Public Naming Commission Meeting - October 8, 2025

All right, so we, we'll call to order the, uh, September 10th, 2025 meeting of the Municipality of Anchorage Public Naming Commission. Uh, Jamie, could you call roll please?

Yeah, and it's the October 8th meeting, right? Did I forget to—. Oh, October 8th. Did I post you on the agenda? You just didn't change—.

I read that and I didn't even realize it said It's okay. Apologies. Um, Member Harrison. Here. Member Kahn.

Here. Member Heller, I understand will be joining us soon. Member Gupta. Here. Member Galliman.

Here. Member Hess. Here. Chairperson Korn. Thank you.

Um, would someone like to volunteer to do the land acknowledgement? You're on mic, sorry. Sure, I'll do it since I volunteered. I'll do it. A land acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the Indigenous people of a place.

It is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present Indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy. It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity. The Anchorage Assembly would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Dena'ina Athabascans. For thousands of years, the Dena'ina have been and continue to be the stewards of this land. It is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the Dena'ina.

Thank you, Selma. And Jamie, for next month, I'm sure you've got—. Jamie, that's the Public Naming Commission. Public Naming Commission. Yeah.

I didn't catch that either. Thank you. Um, oh, where it says Anchorage. I was wondering, I was like, why are we—. Yeah, all right.

So I don't know if everybody's had a chance to, uh, first, could I get a motion to approve the agenda first? Um, um, I'll second, but we did have something to add. Any discussion? What do we have to add? Um, we wanted to have a discussion on our— on our review of public meeting practices across the US and Canada.

We were discussing before you got here like where to put that on the agenda, and so I just wanted to make sure that everyone—. I think this is the right agenda. Oh, is there a back? All right, so did you want to put that under new business item E? Do you want to add it?

What are we—. Sorry, what are we adding? It is the review of Kuku's document that she sent, review of— is it public naming practices across the U.S. and Canada? Okay, just to have her verbal report to go along with the written report. So where did you want to add it?

E sounds great. Okay, so we'll add that under new business, will be item E. Any other discussion, additions?

All those in favor? Are there any opposition to approving the agenda with the addition of item E under new business? Seeing and hearing none, the agenda as amended is approved. Uh, has everyone had a chance to look at the minutes? We can take a few minutes, go through the minutes.

Um, wasn't a lot at our last couple of meetings because we did have a core.

I motion to approve the previous minutes: June, July, August, September of 2025. We have a second? I second.

Any opposition to approving the minutes from our June, July, August, and September meetings.

No, as you mentioned, we couldn't move on anything since June. Yeah, there was—. So, um, I don't have any other questions. Okay, uh, any opposition to approving it? Seeing and hearing none, those previous minutes are approved.

And that brings us to business. Can we have a quorum? Who joined us? Kevin. Kevin.

Hi everyone, I apologize, my work meeting ran over. I sent an email. Awesome, we got your email. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you for joining us.

We just, uh, did the call the meeting to order. Did Did the roll call, the land acknowledgement. We approved the agenda, adding one item, and we approved the minutes of the previous meetings. So you're just in time. We're into our first item of business, and it is approval of the naming implementation goals and strategies.

This time I'll move to approve. Yeah, I mean, we've been talking about this since June. Jennifer, I think you've been waiting to make that motion. I mean, I'll just say what I said last time. I feel like we've had our chance to make edits.

We could wordsmith this to death. I just want to approve it and move on. We have put it in the calendar to be reevaluated. Awesome, awesome. So we have a motion and a second.

Well, I want to make sure Kevin was able to look at everything too because he's proud.

Kevin, have you had a chance to look at the document?

I have, and, um, you know, I don't have any— I don't have any too large of comments. I generally agree and think that you all have done an incredible job kind of taking this and moving it forward. Um, and I'm actually on my way to you all, so I will be there in person here very soon. Um, but no, I do not have any comments as of right now. Awesome.

Any other comments? No, sounds like Jennifer is first. Any, any opposition to approving the naming implementation goals and strategies for the commission? Seeing and hearing none, our first item of business approved since May.

Second item is the submission form. Did you do the edits that we talked about the last time? I believe we did. We put the naming, renaming, naming, renaming, honoring.

Okay, I motion to approve the submission form. Do we have a second? Seconded. And I think we do, we need to remove the vision, there's a second vision statement on the back. Okay.

So would you—. I think it's a footnote. Footnote, so yeah. But it's on the front too. Yeah, I can, I just have to—.

I think it could be a one-pager honestly. Yeah, we can get this in. The goal is to get it into one page and we can do it. So, We had a— who made the motion? Selma?

Kevin seconded. Any discussion? Oh, finally, I'm happy we're approving this now. Any opposition? Seeing and hearing none, the submission form is approved.

Thank you.

We are getting some business done, fellow commissioners. Next is the bylaws. Um, can I understand why there are certain words highlighted? So those were edits. When Jennifer and I met, we had changed— originally I think it was November meeting to do the elections, we changed it to January.

I think we added the word 'at.' So those are the edits from the —first review that we did, the initial review. And then to understand the committees, is it just the responsibility of the chair or is it the responsibility of the commissioner members?

Well, the chair would establish them, but the commission can say we want this committee or we need this committee. This is basically what we've been doing? Right. Okay, just wanted clarification. I'll move to approve the bylaws.

Second. Moved by Jennifer, seconded by Selma. Any discussion?

Seeing and hearing none. Is there any opposition to approving the bylaws?

The bylaws are approved. Thank you. It's on the calendar to review it too, so that's—. Yes, that's one of the things I really liked about the calendar is the annual review of everything. Cool.

We're in the new business. Oh, now comes the fun part. We need to elect a vice chair. As you know, uh, Christine resigned. She, she purchased a historic house out of state and rehabbed it and is moving to be closer to her kids and kids.

That's cool. So anybody would like to nominate someone for vice chair or nominate themselves? I would like to nominate Jennifer. I would like to nominate Jennifer Harrison. Okay, we have 2 nominations for Jennifer.

Um, and I got a note from Britt. We need you guys to use your microphones, otherwise Britt and Kevin can't hear you guys. Thanks for the reminder.

So we have two nominations for Jennifer for vice chair. Can I get a second? We'll just combine them into one.

Can I get a second for the nomination? Somebody who hasn't nominated— Britt is seconding the nomination.

Any other nominees?

Cool. Any opposition to Jennifer as vice chair? We won't tell her. Seeing and hearing none, congratulations, vice chair. And now, Jennifer, I believe this is your Yours to talk about, the calendar.

Well, me and Selma did it together. Microphone? Oh, which one? Green or— Oh, green is on. Sorry, I forgot that it doesn't turn red right here.

Okay, well, it's actually a group effort. Me and Selma worked on it, um, and basically this is the same thing you saw last month. The only thing that I changed that someone wouldn't have seen before is I added in election of officers to January to match the bylaws. So that was the only addition since this came to you last month. Um, basically this is two different versions, whichever version you think is easier to read or follow or track.

But you'll notice that it often says if needed Because we did want to open up the possibility of not having a monthly meeting. If there were no public naming actions to take, then we wouldn't necessarily have a meeting every single month. So that's why it says if needed, because if no one submitted anything, we wouldn't have anything to hear. Thank you. So, so any comments?

I, I like this format. I think it's easy to read. I think it would be awesome posted on the website, even with the submission forms. It lays it out clearly and it can help keep us on track. And I also appreciate that you put in there if we don't have any business, we're not going to meet.

But the code says is municipal boards and commissions shall meet monthly unless they have no business to conduct. It's respecting everybody's time. We don't want to meet just to meet. And we can always, if we need to, something comes up, we can call a special meeting. Our committee could look at something.

So I just like this, and I— Jennifer and Selma, I think you did a Great job.

So any other comments on the calendar? Can I get a motion to approve? Uh, motion to approve. Moved by Selma. Second?

Second. Kevin's seconding. Any discussion? Any opposition to approving the wonderful calendar?

Seeing and hearing none, it is approved.

So the next item is, I had looked at the Landmark Preservation Board document from Seattle and I drafted, you know, it could be reformatted, the formatting could be better, this is pretty quick. That I threw together, and I thought this is something that we could have posted our handout with the submission form. And since this is our first draft and we haven't really discussed it, I think this is an opportunity to look at it, wordsmith it, make some changes. So I would appreciate some feedback that you might have.

I guess the first thing I wanted to highlight was I appreciate, um, in the third paragraph how you pull out, uh, streets and roads are governed by, you know, different, different things, because I think a lot of people could come to us wanting to change streets So I think that's good to point out that that's—. Thank you to Jamie. When I sent her the draft document, she pointed out that we needed to clarify that roads are a little bit different issue.

Um, I had a quick question, uh, in regards to, um, like public places. So, you know, as someone who maybe is new to the city city and isn't necessarily familiar with what is a public space or Google or like what is a private space. Is there a map? I mean, they can go to like the parcel map online and everything, but maybe we should potentially include a resource on the application where people can go and click a map and show what, what places are considered public places for the municipality, um, just in case they are thinking of, oh, my local park a landmark that maybe is run, run by like a somebody that isn't part of the municipality, but they think it is, and they're able to check and see if that is a public landmark or something like that. I'm not sure if that exists already or if that would be potentially something you all would feel would be a good resource or tool for someone to be able to have access to.

I think I'll have to look at the You know, it's probably a GIS website. We have a GIS website that has literally dozens of maps and map layers on it. Jaden? I think I asked GIS in the past when Christine was still on, and there is a way. It's going to take a page to describe how it wants to push to get to show just the publicly owned lands.

But unfortunately it isn't like an easy way to say MOA-owned lands. It's like, it's not addresses, it's the degrees and—. [Speaker:KATHRYN] It's a grid map. [Speaker:KATHRYN] Yeah, so it's a little bit rough, but if you know where it is in the city, you could then find it in the city and click on it and find it. Like I went and just found Goose Lake Park because I knew where it was and I scrolled in and tapped it and you can find it that it's on the Venice Alley.

So it's a little bit rough, but I can figure out how to make it available on the website. Link it to the website and show them how to navigate to it. Get to that layer of detail. That view. So it is possible.

It may not be simple to use. And I think part of the issue too is when you talk about public places, what you're going to name. Most municipal parks are municipal land. The only exception, I think, is Davis Park, which we lease from the federal government. So that's good.

They're going to— parks are going to be— municipal parks are generally going to be municipal land. And then there's municipal buildings, but— and streets. But other than that, we own vacant land. But I never seen an effort to name a piece of vacant land. So, and I think part of it would be on, on staff and the commission to— when somebody suggests naming something, to determine whether or not it's municipal.

But we can provide them with a link to GIS maps that can assist them.

I do have a suggestion. I work with a lot of information design to help simplify stories. A lot of that is in the area of civic engagement and helping get information out to people simply and easily. I think this is a very cool project for the I-team because the idea of the place naming and where those place names come from, that That is tied back to things we already know. We do have a GIS map with data that says what is municipal land, what is municipal thing, what is not.

That would be a very easy additional variable to add in. And then what is so complicated is that where that currently lives is in a GIS map of the city that contains multiple other layers, so it requires someone knowing how to navigate and turn those different things off. This is something though that because the data exists a separate map could be made for the Public Navy Commission page. And I do think that that is probably a quick and fun task for the IT team to take on because this is right up their alley.

Are you suggesting that we contact our friend Brendan? I am suggesting we contact Brendan. I think he would love to work on this. Did you want to reach out to Brendan, or did you want me to? I'd be happy to.

I think I'm turned off of this in one week, but I'm also happy to reach out to Brendan and say, hey, I think this would be a really neat project for the IT team. Thanks, Britt. Let us know his response. I know he loves a challenge. He does, yeah.

And I, I know this data exists, so I think it's more getting it in front of people. He's in an easy-to-digest manner. Awesome. I love that idea. Actually, I would probably use that database in my office.

So I have a thought. I don't necessarily have an edit. I just want to make sure that, that it— you think it fits in with the instructions. Um, but I was thinking about if there was a proposed Denaina Athabascan word for a place, does our instructions include the person telling you what the word means?

Because like if you put, you know, the name for bear, you would want to somewhere say that word means bear in English. So I wasn't sure if that was included in our instructions by saying Indigenous significance, or if we need to specifically pull that out. I like that idea. I think under Indigenous significance, you know, could we add a sentence that, you know, how would you word it?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't, I don't have the edit, but I have the concept that it might It is recommended to have the definition of the name if we choose to select an indigenous definition or translation of the name. Yeah, so it is recommended to have the definition of the Indigenous word if it is being requested for renaming purposes. For naming. For naming purposes.

For naming purposes. Thoughts? So, indigenous significance: any historical or cultural relevance to the Dena'ina Athabaskan people or other indigenous Alaska peoples, period. It is recommended to have the definition of indigenous word if it is being requested for naming purposes.

Huts. Are you wanting the word definition or translation? I think— I was going to speak to that. So I actually like the word definition because sometimes it is not a straight translation. It's not— it's a phrase.

Yeah, it's already housed. So that seems more encompassing, I guess. Well, I like I thought about it. At first I said translation and then I thought about it. And I think if I was a local indigenous person, I think the word translation isn't as nice a definition.

Or isn't as respectful a definition. I do have an undergrad in anthropology, so. Just saying. See, I knew you knew what you— So, did we want to incorporate that sentence?

Cool. Um, any other comments? Do you need me to restate it? Um, if you want to, otherwise I can listen to the recording. I have it written down too.

Okay, maybe I'll just see the picture of what you have written down. Okay. Okay. All right, any other thoughts on the form? And we will reformat it and make it look Can you elaborate what you mean by other considerations?

Any other cultural, historical, or geographical parallels? I took that out of the code, so—. Do we want to have— do we want that to be visible? Because we reiterate that with the other bullet points above.

I do think it's nice that it matches the code because if that comes up later too, it's our—. It just reflects what's encoded. Okay. I think the intent of that language was if there's something cultural, historical, geographical that doesn't fit in the other boxes, because something may come up that nobody thought of.

A motion to approve this with the change under the definition of Indigenous citizens. Britt, are you seconding or rubbing your eye? Seconded and rubbed your eye. All right, any further discussion? I mean, other than—.

And to include the I-team to create a map for what the plans are anyway. Oh yeah, we're gonna—. Brit's gonna call. And I already reached out to Brendan.

All right, any, uh, opposition to approving the document with the addition of Selma's sentence? The I-team creation of the map. All right. Seeing and hearing none, it's approved as amended.

So, oh, this next one is me. So the Public Health Department Director and member of the mayor's staff had contacted me. They are interested— the city owns the Golden Lion building, and they are interested in naming the building. And I've explained to them the work of the commission, what we do. And what they would like the commission to do is to suggest 3 or 4 names, potential names to them, and then they will look at those and they will pick one of them and submit a form to name it.

But they, they wanted us to take a preliminary look and make some suggestions. And it is permanent housing, uh, The people who live in there, the residents, they have leases.

So I was thinking this is something we could all think about before our next meeting and come to our next meeting with some suggestions. We could reach out to different community groups. I think it's a great opportunity for us. I do have some suggestions that are out there since we talked about it briefly. The last time we talked about it being in the middle of 3 different districts, um, and I thought about some names, um, just considering that factor and the history behind Golden Lion.

I know everyone has memories going to Golden Lion growing up, um, so I thought about like Golden Bridge Housing because it's a bridge of 3 different communities into one. As well as The Hearth on 36th, because it's right there on 36th Avenue. Um, so there's a few options out there. Um, True North Housing was another one that I wanted to throw out there as well. We did speak on it heavily the last time that we were here.

Um, and so I just— I thought about it after the meeting on the drive home, and because I drive by it every day, so I thought about I've been thinking about this for a while, so I just wanted to throw those options again. The Hearth on 36 was one. Golden Bridge Housing was another one, just because it has 3 different bridging communities and might involve the name Golden in it. And then True North Housing. The Hearth makes me think of the pizza place, the fireplace that was in the restaurant.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, I like True North.

And I do have a— I can't tell, I can't see who's in the room, where I'm at in the order of comments. Go ahead. So yeah, you're the second one. Okay, great. Um, so one of the things— so I have two comments.

One, Selma, love your names. I love the feeling that they evoke. I think that's great. With branding and naming, one of the things that will be important is making sure that the name does not cause confusion or is not the same name as something that already exists. So there are some rules around that.

So like True North, for example, is the name of a rehab center that provides services all across Alaska. And so that— which leads also into my next comment. So I actually live in the Geneva Woods neighborhood, and I moved in post the last big round of Golden Lion discussion, if I will put that. Um, one of the things is with naming, because this is going to potentially be the first renaming, there is chance for their step to be very politicized. And so I do want to bring that to the commission's attention.

Uh, the Golden Lion, um, is a very— has been a very hot political topic. And so if that becomes the first thing that we rename, definitely consider how the— I don't want that to take over the public naming commission's intent and begin to politicize the Public Navy Commission for— because it is here to do good things. Um, the other thing that I would note with that is the city does have an RFP out right now to turn the Golden Lion from permanent housing into a treatment center. So there is an active RFP out on the city's website. So that is also another thing.

So that naming may come to us, may come to the commission sooner, the naming change, so that the treatment center knows what it's operating as. But I do want to put out there that it is different from how— what it— the intent of the location is different from what it is currently operating as.

Thank you.

So we probably need to keep that in mind over the thinking of names that it's going to be treatment center because I believe— I'm sorry, I should have realized that— I believe that was the condition when one of the conditions when we got property from the state was it be because we used, uh, alcohol tax money, I think, to purchase it. So it had to be used as a treatment center within a certain amount of time. Correct. So that time is up. So I do just— I do think that it's important for commissioners as they weigh all the factors, especially because it is the first— it's going to be one of the first opportunities for us to rename something in the Anchorage community, um, to be aware that there are potential for politics and things like other things like that at play, regardless of how any of us feel about it, um, just to be aware of that as we go through it, because this is a public process and So being sensitive to that as we go through it and knowing all the intention.

And also, this, this is a— maybe talking through as a group how we want to handle those sorts of issues that come to the commission, because it's potentially coming earlier rather than later. But even if this one did not— we're not coming up— this is another option that something that could be coming to the table a year from now, for example. I, I think that's something— it's a good point, Britt, because when it's converted to a treatment center, I suspect it may ignite some concern in the neighborhood. It's been quiet, pretty quiet since it's been used as housing, but converting it to— changing it to a treatment center may cause some residents to express their concerns.

Correct. And with my background too in public relations and branding, which is why I'm on this committee, knowing too that we want to encourage— we want to always encourage healthy public civic discourse and transparency. And so changing names as major changes are also happening can cause confusion. So that's just something else that I would, I would bring up to be thinking about in the process. So I still think it's a good idea to, when someone asks for names, to make suggestions for names, but to also go in knowing the larger picture.

Thank you. Any other comments? I'm your RC.

Jennifer? I was just going to throw out that I was thinking of geographical when I was driving by. Yeah, and I was like, what can you see behind it? You know, what can you see like around it? Not like— because I don't know like what it looked like when it was plain, you know, no building.

But I was like thinking, well, what do you see when you, when you look at it. And I just wanted to point out that when you look at it straight on, you see the ridge of the mountain range behind it. And so I thought— I don't have a specific name, but I just thought when we think about all the different, you know, cultural and geographical significance, that you can see this ridge of mountains behind it. The from flying up the mountains, and so I thought there might be a name that might evoke, you know, looking at this strong mountain spirit. Maybe some sort of support.

I wonder what the Dena'ina, Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina, Athabaskan word is for the mountain. I think the mountain. I do have a quick question. Is— so do we have any information on what the surrounding businesses or the neighborhood— because so if you look at the map to the right, it's all neighborhood, and then to the left it's all business. So, yeah, so it's like really cut down the middle in the map sense.

So I'm just wondering if we have any data on perspectives of those from the business community and the, uh, residential community that live around the Golden Lion. I just, I'm just wondering if we have any like written information about how people have viewed it in the past, how they currently view it, how they feel about it, their hopes for it, things like that.

I doubt we do. I mean, but I think during this process, or any process when we're naming, we, we have to be clear the commission has nothing to do with the use of the property. We're looking at potentially naming it. And normally, so we're going to suggest 4, 4 names, 3, 4 names to the health department. They're going to submit the actual request for the naming.

Have we asked them to provide a narrative on what they're planning to use at the building? We could, because that's kind of following the process submission form, correct? Well, they're going to submit a submission form. I mean, we don't have to do this. We can actually request that they create a submission form, but they— I think they've had some discussions and they wanted some suggestions.

So it's not an actual naming process. We're not recommending to the mayor or the assembly We're just providing thoughts or some possible suggestions to the Health Department. I mean, it might have them think about it too if they do the submission form about their intent of using that facility for whatever reasons. It's like, I mean, an RFP is out, but how quick are they going to be doing it? How quick are they turning it into the submission form?

I don't think ask questions. They could provide information, but it doesn't does ask requests about the use of a building. I mean, one of the things that we have talked about though is looking at land use plans, and we did talk about that, whether we wanted to use any other plans that are happening in the neighborhood to make sure that it's like cohesive and in line with other things that are happening. And so I remember like Midtown, for example, that there is a Midtown business, business plan. Yeah, and Christine was working on gathering some of that.

So like, that would be something. But again, this is a little bit cart before the horse because these are things that we could look at or request if an actual submission came in. And so I, I agree with Daryl, it's not up to us how a space is used or anything like that. I would— and I would recommend that this commission be non-political, like, that it stay out of anything related to that. So in some instances, though, it's going to matter where those names originated from, right?

Like, oh, the Public Naming Commission made the suggestion of a name, so then we submitted a name in response to that suggestion, right? Versus submitting and then we say, hey, we'd like this other information to back up, and then we can go through a process that way. So, so I would just think about it as, you know, I suspect when the health department submits a form and the official process starts and we have a public hearing I would be willing to bet money we're going to have people show up and testify against the use of it and not the suggested name. It's bound to happen. And then we're going to have to clarify when somebody starts speaking that we have no say in the use of the building.

And that's the difficult part to me. It won't get political. Because it's going to get messy and political. And this is the very— this is like— The Public Naming Commission needs to get its feet underneath it. Which I wonder if this is a good opportunity to say maybe we don't give them name recommendations, but we give them a framework to create a name that they can be proud of, or a series of names that they can choose from.

You know, we, we would, you know, we're not going to give you names to choose from. What we're going to give you are the tools and resources and frameworks to decide on what are ways to decide on a name using geographic location, history, um, community engagement, things like that. These are ways for you to be able to create a name, and here are common ways to do that. And maybe that's a way to give a little bit more power to them, um, and to give them some direction in creating that. And then that way, if we're kind of addressing what Grace is saying, it kind of removes us from maybe a blowback or any type of insinuation that may be negative towards getting the commission up and going, uh, things like that.

But, uh, you know, there's another way to kind of think about it that way too. Or do we provide them a submission form, the, uh, uh, submittal requirements form, and a copy of the code and tell them come to us.

Yeah, which is what we literally just finally got to do business to do, right? So we wouldn't have been able to say that to them a month ago because we just finally approved. I think those 3 documents do a good job of outlining the process and the intent and what's necessary.

I think they were— I think they were trying to punt it to us because they are not sure what direction they want to go. But I think it's better if they come to us with something rather than asking us to provide something to them, because you're right, it might blow back on us.

It— I mean, sorry, go ahead, Britt. Sorry, please go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, I agree with, I agree with that, and I always like to operate from the standpoint of giving everybody the benefit of the doubt. And so it could be too that not so much punting, maybe they have an idea, but we also as a group have spent some time talking about how do we rename places and where does, where does that come from? Does the Public Naming Commission come up with places and put it out for requests for names, right?

So we're, we're in real time answering these questions. So, so the health department came to us, hey, we've— this is a— this is a— we can all agree this is a place that they're looking to rename. I think now that we have more information, we just did business to finally clarify the bylaws and the procedure for renaming, and we have a submission form. We give them those documents and they can start there. And if they don't— and they could even engage in discussion or questions or ideas about their names, right?

Like, it's not just— but that start with a submission form. And, you know, I think they, between their staff, their partners, some of the people who are currently living in the facility, even they could get feedback and come up with an idea and come to I agree.

They can do the work. And I'm a, I'm a big fan of rebranding and changing names when it can help people move forward. So I also, I want to just make sure that we have a process at the commission for how to navigate that when there are things that are more heated in the community. And you know, what the director told me was that one of the main reasons they want to rename is because of all the negative connotations with the Golden Lion name during the process a few years ago. And they want to— hoping a new name, rebranding, can help move past that.

So they can come up with a name they think will help Any other thoughts? I guess just for my— this is my second meeting, so I guess for me I just want to say, uh, I just want to say thank you and express my gratitude for, um, allowing me to, uh, or for welcoming me to, um, this commission and for all the work that has already been done and for allowing me to be able to build off of this and and grow with you all in, you know, renaming different places in Anchorage. So I just wanted to express my gratitude for being here and for allowing me to be a part of this commission. So thank you all very much for that. We're happy to have you, Kevin, and we're going to start getting into the fun part in the next couple of months, I think, actually get down to the meat and potatoes of what we're supposed to be doing.

I think we have 2 or 3 potential namings coming up. KFKD Park, I think there's a community council once in the area wants to rename that park. They passed a resolution. I think they're waiting to— until we had our forms complete. There's been an effort, the South Edition Community Council wants to rename Pioneer Park, so I think we're going to see something from them in the near future.

And then the Golden Lions So we're going to have at least 2 or 3 coming up in the short term. So I will reach out to the Health Department Director tomorrow and we'll send her the forms and tell them to come back. Okay. Um, I thought it might be helpful, um, when you say here's the form, here's the instructions, to say something about during our During our discussion, we, we talked about the significance of what the different things this building has been, all the people that used to go there when it was a restaurant. And we looked at— we talked about the significance of what you can see from the geographical.

Also, here's where you can find Dena'ina Athabaskan names if you want to use that. You know, give them like— just give them some like, here's some help, I guess. We're not giving you any names, but these are things that we would look at if we were in your shoes. So they have— point them in a direction. I was thinking the same thing because there were some good suggestions here tonight.

And don't forget that there was Happy Memories there before it became Vintage. And the best seafood Any other thoughts? Well, I was just going to say, I think for me, one of the reasons I joined— one of the reasons I wanted to join this commission was because, um, you know, and I think Britt got to this a little bit too, and it's been discussed, naming things is hard. And a lot of ideas, a lot of different— a lot of different people, places, um, methods of doing it, and For me specifically, you know, is the commission more of just a rubber stamp saying, yes, this is okay to go forward, or is it also a commission that is able to give resources and frameworks for people to be able to decide on how they move forward with naming something, um, versus us putting out a form and saying, here you go, just let us know what you want and we'll decide on it, um, or are we going to be able to supply them resources and ways to be able to decide on how they want to name things and create more of a positive influence in kind of a soft power kind of way out into the community. Um, and I think for me what I'm hearing here is we kind of want the latter.

We, we want to of course be here to have approval and give guidance on it, but we also want to give those resources and those ideas in that framework to guide people to name, putting a name on something that they're going to be proud of and that's going to be, have a legacy to it. So, um, that was also a little bit, I guess, of a background as to one of the reasons I wanted to join with this being a new, uh, new commission and whatnot as well. So just that, just wanted to add that in. Good thoughts. And I think on our webpage we do have links to some resources, so if anybody has any suggestions of resources that we could provide to people who turn in submission forms, we could put links to those, that information, those web pages, those organizations on our web page for the Commission.

That's a great idea. Any resources we could provide people to assist them. All right, any other thoughts? That brings us— cuckoo! To your report on your wonderful review of public naming practices across the U.S. and Canada.

Yes, thank you. Um, I would like to start by saying that when we were going through this, when we had started talking about, um, looking at how other states, other cities, um, in Canada and U.S. are going through their process, we were also discussing what the intake would look like. And as we have already approved that, um, I would just like to share that I think this, uh, review that I did, um, is very validating for us as a commission because we're seeing that the steps that we're taking, the conversations that we're having, are, are steps and conversations that other cities have also had. And so a lot of what you are going to see in this document reiterates the conversations we've had around, you know, cultural and Indigenous naming processes and, you know, the criteria for that, and also around living versus past community members and how do we honor, honor, honor them. And one of the things that I think really stood out for me in this review was the Indigenous naming pathways that's on H2.

Some municipalities are now writing dedicated Indigenous naming policies or embedding consultation steps. I found that to be something that really stood out, and I think a few of the places in Canada have a volunteer person or, or a group of people who provide consultation education on, on names specifically rooted in languages that are not English. And so maybe in the future when we have a stronger foundation built, that is something we can look at. I feel like that would also then give our, our public the opportunity to be involved with this commission without fully committing to being a part of mission and give some of that agency to the people whose language, you know, we are, we are choosing for renaming purposes. So that was one thing.

And the second part of this that I thought was really interesting was signage options, documentation and signage, where for some, some places when renaming was not possible for whatever reason and they still wanted to honor or commemorate the, the name that was being proposed, they provided signage. They just had a little context for the place where they were like, yes, this is called Mark Street, but also this and this and this happened on this street. And, you know, it is, it is important to honor, honor the things that have taken up, taken place on this, on land. And so that was one of the other things. And I think that was a city in California— do not quote me on that— that was in Irwindale.

I have no idea where Irwindale is, but I have it written here. Um, and so those were two things that I thought of as something we can incorporate into our own commission work when once we have some of these foundations laid out. Happy to answer questions on my review if you have any. I have a question for the Indigenous Naming Pathways. Thank you for putting this wonderful document together.

I guess my question is, um, for the naming policies are embedded consultation steps, I think that there is a tier difference between, like, if we were to work with a Tlingit tribe where the mayor is the representative for the municipality of Anchorage, versus if we have someone from the, uh, you know, someone that is part of the Athabascan Dena'ina people, um, versus someone that is from the Aleutians that wants to name a place here in Anchorage that is based off of their grandma who lived here in Anchorage but is from Akka, for example. You know, I just wonder— I feel like with this there may need to be some piecing out of how you engage with that in a different way.

Yeah, because there could be where it's, you know, you have the formal consultation between Anchorage and Inklutna, but then you also have the traditional stewards of these lands, the Dena'ina people. And then you also just have tribal members that are outside of— traditionally outside of Anchorage. So I think if we do move forward with Indigenous naming pathways, we need to think about how we're going to approach those different naming terraces or ways of thinking. That's an initial thought on that specifically, but I do want to kind of review the rest here very briefly. Thank you.

Is the Indigenous chair— I mean, not chair— Indigenous Commission seat still vacant? I think so. Yes. Have we reached out to the tribes?

I guess I told some of you at the very beginning But I specifically talked to them twice in the last month, and most recently I talked to Faith. She's the acting tribal administrator for Oklutna, and she was interested in putting an application to be on the commission with the idea that she would kind of go back and talk to Oklutna if if there was any, um, any discussion. She definitely wanted, um, like to go back and talk to their, um, their leadership before she like necessarily spoke. But she's interested in serving, and she actually asked for the virtual link because she's going to listen to this meeting, or at least try to listen to the meeting. She had some other stuff going on, so she was going to do it like on her cell phone, but it doesn't look like she's been able to log in.

But she wanted to see what we do and what it's like, you know, before she jumped in with both feet. Um, but there's some interest. When we get the recording uploaded, I'll try to remember to email you so that you can send her the link so that she can at least listen to it when she has time. Great, great. Yeah, because she was just, you know, doesn't know what we do, doesn't know what it's all about.

I love— also, go ahead. Britt was gonna say something. Go ahead, Britt. I love all this discussion. I really appreciate this review that was done.

This is fabulous. Um, I'm especially excited about the idea of Having more, like, better policies about how to come up with Indigenous place names beyond putting it on one commission member, right? So I love the idea of being able to engage other groups. Um, Kevin, I think that that's an excellent question that you're asking too about how do we want to handle— yes, there's stewardship of this land, and there's also other people or groups that live here as well. So recognizing all of that anchored to sort of the urban center for our entire state?

How do we want it, you know, which languages, which indigenous place names are used? What do they mean? What do they translate to? So I think it's just a, it's a conversation that we need to continue to have, and no one of us is equipped to answer all of that. And so the more partners and people that we can do consults with, I think it's great.

And I would encourage like checking in with like Cook Inlet Tribal Council with Akutna Tribe, with K'Inik Tribe, and different groups, maybe even First Alaskans Institute folks who might be able to help us navigate those conversations so that they're done really well. Anybody's reached out to First Alaskans? You might want to do it after AFM. I, I, I love this idea of a more formal structure to how we do this. I've served on multiple naming panels and staffed multiple naming panels under the old code.

Oh, she's hopping on. And we didn't have a structure, so the only Indigenous group that I ever reached out to, I always made sure I contacted the Klutna and worked with them, or would ask them to appoint somebody to the naming panel. And it was very beneficial and very helpful, but it was focused on one organization because it wasn't a formal structure for how we would do it. So I love this idea. Do you want to welcome Faith?

Faith, have you joined us? Welcome. Yes, good evening.

Would you like to introduce yourself? Sure, yes, if it's an appropriate time. I'm Faith Rookovich-Ninkoff. I'm currently serving as the interim tribal administrator for the Native Village of Eklutna. I've been originally from the Pugilov Islands and have been working for the Native Village of Eklutna for 7 years.

So I'm really happy to be here, and thank you, Jenny, for letting me know about this.

And we are excited that— we're excited that you're interested in applying for the Commission, Faith. We're hopeful you will apply. Yes, sir, I do plan it. I just kind of wanted to observe today and kind of learn more about the Commission and what you guys do. You know, this is a great time to join the Commission because we're actually busy figuring out what we —what we're going to be doing.

It's a great time to join, be in at the, you know, as we kick off the commission and start doing our work.

Awesome. I look forward to it.

Thank you. Any other discussion of Kuku's documents? I'm just— I'm a little confused. So is this just a reference to original set? We— okay, so this is going to confuse people.

We already have all of this. This is not for the people, it was just for our group to review, um, as we were coming up with, um, all of our processes to see what other cities are doing, um, across the nation. Um, so there's no motion to approve this or anything? No, I do think Um, just to reiterate, I think that this, this review was really helpful, and I have included links, um, in here as well if you want to go look at them yourself. Uh, again, going back to what I originally was saying, was this was very validating because we are already having those conversations and also following similar processes other cities have.

Um, and so this also kind of gives us a little bit of not to use the words evidence-based approaches, but it does give us a little bit of more weight knowing that we have also done our work of looking at how other munis are going through this, this process if questions arise. But yeah, thank you. And I appreciate you have the links. I'm actually going to visit some of these and When we were working on rewriting the code 3 years ago, I actually did research some of the same cities. So these just— they got some great programs in some of the cities.

They do. Jennifer. I'm not sure. I just wanted to kind of like move the thoughts forward. You mentioned in your document the Terris Initiative in Alberta provincial policy.

Yes. Um, so she has some examples, but that there's not specific websites. Um, I was just wondering if we wanted to like kind of step forward on this idea that we're interested in creating Indigenous naming policies or embedding consultation steps, if we wanted to ask for like a work group or, you know, to kind of think more about this and maybe like dig up those examples, um, to kind of keep that conversation going. Not, not produce something for us to approve next month, but just if there were some people that wanted to kind of dig into that a little bit more and bring some information back. Anybody like to volunteer?

I can, I can Good. Any other commissioner want to volunteer? May I have a clarifying— I have a clarifying question. Um, so would this be in addition to this document here? So it would be like a kind of a companion?

So this, the way I'm reading this, we want a policy, so it wouldn't be part of that. Necessarily. It would be a separate policy on how we conduct our business, how we— that's, that's for how people submit this directions, guidance for submitting the form. But correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what we're looking for is an internal policy for the commission on how we deal with Indigenous, uh, place name. And because it's a policy of the commission, it wouldn't need approval of the assembly or anyone.

It would just be our body who would approve it. It would be how we would operate. I'm seeing a couple— I'm seeing a yes, but I'm also seeing a couple thoughts. Jen? Oh, my brain?

Yeah, because I see that maybe you have a different idea of what you were thinking. No, not necessarily a different idea. I was just kind of thinking that we needed to give other people tools. I was actually thinking that this would go on like the website as a resource of like, this is how you think about Indigenous names. But if we do consultation steps, that's It's different.

I guess a policy is different than consultation steps is different than here's some resources if you want to do Indigenous naming. I think we have a work group. Yeah, they can do that. That's what they can decide about. Is it two separate issues?

Is one internal and is one guidance for the public? They can put something in the chat. Um, so first of all, Britt Rose raised her hand, and then we're gonna have to ask Faith to put her question verbally so that it goes on the record. All right, Britt. Sorry, I can't hear Jamie.

Can she— Britt? I can't hear her. Yeah, I was just—. I was just giving Daryl guidance on how to— what to do next. Oh, sorry.

Okay, uh, so one of the— I, I think a policy is nice, some sort of process for how to handle this. One, to again be respectful and to encourage additional Indigenous place naming to happen in our community and not have that be reliant on one commission member to steward that through. So that's why I like the addition of more resources, and with that, not just good intention resources but actually some sort of policy to help move that along. One of the things I would be cautious of is how we would handle a well-intentioned but non-Indigenous person proposing an Indigenous place name and not knowing, not necessarily having the proper authority, respect, you can name it to be able to provide that name and the position that that puts the commission in at that point. And so that's why I think having more policies that encourage Indigenous people to participate in that process is, is good, so that this isn't something where you have to go back.

It's worth thinking about how to build this and do it in the best way possible moving forward. It's not to add extra steps, it's not to make it more difficult. It's to make sure that we are being respectful and doing, doing this in the most efficient and well-intentioned way possible. Thanks, Britt. Faith, could you verbally articulate your comments, please?

Yes, I had a suggestion that we could also If we get permission from the chairs, presented to the joint meeting of the Anchorage Assembly and the Native Village of Eklutna. That agenda has not been finalized and it's scheduled to happen later this month. It could be a discussion item for the bodies. [Speaker:CHIEF_HARVEY] The policy, the proposed policy? [Speaker:KATHRYN] Yes, and I think we can get good dialogue from that if Um, somebody from this commission would like to come to the meeting.

Do we have a volunteer to go to—. Do you have a date by chance, Faith? Jamie, is it October 23rd? Is that the one? Yes, it's October 23rd, and Christopher Constant was in my office today.

He's going to be in Japan, and so he's reaching out to, um, President Leggett to talk about rescheduling it. Okay, I'll stand by.

Thank you. So Jamie or Faith, if you could let us know when it's rescheduled. Yeah, I will do that. Um, I just wanted to share that I, I do think, um, Keeping it at a government-to-government level that this meeting provides will be very respectful to the Kootenai. And also, I think having that meeting before anything is decided is also a great way to invite them to have more ownership and participation and engagement.

I think this— the timing is perfect before we actually have something to read and approve, because sometimes when you do government-to-government kind of consultation, something will be suggested that you just didn't even have any idea would come, and you're like, oh my gosh, that's brilliant. I'm so glad that you're here and had that idea. So I I think it's a great, great, great opportunity. Hopefully the meeting happens. So did we want to still have a work group who would meet and come up with some thoughts before the meeting, the joint meeting between the municipality and the community?

I think we could do— have preliminary discussions. We it would be final. I love the idea of potentially having a policy where any indigenous naming, we would consult with the tribal authority.

Because you're right, there's many nuances when it comes to naming and language and meaning. We don't want to be intentionally— unintentionally disrespectful.

Yeah, I mean, I think for starters I could, uh, give a little more information on the terrace, uh, initiative that I used as an example that I cannot remember. When did I do this? Did I do this like 2 months ago? September. Wow, okay.

So, um, yeah, maybe in the next meeting I could come in with a little more information on that.

If that is helpful. And could you, could you send a link to Jamie? Yeah, so we could all do a little research. Yes. So did anybody want to volunteer to get together before the next meeting and discuss this, or are we going to wait for the next meeting?

And please, please do forgive me, I, I think I'm just still a little on the the Confuse side where we're looking internally and also providing a resource framework externally for this. And so a part of like, um, the information gathering would be doing like giving some ideas and thoughts towards this internal policy and also resource framework that Jennifer was mentioning externally. So we would be looking at two different things. Or are we looking— or do we want to focus just on the internal portion of that?

And please, uh, please tell me if I am being unclear, because I may be, but I just— I wanted to just make sure I'm— like, I'm clarifying exactly what we want out of that.

And I guess I don't have a sense of, um, I guess how the bureaucracy works. And maybe policy is the way to go because then policies are on the website. I assume that people can read policies. But at some point we're going to have people like the department that's coming to us and wants to rename Golden Lion Hotel. They might be thinking, "Oh, maybe we want an indigenous name.

What's the process for Indigenous naming. And so I feel like we should give them something versus it being something that only we follow, I guess. So that's why I was thinking that there was an external aspect of it to help people that want to do it but don't know how. I think—. Also, I think Britt also has something she wants to share.

I can just say, Britt, you're right. Two pieces, Kevin. There's public-facing piece, and if we have a policy, the policy is how does the Commission, when we're conducting naming reviews, how do we interact with, how do we consult with tribal authorities? I think in the indigenous community, that's the policy piece. And then there could be potential resources for the public who are interested in Proposing.

Britt's talking, but she's muted. Oh, you're muted, Britt.

Which is also— it's all public-facing. So whatever policy we put together for how we engage government to government, right, or how we want to handle that with the Indigenous place naming, that whatever process the Commission goes through, the public is aware that we have that process, right? And then we also provide resources on what they can or should do to suggest a good name, because we, we aren't making it a rule that only Indigenous people can make Indigenous names, right? And so if anyone can come up with a name, we want to make sure that they're being respectful of that. And then Indigenous By the way, too, like, this is not— it's not a monolith.

So we— are we only talking about names that are— that are Dena'ina names, right? Like, those are the sort of questions that start to come up for me. And then back to, well, if we want to do an indigenous name and it's based off of a person, how do we navigate that? And because that might be beyond just the tribal— the village that might be beyond the Kootenai, that government, it may be checking in with a different tribe because that person is from there or something. So there's, there's just more to it is what I'm saying, but I think any of us in this room are equipped to make decisions on right now.

I think it's an excellent idea. I'm really happy Faith is here. Faith, I love that you want to join the commission. I think it's a great idea to have a government to government discussion around that, not necessarily to come up with the policy in the room, but to help guide the working group to come up with a policy and a procedure and resources for the public to make this as easy and helpful and respectful as possible.

And to Britt's point, any policy we develop, we post it on our website. It is a public document. Any of our documents are public documents. Another clarifying question, um, if you ever get annoyed with me asking questions, please just like— I like to ask a lot of questions. Um, I just— I also wonder too, you had mentioned, you said, "A thorough tribal authority," um, like we need to— we should have consultations, interact with tribal authorities.

Well, I guess my question then becomes And I think maybe Britt's getting to this, and this is what could be kind of teased out by maybe a pair of us working on getting some of the groundwork done on this. But what does that mean? Um, you know, if you have someone, uh, that's obviously with the Tlingit Tribe, there is that formal agreement. But if you have someone, again, that's not from, you know, Anchorage, but they're, but they're living here or something like that, like, do we speak with the tribe from where that person's from, with their naming, you know, I think there's a— there are those different levels, and I, I just want to be conscious of that, um, because yeah, we just said we could— yeah, I guess I want— what I'm trying to say is we have— we do have like a formal structure with the Glutena, but that doesn't then exist with others in that same sense, like within the municipality. It's itself, even though we do have those tribal relations with other municipalities across the state, um, and tribes.

Yeah, I guess we'll just have to tease out what that necessarily looks like. Um, and I just had a really long work day with like 500 meetings, so if I'm not making any sense, I apologize. Um, but yeah, I guess there's that tiered approach. Any other thoughts? Um, as folks are looking at, as our commissioners are looking at the resources that I have linked here, I would like to bring two to your attention that could help also dictate this conversation next time.

One is on the last page, Ontario Pelham Corporate Asset Naming Policy. They— that link will take you to their updated guidelines. So these They adjusted this earlier this year to include what their guiding principles are and how they are incorporating Indigenous recognition into their naming policy. And the other one is City of Red Deer. I don't know if I included a link for that actually.

Oh yes, I did. Okay, Alberta, Red Deer, and they have Indigenous partnerships, and that also will take you— that link will also take you to how they incorporate partnerships in their naming processes. But again, if no one has the time, I will be diving deeper into these and send you some details on these two cities and their naming policy and how they incorporate Indigenous Any other thoughts?

It's probably good for us to have two people, um, to be able to bounce ideas off of each other. Um, is that something you'd like support on, or— yes. Okay. Um, you know, I— are we looking to have this like due date by next meeting? Is that kind of our timeline?

I think you could provide a report next meeting, but it doesn't have to be— you still continue to work on it because the work wouldn't have to be complete. Just where are you at? What have you learned? There may be more information you want to share in December. Okay, well, how about I will be your second chair and I can support you on that?

Amazing, thank you. You're welcome.

Should we go back to the discussion of there being a potential meeting that someone needs to possibly attend? So, do we have a volunteer to attend the joint Akhluutna Nisqal�� meeting, government-to-government meeting, to represent the commission? We don't have the date for our W. I would recommend the chair and the vice chair. Seconded.

Okay. Um, yeah, I don't have any travel plans till November, so if it's in October, I should be able to go. We will figure it out as soon as we get the date for And I did have something, you know, when you get that feeling where you feel like you have to speak, but I don't know if I'm going to say it right. But I think there should be— I should either explain a bias that I have or share some history. But there's There's a lot of history to Eklutna receiving the recognition that it's receiving today.

There's, there's been quite a struggle through ANCSA and through what used to be called the Cook Inlet Native Association, and it was Cook Inlet Regional Incorporated, and then, you know, you have Cook Inlet Tribal Council that didn't used to have so someone on their board from Okutna. Now they do, but there's a long history of others coming into this area that are Alaska Native and kind of trying to be in charge of things for Alaska Native people that live here. And it's taken a long time for Okutna to reach this stage of having government-to-government meetings with the city. And I guess I just wanted to share that, that I have a bias, I guess, of recognizing people that have moved in and now want to be in charge, I guess. And I'm not talking about the non-natives, I'm talking about the Hoska natives, just because because I know that AINSA was, you know, really part of the time period.

And there's just a lot of history there, so we need to be cautious about empowering groups that maybe we don't want to empower politically, I guess. I think that's what I was trying to get at earlier with the naming. When it comes to names and like recognizing that history and understand that there is a difference, you know, in, in that and how we're going to kind of move forward with that. But, um, but hopefully, you know, between our duo here, we can, you know, we can come up with some good— some points and discussion topics for our next round of discussions and, uh, and what that may look like. And, um, and if And, you know, with a couple other inclusions as well, not too—.

And do you appreciate—. Sorry, Rae, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say I really appreciate your comments, Jennifer, and I also think that's why it's so important to remember too that indigeneity, like being Alaska Native, is— this is not a monolith. And so it may be— I appreciate and recognize the need to give credit where it's due and that this is government to government and that we need to recognize Akutna sovereignty as well in that. And so it may be that if the intent of the Indigenous chair is— or excuse me, the Indigenous seat on the commission is for that to be an Akutna tribal member, that we designate that seat as such.

So that might be a question where we would have to go back to the assembly to make that change. But we're lucky in that we have Faith in the room today acting— she's the administrator for the tribe, but that's also even different from being a tribal member. And I know Faith knows that, right? Like, being a tribal member from the area. So we may want to have something where we're recognizing that that is specific government to government, but I think it's a great first step for this commission to engage with Akutanis Sovereign Government about, about these sorts of questions and how they would like to progress.

Because I have a feeling too, they also— if someone proposes a Tlingit name, they probably don't want to be making decisions about Tlingit names. So, or if somebody proposes a leader that is from the Fairbanks area and Otner, you know, how do they— how are they going to handle that? So I think it's a good, a good reason to have policies and make sure that we are, um, we are respectful of other people's histories and of how things have happened in the past and that we're doing it the right way moving forward.

Thanks, Britt. I know when we were drafting the public naming code I had originally proposed that one of the seats would be designated for representative of the Kootenai. We were— I think we were told by the municipal attorney's office or the assembly council that would be problematic dedicating it to one crew, and that's why we went with the wording that we went with. But I think possibility might be a government-to-government what might be the way to structure that. But then one of the things we would have to consider is if we don't get a representative, so, so it would be worded that it would be a government— the way it says there's designated criteria whenever possible, because when I staffed the Historic Preservation Commission, there were certain requirements, and sometimes seats were empty for for years because we couldn't fill them, we couldn't get applicants.

So then we put in there, if possible. So, but I like that idea of seeing— we can, we can consult, I can ask the Assembly Council if we could designate one of the seats as a government-to-government seat. I appreciate that. And I think there's a couple also like layers in that. So one of them is that I love that.

I love it being government-to-government seat. One of them is that I don't think it's for lack of interest necessarily in the Indigenous community for someone to come forward and want to, but it's, it's that a lot of people who are involved at this level understand that they don't speak on behalf of all Indigenous people. So that is something, you know, that people are But it's something that can put someone in an awkward position. So coming up with what is the best way how to handle that, because also Faith, she joins the commission, she's also not here to speak necessarily on behalf of Akwesasne, and it's not fair to put her in that position either, right? This is a, this is an extracurricular thing, it's not recognized as her government role.

So Those are just things to be thinking about. I think the best place to start is asking Native Village of Eklutna, asking their council specifically, their government specifically, how they would like to proceed, what they recommend, what their thoughts are on it, and being respectful of that process.

Thanks, Britt. Any other thoughts? Did you say— did you have something you wanted to say? This is— maybe you could ask Council when you email that question is, could you amongst yourselves, amongst people, seats that you have filled, elect a government-to-government liaison from the people you have so that you don't have a seat that goes unappointed or appointed?

Assembly, could you elect your own liaison from within? Could we just put— add that to the bylaws at some point and have, you know, I nominate so-and-so to be my liaison this year? I could, yeah, I could ask multiple questions. I know one of the other issues is if you look at the criteria, it doesn't say a seat is for an Indigenous person. It says it's it's the field of work.

Because when we looked at that, we could not designate a seat for somebody who was indigenous or African American or Hispanic. It would not— we'd be challenged on it.

So sometimes we have to be careful how we word it when we put it in coding. But I will ask those questions to Dean and I'll come back Copy you, Jamie.

Any other thoughts? Faith just raised her hand.

Faith. Thank you. I wanted to make a recommendation, and maybe Jamie can help me with this, is Claire Ross would be a good tool or resource for us for the CARES, for this commission, and also for the the two bodies, and she helps facilitate the government-to-government, and she may have some recommendations on this process. Would that be appropriate, Jamie?

Um, yeah. What, what would you, what do you envision her doing? Uh, maybe looking more into it and making some recommendations as she does, um, do that a lot for our government-to-government process since it's fairly new to both bodies. Got it. Okay.

Yeah, and I do see that, um, it would be a seat that's designated by the Native Village of Eklutna. And like, like they have said, I am not an enrolled member of their tribe but another tribe, and we would be a conduit between the Commission and the government, that person would be. Which I think really plays into Jamie's idea of it almost being like a third officer. You know, you have the chair, the vice chair, and you have a government liaison where it's just a position that, um, that we would ask, say, "Oh, Bill, why don't you get on the commission?" You know, that sort of thing. But for future structure.

Yeah, I think Jamie and I are going to have to talk to Assembly Council because we have issues trying to designate seats for a particular criteria.

The lawyers push back. Any other comments?

Alright. That brings us to member comments. Any comments in general from members?

Any comments from the public, Faith? Soon-to-be members. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Um, really great to, um, I'm really happy to see this process happening and look forward to meeting with all of you once again. And Jamie has my information if you guys wanted to have further discussion.

Thank you, Faith, and we sure hope you apply. I think you would bring, uh, some valuable perspectives and knowledge to the commission.

Thank you.

Any other thoughts? Well, there's no audience, so motion— well, I just want to say thank you. We got, having a quorum tonight, we got 3 months worth of business done in one meeting. This is This is awesome, and I think we have a great path going forward, great group of commissioners. I appreciate all of you being willing to serve.

You all bring knowledge, ability, and perspectives that are going to help us move the dial on public naming in Anchorage, which is so exciting. Maybe we can make it fair and equitable after all. Inklusi. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Second motion.

Second. Second. Jennifer seconded. Any opposition? No.

We're adjourned. Good night, Britt. Good night, Faith.