Anchorage Assembly to weigh mandatory penalties for public intoxication and petitions for candidates

Editor’s note: This story was updated to lead with the main proposals on the Assembly’s Nov. 17 agenda.

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 17, will take up proposals to set mandatory minimum penalties for repeat public intoxication, make city candidates gather signatures to get on the ballot and give a 10-year tax break to new or renovated homes in buildings that mix housing with shops or offices.

East Anchorage Assembly Member Yarrow Silvers and Assembly Member Janice Park are sponsoring the intoxication ordinance. It would make public intoxication a class A misdemeanor instead of class B, the less serious of the two. It would set mandatory minimum penalties, rising with each prior conviction, for repeat public intoxication and for municipal fifth-degree drug cases. Courts could order substance use assessments and treatment, and eligible people who finish treatment could get shorter sentences and lower fines. North Anchorage Assembly Member Sydney Scout filed three research papers on mandatory minimums with the Assembly.

The candidate proposal, from Eagle River-Chugiak Assembly Members Donald Handeland and Jared Goecker, would require signatures to run for city office: 250 from voters for mayor and school board, and 50 from voters in the district for Assembly. Silvers filed a letter from the Northeast Community Council board opposing it.

The tax break, proposed by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration, would exempt the residential part of new or rehabilitated mixed-use buildings with at least four new units from property tax for 10 years. Units would have to sell at or below the average assessed value of a single-family home, and short-term rentals wouldn't qualify. A version from Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day would also cover commercial property owners who add four or more rental units.

The Assembly will also consider the final $120,000 payment on a 2009 loan between two city funds for the Eagle River Town Center, which has been paid down with rent from city agencies in the building. Other money items include a $610,711 state grant for AnchorRIDES senior rides, $456,000 from the Anchorage Golf Course's capital reserve for new heating and ventilation equipment and $1.5 million from the police department's technology levy for technology maintenance.

Residents can testify in person or in writing.