Video Clips

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

Kevin Johnson “The delay of fully funding these projects would be a— would mean an increase in cost. As we all know, the longer you wait to fund a project and push it down the road, the more those projects increase in cost. So that is going to be an undue burden for community because not only does that mean that the project price is going to increase in general, it means that the community's max burden is going to increase unnecessarily. So again, I request that everybody in the community please comment on the STIP and let the state know that these projects are ready to roll, coming up in just a couple of months.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kristin Smith “we're— people are gonna noodle on this and be prepared to make a decision next week, and then we'll— that will help get Sam the number that she can plug into the budget.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Wendy Ranney “Ice Worms took care of ourselves, like when we supplied our own coaches and lifeguards. But you're not—. But now it's required to have city employees there during that time. I would be open to them having the volunteer, um, if they met those parameters.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Wendy Ranney “I really am excited that this is moving forward and I want to do whatever we can to, to get it in place without it turning into, you know, we're sitting on technology we can't use and we're putting a burden on folks in the community that it's designed to help.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

David Zastrow “I also appreciate what has been provided here by you, Sam, and Samantha, as far as what we have to consider here, having these three particular options. In particular, the option three, the phased-in for nonprofit contribution, which I think I'm leaning into more.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kristin Smith “we're also taking, um, public comment on Resolution 10-26-30, a resolution of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, establishing the City of Cordova Enhanced 911 surcharge effective January 1st, 2027. The ordinance will repeal and supersede resolutions 08-10-49 and 03-12-20 and provide for collection, accounting, and annual review.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kristin Smith “We should put it in the fee schedule and we can, because then at this point the language can just say up to $2 and then the fee schedule, we can make different categories or definitions or whatever. But exemptions are always a hassle to organize, so we'll be extremely careful in how we word it.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Mike Mickelson “if they're providing one lifeguard, we'll provide the other, but we're not going to provide both or something, something like that. Would that make any difference in applying for grant funds?”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “Obviously, I think we can all agree that resurfacing the road without addressing the armoring that needs to happen is throwing good money after bad because they'll only be back here fixing that when it gets damaged eventually.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

David Zastrow “I do like the idea of in-kind, but one thing that jumps out at me is consistency. So say that the Iceworm team was going to provide a lifeguard, I wouldn't want to see it being kind of haphazardly applied, like one session they have a lifeguard, then the next session they need a city lifeguard, a city employee.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “My understanding is that currently the project scope just includes a resurfacing of the road, which I believe means actually tearing up the existing surface and resurfacing from base grade up. I need to actually confirm what the comment period is for that when it comes to the public comment period, because I, at least from the city's perspective, I do have some concerns about the current project scope. They want to just resurface this roadway while not addressing the storm surge damage that continues to happen.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “Specifically, I know for sure the Second Street project is, is intended to be a one season project. Mostly because it does have so many constraints, which usually constraints would mean that it's going to be a longer process, but they want to reduce the impact that those constraints cost.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “The current STIP shows a significant amount of funding for them in 2027, but it does not currently show full funding for 2027. The reason that this is important is that both of these projects are shovel-ready. Um, the Whiteside project is not only design complete, but the project has been put out to bid, contractor selected. Um, the Second Street project, the design is complete and we are ready to go out to bid here starting in December, pending Federal Highway approval, which is being submitted currently.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Jeremiah Becker

“we fully support public safety and communications in Cordova. Most recently, this last weekend, we had several staff supporting the search and rescue as well as our drone.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

David Zastrow “I also would like to probably find a way where we can look a little deeper into what we need to do to pay for this, but not make an additional burden on individual members of the community.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Mike Mickelson “If we structure our fee schedule so it's an in-kind match.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “the two projects that are on the STIP that are specifically city-related is the Second Street Reconstruction Project That's project number 32378. And the Whiteshed Road— uh, Whiteshed Road and Pedestrian Improvements, project number 27049. Excuse me. Uh, the important points to consider about these projects are both of these projects need full funding in 2027.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kristin Smith “The thought of moving forward without $1 million into '27 is—”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

David Zastrow “consistency is huge. And, uh, I think we need to determine what we're going to do ahead of time, be sure that if something like in-kind is going to be applied, that it's understood and adhered to well.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 2026

Kevin Johnson “They just need that little extra nudge to make that final decision. So as Cordovans are known to do, get out, comment, let them know.”

Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting · Oct 21, 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

Kimberly Rash “So Anchorage Recovery Center will bill for the services that they provide to the individual.”

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

Jamie Lopez

“APD as of September 30th, basically 7 arrests, uh, 85 voluntarily complied, 11 accepted services, bumped up to about a 12 to 13% rate. But if you do the complete total, 152 arrests, 1,313 voluntarily complied, 103 accepted services. Again, it's 7 to 7.8.”

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

Kimberly Rash “if you look at April, there were 3 reported incidents, 2 which were medical requested, and 1 was the substance use on the property.”

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

Thea Agnew-Bemben “now we have 32 housing units, traditional— or sorry, transitional living units, and then we have common spaces.”

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

Thea Agnew-Bemben “the reason that Willow Commons has the operating model that it does, like Director Rasch was saying, is that we didn't have operating funds to add another 32 transitional living units to our inventory. But when we operate them using a behavioral health treatment provider, beyond that startup cost, they are covering the cost because they are billing for their services.”

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

Jamie Lopez

“I looked straight night at basically the— and I said, uh, you can't spend a couple dollars for, you know, uh, basically the puffing in, uh, and more or less there's $100,000 in a slush fund, but the Good Neighbor Fund was used to put people there. Uh, one week later they are still here.”

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

Kimberly Rash “There was 8 transferred to other providers, and really transfers can be a gamut of different things. Either they're not— either the patient or the client is not in the correct level of care based upon their ASAM scores, the client is using or has relapsed, and they would need to go back to detox, or if the client is refusing to engage with the program.”

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

Kathleen McLaughlin

“we took 15 people from the Safety Center and 11 have continued to stay in shelter of those 15, and that's been 10 days. So that we view as a, as a quiet win.”

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

Kimberly Rash “we're still looking at what those options are for when We really do need to increase perhaps a little bit more when it gets really cold. Historically, those is based upon when it's negative temperature, but we have gotten away from warming.”

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

Jamie Lopez

“there were roaches in their room. That is not a trauma-informed experience, uh, that is trauma-induced. And I would ask you to spend a night, uh, where you're going to send— spend someone there.”

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

Kathleen McLaughlin

“we are trying to use the Alex Hotel as a more intensive case management and we're also seeing a lot of hospital discharges of individuals that are medically vulnerable and that wouldn't do well in the congregate setting.”

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

Jamie Lopez

“So there is money for intensive case management, SUDS, uh, mental health police. There is no money to keep people alive.”

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

Kimberly Rash “we have 150 beds at East 56 and 150 beds at Linda's Place. With the passage of 16.120 at the last assembly meeting, the Anchorage Health Department is allowed to go up to 200 beds at one location before assembly approval is needed, so we will continue to surge at East 56 up to 200, and we will be at the maximum of 200 by November 30th.”

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

Kathleen McLaughlin

“We targeted placement for surges ever since the— we started this about a month ago, and what I mean by that is we went to certain areas of the town that had the highest visible homelessness issues. So the first group, we had 40, we targeted Midtown, then we went to Mountain View. Last, this last surge of up to 20, we went directly to the Safety Center and we pulled people out of the Safety Center who were there to rest”

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

Erin Baldwin Day “do we have any idea what just the sort of the raw costs, if we were to remove treatment from the equation and we're just talking about operating micro-units as like a housing intervention. Do we know what that, what that looks like as far as utilities, security, snow removal?”

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

Kimberly Rash “So the person has decided that they no longer want to be in the program or at that location. They can then go to any of their other locations through Anchorage Recovery Center, or they can just exit the program, but they have made that decision on their own.”

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

Kimberly Rash “warming is that an individual cannot sleep all night. They have to stay up and that's due to fire code. And so warming isn't ideal because imagine you having to stay up and someone trying to poke you awake all through the night”

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

Jamie Lopez

“Willow Commons, uh, it is not accessible to homeless with no SUDs issues or those directly on the street. It's not representative at all of the people that are desperate in need, and they have to go through the program in Anchorage Recovery before they can even enter that place. It's sort of a cherry-picked environment.”

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

Kathleen McLaughlin

“we also are seeing people congregating in certain areas of downtown and who are not really wanting to be in shelter but they are needing to be in shelter and we need to figure out how to more aggressively engage in that population because I think they are at higher risk.”

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

Jamie Lopez

“2026 budget to actuals under first responders, it listed basically, uh, HOPE and MDOT, uh, Multidisciplinary Outreach Team, Third Ave Navigation Center, $500,000 in the approved budget, $500,000 encumbered. With expenditures. What the heck is that for?”

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

Kimberly Rash “The expectation is that there will not be substance use on the property, so that is why it's considered an incident report, and the individual is then removed from the property if there is substance abuse.”

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

Kimberly Rash “really, this data that we are collecting today and what I presented today is really the first 6 months. So that is the benchmark to then see what the next 6 months look like.”

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

Erin Baldwin Day “I'm wondering if we have any visibility into what the actual operating costs are for this facility, sort of irrespective of Medicaid reimbursement and things like that.”

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

Kimberly Rash “as of right now, if you look at those financials, they ended in July of this year, so the municipality is not providing any other funding for this operation. So They are sustainable because they're not receiving any other funding.”

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

Kimberly Rash “right now it's 150 at each location, so East 56 and Linda's Place, and then we have the 100 at the Alex Hotel, and then we will be increasing capacity up to 200 by November 30th at East 56. We will remain at 150 at Linda's Place and 100 at Alex.”

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

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