Public Naming Commission Meeting

I'll record you speaking. Call to order. All right, we'll call to order the December 10th meeting of the municipality's Public Naming Commission. Uh, can we have roll call please? Um, Member Hess?

Present. Member Harrison? Present. Member Khan?

Present. Member Gupta? Present. And Member Heller is absent, and so, Mr. Chair, you do not have a quorum today.

Thank you, Jamie. Um, does anybody want to volunteer to do the land acknowledgment? Would our guests like to do the land acknowledgment? Sure, why not? 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 that we now occupy. It is an actionable statement that marks our collective movement towards decolonization and equity. The Public Naming Commission would like to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Denaina Athabascans. For thousands of years, the Denaina have been and continue to be 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. And could you introduce yourself briefly since you read the land acknowledgement? Yes, you guys, I'm Jennifer Mayer and I work for Parks and Recreation. And I'm fairly new in my position. And so public naming is something that I think traditionally fell on the person who I sort of took their position.

And, uh, so I am looking forward to working with you. Uh, there, there are two parks in particular that I know, um, are wanting to be renamed, and I don't know, I can finish talking about that later. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Jennifer.

Uh, we don't have a quorum, so we can't approve the agenda or the minutes of the previous meeting, which brings us to unfinished business, which is the Indigenous Naming Pathway policy consultation steps for the Joint Native Village of Eklutna and Anchorage Assembly meeting tomorrow afternoon. So this meeting is where we were going to talk about our meeting with, uh, Native Village of Eklutna and the Anchorage Assembly tomorrow night. And what time is that? It starts at 4 PM in room 155 where we normally meet. And I believe we're item 4B.

You're 4A, but they have several items, and we're like the 5th item, I think, under there. So first off, I know we had talked about originally about getting potentially 15 minutes. We were not given a particular amount of time, um, but I think 15 minutes is probably more than we can expect. So my statement is probably 3 minutes or less, my part. And then I thought it was Kevin, but maybe it was Cuckoo that was gonna do the second part.

So the second part was gonna be— I'm trying to remember— the second part was gonna be Was it going to be talking about our— was it going to be inviting Eklutna to appoint somebody to work with us? That was going to be the third part. Okay. That was going to be my part. We were going to have three parts: your part, introduction, then we were going to have a— we have been researching ways of doing this, um, to to do Indigenous consultation.

We've looked at this, we've looked at that, like an over— like a quick summary of the research that was done. And then my third part would be really wanting you to join us. Yeah, because sit next to me because I do know Faith, and you know that it would be like— would really like you to have a representative on the—. On our commission. There's kind of a seat saved for them, but we'd like you to officially nominate someone.

So mine was actually like a minute or two. I'm just saying we like to invite you to nominate someone. Yeah, so I think they all could be fairly short. Mine's maybe 3 minutes max. I mean, I had a page front and back of storytelling I did in 5 minutes, so.

I'd say this is going to be 3 minutes max. So do we have anything prepared for the second part? I think for the second part we could just summarize— like, the way I was reading it, um, when Kevin was there in the last meeting, it just sounded like our research has shown that having an Indigenous or a Native voice as a part of the conversation in the policymaking is beneficial for the naming of places, right? And that's what they've shown time and time again. And the tactics that they've used is, and that was where we were gonna say one of the tactics that few of the places in Canada have done is that they have just incorporated a special space in their board or their table for an Indigenous or a Native representative.

And then that's when, Jen, you were gonna go in and say, this is the spot that we're looking for. Looking for. And so I don't even think that we need that much time for the second part. That's what I thought. I don't think any of the parts are going to be very long.

But we wanted to have the 3-person thing because they could ask for that research. Yeah, yeah. What tribes did you look at in Canada? What tribes did you look at in the United States? That sort of thing.

And I thought that you or Kevin would be more quick to— quick on your feet to describe that. I have it on my calendar. I can be there. I just thought that Kevin was gonna be there, but I can be there. Totally.

Is it possible for us to send them our document?

Before or after, just so they have access to it if they want to also look into it and read more?

I think we could send—. Yeah, it might—. I, in my personal opinion, it's going to be better to hand it to them at the meeting. Yes. Okay.

To have copies. Do we know how many copies we would need? Yeah, I don't— I can't say off the top of my head right now, but there's a specific number. On both commissions, both the Assembly and the Tribe. Would that be something that you guys copy or something that we should bring?

Um, I can do it, I just need to know what you're talking about. Maybe Kuku could email it? Yes, I'm emailing it right now. We went over it last month. Cool, so then I would After my comments, then I would introduce Commissioners Gupta and— what's Kevin's last name?

Keller. Pardon me, Keller. Keller. Who— one or both, depending on who's there. You would do— you would do your part, and then you would introduce Jennifer.

Should he? And I'll type up some more prepared, but basically I was going to look at— did the bylaws specifically name a seat? So this— the problem the municipality has run into in the past, it's difficult to— this is probably legally problematic to designate a border commission seat for a particular group. You can— there can be requirements for education, or you can say works, you know, has a background in Native cultural studies or anthropology or archaeology. But we found out it's problematic legally to designate a seat for an organization or entity, so that is not in code.

We could invite them to have somebody to apply, and I would be very surprised that the mayor's office— the mayor did not appoint that person, especially since we're inviting them to apply. As commission members, we would like to see someone nominated from the Native—. Having that Indigenous voice at the table is, is important. And If they don't want, you know, if they don't, if nobody's interested in, if there's nobody they want to nominate, I don't know how you word it, they could, we could also work out a consultation process with them.

Or we can do both, have somebody on the commission, and I think we invite them to help develop a consultation process. How many open seats do you guys have? 4. 4. So we have plenty of space.

We have plenty of space. They want 2 people people from Eklutna. That'd be great. So we're inviting them to apply, we're asking them to nominate someone to apply that represents them. But if you don't want to do that, then at the very least, if you could nominate someone to work with us to develop the consultation process, because we'd like to make a formal written consultation.

I think you got it already.

I think it's pretty informal. They're both pretty relaxed groups, the Assembly and the Klutna board. And I'll be there early. I'll be down the hall working. Yeah, it wasn't too hard when I was like, "Hmm, I don't see Daryl." He's the only one I knew by sight.

All right, anything else? Do you think— do you all think we're good with that? All right. Did you email this to us or did you just print this? That was emailed.

Okay, it's on the website. The agenda was emailed and the Daryl statement is on the website.

Without a quorum, did we have more to say about the policy consultation steps, or is it just kind of we want to come home? Yeah, I think it was inviting them to the table before we actually start Having the discussion about the consultation steps.

All right, does that mean we're on new business?

Yes. So it's a meet and greet with Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department representative Jennifer So tell us a little bit about what you do, Jennifer. Well, I'm, like I said, I'm fairly new. So my technical title is Land Administrative Coordinator. However, my boss is like, well, HR gave us that name for you.

So, um, right now I don't, if anyone knows Tom Kurosi, I do some of what he does or what he did. He's retired. I have humongous shoes to fill in that area. So I'm kind of doing a little bit of everything, and right now it's a lot of, like, organizing. And I don't think Tom believed in computers, or he just printed everything out.

So right now I'm trying to, like, scan and organize a whole bunch of stuff. And, but eventually You know, I just, I, you know, naming commission, parks and rec commission, encroachments onto parkland, things like that. And basically anytime they want to send somebody out, I'm their staff extrovert. So. So Jennifer, so when we are looking at potentially recommending naming or renaming of a park, would you, you would be our contact person in parks and rec?

Yeah, and I sort of, at this point, I sort of was going to ask you guys what my role would be for you since now there is a naming commission. I'll tell you, uh, when I very first came on, KFQD is a park that, um, is wanting to get renamed. Bayshore Park. I, I attended the, uh, their community council meeting. It was Bayshore CLAT was my very first, and only so far, community council meeting.

I'm not a planner, so I don't have to attend to those a lot. However, I went to that one because they were interested in renaming KFQD, so I have the AO for the new naming commission criteria for evaluation, and I tried to explain that to them, what some of the criteria would be that the naming commission would be looking at when people submitted names. And I don't really even know how to say it tactfully, but I think that— so I won't. Basically, when I said that we are going to look at indigenous place names and things like that, They were like, yeah, they laughed and they were like, well, Bayshore Park. And I had gone and said, you know, I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think they're home of the Eagles.

Is it the Eagles? The school is the Eagles. So I looked up how to say eagle in Dena'ina Athabascan and said, you know, you could say it's the Bayshore Eagle in Dena'ina, and they kind of scoffed at it. And I said, well, you can submit whatever you'd like. They are still going to use this criteria to look at whether they're going to approve a name or not.

And that's kind of— and I said, and also anybody can submit a name for this park. If somebody else has an idea for a name, Maybe I didn't say— I didn't say this, maybe it's me, and I'm going to suggest the name that I just suggested to you guys. They said, yeah, but it's our community council, so we hold more weight. And I said, actually, it's a public park, so they'll all be evaluated on the same criteria. I hope— now, I haven't been to the— I think it's community council for downtown and South Edition.

For Frontierland, my guess is they'll, if I have to go to that to say, and I don't know if that's even my role, I don't mind taking on that role at all, or if that's somebody from your guys' commission, but I don't mind, you know, when it's a park name, of course, I don't mind going and saying, hey, this is the criteria, and here's how you submit the name. Right now on our website, On, I think it's like park, to want to rename a park, I put a link to the Public Naming Commission website instead of just even my contact information because I assume that— I'll do whatever you guys need me to do, but I just didn't know, so I was like, well, since it's a new commission, I'll let them submit stuff through you guys because I would assume that's a proper channel. I would be a go-between. Um, so anyway, you guys let me know what you want my role to do, and, uh, hi! And I'm happy to do that.

We're talking about— you must have— ears must have been burning. She was talking about Frontierland Park. What are we calling it now? Oh, that's what there's going to be a discussion about. Something else.

I just was looking for Jamie. I think you're hiding over in the corner over here.

Good work, everybody. In case anybody is curious, Chris—. Oh yeah, Christopher just walked into the meeting. Hello. Yeah, you're— Chris has been anxious for Frontierland Park to be addressed for a while now.

By April. By April. By April 28th. Yeah, well, we need just somebody to submit a nomination. Some nominations for new names.

Okay, on it. They can submit it. We're ready to go. Correct. To where?

Uh, Public Naming Commission, the clerk's office. Okay, you'll get names. Good. Presently, we're gonna get some work. Good.

Yay! Okay, so those are my only two parks that I know about in question. I feel like with Chris, we're gonna get some, like, you know, names that we will— that will be good. Um, whereas KFQD, you guys might need to, um, solicit some more nominations.

Are the commission— the way it works, so they can— the community council can submit a suggested name, but the commission can actually also proactively recommend a different name, or another member of the community can bring forward another name. And which I did at KFGB, and they did not like my idea, and I thought it was a great idea. So Jennifer, when, when we're looking at considering renaming, recommending to the assembly renaming a park, the Parks and Rec Commission has to look at it and vote a recommendation. So would you be our contact person for scheduling that with the Parks and Rec Commission. Yep, yep, I am your contact.

So that is part— so I don't even know that. This is embarrassing, but this is why I'm here. Um, so once you guys get nominations for parks, then it needs to go to our commission? Well, if we vote a recommendation, the commission agrees upon a recommendation for the assembly Before we send it to the assembly, it has to go to Parks and Rec Commission to look at, and they vote a recommendation. Oh, sure.

Okay, they provide a recommendation, and then it would go to the assembly. Okay, yeah, I'm your person, and we'll get it on the agenda.

Cool. Anybody have any questions for Jennifer?

Awesome. All right, you guys, thanks so much for having me. And we can, we can talk, maybe you and me and Jennifer, Jenny here, can talk about how we will work with you on those nominations, kind of develop. Because I'm, I'm, oh, okay, so it's still in development. So the fact that I don't know the calendar though, and I can't remember what's supposed to be awesome.

So actually, that is our Only business tonight. Any member comments? Be a quick meeting. My only thought was I wish that I printed out a copy of the calendar because we're supposed to be doing something each month and I can't remember what it is this month. I think we do want to meet with you guys at least once a year.

We might have put it in November.

October. Okay, maybe it was December with Parks and Rec, but it was the fall time. Yeah, I did have like—. That's what I thought. I mean, I don't know why I did have it in my head.

Maybe it was because it was on the AO or something that originally I was going to invite you in October or November, but we got behind the curve and ended up in the summer. Yeah, that's okay. So just so you know, you're like on my calendar. Okay, so that it happens at minimum once Okay, cool. It is, it is October.

October, that's when she was originally—. What does it say we're supposed to be doing in December? Um, we are supposed to be holding a public hearing if needed. That's it. So, so that's, I guess, something else to share, that in this calendar we were supposed to like receive nominations by October.

Well, just every month. Oh, we like receive nominations, and then if we're gonna like be naming something, then we schedule a public hearing for December— for the— no, for the next month. Okay. And then like people can share more names. And then so there is like a month— like you can't just give us a name yesterday and today we're going to make a decision.

Got you. Right. Of course. Okay.

All right. Any other commissioner comments?

No, I was just thinking about the other ways that, Jennifer, we could work together. And I mean, I'm thinking a little ahead in terms of the whole process, but somewhere where I see us working together could also be in the installation of the new name and the celebration of the new name at the park, at the location, and kind of coordinating that piece as well. So not only are you our partner from the beginning, from when we are, you know, looking for those names, identifying the parks, and then looking for those names, but you're also our partner when we do, you know, when the assembly in the— like, when we do come up with the name, having that story be shared and having some sort of a ceremony for it if it is at a park. I think that that is also somewhere you could step in. Yeah, okay.

And that's specifically on our calendar after the public hearing part. It is. Yeah, and we did have questions of Like, we don't have a budget, but we want to have a celebration after each— for each naming. And so that was one of the things that we did want to talk to you guys about, is when a park is being named or renamed, do you have a budget that would help pay for some small celebration? Parks Foundation too.

Parks Foundation normally gets involved. We can make it happen. Any other comments?

Cool. Well, I'd ask for a motion to adjourn, but we don't have a quorum, so we're out of here. Good night.