Video Clips

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

Clips from Anchorage AssemblyClear

Erin Baldwin Day

“I'm curious, what does that capacity look like within the Office of Venues? Do we have the real human capacity to administer these contracts more thoroughly at this point? And it seems to have been kind of like a recurring question in the Audit Committee is, you know, is our contract administration on point sort of across across the board. So I'm wondering, you know, do we have policies and procedures for this? What do we think about the total workload of the person who will be shouldering this?”

Anchorage Assembly: Special Assembly Meeting · Jun 26, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day

“going back to the audit findings, and this is really sort of an internal business question, but I think it's germane. a lot of those findings were really related to some challenges with contract administration and capacity.”

Anchorage Assembly: Special Assembly Meeting · Jun 26, 2026

Jessica Simonsen

“Who knew spending $5 million was so difficult, right? I think back to our, you know, first conversations as a board is it's a drop in the bucket, right? Yeah, it seems like a lot of money until it's not.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“the baseline facts is we're working off of $5.2 million. That's what they're predicting. Fingers crossed that it's that and not lower.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“we're constrained with 5.2 with this extra burden placed upon us that never existed when we were first creating and implementing programs.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“if we just right now, if we got rid of the money for Best Beginnings and ASD back, and let me rephrase, that sounded wrong. We can move ASD and Best Beginnings back over to another funding source That is a savings of over $2 million, and we could still do operation capital and everything else that we have done.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“Just to remind folks, we— this used to be, again, also by the alcohol tax. It came over— this came over by an assembly member, and we had to adjust the budget.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“when we got and worked for this $5 million, this fund was never to move those things over. I also recognize the city is challenged with other dollars, but, uh, again, it was to make $7 million and not just a $5 million.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“I was quite frank and straight with her going, we kind of need to not know in September. Like, what is your intentions? Like, I don't want us to go through all of this work and then them blow it up. Like, are you gonna get behind this and looking at alcohol? So I'm gonna follow back up also with her and try to have a more concrete conversation.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“I think we're in a much better position if a couple of things happen. One, if we try to develop certain partnerships like that, and I don't know what other one there could be, but to show both the mayor and the assembly, like, we're not just looking to you, we are also strategizing. And the other component is setting up that there's some strong data that shows why this— why we need to separate these dollars and go back to the school.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“I want both Best Beginnings and ASD back over in the alcohol tax. That is my goal.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Jessica Simonsen

“The idea of reopening the conversation of ASD going back to alcohol or entertaining the idea of bringing it to the assembly of maybe 50/50, or I mean, I think the, the fact that it's supposed to be in alcohol tax is hugely detrimental to the ACE Fund, right? Detrimental in whichever way you want to kind of look at it. Hugely beneficial to the community and hurting the $5 million, right?”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“what we're already planning is, is over the summer is to actually meet with all the assembly members and talk about the budget and specifically talk about the alcohol tax and the changes and how it's being detrimental to the fund and to the overall purpose of how this fund was created.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“operational was $2.4 million. Early Educated Childcare Subsidies It is now $1.625 million, and the reason is because we voted in moving $125 million over to the capital and pilot projects because of the mathematical error. So nobody was harmed. ASD is at $2 million. Pilot capital projects is $1.25 million.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“by getting rid of those, it leaves at least $500,000 for, uh, doing some, uh, pilot or capital projects.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“They estimate that it's about $37 per child per year. So the $125,000 supports just under 3,400 Anchorage-based kids. They serve actually just over 6,000 kids, so our funds cover about 56% of, of their project.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“We do not have enough funds to do what we want to do.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“we were un— unbeknownst to us, they actually lost funding and that this was even being looked at, and then Assembly member moved it and the Assembly supported it.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Trevor Storrs

“ASD and Best Beginning funds may or may not, but we're going to base it off that we have those in our budget.”

Anchorage Assembly: ACCEE Fund Board Meeting 2026-06-17 Meeting Recording · Jun 24, 2026

Speaker B

“Mr. Martinez has broken that trust, both in his actions by inappropriate using of funds and by how he communicated, by lying under oath.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - June 23, 2026 - 2026-06-23 17:00:00 · Jun 23, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day

“The former, or I guess still current operator of the facility expressed to us that there were Several hundred thousand dollars worth of work in needed repairs and replacements at the Sullivan, and that those included major concession area work, walk-in coolers and freezers, compressors, LED visual displays, life safety upgrades, security systems, ice rink equipment, sound system components, etc. And I did not do any homework to verify the validity of those claims that were made. So I'm curious, I really want to be sure that if there— that we have a plan for addressing those things that does not leave a new operator on the hook for potentially significant investment that they did not plan for.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re Proposed Management Contracts for the Sullivan, Boeke and Dempsey Ice Arenas · Jun 18, 2026

Anna Brawley

“there's multiple possibilities. Obviously one is we pass them on Tuesday. The second is they get postponed to our next regular meeting is July 7th. A third option is we have a special meeting if folks do want to have time.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re Proposed Management Contracts for the Sullivan, Boeke and Dempsey Ice Arenas · Jun 18, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day

“relating to the, to the audit, I'm curious if we actually have a physical inventory of municipally owned property at this time, because that was one of the things that came out in the audit was that the contractor had never performed or submitted an actual physical inventory of the municipally owned property in the space. And I would hope that our new contractor would begin with an accurate inventory that could then be maintained.”

Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re Proposed Management Contracts for the Sullivan, Boeke and Dempsey Ice Arenas · 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

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

“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

“the larger the dynamic of the recommendation or the sort of prioritization that you would like to see the administration look at, the more time we need in order to be able to do it. And so if it is about reimagining the funding of a specific program or of cutting a specific program, we would need to know that by August at the latest, I think.”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026

Speaker B

“I think where I see this piece, this is sort of like the beginning of the budget conversation. And if you, as you read through a lot of the resolves, mostly these are informational requests, you know, provide for us these scenarios, you know, identify where we, there can maybe be efficiencies.”

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

“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

“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 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 B

“we have until November to really engage with the community and the public, and I think, yeah, there could be ample opportunity for discussion about what do we do and what are, you know, what are the expectations as a community for municipal services when we're facing, you know, a potential fiscal cliff? What are the trade-offs? What future revenue sources does our municipality want to have a serious conversation about?”

Anchorage Assembly: Budget and Finance Committee-of-the-Whole · Jun 18, 2026

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 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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“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

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

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

Kimberly Rash

“after the grant expires, HUD requires us to track the progress project deliverables for 5 years after the end of that grant agreement. The use of the facility as acquired has to stay the same for at least, at least 5 years up to 15 years. And so the, the use does have to stay the same.”

Anchorage Assembly: Housing and Homelessness Committee · Jun 17, 2026