Anchorage Assembly postpones public safety commission to July

The Anchorage Assembly voted 8-4 Tuesday to delay a decision on a proposed Public Safety Commission until July 21, after hours of testimony from families who have lost loved ones in police encounters and pointed objections to the specific version backed by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration.

The fight is over composition. The substitute ordinance the Mayor introduced would give voting seats to five public safety agency representatives — the Anchorage Police Department, Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, and Department of Law. It would also allow up to three of the nine community seats to go to people with prior employment or family ties to those agencies. Critics testified the math gives agencies and their affiliates potential control over eight of fourteen votes on a commission meant to provide community oversight.

Catherine Jones, whose son Tyler died in a police encounter, said families have moved past wanting a forum for dialogue. "Families like mine do not need another committee that can only talk," Jones said. "We need a system that can ask hard questions, review actions independently, and ensure that no agency is left to police itself."

Melissa McCourt, whose oldest child Emma was shot by police, addressed the Mayor and APD directly. "I want justice for my son, and I want APD and the mayor to remember my son when you go to bed at night and when you wake up," McCourt said.

LaFrance presented the substitute as a return to an earlier civic body. "This commission would be a forum for the community and our public safety agencies to work together and come up with solutions to help make Anchorage a safer place for everyone to live," LaFrance said.

The path between the families' position and the Mayor's was postponement. Co-sponsor Kameron Perez-Verdia moved to continue the hearing to give the Assembly time to work through nine pending amendments. "It's more important that this is done right than it's done fast," Perez-Verdia said. Vice Chair Daniel Voland indicated the public testimony had been clear: "The preferred version, at least from the input that I'm receiving, is that original version."

Not everyone wanted to wait. Assembly member Karen Scout opposed the postponement, calling it disrespectful to the people who had just testified. "I don't believe it's respectful to the dozens of people who have showed up tonight and spoken out and made real requests over many, many months of deliberation," Scout said.

Chair Anna Brawley, the other co-sponsor, said postponement was a procedural step before potentially bringing a third version forward. "I know my co-sponsor and I have talked about potentially bringing forward another version, but not before we've had some sense from the body what direction you'd like to go," Brawley said.

The Assembly will hold a work session before taking the item back up July 21. The public hearing remains open.