Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Ona Brouse
“this fund and the way this fund is recovered should be calculated and analyzed on an annual basis. There were a few years where that was not occurring, and during that time frame, the costs of the claims also increased. So the inflationary impacts of the cost of everything combined with the, the sort of lost corrections on an annual basis to do this annual true-up that we have now done sort of ballooned the deficit that we saw occurring.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“the thing that Bill did not say, Mr. Fauzi did not say, was if we build more stuff, the Building Safety Service Area also fills itself back up, as we saw in the revenue. And so that is also a relevant piece piece of that conversation.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“So fixing this is going to involve a real trade-off.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Ona Brouse
“Smaller cost items or adjustments, those are things that can be ideally flexed in between the September through November timeframe. But August, I think, is the latest when— that we would really have to be able to contemplate moving large pieces around.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“last year we passed this in September. We know that's pretty late. In terms of kind of when some kind of guidance like this would be useful, what timeframe would you recommend?”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“The first section really deals with asking for information in what's called the preliminary budget memo or the 120-day memo that that will come out around September 1st. So it's really asking for basically scenarios or any information to really, you know, project that the point of that memo is to say, here's the revenue we expect, here's the big trends, here's our capital improvement program list, and really kind of a preview of what the actual budget will look like.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“the very drafty version that you're seeing here with a bunch of notes and kind of fill this in is a first pass at doing this from myself, Mr. Boland, and Ms. Baldwin-Day, who has joined us as the third member on this committee. But this— the goal is not that this coming from three of us, it's from all of us.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“the intent is that we bring this forward probably at the July 21st meeting, so we have some time. And of course, this does not need to reflect every single person's individual priorities. We want to find what, you know, at least a majority of us can agree on at this point.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“what would it look like if we fully funded schools within the cap at our optional local contribution? How much would that require of cuts to other services? And the reverse situation, if we fully funded general government, what would that look like in terms of a reduction? 'Cause we know that that's on the table.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Ona Brouse
“we have to go through the 2027 budget development in order to determine how and exactly how much of the BSSA can be transitioned during the 2027 budget. It's the intention to clear all of it, but I think while we're finalizing the ACFR and working through '27 development, we'll have more information about how we're actually able to do that.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“I think to Ms. Counts' point too, I think that is a great thing that we could recommend in here is essentially robust public engagement, which I think we all strive to do, but we often get charging along on the timeline that we have for the budget.”Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026
Curtis McQueen
“It has been a dream for 30 years. People who might know the Eklutna Inc. board on the land side and the tribal side of Native Village of Eklutna are the same people. So we share the same people on both boards and councils. So this has been a project that the corporation and the tribe have been working for, for a long time.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Curtis McQueen
“I have worked for, with, and alongside the Eklutna people, most of it with Eklutna Inc., for over 21 years. I was the CEO for 15 years, right through 2019.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“I will not support a variance if it's based on finance, just for the record.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Curtis McQueen
“we've cleared the site, we're looking forward to bringing heavy equipment in here real soon”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Curtis McQueen
“The only thing the village ever asked from the corporation is to leave the village land very traditional, very rural. The Tlingit people, when they settled there 1,500 years ago, they never would have imagined a municipality of Anchorage growing up on one side and a Matsu on the other.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Curtis McQueen
“after the 2018 quake, we decided that we were going to design the building— and we have Stantec, our architects here— to a place where the entire village can muster, gather in an emergency. So it'll be a place where if, you know, a big event happened, the village could go to that building. So it's been designed for that. So it's evolved, but it's— we're really excited about that.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Patrick Jones
“I wholeheartedly support Item B on page 5 where it talks about the detrimental to building the road that's not needed at this time. I feel like if you give the public that much road, it's just an invitation for, you know, people to go back there and nefarious acts, dump, do whatever. So I think not doing that at the time would really be the best decision.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Dora Cross
“Variant requests typically have a much more stringent application process, and I will point out on pages 5 and 6, they've met all standards. There are special circumstances, conditions affecting the property that such strict application and provision of the subdivision regulations could clearly be impractical, unreasonable, will not be detrimental to the public welfare, will not have a nullifying effect on the intent and purpose of the subdivision, and it is creating undue hardship due to strict compliance. So I'll be voting for it.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“I'm only going to support these variances because they allow infrastructure to be phased in coordination with actual development demand. Requiring immediate construction of an 880-foot roadway segment to serve an undeveloped future parcel would result in infrastructure that is not presently needed.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Speaker C
“I move in Case S12883 to approve a variance from AMC 2108030E, legal and physical access. A subdivision shall have legal and physical access and a variance from AMC 2108050F2, peripheral streets, improvement of peripheral streets when necessary for efficient flow of traffic or emergency vehicle access, subject to the conditions shown on page 6 of the staff report.”Anchorage Assembly: Platting Board: June 17, 2026 - 2026-06-17 18:30:00 · Jun 18, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“utility partnerships are the backbone of making this work. Without the utility operators' buy-in and engagement, this is not a sustainable effort.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“Samples are collected from the wastewater treatment plant. We also can sample from other locations, but at the wastewater treatment plant, they're already sampling and for their routine wastewater discharge permit requirements, so it's really easy for us to kind of just take a slice of that wastewater. This testing provides information about the community as a whole and does not identify individuals.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“we really want to implement a robust and scalable wastewater monitoring system in Alaska. We want to continue to use it for routine monitoring of certain diseases like COVID, influenza, but we also want to have this available for, you know, when the next COVID COVID-19 comes around or, you know, the next disease that's really concerning, that we already have this infrastructure in place, that it's there and readily available for us when that new pathogen emerges.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“These auto-samplers are a little pricey. Most wastewater treatment plants already have them. If, for instance, there's some— there's a need of one at your wastewater treatment plant and you guys would like to engage in the sampling, we can provide them for you. They're a little pricey, but we will cover all costs and maintenance.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“These are our pathogen targets or disease targets. The ones in red are the ones we currently have online here in Alaska. Most notable, I wanted to bring attention to measles.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Speaker A
“memorandum of agreement with the Alaska Department of Health for participation in the wastewater monitoring program, brought to you by the administration.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“I also oversee our wastewater monitoring program, and that is what I'm here to talk to you guys about today.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“We collect the samples, they're transported to a lab. We have two labs stood up in Anchorage for this. One is the Department of Environmental Conservation's Environmental Health Lab, and the other is University of Alaska Anchorage AIMS Core Facility.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“We are working along with some public health nurse, that's Julie Bunch, that's in the area, as well as several community members. If the, you know, community council approves this work, next steps will be for me to schedule a visit to come meet with the operators and kind of do an assessment of the facility. And then, if you guys are game, they will start testing as soon as that happens.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“we cover all costs. The only thing we can't do is reimburse for any time. For instance, if an operator needs to drop off the sample at FedEx and it takes 30 minutes from the job to a FedEx location, we don't really have any ability to kind of offset those costs, but everything else we pay for.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“That's what we're really trying to build the system around, is an early detection tool for measles. Then also for a certain subtype of influenza A, H5N1, also known as avian influenza, or you probably have heard it called bird flu.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Speaker B
“I just want to reiterate all the thank yous to the Kenai Senior Connection for their work and their effort to make the March on Meals a success this year. Just pretty incredible, the amount— $120,000. I'm still kind of wowed by that.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“This is done with trend tracking. We do this 1 to 2 times a week, and it really— looking at concentrations throughout the week and throughout the months really gives us an idea about disease and community disease trends in your community.”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Clayton Weingartner
“we can look at the presence of certain disease pathogens like COVID, which also called SARS-CoV-2, influenza, RSV, measles, and pox. Once we get those results from the lab, it's reported to public health”Kenai: 06/17/24 City Council Meeting · Jun 17, 2026
Chris French
“The Native Village of Akarlik requests a conditional use permit for a utility facility within the C Conservation District. The subject parcel is split zoned between the C District and the W Watershed District. The utility facility is permitted use within the W District, therefore, the conditional use permit is needed for the portion of the development that is within the Sea Conservation District zone.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
Chris French
“The applicant proposes improvements to the current water treatment facility including a new water storage tank and new water lines from the tank to the treatment facility. This facility is the primary source of drinking water to the Village of Carluck.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
Speaker A
“I feel like your application was pretty thorough. We appreciate it.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
Speaker A
“To bring the existing utilities facility into compliance with the Sea Conservation Zone, proposed project includes replacing the water tank, water mains, and service lines to provide year-round service— year-round source of potable water. Can I get a motion, please? I move to approve Resolution FY 2026-022.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
Chris French
“The staff finds that the application meets the requirements of the code based on the submitted plan and details provided and based on the proposed conditions of approval. Both the findings and conditions of approval have been incorporated into the proposed resolution FY20— Mr. Mayor, 26-22.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
Speaker A
“We have case number 26-019. Native Village of Karluk requests a conditional use permit on Township 30 South, Range 32 West, TL-2001, Track C, Karluk.”Kodiak Borough: Planning and Zoning Regular Meeting of June 17, 2026 · Jun 17, 2026
James Kaufman
“suddenly committee hearings are being canceled and the majority's caught in a huddle apparently trying to figure out what they're gonna do. So I hope with all of my heart that we can get a clean bill to the floor and we can have a good up and down vote.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
Robert Myers
“nothing in life is guaranteed here. And I think everybody agrees that passing this bill does not guarantee us a gas line, but not passing this bill guarantees we don't get a gas line. This is the last thing that we as a state can do to help this process along.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
Robert Yundt
“we are nowhere near ready to even consider that right now. So it needs to stand on its own merit in a year or 2 years or 4 years or possibly never. But we got to finish the financial modeling. We cannot— I don't think we should be considering jeopardizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity over something that we haven't even finished the committee process on.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
James Kaufman
“I don't know what the effort might be to make it unpalatable to people to vote for it, the old poison pill idea. I don't know how far we might go down that road if it comes to the floor, but I think the best thing we can do is get it to the floor and do it in the light of day, just like we should have been having committee meetings to get the final bill in shape and then send it to the floor. But instead, we've kind of collapsed into this closed-door caucus meetings rather than the committee meetings and the process that we should should be following.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
James Kaufman
“This getting to the point where suddenly things just collapse in committee and then we go into these caucus meetings, you know, behind closed doors. That was really kind of a breaking point that occurred that I think is unfortunate.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
James Kaufman
“It's really just a tax treatment to make the funding formula work for it so that they can get on with it try and get the investors to step up and get the funding package put together, along with the commitments at each end of it, gas in, gas out. So that's all that it is.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026
Mike Cronk
“They've made it pretty clear that you start to shorten that and that jeopardizes the economics of it. They need it to match the loan.”Alaska Legislature: SMIN-20260617-1630 · Jun 17, 2026