Largest local government in Alaska, covering 1,961 square miles from Girdwood to Eklutna. A unified home-rule municipality combining city and borough powers over a population of roughly 290,000.
Anchorage, AK, USA
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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
“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
“So fixing this is going to involve a real trade-off.”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
“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 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
APD's new drone notice leaves annual-report questions unanswered
APD disclosed drone use at an East 37th Avenue standoff as Anchorage's Assembly revisits a late annual report missing warrant details.

Anchorage assessment appeals hit a record, and the board filled up to cope
Anchorage owners filed a record 1,990 property assessment appeals this year, and the appeals board filled all 21 seats for the first time in over two decades.

Anchorage police shoot carjacking suspect after East 37th Avenue standoff
Anchorage police say a gunman shot at an elderly man, beat him unconscious and stole his truck at 22nd and Glacier around noon Sunday. Four officers shot the suspect that evening outside a home in the 1900 block of East 37th Avenue. Police say both men are expected to survive.

Anchorage coded most sampled spending to the wrong account, audit finds
An Anchorage internal audit found 100 of 139 sampled expenditures coded to the wrong general ledger account, citing the absence of any written definitions for city accounts.

South Anchorage council asks state and city for interim school-route safety projects
Alaska recorded 92 pedestrian deaths from 2016 through 2025, with last year the deadliest, as an Anchorage community council presses for sidewalks and crossings.

Anchorage police report eighth officer-involved shooting of 2026 in two sentences
Anchorage police disclosed an officer-involved shooting on East 37th Avenue in a two-sentence release that does not say whether anyone was struck.

Mayor's substitute puts Anchorage's surveillance network before the Assembly Tuesday
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has filed a substitute surveillance ordinance for the Anchorage Assembly's Sept. 15 meeting. It keeps license plate readers and the Real-Time Crime Center running under policies written into code, instead of the 14-day data deletion and predictive-analytics ban the original sponsors proposed

Assembly members seek equal vote on joint school rightsizing panel
Three Anchorage Assembly members are seeking equal voting power on a joint school-consolidation committee, rejecting the single non-voting seat the Anchorage School Board offered.

The hockey association runs Anchorage's city rinks now, for $10 a year
The Anchorage Assembly awarded the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas to a nonprofit hockey association subsidiary for $10 a year after the prior operator defaulted.

The Port of Alaska's terminal design contract is up 50 percent and rising again
The Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on a third increase to the GHD-WSP JV design contract for the Port of Alaska's Terminal 1 replacement, adding $2.1 million and lifting the ceiling to $16.1 million, about 50% above the 2023 award. The money is a state grant, not surcharge revenue.

An Anchorage officer killed a woman downtown, by the department's account
An Anchorage police officer fatally shot a woman threatening suicide at a downtown apartment building Aug. 18, the department's seventh shooting this year.

Anchorage grant would keep HIV testing and outreach going through 2027
A $114,470 state grant before the Anchorage Assembly would continue the city's offsite HIV education, counseling and testing for high-risk residents through mid-2027.

Landmine publisher takes copyright-strike complaint against APD to Assembly Tuesday
Alaska Landmine publisher Jeff Landfield will tell the Anchorage Assembly Tuesday that the police department used a copyright complaint to remove a Facebook video critical of Police Chief Sean Case. After the Landmine reported on it, APD withdrew the complaint and asked Facebook to restore the video.

Anchorage owns an aging arts center, and repairs keep outpacing the budget
The Anchorage Assembly takes up a $141,330 addition to a heating repair at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, raising the total to $341,330.

An inspector cited Anchorage's ice rinks for safety valves a decade old
A state inspector cited overdue CO2 pressure relief valves at Anchorage's Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas, part of a $936,157 repair appropriation.

Anchorage's port cargo surcharge nearly triples to fund a rebuild
The cargo surcharge at the Don Young Port of Alaska nearly triples Jan. 1 to fund a roughly $2 billion terminal rebuild, reaching goods for most Alaskans.

The mayor wants two more members on a naming commission that cannot meet
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has appointed Rick Harrison and Hilary Morgan to Anchorage's Public Naming Commission, which has twice failed to reach quorum.

Two closed Anchorage school buildings head back to municipal hands
Two closed Anchorage elementary schools are set to return to the Municipality of Anchorage as surplus, shifting decisions about the sites to the Assembly.

Anchorage wants 10,000 homes. Its zoning fight is over where they can fit.
The Anchorage Assembly opens a Sept. 15 hearing on a housing overlay that would allow duplexes, triplexes and cottage courts across much of the Anchorage Bowl.

Anchorage pays new ice rink operator $450,000 plus $10 a year
The Anchorage Assembly voted 12-0 to pay a subsidiary of the Anchorage Hockey Association $10 a year, plus up to $450,000 up front, to run the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson ice arenas, and to cover the Sullivan Arena's operating losses up to $2,885,928 over five years.

Anchorage weighs a five-year road-sweeping contract for Eagle River
The Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on a road-sweeping contract worth up to $2.97 million over five years covering Chugiak, Birchwood and Eagle River.

A mobile home lot near Abbott Road could become business-zoned
The Anchorage Assembly takes up a rezone that would shift a mobile home lot on Elim Street to general business zoning along the Abbott Road corridor.

Anchorage Assembly schedules Hispanic Heritage Month health fair with Spanish-speaking staff
The Anchorage Assembly has noticed three Hispanic Heritage Month events, including an Oct. 3 health fair at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe offering affordable lab testing, breast and cervical screening assistance, and Spanish-speaking staff.

An ordinance would tighten oversight of Anchorage's staffing overruns
An Anchorage ordinance would require mayoral approval and an Assembly report when a department exceeds its budgeted position count, after five years of overruns.

Anchorage marks Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month, now recognized in state law
Anchorage will mark Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the first observance since Alaska recognized it in state law this year.

Anchorage Assembly takes up next year's budget priorities
The Anchorage Assembly takes up budget priorities from its Budget Advisory Commission and two commission appointments at its Sept. 15 meeting.

Free medical, dental and vision care comes to Sullivan Arena Sept. 19-20
Anchorage posted public notice for a free two-day clinic at Sullivan Arena on Sept. 19 and 20, presented by the Mountain View Lions Club Foundation with Remote Area Medical. Services are first-come, first-served, with no ID, insurance or income requirements.

Anchorage weighs paving and expanding the Basher Trailhead lot
A plan to pave and expand the Basher Trailhead parking lot into Chugach State Park from 16 to 52 spaces goes to an Anchorage public hearing Monday.

An Anchorage housing ordinance does more than its title says
An Anchorage ordinance titled for shop-houses would also cut the minimum lot area and remove the minimum lot width in the B-3 general business district.

Anchorage Assembly has one meeting left before a transit safety deadline
Anchorage's Public Transportation Department reported 35 security assaults in FY2025, up from 22 the year before, and total safety and security events nearly doubled to 2,073. The plan says a seven-month vacancy in its Acting Security Contract Administrator post may have affected reporting.

Anchorage weighs $2.8M state payment, most of it for winter shelter
An Anchorage resolution would use $2.8 million in state Community Assistance money to restore $1 million in shelter surge capacity cut earlier this year.

Anchorage Assembly ordinance restores parking permit rule its planning commission voted 8-0 to cut
A rewritten B-3 zoning ordinance before the Anchorage Assembly would require a conditional use permit for parking lots of 50 or more spaces, the exact requirement the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 8-0 in July to strike. The public hearing is set for Oct. 20.

Anchorage weighs who decides when cold-weather shelter opens
An Anchorage ordinance would let the health director decide when emergency cold-weather shelter opens, replacing a fixed temperature trigger.

Anchorage could shrink its minimum lot size by two-thirds under a pending ordinance
An Anchorage overlay ordinance would cut minimum lot size in the R-1 zone from 6,000 to 2,133 square feet and raise lot coverage to 70 percent.

Anchorage wants city land sales weighed by housing, not price alone
The Anchorage Assembly adopted nonbinding guidance asking that city land sales show how they advance housing goals, weighing units alongside price.

A state windfall would restore shelter capacity Anchorage cut this year
Anchorage would restore $1 million in homeless shelter capacity cut earlier this year, using a state payment that came in higher than the city had budgeted.

Anchorage clears a substation plat on quake-prone Port ground
The Anchorage Platting Board approved splitting Port of Alaska land and rerouting Terminal Road for a new Chugach Electric substation on ground the municipality maps as high or very high risk for earthquake-induced ground failure, with no soils report in the application file and no public comment from 553 mailed notices.

Anchorage auditors flag a gap in Assembly travel approvals
An Anchorage travel review found signed approval on every Assembly trip but couldn't verify a second 2025 step on 14 of 15, as a broader spending study begins.

Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness
The federal Administration for Children and Families awarded the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness $450,000 for a one-year project serving Alaska Native households, built on the Yup'ik Calricaraq healing framework rather than standard case management.

A housing-zoning fix has stalled for months before Anchorage's appeals board
An ordinance that would help Anchorage builders exceed dimensional zoning limits has stalled before the city's appeals board since spring, as the administration presses housing.
