Skip to main content

Video Clips

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

Clips from Anchorage AssemblyClear
0:50
Anna Brawley“Okay, on a vote of 3 to 8, um, this item, uh, is not going to be reconsidered, so that motion has failed.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:11
Anna Brawley“that can be— or that must be done by someone who is in the prevailing side. Because it was a no and Mr. Perez-Fría was a no, then that would be in order.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:21
Anna Brawley“Seeing and hearing none, then this item is indefinitely postponed.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:40
Daniel Volland“we do not believe a small number of people should be able to leverage a large number of people by withholding entering into cooperative agreements.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:08
Anna Brawley“On a vote of 5 to 6, um, that, uh, AR 2026-182 S2 as amended has failed the body, or has failed to pass the body.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:10
Anna Brawley“Second. Okay, there's a motion to immediately reconsider by Mr. Perez-Fría, second by Mr. Volland. Do you want to speak to that, Mr. Perez-Fría? Uh, nope, I encourage a no vote.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:56
Anna Brawley“our neighborhood supports CASA, but I think in order to succeed and continue, it needs to be balanced and fair.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:17
Daniel Volland“At this point, I'm a no vote, end of. I will not be voting to move forward in an investigation because I'm not hearing that it can be done in the manner that the assembly is attempting to request via these, these amendments.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - August 4, 2026 ·

0:38
Daniel Volland“it says, the assembly intends to censure as its complete and proportionate response to this matter. Upon Assemblymember Martinez's full compliance with the commission's order, the assembly considers the matter closed and contemplates no further action arising from the conduct addressed in the commission's order. So for my part, I'm not ready to close the book on this, and I'm more interested in activities that are related to Assembly travel and activities related to an official capacity.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 ·

0:26
Trevor Storrs“operational grants, were at $2.4 million, and then pilot this year was just, was at one, how many, $1.1 million. Christina? 1.25.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:35
Trevor Storrs“we will be drafting a letter, and today we're going to go through 2 scenarios. One is ASD and best beginnings remains within our budget and what that looks like and how does that play into the overall look.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:19

Cindy Ruiz

“my concern basically is just that we should continue, uh, funding these operational grants. More families are going to make difficult choices if we don't have these funds, including leaving children at home who are, you know, too young to be home really, and just relying on less stable and maybe potentially unsafe or unqualified child care centers.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:43

Vicki Longleather

“operational grants are the most flexible funding source available to all providers, allowing us to respond to the greatest challenges that we're facing, whether that's staffing, utilities, rent, or keeping parent fees affordable. They have the broadest impact and gives us the most flexibility. Now, capital funds are valuable, but they don't— they're not the ones that keeps the light on or retains staff or makes things more affordable for people. And as a provider, we might close due to the lack of operational dollars.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:43
Trevor Storrs“$480,000 is basically 20% of what was available. So we're actually decreasing things by 80% in that category.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:20
Trevor Storrs“I'm feeling more comfortable with 75 ASD, just has a well-set-up system. High quality, very functional, and 50% really drops the impact. And it's in Title I schools, the highest rate.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:36
Trevor Storrs“the operational was $2.4 million. Okay. So this is, uh, $765,000 divided by— it is, uh, basically a decrease of just shy of 70% of what people got.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

1:13
Kevin Berry“if we've got increased uncertainty in the future, if we can buy capital things, which I think of as one-time purchases, right, that make things better, that's maybe more effective if we can't actually do the operational grants in a consistent and reliable way.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-07-15 Meeting Recording ·

0:32
Eva Gardner“this procedure to ensure a completely independent tribunal requires us to go to a state or a national organization, maybe international, AAA arbitration organization, and pull an arbitrator or a hearing officer from their ranks to come in. So it'd be an independent individual that we'd have to separately retain.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:43
Anna Brawley“none of us have done this in these seats, and any predecessor who has taken this up or anything, any action of this kind, are all gone now.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:32
Erin Baldwin Day“at what point in the proceeding— I mean, is it at would it be at the submission of accusation to the clerk that ex parte communication would start to be a factor in this process? Like, at what point should we start— would we start to be aware of ex parte communication? Since I'm sort of envisioning this as a quasi-judicial proceeding or similar to that.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:25
Eva Gardner“that process should end once it becomes a formal accusation, because the Assembly should protect itself and preserve— really protect the universe of information it's looking at. Because at the ultimate end of this process, the Assembly will be called upon to review hearing officer's decision, and at that point you should only be looking at what's in the record there. So this is the point where we kind of drop the gate on Assemblymember investigation.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:40
Anna Brawley“this is really an exploration and an understanding legally of what we could do, what we can do. If someone is coming to this work session seeking an answer to the question, what should the Assembly do in any given situation, you're not going to be satisfied today because that is not the discussion.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:37
Eva Gardner“at this point, this is where I think we've mentioned this in the last Assembly meeting, um, any investigation should really be limited to the prosecuting agency, which would be the Municipal Attorney's Office, uh, or anyone else charged with that investigation. And so at that point, members, you know, to get the accusation document together, of course there must be some suspicion of wrongdoing, right?”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:20
Anna Brawley“The what you should do is ultimately in the political realm, it's in the personal decision realm, and it is something that everybody has to grapple with.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:24
Anna Brawley“this work session is solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth in Anchorage Municipal Code Section 2.70.030. And of procedures available for the Assembly to express disapproval of a member's conduct.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession solely for discussion and clarification of the removal procedure set forth... ·

0:35
Erin Baldwin Day“unless there's an income element here, we're not actually targeting the folks that we want to target. We're creating access for folks who already have means to jump into a market.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-89 and AO 2026-93, enacting Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 12.110... ·

0:07
Erin Baldwin Day“So why, why wouldn't you attach the incentive to the income of the buyer as opposed to the price of the home?”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-89 and AO 2026-93, enacting Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 12.110... ·

0:27
Robert Doehl“it increases the number of folks who can go from being a renter to that entry level, and that's kind of a strength of it without creating inflationary pressure on the top end. We think we increase the pool that can try to get into that housing and also increase the demand at— increase the opportunity at that level.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-89 and AO 2026-93, enacting Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 12.110... ·

0:50
Ben Bowman“by state statute, the empowering statute that allows the Assembly to to create this tax exemption gives any elected service area board or special tax area the option to, within 60 days of the effective date of the ordinance— we can completely choose when that effective date occurs to give them more time if necessary— they can opt out. They can pass a resolution and say, we're out of this. And it would be opting out only for the portion of the taxes which would go to fund their services.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-89 and AO 2026-93, enacting Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 12.110... ·

0:36
Ona Brause“This is, you know, the first year that we have had the rolling confirmation that the overtime allocations are not right. And so going in there and making them correct based on, one, the actual labor cost that these departments are experiencing, but two, The, um, the, the sort of more, uh, useful is to understand what those hours are that they use on a recurring basis for overtime.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:05
Anna Brawley“you described, you know, the overtime budget has not been updated.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:32
Ona Brause“that's exactly what the reason or the outcome of a continuation budget is. If, you know, we're working from a base budget of about 2010, and if the 2010 overtime number was never adjusted, then that would be the number we are working with every single year.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:30
Anna Brawley“the intent is to bring this to our July 21st meeting. And of course, what we have before us is still a draft. And so part of the discussion today is to help inform that draft.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:54
Ona Brause“the fire department's everyday operations function with a very high number of OT hours. And that number that is currently in the budget, to my understanding and the calculations that I have seen, is the number of OT hours that they work regular shifts plus a little tiny cushion. But because the wages have changed over a number of years and the allocation of those overtime hours, either through secondary callouts where we're assisting the state or the feds for other problems that they may have, and we send firefighters that way and we backfill with OT.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:53
Ona Brause“one of the things that happened this last legislative cycle was, I think it's HB 28, that controls the amount of room that is allowed to accrue year over year between how much state funding we get and how much city funding is required. And that number has never been constrained. It's never been an issue before. But because we're seeing these wild swings in assessments, which changes the BSA— or not the BSA formula, it changes the contribution formula for the municipality.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:40
Ona Brause“The bill changed it so that there is a 4% controlled— this is all my understanding— for a controlled 4% sliver. So I believe what our projected deficit of $12 million— the new paradigm is $6 million as opposed to $12 million. And now we know that there is a control allocation to budget to or to look at to know that's the amount that they could offload to the municipality to a year-over-year basis, so we can plan for it. Previously, there was not necessarily the option to plan for it.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:21
Anna Brawley“we keep uncovering billion-dollar deferred maintenance liabilities, so I think at some point we are attempting to put a number, even if that number is rough, on what our problems are and trying to characterize those.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:24
Sydney Scout“I'm curious, just for comparison's sake, as we think about— we have two scenarios presented that are within the text. Tax cap, and I don't mean to propose that we would take any major action on the tax cap this budget cycle, but I wonder if we could also take a look at what our budget would look like without that in place.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:32
Erin Baldwin Day“if in fact we have some unused FTEs that are being used to fund non-labor items, then let's understand what that's actually looking like and what the departmental needs are, what the true departmental needs are, so that we can respond to those appropriately.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:35
Anna Brawley“in terms of our budget process, so members got, and it's on the calendar now, multiple work sessions on our budget. Those are our typical work sessions that happen in starting in October, moving into November. And so we are really early in our part of the budget cycle.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:42
Anna Brawley“typically every year the Assembly passes a policy priorities resolution at some point in the budget process. We're trying to do it earlier than we did last year, and really, you know, not, not to necessarily to the level of put, you know, $300,000 in this particular line, but really broadly giving direction to the administration as they are actively in the budget process themselves with departments, you know, of what we would like to see, either asking for more information and/or, you know, putting forward some broad priorities or requests.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:49
Ona Brause“let's take the fire department because you mentioned them, and we've talked about the fire department overtime here regularly. We've done presentations on it. So in the relationship where we are working on a continuation number, and that number is based on a specific wage amount, you know, if we're averaging a firefighter hour, let's say it's $50 an hour fully loaded cost. With benefits, etc., and you multiply that by the required number of hours that AFD works OT, which is 3, 4 hours every single shift because they work 56-hour weeks, and the FLSA rules mean that the last 4 hours are mandatory overtime. We do not have overtime in that time frame between 40 and 53, but the 53 through 56 is mandatory OT.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:35
Ona Brause“when it comes to how long do we wait to watch the actuals be different, the answer is depending on the category, anywhere between 3 and 5 years. And so, because we roll averages, if there is a 1-year spike in a spend, we're not gonna change the budget. We're going to recognize how and why that spike happens, try to control to it. If we know that it is an ongoing change, then we would have to address that budgetary change.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:52
Ona Brause“the wages have changed dramatically, and so that that blended average, that $50, we think is now— these are numbers we're working on— we think are now closer to $60 an hour, which means that this OT amount would have to be recalibrated even for their regular accepted approved overtime that's in their operating budget. So those are the kinds of calibrations that we have to make.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:35
Ona Brause“that's what we're doing as part of this budget cycle, partially because the Assembly has requested that analysis, but also because we ourselves, you know, I'm now in the 3-year range where we have stabilized the budget enough to know and compare across pre-pandemic operations and post-pandemic operations what those OT numbers have been and whether or not the, um, the spikes in the OT are attributable to cost increases or they're attributable to operational changes that we have to adjust for.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:56
Erin Baldwin Day“the tax cap is not the only structural limitation or constraint that we have or the only place where we can consider how to better fund services and infrastructure in Anchorage. And I mean, I think there are other things that are in motion that do provide different structural options in terms of how we pay for things. And I think we need to have a— we as a body need to have more conversations about what those tradeoffs look like.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

1:20
Ona Brause“the departments who have overtime and operate on overtime time like APD and AFD have the right amount allocated for their overtime because the overtime amounts— we don't have total numbers on it yet, but they haven't been changed in I think at least 4 years, which means that the labor rates that they're calculated on are out of date. So that's part of the overtime adjustment that you'll see as part of the budget process as well.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

0:56
Ona Brause“we had a whole day of training workshops with directors and for directors on Monday about budget and how do we interact with the budget, what is our budget process”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting ·

← NewerOlder →