Hey everyone! Hope everyone is staying warm and safe. I’m posting this a little later than the last two weeks, and without integrated links this time (let me know if they were something you found helpful, I have to triage my work to make sure I don’t hyperfixate on things that nobody uses, haha). I’ve been working hard to try to make the meetings and information more accessible, so I have moved my meeting coverage back over to Twitter (as it allows for better search functionality and has more robust tools for integrating into other environments). Here’s the thread from last night. I also have an exciting announcement! I have set up livestreaming on YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram, where I will be mirroring the municipal footage, live, alongside my threads in formats accessible to both horizontal and vertical viewing. This, hopefully, means that Anchorage residents will be able to tune in to the meetings on whichever platform they prefer, and if the municipal feed goes down (as it did last night) you can still stay up to speed with my live coverage without leaving the one stream. As well as streaming the meetings, I also have designs on doing some research streams and discussions while investigating municipal plans and history, so if you want to chat with me, feel free to join me in the Anchorage Deadbeats discord channel. My mission, as always, is to make municipal government more accessible and understandable with good, impartial information, as we can’t make good decisions if we don’t have good info!
With that, lets get onto the meeting. Last night was arguably the most important Assembly meeting of the year, as the budget is paramount. No budget? No government. Here’s the Mayor’s Report that kicked off the meeting:
BRONSON: Good evening, everyone, I know there’s a full agenda tonight, so I’ll be as brief as possible. The month of November has brought us a record-setting snowfall. In the span of five days, we received more than half the amount of snow we typically get during an average winter. The amount of snowfall is, well, as the timing of each storm prompted me to proclaim, a snow emergency. This allowed us to call upon extra resources, like graders, front end loaders, dump trucks, side loaders to help support MOA plowing efforts. I would like to thank the Assembly for working with us on this front and understanding the urgency to keep our city moving. The good folks at Maintenance and Operations, worked around the clock to clear not only our own roads, hauling over 3000 loads of snow, but also assisting clearing certain sections of state roads. Their Herculean efforts should not go unnoticed and I would like to publicly and on the record recognize their staff and hard work. Along with the heavy snow comes cold temperatures and we have not lost focus on those in our community that are in most need of shelter this winter. The solid waste service admin building opened earlier this month as a cold weather shelter. Soon after it’s opening, we recognized the need for additional shelter space and requested an expansion from the Assembly of 150 to 200 beds. I would like to commend the Assembly on recognizing the ever-growing need for shelter space and working with Alexis Johnson and the Health Department to achieve just that.
Tonight, we will be addressing Assembly amendments to the 2024 budget that I introduced earlier in the fall. My administration’s budget comes in under the tax cap and will lessen the burden on taxpayers while providing essential services to the people of Anchorage. While the snow was falling, the Assembly held a long work session on their budget amendments, and is proposing their ideas tonight. I appreciate the process and the time my administration has put into the budget and the time the Assembly has taken to review it. There are several amendments that I will be supporting tonight including upgrading the technology for the Assembly meetings to make it easier for the public and the media to participate; providing the technology needed for us to run fair and accessible elections; support for the Eagle River-Chugiak comprehensive plan; grant increases to abused women, aid in crisis and standing against rape, and victims for justice; wage increases for heavy equipment operators; $75,000 to provide training with human resources on a new drug policy recently passed by the Assembly; support for the Girdwood Fire and Rescue EMS budget; training for the men and women serving our community in the Anchorage Police Department; moving up the timeline and adding to the capital improvement plan the Cuddy Family Park warming facility; increasing the road improvement bond in the amount of $250,000 for Downtown wayfinding; and finally, in supporting public safety. I am for additional PCNs within the Fire Department. I’m supporting funds to bring the Performing Arts Center elevators into ADA compliance, and I am supporting funding for the wage increases that my administration was able to negotiate for our hardworking men and women within the Anchorage Police Department. This wage increase to APD represents the largest wage increase for our police in the history of our city and I’m pleased the Assembly and my administration are joining in support of this matter tonight. We owe a deep debt of gratitude towards the police department and this increase will allow us to retain and attract the talent needed for those who keep us safe. Thank you very much to APD.
Yesterday, I presented my State of the City address at the Chamber of Commerce’s “Make It Monday” forum. I addressed many topics, from snow plowing to budget, but in the interest of time, I’ll go only into some of the highlights: I addressed our initiatives on the homeless front to include shelter expansions, reunification through our plane ticket program, and the need for a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding Johnson v. Grants Pass. I talked about the Port of Alaska and how my administration helped secure $270,000,000 for modernization, moving us towards food security for all of Alaska. Downtown revitalization, tourism success, and corporate investments signal a promising economic rebound. Workplace diversity initiatives enacted by the chief equity officer in the Office of Equity and Justice are central to our city’s post pandemic rebound. I am proud to report that those efforts have yielded a diverse workforce within the municipality itself. Minorities now make up over 25 percent of municipal employees with an increase of representation over four percent in just 2023. Now, as we roll up our sleeves tonight and do the hard work of reviewing amendments to my administration’s introduced budget, I want to reflect on the honor that it is to serve the people of Anchorage. While we don’t always agree on every issue, we agree on a lot. I wish the Assembly, and the rest of our great city, a happy Thanksgiving. And with that, Mr. Chair, I conclude my report.
Then, we were delivered the Chair’s Report by Assembly Chair Chris Constant:
CONSTANT: Good evening, everybody, and welcome. And like the Mayor, I’ll start at the same place: snow removal. First, I want to address this issue, it’s on everybody’s mind, the topic of conversation in every coffee shop, and every part of this town, at every party in the evening. Speaking on behalf of myself and the vice chair and, I imagine, the entire Assembly, we share concerns over the effectiveness of how the plow out went over the last couple of weeks, that the core public services were difficult to deliver including public transit, and our schools, which were closed. The people of Anchorage deserve better from us as a government. Snow removal has been a major concern for the Assembly for the past few years. We’ve made budget amendments to give the administration funding to work with, we’ve held work sessions to get to the bottom of staffing and logistics issues and we offer support in any way we can. And to that end, we’re going to continue to do so. This month looked a lot like December of last year. In fact, the snowfall that fell in December of 2022 was more than the snow that fell in November of 2023, but this month is not yet over, so. Looks like there’s rain in the forecast, be careful out there.
Snow removal and road safety will continue to be top of mind for the Assembly as we consider our budget and what’s needed to bolster the snow removal process going forward. Mayor Bronson, we hope you support these efforts. I want to stress that this is not, in any way, a reflection on the great municipal staff who have been putting in 18 and 20 hour days to get through all the neighborhoods as many times as needed. And I can tell you, first hand, that when I receive a call from constituents, and they have concerns about a specific property, especially when people are struggling with mobility issues that our teams get out there within a day. So I have the same gratitude towards our work force. We’re trying to support you and get you the resources you need to do your jobs.
Next, I would say that, on that topic, the Building Official yesterday issued a warning about roof snow loads. Last year we had a series of roof collapses because of heavy snow loads. I want to make sure anybody who has one of these flat roof truss structures on one of their buildings, whether it’s residential or commercial, make sure you’re out there taking the snow off of it because the heavy wet snow that we’ve had is dangerous. This warning applies mostly to commercial buildings constructed prior to 1990, carports, and roofs subject to ice downing. But I encourage everybody to review the guidance. You’ll find it on www.muni.org at the Development Services website, to make sure that you’re able to take care of the safety of the facilities, and the buildings that you live and work in.
ASD closures were a real challenge this week. I want to stand in solidarity with the school district, their decision to keep the schools closed when they couldn’t get students safely to school. I had the misfortune to witness a couple of school buses stuck, high bermed on snow, and that is not a good condition. We have to do better. It’s difficult on our kids and our communities. It’s difficult on our parents. We’re trying to work, it’s bad for the economy. We’ve heard too many stories of pedestrians who were forced to walk in the middle of streets and cars getting damaged from driving on our roads. Forcing kids into dangerous situations. It’s easy to second guess the school district’s decisions, but they made a decision that prioritized safety and I want them to know, I hear you and I support you.
On that topic of snow removal, it’s important that we get what we pay for. For years, the state budget has not kept pace with our needs as a community, and we’re seeing clear results in the underspending that’s coming into our community. In addition to not keeping up with competitive wages, the state has let their equipment go into decline and they simply are not equipped to meet the very basic needs, public safety responsibilities, to keep our roads clear and safe. This further shifts the burden to the municipality and property taxpayers. I hope that what we’ve seen in the past few weeks empowers our state legislators to take action when they meet in a few months to ensure that the state budget is sufficient to provide the resources necessary to ensure that the state roads and the municipality of Anchorage are cleared by the state.
The Municipality of Anchorage took resources off of its neighborhood streets to clear the state’s roads. While it’s a good demonstration of working collaboratively with the state, the state is the deep pockets and, at this point, we need the state to do their job so that we can do ours.
Next, to discuss the budget. Tonight is the final public hearing on a series of the budget items and we will take action on the 2024 Municipal Budget. I’m very grateful to those of you who have, or who are here now, to testify. We’ll hold the public hearing around 7pm and will likely vote on the budget at the conclusion of that hearing. It’s been said many times, but a budget is a reflection of the city’s values. If you want to see roads plowed effectively and on time, then a balanced and realistic budget should be of concern to you. To follow along with the budget process and learn more, go to www.muni.org/assembly and click on the “budget and taxes” button on the top of the page. We’ll be posting documents that we review tonight on that page.
I would take a moment of privilege to speak to the people of the city of Wrangell, who’ve lost members of their community in a landslide. Alaska is, they say, the biggest small town in America. It’s a big state, but we’re all connected.
And, also, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, however you celebrate that or mark it as it were.
Those were the reports from last night and all I’ve got for you for now. If you like what I’m doing, feel free to follow me on one of the platforms listed below, or comment in chat. Your interactions help me understand that this is bringing some value and incentivizes me to continue my work 🙂
Stay safe, and tell the ones that you love that you love them.
ANCHORAGE DEADBEAT 