Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Anchorage AssemblyClear

Mélisa Babb “Yes, that is correct.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “Amendment 9 is really the tracking and look back that I think is really important anytime we pass new policy. Policy. It's important for us to understand what happens. Are we successful? Can we measure our progress?”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Janice Park “I think that's correct. And I think if out of 14 amendments, if we could reach some consensus on 5 or 6, I think that would be great.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Suzanne LaFrance “we listened to the public testimony on this item and heard the feedback. We love our neighborhoods. They're very important to Anchorage, and we've done a lot in this area of housing, tax incentives, pausing design standards.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “I guess my first substantive question will be whether the sponsor intends or planning to implement this as one overlay with 5 subcategories, or is the intent of the sponsor to functionally create 5 new overlay zones?”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “if I'm reading this correctly, it's the intent of the sponsor that if we did not build 3,000 homes anywhere in the next 10 years because of any reason— interest rates, materials costs, labor, anything of that nature— these changes would still sunset, even if the fact that we didn't produce 3,000 homes was unrelated to the zoning reform.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Anna Brawley “This is a work session on AO-2026-85, the MHOP, or Missing Middle Housing Opportunity Overlay.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “the purpose of this ordinance, which, as we have continued to say, is to increase housing supply, particularly along our transit supportive corridors where we already have amenities, infrastructure, utilities, access to transportation of all sorts. And that this is part of implementation of our comprehensive plan.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Janice Park “what's in the S version are the one thing that hasn't been introduced in another amendment is the tiered overlay zones and the, the sunset sunset clause. I think the sunset clause included in the S version is important. I would consider the Baldwin Day amendment reflecting 5 years instead of 10.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “I'd love to understand more about the mandatory reversion and whether the sponsor has spoken with anyone in the construction industry to understand what sort of chilling effect a mandatory reversion might have on new construction in the out years.”

Anchorage Assembly: Second Worksession re AO 2026-85, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Title 21 to create new... · Oct 28, 2026

Kimberly Rash “The findings can be categorized into 4 recurring themes. So performance oversight— so the goals were not consistently verified and agreements and requirements were not enforced. Grant agreements and contract management, subrecipient selection agreements were not consistently managed, which is what I mentioned before about procurement. Reporting and public participation, there was one citation in which we did not meet the HUD definition and guidelines to participate in a public process.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “I would say no because we were looking for it, so I assume the answer No, we have not put the language in it as of yet.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “And really what those public hearings are, as you probably imagine, are to get the public's input on how we should spend these funds and which of those categories that still meet our consolidated plan that we need to focus on for that upcoming year. And then 95 of 101 individual monthly reports for subrecipient agreements reviewed.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “So those ones are not, and so those funds are still held in an account, and so we do still have to figure out what we are doing with those funds in order to move those to a category that we would need.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “We have now used a standardized documentation checklist for this, in which each of the planners or each of the managers as well as the program manager uses this to make sure that everything is in process before it finally gets executed so that there are no delays.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “we now standardized our solicitation selection records and agreement put into place agreement templates and pre-execution review. So now any disbursement of funds out of either CDBG, HOME, or ESG goes through Title VII, so a competitive process, whether that's an RFP, an RFP, an ITB, anything that is allowed in Title VII.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “staff have changed over, and HUD rules have changed continuously. And so understanding that, you know, we're not the best set all the time, and so I'm here to go over some of the findings and knowing that this was a learning opportunity for all of us.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

William Falsey “there were 4 subrecipients that were selected in 2021-23, uh, that audit couldn't verify how they were chosen or how selected, and some of them are still funded.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Darcie Montalvo “We have met with grantees. We found that it would be important to do resets. So we've met in person and reconveyed expectations, updated our agreements”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “4 Out of 8 reviewed files had missing or untimely documentation. One 2023 agreement file contained only 3 of the 9 required documents to make it compliant.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “the first of 4 required hearings for the 2024 Annual Action Plan was not noticed or conducted. It was an oversight by the team.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “documentation controls files did not consistently contain the documentation needed that could verify our compliance in which internal audit could review.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “None of the funds or what was cited in the audit had to do with CDBG funds going to a non-eligible project. All of them were process-based within the team, that there was an overall lack of really adherence to any processes and documented policies that they were following internally.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “The scope was just focused on the grant agreements, the contract administration, procurement, monitoring, public participation, reporting, and documentation. That resulted in 9 findings, and we at the Health Department as well as the municipality concurred with the recommendations that internal audit put forth.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “we had put— we have stated that we had worked, or we would put into place in August. Um, I am happy to say that all of our comments that are in the audit have been put into place.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

William Falsey “Well, first, I think you, you get the unofficial award for most comprehensive presentation to date at an audit committee meeting.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Kimberly Rash “We had a procurement process that was not documented, so we couldn't— the internal auditor could not verify if there was an unbiased eligible compliant selection of 4 subrecipients, meaning we did not go out to competitive procurement for those. And agreements were not allowed— were allowed to expire.”

Anchorage Assembly: Municipal Audit Committee Meeting · Oct 27, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “I've gotten really interested recently in how we stack up against peer cities when it comes to things like fire and police. And so I just wanted to throw out, we don't really have any, like, coverage peers that I've been able to find in terms of, like, the, the land that we cover.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

William Falsey “we're to the place now where we're saying, can we afford to buy laptops? So finding a cut of this target, as the budget director said, it's not going to be easy. There's going to be— you'll have to do less with less.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Doug Schrage “So in other words, of the 31 people that have left the department so far this year, 7 of them did not reach retirement age and volunteered and separated voluntarily. We only have anecdotal data to support the reasoning behind that, whether it was attributable to the lack of a defined benefit, but it is a common thing that we hear from those in our exit interviews.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

William Falsey “there is not a simpler cut to find that is more painless than this kind of thing that we are putting on the board. Or if we have missed it, we're inviting someone to let us know what it is.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Donald Handeland “are you guys, I mean, I know this is all kind of hypothetical, but as you guys are doing that, are you looking at only 5% across the board or Potentially more in, in some departments because I'm looking at like snow removal versus the public transportation and the impact to more, I guess, people on that.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “discontinuing that route entirely would be a massive impact to a very specific neighborhood and very a specific population of individuals in Anchorage. And Route 65 connects downtown with Spenard and Sand Lake and the airport, and it's the only bus service in southwest Anchorage.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Anna Brawley “regardless of what we would like to do, that decision is not reflected in our budget. So it's a great conversation for legislative committee and certainly does have impact on our budget.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “we really are in a fairly precarious position when it comes to AFD staffing, especially based on the retirement. I hate to use the word cliff because I feel like that's getting a little cliché at the moment, but we really do have a lot of folks who are set to retire in the coming year, and that is, that is going to create some additional complexities for you all.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Doug Schrage “We think that this next year is the year.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “we are incredibly lean when it comes to our fire operations.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Doug Schrage “Member Baldwin Day, through the chair, we've had 31 people leave the department this year. Not all of those are voluntary.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Doug Schrage “We will start another academy in 2027 because we are expecting a large, uh, tranche of firefighters to retire at the end of April, which is when people normally retire. And, uh, I think there's a very large number of people that are eligible to retire.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “Just starts to like feel a little tight. What would that look like in terms of resourcing to do a third overlapping academy in a single year?”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “I think it's important to keep in mind that some of these proposed cuts and programmatic changes really do impact particular neighborhoods and particular communities more than others. Elders. And I'm looking particularly at the public transportation. Route 51 connects Centennial Village with the Muldoon Transit Center, and it goes by several senior living facilities on its way.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

William Falsey “what I want to say is that is not the game that we are playing here. We are playing it straight.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Anna Brawley “The mayor has an opportunity to veto our decisions if she chooses to do that, and then we have the opportunity to override that veto. So the buck literally stops with us. And this is one of our biggest and hardest jobs in a scenario that we're in right now.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “It's conceivable and not unrealistic. Have we ever done 3 academies in a year?”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “Yeah, thank you. Just following along with the conversation about the 50 potential retirees in FY27. Does that mean we will see 2 academies in 2027 as well?”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re General Government Operating Cont’d & Enterprise & Utilities · Oct 23, 2026

Kimberly Rash “the way that we staggered it with the funding that we have is that we increased every other week, and so our next surge will start at East 56 next week, and then it will go every other week until we get up to 200 by the end of November.”

Anchorage Assembly: Health & Homelessness Committee Meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kimberly Rash “As it relates to Willow Commons, we use $1.2 million of the opioid funds which assisted in the build of the units and preparation of Willow Commons. In addition to that, we provided $500,000 to the Anchorage Recovery Center for startup funds for their services.”

Anchorage Assembly: Health & Homelessness Committee Meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kimberly Rash “We have put funding in the 2027 proposed budget for additional beds in the colder months but we're still working on that right now.”

Anchorage Assembly: Health & Homelessness Committee Meeting · Oct 21, 2026

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