Anchorage advisory committees could lose the ability to write officials on their own

Anchorage's three AMATS citizen advisory committees would need higher-level sign-off before sending formal communications to elected or federal officials, under a policy the agency's Technical Advisory Committee takes up Thursday. The three are the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the Community Advisory Committee and the Freight Advisory Committee.

The proposal is titled Sub-Committee Autonomy, and it narrows exactly that. The residents, cyclists and community groups who take part through these committees could see changes in how quickly and directly their concerns reach elected officials, and in how much independent voice the advisory bodies carry.

The line falls on who's being written to. If a public comment period is open, a subcommittee's chair can sign off and the letter goes out. But if the message reaches an elected or federal official, even on the cc line, it first has to clear two higher committees. Communications also can't commit AMATS to spending or policy, and can't contain defamatory language.

These subcommittees are among the main ways AMATS is required to bring the public into transportation planning, which is what makes narrowing their reach to officials a live question. The Policy Committee requested the draft in April, and two of the three committees have already reviewed it.