Public Naming Commission Meeting - June 11, 2025

Let's go ahead and we'll call, uh, the June 11th, 2025 meeting of the Municipal Public Naming Commission to order. Um, Jasmine, could you take roll please? Chair Hess. Here. Member Harrison.

Here. Member Galliman. Here. Vice Chair Bonnell. Here.

Member Kahn. Here. Member Gupta. Here. Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you. Could we— could I get a motion to accept the agenda, please?

That was Britt that moved. Second. And Summer, did you second? Okay. Any discussion?

Any opposition? All right, the agenda is approved. Could I get a motion to approve the minutes of the May 7th meeting? I'll make that motion, Mr. Chair, to approve that May 7th minutes.

Second. Moved by Christine, seconded by Simon. Any discussion? Any opposition?

The minutes are approved. All right, now we get into the fun stuff. First item on our unfinished business is our vision statement, and we have the draft. It's the single— yeah, there you go. Hey, Jesse just had it.

I was looking for the— we had the, the 3 examples that were emailed out by— oh, I don't know where that— he might be They were sent out, it was sent out by Jamie. I didn't get that, or did I? It was the 3 examples.

Anybody else get those? Oh, I don't know.

I didn't see that. I thought Jamie— maybe she only said it to me for whatever reason, but it was the three— it was based on our discussion at the last meeting. You were going to tweak it with one of— you were going to partner with somebody. I forgot who you were going to partner with. Me?

I think you're going to partner with Cookie on the— and then her and I took the goals as an action. Or no, it was about the— you, I think, were supposed to meet with The statement? No, because I was going to travel, so I couldn't call. So if—. Well, we can do it now.

I could run and print off copies real quick. Okay. Yeah, because there's some— we could probably finalize this tonight. Yeah, totally. I think I picked my favorite.

I also made— I haven't met any of you. Hello. Hi. Going through the notes too, I took a shot at it. Also, so I can share that with you.

Okay, yeah, that's great because I was traveling too and fell down on the job, but I managed to get this thing drafted and shared. What do you mean you fell down? I went to Maui for 2 weeks. Oh, amazing! Sounds like a great time.

Yeah, it was. Britt, my name is Kuku. I work at Ruruoka. Oh, great.

Nice to meet you. I'm Selma. Hi. I'm currently unemployed. Okay, what's your field of interest?

I'm an HR professional. Oh great, okay, very important. Yes. And I'm Christine. Um, I was with the muni for 13 years and I was staff to the Historic Preservation Commission.

That's why I recognize your name. Oh, okay. Yeah, Daryl and I I mean, I basically took over his job when I came on board because he had been staff to the commission for quite a few years.

So I've been retired, it'll be 2 years in July, but almost went immediately into small business mode and got a contract. So I've been working on the Midtown District Plan. Oh, love it. I live in Midtown, so happy to hear you're working on that. Good.

Yeah, we're going to come out with a new public hearing draft. Okay. And I would appreciate everybody taking a look at it and saying how— writing letters about how wonderful it is. We're one of the younger families that moved into Geneva Woods. Oh, good for you.

I live in College Village. Okay, yeah, so I probably walked past your house. Yeah, I live on Princeton. Oh yeah, I love— oh my gosh, it's one of my favorite streets. That's great.

Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Julie Harrison. I will be unemployed on June 27th, you know, thanks to federal cuts.

But I'm also looking into consulting. I might go that route. Okay. But my—. I've been working for tribes and tribal health organizations since 1990.

Oh, great. So I'm currently working for Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. I've also worked for Chugach Inuit, Tlingit-Smiut, Chiclooney Village. Oh, neat. And I've been a CEO, executive director.

Currently though, my job was super fun because I traveled all around the entire state. Yeah.

Thank you. I'm so excited. I like their intimacy. I love it. I love it too.

I got so many compliments on it. Yeah. It's also like a fish scale. Oh, I'm not a fish scale. I love how summery our colors are.

All of us. Thank you. So you haven't—. We should talk. Yeah, so, um, so my name is Britt Philanthrop.

I first and foremost, I own a creative agency, but we do a lot of strategic planning, so I actually do a lot of work with with Native healthcare organizations and tribes. And we do, we specialize in branding as well. So I think that was sort of the connection here. And then I lived in Anchorage 12 years ago for a decade back. And I actually, when I left, I was chairing the Federation of Community Councils.

And so Daryl, you might recognize me from that. I have a different last name now. Yup, and I was active, I worked for the Port of Anchorage. For a while as the external affairs director before leaving to start The Boardroom with Katherine Jernstrom, who's a big community leader now. So I started The Boardroom with Katherine, and then we now have two locations.

And so I've been working, I've been working remotely from Sitka for a decade where I built Element, which has staff statewide. We work with groups all over. And then two years ago, I moved back to Anchorage into Geneva Woods. Awesome. Yeah.

So this is, uh, I think it came out our first meeting, and there were some examples that the clerk's office had provided at that meeting. And then Jamie, I think, tweaked them, worked on them a little bit, and, and provided these three options as a starting point. And so take a couple minutes, read through them, and I don't know, I think we could come up with our vision statement tonight. Probably. I think we can too.

I'm curious to see which statement each of you like. Did you give me a copy? Oh, I thought I had an extra one left. Is the first one the one that AI did that we were like, sounds great but too long? Yes.

Okay, yes. And so then they kind of wordsmith them. I mean, I love the point, what it says, the point, but it's Way too long. Now I found it. Of course.

Are we voting or what are we doing? Well, I'm just discussing, you know, but I'm curious if everybody has a favorite. I have a favorite of the three, one that I'm leaning toward.

Number 1 is still awesome, but it's too long. Way too long. I could go with either 2 or 3. I'm more in favor of 3 though. Great minds think alike.

One of the things that I like most about, about Statement 2 that's missing from Statement 3, but I think could be worked in, is that it states the Public Naming Commission's vision versus the naming process itself. Because we right now are in charge of creating a process, but once that process has been established, it's the Commission's job to carry that process out. So I do like change we to the public. Yeah, and visions and anchorage. Yeah.

And I also thought after naming, where it says naming process, I write in there an inclusive naming process. I like the word inclusive in number 2. But I think if I, I like that idea, the Public Naming Commission envisions an inclusive naming process, and then I like to balance it.

It's short and to the point. It hits a lot of— checks a lot of boxes. Yeah.

Okay, so yeah, I like 3 with what you just said. Do we need to be careful with the word inclusive anywhere? There's—. I wondered about that. It's welcoming, comprehensive, like there's other, uh, you know, it says active community input.

And I just think, or we could leave the word inclusive out. I mean, I, I, I think inclusive isn't— I don't know, is, is inclusive a—. It will just scream with everything going on. Yeah, with everything going on with the nation. Yeah, I know equity is, you know, but the commission doesn't receive federal funds necessarily.

I know, but we, we are also seeing this goal or this statement for the general public. The only thing that's missing that I liked— where did I hear that? In the first, it's in Vision 1, but it's not in the other two. And so I really like recognizing meaningful local narratives because to me sometimes the name of things is based on like a story that happened. You know, that's the big rock.

We've just always called it the big rock. Or the Sleeping Lady. Or the Sleeping Lady. Or that's where those kids did whatever, and so that's why it's called the upside-down tree. Or, you know, like there's a story behind it.

And so that, that's the stories. Yeah, I do like that language too. Could we possibly say, by creating space for public voice and careful stewardship, recognizing meaningful local narratives, and when we aim to build a sense of connection. I think that our goal sentence, that entire our goal sentence, could be shortened and made more concise to then include that, to then not exceed the The number of sides. Yeah, I think that would be the best.

If you want to break up the sentence, because I get what you're saying, we're having runoff sentences. Love me a good whiteboard moment. Okay. There's a lot of commas in that sentence. Okay, give us the proposal.

So let me ask you a question. Are we creating a space or a process too? Process. Yeah. I think it's more about process, but there's space within the process, right?

Yeah, because of the public, but it's more about the process. Yeah, process is how we do it though, right? Because once we've created the process, the Public Naming Commission will not go away. Yeah, right. So it's right, the process is then they nominate, and that, that's why I'm just thinking process.

She's colored up on the board. Yeah, I can fill it as you go. So far that's what you said, but I can add it as you Oh yeah, you can go to her too if you want to, but she's coming. Yeah, I can help you. Okay, so I'm going to stop writing then.

I was like, I don't know how we're going to do this. Okay, so who wants to propose some names? An inclusive naming process, right? I thought you didn't want to do inclusive. We were just debating on that.

I, I would prefer not just because of Comprehensive. Something different other than the word inclusive. Can you thesaurus inclusive for us? Do we have other options? I think it's— I looked at them up before I got here because for that exact— so welcoming, comprehensive, celebratory, representative, culturally aware.

Oh, culturally aware. Which I think that in this instance, culturally aware is a great way to— yeah, because that is inclusive. It's specific to what we mean by that. I like that. Culturally aware.

Yeah, that's better. I don't think that will get us dodged.

I mean, vision's a culturally aware thing. This is thoughtful, long-term planning, active community input. That's a great sentence. That's the whole— so that's the sentence that starts with 'our goal is' is just a long—. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of— I was wondering, did that actually be a goal?

Should that 'our goal' come out? What about, um, that sentence, like, 'by recognizing the people's stories and landscapes that shape our community, we aim to foster a sense of shared identity and belonging'? Do you want to get it to her to type up on the screen?

The people stories.

I like the meaningful— people comment stories. Sorry. I like the meaningful local narratives that somebody said earlier. I would be cautious about saying by recognizing people because we are steering away from naming things after people. Naming after people is not a goal.

Yeah. The people. But I also think that's totally fine to delete people.

By recognizing stories. What's up? By recognizing stories. Yes. By recognizing stories and landscapes that shape our community.

We aim to foster a sense of shared identity and belonging.

So, yep, and then no 'and' after 'community.' It's a period. Community, comma, we—. It should be a period. Start off the new sentences. We aim—.

Well, by recognizing stories and landscapes that shape our community, we aim to foster a sense of shared identity.

And so we could replace the goal piece. Yeah, with that. I like that. Let's save that goal. Yeah, keep the goal.

Yeah, we liked that. Yeah, put it at the bottom or something so we can see it. We'll just—. We'll highlight it for when we talk about goals. This one was by creating space, so do we want to leave that?

That's what that was. Well, that's what we talked about. Is it a space or process? Yeah. By creating space for public voice, by creating space for public voice, creating possibilities.

What are we talking about? Creating opportunities.

Our work includes the thoughtful consideration and approval of names for sites, objects, trails, landscapes, and buildings. And then we can get into the goals and strategies for how we—. I don't think she heard that, what you just said. Our work includes the careful or thoughtful consideration and approval of names for sites, for sites, objects, trails, landscapes, and buildings.

That's what— that lets people know that they can name a whole bunch of stuff. That's not exactly— not just—. Yeah.

Should we put public in front of that? Our work involves the public's careful consideration and approval of the words for public sites. Yes.

You mean you don't want to rename Chewback State Park, Darryl? Yeah, I want to name it after me.

No more people. Oh darn, I forgot. Well, I don't know, do we like—. We did lose the, um, Indigenous. Indigenous.

And that was one of the things we wanted to do, and that was in 2 and 3. Yeah, it was actually in 1, 2, and 3, and now we've lost it. I'm glad we want to include that. I'm glad that this group is wanting to do that. So we need to figure out a way to put that back.

Oh, that's a directive from Cameron, trust me. Okay, great. Yeah. Can we put the first whole paragraph into AI and see what it's gonna add, the word indigenous somewhere in it, because I don't know where we're gonna put it because we're extracting everything that's on the underneath that paragraph, correct? Yeah, I did like in that number 2, vision statement number 2, says the Public Naming Commission envisions an Anchorage where the names of public places reflect the full story of our community, honoring Indigenous place names, because that's really what that's about, recognizing cultural and historical significance, and celebrating the natural landscape that surrounds us.

So do we want to put that in this one? We could put that before the sentence, by recognizing stories. Yeah, and then maybe the— we move the part about a culturally aware process to the end. So where do you want it? So maybe it's—.

So the sentence that says, um, provision statement number 2, the first sentence, we want to put that right before by recognizing stories, but we don't have to put the public naming. We could just put that we also envision Anchorage, where the names of public places, etc., reflect the full story. Or that's really like our— yeah, reflect the full story of our community, honoring Indigenous place names, recognizing cultural and historical significance, and celebrating Recognizing that whole sentence. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think we'll need to cut a little bit.

We can—. I mean, it's just been working there. I'm getting there.

Was that good enough for a vision?

Okay, so I recognize I think remove also "we envision." Yeah, cut a word out. And I think we could maybe put that piece about our culturally aware naming process, like how we do it, last. Yeah, like, so we're with our work includes, like how we do our work.

I think that's a pretty good vision statement.

And since it's a vision statement, we can also say the Public Naming Commission uses a culturally aware naming process versus envisions it. Oh yeah, that's good.

Yes, I like uses better than It's an action. I think we found our vision statement. Um, somebody asked about long-term planning. Why does that need to be in there?

Is it still in there? Oh yeah, balance is thoughtful long-term planning. Did we put meaningful local narrative somewhere? I'm sorry, I can't see all of them. A little bit.

Do we have— by recognizing stories and landscapes, we could put meaningful local narratives and goals to keep it, um, like our goal is to follow, is to use meaningful local narratives. Okay, I think there is somewhere we can workshop the second by recognizing stories and landscapes that shape community. As we've already mentioned, recognizing cultural and historical significances.

Does that—. Yes. Yeah, I feel like we're repeating. We don't need to, like, for brevity, like, we don't need to be redundant, but we do want to say why we do it, like, why this is important. Yeah.

But What about just saying the Public Naming Commission uses a culturally aware naming process with active community input? Perfect.

Love it.

I like that. So you have the vision. Yeah. Then we recognize stories. Shared identity.

Yeah, and also back to your point, do you say—. Is it kaku ku? Kuku. Okay, back to your point, the vision, we don't need to— like, that could be a strategy we use, right? Like, by recognizing we're creating this, that's a strategy that we use, but the vision is this shared identity and belonging.

Right? So that's the piece that we need to—. Yeah, that shared identity and belonging was what the first time around, Britt, I really like clung on to because I feel like there is a space there for—. Probably just strike out the bioreconizing stories and landscapes and just have it meaning to foster a sense of spirit. But then we lose that recognizing meaningful local narratives.

We switched out meaningful local narratives for recognizing stories. So we take off recognizing stories, so we lost that story part. Is it okay to put stories in the—. The meaningful narratives in strategy or goal?

Because we have this with goals and strategies that we use.

Yeah, this is simply our vision. Yeah, we're separating the goals. This is just the vision statement. We're going to use that as a—. Okay, so how does everybody feel about this statement?

I'm okay with striking out by recognizing stories and landscapes because we could put that as our goal and strategy. We could also say— because it gives us a culturally aware, maybe Brussels, active community, and that really everything is recognizing activity. Their goals. Yeah, that's the first thing.

What about like, the Public Naming Commission uses a culturally aware naming process with active community input to recognize stories and landscapes, to foster a sense of shared recognizing, you know, without making it like a big run-on sentence.

With active community input, comma, recognizing stories and landscapes that foster a sense of shared identity and belonging. [Speaker:WOMAN] So are you giving them a mission or just a vision? [Speaker:WOMAN] Maybe that's just a vision. [Speaker:WOMAN] That's what makes it hard. That's what's missing, is we're combining a mission with The vision.

Hmm, I see what you're saying. So the vision would be the very first sentence, and the mission would be everything from our work down. Yeah. Which also works. I think if we're going to use the first sentence, we need to celebrate more than just the natural landscape.

Do we want to add the—. The stories? No, the sites, objects, trails, or buildings. Do we want to add that there, or— I think we could stop it at—. Do we have to put Lutske?

Can we just put natural land? Well, I think we envision an anchorage where the names of public places reflect the full story of our community, honoring indigenous place names, recognizing cultural and historic significance, and celebrating the land that surrounds us. So it's the place that's celebrating our town or something like that. Well, except for Anchorage is in this bowl. I mean, everyone that arrives in Anchorage just looks around and it's like We are like, okay, we are really the last.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The piece that I really liked about the third one was honor the cultural, national, and civic identity of our city. Um, I think there's a level of ownership in mentioning our city in our vision. Um, and I wonder if there's a way to encapsulate that boldness and the land into one. So I also like that it said elevating Indigenous place names versus honoring them.

Yeah, so we could say elevating Indigenous place names, recognizing cultural, historic, and civic significance. Does that sound That puts in that civic. You could also say, "We envision our city where the names of public places instead of saying Anchorage." So you're talking about a vision statement. Is the first paragraph the vision statement?

Yeah, we're saying just that first sentence, Dan or Daryl. What about Going back to Kuku's point here, which I thought was great, what if we said we envision an Anchorage where the names of our public places reflect the full story of our community, and then say the land's history, reflecting the land's history, elevating Indigenous place names, and honoring the cultural, natural, and civic identity of our city. Yeah, because I think that that better encapsulates— like, that— I like the phrasing is so strong versus like cultural, historic significance. You know, like, those are words that we gloss over. Like, they're—.

Yeah, yeah. But I also love the, the names of our public places reflect the full story of our community. I think that's really like a strong— wait, will you repeat that for me? Sorry. So after the dash— and jump in here, by the way, if you have a better way to, um, envision an Anchorage where the names of our public places reflect the full story of our community, period.

Reflecting the land's history.

Elevating indigenous place names.

We're just basically striking out the recognizing cultural—. We're just replacing it with honor the cultural, natural, and civic identity of our city. Oh, okay. Oh yeah, that's another one. Okay, yeah, I like honoring.

You're doing great. Do you want to get rid of this portion? I would really like that part because I just feel like that's—. Well, we can maybe use that. I think we could say we envision an Anchorage where the names of public places to reflect the full story of our community, the land's history.

It's because they're different. Hold on. It's like you could do that. You could take out the second reflecting. Reflect the full story of our community, the land's history, the land's history.

We're not starting a new sentence, yeah. You could just say Indigenous place names. We don't have to talk about elevating or celebrating them. Yeah, take that out and then take out honoring. And honor.

Oh, or and the cultural. Because you're reflecting the full story of the land's history, Indigenous place names, cultural, natural, and civic diversity. Cool. Why did it make that one gerund? And I know, I was like, all right, remind us.

So, uh, oh, we took historic out. It's a run-on sentence right now. Yeah, so you delete and celebrating the natural landscape that surrounds us. I think we can all agree that we're removing that, right? Yeah, yeah, period.

So yep, and then, then it kind of makes I think we're good, but we also repeat. I think we actually now have our hook sentence, and I think we we can go into like two more points to really hone into the careful consideration, approval, and the sense of identity and belonging piece fosters. So we envision an Anchorage where the names of public places reflect the full story of our community: land's history, Indigenous place names, and cultural, natural, and civic identity of our city. I love that. I love it.

Sounds good. We're saying by recognizing twice though. I think that— well, then we could go into— by which one are we still saying by recognizing stories and landscapes? But which one are we taking out because they're both highlighted? Yeah, because we have to solve for it.

We have to pick.

Can we just strike the last part? Recognize and leave it at active community input. But yes, I think so. I think it's stronger up top anyway.

It is.

So where it says careful consideration and approval, we need to change approval to recommendation. Yes. Yeah, because we recommend— yeah, we recommend the assembly Approved. I like it. I like it.

Okay, this is good. This is identities. Where? Sorry, because it's cultural, natural, cultural, natural, and civic identities of our city. And then we have an extra space there.

Between cultural and—. No, it's just the way that—. Oh, the way the font is so big. Yeah, okay, I tried to erase it. I was like going back and forth.

Yeah, I will not doubt your— Darryl, you want to read it out loud? Okay. We envision an Anchorage where the names of public places reflect the full story of our community, the land's history, indigenous place names, and and cultural, natural, and civic identities of our city. By recognizing stories and landscapes that shape our community, we aim to foster a sense of shared identity and belonging. Our work includes the careful consideration and recommendation of names for municipal sites, objects, trails, landscapes, and buildings.

The Public Naming Commission uses a culturally aware naming process with active community input. Yep. Every time I read that, I feel like I need a 'the' between the 'and' and 'cultural.' Is anyone else feeling like you need a 'the'? Yes. Yeah, there is that.

Yes. And then I'm wondering, do we need—. That was deleted—. 'Of our city' in that same thing? See, I keep trying to— what did you say?

What's that? Well, do we need We say Anchorage there. Do we need "of our city"? Can we do a period there?

Oh, take— you're saying strike out "of our city"? Yeah, strike out "of our city" because we're already saying this is about Anchorage. If you strike out "of our city," then I think you need to drop the "the," wouldn't you?

The only thing I like about our city is that it's a way to be— it's a way I feel like it feels not inclusive to me. Oh, okay. But I'm just asking. No, I know that. I hear what you're saying.

That's like Anchorage community city. Like, we have it all in one. Why don't— what about changing the identities of Anchorage? Or do we just say city? I like—.

I think using the pronoun our is is what's really sticking with me. Okay, okay. You know, we are—. Sense of belonging. Yeah.

And then the only other thing I'm going to say is, um, like, Girdwood is part of our city and so is Eagle River. So do we want to say we envision a municipality of Anchorage?

No. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Yeah, it's like a— yeah.

Because that's how we're inclusive of those communities that are part of our identity. Yeah, playgrounds. That's a good point. They do like to say we're different. And then it also is like our community, right?

They're all inclusive in that. So yeah, cool. All right, except for now we have our— they're still part of our city though. Yeah, they're suburbs of our city. Yeah.

All right, how about a motion to accept this Do you want to read it again for the record, and then we can do the motion? We envision a municipality of Anchorage where the names of public places reflect the full story of our community: the land's history, Indigenous place names, and the cultural, natural, and civic identities of our city. By recognizing stories and landscapes that shape our community, we aim to foster a sense of shared identity and belonging. Our work includes the careful consideration and recommendation of names for municipal sites, objects, trails, landscapes, and buildings. The Public Naming Commission uses a culturally aware naming process with active community input.

Is there a motion to accept? I'll move to accept. Oh, I'll second. Moved by Jennifer, accepted by Christine. Any opposition?

Our discussion? Awesome, we have a vision statement. Thank you. And I think it's a good one. I think it's pretty concise.

I'd want to be a part of, right? Like, you can't really poke a hole in that, I feel like. Yeah. And it's pretty concise for a government body's vision statement. All right, so that brings us to our next action item, uh, implementation— naming implementation goals and strategy development.

And you had a draft document, Christine? Yes, the one with the little crosshatch. So I did these goals and strategies just based on that rough vision statement that I did. But, um, I think, you know, goal number 1, we definitely want to review and respond to applications in a timely manner.

And what do you think? Should we just—. Do we need to identify what timeline it means, or can we leave it as—. Within 90 days? Do you want to set something?

I think having a timeline and an actual number of days is a good idea. That's what gets government in trouble. You know, given my day job, I hear all the time Well, what does timely mean? Yeah, as soon as possible. Okay, so we'll want to do it quarterly then, because 90 days is quarterly anyway.

So I have a slightly unrelated question. Shouldn't our first goal be building awareness about our committee? Oh yeah, bringing—. Yeah, yeah, these are just right. Yeah, is that, or is that Would that be not a goal?

Yeah. Well, that's a strategy number 2. Oh, so that would be—. Create an outreach program to share our work with the community, mayor, and assembly. So that could be goal number 1.

Goal number 1 would be like we want the community to be aware. It's always a goal, and our strategies are how we do accomplish that goal. So goal number 1, create an outreach program to share our work with the community, mayor, and assembly. Is that a strategy? Yeah, instead of that being a strategy.

Or build a way. Build—. Sorry. Create and build are the same. Do we want to accomplish our goals?

Goals? Like, do we want it to be like how you wrote it? I like that because then it's like we've accomplished the goal, right? Is this though, because this is a new commission, do we also— are we tasked with coming up with the goal, the goals that continue? Like, we don't want to work ourselves out of no longer being necessary.

That's more of a procedure question, I guess, because we don't have bylaws or anything. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Well, we have to work on those too. Yeah.

Oh, we do? Every commission has to develop bylaws or rules of procedure. Oh, we do now? Okay. So it's been in the code.

So like, your goal to advocate for sound and defensible naming recommendations for assembly approval is like a goal we can always have? Yeah, like goal 2025. 1.A is create a. Yeah, okay, so that kind of changes—. We don't have bilinguals, that might be a goal in itself.

So goal number 1 could be, in order to make it long-term, we could say create and implement an outreach program, right? And then the action item, there would be 2 action items, is, or 3 maybe. So one action item is to create the program, so that would, we would do a timeframe with that, like within the next 6 months. And then action number 2 would be implement the program, and that would be ongoing. Okay, implement and evaluate.

Yeah, yeah. Or action 2 is ask for funding to implement the program, right? To celebrate, right? Because that is not free. Yeah, how do we do that?

Yeah, and then to implement the program. Yeah, yeah. Did you get that, Jasmine? Uh, most of it. Program by a certain date, implement the outreach programs, I think.

Yes, so goal 1 would be to create and implement an outreach program to share our work with the community, mayor, and assembly. And is it our work or our—. Is it so like a point of— do we want to have Do we have objectives? So like maybe we need to establish these are what our objectives are, because then we would have goals for meeting those objectives. Okay.

Because those would be SMART, measurable, actionable, you know, we can do like time-bound. And so then I think we can create goals to get our objectives accomplished, right? And strategies are like how we do that. But did we get a set of objectives for our work? No, we didn't do that because you'll remember there was that one that has an August August 31st deadline.

So the code there, I think it's August 1st we have to submit a work plan. Yeah. And then what does the work plan ask us to do?

Prepare an annual naming plan and submit to assembly by August 31st, which includes these things here, which includes activities in the prior year of the Commission's Statement of Vision for Naming Public Places, a list of public places proposed for consideration of naming or renaming in the coming year, a summary of naming requests from the public from the prior year, and proposed disposition of those requests, including how the proposed names meet the requirements in this section. And then it says meeting at least once annually for the sole purpose of naming implementation goals and strategy. Yeah, there's like a bunch of objectives in there of it, or in our powers and duties for what we do. That's what we need to write the goals to. How are we going to do those things?

Whenever you make a big one, it pushes you over your places. So then like objective 1 could be Like awareness, creating transparent process. Yeah, which would be the 90 days, all how we do it. Yeah, fair and equitable. Yep.

Objective number 2 could be meet the requirements of code on an— on a quarterly or annual basis or whatever, and then we could put down what those are.

That might be under fair and equitable still.

One public hearing.

Okay, so, so one is initiation. So it's building awareness around that, like, to do So an objective is we have to create awareness so people know how to do this. Yeah, so, um, so the, uh, you guys got the director's guidance on how to fill out a local landmark application. So in that director's guidance, it tells you what to do and what the process is. So then maybe, um, objective number 1, create a transparent process.

Maybe that includes basically that handout of the process or something like that. What are you thinking? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Okay.

And where are we going to create like a little survey of how they— yeah, you gotta meet this criteria. Yeah, that's like a sample for us. And again, that's in that— that's in that director's guidance that we put together for the local landmark.

So did it—. Looks like they've copied some of the stuff from my thing to put into this code. I think they did. It's pretty close. Yeah, it's pretty close.

We actually looked at the historic preservation code when we worked on this. Yeah, because, because we adopted the local landmark ordinance in there and said what all you're supposed to do. So you guys did that? So that's where it came from then. Okay.

Reinvent the wheel. Yeah. Okay. Because there's a lot of similarities between the Naming Commission and the Preservation Commission.

That's why you're the chair.

So our objectives are powers and duties, basically. These are the things that we do. Okay. These are the things we have control over. Okay.

Yes.

And what we are allowed to do is— the code governs what we are allowed to do. Yes. So boards and commissions can't assume any authority or power outside of what they are given in code, codified to do. So that, that would be our objectives. And then what we could do is, for each one break it down.

How do we— what are the goals and the strategy for each one? Yeah, right. Yes. Okay. And if there's no goals, then just move on to the next.

Yeah. So our objective number 1 would be implement the naming policy of the municipality through review of all requests and actions for compliance with this policy and honorary naming criteria under this chapter. So to do that, we have to create it, create a naming policy. I don't think it exists. Yeah, so to fulfill our objective 1, a goal is to create a naming policy by this date, this time.

And then another That's number 2. Our second objective is to review proposed names in public places, including holding public hearings. So then that's where we would say when we do it. Like, the goal would be like, how, you know, so even if it's establishing that, that could be a goal for right now. Our goal would be to establish a calendar, right?

Or a process around it. Yeah, but the objective remains the same, to propose, to review proposed names in public places. We could say that we could— we meet 12 times a year, every month. We can pick one month in each quarter, one meeting, and that at those meetings we review any applications. Yes, yes.

So just so you all know, um, that, that review has to be publicly noticed. Yes. Okay, which is why we should set our calendar and know when they fall. So you need to have it done by this to get it on this. Yeah, so that we're transparent and can ensure an amount of time.

Yeah. And then we have a third one where we're actively like looking for things that haven't been named or things that haven't been named that maybe we—. Yes, which is really fun. We can initiate a naming So we—. That'd be fun with strategy, like what's our strategy behind how to do this?

So we have the authority, if a member of the commission has an issue with an existing name of a public facility, or there's a public asset, municipal asset, that isn't named, that commissioner can come to a meeting and initiate a discussion without having to go through a A whole other—. Which we also need to create a process to bring it to us, right? But then, yeah, it's— that's a really powerful thing that we can do is we ourselves—. We don't have any— everybody else would go through this before, but we as commissioners can proactively initiate a naming process. We would still have to have the public hearing and it would have to be noticed, but we can initiate it.

We can seek a name. Still need to do the form even if we were commissioners, just to CYA, I would think. Yeah, but we could seek a name, like we could specifically say we would love a name for this, and then people can fill this out. Like, we can identify sites that need to be named or renamed. Or I think to Christine's point, name of individual or agency— the agency would be a public name.

Naming Commission. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. No, I like the idea that we follow the same rules as everybody else. You get on the naming commission and just get to pick. All right, sky's the limit.

Another objective would be to collaborate with the Department of Public Works to recommend names for facilities and development. So that— a strategy there would be some sort of meeting with them or having them come and present to our group so we're on the same page. Have a schedule, a bigger part of the schedule, along with the other scheduled calendar goal, that one of those meetings, like once a quarter, yeah, meet with the Public Works people to hear about what they're working on. So our goal for this would be by a certain date we figure out how we're going to do this objective, right? That would be our goal, so we can accomplish the goal.

Meet at least once annually for the sole purpose of naming implementation goals and strategy, and monthly as needed for the purpose. So, so at least once a year we'll revisit, we'll revisit our objectives and what we need to do. So we basically, when we write this, we need to write a work plan for a year. Yeah, we used to do for the HPC. Okay, we could designate one particular month meeting as an annual meeting.

Yeah. To, to follow through on that requirement. So I would, um, as far as bylaws and all that kind of thing, I would have— the state does a training for commissions, and I would have the state come and train us once a year in October. So training, and that would help 'Well, you know, this is typical bylaws for a commission,' and that kind of thing. So, like, ex parte, and she goes through— they go through the—.

Not violating— yeah, Meetings Act. Yeah, and Roberts Rules of Orders and all that. Well, but the clerk's office does training on Open Meetings Act. Oh, okay. Roberts Rules.

So We could also look at what other— the bylaws of other boards and commissions. Most of them are fairly simple. Yeah. And it addresses election of officers, their terms of service, if there are term limits.

I can send out the Equal Rights Commission's bylaws. I have them on my computer. They're probably really good.

2. Okay, so these are 6 things that we working on, but it sounds like we kind of have this 7th one of the bylaws, mhm, that might fall off after the first year. Yeah, yeah, which could be part of number 1 because that's how we do our work, right? Okay, well, the goal— would the goal be to develop bylaws, policies, and, you know, processes for the commission. And I think that's something that would probably go away after the first year.

Yeah, yeah. So we put that in our annual naming plan for our activities, coming activities. Well, we've already met one of the requirements for the annual report Division statement. Look at us, good job.

And frankly, because of the time— timing of when the commission was, was stood up, we're not going to have a lot of activities to report this on because this is only our second meeting, right? We're going to meet more. July will be a third, so we will have 4 meetings before the— it's due. I was gone. Yeah, but okay, yes, but we didn't meet.

No one met until then. Had anyone even been appointed? I was appointed months ago. So was I. I was appointed in March. Yeah, so that— so we're all— okay, so, so our fourth meeting will be just before the, uh, work plan is due to the assembly.

So it may be pretty bare bones this year, and I don't think the assembly would expect it to be really robust this year. Could we get our bylaws done by then so that that could go before the assembly? I think so. Vision and a work plan, so we could actually put a work plan instead of, uh, just what we did. So, and the form, rather than, right, wordsmithing Tonight, does anybody want to volunteer to work on the goals and strategies for the next meeting?

Taking those 6 things and breaking it down. Yeah, we're totally doing a 180 on—. It's okay. Sorry. What if we, uh, what if So if we— so 1, 2, 3, 4.

What was the rules? Only 2? There's really only 4. Review Humboldt's names.

I mean, there's really only a couple because we need— like, we can write a goal for like number 4, right? That would be like contact Department of Public Works. By this time, like, those are very simple, right? So there's really only two that are meatier, and that's the— that's how we implement the naming policy, and then how we are— the strategy for coming up with names and public places. Sounds like you got a volunteer.

I am happy to, like, start that. Um, I can support you in it. That'd be awesome. We can work together on that. Yeah.

And then you guys have this, right? It was emailed out. Yeah, it was awesome. So, so we had it underneath. Yeah.

Yep. It was really important to celebrate, um, and the advocate, because there's pieces of this that we want to make sure we put inside of those, which it should part of the process, right? Like the celebrating and the— it should be part of the public naming commission's process that we sell. Like, it's not just like, oh, it got named, but like, how do we let the public know? The awareness, you know, part of that awareness is a celebration.

Yeah, like what— well, we've had a couple of, you know, just an example, and I'm sorry I keep talking about this stuff, but like we wrote a book about the Government Hill History and interviewed a bunch of people. And so then our little celebration is we got everybody together that we had interviewed, and everybody signed books and signed each other's books and things like that. And then when we did, what was it, something, we had a big celebration at Pioneer Schoolhouse, and we actually had, remember that, Darryl, we had that silent auction and everything. That was— maybe that was for finishing the Pioneer Schoolhouse. It was for finishing and getting the new roof on and stuff.

And Mayor Sullivan was there for that. So that's cool. I mean, the sky's the limit as far as that stuff goes. And, you know, it's a big deal too. Yeah, yeah, people will show up for that stuff.

It'd be neat too to think about how— so as we start to— as this commission starts to name things, how we keep the background information of why something was selected, like that needs to live on. And that's part of the sharing of story in place. Yeah. So like, it's not just that the name changed, but it's like, what, what is the meaning behind that name, or where did it come from? Well, so that gets to an action item.

Uh, we need our own webpage on the MUNI's website where we can upload all our documents. We Okay, so, and I was just going to say, the resolutions that would name something, or ordinance— I can't remember if it's a resolution or ordinance these days, Jasmine. That's the naming. Naming is a resolution, right? I believe so, yeah.

So those documents would include— yes, the application and any other documents related to the public hearing. And so those would always be perpetually archived on muni.org, so they would be saved. Yeah, which I agree, it's important. Yeah, and would be cool to come up with some sort of way that's like easily digestible for the average member of the public, right, to find and know, well, that's what this is or what it stands for. Well, so we have a web page, don't we, right there on muni.org on the Clark Yeah, if you go to—.

I can show you the website. Mmd.org. Of course now it's not going to work. Hero, can we rename Government Hill?

You can propose it. Minnesota Highway is my pet peeve. Oh really? Mine's Independence Drive. And Liberty Circle.

Minnesota was already renamed. Oh yes, but it's been like this 20-year—. Minnesota is actually Wally J. Hickel. Yeah, it's Wally J. Hickel Park, but it's been this ridiculously slow process. So you'll start to see it, it's popping up and it's populating correctly with some addresses.

I put it correctly in the Midtown plan. Thank you. Cool. Yeah. So yeah, we're just going to work on this.

I'll work on it. And if you could send something to Jasmine to send out to us before our July meeting so we can think about it, come prepared.

And I will volunteer to help work on the bylaws If anybody else wants to join me, let me know. But I've drafted a few bylaws over the years. I'll work with you on the bylaws. Awesome. You're going to find the one that you mentioned?

I will send it— I'll have Jasmine send it out to everybody, the Equal Rights Commission's bylaws, and I'll see if I can gather them for a couple of other commissions. And we're not allowed to reply all anything like that, right? That's why it comes to you guys. So you're our person if we need to get things distributed. She's on vacation.

Okay, you're just— she's in training. Oh, okay. I have reviewed a couple of hundred community council files. I bet you have.

All right, if you guys want me to, um, I can start. I can look at this and then also look at the director's guidance for the local landmark ordinance. That'd be awesome. So we start working on—. Perfect—.

How we could— how that could be supported to filling this out. That is our next item on the agenda. Did anybody have any comments or thoughts on this draft? Just a couple applications, so it'd be great. Okay, you might have more.

Who drafted this? I think Jasmine. Okay, Jamie. Jamie. Yeah, I thought it was really comprehensive and had a lot of— I love that how much context it encourages.

I wondered if we could, uh, have like themes and subheadings, so breaking it down a little bit for folks to make it easier to fill out, assuming that this might be might come from like an average community member, right? And so having it be— so like, does this have an existing name, right? Versus like, please provide the existing name. Like, it's just different things like that. That was all my feedback was around.

Mine was similar to yours because I was wondering all of these were required, mandatory fillable form, or were there pieces of this that were optional just in case it was a place that the person just had no idea about? I don't know. And do we give them a fillable PDF? Or do you—. Yeah, this is—.

I'm sure this is a fillable PDF. She probably got this from the website from probably from the planning department. It'd be cool if we can send this to the i-team to see if they can— like, they might have ideas for how to send it to the— what, you have an innovation team at the municipality? Oh, okay. Brendan.

With Brendan. Okay. So I am curious, just if some of you have the same concerns I have. For the average person or the street to fill this out. I understand, you know, the criteria like influences and natural features of Ben's cultural significance.

These are criteria that are in the code. Yeah, that we have to look at a proposal and determine if it meets that criteria or not. And for under the former process, they didn't always meet every criteria. And the public naming panel that was voting a recommendation to the Assembly would send a document that addressed each of these requirements. It did meet it, it didn't meet it.

Do we need to have that in there for the members of the public? Is this more in-depth than the average person would be able to fill out? I think—. Would it discourage people? I would be discouraged.

I would be. But also, there has to be some sort of layer of, like, so we don't just get a bunch of, like, that's like the willy-nilly, which brings me back to how do we evaluate these? So, like, if something comes to us, how are we— because we'll want to have some standards around how we decide something goes to goes for— or for recommendation criteria. Yeah. And so we need some of that information, right?

Like, we are going to need to know, like, is this actually municipal property? Exactly. And, and so maybe in our process we need to have— how do we vet that? And does that come— I would love that if it came to us vetted, but it might be a lot for someone like the layperson to figure out how to do. I like the idea that the, their name, contact, the— if there's a current name, the proposed name, location, and then a statement.

Why? Yep.

But, and a map as optional. But we could say— could we say in the narrative statement, um, please refer to the natural features, events related to the— are the cultural significance. Yeah, significance. And then they just do it in the narrative, and we are charged as the Commission with determining if it meets the criteria. Exactly.

So maybe, I think just having that narrative statement might might be enough. And we could possibly on the back, if we could get it down to, you know, 1.5 pages on the back, we could list that criteria that's in the code. And if we want to get rid of, for example, if recommending the public space be named after an individual or group, like that right there makes— like, we don't want to be like, no name. We're not saying no people. Correct, but we just have a really high bar for that.

Okay, so maybe though not including that in the narrative statement. And then, uh, the map thing too, I think suggestions on what we mean by that. Like, yeah, it's not you need to come with a plat and like a whole— but like we just need to like do a Google Map with a pen or something. I don't know how we want it. Well, I'm annoyed that it's got please provide a list of adopted plans.

Yeah, like, no way. I couldn't. You know how hard that would be? That is in the code. It's something we as a commission have to look at, I think, is how does this tie in with existing plans?

Okay. But, and that's that— well, I, I'd have to look at the new code, but it was in the old code. So there was a list of things you had to consider with the naming, but it was always the Public Naming Commission that are the public naming panel that determined if it met those criteria or not. Are those suggestions? It wasn't mandatory, it was more or less a goal.

This is what we want to— yeah, to, to, you know, is it meeting these goals or these, uh, visions of what we want for public name. I, I, if we want to, you know, we envision a process that engages the public, but I think this would discourage the public. I mean, it's great, I get it. That's, that's why the strat— I put the strategy, create a creative and useful application process, you know. It needs to have some wiggle room because I will tell you the first nomination for the local landmark was a mess.

And it wasn't because of the advocates, it was because of the planning committee. It was because of the Historic Preservation Commission and a couple of members on there, and they just ripped through it and it was not right. So I think people are going to come, they're going to be heartfelt, they're going to be— have a passion about naming something, and we want to give them the opportunity to be heard and to, to submit their application. And I, I like— I just think a narrative statement, we could list certain areas, bullet point, that we would like them to address. But yeah, if they don't, that's fine.

We have to determine if this proposal meets the goals of the code or not and the criteria of the code. To what Christine is saying, because another, another flip side of that is our intention is to— like, we are sitting on this committee and we're all kind of— we're all in agreement, right? So we're all sitting here nodding our heads. We're going to hear your idea, we're going to make it so that you can come and bring your idea forward, right? Like, it sounds like we're all in agreement on that.

What about somebody gets appointed to the commission that is much more of like a box checker, because there are those types. So like, I have sat in reviews with folks who they will go like, well, you didn't fill this out properly, or I'm giving them a low score because they, they're not going to extrapolate at all. And so how do we— that's the part with where it's like, how are we going to evaluate as a group which ones go forward and which ones do not? And we might want as a group discuss that to protect this body moving forward for that stuff. Well, and the other thing too is we're advisory, right?

So this is what aggravated me so much about the HPC is only 2 of them of 7 didn't like something, and I was gone by then. So in my opinion, what staff should have done is said, okay, here's the staff report, here's the vote, assembly, what do you want to do? But instead it got locked up and they had to come back, and it just wasn't right. And I don't think we want that to happen. You know, it's interesting because with the old process where there was the public naming panel, there were only 4 people, an even number.

Yes. So it actually said if there a split vote, both recommendations would go to the assembly. Otherwise, on any board or commission, it's the majority determines what's moved forward. See, but I like that idea. We could, we could say, you know, our policy is we will review all complete applications that are complete, and we will also, if an application is incomplete, contact the applicant and give them the opportunity to complete the application.

But that we will review them all.

Can I just say, I feel like this form is ahead of a previous step. I feel like we need guidance written first. Guidelines. And then we take the multi- page guidance and whittle it down to a concise form. Yeah, so what we did for the HPC is they would fill out the form and then give it to staff, which was the— when I was there, I was the historic preservation officer.

So they could give me the form, I could look through it, and I would say, looks great, I think you guys have everything you need, which is what happened what happens when anybody brings in a permit application to the counter in the Planning Department. They bring in their application, staff reviews it, says it looks good, go back and finish, or pay your money and go. So there is that, you know, kind of initial review process already in what we have in code. The thing of it would be, would it be a staff person, or would it be, okay, this month Christine's going to review, next month Selma's going to be the reviewer, next month Darryl. Do we want to do it, you know, something like that?

So that's part of the process that you want to—. I think it's interesting. Review for completeness is what I'm trying to say. I understand your point. We need to have a process on how applications are received.

Correct. Yeah, because the other thing that we— that could happen too is, which I, I actually think it's a great idea if we can identify appropriate staff, because then people aren't getting held up by, okay, well, I have to go back, it's taking months, you know. The other thing though is some sort of, um, we don't want to make it where it's too easy and people are like abusing the system and or just sending in like a bunch of different— or we name something and it's up for renaming the next year, right? Like, how— so there's got to be some sort of standard, I think, around—. I think for renaming, it's you can't rename within 20 years.

Okay, great, there's a rule. Good. So like things like that, like that should be somewhere for the public. Yeah. So we would right away know we don't have to hear this because it's like—.

It would be And that was one of the reasons that I thought this commission was— it was important to establish it because there are a lot of municipal assets that are more than 30, 40, 50 years ago. People are in our community are going, who is that? Yeah, we're going to see once people know the commission exists, we're going to see there's new communities in Anchorage. You know, I've heard friends of the Samoan community or the Hmong community say there's nothing named recognizing, you know, Hmong or Samoans in any group. So I think we're going to start getting, receiving applications for a name, you know, in the next couple of years.

So it's important to have the procedures. So Jasmine, so the application will go to the clerk's office, I believe. So do you envision the clerk's office staff reviewing them for completeness? I have to speak to Jamie because I don't know what her vision is for that. That's one of the questions I asked a long time ago when I first met with Cameron.

And I don't think we're going to get a tremendous— are what it would it go to a designated commissioner and staff? Well, that's what I was saying. It would rotate every— so one month it would be somebody reviewing, one month it would be another commissioner reviewing, for just for completeness. What is— what does the commission think? What do you think?

If we— we are all well tensioned here. I sit on another commission where sometimes we don't hear from commissioners, and so if that were to happen, right, then things can get held up. Um, I like the idea of a staff person being able to answer questions right away, especially if we want to have timely response. Then we can— then we can guarantee, hey, once your application's been accepted received by the clerk's office, we will review within 90 days. But if it's like— I just don't want to get into a situation where we don't know where things are.

Like, I talked to so-and-so and there's no way to verify it. Could we make a decision that when the clerk's office receives an application, they forward it to the commissioners as an FYI so we're aware of it? I think I'm trying to I can think of, so how the Board of Ethics, because they get a lot of documentation. Complaints. Yeah, yeah, but they get a lot of their economic disclosures and how that process works is it goes through our staffer and then she essentially compiles them all for the board to review together and then she usually sends it out beforehand so they have an opportunity to say yay or nay or this is missing and you can reach out to the individual to correct it.

So I don't know if that's—. I like the idea of staff at least doing the initial review. And being like, a map is missing, for example. Yeah, there's an empty box and just letting them know, hey, this is incomplete. So a checklist should really go with this.

That's what I was trying to say. I feel like we need instructions of how to fill it out, like the checklist. That's what we talked about last time. Yeah, that's what the director's guidance is. It's a whole checklist and how to fill it out.

And on the application itself, do— I see a lot of applications, there's an asterisk in red or whatever, and it says mandatory. Yeah, so like the name or the agency that's proposing the change should be mandatory, right? Like, no, yeah, like certain things things, but not some of it too. It could be, or a statement of why you don't have it. Yeah, I think if you want a staffer to review, that would make it easier for us because we have, you know, 12 people in office and 3 to 4 people up front.

So if you're getting someone else that's accepting it, or they could just give it to me or Jamie as staffers, we could review it. But I think a checklist would just make it—. With the previous naming process, I think over the last few years I have not I don't think there's been more than 6, maybe 8 naming panels established in a year. So, you know, we get the word out, we might start getting more applications, but I think initially over the next year or two, I'd be surprised if we get a tremendous amount of applications, which would give us time to build our processes and figure out, you know, how we're gonna—. How the process is I think when it's going to start to pick up is when something high-profile gets renamed, or, or there's a really cool fun name, and then other people feel safe also submitting names.

It's going to take like, like, I don't think it's going to take maybe 10, 20, a couple rounds before people are like, oh yeah, hey, I could do, I could put this together. Well, I'm aware of one that will probably be received see here in the near future. The Bayshore Community Council wants to name— rename— is it K—. You told us this in the last meeting. Yeah, one of the parks is KFQD Park.

Oh yeah, after the bear. Yeah, they want to name it to Bayshore, uh, Bayshore Park.

We'll prepare their cakes. Yeah. All right, so anything else on the application? So you're gonna take it on? I'm gonna—.

Yeah, I'm gonna work on this. Cool. To create the instructions first. Yeah, well, so here's a draft. Everything's going to be draft.

I've been thinking about this entire conversation, and, uh, I feel like our form review should be like the 5th or 6th step after we have our goals and objectives so that we can use that as our springboard to then see what that guidance would look like, what that form would look like, and then what the assessment would look like. But because we don't have the first 3 pieces in place, we're not— I feel like we're not ready for that. But I wonder if this was also just for us to review to start start of that conversation. And it gives us an idea too, right, of how when we go to do our goals, to be like, okay, this is where we're going to do this. How do we let people know about this?

Or—. Okay, thank you for that. One of the goals is to create the instructions or guidance and then create the form. Yeah, no, I think it was great that she, that she draft all this together. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I just— my brain was working in more of a purpose, logical steps.

Yes.

All right, so again, it was unfinished. Any unfinished business? Any new business? Anything? Any thoughts, ideas?

I will— I spoke to Parks and Department. And later on this year, once we get our, you know, we get moving forward, they would like to come and meet with us in one of our commission meetings. They were very supportive of establishing the commission. They were not happy with the previous ad hoc naming panels that were formed because they they felt that it was not an inclusive process that reflected the community. Yeah.

So they're pretty excited about the commission, and there is a requirement in the code that if, if the proposed naming involves an asset of the Parks and Recreation Department, it has to go to the Parks and Recreation Commission. So they'd like to talk to us about how we envision the process working and how we can collaborate with them and Parks and Recreation. And should I go to them or to us first? Because that was my other question, because like we have Public Works, but like I also was thinking like, well, what about Parks and Rec, right? Like they—.

Well, and with Public Works, we could, you know, if we meet with them, we could request that they every year provide us a list of their capital projects and You could seek names for it, and we could see, is there something there that could potentially be named? Yeah, I love that, because they have an annual list of projects. Well, and I'll tell you right now, um, STREAM Academy is going to go into New Naca Valley School, and the reason I know that is because my grandson goes to STREAM and my granddaughter went there. So they're going to get at all of New Nac Valley School, and they're probably going to want to rename the school to Stream Academy. So schools aren't under our jurisdiction.

Oh, they aren't? They're named by the school board. Okay, okay. See, that's also good to know, right? Like, yeah, I, I was involved with the renaming of Ferry Elementary School.

It, uh, it's, it's the school board that makes decisions regarding naming of school, school district facilities. Okay. But we as a commission can make a recommendation to them. Yeah, which might be something to work into the process later. Like, that might be a goal for later, is like to consider— because this— so that there's intention behind the process, right?

Like, that could be—. Because it's one of many things that a school board would do, right? Versus one thing that a naming commission would do. Exactly. So any other—.

Um, can you scroll up to where our 7 or 6 things were? Because I think that we need to—. So one of the things was powers and duties. Yeah, the powers and duties. One of the things was, um, collaborate with Department of Public Works.

I think the two that are working on this. I think we should expand that for collaborating with Department of Public Works to include the other departments that lower down we're supposed to collaborate with. Yeah, it could be Parks, it could be Real Estate, it could be all the different departments basically. Yeah, yeah, good, good point, because there's Real Estate Services manages municipal facilities, and what a bummer for them to go through and then find out at the 11th hour that they were supposed to go through the Public Naming Commission too, right? Or like, it gets held up at the assembly meeting.

You know, what's interesting is the code says buildings owned or controlled by the municipality. So that would include buildings that are leased by the municipality. It could be named, but of course, then if we ever move out, it— the owner dropped the name. But you can name, which is what happened when we made When the panel recommended the assembly name the old transit center over here after John S. Parks, and then it was closed a year later, and people in the community complained that nothing had been named for Mr. Parks.

But it had been, but it was closed. So we established a new panel and named the public transportation headquarters after him. How does it— this doesn't— and for example, like, the MUDI doesn't own City Hall, correct? No, lease it from Pepper. Exactly.

Yeah, so that would be— but we should still be able to name—. But there's an RFP out for a new City Hall. There is? Yeah. Oh my gosh, people want to get out from under the triple net lease.

Um, any other member comments?

Luckily not part of our power and duties. I'm sorry, I have my own thoughts. There's already buildings named the Denali Building, I guess. I don't have any new business, Mr. Chair.

Any comments? I guess I just wanted to bring up that the 4 of us kind of introduced ourselves to her when you were out of the office, when you were off. So you didn't have an opportunity to get an opportunity to know each other. It's been a long time. I don't know how well you remember me, but I remember when— I think you're still the ombudsman.

Yes. Yes. So I've been the ombudsman for 13 years. So I've been with the city for 17 years. I was hired by Mayor Bagich and Mary Jane Michael to be as a project manager in economic and community development, and Mountain View Library was one of my projects.

And Dirtwood Community Center and Library was one of my projects.

Moving the bricks in Town Square Park was one of my projects. And that was the project that the Begich administration received the most phone calls and emails about in his entire— during his entire two terms. I worked with Boys and Girls Club in Mountain View and East Anchorage. There was a lot of concerns in Mountain View that they weren't really engaging with neighborhood youth, so we got the attendance by youth in the neighborhood up from 25 to 125. And we found money to put a recording studio in the center so the kids could record music.

And I still have on my computer, the kids there recorded song. They wrote and recorded a song called the Thank You Song, and I still have it on my computer. I think that was in like 2009. And then Mayor Sullivan decided I needed to be the city's first homeless coordinator, so I did that for 3 years. And then in 2000— August 2012, I was appointed as the ombudsman.

I've been here ever since, and one of my roles the— my office doesn't have jurisdiction over community councils, but the assembly decided by ordinance that I am tasked with reviewing all community council bylaws when they're submitted to the assembly and determining if they comply with the code and recommend whether or not the assembly accept them. So I've somehow become the resident community council expert. Yeah, well, you were president of the Fairview Community Council. How many terms though? 5 Years.

Yeah, so you had a little experience. I love community councils. Was it Chris who took over from you? It was Sharon Shemar for 3 years after me, and then I think Michael Howard for a year, and then Chris for 3 years. I love Fairview.

It's, uh, you know, community councils community councils play an important part in local government process. I love community councils. I just had a conversation with Bruce Farnsworth today, stopped by, and he was asking me about the charter and some local history and the history of my office. There's 3 things in our municipal charter that I think the members of the Charter Commission were visionary, very farsighted, was equal rights Commission, the Ombudsman's Office, and Community Councils, which are all three in the charter, which makes them difficult to get rid of. Yeah.

And our, our, you know, as there are only three members of a little tidbit, there are only three members of the Charter Commission who are still alive. Oh wow. Joe Josephson, Lisa Parker, and Jane Inman. Jane, yep.

It's fascinating. Yeah, I, um, after being involved in like policy and community council work here and then moving my address to Sitka for a decade and but still working and coming back and forth, but that was really my local government jurisdiction, became extremely appreciative and amazed by the charter that Anchorage has. And that we, you know, public test Testimony for any ordinance is required. You can't—. They can't meet after midnight unless it's an emergency.

Our charter has actually— our home rule charter is recognized nationally, and you know, it's, it's 50 years old this coming September, and there's been really very few amendments over the years. It's a really cool piece of like.