Public Naming Commission Meeting - September 10, 2025

I'm from Texas because I wasn't used to snow, but the community grew on me over the years. And, uh, like you, Kevin, I, I was concerned about how the city has been naming for the last few decades. And Cameron Perez Verdia and I started talking about 4 years ago and started looking at what other communities were doing and realized that we need to change the naming system that we had in code. So I'm excited excited to be part of this commission, and I think we're gonna— we have a lot of good work to do in the community. So thank you for joining us.

And Jamie, you want to introduce yourself? Oh sure, I'm not on camera, but I'm Jamie Hines. I'm the municipal clerk. Um, I came back to the municipality in 2022, 2021. I was a business license official for the clerk's office in 20—.

2014 And 2015, um, and my husband works for First National, and he got another opportunity to—. Mm, excuse me—. Promotion to get another job in Kenai. So I went down to Kenai, and I eventually became the clerk down there, and then another opportunity came up, and we moved back to Anchorage.

I was not happy about life at that point, but it all worked out for the best because I was— I had never imagined myself ever being the Anchorage Municipal Clerk. Here I am.

Woo-hoo! And I'm happy you came back. I get to work with you. So we don't have a quorum, so we can't conduct official business, but we can do like the same as we did at the last couple meetings and discuss the items on the agenda. And we can't approve the agenda, we can't make— but we can add things to our discussion.

So we need to, we need to discuss the calendar, which is not listed on the agenda, and then we need to talk about electing a vice chair. We obviously can't elect the vice chair, but we can discuss it.

For an action item for the next meeting. So let's start by looking at the very rough preliminary draft, uh, naming implementation goals and strategy development. Do you have the document, Kevin?

Yes, I do. I have all those documents in front of me now. So any— does anybody have any thoughts on this document? We've discussed it a couple of times. Which one is that?

It's the very rough draft for subcommittee discussion 6/11/25. Now we've approved the vision statement. It's the naming, implementation goals, and strategy that we have not finalized. I mean, I guess, Jenny or Jennifer, because now he's calling me Jennifer. I do go by Jennifer.

Jenny, um, we kind of— what she did, what we did when we met up, uh, last week, uh, we kind of aligned the calendar with the goals and with everything else that we— requirements and what have you. So, um, this kind of aligns with what we have with our general ed calendar through the goals that we have drafted right here. Yeah, I like these. I think they're— I noticed there was an alignment with the calendar when I was going through the calendar, which is perfect. Any other thoughts, anybody?

Um, I'll just say the same thing I said last month when we did McCormick. I kind of feel like this has been done for a while and that we have reviewed it with when others were here that aren't here now, and they didn't have edits. At that time. So I kind of feel like, although we could always edit things to death, and I'm sure we could make better goals and better strategies, I kind of feel like we have other fish to fry and that this is, um, you know, at least good enough to like move forward when we have the— when we have a quorum to move forward. Any thoughts, Kevin?

I'm throwing you under the bus. I, I know, I know. Thank you. I mean, I'm used to that. No, I'm just kidding.

Um, well, Jasmine, Jasmine did an amazing job and she got me the documents, but I was already committed to something last night and did not get a chance to review all of this between last night and the workday starting today. So, um, if possible, I would like to dive a little deeper when I have free time after this meeting today so I can, you know, become a little bit more familiar with what you all have done. And the, you know, work, because it looks like you all put a lot of, a lot of work and, and thought into a lot of the documents I see here. Thanks, Kevin. I, you know, I just want to touch on what you said, Jen.

I think we need to, we need to move forward as a commission, and we could wordsmith and wordsmith and wordsmith, but I noticed in the calendar, you didn't know, there's an annual review of something, so And that's the way to do it. We need to do the best job we can right now finalizing these documents and processes, then drive them around the block and see how they work. But we need to start getting down to business. So I agree with you. Hopefully, you know, I'm going to go up and talk to Marie tomorrow and tell her, please appoint a couple more people so we can take some action next month.

The next item is a review of the submission form for naming, renaming requests. So that was— I volunteered to look at that. And I looked at what some other communities do, are doing, or have done. And I thought, you know, we discussed could we make it one page front. And so I went through and whacked off a lot of items.

And I like the simple one-page form, and it is a fillable form, so people can type in. Are they— if they print it off, they can add other pages. But I found this Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board document, and they have a simple application form, but then they have this document that explains the process, explains the timeline, and outlines what they like to see. And I think we could develop— I told Jamie I'd be willing to take a shot at typing something up, a draft. But I think I like the idea of a simple one-page application and with a supporting document that explains the timeline, the process what information we're looking for.

Because the reality is, for a member of the public, when we used to do the old ad hoc public naming panels, somebody would contact the assembly or the mayor's office and say, we would like to name something for this individual, or we would like to name this facility for this person. And that was pretty much it. And it was the panel, the naming panel, that would go through the criteria in the code, you know, would communicate with the group that was submitting the nomination or requesting the forming of the naming panel, and that's how the process worked. The people nominating weren't expected to provide a book. Are to look at the criteria in the code and does this meet the criteria.

It was the panel that determined if it met the criteria. So I personally, I like the idea of a simple one-page, you know, nomination form with a supporting document that explains it. And we could, you know, if anybody has any suggestions on tweaking the nomination form, the submission form, But I think we can get it down to one page front and then a supporting document, which actually could go— one page could go on the back of the nomination form, the third, the second page.

I agree with all of the above except for I wanted to point out one thing that we discussed last month that we then incorporated into our calendar, and that was three types of namings. It being a brand new public facility, it being a renaming of a public space, or even honoring— honorary naming. And so we've kind of focused on that when we did our calendar. And so I was thinking that on the form we could have 3 boxes. Checkbox, yes.

I like that. You check one of the boxes. Yes, checkbox. That way we're like, okay, this is that one, this is this one. And it's the ones that's in the calendar.

Yeah, it's on the back. That's perfect. No, I like that. Well, it's on both sides. Yeah, well, yeah, it's the first thing.

Call it in January. Naming new places, renaming, and honoring. Naming, renaming, or honoring. I like that. Perfect.

I like the one-pager because it's simpler and it's easier for people to fill out and complete versus making a full packet to do the renaming and renaming of the place, object, what have you. So I will work on tweaking or developing a form to go with the submission form that explains the process, and then we can discuss it at next month's meeting further. Do you mean like a checklist? Well, this— well, it's not really a checklist, it just explains— I don't know if you looked at this, but it explains What they're looking for, what this board is looking for, and how the nomination text should be on-bound and formatted with the following main headings, you know, or— so it wouldn't be exactly the same. It would, you know, we could list the criteria that was listed in the boxes we removed.

Here are some— here's some information we are looking for. For that make your nomination more robust and help, you know, the commission in their work. And then list some of that, how you submit it, where it's submitted to. If we have a— if we look at them quarterly or whenever they're reviewed, put that in here. Yeah, I believe in June we assigned Cuckoo and Rick to do that, and I don't think they did that, so thank you for taking the lead on that.

They were supposed to create a checklist for us and go over this one. Thanks for— Summers are always a killer for boards and commissions. It's difficult when you have a full 9-member board of commission, but when you're short 3 members, it's really difficult to get any work done during the summer. But I appreciate it. We've got a lot of work done between the meetings without having a quorum at the meetings.

Um, the next item is—. Darryl, I just had one other comment that I, um, appreciate that you're going to take, um, the information out of the boxes that we removed, because I do think that the information in the boxes was like right out of the code or something. It was. And in the past, when the public naming panel would make their recommendation to the assembly of administration they had to draft a document and they had to address each one of those in the letter that they would send to the Assembly and the administration. So I think telling people what makes a more— a robust application that would help the Commission and would help make their case is important.

So thank you. So If I may, just to have a quick little, um, historical check mark for myself, uh, would you mind, would you mind quickly briefly explaining the prior process of how naming went about? And just, it sounds like there was a panel prior, um, a panel prior to this. Great question. So I always assume everybody knows how the process worked.

I was, I staffed several of those panels, and I I actually served on several of them as a member. So in the past, there was a commission that looked at naming. And the Assembly, in all their wisdom, at one point changed the code to create citizen naming panels, they were called at the time. So somebody desired to name a public facility, a municipal facility, they would request that the mayor or the assembly establish a citizen naming panel. And I asked the assembly a few years ago to drop the word citizen and change it to public naming panel, because you don't have to be a— you didn't have to be a citizen to serve on it, and it kind of gave people the impression that they weren't welcome to serve.

And what would happen is they would simply send an email, a letter, requesting that a public naming panel be appointed to consider naming, and it would either be a facility, naming a particular facility without recommending a name, or naming a particular facility for someone. It was not— 99% naming for someone. Or they would request that a panel be formed to consider naming something after somebody without specifying what. So the assembly chair would appoint 2 members and the mayor would appoint 2 members. So it was an even-numbered panel, and the, the panel would review the recommendation.

They would consider other suggested names from the public. They would have to hold at least one public hearing where the public could testify, and then they would make a recommendation. They would discuss, you know, what they heard at the hearing, what they heard from the public, and they would have a discussion and they would vote. And an interesting thing, because it was— the code said because it was an even number of members. If it was a split vote, they would put forward a dual recommendation and the assembly would pick which one they would go with.

It was— it was funny. It was— the problem was it would be somebody would pass away and, you know, you have grieving family, friends, business colleagues. They would be the ones requesting the naming panel. And frequently those family members, our neighbors, our colleagues were the people appointed to the panel. So the outcome was always predetermined.

And unfortunately we ended up— 95% of our municipal naming was for older white males. To put it bluntly. And it wasn't very inclusive. It didn't really reflect— some people felt it didn't really reflect who we were as a community, our values and the history and the culture of our community. So Cameron Perez-Briguié and I, about 4 years ago, we started having this discussion about— he also had a lot of heartburn with it.

We, I did some research, different communities across the country, and then Ian Austin Quinn Davidson, and when she left the Assembly, Anna Brodley joined the effort, and Daniel Mullen worked on it for a year and a half developing the ordinance, and the Assembly passed it in 2023, I believe.

I think I appreciate that background. Thank you. I think it's a much better process. I think it's gonna, uh, better reflect who we are as a community and our values and our culture and history. Um, so the next item that was on the list for tonight, the agenda, was the bylaws review and approval.

We've reviewed the bylaws multiple times. We've made changes to them. I was hoping we could vote on tonight, but it looks like we can't unless somebody wants to vote twice. It's not going to happen. So, of course, it's not approved.

Jake and Jamie vote. No, just kidding. So next, would Selma and Jen like to talk about the calendar? Go ahead, you look ready. Well, no, I just, I just realized something.

It said election of officer shall take— oh, that's officer. Yeah, never mind. We sucked it up. Okay. I was worried about our calendar.

Well, it's been so long since we discussed it. We had like a 10-minute research of looking it up. Right. We couldn't figure it out, but we figured it out. So we put together this calendar.

We did it first, we did the narrative version, and then we did the Excel version just to see which— like, do you like the Word version or the Excel version better? So just turn it around. So they say the exact same things. The format that's different. Um, but basically what we did was we put in the things that we knew about, that we had deadlines, like when the naming plan needs to be submitted by August 31st.

And so then we backed that up of when we would review it. And then we also, like you mentioned, added in the review of the bylaws. Um, and then we looked at when would new members normally come on once we actually have all 9, and they were supposed to come on, we thought, in October. So we specifically put in November orientation for new commission members. So we would have some sort of formal way of doing that, welcoming the new people each year.

And then we decided that we— the rules say that we only have to meet once or twice a year But we can meet monthly, but we don't have to meet monthly. And so the way that we developed this was that we would have the opportunity to meet if we received, um, specifically applications for new facilities, new spaces, that that would be a more common thing. And then the renaming and honorary naming happened less often. So that's why some of the times the cycle is saying. It's staggered.

Yes, staggered. Did I cover all the points? Yeah, just reiterating what Jennifer said is we just, we pretty much put everything into a back and place from the funnel. We looked at the minutes, we looked at the bylaws, we looked at the rents, we looked at everything and just dissected it all one by one. And I like this format, the description of the activity format, but she also brought up the other version of just whatever your preferences.

Um, and yeah, I know that we only put orientation of new commissioner members once, but we figured this could be the foundation of the future of the commission, and then they can just tailor however they need to for the year.

I, I think if we, if we get commissioners joining mid-year, we could always have one other commissioner, two commissioners volunteer to meet with them, or a commissioner and staff meet with them and do an individual organization. But I love this calendar, and you know, even, even commissions that in the code just says they meet monthly The code also says if they don't have any business to conduct, they don't have to meet. So we have a lot of flexibility depending on the business before the commission, or what, what we want to achieve.

One question we had was, we know that this group was really interested in having a regular meeting with the Parks and Recreation Board. But we weren't sure if that should be twice a year or once a year, and so it's currently only in here for once a year, but we could— we almost put it in twice a year, but we weren't sure. Personally, I think once a year to begin with, and then when we see the volume of work, um, we could always tweak that. And I know the Parks and Rec staff, once we get our processes and documents employees, parts of the recreation staff want to meet with us and discuss how we can work with them.

And I guess just as orientation for Kevin, um, one of the documents they may or may not have sent you is a list of all the public facilities and what their names or not names are. And that's why we want to meet with them is because they have a huge list of Probably. Just another historical check mark. How—. What has been the volume of— what has been the volume of individuals from the municipality or the greater public submitting for name changes or, um, or new names to be developed?

Is there like a higher volume period, um, or time of year that these tend to come out, or is it really infrequent and sporadic? You know what's interesting, and maybe Jamie can comment on this, because the panels are established by an assembly— is it memorandum AM or AIM? They were established. But I— it just depends, Kevin. There's no rhyme or reason to it because Frankly, many of them, most of them were driven by somebody passing away.

I've seen years where I'm shaking my head thinking, "We're going to run out of things to name," because every meeting it seemed like the Assembly was forming a naming panel. And then you could go for 6 or 7 or 8 months and there wouldn't be a naming panel. And I think One of the reasons it was lower volume than it could have been is the people who were aware of the process and who made use of the process tended to be people who were middle class, upper middle class, certain demographics. I think the general public was not aware of the process or how So I think we may not have a high volume to begin with as a commission, but I think the numbers could grow once the public becomes aware and they see that it's a, it's a low threshold for them to submit a nomination. I think that's one of the reasons we discussed having a simple form, nomination submission form, is so we can encourage people to participate and to submit nominations for naming and renaming.

Um, I will say that you'll notice that twice a year we are advertising for applications of naming new places, renaming, and honoring. And I think both of us were thinking that during the renaming as far as renaming for those 2 times a year, that we might actually have proposed places like, hey, we think we might want to consider renaming these 3 places. Does anyone have any proposed names? So we would actually be kind of asking for work a little bit. When I saw that on your calendar, I was going, yes!

Because in this county, we've never actively ask members of the public, do you have suggestions for naming or renaming municipal facilities? And I think some community— communities in Anchorage have some issues with the names of some places, but maybe they didn't realize there's an opportunity to propose renaming that. I think one of the things as a commission I anticipate we will see once the public becomes aware that we exist, I think we'll have a higher number of suggested renamings than new namings. We'll see if I'm right. But the code says you can't rename for at least 20 years.

And if you look at a lot of our parks in Anchorage, people scratch their heads and go, who or what is that park named after? Because it was named 50 years ago, 60 years ago. And the community has changed, the demographics have changed, and a lot of people, the names don't really resonate with them. So I suspect we may start seeing, especially if we advertise to the public that, hey, do you have any ideas for naming or renaming public facilities? I think we will get people coming forward.

I think you're right. Carol, in looking at the Looking through the legislation, it looks like there was about 2 or 3 a year. I think it's really slowed down the last few years.

Um, I do want to say, as Jennifer— sorry, it's weird saying Jennifer, I'm so used to saying Jenny— um, uh, as Jennifer was saying, uh, you know, If we do, if the commission does play a more active role in community engagement and renaming landmarks that have been named for 50 years, you know, that could definitely start more of an inpouring of naming, of name changes, you know. And of course we face the proverbial people don't want names to change, you know, even if the community has changed. So definitely thinking about how to move forward with, uh, with, with that when that conflict arises, right? I think you're correct. Uh, Mayor Begich presented at a luncheon we had up in the mayor's conference room last week or the week before, and he was talking about the 50 years of the municipality.

And I asked him a question. He was talking about the Dena'ina Center. Building the United Center. I asked him about naming Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue because I don't know how long many of you have lived in the community, but decades ago, a lot of people in the community wanted to name something for Dr. King. Started, it was the Performing Arts Center.

Well, then of course people say, well, Dr. King was never here, he wasn't involved with the arts. And then it was a section of 9th Avenue near the MLK Memorial. And people said, "But we have this historic grid system and we're not going to change that." It got really heated. So Mark, when we built this new road, he named it by executive order. Just kind of ended the debate and it made a lot of people in the community happy that we finally managed to name it.

It's kind of fitting because it's near the university. Near the hospitals, and at the end of the avenue is the public transportation headquarters. And by the way, that is the longest street sign in Anchorage because Mark insisted that we not abbreviate the name. So it can be controversial naming something for somebody, or renaming. You're going to see people, well, that's been the name of the park down the street from me for 50 years, you know, so, but we're going to have to, we're going to have to stand up for what we think is right and make a decision based on what we believe is best for the community.

So any other thoughts on these documents?

So at the next meeting, Jamie, let's calendar on the agenda the bylaws for, for approval, the naming implementation goals and strategies for approval, and then we will— let's, let's count— let's— you want to put the calendar out for approval? Because I think it's— I think the calendar is I think it's good. And let's put the calendar up for approval. And we can send all these documents out to the commissioners maybe one more time before the next meeting and say please review them and come prepared. Um, and then I will work on the document to go with the nomination form.

Hopefully we can at least approve the form and maybe make tweaks to the So forth and so on. Um, that brings us up to, um, I asked that a discussion, discussion of proposed renaming of the Golden Lion be put on the agenda. I was contacted by the director of the municipal health department and the municipal manager And the Health Department, we own the former Golden Lion Hotel, which is now housing out near 36 and the New Surt Highway. And the Health Department would like to name that building. And rather than making a proposal, they would like the commission to recommend 4 names to them.

And then they will look at them, and then they will bring one forward to the commission and submit a nomination to me. But they actually want us— I thought this might be a good exercise for the commission— they want us to actually come up with 4 suggestions for them. So those of you who are here now, we can start. This will be later, maybe the end of the year, beginning of next year, so it's not a a big hurry. But they definitely want to name it.

They don't like the Golden Lion because of all the negative connotations that were during the community discussion. And now it's up and running, the neighborhood doesn't have a problem with it, it's looking good, and there's a lot of people happy to be housed there. So they would like to give it a new name and put a more positive spin on it. I thought— I don't know, any thoughts on it? Um, I, I just think it's a good exercise for the commission to actually have a discussion, maybe reach out to people in the community and come up with some suggestions.

Do we know what their timeline is for finishing the construction? Because there's— they're doing construction on that building, so it should be done by the first of the year. So what, what they're doing a little construction now The heat went out a couple weeks ago. I got some calls from some of the residents, but I got it fixed. So it's, it's actually looking pretty good.

It should be— my understanding is the construction is going to be done before the end of this year. Okay, so they want the name at the same time, roughly? I think they're looking at after the first of the year, after everything's done. It's looking good. Something they're bringing in 2023.

And part of it is they're waiting on us to start working. So what exactly are they using that— I don't know what they're doing with other than housing. What type of, what type of, um, is it low-income housing or is it—. What is it? I am not sure.

I know it's permanent housing and they sign leases and stuff Landlord-Tenant Act applies. I thought it was supportive housing, but I will verify. Okay, does that also—. I think that, that will— that's an important consideration. Kevin, you wanted to say something?

Yeah, I, I just want to say that maybe, um, maybe that's a service that the commission can offer. Like, maybe people are stuck in not knowing how to name things, or maybe they have a general idea of like what they want to name, but they're looking for some technical support from the naming commission on naming something. And maybe they're like, hey, would you know, here are our ideas, would you mind coming up with 4 recommendations for us? I'm not sure if that's been discussed as like a potential service that the commission could provide, um, if they're trying to write a proposal, or we guide them through a good process for choosing a name. I know that there's been criteria set from what I can tell, or at least like some guidance on that, but yeah, this is an exciting opportunity that the department is giving the commission to be able to do.

I, I don't know, my thought is if we did it for the health department, if a community group came to us and said we're interested in this facility being named you know, what are, you know, what are some thoughts or suggestions the Commission has? Because people may come to us and just say, I think this park needs to be named, you know, we don't appreciate the name, or, you know, the name doesn't— isn't meaningful, does the Commission have any suggestions? And then we could give them some suggestions and then they could decide if they want to bring one forward. No, I think, I think we can do that. Jen, what?

I feel like the code or ordinance kind of already gives us the steps. I mean, if we look at like our boxes that we erased, I mean, first we'd want to look at geographical, geological, or anthropological features. Now, what was it before it was the red line? What happened on that land before It was the gold mine, that red line. What was it before that?

Like, what's the history of the building? What was there before there was no buildings? Um, you know, was a stream diverted that used to go near there? You know, that kind of history would be what I would want to dig into. Um, and same thing with like, did any events happen on the corner of 36th and, you know, New Stewart?

Because like, one event that I remember very clearly, and I don't recall if they even still still do them, but they used to do those New Year's Eve alcohol checks right there. Oh, do you remember that? You could not drive down the highway on New Year's Eve without being checked for alcohol. Um, so that was right at that— that was right at that stoplight though. So I'm just thinking of, you know, what else has happened on that corner.

I have a lot of childhood memories from Golden Lion. They used to have a great restaurant. They did. Really good seafood. I have a lot of pictures from those stairs.

Yeah, you know, well, you know, and you know, after, after I talked to Kim and Becky, I thought, you know, can we come up with a word that meant home or safe or— I mean, so many possibilities. I, I just love that idea, putting on the thinking caps and talking to people we know, you know, what would be a meaningful name for, and maybe even asking the residents to vote, have 4 names and ask the residents to vote on their favorite one, and that's the one the health department would move forward. So I think we have a lot of options. So I will tell you, there is also Bayshore Clack Community Council wants to rename, wants to have KFQD Park renamed. And I don't know if any of you are familiar with Frontierland Park over here across from the Park Strip in South Edition.

It used to have the old log cabin play equipment, and it was called Frontierland Park. Very, uh, it was like cowboys and Indians theme, uh, very not 21st century. And the South Edition Community Council for the last 3 or 4 years has been wanting it renamed with hope hopefully an indigenous name. So they want to move forward with that. So we do have, with Golden Lion, Frontier Park, and KFUE Park, we have at least 3 already lined up we're going to be looking at once we get things, we get ready to pull the plug and start moving.

So I think it's exciting.

And I also think we've had this discussion. I think the commission can proactively recommend renaming. So if a member or members of the commissions says, you know, I think this facility, this park, I think we should look at recommending renaming, I think we can do that. I personally want to rename Centennial Park, which was named in 1966 to commemorate the 1967 100th anniversary of the Alaskan purchase. And a lot of my indigenous friends do not celebrate the Alaska Purchase and are not happy with the name Centennial Park because they know what it was named for.

The average person in the community— and honestly, I think renaming that park would not be controversial because the majority of people in Anchorage have no clue what it stands for. They probably think it stands for the bicentennial.

So, and next month's meeting we will calendar election of a vice chair on the agenda. We are going to have to lobby our fellow commissioners, offer them a ride, bribes, tell them we'll bring food. We need a quorum. One meeting with a quorum, we could get a lot of work done. Yeah, we could get a lot done.

Everything would be approved. Yes, yes, we could get a lot done. Have you heard from Kuku at all today or no? She just emailed today that she was— she emailed yesterday, but I just don't know if that one got lost in translation. Um, she didn't think she would be missing the meeting.

So one of the things I'm going to ask the clerk to send out the code, the attendance requirements, because if you miss a certain number of meetings in a specific time frame, you are automatically removed. So it's important. I mean, sometimes we have tight schedules and we can't make it, we all understand that, but if you call it up, Teams, and you even attend part of the meeting, just so we can get through the action items, that counts even if you don't stay for the whole meeting. So it's really important because we have a great group and I don't want somebody to be removed because they don't meet the attendance requirements. So we will send that out.

Yeah, and I think we could also, if, if you need, we could put it on the agenda to consider a different day and time. I mean, the three of you are the same, but Pretty soon half of you have gone, so maybe it doesn't work for this group anymore. Yeah, we can put that as a discussion item. Especially if we have— or do we want to wait until January, later when we get more members? I think that is— any other things we need to discuss or talk about?

Um, just make sure my list is complete. We have the KFC Park, Golden Lion, Centennial Park, and did you say Frontier Park? Frontierland Park. Frontierland, that's in South Edition. Well, Centennial Park is just one, it's on my list, so it'll be at the bottom.

We'll take care of the others first. You did bring it up. I keep bringing that one up because I have a heart for Is it in your neighborhood? No, it's actually out off of Muldoon. You know where Pinna Park is?

No, I live over by Simple Lutheran. I live in Fairview. So the Frontier Park is closer. Frontierland Park is right over here. And South Addition Community Council.

The great thing about that is we know it's always important with renaming parks, the park— when you want to rename a park it has to go to the Parks and Recreation Commission for an advisory opinion before final action. And we know the Community Council is supporting the renaming. They're the ones that actually brought up the idea, so that's, that's good. It'll make it a lot easier. So we probably should, um, think about how to approach the Community Council where the golden line resides.

How does the naming commission communicate with community councils? I'm going to have to check and see what council that is. Because we put that on the calendar as a task, um, because we read it in the documents. So we always said advertise for public hearing and send notice to community councils so that we would always remember them? So the way the municipality— so there's requirements in the code that the municipality for certain things are required to notify the community councils.

And what they do is they go through the Federation of Community Councils. So the Federation of Community Councils manages the FCC webpage, posts the webpages for all of the community councils. And they send out communications to the councils. They maintain their email listservs. So we could work with Ari at the Community Council— Federation of Community Councils, or the Federation also always has posted online an updated contact list for the community councils that would list the president of the council and their email address.

Phone numbers. So I think that's something as a commission we could discuss how to deal with. So the corner of 36th and the Seward Highway is the intersection of 3 different community councils. So it is physically in the Tudor Area Community Council, across the street from Rogers Park Community Council, it's across the street from Midtown—. That's going to make it complicated—.

Community Council.

Well, but it's in one community council. But the way it works, and maybe this is something we need to talk about, this might be a topic for next month's meeting. So in the code, when it comes to, uh, application for a replat, rezone, certain land use changes that community councils are supposed to be notified of You have to notify any community council within 500 to 1,000 feet, depending on what the— what it is of that parcel. So we as a commission can say, well, our policy is we're going to notify each community council within 1,000 feet or a half mile or whatever we choose. Of the facility that's going to be named.

But when it comes to parks, the Parks and Rec Commission gives credence to the community council where the, where the park is located. And that kind of makes sense. That kind of makes sense with the bringing in that they're doing this week with the Malden Park. —Another naming celebration. I don't know if you saw that.

Yes, I got an invite. So, and I like, I like one of the things you put on your calendar, you know, is celebrations for renaming, a ceremony. When we renamed the Public Transit Administration Building for Mr. John S. Parks, A lot of people in the community were upset there was never a ribbon cutting. They put the new sign up, there was never a celebration. So thanks for bringing that back up because I totally forgot when we were reviewing the calendar.

Um, we don't have a budget for those type of things. How would that play out with who, who's paying for it if we do something like that? How does that look at the logistics behind all that for a rainy celebration event?

Well, I— it depends on do you want to just have a ribbon cutting or do you want to have refreshments? Or I think it depends on how we handle it. Or there's the possibility that the department that's in charge of that facility could host the event. Host. —Like if it's a park, renaming a park, the Parks Department loves to have ribbon cuttings and, you know, have some snacks and photo ops.

I think that's something we'd have to discuss because I don't know if we're getting a budget. I think that would be—. Yeah, I don't know. I know that like the Clerk's Office staffs the Election Commission too. I mean, I've never professionals for their meetings, um, and I put it in my budget.

And so kind of talking it through, I feel like maybe there's a small budget in a clerk's office budget for a few, and then maybe the Parks and Rec Department picks up a few, maybe the Health Department picks up a few, you know, like we just sort of case-by-case basis. I think it's a good idea. I think, yeah, I think the If it's being named for a community group or an event or a family or an individual, I think there are people who might want to chip in even. So I think we can make it work. But I like the idea of celebrations.

And I think it's something that we could mention right at the beginning. Like if someone came to us like the health department, we could let them know that it is a By the way, it is our policy that we like to have a celebration when we rename it. So be thinking about what that would look like for your department and how much that might cost. You know, so they're kind of given a heads up that, yeah, this is going to take a few months to get these 4 names if you guys select the name and all this, but be thinking that there might be a party and you might need to pay for something. Well, you know what, I think a lot of families were disappointed to find out about the past was normally there's no budget for new signage frequently.

That was also part of my question. Yeah. And so now with the parks, obviously they will order a new park sign, park is renamed. But some of those signs cost $15,000-$20,000 for the parks. Fortunately, I don't think we're going to get a lot of parks renamed at once.

But the parks— so parks, that'll be taken care of, they'll rename them. But with the, uh, like a sign for the building, the meeting building, they will put it up. But for a plaque, you know, something to recognize somebody or an event, normally there's not money in the budgets for some sort of a plaque. So I think that's something we also have to be clear about. Are there maybe community groups?

So I was part of the effort You know, naming schools is separate. We don't do that. But I was part of the effort to rename Fairview Elementary School for Dr. Velma Davis, and we had to— we raised money for the plaques, the, the, you know, recognitions for inside of the building. The school district put the signs on the building. So it's, it's something a lot of people may not realize.

I like being upfront with people. And honestly, the departments, if they can find the money, they usually want to help.

All right, anything else for the good of the order?

Well, we can't take a motion to adjourn because we don't have a quorum. Kevin, you got off easy your first meeting.

Um, I did have another quick question for you. I was wondering, why are commissions of 9 versus 7? Or do you happen to know why the municipality chose commissions to be 9 versus a smaller number versus 11 people? Is that just in code? That was, you know, somebody mentioned that recently to me.

Why? I think they were establishing a new commission and they wanted to make it 7. And somebody said, well, there are always 9. And they said, why? I don't know if anybody— I don't know.

I think they obviously wanted an odd number, but I don't know why 9 instead of 7. Quite frankly, I'll make a change note that you will be a great person to come to rules committee meeting tomorrow and to file that, because I think Anna has a whole concept going about a redo of boards and commissions and the sunset processes and, and different things. So that might be something for—. I'll be at the rules committee meeting because I have to get my Well, I've always wondered, part of me wonders is if it's 7, the quorum is 4. And I thought, well, maybe they thought you would have 4 people making decisions for a body.

But if it's 9, the quorum is 5, so you could have 5 people making— it's only 1 more. But I've heard some people that have a real angst with 4 versus 5. And there's been a lot of discussion. I know the chair has had problems a couple of times because you have the quorum of 5 and there's 9 members. But you have a quorum of 5 and they'll vote 3 to 2 for something and it passes.

And he's going, you've only got 3 people. But they had it. They established a quorum. The majority of the quorum voted. So I think no matter how we structure it, people are going to have issues.

But that's an interesting— you know, I almost feel like going back and looking at some of the old assembly minutes from when the municipality was created. I read through a bunch of minutes the other day from where they established the Equal Rights Commission. That was Ioway. So maybe we can find out, but it's a good question.

And I just want to say the reason I asked that is because it sounds like this has been a consistent, um, consistent challenge. And, you know, maybe that's just because this is a newer commission versus like a natural resource management commission, which is really established, for example, and it's been around for a while. But maybe, you know, if you need to have a quorum to move things forward, maybe there's an opportunity to reduce the number of people on the commission at first, and then once the commission is established, then expand it by 2 more members or something like that, just so you can get things moving forward. You know, it just ultimately, you know, it's just kind of where my mind process— where my thought process was. Asking that question.

I will, I will just admit that, um, the commission was created in 2023 and they had been making appointments and making appointments and making appointments. And over like March or April, I think, I got an email from the Park Foundation and they're like, hey, there's a forum now, can we get this park? Can you get this park? 'Can we get it renamed? What's the process?' And I'm like, 'Oh, there's a quorum now.' So I started pulling you guys together because there was a quorum, and I thought, well, at least if we can get a bare quorum together, we can start processing.

But, um, so I think that's where part of the problem is, is that we've only had a bare quorum appointed at any given time. Um, they have never made it to 9 yet because it's still so new. Well, and I think part of the problem, Kevin, when it's a new border commission, people look at the mission of the border commission, they think, I'm really interested in that, and they're appointed and then they realize they can't make the time commitment or, you know, things change. So Britt, who was really excited about being on the commission— so 3 of us were appointed, even though we were appointed after last October, 3 of the commissioners were appointed for 1 year, 3 were appointed for 2 years, and 3 were appointed for 3 years. That's because the term, 1/3 of each, 1/3 of the seats is supposed to expire each year, so you keep some institutional knowledge.

So 3 of the seats would be expiring this year. So you just got appointed, your seat expires next month. Yeah, so you need to contact Marie and let her know if you want to be reappointed, by the way. And Brits expires in October, and she's not going to seek reappointment. So, and Christine, you know, former historic preservation officer, a planner, and she was really excited, but her circumstances changed.

So that is not unusual. I've served on 5 or 6 commissions, and I've staffed 3, and it's not unusual. For things to— for a new border commission, things have to shake out a little bit. Um, I had a question actually about the listing of the types of people that you're looking for for the commission. And some of the advertisements mentioned a connection to Oklutna, and some of the advertisements did not mention a connection to Oklutna.

And I was just wondering a little bit about how that got added to some of the advertisements and if anyone has officially reached out to the tribe. So, I— is that in the code? I thought— it's in the code. Yes, it is in the code. It's in the code.

So I sent the list of open seats to Aaron Leggett and asked him to share with his efforts. You know, he gave me kind of a funny look because I think he thought I was trying to recruit him to the commission, and he's pretty busy. So I did share it. But what the code also says, we want to do everything we can to appoint members that meet those particular requirements, but you don't have to if you make a good faith effort and you we can't get anyone because it's a recognition that the commission has to have a quorum and has to have members to function. So Marie is working diligently trying to get people who meet the criteria in the code, but we may have to finally say, hey, if we can't for now, let's just appoint people who have other interests.

The reason why I bring it up is because it If they've already been officially notified, like you talking to Aaron, then I could reach out to some of the people that I know. Yeah. And just the fact that they know that I'm on it might be, "Oh, well, if you're on it, you know, I can sit next to you and I'll feel more comfortable going. I've never been on a commission before. I don't know how it's, you know, they might be nervous." So it might actually encourage someone to apply if they know that I'm on it.

That's perfect. I encourage them to do that. Yeah, I've been sharing it with people that I can think of. I also sent it to folks I know at AFN to see if they could help get the word out. But you know, so many people are busy in this time period.

We had a good summer too. And we had a good summer. That's another reason I think. So I don't know, uh, Maria, I was up talking to Maria the other day, she said, I don't know what the members of the Public Naming Commission did, because I told her we were reaching out to our networks and happy to let the people know. She goes, we've received several applications.

I know that two people from my personal network turned in applications and they're just waiting. So hopefully we will get some more appointments. And one last bit is, uh, Marie is also processing all of the reappointments for all of the commissions. I think she told me she has 124 reappointments to deal with by October 14th. So there might be a little backlog in that area as well right now for all of the commissions.

All the commissions get— have like 2 to 3 reappointments right now. And so she's processing AMs to get to the Board of the Assembly for all 124 of those seats. And so it might just be a slight backlog. I have been going upstairs, taking her treats from Fire Island and bedding her.

No, she understands. She, she does have a lot of seats, but she's trying to make our commission a priority because she knows we're new and we need a quorum to conduct business so we can actually start doing our job. I was gonna say, even both of the two that you've encouraged to apply, that's still only 7. Yeah, so we need 2 more. So I will, um, reach out to some of my contacts and appointments.

Well, the good news, my fellow commissioners, we're past Labor Day, and so people will probably not have as many conflicts. So if we have 6 or 7 members, we have a good chance of having a quorum.

I know Kevin's going to be diligent. Appreciate that. You know I will be. So, so is your spouse looking forward to their first winter? Uh, I would say this is going to be their first full winter.

They came last middle of winter, uh, so— but last winter really wasn't winter, was it? No. So, um, they're gonna get their first full, uh, their first full winter this winter, and we'll see if we get this the same amount of snow as we got this past year. I hope not. Well, you know, I, I have lived here 60 years and I still don't like winter, but, but the people grew on me.

Well, I think we're done for the night.