Bridge Park, Respite Care and Labor Law

On December 13 the Assembly heard presentations on the conversion of the waterfront area near the downtown bridge. We reiterated our support for a Bridge Park and the Empire story was a pretty accurate report. We want the area under the Bridge to be a Park, and we want it to be the terminus of the Sea Walk that would connect all the way downtown and on to the last cruise ship dock at the Rock Dump. Here is the rest of the story. As you know, the availability of money drives much of the process. So far we have been funding the Sea Walk with Cruise Ship Passenger fees. By U.S. law you can only have a head tax on cruise passengers if the money is used for them. So the further you get from cruise ship docks, the less justification there is for using those fees. The Empire notes we plan a building for Docks and Harbors near the bridge, but the real emphasis of the Assembly was that it needed to be a Maritime Museum or some kind of tourist attraction that would justify our claim that the Seawalk was necessary for the safe movement of cruise ship passengers. THEN we can fund the whole walk from the bridge back to the docks.

After the COW meeting we met as a Finance Committee. We approved a small contribution to help fund a Respite Lodging program for homeless citizens who are too sick to be lodged with other homeless in shelters, but not sick enough to be in the hospital. I am so grateful for the Glory Hole, St. Vincent’s, and JEDC for taking the lead on this and for Bartlett Hospital’s support. It is a small, but very needed program. Also at the Finance meeting we tabled the jewelry store tax proposal, but said we would re-visit the whole idea in the future, including looking at a possible luxury or seasonal sales tax or some other variation.

On Saturday the 18th we met for three hours to address some labor law issues and came to a number of agreements on how to adjust the process to be more equitable. I am pleased with these changes that were pushed by Bob Doll and myself (I talked about this issue in my September 6 post). The one unresolved issue is the unions’ desire to have contract disputes submitted to binding arbitration. Currently the Assembly has the final word. Given that city workers are prohibited from striking, the unions feel a system where the Assembly is the appeals body is unfair. I have been advocating for the state model, where arbitration is used, but any negotiated contract still needs to be funded by the legislature – or in our case the Assembly. So it includes arbitration, but still gives the Assembly the final word on budget issues.

Monday evening December 20 was the regular Assembly meeting. The one thing of note was the designation of the State Museum as a historical building. It was pretty confusing to sort out the issues—including the impact such a designation would have and whether it would pose any barrier for the State Library Archives Museum project. We deleted a section that called for the project to be located at another (unidentified) site. Ultimately it is the State’s decision. We just want to see the project move forward.

It has been an eventful year…..but aren’t they all? My goals for Juneau continue to be equal treatment for everyone with support for our most vulnerable citizens, an emphasis on public participation and government transparency, fiscal and environmental responsibility, and promotion of our local economy.

I want to thank so many of you who have expressed appreciation for my efforts on the Assembly. Your support gives me the energy to keep going.

I wish the very best holiday season to you all, and I look forward to 2011.

Enterprise Board Appointments and Docks and Harbors Issues

Monday 12/6 the Assembly appointed new members of the Planning Commission and Hospital Board. The Hospital Board appointments were significant because the Assembly did not re-appoint one incumbent, and another did not re-apply. A message was sent that we are concerned about management and look to the Board to make whatever hard decisions need to be made to improve the employee relations issue.

Wednesday 12/8 the Assembly had a joint meeting with the Docks and Harbors Board (because I kept pestering the Mayor to set one up). Docks and Harbors has a number of important projects going on. Statter Harbor (Auke Bay) is going to be totally restructured. The Assembly communicated how important we believe it is to get and listen to citizen input. On December 16, 7:00pm at City Hall, Docks and Harbors will host a public meeting to take citizen input on the Statter Harbor plans. If you are interested, PLEASE attend.

Douglas Harbor still needs to be dredged and the mercury laden remains need to be disposed of. It will cost money. Aurora Harbor needs to be reconstructed. And the cruise ship docks are proceeding (paid for by cruise ship passenger fees). I have been pushing for the new docks to have facilities for discharging wastewater and for electrical shorepower connections with the cruise ships. Currently, only the Princess dock does that. While nothing is certain, it seems like they are moving in that direction. Finally, the owners of Fisherman’s Bend told the city they are interested in selling. I think the Assembly communicated to the Docks and Harbors Board that with all the other spending needs, this has the lowest priority.

In other issues -- I mentioned previously that Juneau has an issue with what to do with snow that is cleared from the streets. Here is a just-off-the-press Snow Disposal study that addresses these issues. There are no easy solutions, but this lays out the problem fairly well.

The State Archives, Museum and State Library were funded last legislative session to start planning for a new joint building. Originally the acronym was SLAM – but now it is LAMP :). The Museum recently received a historical designation. The project has a website – and on it is a Historical Significance survey. Please weigh in on your thoughts.


One of the big issues last year was a potential Mental Health Trust Office Building to be built on the subport land in front of the Coast Guard Building. The state allocated several million dollars for a site survey and my understanding is that the subport site is “off the table.” I could be wrong (I certainly have been before), but this is what I have heard.

As mentioned last post --on December 13 the Assembly Committee of the Whole will receive a report on plans for the area underneath the downtown bridge. I am a big fan of establishing a Bridge Park as the terminus of the Seawalk.

Thank you all for reading this stuff and paying attention. Please encourage others to do the same.

Happy Holidays!

Last Monday 11/29 the Assembly re-considered the issue of removing the sales tax cap for jewelry purchases and referred it back to Finance Committee for future discussions. This has the potential to expand discussions to issues of a seasonal sales tax or other broader adjustments.

On Wednesday 12/1 Assembly Finance Committee had its first presentation on setting the FY11-12 budget. The Manager states we should be able to balance the budget without making cuts or taking dollars from the reserve. The article in the Empire Thursday made it sound like things were rosy, but I don’t think that is the case. They are very tight and future years are estimated to have real problems.

The Assembly has heard a lot of complaints about Docks and Harbors and particularly the plan for Statter Harbor (Auke Bay). So we have set up a special Assembly meeting with Docks and Harbors Wednesday December 8 at 6pm. If anybody has issues about D&H, this would be a meeting to attend. Since it is an Assembly meeting, public testimony should be allowed. I’ll certainly ask for it to be if anyone has issues they would like to raise.

On Monday December 13 the Assembly will have a Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the area under the downtown bridge where the City Shops were located. There is a proposal for a Bridge Park to be located there, but Docks and Harbors has other proposals. We will hopefully decide on a way forward. This meeting is open but will not take public testimony.

Those who are interested in skiing probably already know that Eaglecrest will not open this weekend

The city, state and Mental Health Trust have been meeting regularly to devise a master plan for the development of the downtown Willoughby District. As part of that the city is doing an online Survey on Willoughby District. I encourage all of you to fill it out.

The new parking garage is open and there will be free parking in both garages for the month of December

And finally - Santa Clause arriving Friday December 10th

Happy Holidays to all.