is up to the Board to decide what they will do.

I will attend Monday evening’s meeting by phone from Hawaii. Isn’t that dedication!!

Happy solstice, summer, Independence Day and all that.

And the election season is just beginning......