Juneau: July 27, 2026 Regular Assembly Meeting

Mr. Steininger?

Here. Ms. Hall? Here. Mr. Brooks? Here.

And Ms. Walls absent. You have quorum. I'm here too. Madam Mayor.

All right, with that, uh, we have a proclamation, so could we please have the Coast Guard personnel come up?

And since I have to do lots of talking tonight, we're actually having the Deputy Mayor read the proclamation. Apologize for that.

A proclamation. Whereas, since its founding on August 4th, 1790, the United States Coast Guard has steadfastly served our nation with honor, respect, and devotion to duty, safeguarding our shores, protecting maritime commerce, conducting life-saving operations, and defending our national, national interests at home and abroad. And whereas August 16th to 21st, 2026 marks the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District's annual buoy tender roundup, a week-long event in Juneau offering 7 Coast Guard cutters from Alaska, Washington, and Oregon an opportunity to receive specialized training, provide discussions to enhance operations, and test their seamanship skills. And whereas the Juneau Business Community, Department of the City and Borough of Juneau, the United States Navy League Juneau Council, the Juneau Yacht Club, the American Legion Post 25, and the Veterans for Foreign Wars Post 5559 celebrate the 260 officers and crew attending the buoy tender roundup and an anticipated visit by CGC Storis in November by offering thanks and appreciation. And whereas the Juneau maritime community is grateful for the security enforcement and emergency response from the Coast Guardsmen who maintain aids to navigation, conduct search search and rescue, law enforcement missions, and assist in containing and recovering oil spills throughout the great state of Alaska.

And whereas Juneau has demonstrated its ability and commitment to support the Coast Guard, and in particular has been proud to have served as the homeport for the buoy tender US Coast Guard Cutter Plain Tree, US Coast Guard Cutter Storis, US Coast Guard Cutter Cape Carter, US Coast Guard Cutter Liberty, and now the US Coast Guard Cutter Reef Shark.. And whereas our community is committed to ensuring the newly commissioned Storis will be as welcomed to her new Juneau homeport as was her Storis predecessor, the Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast. Now therefore, we officially— now we, the City and Borough of Juneau, which is an officially designated Coast Guard city, do hereby proclaim August 2026 as U.S. Coast Guard Appreciation Month. We urge all citizens to join in recognizing the dedicated service and enduring legacy of the U.S. Coast Guard, to participate in events and educational activities that highlight the Coast Guard's contributions, and to show support and appreciation for those who wear the uniform and uphold the proud traditions of this exceptional branch of the armed forces. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Smith.

We always enjoy the Coast Guard Roundup. It's always a fun time in town. So I have Coast Guard Sector Sealaska Commander Captain J.D. Nadaly, Nadaly, oh perfect, would you introduce your guests?

And with me today I have CMC, our Command Master Chief, Lena Shearer. I also have Lieutenant JG Moore and Commander Davis, who are actually the lead planners for the buoy tender roundup. And I just want to say on behalf of the Coast Guard units here in Southeast Alaska, it truly is an honor to serve this community. Thank you for your support.

Are you coming up? No, you guys have to stay here.

And then we have our port director, our very nimble port director, coming up to do our next little item for the Coast Guard.

I help hold this part. Yeah. Well, this next part is more painful than tearing my patella. This is what we're doing is presenting to Captain of the Port, Captain Darnay, the Tug of War trophy. Now, this Tug of War trophy, it was— Maritime Festival is held the first Saturday of every May, and my biggest failure as the port director has been losing this to the Coast Guard for the last 5 years.

And it gives me great pain to present it to Captain Adarni this year as she, as Coast Guard Sector Southeast has had it for the last 5 years. So it's, we will, I've given instructions to my hiring team next year that we will hire based on capacity to pull a rope next year because we want the trophy back in Dobson Harbor's hands. But well done, Captain.

I just want to say thank you, and to Mr. Yukotel, I just want to say your pain is our gain. So yeah, 6 years in a row. I did just take over as the Sector Commander about 2 weeks ago. I was on deck as the Deputy Sector Commander for the last year., and in my abbreviated change of command procedures, Captain Fields, I think 3 or 4 times said, you have to keep winning the tug of war at the Juneau Maritime Festival.

So we're locked and loaded. All right, big round of applause one more time.

Our other order of business— Mr. Yucatel, you might as well just come back up here. So as everybody knows, we, the country, celebrate our 250th anniversary birthday celebration, and we had our fireworks even though they were a day late, but that's not because of the fireworks crew, that's because of the weather. So now we're going to take this time to honor the Genoa Fireworks crew. So, uh, Sigrid Dahlberg and any of the members of the Genoa Fireworks crew that is here, please come on up.

And do you still have the letters, Madam Clerk? Madam Clerk, do you still have the letters?

So, um, these folks have given us quite a show for many, many years, and we truly appreciate that. And quite spectacular for the 250th birthday celebration. We do have letters somewhere in appreciation for every member of the Genoa Fireworks crew, and we also have many businesses that help us with this.. And so we want to just read the list off and we have plaques for those people if they are here. So AgPro, Eagle Raven Global, Diepack, Bloom Services, True Connor Construction, Pyramid Abatement, Dahlberg Design.

We have one of those here. Breeze-In, AML, NAO, Amec Towing, Spice Jino. And A1 Hearth and Stone. So thank you for all those businesses that have supported the fireworks throughout the years. We couldn't do it without you.

Um, and Mr. Port Director, you wanted to say a couple things. Thank you, Mayor. So, um, just as Juno being a livable city, we all know that 4th of July is the biggest homecoming event. It is the, the big—.

Is the biggest draw that brings people back, and part of that is what the Juneau Fireworks crew does. Literally, they spend hundreds of hours every year, and just take the opportunity on this 250th anniversary to recognize the hard work of the Juneau Fireworks crew. Tens of thousands of hours over the past decades in putting on a spectacular show, all volunteers. And so we just wanted to take the opportunity to— could I just read the plaque? Sigrid, thank you.

For all the businesses that have provided resources over the year, it basically says, on behalf of the City and Borough of Juneau, in grateful recognition of your years of volunteer service to the Juneau Fireworks crew, the City and Borough of Juneau thank you for lighting up our skies on this 250th anniversary of our country's founding, July 4th, 2026. So it's really been just— they're just a wonderful volunteer group that really brings so much to the community.

And do you want to hand out to the letters of the folks, to the letters to the folks that are here? And Sigrid, do you want to say anything? Sure.

I'll keep it really brief. We work really hard to do a really professional job and keep our fireworks safe. We are dealing with a lot of large explosives, and it's very exciting and fun when it's all going off, but it is tons of regulatory work and physical labor in the background. So the 25-minute show that you see is like 2,500 hours of work in the making. So But we can't do it if we don't have an audience.

So thank you for making us want to do the fireworks.

And the Downtown Business Association President Nimi Phillips would also like to say something.

On behalf of all the downtown business community and the business owners and all of us, we just want to say thank you for all the hard work and hours hours and hours of hard work. And thanks for making the 250th anniversary a big sparkles. Thank you. And bringing all the smiles to all of us. And I have a certificate for you guys.

All right. Anything else? Okay. What we like you to do because the Coast Guard ran off without doing it. We like the circle of handshakes, and then the Coast Guard can follow right behind him because you didn't come do the handshakes.

So if you start with Robert Barr and just circle through and shake everybody's hand, that would be appreciated.

And especially thank you for our port director for setting that all up. So appreciate him all the time. So with that, it goes to approval of minutes. Mr. Kelly, I move that we approve the minutes for the 2026, uh, June 24th and the June 8th, 2026 regular assembly meeting minutes.

Is there any objection? Seeing none, those minutes are approved.

Next, we have manager requests for agenda changes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I would like to add under staff reports a verbal update on flood preparedness. All right, thank you for that. I'm glad that you're confident that we'll get that far.

Um, I was going to warn the public that we might not get through our whole meeting today, but we'll sure try. Um, So with that, we'll go to public participation on non-agenda items. I normally go to Zoom, but we're going to go to the— in the room first because it is hot in here and people have sat for a long time waiting for their turn. So with that, we'll start with Deb Craig, then Carol Bookless, and then Mr. Metcalf, I think. So, Deb Craig.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Deborah Craig, chair of the Juneau Commission on Aging. Whose role is to advise the Assembly. Commissioner Craig, can I stop for 2 seconds? You have 2 minutes.

Apologize. Thank you. And I'm timed for 2 minutes. So thanks. Commissioners recently voted in favor of my testifying about transportation issues of concern.

Last year, CBJ chose a new provider for Capital Access, the transportation system serving ADA-eligible seniors and persons with disabilities. The new provider has struggled to provide services as required in the contract for 9 months. Issues include challenges to make reservations for service, failure to pick up and deliver as arranged, difficulty with door-to-door service requirements, and most importantly, a lack of basic, basic understanding of the service population—people with cognitive and physical disabilities. I learned of these issues last December when the JCOA hosted Pioneer Home residents to attend the symphony. I personally called Capital Access 25 times to make travel arrangements.

The contractor lacked multiple phone lines and voicemail as required in your contract. Last week, my 96-year-old neighbor arranged a drop-off and pickup at Foodland. When Capital Access no-showed for the pickup, she called. They'd mistakenly made the pickup reservation for her grocery trip for the following day. SEARCH has implemented a transportation shuttle because Capital Access failed repeatedly to get clients to medical appointments.

JCOA, the Commission, met with Capital Transit staff to discuss these issues multiple times. Staff were very responsive, but the issues continued. Surprisingly, Capital Access contract was likely renewed, I think, in June. CBJ's current transportation survey might provide insights, but it also might not reach the intended audience. In light of the severity of the issues, a phone survey of current users might be more appropriate.

It's been 9 months and winter is coming. Winter weather increases the risk for our most vulnerable adults who must rely on an unreliable service to get food, medicine, and to medical appointments. CBJ's contract is explicit and the requirements need to be met. CBJ is urged to review the situation immediately to ensure viable transportation service for Juneau's most vulnerable population. Thanks.

Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Gregg? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight.

Oh, go ahead, Ms. Youskandi. Sorry. Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Gregg, for bringing this to our attention. Have, uh, in discussing this as, uh, in order to, for the Commission to support you coming here tonight.

Does the Commission, um, I'll follow up with staff, but does it, has the Commission collected already kind of information of sort of horror stories you've heard? Do you feel like there's data there, or would you say the better way is to go straight to the recipients of the services themselves? Well, we've heard many stories. I think many of you have heard many stories too. I mean, it's all over Facebook.

I know several of you have gotten multiple calls from users who are not satisfied with the service. I don't think it's our role to be taking— doing surveys and doing that kind of work. We're an advisory commission. We did bring it to the attention of the Capital Transit, and we've met with them multiple times. They're very aware of some of the issues that are going on.

It's that we're not seeing resolution of some of those issues. Okay, thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Anything further?

Thank you for your testimony tonight. Uh, next we have Carol Bookless. Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes.

Carol Bookless, I live in Douglas. I come today to talk about options. I'm not seeing a lot of options, um, available. The city kind of gets their idea and they go with it. So the other day I passed City Hall as some tourists, one after another, took selfies next to the City Hall sign.

I told them that they might be some of the last tourists to get those images because the City Hall is moving. They were surprised and asked why City Hall is moving. It's just too mind-boggling for me to try to explain. And now CBJ is selling— considering selling the $2.5 million City Hall property for $1.5 million. Another land deal is leasing out land near Home Depot for an affordable housing scheme.

At Telephone Hill, the plan is to give away the land to the developer. There's no consistency when I read the background on these land deals. There's no explanation. CBJ needs to be transparent and consistent. I personally support holding on to very limited downtown land.

Another item on the agenda is money for wastewater treatment. Why are we flushing money down the toilet? 70% Of the countries in the world, including parts of the US, do not put toilet paper in the toilet. Part of the reason wastewater here is so expensive is that toilet paper in wastewater is dried into mats and then shipped off somewhere. It costs a lot.

Do we need to do that? I don't think so. There are other solutions. Another wasteful idea is demolishing Telephone Hill. Using data from websites, just the dump fee alone is going to be half a million dollars.

Um, there is, um, Now I hear that the new thing for the glaf is to sink pilings next to the HESCO barriers to keep them in place. The temporary barriers with pilings. Juno is not the only place with glafs. One of the cheapest solutions to deal with glafs is to siphon or pump out the water. We have the technology.

The siphon concept is being tried in the Himalayas for glafs, but the US has been using siphons for spillways and levees for decades. An election is coming up. Woo! That's the loudest I've heard that. I just wanted you guys to think of as many options for things as you can.

Thanks. Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Bookless? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight. Next we have KJ Metcalf.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

Please state your name and area of town. My name is KJ Metcalf. I'm speaking, uh, I live in North Douglas, and I'm speaking tonight, uh, for the Veterans for Peace Chapter 100 Juno. And at the Fourth of July parade, I was prevented from carrying a sign in the parade. I was stopped as the parade started to come out of the staging area, and I felt my— I felt ashamed.

I felt that my sign was not hate speech, it was protected speech. It said, "Wars: immoral, illegal," and then there was an image of money flowing down a golden toilet.

And that— I was inspired by a speech by President Trump where he said, "We cannot provide money for Medicare, Medicaid," in childcare. I have a war to fight. And the golden toilet in that case was all of the people who are enriched when we go to war.

So my story is that in 1956, I was in a field artillery battalion in southern Germany, about 45 minutes from the Austrian border. When Hungary revolted, we were called to go in and help them. A little-known fact: we had said and promised if they revolted against their communist overlords that we would come to help them. We were called, and They said, well, if you step into a neutral country, Austria, which is what we had to do to get to Hungary, we will nuke you.

So I've come out of that with the fact that I dedicated my life for justice, for no wars, and for the abolition of nuclear weapons. I was denied that. All right, thank you for your service to start with. And any questions for Mr. Metcalf? Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Metcalf, we have a question for you.

Thank you, Mr. Metcalf, for bringing this to us, but I wanted to check. It's my understanding that the organization that operates the parade is nonprofit and therefore can, I think, set their own rules. But anyway, if you know more about, you know—. Well, I think Doug Mertz will talk and he can clear that up. But there's no doubt in my mind that CBJ is an integral part.

The evidence shows it, the history shows it. And that's— yeah, one more question, Ms. Hall.

Yes, um, Mr. Metcalf, what would you see as a reasonable resolution to, to this dilemma? Oh, I believe that, uh, since—. And I'm assuming that there's no doubt that the CBJ is an integral part of the, of the parade, and therefore the policy and the, um, how the parade is manage. I think that there needs to be a committee formed that can deal with this issue and any other issue. And, uh, it's— it is a big deal.

It really is a big deal. And a lot of people, you know, I was personally infringed upon, but there are so many other people who felt that there was no sense in being in the parade because of that policy. So I think the city has to take the lead with the committee and members of the community. I know Vets for Peace would have something to say. All right, thank you for that.

Any further comment? Thank you for your testimony. So next we have, uh, Doug Mertz, then Craig Wilson.

Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes.

My name is Douglas Mertz. I'm from North Douglas. I'm a retired civil rights attorney. I'm probably the most experienced civil rights attorney in Juneau, uh, and I was dumbfounded to learn that KJ had been basically kicked out of the Fourth of July parade by the organizers simply because he had a banner advocating peace. And this on public streets by a group authorized by the borough, insured for liability by the borough, and backed by, in his case, backed by the use of the police department to enforce what they wanted to do.

I have here, by the way, a copy of the resolution way back from 2004, authorizing the creation of that committee, empowering it, and ensuring it at public expense. I was even more dumbfounded to learn that the borough agreed with this action based on what I think is a very poorly thought out attorney opinion that ignores the fact that relies on a U.S. Supreme Court decision, ignoring the fact that the state Supreme Court has said repeatedly that it will protect the rights of Alaskans to a greater degree than the U.S. Supreme Court when they believe it is necessary.

Um, and the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court case called Hurley, um, is in fact not apt, was grossly misapplied, misapplied in that opinion, because in fact, unlike in Hurley, where the parade organizers had a particular viewpoint that would have been frustrated by allowing another group to go and present an opposing view, to our knowledge, nobody here Wants to promote war.

Can you wrap it up? Your time is done. Exactly what I was about to say. To wrap it up, I think we need 3 things. First, an apology to KJ.

Second, creation of a task force or committee to reexamine the rules and procedures and to work out what can be and can't be done. And, um, and Finally, I want to remind you that when you are delegated the right to interfere with— delegating the right to interfere with a citizen's civil rights, there's tremendous potential liability. So it's best to run that issue by an experienced attorney, experienced in that field, and not leave it to a generalist like the city attorney. We can all turn this, turn this all around to the benefit of the public, and we urge you to try that. Thank you.

Any questions for Mr. Mertz? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight. Oh wait, did I miss one? Sorry, Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Mr. Mertz, for being here.

I'm, uh, just curious, in your opinion, is it that the, the organization doesn't have the right to make a policy like that, or that even if they did make it, it shouldn't be enforced?

They have the right to make all kinds of policies as long as they don't infringe on people's constitutional rights. That's where you really do need to consult people who know what the law is and know what they're doing and know all the facts. And that's, that's where the rock is hitting the hard place here. Thank you. All right, thank you.

Seeing no further questions, thank you for your testimony. Next we have Craig Wilson and then Yvette, uh, Soutier.

Mr. Wilson, please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. My name is Craig Wilson. I live in Twin Lakes. I am here as the president of Chapter 100 Veterans for Peace.

The Fourth of July parade is a community event that has very special significance for the community of Juneau, and the CBJ has a long history of supporting it. As Doug indicated, Committee Resolution 2265 back in 2004 gave explicit social license to the parade committees to organize and run the parade, and they did a very good job for a number of years. It's a lot of work. I don't, you know, degrade that at all, but they lost that social license this year. They did two things.

One, they arbitrarily changed both the focus of the parade with— and also changed some rules of the parade without engaging either CBJ or the community at large. They made a decision that the parade's purpose was to provide a fun, family-oriented experience over the actual celebration of the Declaration of Independence, and it had added ambiguous, ambiguous subjective rule that they also refused to provide any objective clarification of how it would be enforced. This resulted, as you heard, in one of our members being ejected from the parade.

Um, it's— I see it as the assembly's responsibility to restore the social license, and as Veterans for Peace, we Proposed the Assembly do a number of things, as you heard, set up a committee. We propose the Assembly formally restate Resolution 2265, adding to it that the Fourth of July parade is a community event of special significance to the city and borough of Juneau, and that the ideas presented in the Declaration of Independence are worthy of observance through parades and other means of celebration. And 2, an assembly member shall be appointed to liaise with the Juneau Festival Association, attend planning meetings, and report to the assembly on parade planning and execution. All right, thank you. I have to stop you.

So yeah, any questions for Mr. Wilson?

Seeing none, and if you have anything further, you can email us. So yeah, but thank you for, uh, testimony today. And since you're part of Veterans for Peace, thank you for your service. You're obviously a veteran, so All right, that— with that, we go to Yvette Soutier and then Peter Metcalf.

Hi, I'm Yvette Soutier and I'm at Star Hill in downtown, and I emailed you before, so hopefully everybody did their homework. I just have two issues, both involving bears and both involving my request for you to direct JPD to inform of course, um, 08-35010-A2, cruelty to animals, and 36-20056, the bear attraction nuisance. Um, the thing I emailed you about was about, uh, the cruelty to animals. Um, the, the videos are, are pretty hard to watch. These guys are— these bears are having, you know, to try to fight for their food right now, and having people interfere with them It is cruel.

It is purely cruel, and JPD should be directed to enforce the cruelty to animals statute. There is zero reason for this behavior. Um, and quite honestly, uh, the fact that Representative Nelson thought it important to go after a bear to, quote, protect somebody was absolutely ridiculous. Um, the second issue that I want to talk about is the trash nuisance issue. Um, again, I urge the assembly to direct JPD to enforce these codes.

You already have them. You guys guys don't have to do too much, just tell them to do what they need to do. Bears, quite honestly, have a keen sense of smell. They smell 7— they can smell 7 times more than a bloodhound. Repeated success of a trash bear means that the bear will be more persistent in seeking out human food.

Once it succeeds, it can take 2 to 3 weeks of failed attempts before they stop trying. And I have seen this on Star Hill. We are engaged in neighbor shaming right now, and it is working. There are a couple neighbors that we've had to call the police on, but the bears know that Star Hill is probably a food desert for them. If JPD starts to enforce this, the way the statute or the code is made is a violation's $50, and it goes up from there.

And I would argue that the third offense, their actions rise to the level of criminal negligence, was a Class B misdemeanor, or reckless behavior, which is a Class A misdemeanor. And this is one of the ways the city could probably help make up for their financial deficit. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Soutier?

Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Has a bear issue ever been so bad up there on Star Hill that like Fish and Game had to come and do something about it? Yes, and by doing something about it, they've had to euthanize bears.

It's been bad downtown too. Every year we have at least one bear euthanized by Fish and Game, and I do not envy their jobs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.

Uh, next we have Peter Metcalf and then Bruce Simonson, and then we'll go to Zoom.

I'm Peter Metcalf. My wife Sandy and I live in the neighborhood of the Governor's Mansion. We own a fourplex directly across the street from the 30-unit Fosby Apartments. Which is a diversified group of people living in reasonably affordable housing who have a splendid view down Gastineau Channel until they look down and see a garbage dump at the foot of the hill. And it's been there for several years, and it's a major attractant to bears.

We've had our challenges in our neighborhood as bears transit to that garbage dump And I know it's a difficult problem because in a few acres there's probably 30 owners because several of the lots are owned by multiple parties due to Native allotment distributions. The tribe, Central Council of Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, is a major property owner there, but they're— they've protected their property in that particular section which abuts Capitol Avenue is directly across the street from the Salvation Army. The tribe— I've talked to Richard Peterson, president of the tribe. I've talked to Alec Mesdig, leader of Alaska Electric Light and Power, uh, numerous other people about this, and including a former official of the city just this morning who told me that a similar problem involving a hotel on uphill side of, uh, Gold Street had some similar illicit drug activities happening there. And that's my main issue about this, this encampment that is strewing garbage throughout the neighborhood, is the drug illicit drug activity.

And people in the FOSB have taken photographs and videos of drug activity in plain sight. It's a serious problem involving young people who are frequenting that site, buying drugs And, you know, God knows we may lose some lives here because of that camp. And I, I just would end this by requesting you to form a task force similar to what you did with the Bergman Hotel. I think there's a solution. People— property owners are encouraged by the recent publicity, so Please do something about this.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Metcalf?

Uh, seeing none, thank you for your testimony today. Next we have Bruce Simonson, and then we'll go to Zoom. Okay, thanks, Bruce. Uh, next we have Thea Nelson from Zoom.

Please, Mr. Allen, is she still there? Okay, next we have Joshua Adams.

All right, can you hear me now? Uh, we can hear you, Mr. Adams. Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. Hello, my name is Joshua Adams, and I normally introduce myself as an incremental developer working and bouncing about downtown, but tonight I'd like to introduce myself as a landlord because I own several rental properties in the downtown area.

And no one feels the housing crunch more than a renter downtown, and I'm very sympathetic to that.

I wanted to ask, because this is, this is going to come up in tonight's meeting, the use of $45,000 of donated money from Norwegian Cruise Lines for the Juno Douglas City Museum. Are you guys aware of the fact that in 2019, um, you've made $165,000 just off the rent from Telephone Hill? That's money that we're not getting as of February, and it seems to me that if you cleaned up some of those units— that was out of 9 units if you cleaned up some of those units, you could probably rent more than 9 units, and you could raise the rent and get closer to $200,000. Well, you're only $231,000 shy of fully funding the Juno Douglas City Museum, and that museum makes— what is it— $71,000 a year when it's fully funded. So you get a lot of that money back.

And it's a death spiral if you don't fund the Junot Douglas City Museum because how are you going to find the director again? It's going to cost you a lot more to get it going again than it was to shut it down. We learned this from the pandemic, it's easier to shut things down than it is to get them going again, but we could fund, we could fully fund the Junot Douglas City Museum with the rent from the homes that we still have on Telephone Hill. It wouldn't take much, and the housing— the demand for housing is such that you could rent almost anything under reasonable conditions in downtown Juneau. I assure you, I know this because this is what I do.

Mr. Adams, your time is up. Yeah, anyway, thank you. That's all I have to say. All right, thank you for your testimony. Any questions for Mr. Adams?

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony.

All right, that concludes our public participation on non-agenda items. We do have some other people signed up to testify on our agenda items, so with that, we'll go to consent agenda. Is there any public request for consent agenda changes other than ordinances for introduction?

Seeing none, is there any assembly requests for consent agenda changes? Seeing none, we'll bring it to the assembly. Mr. Smith. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move the consent agenda as presented and ask for unanimous consent.

Is there any objection? Seeing none, that is so moved. So we'll go to public hearing, item number 1. Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance 2026-35, an ordinance authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds and the principal amount not to exceed $16 million to finance capital improvements at various schools within the city and borough, and submitting a proposition to the voters at the election to be held therein on October 6th, 2026. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Manager. Thank you.

This ordinance puts on the ballots before voters this fall a bond proposition for $16 million to fund a variety of school projects including re-roofing, security and safety upgrades, boiler room renovation, and, and just a lot of other identified upgrades that the school district and the Joint Facilities Committee— that's a committee of the assembly and the school board— uh, identified. I want to remind the assembly that you do need to vote on this by the end of the month, so at this meeting, in order for it to make it on the fall ballot. I recommend the assembly take public testimony and adopt this ordinance. Uh, thank you, Madam Manager. Uh, we do have one person signed up to testify on this.

Um, please bring over Rebecca Braun on Zoom.

Uh, Ms. Braun, uh, please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes.

Um, hi, thank you. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thanks. This is Rebecca Braun, um, and thanks for the opportunity to testify.

I'm here tonight to encourage you to delay putting bonds on the ballot. This spring, I helped gather signatures for a voter initiative to return the mill rate cap to 12 mills. And as you all know, in October, voters will also decide on a seasonal 1% sales tax and a 3% temporary sales tax that's a core component of the city's revenue. I'm part of a group of Juneau residents that Plans to urge the community to support all three measures. And as a passionate school funding advocate, I'm motivated in no small part by my desire to continue to see Juneau fund education to the cap.

I'm concerned that adding bonds to the October ballot might just be too much for people to swallow at one time. We have a huge lift to get these three ballot initiatives passed, and they're critical to our ability to provide the services the community wants. I think that if we have to prioritize, and I believe we do, we should prioritize the initiatives that are already on the ballot and that will help stabilize the foundation of our revenue stream for the long term. While I appreciate the need to maintain and improve our schools and infrastructure, I think it's too risky to add bonds to this year's ballot and respectfully ask you to consider postponing the bond measures. Thanks.

Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Braun? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony.

With that, we'll go back to the assembly. Uh, Miss Youskandis. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move that the assembly adopt Ordinance 2026-35, and I ask for unanimous consent. Is there any objection?

All right, um, I see Ms. Hall first.

Yeah, thank you. Um, and I object for the, the very reasons that Ms. Braun states, that, um, you know, I'm a very strong supporter of maintaining our facilities and of our schools. And as much as I hate to kick this can down the road, I, I think that, um, it is far more important that we stabilize our revenue. So for that reason, I'm objecting. All right, then I saw Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, this was— this is a tough one for me. Um, we know our school facilities need improvements, um, but we also know the state of the city's finances. Um, you know, I had thought of different ways to potentially try to get some funds to the for the school district. But I worry that if we do something smaller, then we're potentially, you know, shortchanging the schools and our students for years because people say, oh, we just did a school bond.

So I actually will make a motion because I don't want the message to be no. I want the message to be just not right now. So I will move that we refer this ordinance to the Assembly Finance Committee for consideration during the FY28 budget process.

So that's an amendment to the motion. Thank you. So, uh, so we have an amendment now. Uh, Ms. Agnes, did you want to speak, or we want to wait till the amendment's done? So is there any objection to the amendment?

Ms. Hughes-Candies. Thank you, Madam Mayor. To speak in opposition to the amendment because I had planned to speak in support of putting these on the ballot this year. I understand, uh, I think the logic of, um, or rather the concern about putting bonds on the ballot this year where We know that there will already be other things on the ballot, but I, I'm going to ask that we set that aside for a second and think through what our job is as assembly members and what our duty is to our schools. The last time that we bonded for our schools to make major capital improvements was 2020.

We know that when we you put off major capital improvements, things like roofs, things like a major HVAC, um, the cost goes up. It does not go down. We have seen from the state what happens when you just keep kicking the can down the road, and there's a variety of reasons that something can feel like the wrong time to do something, but the reality is is if there is an actual problem that needs to be fixed, the problem persists and the problem grows, and then that ultimate cost to fix that problem increases sometimes at a mega, a mega proportion. Um, we know from Snowmageddon this last year that there was significant damage done to some of the roofs, and it's not roofs only in this, uh, bond package, but that's, um, just something for us to remind ourselves of. Um, bonds are a good way to do something like this that's a large investment in our schools and in those buildings which we are charged with taking care of.

Um, it is generational cost sharing, uh, for the multiple generations spreading it out over those payers. And I think ultimately, I feel like with just last year's election fresh in our minds of when we were kind of trying to juggle, we knew some citizen initiatives were going to be on the ballot and we were trying to weigh, well, what should we put on the ballot? And was that going to be too confusing to voters? And should we change what we wanted to do based on what would or would not make it? I would hope that we had learned some wisdom from that and been reminded that ultimately it's our job to, to put these choices in front of voters, and then it is up to the voters to decide whether that's something that they're willing to bond for or not.

Um, it's our job to say when we say— when we think that something needs bonding, if we think that this needs to be fixed, then we— it's our duty to bring that to the community's attention and let them make that choice. Um, two of the things that we're talking about come from citizens, and that's great, and they're trying to solve another problem, but that is not in the same sort of, uh, the same sort of lane that we occupy, so So for all those reasons, I think it makes sense to do this now, and I would strongly urge people to— when we know there's a problem, to fix that problem rather than kick the can down the road. Thank you, Miss Hughes-Cannies. And I should have mentioned that we have the president of the school board, Shionni Haywood, and we also have our superintendent, Mr. Arnold here too if anybody has questions. Mr.

Kelly, thank you. I agree with everything Ms. Hughes-Candy said. However, I also have some, some further information. Um, during my, during my day job, I work for the Department of Education, and I do have a constituent who reached out and emailed me, um, and kind of apprised me of some, some regulations that would apply to the language in the bonding ordinance that could jeopardize the potential for bond reimbursement.

I coordinated feverishly with, with the attorney, with President Haywood, who's in the back, or Choni Haywood, who's in the back.

And the clerks, and there might be some way to get a rushed process through where we can correct the ballot language in order to get into a format where it would be eligible potentially for state reimbursement.

I think the only reason that I am going to speak in support of Deputy Mayor Smith's motion is because I want to make sure that when we do this, that we, we do this right, that we can get the school district all the, all of the amenities that it needs, and that, and that we can get some, some state support for that. So I, I very reluctantly will support the Deputy Mayor's motion. I think Mr. Kelly, anybody else want to speak to this amendment? Madam Mayor, I am curious if Mr. Kelly would like to elaborate what he's talking about with the— or maybe that would be better in a one-minute at ease. I'm not clear if what you got from a constituent is why you're going to support the motion, or if you're just sharing that, um, conversationally.

Mr. Kelly, thank you. Uh, the constituent emailed me from, uh, she, she's an employee at DEED and she emailed me from her Alaska.gov email address with her concerns. So she's, she's an expert in the, in the matter and familiar with the regulations, though she did specify that it had not gone— her comments had not gone through a legal review.

Um, we can go with Madam Attorney because she probably is a little more apprised on this than we are. Sure, I'm happy to, um, give a little bit more of an update. So, um, the school bond debt reimbursement program was in a moratorium for about 5 years. It just came back online. Um, so we've done school bond, uh, school bonding a few times under that.

We've never really had to deal with asking for reimbursement because we couldn't. Um, there is Alaska statute that requires us to do certain things in order to ask for reimbursement. This bond language does not meet those requirements. So there's more information, and we, we scrambled today to, to try and see if we get all of that information. We cannot.

But the statute requires the ballot to have information about the total cost of the project, interest, annual operation and maintenance costs, estimated amounts to be paid by the state and the municipality, and the mill rate. All of that has to be included on the ballot measure if we were going to ask for reimbursement. If we're not asking for reimbursement from the state, our language is fine.

Mr. Kelly, this is your third time talking, so make it pretty brief. Okay, this is just a question for the, for the attorney. And, and then, is there also an added requirement, the process requirement, that the, um, the Board of Education would also have to approve those changes, and we would have to put it on the ballot by before Friday? That's correct. So you've got a dual, dual elected boards here.

Any changes to this ordinance would have to be okayed by the school board as well, so likely would have to have some special meetings in order to get that done. And all of this needs to be done by Friday because ballots go to the printer on Friday. And there's also one more piece, which is All of this should— again, if you're going to ask for reimbursement, all of this should go to deed for approval before the voters even see it. So, um, there's a whole bunch of moving pieces that likely cannot occur before Friday, so we would not be able to ask for reimbursement from the state if this goes forward. All right, thank you, Madam Attorney.

Um, Ms. Hughes-Canniz. 2 Minutes, Eddie. Certainly, 2 minutes.

Ms. Hughes-Canes, did you get your question answered? Thank you for that, uh, Madam Mayor. I got my question sufficiently answered. Okay, we are back in session then.

Um, so we have an amendment. Um, I lost my friends up there. Do either Ms. Tall or Mr. Steinger want to speak to the amendment?

Seeing nothing, are you going to speak again, Mr. Smith? May I just add? Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to add, lest people think— anyway, we do provide $1 million in CIP for deferred maintenance to the school district.

Is my understanding, getting a nod from the city manager. So not nearly enough. I fully agree with that, but I just want people to know that we do something and we don't just, you know, say good luck at the beginning of the school year. So thank you. All right, thank you for that.

And just briefly, since I'm talking last now, everybody's had their chance. I will support the amendment because I think we need to wait, and especially with the light of the information we got today. So I'll support the amendment. So, Madam Clerk, we have an amendment. We have Miss Hall.

Oh, Miss Hall, I think we've lost Neil. Yes, I believe we lost Mr. Steinecker. He had to catch a plane. So, Madam Clerk, we have an amendment and we have objection. Please call the roll.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. For Deputy Mayor Smith's amendment to refer 2026-35 to the Assembly Finance Committee, for consideration during the FY28 budget process. Deputy Mayor Smith? Yes.

Miss Adkisson? Yes. Mr. Kelly? Yes. Mr. Steininger?

Miss Hall? Yes. Mr. Brooks? No. Miss Hughes-Candies?

No, Madam Mayor. Yes, motion carries with 5 yeas and 2 nays. So now we're going back to the main motion as amended. Any objection?

Do you need to speak to your objection? Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. No, I, I believe you know my reasons. The only thing I would add on to that is that in general, CBJ is not Um, I think you have to consider, is there a governor who actually funds that program? And two, is CBJ going to be a community that ranks highly or is going to be a priority?

So when we hold off for state programs because we might get some money back, but in the meantime we let things slide— so for that reason, so I'll object, but I have nothing else to Mr. Burks. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I'm objecting to this just because we need to do this work and we can't just be putting it off for another year in anticipation for, you know, a citizens initiative that would definitely get us more revenue but has no clarifying terms for designating that to school districts. So, you know, it— like Assemblymember Hughes-Scanges was saying, the purpose of these bonds are to ask the people directly and explain to them what kind of work needs to be done and, you know, lay it all out there instead of trying to apply a broad tax that can be used for anything.

So I think we definitely need to be on top of these things and, um, get it done sooner than later. And, uh, $16 million is good for the work that we knew now, but there's definitely a lot more to come as well. Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Anything further? Okay, Madam Clerk, we have a motion as amended.

Uh, please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for the motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-35 as amended. Miss Huskandies? No. Mr. Brooks?

No. Miss Hall? Yes. Miss Adkinson? Yes.

Mr. Kelly? Yes. Deputy Mayor Smith? Yes. Madam Mayor?

Yes. Motion carries with 5 yeas and 2 nays. Uh, thank you, Madam Clerk. Item number 2, when you're ready, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'm, I'm going to stop for 2 seconds. I forgot, um, Um, Madam Manager asked me if anybody testified on bears, that she wanted to do a quick update on bears. So I forgot to do that before number 1. So you want to do it, give us a quick update on the bears and the trash? I just wanted to, you know, let the public know what we have been doing for, um, bear management.

We certainly have seen this time of year, we see a lot of trash bears downtown, especially in our downtown core. Those restaurant garbage cans are just so very tasty. We have had some improvements with some new trash cans that are going up thanks to some marine passenger fee funds. There'll be new cans in the Wharf Alley between Pier 49 and Diamonds International. There's also a bunch of new, like, easier-to-use cans for, you know, just like small trash cans going up, and those, thanks to donation from NCL.

Those trash cans are wrapped in art, like educational art about, you know, bears and like don't feed the bears. We also do fine. We had public testimony with talking about our fine schedule, $50 for the first fine. We do it as much as we can, but we rely on the public to help us know when a bear has gotten into trash. So please do call the non-emergency JPD line or CDD.

Both of those departments Do bear enforcement when you see a nuisance bear, or when you see kind of trash. We've had a couple hotspots in downtown right now. The Grizz Bar is a hotspot for sure where we've had multiple violations, and so we're following up with that. There's a lot of things businesses can do. Dave's— Decan Dave's has done a lot of stuff this year to really help with with their nuisance.

So businesses should look at their, their Downtown Business Association colleagues and what works. But generally speaking, Franklin and Front Street are really bad areas. Fish and Game does have a media campaign that they are planning. I'm not sure when that's rolling out, but they plan on doing some work for that. And let's see, wanted to let you know, we do, we do fine for repeat offenders, but we do try to work with homeowners first.

I mean, I don't know if there's one of us in this room who hasn't had that moment. Where a bear gets into their trash and you see all of your, uh, you know, your life strewn about for your neighbors to see. Hopefully that only happens once, but just wanted to let you know specifically, please, if you see something, say something and call either JPD or CDD. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, and apologize for that.

Number item number 2, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance 2026-36. An ordinance authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds in the principal amount not to exceed $9,400,000 to finance water and wastewater utilities capital improvements within the city and borough, and submitting a proposition to the voters at the election to be held therein on October 6th, 2026. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Madam Manager, thank you. This ordinance would put a bond before the voters in the fall election to fund just shy of $10 million in wastewater capital improvement projects. If you recall, when the Assembly passed water, water and sewer rate increases, the part of the formula for making sure that we could maintain the minimum level of CIP spend was to bring in $10 million of non-wastewater ratepayer revenue. That can be done through bonds, or that can be done through sales tax. So this, this bond was proposed to meet those needs.

I, I do think that it would be difficult for, the utility to spend that $10 million in the next year because of the level of just projects that we have right now. Therefore, I recommend the assembly take public testimony and refer this ordinance to the Assembly Finance Committee for consideration during the FY28 budget process. Uh, thank you, Madam Manager. We had one person signing up to this, uh, Mike Reader.

Please state your name and area, town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. Thanks. My name is Mike Reader. I live out Lena on Glacier Highway. Um, I just wanted to echo Assemblymember, um, Hugh Scandies and Brooks' comments about bonds because I really think that some of the public comment we heard about bonds and the ballot being clustered is like an apples to oranges comparison.

And we're talking about mill rate, which is, um, gonna trickle in every year. And we're talking about bonds, which is an immediate dump of cash where the project is well defined and you're not dumping it into some unrestricted fund, because that's how we've seen projects such as the gondola or Telephone Hill just getting immediate injection of cash when there's no public testimony about, uh, deciding what's going to be done or deciding the scope of the project. And both of these school board and wastewater bonds have been really well scoped out. I think that, um, reimbursement issues should have come before the assembly earlier. And yeah, it's really a CapEx versus OpEx debate.

And just a few months ago, it was decided not to pull money from the Lemon Creek Multimodal Project and funding museum. And that's exactly the same debate we're having with bonds and mill rates. And to say that you're going to support CapEx to not support CapEx to OpEx, but OpEx to CapEx through this mill rate increase that's going to be on the ballot. They got the signatures. I, I think it's your duty to put the bonds before the public and let them decide.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Reeder? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight. With that, we will bring it back to the assembly, and I think we're on Mr. Brooks.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I move, uh, Ordinance 2026-36, uh, and refer it to Assembly Finance Committee for, uh, consideration during the FY28 budget process. And I'll object to that. All right, you want to speak to your objection? Thank you. Um, for similar reasons on my objection to the, to the first, uh, amended ordinance as well, um, we need to— our wastewater, uh, utilities and facilities are in seriously poor shape compared to what they need to be doing to provide the best service for our community.

And this is another area where decades of not having proper funding has led us into a circumstance to where multiple things are kind of, you know, failing at the same time. And, uh, we really need to get on top of and then go above and beyond and get proactive with what's happening with our wastewater utilities. And that's why I would, um, move to amend this, to put it, put it on the ballot for this coming year.

Okay, so now we have an amendment, correct? You're making an official amendment, or— I'm looking at the attorney because it's not really an amendment, it's just going against what the director recommended. Miss— Madam Attorney. Um, so I just look for clarification from Mr. Brooks as to what you intended to do. Are you intending to amend, or are you just, um, keeping your objection to the original motion?

Is it something that can be amended to have it be placed on the ballot? Yes, it can. You can, you can make an amendment. You just need to make an official amendment. I would like to offer an amendment to There you go.

I move that we amend it to have it be included as a question to the voters on the upcoming ballot. All right, thank you for that. So now we have an amendment. Any objection to the amendment? Mr. Smith.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, again, no disagreement here on that the— this infrastructure needs investment. We did just do one 2 years ago and we heard the manager's recommendation, or, you know, the manager's recommendation and perspective on ability to execute. Again, this isn't a not now, it's a not right now. So, um, anybody else want to speak to this?

Ms. Huskany, I'm going to go to you first because you haven't spoken. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I'm going to object for purpose of a clarifying question to the manager. I think it's useful thinking in terms of— we just heard from a testifier, you know, the differences between how we get the money. And, you know, a bond, you get this chunk in of available capital. So if our— if you could just clarify for me further the amount of capital we have right now, because we know we have a long list of projects, at our utility.

If we got this money in, could you speak to what our ability would be to spend that, or lack of ability to spend it? Madam Manager, absolutely. So, um, the, um, recommendation comes from the fact that we cannot spend— we don't need this money next fiscal year to spend because we have the bond project that's already been approved and other utility projects that frankly are just taking up all of our staff capacity.

With our utility engineers. So it's not that we don't need the projects, and it's not that we don't need the spend. If this were approved, we would just work with the Finance Department to delay issuance of those bonds until we could spend that money. So it's not, you know, it wouldn't have an adverse impact on the projects. We would, we would just plan our capital schedule to be able to issue those bonds when we need that money.

The only point I'm making is that it's not a desperate need right now.

Now because of the backlog of projects that we have, but is absolutely a very real need for the utility. Thank you for that clarification.

All right, um, we have an amendment and we have objection. Anybody else wish to speak to it? Mr. Um, Brooks. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just one more quick thing.

Uh, we've had a lot of unexpected costs from wastewater and water utility emergencies this year, whether that be the, uh, you know, bursting water mains up near Blackerby, and we don't know what kind of impact this year's glof might have on wastewater as well. So not only would these funds be, you know, great for if nothing extra happened, but as of late we've been having lots of extra happen, so it's just worth considering. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Um, Ms. Hughes-Candies.

And thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, we'll be, uh, relatively brief in my own wrap-up. I think in this case I couldn't agree with Mr. Brooks more that these are needed. You all have heard me beat the drum that until we match our utility rates to the capital projects needs list, we are going to be in this situation and we're gonna be balancing how often is too often to bond for our wastewater utility. And I fear that we're in danger because the backlog is so great of one day just waking up and we're going to have the catastrophe on our hands.

Um, but when I hear that the reality is if voters voted for this, that it would be an exercise within the finance department delaying the issuance of the bonds. I don't see that translate into concrete good for the utility, and I think for that reason I am okay with this one moving to the other point, only because we don't have the staff capacity to, to spend it as we should. All right, thank you. Seeing no further comment, we have an amendment and objection. Madam Clerk, will call roll.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. For Mr. Brooks' amendment to place Ordinance 2026-36 on the 2026 ballot: Mr. Brooks? Yes. Deputy Mayor Smith? No.

Miss Hughes-Candies? No. Mr. Kelly? No. Miss Adkisson?

No. Miss Hall? No. Madam Mayor, no.

Motion fails with 6 nays and 1 yay. Okay, so that brings us back to the main motion, which is to, um, refer this ordinance to the Assembly Finance Committee for consideration during the FY28 budget process. Is that correct, Madam Clerk? Okay, just making sure we're keeping ourselves together here. Um, any objection?

Seeing none, that motion passes.

Do we need a quick break or do we plow through?

Okay, I'm getting plowed through. Um, item number 3, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance 2026-13, an ordinance providing for the levy and collection of a temporary 3% area-wide sales tax on the price of all taxable sales of goods and services delivered within the city and borough of Juneau to be in effect 5 years from July 1, 2027 through July 1, 2032, and calling for an election on whether such sales tax shall be levied.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Manager. Thank you. Uh, currently the CBJ has 5% in sales tax, uh, that consists of 1% of a permanent tax, the temporary 1% that you vote on every 5 years that, uh, is, is is usually capital projects, and then the temporary 3% tax. The temporary 3% tax is used to fund really the bread and butter of city services.

1% Is spent on operations including police and fire. 1% Is spent on streets and drainage projects, so rehabilitating all those streets, and, and we've added some utility projects to that list as of late to again keep up with those utility projects. And then the other 1% goes to other needed CIP projects, often again parks and playground maintenance. There's some Eagle Crest funding in there, but kind of these regular maintenance activities. We have had a 3% since 1983, so 3% has been around for decades and really is part of how we're able to provide basic city services.

Therefore, I recommend the assembly take— and so this ordinance puts 3% on the ballot this fall, and I recommend the assembly take public testimony and adopt this ordinance. Ordinance. Thank you, Madam Manager. Um, we have no one, uh, here to testify on that, so we'll go to the assembly. Ms. Adkinson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move Ordinance 2026-13, and I ask for unanimous consent. Any objection? Seeing none, so moved. Item number 4, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance 2026-11, an ordinance amending CBJ Code 42.30.010, resisting or interfering with an Officer to include interferences with fire department services. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Manager. Thank you.

We have existing city code that protects police officers when they're responding to a scene. This code adds fire department personnel to that code to protect their response activities when they're on scene and allow them to do their, their job. So it prohibits Uh, people from interfering with them when they're doing their official duties. It prohibits them from interfering with, like, the functioning of apparatus, of equipment, or hydrants. Really importantly, this does not prohibit, and no one can be arrested for filming, uh, CCFR, for protesting or exercising their constitutional rights.

I recommend the Assembly take public testimony and adopt this ordinance. Thank you, Madam Manager. And we do have Chief Hatley here to ask questions as we need him to. Um, there is nobody signed up to testify on this, so we will go to our assembly. Mr. Smith— I mean, sorry, Mr. Kelly.

I move the assembly adopt Ordinance 2026-11 and ask for unanimous consent. Any objection?

Seeing none, so moved. Item number 5, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance 2026-32, an ordinance amending the Uniform Sales Tax to repeal the exemption of sales by nonprofit organizations. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Madam Manager. Thank you. This ordinance narrows sales tax exemptions to nonprofits to only include government and social services. Uh, law does have a recommended amendment that that's in your packet that you should take up for consideration. I recommend the assembly take public testimony, amend and adopt this ordinance.

Uh, thank you, Madam Manager. Um, so we have several people signing up for the testify on this, so we'll start with Bob Urata.

First of all, thank you all for your patience. I know you've waited a long time to testify. Uh, you have 2 Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. Uh, I'm Bob Urata and I live in, um, in Juneau, um, by the lake. Uh, I've been here and practiced as a family physician since 1984, working at Search and Valley Medical.

Um, I retired in 2020. Uh, throughout these years I've served on boards of various nonprofit and public service organizations, including Bartlett Regional Hospital for 17 years, Perseverance Theater and Coalition for Reentry and Housing and Violent Crimes Compensation Board for the state of Alaska, and currently the Juneau Symphony. These experiences give me a deep appreciation of the vital roles these organizations play in supporting and strengthening our community, um, and I'd like to request that you consider alternatives and Do not take charitable donated money away from these community nonprofits. I urge you to consider exemptions for smaller nonprofits, so organizations with limited staffs and budget do not get disproportionately burdened. If the city decides to move forward taxing nonprofit sales, I request that you consider a threshold of maybe $1 million in annual earn revenues before the collection requirements apply.

This would be consistent with the city's existing recognition that smaller nonprofits should not bear the disproportionate administrative burdens. It also protects community organization that depends on volunteers while focusing compliance requirements on organizations with staff and financial, financial capacity to manage them. The issue isn't whether large nonprofits should continue to issue is whether the administrative burden is proportional to an organizational size and capacity. How many of these, uh, 263 recognized nonprofit organizations in our community have failed? Uh, thank you.

Thank you. Stand by one. Any questions for Dr. Urata? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight. Next we have Chuck Smythe and then Bruce Garris.

Please state your name and area, town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. My name is Chuck Smythe and I live out in the Montana Creek area. Hello, I was— last time, this time in Juneau, I was director of the Culture and History Department at Sealaska Heritage Institute from 2013 until my retirement in 2025. I served for 7 years on the CBJ Historic Resources Advisory Committee and another CBJ community committee that developed signage about the history of Juneau placed around downtown. I also sang in concerts organized by the community band, attended concerts by several nonprofit music groups in town, and made contributions to numerous groups such as the high school dance team, Little League basketball teams, and on and on, uh, sent by kids sent to our house asking for donations.

I'm going to speak briefly against taking an action on the nonprofit sales tax ordinance at this time and ask that it be tabled for further consideration. The 263 nonprofit organizations listed by the CBJ sales tax office will be adversely affected by this ordinance. Collectively, these organizations make Juneau a good place to live and help to attract people of all ages to live here. For example, Juneau is known for its robust arts community, and that quality attracts younger people especially to live here. It used to be the case that older people left town upon retirement, but that trend has been reversed due in part to the benefits accruing to Juneau from the multitude of nonprofits that make Juneau a good place to live for individuals and families.

There are many examples, but I will mention Mud Rooms. Mud Rooms is an evening of presentations in which people from the community are invited to share their stories about certain topics and experiences with an audience. Mud Rooms makes contributions from proceeds of the event after expenses, paying, paying its earnings to Juneau nonprofit— to benefit Juneau nonprofits and community organizations. This is an example of the value of one nonprofit contributing to the quality of life in Juneau. I have to stop you, Mr. Smythe.

I'm sorry, your time is up. That was what the buzzer was for. If you can give us a wrap-up, that would be great. If you can't, then we'll stop you. Uh, just— I encourage this group to table this draft ordinance until a wider discussion of the benefit benefits of the collectivity of Juneau's nonprofits can take place, and the purpose and value of their federal tax-exempt status be more fully considered at the local level.

Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony tonight. So next we have Bruce Garrison and then Charlotte Truett.

Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 2 minutes. My name is Bruce Garrison. I live on the Glacier Spur Road. I'm a 72-year, 1-month resident of Juneau, and I vote in every election. When I retired 16 years ago, I ran the statewide audit and recovery program for the Department of Labor unemployment insurance taxes.

So I'm very familiar with collecting taxes, auditing, and, and that type of thing. I'm very concerned about your plan to tax nonprofits. In my time in Juneau, I've been very active on a lot of nonprofit organizations, and I always end up being the treasurer. And one of the things I always did was, well, have you guys gotten your tax exempt from the city? Oh no, we haven't done that.

You're talking $250,000. Plus that you have. There's probably another 250 nonprofits that you're unaware of in Juneau. Just don't actually go out and do it. So I would love to know what your plan is for audit and recovery for these nonprofits.

Who's going to go out and do it? You're asking me— this next ballot, as you've discussed, has lots of taxes on it, and now you want to tax the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Friends of the Library, I just don't understand what your, what your goal is. And I'm going to hand out— this is a Juneau business that on the back of their business card complained about taxes. And if Mayor Weldon recognizes this business, I will be amazed. Anyway, please table this, give it more consideration.

Before you move forward with it. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Garrison?

Do you recognize the business? I do not.

It's fairly old though, because phone 71 and 307.

No, there you go. Thank you. Um, with that, thank you for your testimony, Mr. Garrison. And we have Charlotte Truitt and then Rick Harris.

Thank you. My name is Charlotte Truitt. I've called the Twin Lakes neighborhood my home for 22 years, and thank you for this opportunity tonight. During my 15 years in the arts administration and 7 years as the executive director for the Juneau Symphony. I've worked with dozens of local nonprofits, businesses, donors, volunteers, and it's given me firsthand insight into how this ordinance would affect organizations.

I'd like to focus on something that often gets overlooked in discussions about taxes, and that's the cost of collecting them. Specifically, I'll outline what this would cost to the Juneau Symphony. This fall, we begin our 64th season. Across all all of our performances, educational outreach, and fundraisers, we have approximately 10,000 annual attendees. For the Juneau Symphony, we estimate that implementing this ordinance, it would require approximately $2,000 to modify our bookkeeping processes, and then after that, we estimate our booking cost would continue to increase by approximately $500 every month.

We're fortunate that we have a bookkeeper who works about 10 hours a month, but many of the 263 nonprofits in Juneau don't have that luxury. They rely on volunteer treasurers or bookkeepers who donate their time because they believe in a mission. They do not have retail point-of-sale systems. This ordinance asks those volunteers to take on an entirely new level of responsibility and liability, implementing new accounting systems, modifying ticketing and bookkeeping procedures Filing returns and maintaining compliance all require staff time and professional expertise. If implemented based on our FY26 taxable earned revenue, we would collect approximately $12,500, yet it would cost us $6,000 to comply.

Additionally, our bookkeeper has indicated that it will not be possible to get our system in place by the proposed October 1st effective date. That increases the very real possibility that despite our best efforts, we could be identified or delinquent as a non-filer simply because we couldn't get it to happen in time. Many of our organizations are already— I'll wrap right up. We're already reducing demands on local government, and I ask that you consider this process. As you can see, most of the nonprofits in our community don't even know that this is being proposed, so I urge you to support Slow the process down, engage with the nonprofits in finding a solution, and adopt a policy that will strengthen, not weaken, the organizations that help make Juneau a community that we value.

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Truitt? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Uh, next we have Mr. Harris.

Please state your name and area of town you live in for the record, and you have 3 2 minutes, sorry, almost gave you 3. All right, thank you, thank you, Madam Mayor. My name is Rick Harris. I live in the Valley. I wanted to talk today about the sales tax for nonprofits.

The City Burial Ordinance has 41 different categories of organizations that are on some kind of exemption transaction. There are also within this specific provision exemption of 04012, which is a nonprofit exemption. There are over 263 nonprofits that are included in that, that are certified by the city. And I think we heard others suggest that there's probably more because we went through people who are nonprofits and we didn't see their name on the list. So that indicates a challenge for you.

What I'd like to— my concerns as I looked at the ordinance, the first one is the whereas. I'm very concerned that the whereas is currently structured. Overly limits the— what is a social service in Juneau. And because it's in a whereas, it's not effective, but it is guidance to the city manager and the attorney over what is or is not an allowable social service organization. So I have offered an amendment to the whereas.

I won't bother to read it, you've all received it. Um, the second thing I wanted to do is social services is not defined at all. All. And our definition is extremely narrow, uh, as proposed, or there is no definition other than what we have in the whereas. And, and, and so we need to expand that definition to make it something that is really inclusive of what true social services are.

The city attorney has identified a, a deficiency in the draft ordinance that's in front of you and has recommended an alternative, and I recommend that it's much better. It's much easier to understand, and I recommend you consider adopting that after there's further public notice and an opportunity for the public to comment on that revised ordinance. I have a series of comments. I will get to the very end, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

I was going to say I would like to hear—. I don't need to bore you with all of it. I, I, I too took the liberty of offering a proposed amendment. I was a little presumptuous, I think, but I'm not sure if that's proper or not. But I did it anyhow.

I offered a proposed amendment to you, our proposed motion to terminate or to, to table this, this action. And I also offered several alternative approaches to approaching this sales tax. So with that, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Harris?

Thank you for your time. With that, we will bring it back to the assembly. Mr. Smith, Madam Mayor, may I have a 2-minute addies? Sure, 2 minutes addies.

All right, Mr. Smith. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move that the assembly refer Ordinance 2026-32 to the September 2nd Assembly Finance Committee for consideration.

Um, and if I may speak to it, uh, certainly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, you know, through the public testimony outreach, um, via email and other methods, um, and just, you know, from what either little I know or I'm able to kind of discern from other members, you know, based on the number of contacts we're able to have. I just feel like we need— this needs more work. And, you know, I also— I've heard from people, some of whom work extremely close with many nonprofits, just having found out about this like a week ago.

So it is impactful. Every conversation I have, I learn more anyway. I would like to bring it back to our committee work session to see if there's— see what people want to do. We are also missing 2 members, so that is my motion and that is my reason why. Thank you.

All right, you've heard Mr. Smith's amendment. Is there objection? Ms. Hughes-Candies. Thanks, Madam Mayor. I'll object, I guess, to ask a question of the maker of the motion.

My thought coming into this tonight was that there was potential people would want to punt. Um, and I guess for me it's very important to know the nature of the punt, uh, and the purpose of the punt. So when you say that there's still work to be done on this, are you in Are you anticipating that this gets to finance and there is a significant amount of amendments made to it, um, or would it be more to really do more public outreach with the nonprofit community? And I guess I'll, I'll ask that question.

I can speak to it. Thank you, Missy Scandies. I guess where I am is, I mean, we can see how this motion goes, and maybe there's 5 votes to move it as is, but I'm not sensing that. And I'm not sure if there's 5 votes to move it in any different form, or maybe there are, but I don't think we're at a— I don't think we're in a place with, as it's currently proposed, to move it forward, at least to my liking, as I've learned more.

And we do— it buys us more time to kind of think and learn more and potentially just have the Assembly, the full body, but in a more, you know, a little less formal way to kind of see if there's consensus on anything or or potentially there may not be. But, um, yeah, I'm going to jump in here early because I'm— can I answer your question? I have a motion that I would— an amendment I would like to try, but I'm not ready for it tonight because I was talking with Ms. Gilbreath from General Community Foundation and she was doing some research for me. And I don't know what it is, but I know Mr. Steininger also has an amendment that he's looking at and he had to drop off to get on a plane. So just letting you know that.

So, um, Ms. Hughes-Caniz, thanks. And then we'll go to Ms. Hall. And thank you for that answer. I, I could have— I didn't want to give you too much lead-up. I think that to me it's just the importance of, um, this is something that past assemblies have looked at and it kind of gets to this point, and then people always is, you know, based on my look back in history, is it gets to a certain point and then people don't pull the trigger on it.

And what I wouldn't want us to do is— I feel like we've done some good work on it, and I feel like it's basically there, but I do agree that there could be some good amendments to be made. But then ultimately what I want us to know is, are there 5 people who think this is a good idea or not, um, rather than us dragging it out over for one idea that I had. I want to make an amendment of my own based on conversations I've had, and one of the potential thoughts I'd had coming in here tonight was that potentially it could get kicked to the next public hearing to keep it on track and moving and allow people that time to come prepared with those amendments.

You know, whenever we go backwards, sometimes I worry about us cluttering our committee work or losing steam. But if it's the will of the folks here tonight, if they feel like the better work would be done in a finance committee, I— what I would say is I want to make sure we do a really robust engagement with the nonprofit community, and I think we could definitely do that. Do a better job on that. Um, but then I really— I'm gonna argue for us to rip off the Band-Aid and make a decision one way or another, because this was identified by a subcommittee and we put in time there and we put in other time and have already made an amendment. So at a certain point, we should just address it.

And I think it's very far away from our minds in some ways right now, where we are in the year. The whole reason we looked at this, which is our fiscal situation. So I'm gonna continuously point us back to that. So I will remove my objection. Uh, thank you, Miss Hughes-Caniz.

Uh, Miss Hall. Yes, thank you. And I would like to speak in support of the Deputy Mayor's amendment. I just— last week I was attending a fundraiser for the group called 100 Women Who Care, which is basically a wonderful quick way to raise funds for nonprofits, and there are— I'm not sure if I have the number quite right, but I think there's close to 300 nonprofits that are potentially on the receiving end of those funds. Well, no, there's 300 members supporting the nonprofits that are potentially in line to receive funds.

Anyway, having said that, at that meeting, very few of the nonprofits were aware that this was even coming at them. And, you know, some rather prominent nonprofits in the community. So I feel like we haven't done a decent job of getting the word out to the community. It's a very convoluted, complex— the way it's written and the definitions. I think, you know, what what— who's going to decide what is a social service and serving the vulnerable population?

You know, it's just a very kind of confusing the way it's worded, so it definitely needs work. And, you know, so for that reason, I would definitely support this going back for a further look to see if it is something that we want to pursue for foregone revenue our nonprofits are out there working shoulder to shoulder with us, trying to make Juneau a better place to live, you know, doing the work that, you know, we don't have a health department, for instance. So our, you know, the Juneau Community Foundation is helping, helping us provide those grants out. And again, without really having a good community conversation about this and what it looks like. You know, we do look at the foregone revenue from some of our more prominent retail outlets, but you know, that's a small handful compared to the hundreds of nonprofits doing really important work in our community every day.

And so yeah, we definitely need to send this back to committee for further conversation and consideration and public engagement. All right, thank you, Ms. Hall. Um, so before we all take a turn, we have an amendment. So far I don't have any objection. Mr. Brooks, are you objecting?

Okay, Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm just objecting for the purpose of a question, and then I'll remove it. Uh, if the amendment was to carry forward— and I apologize, it's just a motion that right now. Just, just no amendment.

It's original. It's his original motion. I was— I'm objecting to that purpose of a question, then I'll remove it. Uh, so, uh, if this was— if the motion was to go forward, is there any opportunity for it to be brought up sooner than over a month away, and maybe in a format that could allow for the public to speak on it? Because in finance they can't, and over a month away we're going to have the glop and people's attentions will shift.

I want to keep it fresh on the mind of the people.

Thank you. Um, my understanding, belief is that we— the reason— so I guess the reasons I said the September 2nd Assembly Finance Committee Assembly. It's, as far as I know, the next Assembly Finance Committee that we've, we've proactively canceled the Wednesday due to Gloff reasons and maybe others, but I believe that was the first one. And then it does allow us to potentially take action before, you know, with this current Assembly on September 14th. I guess in terms of public outreach opportunities, there would be assuming there is a— there are votes to move it from the Assembly Finance Committee back to the Assembly for public hearing, there would be, of course, another opportunity for people to reach out then, or they could reach out during, you know, via other channels, emails, calls, office hours, you know, text, all those things.

So at least that's what I understand. Accepted. Thank you. I'll remove my objection.

All right, so now we have a motion. I'm trying to figure out how we get the attorney's amendment in here.

Yeah, because if we pass the motion, it's passed. So go ahead, Mr. Smith. What did you— when you talk to the attorney, what'd she say? Right. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

The attorney recommended just essentially sending the ordinance back. I mean, I believe it would come back with— and we can maybe speak to the finance director and the finance committee chair to say that, and any other, you know, ideas or drafts or things could be there for consideration. So that was the recommendation of the city attorney. I'm just trying to care for the city attorney. So, okay, so it sounds like if it goes back to committee, you could get your motion, your amendment done there.

There. So, okay, so this time we are going to move it back to Finance, and at this time I don't think I have an objection. Was that correct? Okay, so moved. Thank you all for testifying.

Um, I'm gonna say a break, 8 minutes. Is that good enough?