Assembly Regular - May 20, 2025 - 2025-05-20 17:00:00

All of my life, waited for a sign to arrive.

Painted Light.

Round her eyes, her eyes.

All of her life, call out my name, she rides.

Lightning strikes in diamond mines, a bloody stone adorn on mine, a morning wasted Wasted on trivial, and even wasted on primitive things. Around here everybody knows everybody, their past lives documented to the closest topic. At what time does the conversation start and end? Yeah. Always the good guys coming to save us.

Promise a good life, thank God that you came. Always got Uncle Sam ready to save us. Thank God you came.

Thank God you came. Thank God you came. We want, we want, thank God. We want, we want, thank God. We want, we want, thank God.

We want, we want, thank God. We want, we want, thank God. The bread's done, now we working for the pie. Spent a whole damn house on your wrist to praise God. Spent like 15 workers' salary on your wrist.

A place of chasing what you want, when you want, if you want to Buildings up in dust, billions burning in the clouds. Oh Father, please, no chasing peace. I must chase green, but honestly, I feel a breach. Hey! We want, we want, thank God.

We want, we want, thank God. We want, we want, thank God. Thank God, made my way. Oh, it's the good guys coming to save us. Promised a good life, thank God that you came.

Oh, it's God, Uncle Sam.

Ready to save us. Thank God you came, thank God you came, thank God you came. Be a friend till the end. We'll fight the good fight and, and the lives you've changed, the The mistakes you've made. Is this the life you made for me?

Always the good guys coming to save us. Promised a good life, thank God that you came. Always got Uncle Sam ready to save us. Thank God you came, thank God you came, thank God you came. Always the good guys coming to save us.

Promised a good life, thank God that you came. Always got Uncle Sam ready to save us. Thank God you came, thank God you came, thank God you came.

From my beliefs. The land of freedom, the land for me. Too scared to seek, too scared to be my own, you see. But I know I just need some selfish time. I need my relics that give me truth to what I know.

Give me ruthless weight. All these paperweights, all these sacred faces, aces placed in strangers' wasted blood. Oh, while you fall across the gap, no bridge stood, no man could reach. I pray 3 times a night, hope you hear it. I'm nearing heights I dreamt of.

Heights I fear, and since nobody else can hear me, let my ears bleed, let my heartstrings rip. Following the tide, never was assigned to align to the ceiling on the moon. My stride, low Gs, low weight, low everything. Cheap, these lights, these streaks, my guy. Too bright, I can't vision, need my lenses.

Blue ball in the sky. Keep turning on and on and on and on and on— I'm too scared to breathe! From my beliefs. The land of freedom, the land for me. Too scared to see, too scared to be on my own, you see.

But I know I just need some selfish time. I need my relics that keep me true to what Give me Bruce Lee's weight on this paper. Weights on the sacred spaces. Aces placing. Changes placing.

The air's so fresh where I'm from.

The air's so fresh where I'm from.

Well, I tried to paint them away, but nothing could keep them at bay.

In the town, I fight they come right back. Yeah.

Seems nothing would stop them all at last. Best at best. Ah. You can love it. You can choose to accept it all.

Try to feel it. Don't try to control it. You can take Accept it all. He can't do it. He can't do it.

Try to appeal it. Accept it all. Your fear is bound to fall. Your fear is bound to fall. Now.

Now.

Well, I know I ain't a superhero, my eyes on laser beams, and I can't jump over buildings, and I'm afraid of everything, like messing up around my friends, or losing my mom, or going out after dark. To walk my dog. Well, my crypt and my head are glowing green, like from outer space. It just feels like I'm screwing up and living out of place. Well, it feels like I'm still just some idiotic kid.

Oh, feeling like I grew up knowing I never did. It is all these things that I tell myself while I keep acting like nobody else has felt the same things in their heart. Well, I'm not a hero, but I better start.

Well, I can't breathe underwater, but sometimes I wish I could. Not sinking to the darkness or disappear for good. No boots or cape or shining magic powers in my brain. Just memories and fantasies on which I have to cling. It's all the same.

Well, I know I ain't a superhero. My eyes aren't laser beams and I can't jump over buildings and I'm afraid of every Easy.

Grilled peaches with a little bit of char. Scoop of vanilla didn't make it quite far before the juice starts dripping on down. It reaches my elbow and kisses the ground just like a tukie app running off day. All the care I got, too much to say. Oh my God, it happened again.

Wound up, I thought I lost me again. Why don't you go visit the summertime? Does it miss you? Don't throw those freckles in the water. Why don't you start sipping on Go get yourself some love.

Why don't you follow that dream? Grand Peaches, Grand Peaches, all you deserve. Sweetness, serve sweetness, serve. If you have ambitions in your life, I know the perfect moment to reach out and try. Grand Peaches, Grand Peaches, All you deserve.

Sweetness, there's sweetness there. When life is auspicious, when you listen, stop the radio, sail to the message you're receiving. Heartless, harmonious, you will never find that perpetual bliss until you go change your mind. I stole things for fun. I know that it was stolen, but go be a child for once.

I let out a laugh, I let it break off. I licked it right off and went for another bone. Life is too short, you're stressed out enough. Let go of those chains that keep you so tight and tough. You know I love I love you, but what I want so bad is to see you grow, to see you laugh.

Fulfill your desires and prove them all wrong, even yourself. Mama, make it and hurry along. Why don't you go visit the summertime, 'cause it miss you. A begging message from your daughter. Why don't you Don't sip it on tea.

Go get yourself some love. Why don't you follow that dream? Oh, Grail Peaches, Grail Peaches, all you deserve, serve with this, serve with— You have ambitions in your life. There's no perfect moment to reach out and try. Grail Peaches, Grail features all you deserve.

So, so, it might be suspicious when you listen so thoroughly yourself to the message you're receiving.

You can't have my heart, you can't hold my mind. I won't stay, I won't change. You can't have my heart, you can't hold my mind. I won't stay, I won't change. Where's the ground?

I keep falling off the edge. Lost my ground. Now you're heavy on my head. Yeah. So full of love, so full of pride.

While I sift through all my vices. Like I'm running out of time, you're scorching my mind. Propane to the fire, ignite my desire.

I can't ignore the flame. You can't have my heart, you can't hold my mind. I won't Stay, I won't change. Where's the ground? I keep falling off the edge.

Lost my ground, now you're heavy on my head.

Yeah. Where is the ground? Feels like I'm falling.

I lost my ground. Feels like I'm falling.

A highway memorial, the fill of some space. And maybe the moon's only pretty 'cause it's far away.

She only wants me, 'cause I'm keeping his place. It's all the same, it's all the same.

It's all the same.

It's all the same.

Cut the loss.

Cut the loss.

Just you watching.

I'm better than this. Just you What? It's so same. It's so same.

So same. Yeah, it's so the same.

Sawasam.

The leaves are turning faster with no sign of slowing down, and the birds fly south. So winter comes with the snow to blanket The town. The midday skies are clear and blue with a cool breeze in the air. You bundle up all nice and snug with something that's warm to wear, and the midnight sun is gone. Gone away with the fall colors to show.

A time to think on memories of a time I used to know. All is quiet with no one round but your voice is singing. Loud. So sing away so all can hear, so the lost can all be found. And the midnight sun is gone away with the fall colors to show.

A time to think on memories Good evening, everybody. Welcome.

I now call to order this meeting of the Anchorage Assembly. It's May 20th, 2025. It's a regular meeting. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Member Myers.

Here. Member McCormick.

He's not here. Member Martinez. Present. Member Baldwin-Day. Present.

Member Johnson. Here. Chair Constantine. Here. Vice Chair Brawley.

Here. Member Voland. Happy to be here. Member Silvers. Member Rivera.

Member Gerker. So here is the phone line on.

Member Perez Verdia. Here. Chair, you have a quorum. So hold on, I know Mr. Rivera is attempting to call in, so— Mr. Rivera, are you there?

Yes, I'm here. Thank you. All right, thank you. Now, clerk would reflect him as present.

Mr. McCormick, are you on the phone?

Okay.

All right, next I would like to ask Mr. Myers to please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Chair. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Presidio, would you please read the land acknowledgment? Yes, Chair. A land acknowledgment is a formal statement recognizing the indigenous people of a place. It is a public gesture of appreciation for the past and present Indigenous stewardship of the lands we now occupy. It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity.

The Anchorage Assembly would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Dena'ina Athabascans. For thousands of years, the Dena'ina have been and continue to be The stewards of this land. It is with gratefulness and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina. Thank you, Mr. Presverdia. Next, we have minutes of previous meetings.

Tonight we have item 4A, minutes from the regular meeting of April 8th, 2025. I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Second. Moved by Ms. Brawley, seconded by Ms. Baldwin-Day.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing and seeing none, I'd like to ask unanimous consent for the adoption of the minutes. Any objection? Hearing and seeing no objection, the minutes have been adopted. Next, we have the mayor's report. Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening, everyone. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with community members at the Korean American Community Center. We shared a little about our work here at the municipality and heard directly from residents about their priorities for Anchorage.

Homelessness and public safety were at the top of the list. I hope you all will join me in celebrating our Asian American and Pacific Islander residents this month. Last week, I had the pleasure of touring Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with Colonel Mabbott and her team. The base plays a big and important role in our community, and we share many priorities from housing and childcare access to the Port of Alaska. I look forward to strengthening the relationship and collaboration between the municipality and our military partners.

Yesterday, I attended the Anchorage Fire Department's town hall on wildland fire danger. Thank you to AFD Chief Doug Schragi and Wildfire Division Chief John Glover for putting on this event and for all the collaborative work you've been doing with the Division of Forestry and other partners. Turnout was really great, and we were also joined by a number of assembly members, including Assemblymembers Voland, Johnson, Gerker, Silvers, McCormick, and Baldwin-Day. Thank you for your support. Wildfire danger is one of the most critical risks facing the municipality, and we must continue to take proactive steps to protect our lives, our property, and our natural environment.

We need to foster a culture of responsibility and fire protection. That's why I've introduced an ordinance that is before you tonight, which is aimed at providing our first responders with the necessary tools to deter dangerous fires before they start. Thank you to Assemblymembers Perez Verdia, McCormick, and Gerker for joining as co-sponsors. This ordinance is about common sense. It's about ensuring there are clear and swift consequences for actions that put our entire community at risk.

I hope you will unanimously approve it tonight. Finally, I want to talk about a top priority, and that is homelessness. We are taking actions in 5 areas. We're clearing unsafe encampments from public lands. We're enforcing the law.

We're improving crisis care through proactive outreach. We are providing people with access to shelter and housing, and we're doing everything we can along with our assembly partners to make housing easier to build. Encampments are dangerous, especially large ones. They're not safe for the people living in them, and they're not safe for the people living near them. This morning, our teams began removal of a large camp near Lois and Benson, and this camp is on State of Alaska DOT right-of-way.

So we needed to get their approval, DOT's permission, in order to abate, and that included a few additional steps. This is the 24th camp we've abated since we took office last July, and we plan to abate the Davis Park area in early summer. In good news, just last week, outreach teams at Davis helped 12 people get into shelter or treatment. Another 6 people who were at a camp at Lois and Benson were moved into shelter in the last few days. Looking ahead, I wish you all a solemn and safe Memorial Day weekend as we remember and honor the members of our military who have died or been injured in service to our nation.

We also honor the sacrifices of their family members and loved ones. Thank you to all who have served, who serve, and those of you who support those who serve. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to working with all of you tonight to do the business of the municipality.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Next is the chair's report. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regular business meeting. I'd like to start out with— this is graduation season.

This week we— last week, I should say, we graduated 17 new cadets into the Anchorage Fire Department— or not cadets, we graduated 17 cadets into probationary firefighters. So we have new and very excited individuals who are now providing services to our municipality and getting training in the best fire department in the world, I think. The Anchorage Police Department Academy graduation is next week, and it's exciting that we have actually had our first full class in a number of years with another full class incoming this fall, which is helping us to get back to a position where we have full staff in both these critical Public Safety and EMS branches. One of last year's assembly priorities was to develop the municipal workforce, so it's great to see all of our departments starting to fill back up with staff over the past year. Having strong classes of first responders come into work in our fire and police departments is important because public safety emergency services are high priority in our community, and success depends on having a full and well-trained staff to carry out their missions.

It's also high school and college graduation season. The Anchorage School District has graduated or is graduating this month 2,950 seniors from the high schools in the municipality. And this spring, UAA graduated more than 950 students. And so with that, to all of those individuals who are starting their careers or finishing their high school experience or their college experience, just want to say congratulations. And thank you for the commitments you'll be making to our community.

Also, this week or last week, I guess, was Municipal Clerks Week. We had a large number of recognition resolutions and we weren't able to fully recognize one important clerk. So I'd like— one important group. So I'd like to do that now. Municipal Clerks Week took place earlier in May.

The assembly couldn't do our work without having an extremely competent and well-organized Clerk's Office, from supporting our meetings to managing public records and overseeing elections. Their work ensures that the work of this body functions smoothly. So thank you to our Clerk's Office. Also, speaking of graduates, we had our youth members graduate off of our assembly body at our last meeting. And so now we are going to open the solicitation and application for new youth representatives.

We're recruiting openly right now. The application can be found at muni.org/assembly. The seats are open to youth ages 16 to 19, and applications are due next week on May 31st. Also, as the mayor noted, Memorial Day is coming right up. And as we look forward to the long weekend, I'd like to remind our community of the annual Memorial Day event, Anchorage Remembers, to be held at the Veterans Memorial in Delaney Park.

The Delaney Park Strip at 9:30 a.m. on Memorial Day. I hope to see many of you there to honor the brave service members who've given their lives in defense of our country. Also tonight, members, you'll note that you've received committee assignments on your desk, but mainly that's committee leadership. I think it's going to take a little bit of time for membership to kind of fill out into the committees, for newer members to figure out where they want to serve. So So don't look at that as a kind of a locked or set in stone list.

It's just so that the committees can have their leadership to begin organizing, recruiting members, and starting to do their business as well. Tonight, item number 18 is a standing item on our agenda, and it is executive session. The Municipal Department of Law has requested that we consider the question of shall we convene into executive session over the dinner hour provide us a briefing on certain legal matters. So, um, as we conclude the consent agenda, we will begin a conversation about that. Other than that, I'll do my best to move us along through tonight's agenda so we may conclude at a reasonable hour.

This is a business meeting and we're here to do the work of the municipality, and please help to create a climate of respect in the chambers and refrain from personal attacks or speaking out of turn, shouting and clapping and pacing, except when clapping is in order. If you have a sign, keep them to 8.5 by 11 inches or smaller. Please keep the aisles clear except when lined up to testify. Also, please do not approach the dais. But if you have information, please hand it to the clerk sitting at the lower dais.

If a point of order is called, please stop speaking so I may rule on the point of order and the record is clear. If rules are not followed, I may interrupt speakers to call for compliance. If compliance with the rules doesn't occur, then I may pause the meeting. If there's an actual disruption, I'll give a warning. Warning, and if the disruption persists or happens again, the person will be asked to leave.

Thank you, everybody. And now we will go ahead and start with our committee reports, and we will start with Mr. Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. McCormick.

Thank you, Mr. McCormick. Nothing to report. Nothing to report. All right. Mr. Martinez.

Thank you, Chair. The next meeting of the Community and Economic Development Committee will be on Thursday, June 5 at 9:00 a.m. at the Permit Center. Additionally, Chair, I just wanted to note for the record that I have been appointed by the National Association of Counties to their Community Economic and Workforce Development Policy Steering Committee, as well as to the Arts and Culture Commission. I look forward to advancing our economic interests through affiliation and participation with these bodies. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Ms. Baldwin-Day. Chair, nothing to report. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two reports to give tonight. First, for the Infrastructure Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee, our last meeting was at May— on May 15th.

We had an update from Solid Waste Services relating to the waste-to-energy project. They informed us that work continues on scoping and they're doing more stakeholder engagement activities. Also, requests for proposals are being drafted for additional work. And then we received a reminder from them, which I will convey to the public, about what not to flush down your toilet. And it's a long list of things.

It's almost everything that's not biological waste or toilet paper, but especially want to highlight those supposedly flushable wipes. They're not, and they create huge problems and expense and just general nastiness for the system. For Merrill Field, we were briefed on a proposal to purchase some land adjacent to the airport in the Fairview neighborhood. The idea that if this was part of the field would be used for advanced air mobility and general aviation purposes. This is part of efforts to transition aviation beyond carbon-based fuels.

From that meeting, the assembly has requested some additional information regarding the economic impacts and other considerations. So Expect more information to come on that. And then we're also informed that Merrill Field will be increasing their rates to users and leaseholders for 2026, really keeping in line with a general trend of seeing costs increasing almost everywhere these days. For the Port of Alaska Modernization Project, we received a presentation on the electrical substation. This is a standalone project that is moving separately from Terminal 1 construction but is related to that.

This would be the station that would provide power to the new ship-to-shore cranes. It is being funded by a grant from the state of Alaska. Uh, 3 proposals were received and they're currently under negotiations, and we expect that item to be before us at the next assembly meeting. And then quickly, the last board meeting of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation was on May 7th. Uh, AEDC is updating their personnel policies to conform with Ballot Measure 1, uh, which passed in the last election, um, which includes paid time off for part-time employees.

AEDC is also working on updating their strategic plan. They conducted an extensive board member survey. A few of the highlights that board members wanted to see in the strategic plan included continued work on sales tax, sales tax implementation, revitalizing downtown, and then also housing and business retention expansion. For the March employment report, they showed modest growth, continuing upward trend, which is encouraging. However, job postings are down.

It's possible some employers may be giving up. And then there was also a fair bit of uncertainty in the business environment, especially around construction, which is, is in line with trends we're seeing nationally. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.

Ms. Brawley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two updates. The first one is for the Budget and Finance Committee.

The committee met on Thursday, May 15th. We had a fun and informative presentation from Mr. Lance Wilbur reprising his former role as OMB director and sharing a high-level overview of our city budget. So I encourage folks to tune into that if you're interested. Also stay tuned for more information and education opportunities on our budget and our fiscal fiscal story. So more there.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 19th. Second, on the Legislative Committee, I'll be giving my last report today as legislative chair. The committee will change leadership going into the next year. But of course, session is officially over today. So part of our work in monitoring session is complete for this year.

So the committee last met on Thursday, May 8th. We heard from the school district CFO about the status of education funding in the legislature, where it was at that time. There's some big updates this week. So on Monday, yesterday, where there was the governor's veto of House Bill 57, which was a policy bill that also included funding to the base student allocation, or BSA. And this morning, the legislature had a successful veto override with a vote of 46 to 14.

And I know a lot of education advocates are very happy with that. The legislature also passed their state budget or the state budget today and then adjourned actually. So they adjourned a day early. The governor still has some time to take action on the budget, so there could be some vetoes or other changes on the horizon. But that is a big milestone to meet for our legislature.

So there's a meeting right now scheduled for Thursday, June 12th, of this committee. We intend to cancel that meeting. So you'll see that come off the calendar. But I will invite folks, members, and also members of the public, if you would like a more substantive update on the status of school funding, our next joint meeting with the Anchorage School Board will be Friday, June 6th at 10 AM over at the ASD Education Center. And I imagine this topic, the FY26 budget, will be a big topic of conversation.

So tune in there if you're interested. And those are my updates. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Spraulin. Mr. Voland.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing to report. Thank you, Mr. Voland. Miss Silvers.

Thank you, Chair. Nothing to report. Thank you, Miss Silvers. Mr. Rivera. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Nothing to report. Thank you, Mr. Rivera. Mr. Gerker. Thank you, Chair.

Nothing to report. Thanks, Mr. Gerker. Mr. Presverde. Thank you, Chair. I have 3 updates tonight.

First, just updating, the new Public Naming Commission met for the first time. Thank you to the commissioners and excited to see the work that they're going to begin to do. So just letting folks know that that work has started. The second update is that the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee met on May 7th. A number of things were updated.

We heard more about the child care licensing revisions. We heard about the cameras at Town Square Park and also an update from the Department of Law on a new ordinance on, on fires, which we have in front of us tonight. APD policy review and also prosecution office staffing update. The main bulk of that meeting, though, was going over the mayor's public safety strategy, and each one of the departments shared their strategic priorities for, for the coming year. I encourage the public to, to tune in to that.

We're going to be hearing more about those priorities a lot over the next few months. And then my last update is about the Assembly Housing and Homeless Committee. That meeting is tomorrow at noon. In room 155, where we will be going over again the, the mayor's strategic priorities related to homelessness, also talking about designated parking and micro units. We will also be having a discussion about shelter licensing.

So encourage folks to attend. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Mr. Presveria. So next, we will take up the addendum to the agenda.

Before that, we will go ahead and read in the late on the table items. We have two tonight.

Mr. Chair, point of information, there's going to be, um, another late on the table item, um, that the Assembly Council team is working on fixing right now. It was just passed out, um, needs a little work, so just want Is the title going to change? No, but one of the letters that's attached is going to change. Yeah, so, okay, I'll still go ahead and read the title into the record.

So, um, we have two AMs laid on the table, both supplemental. So the first one is unnumbered AM 2025 from Chair Constant, subject: Answers to Assembly Questions. And then the second one is an unnumbered AAM.

It's going to be item 14E6. It's supplemental to AO 2025-56S from Assemblywoman Revollen, supplemental documents from AO 20— for AO 2025-56S. So. Um, that takes care of that part of the process.

So, um, I would like to go ahead and ask for a motion to lay on the table— excuse me, a motion to incorporate the addendum as printed and distributed and laid on the table items. So moved. Second.

Moved by Ms. Brawley, second by Mr. Boland. I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection? Seeing and hearing no objection, the addendum to the agenda and the late on the table items have been incorporated. Next, we have appearance requests.

Mr. Oliva.

I'm going to start the clock here. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Ronald Leva. You'll have 3 minutes.

Pardon me, Chris? Go ahead. Okay. My name is Ronald Leva. I'm a resident of Anchorage.

I'm represented by all of you, including our good mayor. Tonight I just want to give a summary of what I appeared on the last time, was disinfection. Infected. Disease travels fast, especially among the homeless. The biggest cost to the homeless issue is in police medical responses.

It's the hospitals losing money dealing with them. And what I have here is last night's Firewise presentation. Commend the mayor for calling that. Our fire department and everyone who attended was Really well received and important. I think every homeless camp in large units should have a fire station.

And then, of course, well, this is a bucket. I'm not gonna call it a honey bucket. It's kind of sad, but you can put water in it. The emergency kits that are given to the homeless, they fall far short of what's necessary. So this is sanitizing bleach.

I gave the clerk an entire packet of why I'm really here tonight, and I'll get into that, my purpose. But there's a picture of calcium hypochlorite. That's a whole pellet, 20 containers. That's a disinfectant used in swimming pools, uh, for chlorination of water. And sewage.

And, uh, that's what, uh, can be used. And I used it properly, had permission. I was a Level 4 in sewage treatment, so I'm certified by the state to apply those chemicals and was given permission. But the reason I'm here tonight, uh, just to let you know, this is 160-proof disinfectant. I have 600 bottles, but it's got to be monitored real quickly.

I gave out this flyer, which is a complaint, uh, both to code enforcement and also to the health department about the Brother Francis, uh, shelter and also the resource center. And I'm going to include Beans because now they're feeding people over on 4th Avenue. But I documented the violations of the conditional use, which includes in the packet documentation of a map and a sign-up sheet that they have to pick up the garbage. It's part of their conditional use and part of their licensing. Now, if you violate something similar to a marijuana law— hey, just on odor, you get this— the shelter has such egregious violations, including their landscaping, which was mutilated by clients, but it ended up in the street and it's still there.

So please review the packet and hey, take some action. Thank you. Because I'm going to do it. Your time has expired. Okay, are there any questions?

There are no questions. Thank you, Mr. Okay, make sure you read it now because that's important both for fire and for— thank you, Mr. Next, we're going to move on to our consent agenda. Consent agenda items are number 10A through 10F and are typically routine or non-controversial items such as bid awards, new business information reports, and ordinances and resolutions for introduction. These items may be accepted, adopted, approved by the assembly by a single vote on the motion to approve the consent agenda.

Prior to approval, items may be pulled by assembly members for discussion and separate vote on each of those items. We'll go ahead and start our way down the dais and ask members to, um, let me know if they have any items to pull. We'll start with you, Mr. Presverdia. 10D8.

10D8. Mr. Gerker. No items, Chair. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Rivera.

No items, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Miss Silvers? No items.

Thank you. Mr. Boland? No items. Thank you. I think Miss Brawley?

Thanks. I have just one item to pull, but a couple other pieces of business. Um, first 10A2 for reading. Got it. And then this is one not to pull, but for 10C4, I need to make a disclosure.

Go ahead. Um, so this is being awarded to a company called Bristol. Um, last last year in 2024, I did a very small subcontract piece of work for this company not related to this project. It was on, um, essentially their HR process, and I don't have that current relationship. All right, I will make the determination that you don't have a substantial personal or financial interest in the item that's before us.

Anyone disagree?

I don't see any disagreement. So, uh, the ruling stands. Okay, and then, uh, one other item on 10G9. Again, I'm not pulling it but would like to set the public hearing, or request to set the public hearing, to July 15th, regular meeting of July 15th. Yep, I'll go ahead and do that.

Madam Clerk, would you please order that 10G9 is set for public hearing on July 19th?

All right, anything else? Yeah, and then one more item. I'll actually just go ahead and pull it. There's just a technical correction to make to it. I'm not sure if it's a Scrivener's error.

So 10B3.

July 15th. Yeah, Madam Clerk. All right, Mr. Johnson. No items, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Baldwin-Day. 10A3 for reading, please, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Martinez. 10A1.

Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Mr. McCormick? Nothing, Chair. Thank you. Mr. Myers?

No additional items. All right, thank you. So I'll go through the list now. We have 10A1, Mr. Martinez. 10A2, Ms. Brawley.

10A3, Ms. Baldwin-Day. 10B3, Ms. Brawley. 10D8, Mr. Presverdia. Anything else? Right, so I'd like to go ahead and ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus the pulled items.

So moved. Seconded. Moved by Mr. Myers, seconded by Miss Brawley. I'd also like to ask unanimous consent on this item. Is there any objection?

Seeing, hearing no objection, the consent agenda has been approved. For the members of the public who are here, for any of the items that were not just have pulled, they have been approved, accepted, or adopted by the assembly. Next, we'll go ahead and move on to our orders of business. Next up, we have item 10A.1, Resolution AR-2025-170, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing, honoring, and thanking Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Boyd for his public service and dedication to our community. This item was pulled by Miss Martinez.

Move to approve. Second. Moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Mr. Johnson. I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the adoption?

Seeing and hearing no objection, the item is adopted. This one will be read by Mr. Martinez and presented by Mr. Johnson.

A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing, honoring, and thanking Anchorage Fire Department Assistant Chief Alex Xander Boyd for his public service and dedication to our community. Whereas Assistant Chief Boyd first became interested in emergency services in 1990 as an Anchorage Fire Department explorer while a high school student and furthered his interest as a student firefighter with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Fire Department beginning in 1995. And whereas Chief Boyd was subsequently accepted into paramedic school, worked for a few months for a private ambulance service and was hired by the Anchorage Fire Department as a career firefighter paramedic in 1999. And whereas, as a part of a small cohort of new employees that were both credible firefighters and licensed paramedics, Chief Boyd helped integrate the fire and EMS divisions within the department and by doing so, bridge the divide between these work groups, paving the way for high-functioning, dual-role service that AFD is today. And whereas Chief Boyd advanced through the ranks quickly, expanding his responsibilities and influence.

He held the positions of fire apparatus engineer, fire captain, senior fire captain, battalion chief, safety officer, training officer, and assistant fire chief. And whereas Assistant Chief Boyd is a thought leader and innovator in the Anchorage Fire Department and in the American Fire Service. Having lectured on leadership topics at international fire chiefs' conferences and conventions, including the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Western Fire Chiefs' Association, the Alaska Fire Chiefs' Association, and the Fire Department Instructors Conference, the largest fire conference in North America; and whereas Assistant Chief Boyd is the— is a fourth-generation Alaskan and has been married for 24 years to his wife and partner, Kristen, who together raised their daughter, Freesia, and whereas Alexander— Assistant Chief Boyd is retiring from the Anchorage Fire Department after a long and distinguished career, having received numerous commendations and citations. Now therefore, the Anchorage Assembly resolves that Assistant Fire Chief Alexander Boyd is recognized, honored, and thanked for nearly 30 years of dedicated and distinctive public service to the citizens of the Municipality of Anchorage Passed and approved by the Anchorage Assembly this 20th day of May, 2025.

Chief Boyd.

Take an opportunity to say thank you to the assembly. To the administration, to the fire department administration, my wife Kirsten, and my family for their support. This is an incredibly honorable service. Uh, the 26 years of service that I put forth was a blink of an eye, and all of it, uh, culminated into something that, uh, I feel very, very proud of and something that I was honored to be part of. And I thank all of you for your continued support of the fire department, of our community, uh, the service that we as a group, as the administration, as the assembly, and all of your emergency services workers.

It is such an honor to serve this community, and I am thankful to have been part of that. And I thank you for that support. Thanks, Chief.

All right. Next up, we have item 10A2. 10A2 is Resolution 2025-177, which is a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly Recognizing and designating June 6th, 2025 as Secure Your Load Day. This item was pulled by Ms. Spraulley. Move to approve.

Second. Moved by Ms. Spraulley. Second by Mr. Johnson. I'd like to ask for unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the motion?

Seeing, hearing no objection, the motion is adopted. I have Ms. Spraulley reading and Mr. Johnson presenting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing and designating June 6th, 2025 as Secure Your Load Day.

Whereas the Secure Your Load Safety Day started in 2004 through the work of Robin Abel, a Washington resident whose daughter was severely injured by an unsecured load and whose work resulted in federal lawmakers including load securing recommendations to the states in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation, or FAST, Act of December 2015. And whereas information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that nationwide in 2022, there were an estimated 895 deaths, 17,203 injuries, and 98,502 property damage crashes caused by unsecured loads and road debris. Whereas in— and sorry— and whereas Alaska joined the movement by the filing— by filing Alaska House Bill 259, an act related to containing or confining loads being transported on highways, which was added to Alaska Senate Bill 199 and passed into law on November 7th, 2018; and whereas securing your load is not only the safe thing to do, it is legally required under Alaska Statute 28-35-251 and under Anchorage Municipal Code Section 946.60. Loads must be contained or confined to prevent dropping, leaking, or escaping; and whereas the anchorage assembly stands in solid— solidarity with those impacted by avoidable and unnecessary tragedies, harmed or even killed by debris or items falling from unsecured loads, and urges all persons transporting loads, including their personal property, debris, trash, rubbish, or anything at all, to stop and secure their load. Now, therefore, the Anchorage Assembly— Municipal Assembly celebrates, recognizes, and designates Friday, June 6th, 2025 as Secure Your Load Day.

Passed and approved by the assembly this 20th day of May, 2025.

Welcome. Oh, you just turned it off. There you go. Don't touch it. Mr.

Chair, members of the assembly and the administration, thanks for the opportunity to bring awareness to this very important topic. We are very busy at the Central Transfer Station in the Anchorage Regional Landfill. A lot of people on the roads right now hauling things and items, and so bringing awareness to covering your load is vitally important. And behind me is the SWS crew. You've got drivers, managers, people that work with us every single day.

So safety is very important to us and our team, and thanks for this opportunity.

Thank you. All right. Next, we have item 10A.3, Resolution R2025-178, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing May 1, 2025, as a National Day of Prayer and designating May 1 as the Municipality of Anchorage Day of Prayer. This item was pulled by Ms. Baldwin-Day. Move to approve.

Moved by Ms. Baldwin-Day, seconded by Mr. Buland. I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the motion? Seeing and hearing no objection, that motion is approved. I have Ms. Baldwin-Day reading, Ms. Silver is presenting.

Please come forward. Mr. Chair, would you add me as a co-sponsor, please? Sure, would love to add the mayor as a sponsor. Well, on a personal note, I'd like to say that as a former pastor in the United Methodist Church, I am really delighted to get to read this particular resolution.

Whereas National Day of Prayer is an annual observance when Americans are encouraged to give thanks, meditate peacefully, or take time out of the day to be in nature or visit their church, synagogue, temple, shrine, or mosque, and to pray according to personal practice. And whereas every year the National Day of Prayer calls on Americans of different faiths across the U.S. to be unified in public prayer, to pray for the nation and its leaders. And whereas the National Day of Prayer was established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1952, signed by President Truman, amended in 1988 to permanently set the first Thursday in May as National Day of Prayer, signed by President Reagan and proclaimed by the president every year since. And whereas the National Day of Prayer belongs to all Americans to individually express unity, love, and respect for each other. And whereas in Anchorage, many individuals, institutions, and religious groups pray for Anchorage daily and will celebrate the National Day of Prayer.

Now therefore, the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizes May 1st, 2025 as the Municipal Day of Prayer and the National Day of Prayer and encourages the people of the Municipality of Anchorage to join in expressing thanks and to pray for their community leaders and nation. Passed and approved by the Anchorage Assembly this 20th day of May, 2025.

Pastor May.

Here we go. All right, good evening, uh, to, uh, the illustrious mayor and your staff, and certainly to Chair Constantine and to all of the assembly proper. It is indeed a signal honor for us to receive this resolution predicated upon the National Day of Prayer. As of May 1st. Let me say I'm Pastor Leon D. May, Reverend of Desert Community Church, President of the Interdenominational Ministry Alliance of Anchorage and Vicinity, as well as the MLK Foundation of Alaska, and I'm excited to have these pastors join with us in receiving this resolution on today.

As it relates to the National Day of Prayer. As it relates to prayer, we know that prayer is indeed the Christian's vital or necessary breath. It's the inbreathing and exhaling of the nature and existence of God. It's a human-divine communiqué that God has given us that we might communicate with him. And I do recall when we did the Pledge to Allegiance There's a line in there that says, "One nation under God." And when this nation was founded, it was founded under God.

The pilgrims who founded it, they prayed to the one triune God, the maker of heaven and of earth, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the God that was prayed to. And we're grateful for that, and I encourage everyone in here, present, everyone online, everyone by telephone or whatever way you're communicating. I encourage you to pray for our world, our nation, our state, our city, and all of that. And with that being said, let me say this. It would be somewhat hypocritical of all of us in here on tonight, you as an assembly, as a municipality, in forwarding this resolution to be passed and us in coming to receive it, it would be somewhat hypocritical of all of us if you gave it and we received it and no prayer was made.

And so we're here to pray for our nation as it relates to this 74th Annual National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer exists to mobilize unified public prayer for America. And the national theme for this year was "Pour Out to the God of Hope and Be Filled." That's what the President signed, predicated upon Romans 15:13. And I'll read that out of the New King James Version. It says, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. And we do believe in that one triune God that I mentioned. Said that you may abound in hope, that hope might be multiplied in all of us by the Holy Spirit. And so it is, so it is. We call on that God on tonight on behalf of America, on behalf on behalf of the world that he created, on behalf of this municipality, this state of Alaska, we call on that one triune God.

If you would pray with us. Father, we come in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We come, we come acknowledging that you are God and yet you're God all by yourself. We acknowledge that you're sovereign You're proper and perfect in all of your ways. You are one who changes not.

And your word says, this is the confidence that we have in you, that if we ask anything according to your will, we know that you hear us. And since we know that you hear us, we know that we have the petition desired of you. And so it is tonight, we call on you, the God of hope. If there's anything that this world needs, if there's anything this nation nation needs. If there's anything that this municipality needs, we need more hope.

Uh, fill us with your joy and your peace, oh God. Multiply hope in us, God. We pray for this nation. We pray for this nation. We pray for our president, God.

We pray that you may give him your mind, God. We pray for this municipality. We pray for the Mayor, that you might give her your mind. We pray for this assembly, one and all, God, that you might give them your mind. God, we acknowledge that we're in your able and capable hands.

And even now, on this assembly floor, we bow in affirmation and say yes, Lord, to your will and to your way. Have it in us, through us, by us. And for us. Fill us, oh God, by your Spirit. Multiply hope in this nation in which you've created.

God, we leave it with you now. And all who believe, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all who believe and all who can, said amen. Ah, some of us has turned aside. We've turned aside from and other things that we need to get to. And we pulled aside just so we could be here with you on today.

So excuse us, we do have to leave, but we wanted to be here to receive this resolution inasmuch as you all have extended it. God bless you and God bless America. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Just note that Mr. Gerker was not listed as sponsor and he would prefer to be. So we'll go ahead and add him.

Thank you. Next we have item 10B3. Item 10B3 is AR 2025-172, a resolution of the Anchorage Assembly establishing the unification celebration planning team. This item was pulled by Miss Brawley. Move to approve.

Second. Moved by Miss Brawley, second by Miss Baldwin-Day. Ms. Brawley. Yeah, thank you. I pulled this one for just correcting a technical error, so I'm going to move a verbal amendment.

So on line— I say page 1, line 25, changing— striking the phrase information technology department and replacing it with chief administration— or sorry, chief administration officer. I can get a second?

There's a motion to amend by Ms. Brawley. Seconded by Ms. Baldwin-Day. Go ahead, Ms. Burley. Thanks. Yeah, this is just correcting that the, the I team is actually in, uh, not in IT but in the Chief Administration Officer's department.

Any discussion on the amendment? If not, I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection? Hearing no objection, the amendment has Made. Next, we have the main motion before us.

Any further—. Say, urge your support, more to come. Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AR-2025-172 as amended has passed the body.

Next we have item 10D8.

10D8 is Assembly Memorandum AM431-2025 Amendment 1 with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to provide strategic planning for the Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, Mr. Presverdia, you pulled this item? Yes, uh, move to postpone to the meeting of June 10th. Second. There's a motion to postpone to June 10th by Mr. Presverdia, seconded by Mr. Brawley. Go ahead, Mr. Presverdia.

Thank you. I saw that there was a number of questions that came up in the, in the assembly, um, to the administration, and I appreciate the answers to those, those questions. I, I would, um, ask for a little more time to review this and have conversation about the scope of this work. I'm concerned about the overall price tag here. I think that— I have no doubt that this is important work and that relates to the strategic direction of this, this part of our department.

But the sheer size and cost of this is something that I think deserves more review, especially because it's an extension beyond what was already allocated. So I would just appreciate my colleagues giving us about 2 weeks to, to ask some more questions, to learn more about exactly if this is necessary or if this is something that we can reduce. I think a half million, almost a half million dollars for strategic planning is something that we need to look at a little bit more. So I would appreciate the postponement to give us more time to, to have some conversations about it. Thanks.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you. I support this suggestion we take some more time with it. I was going to offer that if we wanted to take this up at the next Infrastructure Enterprise Utility Oversight Committee meeting, we could do that, but it would have to move this to the second meeting in June. I think my only question is to AW, if the timing of this, if that would impact their intention.

So that's maybe just my— I was trying to shorten it as much as I could. To not impact that. But maybe someone from that department or the administration could speak to that, if that— if postponing it longer would impact the project. Through the chair to Member Perez-Vedia, we had hoped to have this passed tonight because this is work that we wanted to have commence this summer, this strategic planning work. So to the extent that it needs to be postponed in order to answer questions, we would request that it come back before the body as soon as possible.

Chair, is it possible that this can be discussed in a work session of some type the next 2 weeks, or is our schedule full? So this Friday is a No Name Friday and it's holiday weekend, so it's unlikely to happen. Can we look at the schedule for the meeting at the weekend before the, the meeting? There are 3 weeks before our next meeting, and so So, yeah, there is time. Okay, thanks.

I'd like to just keep it as is if we can.

All right. I see you've taken yourself out of the queue.

Okay. All right. Any further discussion on the question?

You know, actually, I'm going to ask a question before we do that. Can we hear from Mr. Persinger on kind of timing? Why? What's happening here? A little bit.

And it kind of got to keep it germane to the motion to postpone. But at the same time, we hear a little bit.

Certainly. David Persinger, General Manager, Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility. Through the chair, we had hoped, as Municipal Manager Becky Wynn Pearson said, to get this work started this summer. This is completing our strategic plan, but it's also taking a deep dive into leadership and employee development. I've also set this to go through the end of 2026, so some of this work will be completed in 2025.

With the rest of it going into 2026. We did brief the Infrastructure Committee. It was a couple of months ago, so we could come back and do that again, but we'd like to get this done sooner than later. So I don't think we'll wait for the committee, but we will have it back if this motion passes then for a work session, probably the 5th or the 6th of June. All right, any further discussion on the motion?

Hearing and seeing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 10 to 2, the motion to postpone is passed. Next, we will go ahead and continue just a little bit down the road Mr. Chair, I'd like to move to change the order of the day to take up 11B and 11C before 11A. Second. All right, so there's a motion to change the order of the day by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Voland, to take up items 11B and 11C.

Is there any objection to that motion? Hearing and seeing no objection, the order of the day has been changed. We'll now be taking up items 11B. 11B is AR 2025-133, a resolution to repeal Assembly Resolution 2013-296S, Resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly Approving the Design Criteria Manual, January 2007, and Directing Further Review and Recommendation by Planning and Zoning Commission.

So, uh, is there a motion? Move to postpone indefinitely. Ms. Brawley moves to postpone indefinitely. Second, for the purposes of discussion. Mr. Mullin seconds.

Ms. Brawley. Yeah, thank you. Um, so this is an item, um, that we postponed from last month. The administration initially requested postponing at least a month, um, saying that, that there are certainly flaws in the current process, but not, um, not necessarily that this is the way to move forward. So the proposal to postpone indefinitely is not because this work shouldn't be done.

It is to say let's start over and not continue with this particular item. Otherwise, the alternative would be to postpone it to a meeting in June or July. But I think either way, we can get to a resolution of this in the future.

All right. Any further discussion on the motion to postpone indefinitely? Hearing and seeing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, this item has been postponed indefinitely. Next we have item 11C, which is AM351-2025 Grant Agreement with Institute for Community Alliances to fund homeless management information system operations for the municipality. Action was postponed from 4/22/2025 and 5/6/2025. What's the will of the body? Move to approve.

Second. There's a motion to approve by Ms. Riley, second by Mr. Boland. Any discussion? Go ahead, Miss Raleigh. Yeah, briefly, um, this is an item that just needed, um, the funding mechanism to be approved first.

That was done in our consent agenda, it was 10B5, I believe. And so this item, uh, that was the reason it was postponed prior. So from, um, from our understanding, this item is good to go. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Okay, Mr. Johnson, go ahead. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I believe I support this item, but I just have a question to the administration.

Um, we were talking about $156,000 and change, and the period of performance just runs through June 30th, 2025. Is, is that correct? Um, it seems like a large expenditure. Is— or is this to, to do some work that will maintain the system to be operational for a longer period of time? Someone just help explain the timing to me.

Member— Director Rash will come up and answer that question.

This money is for the maintenance of the system, um, and so this time frame works, um, so the payment will be made to ICA for the continued maintenance and operations of the system. Okay, so we're, we're making an investment in the maintenance, and then that will allow the system to, to remain in good operational condition for a period of time that extends well beyond June of this year? Is that correct? Yes. Okay, thank you.

So myself in the queue, Mr. Constant. Thank you, Mr. Ash. Um, now just so members understand that are new to this, did we just do this homeless management information systems because we want to? No.

We are required by the CoC to do this. So what we do when we have any grant agreement with any shelter operator, we require that they input data into AKHMIIS, which is run by ICA. And so since we are requiring everyone to put data into it, it allows us to extract that data back out and that gives us the metrics. The metrics are also used by ACH as well, and those are displayed on their dashboard. So you said the CoC requires it, but it's a little bit different than that, right?

It's required by HUD. HUD, right. HUD requires the CoC and all the participating jurisdictions to input information into the Homeless Management Information System. So it was a bit of a rhetorical question for the members to understand that we don't do this because we want to. We have to.

So thank you. Any further discussion? I see none. Members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AM351-2025 has passed the body. So I mentioned in my report earlier that the Department of Law has requested that the assembly adjourn into an executive session in order to receive a briefing on certain legal matters, plural. So on our agenda is item 18 at every regular meeting, which is executive sessions. But before we do that, and there are members here now who have never been through this process. So this is an adventure in executive sessions.

What we'll do now is go through some preliminary steps. The state law provides us the opportunity to convene into executive session under very limited circumstances. And so our tradition here is that our attorneys, either the municipal attorney or assembly counsel, will lay the foundation for why we would go into an executive session. Why is it needed and how does it meet the standards of the law. And so now I will go ahead and turn to the municipal attorney.

Thank you, Chair. The reason for meeting in executive session tonight is to allow the assembly to receive a legal briefing from my office on multiple pending legal matters. An executive session is appropriate under both AMC 230.036(a)(1) and (5) because it will involve discussion of information on specific legal matters, including pending litigation, as well as subjects which by law, municipal charter, or ordinance are required to be confidential, including the provision of legal advice subject to protection by the attorney-client privilege.

All right, so the next step in the process is to ask the members if they believe they have sufficient information to be able to make a decision on whether or not we move into executive session. Does anyone have any questions yet? No. OK, so then the next would be I would ask for a motion to move into executive session. So moved.

Second. Motion by Mr. Myers, seconded by Miss Brawley. Any discussion on the motion?

Hearing and seeing no discussion, I'll go ahead and ask for unanimous consent. Is there any objection?

Seeing and hearing no objection, then we will now convene into an executive session and do that at the same time. We'll have our regular dinner break, so our little room will get pretty packed. We'll go ahead and invite the municipal attorney, um, obviously the mayor and the manager in. Um, if the chief administrative officer wants to come, he may, but is not required.

So, um, no action was taken in the executive session, um, so I would like to ask for— inconsistent with AMC 2.30.036C A motion regarding the disclosure of the recording of the executive session. I move to maintain confidentiality of the executive session recording permanently. Second. Second. Moved by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Myers.

Any discussion of the motion?

Hearing, seeing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, the motion is approved to withhold release of the tapes of this executive session in perpetuity.

That brings us back to item 11A.

Item 11A is AO-2025-30, an ordinance of the Anchorage Assembly amending the definition of trust manager in Anchorage Municipal Code 6.50.060, Finance Department. The public hearing was closed action postponed from 3/18/2025 and 4/8/2025. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Moved by Miss Sprawley.

Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Baldwin-Day. Miss Sprawley. Yeah, I'll just say we had a work session on this and we were briefed on it at the April, I think, 17th Budget and Finance Committee And I guess I don't have further comments, but I do know we have an amendment.

Ms. Baldwin-Day.

Yes, I would. I'd like to move Baldwin-Day Amendment Number 1. Second. Motion to amend by Member Baldwin, seconded by Baldwin-Day, seconded by Ms. Spratley. Go ahead.

Thank you. So in conversations, follow-up conversations at the work session, it became clear to me that there was some intention behind this ordinance that wasn't actually explicit, and that was that the, the new director of investment operations would not only focus their energy and attention on the municipal trust, that they would also be in a position to leverage their experience and to be able to to share that information, share that knowledge and that coordination with other funds that the municipality holds. And that felt really important to include as part of this, as part of this AO, and not something to sort of leave out in the periphery. So that is the— that is what this amendment is about.

And I urge your support, obviously. All right. So we have the amendment before us.

I'm going to put myself in the queue. Mr. Constant. Thank you. You know, I agree with this sentiment, but it's in the whereas part as opposed to in an action statement of the definition.

And so I wish I'd thought about this myself. I think it's probably a pretty simple code change to add it, but our counsel is still kind of out. So I think that I do support this intent language. And maybe once we get through this amendment, we pause this item and move on and maybe look at a sentence we could add to the effective language that would do that, because I think it's well within the title to add under 6.50.050, the trust manager is also responsible for advice to anyhow. So I do support this amendment and I urge your support.

Anyone else on the amendment? Hearing and seeing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Rivera. Yes.

Member Voland. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, the amendment has passed. If there's no objection, I'd like to ask us to just move on to the next item and come back to this. And Ms. Baldwin-Day, I might ask you to go sneak over to the attorneys and suggest that some effective language be proposed so when we come back to this, we could do this. Happy to do that. All right, thank you.

I didn't hear any objections, so we'll go ahead and move on to item 14A. Item 14A is AR 2025-103, a resolution approving the Heritage Land Bank 2025 annual work program and 2026 to 2030 5-year management plan. Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

So the microphone is off. Let me turn it on for folks. Are you speaking on your behalf or the council? All right, welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from.

You'll have 5 minutes. Uh, good evening, I'm Kathy Gleason, president of Turnagain Community Council, and I'm here to support the Resolution approving the Heritage Land Bank Plan, the 2025 and 5-year plan. As we have for many, many years, we submit comments on parcels that are within the area of our boundaries or near our boundaries, especially out by the Coastal Trail, and really want to see at some point the HLB land in those areas be transferred to the Parks Department, and then management of things like the Tesoro Pipeline lease and all that would stay in control of HLB. But it's really a goal for ours for quite some time that we see those lands permanently protected, and I especially, especially since the airport is being very aggressive in developing their land in West Air Park, and that's going to have a big impact on the rest of the park muni land. And so we want to preserve in perpetuity, you know, dedicated parkland land that really should be protected at that level so that there's, in future times, there's never a want of somebody who thinks, well, The airport's looking at HLB land to expand.

And so what that there's a coastal trail, it can be tunneled under. And that's a real thing that was proposed in the past. So don't laugh too hard. So we want to just protect our really good assets in the west area of town, out in that area. So, you know, we'd like to collaborate with the assembly and our you know, good folks at HLB so that we can work to see if dedicated parkland status can be achieved in the not too distant future.

So we really appreciate your support on that. And there's also a provision from a municipal entitlement agreement from way back in the '80s that some of the parks in town that you'd never know you know, just aren't protected and they're all good. They actually, you know, are still in state ownership and the muni is just, you know, managing those parks like Little Campbell Lake area, Little Campbell Lake Park. And we really want to see those be transferred to the parks department so that they become dedicated parkland as well. I think the overall arching goal of HLB and that land entitlement is to get them transferred to the municipality.

They were supposed to have done that decades ago and then get them dedicated parks. That's something that Turnagain Community Council weighs in on every year because we want to work with West Anchorage folks and see if we can't get some of this stuff elevated that we've been asking cumulatively for for quite some time. So thank you so much and thank you to HLB for all of their work that they do every year on these on these plans. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard on the HLB plan?

Please come forward. Are you speaking on your behalf or— I am speaking on my behalf. All right, thank you. Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from.

You'll have 3 minutes. Good evening. My name is Brian Burnett. I live in Girdwood. I'm here this evening to express my gratitude to Mr. Johnson for including trail-specific language in the amendment impacting development on HLB Parcel 6011 in the 1-year and 5-year plan.

Thank you. I thank you for your efforts on behalf of Girdwood and the trails in our community. Further, Girdwood has a history of trail realignment to accommodate development. Think Winter Creek Extension Trail. This vital trail link in our community was built by Eliasca to accommodate potential development on Eliasca land.

The previous trail was the 1969 Junior National Cross-Country Race Trail, and it was the Winter Creek Trail access from the day lodge before the hotel was built at Eliasca. The old alignment and easement was abandoned and and a new trail was built on a separate public open space parcel. The full cost, that's design, build, and as-built survey of the new trail segment was covered by LAESCA, and this trail is currently being transferred to Gerdwood Parkland. So there are groups in Gerdwood that are in the process of raising funds to build multi-use, multi-season trails in the vicinity of the proposed Glacier Creek Village. It's a big lift for our small nonprofits to raise the money for new trails to replace trails that will be destroyed and access that might be lost as this parcel may be developed.

Going forward, I respectfully request that consideration is given to how developers will be held accountable to replace trails that are being realigned or destroyed by their developments.

Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Hi, my name is Amanda Tuttle. I'm an old Girdwood commercial landowner. I'm also the owner of Coast Pizza, and I'm also an environmental regulatory expert with almost 25 years of experience. Tonight I am forced to close Coast pizzas doors just to attend these meetings to protect my business from HLB. For 2 years now, I have submitted formal substantive comments to this work plan requesting HLB to identify and outline the responsibility of their perpetual utility easements in the Glacier Creek Valley in accordance with the Department of Natural Resources Land Conveyance Document ADL-201175, which is a land conveyance document from the state of Alaska to the municipality for Girdwood.

My comments have been denied and disregarded. HLB's perpetual utility jurisdictions must be included within HLB's work plan. HLB is governed under Title 25 Public Lands because of this document. The state of Alaska still holds perpetual ultimate jurisdiction of our Navajo waters, as declared in old Girdwood's land conveyance document. Yet Since 1984, HLB has never once completed a compliant land disposal in the Glacier Creek Valley by failure to identify our navigable waters.

In fact, two of the navigable waters declared in this document have never been listed in any MOA document or map to date, including this plan. HLB's reply to my formal comment is that their maps are sufficient within the document. They told me I should go look online. The maps don't even identify the parcels correctly within Old Girdwood. In fact, Old Girdwood's been written out.

HLB is one atmospheric storm away from causing a man-made environmental disaster in Old Girdwood at the expense of my community and my business and my land due to their lack of management of our navigable waters. Since 1984, HLB has never once maintained or managed the 1,600-foot federally listed levee that protects the entire Old Girdwood community and our critical public infrastructure. This isn't— these waters, this levee ensures that the Glacier Creek Watershed flows under both federally built bridges. The levee is failing, and I saw it with my own eyes on the night of October 31st, 2021, and I've been screaming ever since. We are one atmospheric storm away from it happening again.

Let me explain to you what happened that night. October 31st was the night that our two 60-inch culverts on Rowan collapsed. That's essentially a dam release. I was standing on the levee when those waters hit. California Creek comes down as our main western drainage, and Glacier Creek comes as our eastern main drainage.

Our— the Alaska Railroad effectively dams our watershed. So the two major tributaries are coming into a head-on collision, and they're constrained at a 77-foot-wide trestle that was built in the 1920s. We have no watershed data.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Please come forward.

Are you speaking on your behalf or— On my behalf. All right. Thanks, Mike. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Thank you. My name is Mike Edgington from Girdwood. Um, I really had just 2 points to make. The first one is, uh, historically HLB and the community of Girdwood has not— have not always been best of friends. Um, we've had a number of issues where I think the, the 2 bodies have been at loggerheads.

Um, that is not the case anymore. Um, I think the last couple of years in particular HLB have, I think, been very collaborative, and I hope we have too. And I think this work plan is a good example of a relationship that's worked fairly well. There was plenty of consultation in both directions. I think all of our comments have been responded to— as the body of GBUS, all of our comments were responded to very effectively.

And I also think that the work that's happened since the adoption of the Goodwood Comprehensive comprehensive plan, which includes Proposed Amendment 2, also helps us. I think it's a— it produces a lot more clarity about what HLB's intent and expectations are for the land north of the airport. And I encourage the assembly to approve and adopt Amendment 2. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, public hearing is now closed. What's the will of the body?

Move to approve. Second. Moved by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Johnson. Miss Brawley? I see there's amendments, so I'll just cede to others.

All right, Mr. Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would move Myers Amendment Number 1. Second.

Motion to amend by Mr. Myers, seconded by Mr. Gerker. Mr. Myers. Mr. Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is at the request of a constituent, just basically to do a study to determine if this piece of parcel can be disposed of in the Eagle River or Chugiak-Eagle River Comprehensive Plan. So I would encourage member support.

On the amendment, Mr. Johnson.

So I have a question for Mr. Myers. Um, thank you, Mr. Myers. Whereabouts is this? Can you just give a general description? Uh, yes, it's in Chugiak.

A little more specific. I specifically know where the exact parcel is because I have a development right next door. But, uh, do you know where Jasmine Estates is? It's a 20-acre parcel that was disposed of, God, in 2018, I believe. Okay.

From the Heritage Land Bank. And this is a parcel that's right next to that. So from what I understand, and maybe Miss Briggs can give us a better idea of how that works. If this is approved and the study finds it can be disposed of, he would have to pay for a survey to separate the portion off. Uh, it's an adjacent landowner who's inquiring about this parcel.

Understood. And from what I understand, it's a very steep parcel that likely won't be developed. But so the idea is review the site, and then if it's developable, it's possible that there's a disposal to a local entity that might take on the burden of Development. OK, thank you. Anyone else on the amendment?

No, I'm gonna go ahead and ask for unanimous consent on the amendment. Is there any objection? Hearing no objection, the amendment has passed. Next, we have a whole slew of amendments that are kind of big. Mr. Johnson.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I move Johnson Amendment #2.

Second. So there's a motion to amend Moved by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Mr. Voland. Mr. Johnson. First off, a question which may require an amendment to the amendment. This was not— Member McCormick was not a participant in drafting this and is not necessarily looking to be named as a sponsor here.

So can we remove him as a cosponsor? Do you actually require a motion to that effect? It doesn't matter. In the end, it won't change anything. Show except for who made and seconded the motion.

Okay, okay. Thank you. Then I'll briefly speak to the intent of this amendment itself.

This is relating to the Minton, obviously an area of much importance to the community of Girdwood, with several competing visions and usage ideas. As we're going through the lengthy process of adopting the new Girdwood Comprehensive Plan. This was an area of focus of a lot of conversation. And in that, there were discussions both public and internal about what the purpose of the comprehensive plan is and what sort of language or conditions should or should not be included in that. And Altamirano has determined that some of the things I felt important to make part of the record about our intentions for this parcel were not best suited to the Comprehensive Plan.

So during the debate on that, I read into the record a statement essentially captured here about my intention to amend the work plan to bring some of those community considerations into it, into this. I do want to very much thank the Real Estate Department for their assistance in navigating this process and also in drafting the language you have before us. They have been very helpful in that. And so I can say amongst other things, I feel pretty confident that this language does feel workable and is achieving what I believe the HLE intends for the process here. Really what this is, is intended to serve as a roadmap for the steps that need to take place as we determine determine how best to utilize this parcel in Girdwood.

This is not a disposal. It is not an authorization for disposal. Those conversations is ultimately about when and if and under what conditions to transfer the land out of HLB's inventory will happen at a later date. My goal here is to lay out the steps that need to happen between now and then with some of the relevant history and then also I think a better understanding of the timeline and process for moving forward to hopefully guide the conversation so that everyone in the community and on this body has, I hope, a clear understanding of how this should be managed so that as best we can, we can bring the various voices to the table and hopefully find a path forward that meets these various competing visions as best we can. So with that, I will ask members to Please support.

Miss Brawley. Yeah, thank you. And I appreciate the explanation. I have two questions, mostly just for making sure I'm understanding this. And this is to the sponsor, or yeah, to Mr. Johnson.

This is— I think I heard you say this, but this is consistent with what the final amended version version of the comp plan is. Is that correct? Yes. Okay, so it's not kind of making policy changes that are different than what's in that plan? If I may, I meant to make that very clear.

Yes, this is not meant to in any way make changes to what is in the comprehensive plan. It's just meant to expand on what the intent was there. So we're, we're not in any way undoing anything that's in the comp plan today. Okay, and then second question, just related. So as I understand it, this is really dealing with kind of the multiple uses and potential uses of this particular parcel and making sure that those are cared for in a future process, but it would not potentially stop a disposal, or it wouldn't preclude, for example, housing getting built on this parcel.

Is that right? No, not at all. And in fact, it specifically contemplates housing being built on there. It just lays out essentially— and I would highlight on Page 2, that meaty paragraph towards the middle, really laying out the steps we need to go to before we consider that. So since we have the comprehensive plan, the Girdwood Trails Plan, then we have the need for a replat and recording of trails easement, all those intermediary steps that need to happen.

And I will say, I think to the credit of everyone who's been directly involved in this, the desire to bring the parties together to have collaborative conversations has been encouraging. Thank you. So I'm going to put myself in the queue. Mr. Consul. Tiffany, can you come up?

I have just a few questions.

This is a lot to consume on the dais. So I won't object, but I will ask just a couple questions. Essentially 2A is removing it out of the kind of plan for disposal and moving it into potential, right? Correct. So then looking at the— so that adds a bit of time in the process, which I think is fine.

If you look at the maybe the fourth paragraph, the big paragraph on page 2, it talks about all the parties will before anything happens, agree to dedicate trail easements. Can that be done in a year? Yes. OK, you're confident that can be done in a year? Is that a year additional to the process of getting it to development?

Or is that just kind of would be happening anyways? It would be happening anyways, but we want to make sure that happens first. So then to be there, the last paragraph on the second page, after the replay plat, the disposal process will begin. Is that the normal order of operations? Correct.

Yes.

And then I think those are all of my questions for you. I think it doesn't really add too much by doing this. I just would note there's— this is not a code amendment per se. This is in the plan. There's a parenthetical on the last page halfway through through, the assembly will have an opportunity to approve, amend, and in parentheses it says place conditions on the disposal.

And so I just want to assert the assembly's prerogative. It could be to place or remove conditions. So that language doesn't bind this body. It is, um, it's, it's guiding language, but it's not binding language. So with that, I, I can support this amendment because It doesn't seem to add too much complexity to the mix.

And it adds more opportunity for folks to work together. And I think the biggest chunk is getting those trails dedicated first. And so if that's the hardest one and it doesn't really add much to the long kind of endpoint, then it's reasonable to me. Thank you, Mr. Bond.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I first want to commend Member Johnson for all of his hard work and collaboration with the interested parties and for bringing this forward. And yeah, just trying to reach compromise and progress on the comprehensive plan. And I do recall when we had that discussion, you said that you would be bringing something forward, HLB-related.

I think the only thing I want to just state for the record, um, is the third paragraph about the different conditions that were mentioned, um, and it lists some of those things— limiting short-term rentals, minimizing trail and road crossings, etc. And, um, I guess I just want to highlight the fact that those are, are things, if I'm understanding this correctly, that will be before the assembly for consideration. Oh, that's my phone. Um, not that we are— not that this item is, um, that any disposal is contingent upon those things being included, correct?

That is correct, procedurally speaking, yes. Okay, thank you. Just kind of want to set expectations, I guess, for the community that these are things that can be brought forward for consideration, but not necessarily going to be the end result, because that will still be subject to the proceedings outlined in paragraph 2.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you. And I guess maybe just a somewhat more fulsome response to Member Voland's comment there. These conditions here were actually brought to us as suggestions by the developer, right? Ultimately, we're talking about determinations that will be made at a later date.

But these are not necessarily new to the parties involved. And these, in fact, were suggestions that were brought to us by the developer who is looking to build the housing there. But obviously more will happen between now and when we actually consider disposing of land. And then also just quickly to touch on Chair Constantine's comment about why— or the removal of the language from the work program. As I think members are aware, the work program is generally supposed to be things that we expect to happen within the next year or so.

And I don't think anyone involved believed that a disposal would actually take place within that year. I don't even think the developer would be looking to take ownership of the land within the next year if that was even an option on the table. So it was, if nothing else, I think confusing to have it there because it sort of signaled an intent that was just not realistic.

I think I'll just kind of take us out then if there's no one else on the amendment that I agree with all of that and substantively it doesn't add too much time and it's recommendation to us not binding we'll do what we do and so I think for all of those reasons it's a really good amendment to set the intention with that any discussion on the amendment any objection to the amendment Ask unanimous consent. Seeing and hearing no objection, the amendment is adopted.

Are there any other amendments? Any further discussion on this item?

Anna, Miss Barley. Yeah, thank you. Um, I, as one of the West Anchorage folks, I will say, um, thank you to Miss Gleason for testifying. And I know that there— I looked back to the comments. I know there were some comments about working collaboratively with the airport and other stakeholders that I know that language was included.

So thank you to staff. And then to the larger point about dedication of parcels, I think that's, that's something that I know we'll need more conversation with HLB, but I will follow up in the next few months before we get back around to this. This process next year, because I think there's— I imagine there's multiple things in play. I don't want to spend time talking about those today, but I will follow up because I know there's some interest in that. So just to say, I'll talk to staff offline.

Thank you. Any further discussion on the underlying item? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera. Yes. Member Martinez. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-103 as amended has passed the body. Now we have Item 14B. Item 14B is AO 2025-61, an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code Section 8.20.030 and 8.20.030A 20.035 to improve public safety and reduce wildfire danger by establishing criminal penalties for unauthorized fires. Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Hello, I'm Miss Sophia O'Neill and I am of Eagle River.

I wanted to bring up something in reference to Eagle River.

In Eagle River, there is land that is owned by the Anchorage Mental Health Association, of which one can obtain permits for a certain amount of money. And then there's 12 pages of regulations that if you wish to do camping or an activity on this land, The rules are clearly outlined. However, 2 years ago when I went and I saw that fires that were larger than need to be and didn't follow the rules that were outlined, thus could cause a larger fire I went to the local fire department and I explained to them what I had seen. It is very important that when you consider this, that you don't impede the fire department from being able to intervene on a land permit. The reason I state this is that the fire department said, thank you for reporting these fires, but unless we have permission of the permit and the landowner, we cannot go on the land.

And until, you know, it's out of control or whatever. And we went back and forth about it, and I said, truly, there is nothing you can do. So I contacted the Anchorage Mental Health Association, and I told them what was going on, and they said, well, they would look into to it. Well, nothing, nothing changed, and it continued. So when you put this forth, just be sure that the parameters for both law enforcement and the fire department, that they're able to execute their job, that they have access, that they are able to investigate.

Because the thing is, is that even if you have something like a land permit with rules clearly outlined. The rules mean nothing if it's not enforced, either by the owner or if police or the fire department are incapable of going in and checking. So that's all I have to say, but it is in first person, and I did try to address the problem because Eagle River had a horrible fire not many years preceding that. And so it's something that should garner our attention. Thank you.

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. I'm Will Walker. I live in Spenard.

First, I want to commend the efforts by AFD, the administration, our local, state, and federal agencies that have been working to mitigate wildfire and other fire risks to our community, and to commend the Administration, Mayor, for their efforts to restore public order and public safety in our public spaces. However, I think as the AO stands, I think that's overbroad and criminalizes too much conduct that doesn't actually pose a risk to the community, and that the downsides actually are worse than any kind of protection. So imagine situations like early April where an unhoused individual is using a fire to stay warm when there's often still snow on the ground and the lows are in the 20s, or young folks who may in celebration of graduation or otherwise have a bonfire down at Point Warren's off where there's rocks on the beach, or families setting up a portable grill at a park that doesn't have grow facilities, or an unsheltered individual using fire to dry off after it's been rainy for a week in August. As things stand, all these things would be criminalized under the current AO. Basically, it assumes that a fire on kind of land that you're not authorized to do it should be criminalized with up to a year of jail, even if that's not likely gonna be the punishment, that's still theoretically the risk.

And the risk of just criminalization in general can make it more difficult for someone to find employment, find housing, get education. That would be worse than any sort of risk for those sorts of things to the public just by having a fire in kind of a public space. And we know that this would really be used against a lot of unsheltered folks who are using it for— using fire for heat and for food and to dry off their belongings. So I'd urge you all to consider kind of trying to narrow the scope a little bit to what we're actually concerned about is the fires in our public spaces that can, like, pose an actual harm and risk to our community. I also think an interesting thing about the AO is this is about, you know, who owns the land that the fire is on versus, you know, you could have a homeowner who has a property adjacent to, you know, a forest and they could be reckless and unless it actually causes damage or harm, they're not at risk.

But if you're, you know, have a contained fire that you're in control of in a park that you don't have permission, you'd be criminalized for that. So I'd urge you to consider kind of trying to narrow the scope, maybe looking at whether it actually poses a risk and threat, whether it's attended or too large or those sorts of things. Thank you. Thank you. Any— oh, I had a question.

Mr. McCormick. You referenced unhoused people having fires to dry off or whatnot. Would they be having fires on public land without authorization? Is that what you're referring to?

I would guess so, yes. I mean, like, that's where they are. I mean, if another alternative is if we provide spaces for folks to, you know, where they are authorized to have fire for warmth and safety and food and dryness. Okay, thank you. All right, anyone else wish to be heard on this item?

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. The mic is on, so go ahead. Hi, my name is Joyce Marsh.

It's M-A-R-S-H. I'm from Spinard. I was here at the last hearing talking about Uri Park, and I'd like to let you know that I really appreciate it. The camps have been abated, and I appreciate everybody's work about that. However, we still have to be vigilant, and the neighbors are calling the police regularly.

The reason I'm here primarily is about this particular ordinance. In fact, a member of the fire department asked me to come. We've had 5 fires in Urie Park by whoever. The last one was suspected of arson. They were using gasoline to start the fire.

I even took a picture of a A man doing this. And it was really disheartening to see that after being there and being involved, this is Mother's Day, the police and the fire, he just, they just walked off with no repercussions whatsoever. The next day I went by and there was new kindling set up on top of the burned spot. I kicked it apart. And it's, it's just really important, I believe, that while people have rights, they should have responsibilities and consequences for their actions.

And it is very dangerous. Most of those fires that happened next to me, there were propane tanks going off. And this is— it just can't happen. It's not safe. And I think this is a start to making them responsible for what they're doing.

I'd love to see ordinances about it being illegal to have huge trash piles everywhere that then we have to pay to remove. I could go on and on, but I I appreciate your time and listening to me, and I urge you to pass this as a start. Thank you.

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

All right. Hi, Jamie Lopez East Anchorage, formerly Coalition for the Homeless. So largely unprepared remarks. And the reason I am here today is because I don't know what to say. Shame on you.

So last year you had AO 202439 during the special assembly meeting. And, you know, Meg Zeltow came before and she said, you're criminalizing homelessness. You know, there are people in poverty and they need places to go and you're not giving them places to go. And so therefore, if you charge them with a misdemeanor, essentially what ends up happening is it becomes that more difficult to house people, or people to be able to get a job. And I know someone up here who understands that very well.

But the general point and scope of this is, you know, there are people here. You have houses to go home to. You have heat. You have stoves. You have ovens and electricity.

People outside do not have that. And so you need to be able to survive. You need to be able to burn something to stay warm, to be able to cook food. You know, I'm sure you like the ability to cook food. Did they have the same right?

It's just some of these things that you really do not start to understand until you've had to deal with the aspects of survival. And when you get to the winter, then it becomes a little bit more challenging prospect of either you die or, you know, you lose fingers and toes. And so while I understand some the plight to some of the people up here who don't like these things in your neighborhood. There are currently, uh, no options on the table. You don't have enough housing to house people.

Not everybody's going to go into housing. People need places to go. They don't have it, so they end up on public land. And I'll just give you another example. And so, uh, you know, there was an abatement in March, and it was right over in front of Dempsey Anderson Skating Area.

And, uh, so they had nowhere to go, so they end up just moving a little bit down the street near Lois Drive, Northern Lights. And so there's a statement posted May 9th, uh, it was essentially pushed today. They have no place to go. Where do they go? They literally go across the street, uh, close to a church, uh, on their land where there was a pantry that was volunteering out today.

I see this play out time and time again. Uh, so anyways, I'm going into a sidebar discussion But the general point I'm trying to make is you need to support people for as long as they're outside. And not only that, you need to designate places where they can be put, where they can go. You need to allow them the ability to not lose limbs or to stay warm or to cook food because they're going to be outside years and years and years. And when there's no housing, they need to be able to survive.

And this This is basically just criminalizing being homeless because you're taking the rights away from people. The prosecutors will charge them a little amount, and then it's just they're going to have a record and it's going to impact their ability to just get housing. So thank you very much.

Anyone else wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve.

Second. Moved by Mr. Presverdia, seconded by Mr. Gerker. Mr. Presverdia. We had a work session on this, and so I think we've discussed it pretty extensively. I believe that this is important right now, especially because of the risk of wildfire.

And so I just urge my colleagues to support it. Thank you. All right, thank you. Um, Miss Silvers, you have an amendment?

Yes, um, move to move Amendment Number 1. Second. Motion to amend by Miss Silvers, seconded by Mr. Boland. Miss Silvers, want to speak to it? Um, yeah, so this amendment, it's a small amendment, but I think it's important because the term frequently is very subjective.

Frequently could mean 50 or it could I mean 500. So I think, you know, in this case, AFD has responded to nearly 500 outdoor fires in 2024 and over 600 the year before. And so I think it's really important to be specific and just really accurately convey the true gravity of the public safety risk. So that's why I'm proposing this change, and I ask for your support, please. Any further discussion on the amendment?

Any opposition to the amendment? Hearing some— no, hearing and seeing no opposition, the amendment is adopted. Miss Brawley? Yeah, I'll, um, on behalf of the chair, I'll move, Councilmember number 2, Amendment Number 2. Second.

So motion to amend, Miss Brawley, seconded, Mr. Walland. I can speak to it if you want. Yeah, Mr. Council. Thank you. So as I discussed on Friday, uh, our fire department does not have the police power of the state.

They don't have the authority to enforce this code. Thus, it is incumbent upon our friends at the police department to actually do it. And so this amendment would just add a whereas. It says Anchorage Fire Department lacks authority to enforce the criminal code. Therefore, the ability of the Anchorage Police Department to enforce these criminal burning laws is critical to these proposed changes.

So, Mr. Gerker, on the amendment. Yeah, on the amendment, if they don't have the authority to do it already, why does adding this language— and this language doesn't actually change that at all, correct? We're not taking anything away. We're just saying they already don't have this authority. Yeah, so what the amendment does is it clarifies that only the police have the authority to enforce the law that we're making.

But that was never in question, though, was it?

I think that a lot of people have assumptions that if this law passes, the fire department are going to be the ones out there citing people. And so what this does is it makes it really clear that it's the police who will be conducting the enforcement side of the equation.

Mr. Presidio. Yeah, and you brought this up at the, um, the work session. I, I guess I would just agree that I don't think it's necessary for for this. I think it's just additional information, and it doesn't seem to be particularly germane to this.

So I would just— I guess my feeling is that it's unnecessary, and it's assumed that this is information that folks may want or need, but that doesn't seem particularly relevant to this. So that's just my thought on it. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to speak in support of the amendment just because I think we're going to have some work to do with the public's understanding of what we potentially are going to effectuate tonight. I myself have had fires on the beach with friends, and, you know, I think it's going to be interesting to, to get the word out to people about what they can and cannot do. And what behaviors they potentially need to change.

And I disagree that this is targeted specifically toward unhoused people. I think that anyone who has a fire in unsafe conditions like a burn ban, that can be very risky and quickly get out of control.

And I think when we talk about— when we think about whereas clauses, a lot of it is informational. It provides context to not only the rationale for the policy changes, but also information to the public on what the implementation will look like. And I think it's good to have a clear record here because we are You know, this proposal significantly increases the penalty for behaviors around fire. And if a member of the public wants to look back and say, okay, what am I allowed to do? Or how can I get in trouble?

Who's in charge of enforcing this? I think these types of whereas clauses help them access that information and kind of wrap their minds around these changes. And I guess I just don't see any harm in adding this as part of the context in the legislative record. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks. Mr. Johnson. Thank you. Yeah, so I put it in the whereas because it is just a statement of kind of detail. It's not effective code language because it already is this by effect.

But an interesting side effect, Mr. Presverdia, of the work session on Friday was that one of the mayor's chief policy people came up to me afterwards and said, I didn't know that. And so this is just making it explicitly clear the enforcement of this code section is on the police. And so— and that's a very high value because people often assume that our friends in the fire service are conducting enforcement, they are not. And so to me, I didn't put it in the effective language because it's already true, you know, under the actions, Section 1, Section 2, just in the whereas so that the record is really clear. Mr. Presidio.

Yeah, I really do appreciate that. And I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I think it's not necessary. But I will just say that it would be helpful if it was just factual. And I think it goes to when it's criminal is critical to these proposed changes that you're, it's a bit confusing to me because if you're just clearly stating who has the authority to do what, it would be helpful as opposed to the because one has the authority and the other doesn't that that is a, that particular piece of information is critical to these policy changes. So it just confuses me a bit.

And again, I don't think it's necessary. But rather than just being factual, it tends to sort of lean to something else. So that's just my thought. Thanks. I think that's fair.

Mr. Voland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I think on that I guess my response as I read this is, you know, APD, we know, has limited capacity to respond to myriad public safety issues because they are understaffed. I know the administration is working very hard on that, and I think we recently heard an update that there's going to be a full police academy for the first time time in 5 years.

And so progress is being made. Also, the community safety officers, 19 positions potentially coming online where now there are only 4.

But I also think this helps maybe the public understand, you know, I saw a fire. Why wasn't it responded to immediately? And I think this does acknowledge some of the limitations in enforcement. So again, I will still be in support of this as drafted. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Right, thank you. Anyone else on the amendment? Seeing here none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera. Yeah. Member Martinez.

On a vote of 11 to 1, the amendment has passed. We're now back on the main motion. Miss Brawley. Yeah, I'm moving an amendment on behalf of the administration. So this is amending the effective date.

So on page 3, under Section 3, lines 5 to 6, so striking the phrase immediately upon passage and approval by the assembly and instead saying this ordinance shall take effect ordinance shall be effective on June 20th, 2025.

Motion to amend by Miss Sprawley. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Kerker.

It's 30 days effective date. Um, yeah, and I wonder if the administration could speak to—. Yeah, so I was going to ask the mayor if she wanted to speak to that. I would lean towards a shorter time period, like 10 or 15 days. But the mayor, I think, has a different opinion, and we'll let the mayor speak to it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were having a discussion around what would be an appropriate amount of time to get the word out, given that it is fire season. And I would ask the municipal attorney if, if there's anything you wanted to raise in regards to that question. Thank you.

Through the chair, I— thinking back to the amount of time it took to educate the public about the ID check law, for example, it does seem like there is some necessary lead time to give the public time to get up to speed about significant changes in the law. So 10 days, 15 days seemed a little short, especially given that there's a holiday weekend coming up. So I have myself in the queue, and Mr. Thank you. I, I just would ask the question, and not to be too pointed, but if it is a critical issue that there is big risk here, then doesn't it argue for a swifter timeline?

I think half the summer is gone by June 20th. And so, um, I, I would support the mayor's position in the end because they have to deal with how this whole thing is going to happen. But that's where my head How long is that? Mr. Chair, if I may put the chief on the spot here, Chief Sharagi, in terms of how much time we think would be an effective period to educate the public about this change in code, I mean, working together with the resources that you have through your PIO, how much time do you think we need here?

Thank you, Mayor, through the chair. We can, we can get the word out pretty quickly to the people that would come to our website or listen to a radio ad or read something posted on social media. I don't think those are the challenges. I think a shorter time frame would be appropriate for those. I think the population we might be— have a harder time reaching are those who don't have access or don't utilize those information sources.

So I'm imagining that we would have to post some signage in parks and other areas, maybe do some outreach on foot. I'm not sure how that would work. That would be a longer— that would be a bigger effort. So maybe 2 weeks and we will do the best we can?

I think to me that makes a lot of sense. If it is a critical issue, then— but I mean, ultimately it is up to the people who have to do this work. So I don't know. All right.

On the amendment. Ms. Silvers.

Yeah, so I think that people deserve relief. We have people that are afraid in their homes right now because there are people starting fires and propane tanks are exploding in close proximity to them.

Oh, yeah, it is to the— Amendment. I'm saying that people deserve relief.

And so I think that we can maybe start out with a warning, but I think that we need to move quickly on if people after a warning persist in starting these fires, being able to use this tool to stop them. So I do not support this amendment.

Ms. Brawley. Yeah, two things. One, I think it's also important to state that regardless of when this is effective, that this would not retroactively apply. That's my general understanding of it. If you committed a crime before the law changes, it does not mean that all of a sudden you can be held accountable for that.

So just, it's not backwards looking, just to say that. Also, I would offer— I won't formally make this amendment, but at the moment, but another alternative would be June 6th, which is 2 Fridays from this— or sorry, 1 Friday from this week. No, sorry, 2 Fridays from this week, 2 weeks before the original date that was offered. So if we wanted to change the amendment, we could do that.

Mr. Voland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, you know, I do hear certainly Chief Sharagi's point about how do we get the word out to people who can't be reached through technological avenues.

And I don't know, that does kind of resonate with me. And I think taking the time to get the word out is important. One thing that I did learn, actually, Chief Sharagi, if you'll come forward again, if you don't mind. At the wonderful town hall that we had last night, I don't remember her title, but the weather expert, she was one of the first to present. Yeah, I don't— Aviva.

I don't remember her precise title either, but she was the— she's the one that procures the outlooks and the future-looking reports. She gave a great presentation and She pointed out how the projections for wildfire danger changed. Earlier this year, they were on more of a high alert because we had an extremely dry— I think it was December, January timeframe compared to average. But we had a pretty wet March and April timeframe. Timeframe, I believe is what she presented.

And because of that, they essentially felt a little bit relieved. If I— I mean, I'm definitely paraphrasing and simplifying, but I guess based on that presentation and, and the rationale that you provided about the efforts that will be required to get, to get the word out in various ways, I'm actually inclined to have the effective date be June 20th. So I think I'm going to be in support of the amendment, but I'll say, Chief Schragi, is there— am I speaking more or less accurately in my recap of what she presented? Mr. Wallin, through the chair, I think you've characterized it correctly. Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, I think, Mr. Chair, could I make a motion to amend the amendment to change the effective date to June 6th? Second.

Yeah, um, so, uh, rather than maybe going through the amendment process, I can suggest as the original mover that I change it to June 6th, and I would do that. All right, so now We're on a June 6th date as the amendment. Any further discussion?

I'll just briefly say then that, uh, yeah, thank you, that while the risk might be lower because of certain weather conditions, it's the one that's the matter. It's the one, and that's what we're mitigating for. It's not the overall condition. We do want to reduce fires, but it's that one you didn't see coming that is the one that's going to take out too much, and that's what's at risk here, I think. Anyone else on the amendment?

Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Martinez.

Yes. Member Rivera. Yes.

Member Baldwin-Day.

She said yes.

On a vote of 11 to 1, the amendment has passed. We're back on the main motion as amended. Miss Brawley. Yeah, I just wanted to make a couple brief comments, and I know we've talked about this extensively in the work session, kind of to the point of some of the public comments that we've gotten and some of the comments that members have made, this really will come down to enforcement. And I really hope and expect that that enforcement is consistent and fair across our community, because I'll give two examples.

One is the Willow Fire. I remember I was not a resident in that area, but I remember that started with a property owner who was negligent, allegedly negligent. I don't remember how the court case came out and caused that because of not caring for a fire on their own property. So there are— anybody can cause a fire whether they mean to or not, and it can get out of control. And that one caused a lot of damage and some loss of life.

The second thing I will mention is speed limits. People like to talk about safety and they don't like to talk about enforcing on behavior that they themselves engage in. And I think we saw that loud and clear when we talked about driver behavior, when we talked about anything that people perceive that they do themselves versus someone else doing. So I don't want to minimize the risk. I, I— all of these things are valid, but I also want to point out that this community and just human behavior, we are not great at enforcing against ourselves.

Um, and so I really hope that it is consistent. I hope that we get the word out, and I hope that residents, if you care about wildfire safety, you take it seriously and you change your own behavior. And that is to everybody in this community, not just certain folks, because I do see that enforcement historically does fall more hard on some than others. And so I'm saying that not because I don't support this ordinance, but I do have concerns about it and I wanted to put those on the record. Thank you.

Mr. McCormick. Thank you. I urge support on this AO. This proposal, I think, gives us the tools that we need to combat the wildfire danger, especially this year, but across all the future of Anchorage. I think it gives the fire department and police department what they need to enforce these laws and keep our community safe.

I strongly disagree with that we are criminalizing homelessness. I think we are enforcing laws and lawfulness in our communities. So I urge everyone's support. Thank you. Mr. Gerker.

Thank you. And I also just want to echo what Mr. McCormick said as well. This is about giving ourselves some tools in our toolkit to keep people safe. This is about protecting life. This is about protecting property.

And I do want to thank the administration, Mayor LaFrance, for your efforts on this front. We're glad we can partner with you here. I guess without further ado, I do call the question then.

Okay, there was— you called the question but there was no second. I, I would put myself in the queue. Mr. Constantine. Yeah, thank you. Um, just I would note that if there are real concerns about, um, timeliness of getting the word out, I know a bunch of fine municipal employees who spend a lot of time going around the places where A lot of these things are happening and they would be perfect ambassadors to carry a little— we have an update for you, it's coming.

And so I think that some materials put in the hands of the people who are actively engaging in the places where fires are frequently happening is probably a good tool to help expedite the education process to make sure people understand what's at stake. With that, I do believe that this is a vital piece of the code. I don't think it's a panacea. It's not going to cure fires in all directions. Our resources are still limited and we still need people to do their part of the social contract, which is to keep the burning down when we're in a hazardous period.

And so with that, then, if there's no one else, members may proceed to vote.

Member Martinez.

Yeah. Member Rivera. Yeah. On a vote of 12 to 0, AO 2025-61 as amended has passed the body. Now I would like to roll back up the agenda if there's no objection to the item that we delayed on, which was item 11A.

Chair, I think we might need a little more time. A little more time? Yes. Okay, we're getting close but not there. We're close but not there.

Thank you. Okay, so I'm sorry, I was wrong to go that way. Again, if there's no objection, we'll take up the next public hearing item. The next public hearing item is AO-2025-53, an ordinance increasing the financial thresholds for a major site plan review of parks projects in the Anchorage Bowl and Turnagain Arm by amending use Specific Standards and Anchorage Municipal Code 21.05.040, Community Uses. Public hearing on this item is now open.

Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

Anyone at all?

Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body?

Move to approve. Moved by Mr. Voland. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Myers.

Anyone wish to speak to this item?

Jana, since you're here, I'm going to ask you to come forward. Ms. Gamble, come on forward. Is this not your project? I mean, kind of it is, kind of it's the planning director. Maybe Graham, Mr. Downey.

I'm sorry, it's fine if it's not you. I just saw Parks on it. So can you just briefly tell us what this does so the public has a record?

There you go. Great. Um, thanks. Graham Downey, uh, Acting Chief of Staff. Um, I'm happy to let Ms. Gamble speak to this, but gist of it is increases the amount, uh, threshold for a parks project that goes to the Urban Design Commission for review.

That number has not been updated in a long time, so this is basically updating it for inflation, especially with increased costs of projects. All right, good enough. Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you. I have a question for you, Mr. Downey, since you're here.

Do you have it in front of you, or— okay, so I'll— what I'm looking at here is page 2. If I go down to paragraph D, it says, as, uh, this language would be if adopted, all development projects costing $1 million and disturbing 1 acre or less. Should that say less $1 million, because I mean, maybe, maybe it's just my not reading it well, but it sounds like we're saying projects that cost exactly $1 million. And if I look on page 3 at the language we use in Section C, paragraph 2, there we say $1 million or less. So I'm wondering if perhaps we just need to make a small change to language.

Excellent catch. As I'm looking at the initial language, there's— it's a number replacing a number and there was no less before, but that could have been an error from before. There is an or less slightly later in that sentence that could be construed to apply to the number, but doesn't seem harmful to add the clarification. Yeah, I tried to maybe read it that way, but it just feels like maybe it'd be a little bit more clear, so I'd like to to make a verbal amendment, um, to page 2, line 27, just after $1 million, to put in 'or less.' Second.

So there's a motion to amend by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Mr. Voland. Any— anything further, Mr. Johnson, on that? I— it's an excellent catch.

I don't know how many exactly $1 million projects we have. So fair enough. Any further discussion on the amendment? All right. Is there any objection to the amendment?

Hearing and seeing no objection, the amendment is adopted. We're back on the main motion as amended. Any further discussion? Ms. Brawley, I think you're in the queue. Yeah, I actually had a question.

Um, so major site plan review— well, I support this, I'll say that— but major site plan review, I'm just curious, I was surprised surprised to even see that we subject park projects to that specifically. But I was wondering, just to understand generally, what is the rough range of time that that takes? Like, how much more time does it add to a project? And I don't know if there's been a specific recent example or, or something like that. I'm just curious, you know, what, what is this adding to the process?

Um, it adds an additional 3 months. To the process and about $10,000 to $20,000 extra dollars to get it to UDC. So thank you. If I might, while you're there, Mr. Constant, how— who pays that?

Well, the voters approved bonds. The public. Yeah, so the public pays that additional $20,000 to $30,000. Thank you.

All right, anyone else? So I'm not seeing, hearing none, then members may proceed to vote.

Member Martinez?

Yes. Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AO 2025-53 as amended has passed the body. So we'll now, if there's no objection, roll back to item 11A because we're ready and Right, so we have a motion on the floor. The motion is to approve. Ms. Baldwin-Day. Yes, I would like to move Baldwin-Day Amendment Number 2, uh, for our conversation earlier.

This, um, second— places—. Sorry, a motion to amend by Ms. Baldwin-Day, seconded by Mr. Voland. All right, Ms. Baldwin-Day, uh, for our conversation previously, this, uh, adds to the, um, adds to code that under the direction of the CFO, the trust manager may also provide advice, management, or reporting regarding the investment of other municipal funds independent of the trust. So it really like puts that squarely in the, in the language.

I urge your support. Thank you. Anyone else on the amendment? Hearing and seeing none, is there any objection to the amendment? Hearing and seeing no objection, the amendment has passed.

We are now back on the main motion as amended. Ms. Brawley. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say briefly again, we have already talked about this ordinance at length, but we have been joined patiently by two of our former chief financial officers for the municipality, and I know that on our trust fund board, I think it is important for the public to understand that we have many former public servants who have that knowledge and expertise that have brought brought that to the board. So we really appreciate your service and thank you for sticking with us tonight, and I urge your support.

Mr. Constant, thank you. Um, so at the work session on Friday, anyone who was there knew I was a bit spicy. I spent some time with some former other financial folks from the municipality and finally understood that there were two things happening with this ordinance. That wasn't made plain in the language of the ordinance.

The first thing is in the definition of trust manager, it's setting up the hiring of a new individual, which is according to the trust view, if you look at it that way, not a new person because they have always had this person. This person has been the deputy treasurer. But from the municipality's perspective, what this is doing is creating a new position, and this new position is taking over those trust duties, notwithstanding the work of the Deputy Treasurer, who in my opinion has done a great job in his role, but that, that position may in fact be of value to the municipality and the administration separate from the conversation about the trust. And so, um, it was an interesting discussion on Friday from the perspective we were only seeing part of the story, which is the story reflected in the code proposal, but there is a whole other side to of the story, and it's about the security of the Treasury Department of the municipality. And after hearing that and after Ms. Baldwin-Day's proposal to expand the staff's function to provide advice to these other funds that we have, I think this is a laudable proposal and urge your support.

If there's anyone else— seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez.

Yes. Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AO 2025-30 as amended has passed the body. That puts us now to item 14D. 14D is AR 2025-134, a resolution approving an administrative agreement, AA 2025-01, between the Municipality of Anchorage and the International Union of Operating Engineers agreeing to wages. The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

Anyone at all?

Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Second. Moved by Mr. Mullen, second by Ms. Brawley.

Any discussion on this item?

Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez?

Yes. Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-134 has passed the body.

I think I'm going to ask the members to take 5 real quick.

Love has its cost, now I'm all back, 'cause boy, I'm back. How does one love? How does one see? How does one be anything at all? How does one love?

How does one see? How does one be anything at all? Anything at all.

The sun is setting.

On our love.

Somehow you kept me.

Guess I haven't cried enough.

I, I hate when I'm sober. Let me love you down. Let me love you down. Let me love you down.

Let me love you down. Let me love you down. Let me love you down.

Nothing's better than being home with your loved ones. You won't be alone when it's cold out. You'll be in warm in your own bed and from the storm.

Home is calling when you feel adrift. It'll always be there and never miss. Life has got you all around. You never feel you got your feet on the ground. Home sweet home.

Home is where I wanna be. Home sweet home. A place to find some peace. You are worried of what's to come, but you never know until it's all said and done. You can stay home.

Home all night and day, resting your mind, keeping all bad thoughts away.

Home sweet home is where I wanna be. Home sweet home, a place to find some peace.

Home sweet home is where I wanna be. Home sweet home. A place to find some peace. Nothing's better than being home with your loved ones. You won't be alone when it's cold out.

You'll be in warm in your own bed. From the storm.

Sometimes the world moves too quickly, and I know it's not like the Earth is turning slow. I'm already gone, but we both know I can't sleep alone. At least I want.

Stays mad at me! Oh oh oh— Which way is up? In your eyes...

I hope I don't come down, 'cause we're dancing on the words we didn't get to say enough.

That you take me seriously enough.

I know that nobody's mad at me. I know that you take me seriously. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, sometimes the world moves too quickly, and I know it's not like the Earth is turning, so I'm already gone, but we both know I can't Sleep. Hello, let's go. Let's do take me seriously. And now, and nobody stays mad at me. And now, let's You take me seriously.

Oh, too good, it'll do good, it'll do good. Do good, it'll do good, it'll do good.

Okay, let's try to come back.

Sorry, Mr. Rivera, I think we're all back and ready. We're missing one. Oh, Mr. Martinez, you're still back? You're here? Yeah.

All right, we're good. Okay, I'll go ahead and dive back into the business. Are we broadcasting? All right, thanks. Next up we have item 14, EAO 2025-56, an ordinance that Anchorage Municipal Assembly, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 12.10 to increase the amount of exemption on taxable business personal property.

The public hearing on this item is now open. Please come forward.

Welcome, sir. Uh, the microphone is off. There's a little green button there. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Yeah, thank you. Uh, testing, sorry. My name is Brian Blessington. I'm from Huffman. I am testifying in opposition of AO2-2025-56.

Prior to this meeting, I actually reviewed the campaign websites of many of the members of the assembly and read a consistent theme. Members identified that Anchorage residents and businesses need the assembly to address homelessness, the housing supply crisis, and correlated crime related to those two things. So earlier this week, I was shocked to read an opinion article written by co-sponsors of this A.O., stating that Anchorage businesses— business taxes are apparently too high and that Anchorage homeowners must pay the price to subsidize that reduction. Everyone living in Anchorage will see their tax bills increase so that already profitable businesses can become more profitable. The Anchorage Economic Development Council proudly states on their website, you can find right now, that Anchorage is an excellent business environment due to low taxation, specifically for businesses.

Again, low business taxation. So who's wrong here? Raising residential property taxes right now is counterproductive to addressing homelessness and the housing shortages in Anchorage, meaning higher taxes on property owners make it more expensive to manage and operate housing, to rent property to those that need housing. All of these things increase costs and they're passed on to renters, driving up housing prices and putting more people at risk of displacement. It puts more working moms and dads closer to living on the street so that business owners can of course make more profit.

It raises barriers to ownership at the exact time where we all appear to agree that the barrier is too high for housing in Anchorage. At a time when we need to incentivize development and reduce barriers to housing stability, this ordinance would do the opposite, discouraging investment, squeezing small landlords, and ultimately worsening the very crisis that this assembly has been trying to resolve over several years. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Welcome.

Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Thank you. My name is Miranda Walso, and I live in Eagle River. Um, I also would like to speak in opposition to this particular ordinance. Um, I do think that small businesses are struggling. Many of them are.

Most small businesses, you know, fail within a year, something like 70% within the first 5 years. That being said, Anchorage doesn't have sales taxes. There are a lot of other things that, you know, businesses can take advantage of here that help with that. I think that the issues of shifting the tax burden away from a small number of businesses to a wide number of property tax owners is a fallacy in that the taxes are still being paid by Anchorage residents and the people that own the property that have an increased tax then don't have the same money to patronize those small businesses. And $30 may not sound like a lot here and there, but it adds up.

There are other things that we've seen that have a big impact on tax burdens for individuals and businesses, such as the increases in assessed value. That really affects how much you pay. Houses have gone up year over year, whether there's been improvements or not, but the mill rate has stayed the same, so it's not a tax increase. Even though it effectively does the same thing. I think too, another concern that I have with this is the reduction in revenue is concerning given the shortage and the other issues that we're facing and seeing.

One of the other big discussions regarding taxes that's happened recently has been the abatement of property taxes for new housing development. This is something that would shift the burden off of, you know, 1,100 small businesses to a a large number of homeowners, including those that we're trying to incentivize to build new taxes. We're talking about 40-year property tax abatements for certain instances, certain types of housing and things, and that's a lot of years for a business not to have property taxes. All of those discussions underscore the importance and the impact that changes in property tax have to lots of different types of business owners, homeowners, and private citizens and individuals. Simply reducing the tax without an offsetting reduction in spending or a lowering of the cap or an equivalent acknowledgment that, you know, this is being passed directly to this group in favor of that group, I think, is a misnomer and not necessarily aligned with with the best interests of the city.

So I urge you to vote no.

Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Hi, my name is Peter La Liberté.

I'm from South Anchorage. I just want to come to, uh, speak in support of this ordinance. I am— my wife and I just started a small business last year, and this would, uh, this would help significantly, you know, as a small As a business owner, I— in growing a small business, I can assure you that, you know, you're not profitable at the start, and that every dollar that you bring in, you're trying to reinvest in the business. So the relief that would come from this ordinance would certainly help us to reinvest in our business, help continue to employ the few employees that we have, and would continue to allow us to provide service, uh, uh, to, to our customers. Um, our business in particular is, is about renting equipment to construction firms that are doing, uh, work in hospitals, uh, in, in Anchorage.

Um, I'd certainly like to keep that equipment, uh, housed and stored in Anchorage and not have to go to the valley, uh, uh, to try to, uh, uh, not have to pay this tax. So appreciate, uh, this ordinance coming forward and thank you for letting me speak in support of it. Thank you. Welcome, sir. Please state your name, what part of town you're from.

You'll have 3 minutes. Hi, my name is Tom McGrath. I live in downtown Anchorage. Mr. Chairman, members of the assembly, I first testified about business personal property tax and inventory tax in the 1990s. It doesn't appear that this tax has gotten any easier to understand or administer.

Initially, every individual used to be able to go to the website and see who was paying the tax and how much tax they were paying. It was kind of interesting. That way you saw and made sure your competitors were doing the same as you. Later, I had to rely on an assembly member to get a CD on who filed what. It was always interesting to see who failed to file and were what they claimed.

It was just called the big lie.

In reading and researching various information, there are still businesses that are not filing or probably don't file, and most don't file accurately if I look at the forms right. But that's not really the problem.

The problem is that the biggest retail business in Anchorage doesn't pay any tax. That's Amazon. They're doing 20 to 25% of the retail business in Anchorage. How are you going to change to address that? Nespresso coffee.

I drink about $1,000 worth of Nespresso pods a year. I don't buy them in Anchorage at all. I buy them online. You don't get any tax money from that. BP left.

You don't get any tax money from that. And a lot of companies can leave, 'cause they don't have to be here anymore. With computerization, they can go anywhere in the world. So every time you put a little bit of impediment in front of somebody, they just gonna leave.

So the companies that have virtually no local inventory are going to hurt you. I used to have a business that had 32,000 line items in Spinard.

I sold it. The people that took it over failed because of COVID but that business is no longer there. One of the biggest problems they had is the business personal property tax. They were audited 3 years in a row. There was no change to the amount that they owed, but huge number of hours went into working with the municipality.

What you should be doing is just setting this aside, going back to the drawing board and saying, what's fair? You know, almost every Every village and town in America has a sales tax. Very few, and even by your own statistics here, have a business personal property tax. I think that a business personal property tax is obsolete, and I think that you need to look at different alternatives. Thank you, Mr. McGrath.

Okay. Have a good day. Thank you. Good to see you.

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Edward Wilson, uh, Gumman Hill. I am a small business owner.

I have been for the last almost 2 years. I hover right around the $20,000 mark that is currently the tax break, um, but also I am a renter. And, uh, honestly, with these nickel-and-dime, um, property tax increases, every single time there is even the tiniest little property tax increase in town, the landlords raise the rent. You guys may raise it by, you know, $30 per Anchorage resident, you know, for, for people that own $500,000 worth of property in Anchorage, but they'll nickel and dime us for $20 a month because, oh, property taxes have gone up. They can take $20 here and there on a, you know, $1,200 rental per month.

And every time, every time you guys raise property taxes, it raises my rent. The next thing I would like to I would say about this is, do you really think that since 2005 that the cost tax-wise of operating business in the Anchorage municipality has increased by 5 times? I don't think it has.

There's no way. There's no way that it's increased by 5 times. I could see maybe a now $40,000 tax tax break, $100,000, or the original $250,000. I'm sorry, I'm not going to go into that one anymore. But yeah, those are my concerns, that every time the property tax is raised, the renters in Anchorage get nickeled and dimed, not just the property owners.

The renters and the little people, the people that are looking to try to eventually maybe, maybe find actual purchasable housing in Anchorage Bowl. And it's just making it harder year after year. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

All right, thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard on this item? Speaking on your personal lawsuit, welcome. Please state your name, a part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Hi, my name is Mike Edgington from Girdwood, budget enthusiast.

I think actually some of the previous speakers made some excellent points and I wish I had thought of them, but I had 3 things I was going to bring forward. One is, as I think everybody knows, this isn't a tax decrease, this is a tax shift from small businesses or businesses to primarily property owners. The original ordinance, I think, was extremely excessive in terms of the threshold. I think the S is better. We're still in a position where small businesses or businesses, even if they're non-resident, end up with a larger tax deduction than those of us who are resident, and that just seems a little— I know there are state issues that limit the personal— the residential exemption, but having a higher number for businesses than, than residents seems somewhat inequitable.

My second point is really a technical one about whenever these kinds of taxes are described and represented, typically there's an average number, or sometimes there's a number for tax districts 1 and 3 in the northern part of the bowl, but like most taxes, these have quite a different effect in different tax districts, and half of the municipality is outside of Tax District 3, and I think a third is outside District 1 or 3. In this particular case, I think it's de minimis. It probably doesn't make a great deal of difference, but in many other proposals, there is quite a big difference between the impacts in smaller tax districts, larger tax districts, and different ones across the municipality. So I— hopefully, in general, in the future, when there is an analysis, it will at least show the range and perhaps the disparate impacts in different areas. Um, and my third point was really about the, um, uh, the amendments which I see from our friend in Eagle River.

Um, I appreciate them. I think they're— as a property taxpayer, I'd like my property tax to be lower. However, the, the nature of the tax cap, which I think there's a much bigger discussion to be, uh, to be had about the tax cap which was originally proposed when the significant amount of municipal money came from the state. Um, the, the nature of the tax cap is any change doesn't happen once. This change accumulates, um, over time exponentially.

Um, so I haven't done the numbers for this change, but I know a previous, um, proposal from the, from the premier, um, was a, I think, a $15 million reduction. But over my projected lifetime, the rest of my projected lifetime was in the hundreds of millions. In fact, all of any small change in tax cap affects every single, every single year in the future in perpetuity. And I would definitely encourage the Assembly not to mandate yourself to reducing below the amount allowed in the tax cap. Thank you.

All right, anyone else wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all? Seeing, hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move the S version.

Second. Motion approved by Mr. Walland, S version seconded by Ms. Silvers. Mr. Walland. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

National Small Business Week, celebrated just a couple weeks ago, highlights the vital role small businesses play in our communities. Small businesses create jobs, And local businesses deserve to be celebrated for their economic benefits. When you shop local, at small businesses, 40 to 60 cents of each dollar stays in the community, continuing to circulate in what is known as the local multiplier effect. One study, the Andersonville Study of Retail Economics, highlighted that local businesses generated 70% more local economic activity per square foot compared to large retailers. For every $1,000 spent at local shops, $352 was reinvested into the community, compared to just $148 from big box stores.

Additionally, every dollar spent locally circulated 3.5 times more wealth wealth within the community. Local businesses hire local workers, source local goods, and actively contribute to the community's growth. However, small businesses have been facing increasing headwinds of uncertainty over the past few years. Closures during the pandemic, threats of federal tariffs and escalating trade war proposals, minimum wage increases, supply chain disruptions, and competition from online giants and big box chains. I'm not speaking to the merits of any of those things, just their very real impacts.

A recent survey by the Alaska Small Business Development Center revealed a significant drop in small business confidence due to political and economic uncertainties. The survey found that 61% of businesses report supplier price increases from tariffs. I can tell you personally that my own small business has received letters from our suppliers indicating these price increases. In fact, we just received another one just this morning. 48% Of the small businesses who were surveyed said they have raised their prices 35% are attempting to absorb higher costs without raising prices.

The businesses expecting a declining financial situation increased from 25% to 63%, the survey found. Those expecting improvement dropped from 46% to 26%. The fact is that many of Anchorage's small businesses are struggling. In today's climate, governments should be increasingly critical of the burdens that we put on small businesses.

My cosponsors and I have proposed to make a small dent in alleviating that burden by raising the exemption threshold for business personal property tax from $20,000 to $100,000 to cut small businesses a break. This would save Anchorage businesses up to $1,300 annually on their business personal property tax bill. And we've been very forthcoming and said that yes, that would cause a shift to property tax, about $30 annually for the average home.

What is business personal property tax? It's a levy on the equipment, furnishings, supplies that businesses need to operate. Things like desks, desks, computers, vehicles, inventory, manufacturing equipment, and kitchen appliances. For a new business just getting off the ground or a small shop running on tight margins, this tax can feel like a punishment for trying to succeed. It has the effect of discouraging businesses from investing in themselves.

Moreover, when thinking about how Anchorage can be a community that is a competitive draw for small business businesses and startups, it's important to consider what our neighboring jurisdictions do. The Mat-Su has a $1 million exemption. Fairbanks North Star Borough omits all personal property tax. Kenai is interesting. They exempt both the first $100,000 and all inventory held for resale.

That inventory piece is very interesting. Taxing inventory, which we do here in Anchorage as a subset of our business property tax, has been criticized for being inequitable. It's a practice that disproportionately impacts retail goods businesses and local manufacturers, industries that rely on inventory to serve customers and maintain operations. Unlike service-based businesses, which often require fewer physical assets, these businesses must keep stock on hand to meet demand. However, inventory taxes penalize them for holding that stock, which discourages the very behaviors needed to thrive.

Essentially, it could be argued that this outdated tax model is discriminatory against certain business models.

Think of this: a, a high-power law firm may gross millions. But they won't be subject to the inventory piece. In the meantime, a fledgling local manufacturer designing and selling made-in-Alaska apparel, they do get hit. So there should be a broader conversation in the future, to Mr. McGrath's point, about this inventory component. But I digress.

Other considerations, filing the business personal property tax is complex effects for businesses, and enforcement is difficult for the municipality. Also, the assembly has pulled tax levers to support housing, such as the recent tax abatement for multifamily development and increasing the resident— residential exemption to provide relief to homeowners. So here's the small business bottom line. The message that Anchorage should send is this: we want our residents to start that food truck, open that boutique, launch that tech startup, and know that their city government is cheering them on, not standing in their way. I urge your support for this ordinance.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, next. Thank you, Ms. Silvers.

Thank you, Chair. So this ordinance is about creating economic opportunity for Alaska. Alaskans by fostering a supportive environment for our small businesses. This is an important first step in reducing both costs and bureaucracy that can make it difficult for small businesses to compete, gain a foothold, and expand. This ordinance would fully exempt over 1,000 small businesses from paying inventory tax, saving them up to $1,300 to reinvest in growing their business.

Even Perhaps more importantly, it will save them the time, money, and energy needed to count desks, computers, and stock that they have for resale. I also just want to note that although expected tax liability change shows the increase of $6 per $100,000 of other property tax value, this is calculated as if everything else was exactly the same. It assumes no budgetary reductions elsewhere. And the truth is that small businesses play a significant role in the, the economy and in expanding the tax break— the tax base, which will reduce that increase while contributing to jobs and providing residents with more local options. Additionally, this change increases efficiency and enforcement of the larger businesses, which could also lower that burden.

I believe this ordinance conveys that Anchorage is open for business It's an important step in helping our small businesses and therefore our community thrive and grow. I ask for your support. Mr. McCormick. Thank you, Chair.

I would support in passing this proposal. I co-sponsored it because I find the taxable business personal inventory tax to be entirely antiquated. I find that it It penalizes our local small businesses for trying to provide a good service by having inventory. It puts them at a disadvantage against big box stores and online retailers.

And as a former Alaska's Entrepreneur of the Year, I'm passionate about supporting our small businesses and lead— and developing an atmosphere where they can succeed. I also find the tax incredibly difficult and cumbersome to enforce. As businesses that are smaller and near the lower end of the exemption now, many don't know about it. It's basically a voluntary report, and we need to increase the exemption to have larger businesses that we can identify and make sure we're enforcing this. I think that will offset some of the revenue that we're losing here.

Other than that, I just urge support that we take care of these small businesses. Thank you.

Mr. Gerker. I move Gerker Amendment 1. So there's a motion to amend by Mr. Gerker and seconded by Mr. Myers.

Mr. Gerker, can I ask a quick point of information? There seem to be possibly two versions. There are two. One's for the— one was for the S and one was for the regular. Um, the one on the, the flip side with the $174 million is the— is for the S version.

Oh, perfect. Thank you. Thanks. So I would offer, I think that would be a point of information, but minor detail. That's fine.

So go ahead. Okay. Well, appreciate it. Look, when we're talking about— when we're talking about cutting— when we're talking about a tax break, that's not what this is. This is a tax shift.

And when we're looking at— we're looking at housing in this city, we're looking at affordability in this city. And we're seeing that dream of homeownership becoming further and further out of reach for a lot of people because the cost of government, the cost of property taxes continue to go up and push this out of reach for a lot of different people. Now, I love the idea of doing something to cut small businesses a break and to actually get them an actual tax break, which is why I've proposed, uh, amend my amendment, because this is an actual— this was actually intending to do that. This is actually saying, hey, we are going to— we're going to actually give everybody a break here so we're not shifting the burden to people who are already low-income, to people who are already struggling to get by. We've got a lot of— we talked about businesses on the margins.

I'd like to talk about homeowners that are on the margins. I like to talk about renters that are on the margins here. And every single time we shift the cost to the people, it has an impact. It has— they have less buying power in the local economy. They're not going to shop as much.

And this won't be the only increase that will be proposed to property taxes by— for next year. I guarantee there's going to be more. So I'd like to propose this amendment. And it's honestly not as strong as I would have liked, but at least says, hey, Our intent is going into this next year, we are going to find a way to bring some relief to property owners so they do not bear the brunt of shifting tax costs from business to the people. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Thank you. Ms. Brawley, you're in the queue.

Yeah, on the amendment and the main. I am not going to support this. And I think— I guess I'll say the general thing, which is that we've built a city that we cannot currently afford to maintain. And so when we have these conversations, and I totally hear the arguments around burden on taxpayers, I think it is challenging because it is— we're an expensive place to live and we've made it expensive by a lot of the choices we've made over the years, not, not us individually, but just the collectively as a city the way that we've chosen to develop. So that is a challenge.

But the question is really, what, what would we be cutting at the $2.12 million listed here? And I understand that's the— this or this amendment doesn't have to get that specific. It's not, it's not asking us to be that specific. But I think that's the challenge because we also hear about not having enough staff to do the work, not having enough equipment vehicles to do the work, not having enough money to fix potholes, to do all of the things that we need to do on the scale that they actually need to be done. And so I think that's really the challenge, that when we talk about the burden on all of us, the other— the flip side of that is if we don't pay for the services and the infrastructure that we all rely on to do business and to live in this city, we are going to be in an even worse place.

Place, and we already are in the worst place than we were several years ago. It's just an unfortunate fact. So I appreciate the intent behind this. I'm not going to support it because of, well, really things that Mr. Edgington said about how our tax cap works. But I do really appreciate that.

I think something does have to give. I just don't think this is the way to do it. Thank you. Mr. McCormick. Yeah, thank Member Gerker for bringing up this amendment.

In drafting this original proposal, this was something that I had brought up and that I would have liked to seen as well.

So I'm glad you're able to bring it up here later. I agree with you. I think there is room to cut, and this body treats the tax cap like it's a goal that we have to hit every year, and we don't have to appropriate that much money. We can appropriate less and give this tax break to small businesses without increasing the tax, uh, on our property owners. Thank you.

All right, Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I do appreciate Mr. Gerker elevating the conversation around what the impact to, to property tax owners who cover most of our city services through their taxes, what, what what this means. However, I'm not inclined to support this amendment.

There is a very meaningful conversation that needs to happen around what is the right sizing of our budget. But that is an exercise we go through in the fall every year as we look in depth at each department and what their needs are and what their costs are. That is a significant undertaking and arguably the most important role of this body. Through that exercise, I do think that there is room to have a debate around how much we spend on the various activities of this municipality, but it needs to be intentional. I, I am not inclined to simply say let's just cut money out of there and then we'll figure it out later.

No, I think in order to do this effectively and responsibly, it requires a very deliberate act to say let's look at which departments we are going to take the money away from or fund to a lesser level to achieve this goal of reducing our overall tax burden. And I think without that level of specificity, without actually going through the exercise and seeing what the impacts would be to the departments and the services this city provides, I'm not inclined to sort of take this step here today. But I would welcome the opportunity to have that conversation as we go through the, the budget process for 2026.

Mr. Cooker. Yeah, I really appreciate that. And look, here is the thing too. This is intent language, right?

This is saying, hey, we are going to have a good faith negotiation, a good faith effort at the end of this year when we are going through the budget process to figure out where we can cut. This is not necessarily mandating that there will be cuts, which is why it is not as strong as I personally would have liked. I would just also offer In regards to previous comment, if we know that the government is already too big, if we know they're already doing and trying to do more than we should, then we should be cutting back on services. We should be looking at the scope and role of what this government is doing and say, maybe this isn't actually a program that we actually need to be doing. Maybe this isn't actually serving the interest of the people as well as we maybe thought or would have hoped that it would have.

Been. So I think that in general, we would really benefit by taking a real hard look at what we're doing in this city and figuring out how can we continue to serve, continue to maximize public safety, continue to keep the streets cleared, and continue to keep or do our best to keep the parks clear, all that stuff, while at the same time also not making this town unaffordable to live in.

On the amendment, I have myself Mr. Constantine. I appreciate you bringing this forward, Mr. Gerger, and the sense of motion practice, if you will, in legal terms it's different, but in legislative terms, getting the practice, doing this, getting it out there. As I mentioned, I'm not apt to support this, but you said one phrase that was very important to think about, if we know that government is too big. My experience is that everyone who is in a category, or many people who are in category of people who think government is too big, always think it's the part of government that they don't want that's too big, not the government that they want, whether it's homelessness or public safety or whatever those things are. And so the challenge is to identify the elements within the government that are— removable, optional, because we are, in my opinion, always working in a space of there's not enough to do all the work to meet the demand.

And so I have yet to find that glimmering pool of things that we don't need to be doing. And so I look forward to that conversation in specific when we get to that part of the process again this year. And so, but I do really respect you for diving in putting something on the table and putting your name to the amendment.

Mr. McCormick. The government is too big, and I look forward to getting to that process in the fall. All right. On the amendment, members may proceed to vote.

Member Martinez.

Member Rivera. No.

On a vote of 3 to 9, the amendment has failed. We are back on the main motion.

Mr. Kahn. Thanks. I will be supporting this. I also shared some thoughts about how it is difficult to difficult that this would be higher than the residential exemption that we heard from the testifier, I think, which is pinged at $70,000. But when we saw the financial analysis that came to us from the tax assessor, I think he did clearly point out the sweet spot.

If we go higher than the $100,000, it starts to really increase the amount of the shift towards property taxpayers, residential property taxpayers, and commercial property taxpayers. Taxpayers otherwise. So I think that this is about the right spot. I struggle when I hear the rhetoric about how businesses are struggling with tariffs. Doesn't compel me very much at all, because the property taxpayer and the grocery store payer and everyone else who is paying is suffering under that same burden.

So that's not compelling to me. But what is compelling to me is a fairness argument that we don't have an exemption that is even at all parable, hasn't been increased for a long, long time under this rubric of a tax scheme. And so that fairness argument is the one that persuades me that it's the right time to do this as we embark upon conversations about other revenue, ways to streamline our government, and the other elements. And so for my part, it's just a simple fairness in the equation. Let's give them an exemption that's reasonable.

Thank you. Ms. Brawley. Yeah, I'm torn on this one. I think I will ultimately support it. So when this came forward originally, it was in the context of a discussion about sales tax.

And I think, not to rehash that conversation, but I think the benefit of looking at multiple pieces at once is that you can consider where those shifts happen. And you can essentially do either trades if you look at it from a negotiation standpoint, or really just rebalancing. And so I think that is just the unfortunate thing of any of these moving forward individually, but also trying to do them all at once is very complex. And so I recognize that we shouldn't— we shouldn't strive for the perfect and then never make any changes. So, so there's that.

I do, I do have a lot of hope. I guess the theme tonight is consistent enforcement. So I am hoping to see that there is— I mean, I know our staff tries, right? There's just not enough of them and there's too many ways to engage in tax avoidance. But I hope that we are able to focus and really make sure that folks who are supposed to be paying are paying and again, focusing the attention on those larger businesses or just those that clearly, you know, are not going to be exempt versus those who, you know, maybe didn't— I think we heard stories of folks who didn't even realize they're supposed to be paying this tax.

I think that's not necessarily where we would focus our efforts. But everybody does need to pay something, I believe, and so it is fair to do so. So this one is challenging because there will be a number of businesses businesses that don't. But I think, as, as was stated, if they have a physical presence, they're still paying property tax, whether it's through their lease or whether they own the property. Um, and of course, if they're residents, they are paying taxes there as well.

So, um, anyway, I guess all that to say, I think these do get very complicated discussions as, um, as we really think about who pays what. And so I look forward to more of those discussions, and hopefully as move forward more consideration of the balance as we make a policy change that we are able to account for those offsets or those trades or those negotiations. I think that would be fair. Thank you. All right.

If there is no one else, then members may proceed to vote. I believe we are on the main motion.

Member Martinez.

Yes. Member Rivera. Yes.

On a vote of 11 to 1, AO 2025-56S has passed the body. Now we have Item 14F before us, AO 2025-60, an ordinance authorizing a 5-year and 3-month lease with 3 3-year renewal options between the Municipality of Anchorage, acting through the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Facility and Cinnabar Loop LLC for premises located at 2401 Cinnabar Loop for equipment, warm storage warehouse, and office space. The public hearing on this item is now open. Move to postpone indefinitely. Second.

All right, so there's a motion to postpone this item indefinitely by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Voland. Miss Brawley. Yeah, our understanding from the administration is that this is a moot point as this property is no longer available for lease. Please.

All right, any further discussion on the item?

Seeing and hearing none, then members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez?

Yes. Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AO 2025-60 has been postponed indefinitely. Now we come to the quasi-judicial portion of our agenda. Item 15A, Resolution AR 2025-162, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding a new restaurant eating place license number 60134 for Alaskan Partnership LLC, DBA Alaska Burger and Brew Old School located at 8010 Old Seward Highway. The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Second.

Move by Miss Brawley, second by Mr. Myers. Any discussion on the matter? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez?

Yes. Member Rivera? Yes. On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-162 is passed the body. Next we have item 15B, resolution AR 2025-163, resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding a new restaurant eating place license number 16238 for Pho and Indian LLC, DBA Pho and Indian, located at 9191 Old Seward Highway.

The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What say all the body?

Move to approve. Moved by Miss Brawley. Second. Second, Mr. Voland. Any discussion?

Hearing and seeing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez? Yes. Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-163 has passed the body. Next we have Item 15C, Resolution AR-2025-164, resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding a new restaurant eating place license number 16644 for Pearl LLC, DBA Pearl, located at 417 D Street. Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all?

Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Second. Moved by Miss Brawley, second by Mr. Myers.

Any discussion? Seeing hearing no discussion, the members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez? Yes. Member Rivera?

Yes. On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-164 has passed the body. Next we have item 15D, Resolution AR 2025-165, Resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding beverage dispensary license number 4531 for Robert Alexander, DBA Tri-Grill, located at 901 West 6th Avenue. The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item?

Anyone at all? Seeing and hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Second.

Moved by Miss Brawley, second by Mr. Voland. I'm going briefly speak to this item. Mr. Councilman, thank you. So this item was the license that was proposed to move to a location in another part of downtown. The assembly protested the license.

The protest was upheld. This location is in fact no longer available for a license, but this conditional protest will allow the petitioner to transfer the license while once this process is concluded. So there is no intent by this item to see this operation relicensed at 901 West 6th Avenue, and you'll see it back before us at some time in the not-too-distant future. Anyone else wish to be— any other comments? Seeing, hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Martinez? Yes. Member Rivera? Yes. On a vote of 12-0, AR-2025-165 has passed the body.

Next we have Item 15E, Resolution AR-2025-167, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly approving alcohol special land use permit for club license number 1494 for the 35+ Singles Club, Inc., DBA Anchorage Social Dance Club, in the I-1 light industrial district located at 549 Western International Airport Road, number B8 to B10. The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all? If there are any questions— seeing, hearing none, public hearing on this item is now closed.

What's the will of the body?

Move to—. Moved by Miss Brawley. Is there a second? Second.

Are you okay? Seconded by Miss Baldwin-Day.

Okay, thank you. Um, any discussion on the matter? Seeing, hearing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez? Yes.

Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-167 has passed the body. Next, we have item 15F, Resolution AR-2025-168, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly approving a marijuana license and special land use permit for Can I Get Hashi LLC, a marijuana manufacturing facility with the license number M34641, doing business as Can I Get Hashi. The public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all?

Seeing, hearing none. Public hearing on this item is now closed. What's the will of the body? Move to approve. Second by Miss Brawley.

Second by Mr. Voland. Any discussion on the matter? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote. Member Martinez? Yeah.

Member Rivera? Yes. On a vote of 12 to 0, AR 2025-168 has passed the body, which concludes our business agenda. Next Next we have audience participation. If you would like to be heard, please come forward.

Welcome, Mr. McGrath. Please state your name, what part of town you are from, and you will have 3 minutes. Hello, Mr. Chairman, members of the assembly. Mr. McCormick got me thinking earlier. I was here in 1975 with unification.

Wrote the charter, saw that pass. The assembly used to meet over at East Tudor. I mean, they had tables, just wooden tables and chairs, and Anchorage was growing from 50,000 to several hundred thousand in just a few years. That assembly was busy, and they did it every Tuesday night. And that's all they did was on Tuesday night.

That's when they did their work.

One of my favorite assembly people of all time, John Woods, is an attorney. On Monday he read the agenda. On Tuesday night he came to the assembly meetings. And he probably made better decisions than anybody has ever— other than— yeah, there's a couple others that I like too. But the assembly and the municipality has just grown, grown, grown.

Grown, grown. But the city hasn't grown since about 2000. But government has grown exponentially. I think what you need to do is look at it and say, how many of these people that we have working for us can we get rid of? And how can we cut down the amount of hours that we spend working on this city business and go back to your job and your job and your job.

And some of them, some of you probably need jobs. I was just amazed when the assembly used to get paid $12,000 a year and you work Tuesday nights. Sounds pretty good to me. Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

Hello. I'm Sharon Jackson. I'm from Scenic Foothills. I'd like to thank Mr. Constance, Mr. Perez Verdiez. Did I say it right?

Close. I'm sorry. Anyway, let me get busy here. I want to thank them because the ombudsman has been helping me. They have vetted a lot of things for me.

My story is true. So they say they are very seriously help— gonna help me. They're very seriously looking into the matter. Anyway, I feel fortunate. I have a year of PhD work.

I was raised middle class and therefore I have more power than a lot of people have. So that's one of the reasons I'm up here. I believe that a lot of people who are poor, uneducated have a hard time getting justice.

Currently, I— there has been 13 police shootings and 8 deaths in 12 months, and the last shooting was a half a mile away from Mountain View Library where I had contact with the police officers or police officer. It was a traffic stop and a gentleman died from a policeman's bullet.

And in a period of 25 years, Anchorage has shown an increase of fatal police shootings. I'm an old lady.

I drink tea. I don't drink anything else. And if I feel that I'm being harassed by police officers, I feel sorry for those out there that can't speak. I saw a lot of things when I was— had the incidents with the police. I made 22 contacts with officials.

They erased the tapes. So I did 22 contacts and attempted contacts with officials, attorneys, the press, the ACLU, so I could obtain the footage of April 16th. And, um, the footage disappeared. It was covered over. Another problem I saw is filing for a police report.

For the video coverage to be released, you need a computer, a phone number, and an email address. Because I've been hacked, I don't have a phone, email, or computer. The police station had 2 computers for the public, but one who wants to file a police report against police officers isn't going to want to go to the police station. I tried to use a public computer to file a report, and it didn't work. I want to lead with love.

And Mountain View Community Council meeting will be May 29th, 2025 at 6 PM. I plan to be there. Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from.

You'll have 3 minutes.

I'm William Baxter. I'm from, uh, Fairview. And, uh, uh, I was reading the other day about, uh, 20, 20% of the flowers are produced in the United States. The other 20— the other 80% are produced in Colombia and Brazil. And I think we could, in Anchorage, we could do more flowers.

And thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard? Anyone at all?

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. All right.

All right. Jamie Lopez de St. George, formerly Coalition for the Formally Homeless. So anyways, not a one-trick pony, but, you know, I'm going to talk about the stuff on tomorrow's agenda for the Housing and Homeless Committee meeting. So obviously the micro units, I think it's, you know, a step in the right direction. You need some shelter out there for some people, but they're primarily targeting people that have substance abuse issues.

There are a lot of people out there, but obviously 25 units is a drop in the pond, especially when the numbers are bad for HMIS. And so it's good, we need to kind of go a little bit further than that. The shelter licensing looks like a nice slide deck and report by Kimberly Rash. The one thing I can tell you is this: when I was Essentially taking food I was getting handed, a couple hundred, well, you know, anywhere between 130 and 170 meals per day and then handing them out. And what I can tell you is that whoever has a service contract for the food, not good.

Essentially I had people coming from CWS to me at National Archives lot to get food because the food there was so bad that, yeah, they were coming to me. And it has not improved, especially with the non-congregate hotels right now. You know, people, they weren't getting enough food, and then the food there was bad, and a lot of people were complaining about it. It has not improved, so that's something I think you should look at. There's a warming center operations update tomorrow, and there was one thing that stood out to me in this thing.

Essentially, you know, you have restorative reentry services system-wide data April 1st through May 14th. It said total unique individuals 562, total visits 2,099. And then it went into some other metrics. It says essentially the synopsis, this data suggests combination of one-time users likely self-resolved were routed into shelter and a smaller cohort of individuals utilizing the site more intensively during periods of instability. The majority of the people that are going into the warming centers, they've been outside very, very, very long time.

They're not self-resolving, but they go in there to get warm and then they go back out on the streets. Now if you look at the coalition numbers essentially for— hold on a second, let me see if I can pull this up. Okay, so their last report, they said 511 are unsheltered, 1,760 are in shelter or transitional housing, 733 are set to go inactive over 90 days. What that means is if you're between 30 days to 90 days, you have not touched provider in the system, that they are counting you in that metric. The vast majority of those people are outside.

They have not self-resolved. They just go out into the ether. And so the outflow listed in that report for March 31st is a 411 outflow, 102 housed, 309 went inactive. So your real number is looking at 511 are unsheltered, 733, you add those together along with the 300, your real total outside is close to 1,500. The 500, not the 511.

You need more housing in this town. Thank you.

Welcome. Please state your name, part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Will Walker, Spanard. I just want to comment on a few pieces of the conversation from tonight.

One relates to size of government, which I think is the wrong question to ask. What I think we should be concerned about is the effectiveness of government. And to have effective government, you need ultimately state capacity. You know, one of the things from last night's discussion with the various fire service providers in working in wildfire protection is that you need, you know, ultimately to do the things that promote public safety and that we need for the public. You know, it takes strong support staff that for, you know, everyone on the front lines, potentially hundreds of people in their context last night, to help support those essential services that we need.

You know, I think it's great to be looking at how we can, you know, reduce government spending, but sometimes we look at it, you know, how many people are employed by government, but then we outsource some of those responsibilities and tasks, which then cost more potentially than if we kept some of the capacity in-house within government. And so those are some things that I think should be considered as we think about about, you know, size or, you know, government spending. Also, a theme of tonight has been kind of implementation, and that also is important for having state capacity to actually do the things that we're tasked to do as, you know, a local government. And so I just want to posit that to keep in mind. Thank you.

I had a question. Mr. McCormick, do you feel the government is more effective than it was 7 years ago, or like are we be in a better place than we were 7 years ago in 2018? I wasn't here in 2018, so I can't speak to that specifically. So— Oh, I was just noticing our budget's gone up. I just want to make a point of order here that it is generally not the practice of this body to engage in debate with members of the public when they're providing testimony, but you will have an opportunity to comment at the end of the meeting shortly.

Are we able to ask questions? Yeah. You had a question, but then you were beginning to debate, and so I want to be very careful that the purpose of this part of the process is not to engage in debate. I had another question, but I will yield. All right.

Thank you.

All right. Anyone else from the public wish to be heard?

Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Hello. My name is Sophia O'Neill, and I reside in Eagle River.

This is just something to think on.

A soldier gave me the boots I wear, and I wear these boots every day, given so respectfully to me. Boots I shall never fill, and not just because I wear a size 6 and these are an 8. My journey is different from his. I plainly say this. I present the truth in these boots that offer support to me no matter how long I stand or how far I may walk, so that all may learn perception.

Not to gain sympathy. My gift is my speech and my example, a window so that you may see those that walk a hard path and walk it alone are worthy and seen by all those that serve our country. I stand because I care what is said in regard to those deemed lesser than. I stand for those by only degrees of separation too many feel they're better than.

I weep for the eyes that cannot see past the facade too many put value on that determines oneself or another's worth. A soldier saw the broken soles of my boots, and I do not know the soldier's name, only that when he handed me his boots, his words echo in my mind. Soldier on, he said, soldier on. So perhaps dismiss me and others too. Many do.

Many more will, but realize what it is I do. I stand not just for me, but for all of you hurting silently, those hurting still and those soon to learn what it's like to be looked at, unseen, prejudged over things you had no control over, or for standing for something you believe in, choosing a humbling path over an easier one. It takes loyalty, integrity, and courage, and I do everything I do I do so others don't have to, so prayfully others won't have to do what I do. I do so as a sense of duty because those with the ability have the responsibility. What we do in this life, it echoes in our eternity.

Remember, we do not walk the same paths for a reason. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Mr. Tran, can we please call the one person on the phone list?

Your call has been— All right, thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to provide testimony tonight? All right, so we'll go ahead and move on to the last part of our agenda tonight, which is assembly member comments. Start with Mr. Presverdean. No comment, thank you.

Mr. Gerker. No comment, thank you. Mr. Rivera. No comment, thank you. Miss Silvers?

No comment, thank you. Mr. Voland? No comment, thank you. Miss Brawley? Just a happy early Memorial Day and hope to see some of you out on the park strip on Monday morning.

Thanks. Mr. Johnson? No comment, thank you, Chair. Miss Baldwin-Day? No comment, Chair, thank you.

Mr. Martinez? Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening. Miss McCormick? No comments.

All right, Mr. Myers, no additional comments. Thanks, Chair. I'll just say to everybody, thank you for a very effective night. Thank you. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved. We are adjourned.