Assembly Regular - March 3, 2026 - 2026-03-03 17:00:00

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 Tuki app, Roni no te.

All the cap, 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 sprinkles in the water. Why don't you go sip it on tea?

Go get yourself some love. Why don't you follow that dream? Crap.

Grand Peaches, Grand Peaches, how you deserve sweetness, eh, sweetness, eh. When you have ambitions in your life, find your perfect moment to reach out and try. Grand Peaches, Grand Peaches, how you deserve sweetness, eh, sweetness, eh. When life is auspicious, when your destiny is awesome, when you sail to the Mississippi River, That you're receiving heartless harmonies. You will never find it, but bet you'll listen till you go change your mind.

Go do things for fun. I know that it was stolen, but go be a child for once. I lit out a lamp, I let it break off. I licked it right off there, went for another bowl. 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 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 Oh, daughter, why don't you start sipping on tea? Go get yourself some love. Why don't you follow that dream? Oh!

Braille Peaches, Braille Peaches, all you deserve. So, so, if you have ambitions in your life, there's no perfect moment to reach out and try. Braille Peaches, Braille Peaches, all you deserve.

Seconds from Elise's tardy treat. I'm too scared to breathe 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.

Truth to what I know, give me ruthless weight. All these paper waves, all these sacred spaces. Aces placed in strangers' wasted blood. A while you fall across the gap, no bridge stood, no man could reach. I pray 3 times at 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 guide. Too bright, can't vision, need my lenses. Blue ball in the sky. Keep turning on and on and on and on and on.

Too scared to be on my own, you see. But I know I just need some selfish time. I need my relics back. Give me truth to what I know. Give me ruthlessness.

Wait on this paper. Wait on this sacred basis. Aces placing, strangers placing.

The air so fresh from— The air so fresh when I'm home! Air's so fast coming through...

It's all right if it comes down on me too?

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 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 all night and day, resting your mind, keeping all bad thoughts some way. Home sweet home is where I want to 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 and in front of the storm.

Tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Yeah! Why aren't you tired of me yet? Yes!

Why don't— why won't you talk to me yet? Why don't you talk to me yeah?!

Everything left on my own. You can't be tired of everything. Why aren't you tired of me yet?

Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet?

Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet? Why aren't you tired of me yet?

Why don't you try to be—.

Take a cab and don't look back. I'll move through all the silence. Now I'm colder than the weather, steady going under pressure. I'm finally over being lowkey under these old covers. Now I'm back and I'm better, steady going under pressure.

Sit back and watch the paint dry. Take time and watch the The dope rides in another world. I have control of my mind, can't seem to get it through that things I do, but on my own time. People waiting, slowly fading. The mirror is telling me I got to grip it right in front of me.

Secure the seat and don't release the opportunity.

Dancing. How the hell am I still standing? Trees are rusting. I'm not playing. Maddies are infiltrating.

Now I'm colder than a weather cover. Steady going under pressure. I'm finally over being low.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] 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 just to walk my dog. With my kryptonite and a glowing green rock from outer space, it's just feelin' like I should Growing up and living out of place. But it's feeling like I'm still just some itty-bitty kid. Oh, feeling like I grew up knowing I never did.

It's all these things that I tell myself while I keep acting like nobody else has felt the same things in their It's just memories of fantasies on which I have to cling. It's 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 be.

Alright, so, uh, Felix, we'll be getting started in just a few minutes.

All right, I think we're ready. Oh yeah, that's everybody.

Good evening, everybody. I now call to order this regular meeting of the Anchorage Assembly. Tonight is March 3rd, 2026. It is 5:04 PM. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Member Myers. Here. Member McCormick. Here. Member Martinez.

Present. Member Baldwin-Day. Present. Member Johnson. Here.

Chair Constant. Here. Vice Chair Brawley. Here. Here.

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

Present. Member Grover. Here. I understand Member Perez Verdia is excused. He is.

And Student Representative Lavarias. Here. Chair Constant, you have a quorum. Thank you. Next, we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Myers, would you please lead us in the pledge? Yes, thank you, Chair. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. 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.

Vice Chair Barley, would you please read the land acknowledgment? Yes, Mr. 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 that 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 gratitude and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

Next on the agenda, item 4, we have minutes of previous meetings. Tonight we have minutes, item 4A and 4B, from the regular meeting January 27, 2022. And February 3rd, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? Second.

Motion to approve the minutes by Miss Barley, seconded by Miss Baldwin-Day. Is there any discussion? I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the adoption of the motion? Seeing here no objection, the minutes of previous meetings have been approved.

Next we have the mayor's report. Madam Mayor. Thank you, Chair Constant, and good evening everyone. I appreciate the chance to share a few updates before getting into the evening's agenda. As we transition from February to March, we are wrapping up Black History Month and kicking off Women's History Month.

These observances are vital reminders that we must honor the contributions of Black Alaskans and the trailblazing women of our community year-round. Last weekend at the Alaska Black History Makers Ball, we celebrated and honored some truly incredible individuals who helped build our community, including former Assemblymember Melinda Taylor and former Assemblymember and current State Senator Elvie Gray Jackson. And I thank them both for all they've done for our community and their ongoing work and contributions. As a woman in this office, I am reminded of the weight and the honor of this role. It reinforces my belief that our community is at its strongest when people from all walks of life, from every background, perspective, and neighborhood, have the opportunity to engage in our local government and community life.

When residents get involved, speak up, and share their perspective, whether it's giving public testimony during a meeting, participating in community councils, volunteering at a nonprofit, or running for office, It makes us a more resilient, more connected community. Speaking of our community spirit, Rondi is in full swing, and if you haven't had a chance to Rondi yet, I strongly encourage everyone to head downtown this weekend to join the festivities as we celebrate the return of the sun and Alaska's mushing history. Last weekend, it was so great to see Rondi draw residents and visitors by the thousands to our downtown streets streets, restaurants, shops, and hotels. And it was super fun to watch the sled dog races, the outhouse races, and the parade. The creativity on display with this year's snow sculptures is really incredible.

And of course, we're all looking forward to the ceremonial start of the Iditarod this weekend. These traditions are the heartbeat of our winters. Looking ahead, I want to remind everyone that the April 7th municipal election is approaching. Ballots will be mailed to Anchorage voters on March March 17th. This year's ballot includes 7 municipal bonds aimed at critical infrastructure safety and investing in our community's future.

Also includes the Anchorage School District bond and a special one-time levy to provide much-needed support for our local classrooms. This $11.8 million would help the district retain more than 80 educators and reduce class size increases. I encourage every voter to be an informed voter. You can find detailed information on the full municipal bond package at muni.org. Tonight I'm happy to be introducing item 10G.6, which promotes agriculture and food production in our community, and we have so much opportunity here.

Thank you to members Johnson, Martinez, and Silvers for joining me as co-sponsors. And those of you who know me, you might know I'm a 4-H kid, huh, Bill? Finally, I want to highlight some recent progress we've made regarding public health and safety. My sincere thanks to Chair Constant and Member Martinez for being at our press conference last week. We were proud to announce that the municipality has effectively doubled our Healthy Spaces team capacity.

This expansion is a testament to what we can achieve when the administration and the assembly work together. I always value the opportunity to highlight the hard work of our municipal employees alongside my colleagues on this body. Together we are making our community a cleaner, safer, and more welcoming place to call home. That's all for now. Back to you, Chair Constant.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Next up, it's the chair's report. Good evening, everybody, and welcome. I'm glad to have you here for our regular business meeting. The first thing I want to talk about tonight is, um, something that just absolutely blew my mind last week.

And I also want to celebrate the press conference that we had last week kicking off the second Healthy Spaces team. I will say though, in the middle of that press conference, the mayor said something that quite shocked me. The mayor said at the press conference that that as of now in Anchorage, there are no encampments and no— there is no tent city. And I had to stop and think about what that meant because I didn't know if I believed it, actually. Not because I don't believe you, Madam Mayor, but because I need to see it with my own eyes to believe it.

And, uh, I took myself for a drive across the Anchorage Bowl. I went from Centennial Park to Taku Lake, including Northwood and every stop in between— Chester Creek Trail, Sullivan Arena, Centennial Park, Campbell Creek Greenbelt, Russian Jack Springs, Valley of the Moon, Davis Park and Mountain View, and rights-of-way across the municipality. And lo and behold, I found there are no major encampments in this town anywhere at this time. Now this is significant because as long as I have been involved in the public process through community councils in Fairview, where we have long been struggling with the challenges, in the north of Anchorage, which has long been the home of the only place where these services exist, I never believed that today would occur, that we literally have no tent city and no major encampments. So I did find one place on my drive that had 3 tents, and the Healthy Space team and the mayor's team, the HOPE team, did go out and engage with them to begin the process to help them find where they need to go.

So ultimately what that means is that there, while isolated tents may remain out there, and that our behavioral health gaps are going to persist into we have some support. The entrenched encampments that have long characterized the municipality of Anchorage are a thing of the past for now. And I want to say thank you to the mayor. I want to say thank you to the administration. I want to say thank you to all of the community providers who are part of the system that we've been developing for the last 8 years to provide a place for people to go and to provide an opportunity for our neighbors to be comfortable in their public spaces.

I want to be careful to recognize the fact that, you know, some will say, oh, it's just because it's a cold winter, there's no one out there. But having lived and been working on this process for more than a decade, I can tell you we have had really cold winters. Those camps have persisted. And so that is not enough to explain why we're here. Why we are here is because we have expanded to year-round shelter.

We've been working hard on the hotel-to-housing conversions. We've opened the facility at 56th Avenue and Linda's Place. The Guest House is providing housing. We now have the recovery housing coming online at Willow Commons. The Healthy Spaces team has now two teams and they're working for rapid response.

We've expanded the AFD and the APD mobile behavioral health units, the mobile crisis team and the mobile intervention team. We also, working with the coalition, have been working hard to name each individual who's circling through our system. And we're seeing major investments in the behavioral health system in our municipality, like South Central Foundation, who's standing up a crisis response Monts compound at the corner of Tudor and Elmore, which is rising from the dirt right now and promises to provide key services that we need to continue this. So it isn't a single strategy that has brought us here today. It's not enforcement alone, it's not housing alone, it's not treatment alone.

The difference is a policy choice to coordinate the system, to pair public safety and outreach, shelter access and housing, and behavioral health investments together with a broad community network of support. I'd also like to thank our friends in the legislature and the governor in 2024, who provided $4 million to help us stabilize our shelter system so that we could provide year-round shelter, which is now online, which is the promise that we will see moving into the spring that will help to reduce the impacts when people do start leaving the shelters, which is an inevitable part of the summer. The goal, of course, being that we will now be assertive and on the front foot, 10 toes down, I think they call it, in the process of ensuring that people aren't able to establish large and unsightly and unsafe camps within our community. Community. And so I want the record to reflect right now that for the first time in my memory, we have no tent city, we have no major encampment in the municipality, and that is worth celebrating to all of the people who have made it happen.

So I just want to put that on the record here. If you have more interest for information, you can— members of the public— go to ancgov.info/focus-homelessness, um, and the mayor's homeless strategy muni.org, Turn the Tide. I will offer there's one minority report that I've heard from one of the advocates of homelessness who suggested that the reason there's no camps is because we've illegalized it and we're arresting people and making it so hostile for them that they have no chance to be camped. But I don't see any evidence of that. Our jails are not filled with people who have been camping who are now stuck in the jail system.

And in fact, there have been very few engagements of that law. They haven't been necessary. And so people are generally complying this is a moment worth recognizing, and I do recognize it. So with that then, um, other than that, tonight we have introduced the Anchorage School District budget. It's item 10G.7 on the agenda for public hearing March 24th.

The budget document is very large, so we've posted it on our website for those of you who want to review it. It can be found at muni.org/assembly under About. In the upper menu bar, select Government to Government Relations and go to the the Anchorage School District section. You'll find that budget listed there as a proposed budget. It's also on the ASD website and will be in the March 24 packet.

I think that I'm probably going to end it there, just to say what the mayor had said, that we have our election kicking off very soon. Uh, the deadline to register to vote is March 8th, which is quickly coming up. Last day to vote— register to vote for the April 7th election. Ballots will be mailed out March 17th. If you're traveling during the election, there are several options available that you can still vote.

You can apply to vote at a temporary address. The form must be turned in by March 31st. You can apply to vote by email, fax, or secure document portal. And if you're in town, we encourage you to drop your ballot in one of the secure drop boxes. It's just one less step than the Postal Service where your ballot can get lost.

Once it's dropped into that secure drop box, it's going to be counted. Also, if you have any issues, you can call 907-243-VOTE, which is the voter hotline, or go to muni.org/elections for more information.

And if you want, you still have time to sign up for the ballot tracks system, which is available to anybody who's a voter in the municipality. You go to AnchorageVotes.com and you sign up there, and what that will do is it will send you a text or email when your ballot is mailed from the mailhouse, when your ballot is returned to the Dropbox, when it's scanned across the machine, or if there's an issue with your ballot, you'll get a notification to come and cure So it's an exciting time of year, folks. The election is on. With that, I'll do my best to move us along through tonight's agenda so we may conclude at the most reasonable hour. This is a business meeting.

We're here to do the work of the municipality. Please help create a climate of respect in the chamber. Refrain from personal attacks, speaking out of turn, shouting, or clapping and pacing, except when clapping is in order. Keep signs to 8.5 by 11 inches or smaller. Please keep the aisles clear except when lined up to testify.

Please also do not approach the dais. If you have information to share with the members, please hand it to the clerk for distribution. If a point of order is called, please stop speaking so the chair may rule on the point of order and the record is clear. If rules aren't followed, the chair may interrupt speakers to call for compliance. If compliance with the rules doesn't occur, then the chair may pause the meeting.

If there's an actual disruption, the chair will give a warning. If the disruption persists or happens again, the person will be asked to leave. With that, we'll go ahead and move on to the next item on our agenda, which is committee and liaison reports. We'll start with you, Mr. Myers. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Nothing to report. Thank you, Mr. McCormick. Nothing to report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Thank you, Chair. The next meeting of the Community and Economic Development Committee will be held this Thursday, March 5th, at 9:00 AM at the Permit Center. Um, just one legislative item, uh, Chair, tonight on the consent agenda is item 10B2. It's WISA, the Wildland Wildfire Interface Service Area.

I'm going to ask my colleagues to postpone that until, uh, time certain. Thank you, Chair.

So the motion would pull it when we come through the process? Yeah, got it. Okay, thank you. Miss Baldemar, thank you, Chair. Uh, the Municipal Audit Committee met last Thursday afternoon.

For those of you who are not aware, that our internal audit team at the municipality actually works year-round to audit departments and programs and to help ensure that our government is efficient and transparent. And those reports often require or request some sort of review or action from departments and, and from programs. In that spirit, the Audit Committee reviewed the grants management audit with the controller. That was an audit that came out the end of 2025, and we brought that back to review. The next Audit Committee meeting will be in a month's time, and I encourage folks who are interested in getting into the nitty-gritty of the workings of the municipality to tune in.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Baldwin. Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair.

So the recent meeting of the Assembly Legislative Committee was on February 25th at City Hall. Topics we discussed was a debrief of recent visits to Juneau to meet with the state legislature, including an update on how the mayor and the port director's conversations went down there, as well as assembly members including myself, co-chair, or vice chair Brawley, and Rivaldo Neyer and Rivera, and working with our partners of the state to promote the legislative program that was adopted by the muni, as well as just to engage in the challenges they're facing. We also had a more focused conversation around several pieces of legislation that the state is considering. One was HB 184 and SB 14, which would would expand ADA's scope to include workforce housing projects. Also House Bill 78, which would be a restoration of defined benefits.

Excuse me. And then also a discussion around funding for education. And on some of those items, I would expect that we may be seeing future conversations in the alleged committee, as well as possible actions for consideration by the body. I'll note for the Infrastructure Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee, the February meeting was canceled, so our next meeting will be March 19th. March 19th at 11:15 AM at City Hall.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Vice Chair Riley. Thank you. Uh, just one report for the Budget and Finance Committee.

Actually, two quick, quick reports. Uh, for that one, uh, the committee will be meeting— our, our February meeting was also canceled, so our next meeting will be Thursday, March 19th, 10 AM, 10 to 11 AM, uh, in City Hall, Room 155. And then just a note for members and the public, we are embarking soon on the first quarter budget revision process, so that will really happen in April. But some of the conversations we might be having at the committee in March will really be digging into some of those discussions, or at least those topics, before we get into the actual meet of 1Q. And then otherwise, I'll just say, echoing what Mr. Johnson said, had a great visit down for the AML conference in Juneau last week.

And then I know Felix Rivera on the phone, our board member, was fulfilling the final items in his duties as one of our board members. So thank you to Mr. Rivera for that service. Service, and we will continue to advocate in Juneau either electronically or in person. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Brawley. Mr. Boland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On February 18th, we had a meeting of the Transportation Committee, which meets quarterly.

At that meeting, we heard reports from the mayor and from our AMATS coordinator regarding the reprogramming of safety improvement projects in Anchorage. And we also heard more updates on the Vision Zero efforts to make our streets safer for pedestrians and other forms of transportation throughout Anchorage. From my personal perspective, I found those reports very encouraging, and I think we are headed in a positive direction. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vaughn. Member Silvers. Thank you. The Public Health and Safety Committee will be meeting tomorrow from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM at City Hall. We will receive an update from APD on the status of the diversion program that they are working on, on enforcement of public safety regulations within Title 8, and on technology implementation.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Silvers. Mr. Rivera. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As was mentioned by Vice Chair Brawley and by Member Johnson, there were several of us who were down in Juneau a couple of weeks ago for the Alaska Municipal League Winter Legislative Conference, as well as to meet with our Anchorage delegation and other legislators about municipal priorities. It should be no surprise to anyone that villages, cities, and towns across Alaska are facing similar issues. Whether it's education funding, whether it's deferred maintenance, whether it's community assistance or ports and harbors. We are all feeling the crunch right now, and we are all asking for leadership in the legislature and in the governor's office. So I think it was a good therapeutic, at times, exercise for us.

And as Vice Chair Varley also stated, it was my last board meeting as the board member and representative for the Municipality of Anchorage for the Alaska Municipal League Board of Directors. So that was bittersweet, but looking forward to the next person to fill that spot and continue that leadership, which is, I think, very much needed. The Municipality of Anchorage and the assembly should be leaders in that organization. Um, that is it from me, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rivera. Um, Mr. Gerker? Uh, no, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing to report.

All right, thank you.

So that takes us through to the addendum to the agenda. Before we get to the addendum— oh, I'm sorry, uh, youth member Loris. Thank you, Chair. On February 19th At West High School, the League of Women Voters held a voter registration drive during our lunch period, and from what I've heard, around 20 people, or 20 new voters, were registered during the 50-minute lunch break. And these efforts will continue until spring break at March 6th.

Thank you. Thank you for keeping tabs and doing that work very much. Okay, now we come to the addendum to the agenda, but before we get to the addendum to the agenda, we're going to address late on the table items.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and address the late on the table items first.

Yeah, so I'm going to go ahead and take up the supplemental items first. First, it's 10F7, information memorandum, unnumbered 2026, answers to assembly questions. And then I have AO 2025-144S, an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code 4.60.200, Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission, to require representation equitably from across all 6 assembly districts. Then that brings us to, uh, the new item for introduction, which is 10B4, Resolution AR 2026 Unnumbered, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly supporting the authority amendment submitted to the United States Army Corps of Engineers under Section 7001 of the Water Resource Reform and Development Act of 2014. So this item will require a supermajority vote to lay on the table.

Ms. Baldwin-Day.

Thank you, Chair. Do I move to add at this time? Move to lay on the table. Move to lay on the table. Second.

Motion to lay on the table by Ms. Baldwin-Day, seconded by Mr. Johnson. Ms. Baldwin-Day. Thank you. Um, the, the timeliness of this pertains to an upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. This resolution follows on an administrative action that the municipality took to request expansion of the United States Army Corps of Engineers' authority to do work in the Municipality of Anchorage in partnership with us, of course.

And I would appreciate the opportunity to take this resolution with me to D.C. and use it as a point of discussion with our congressional delegation. Thank you. Any further discussion? Motion lay on the table. Any objection to the motion?

Seeing here no objection, we'll consider the motion has been adopted.

So next we have 3 ordinances for introduction. Point of information, Chair. Yep. I think you might have said consider the motion adopted. I think you meant—.

Yeah, the motion being to lay on the table. Sorry. Yeah, the item is not adopted. The motion to lay on the table is adopted. Thank you for the clarification.

Um, yeah, I didn't say the item was adopted, I said the motion was adopted. Anyhow, um, thank you. Next up we have 3 items for introduction. Um, these items are going to require a motion to introduce, a second, and a third. So the first one is Item 10G.10, Resolution 2026, unnumbered, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly approving the 2026 Tourism Improvement Projects TIPS and reappropriating an amount not to exceed $1,600,000 from the Convention Center Operating Reserve Fund 2020-2026.

Tourism Budget Office of the Chief Administrative Officer as $750,000 to the area-wide general fund 101000. Office of the Chief Administrative Officer for the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts management cost $650,000. The Anchorage Metropolitan Police Service Area Fund 151000. Anchorage Police Department for overtime to fund foot patrols in high tourism areas. $100,000 Within the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer to support for rendezvous and other tourism.

And $100,000 to the Anchorage Parks and Rec Service Area Capital Improvement Project Fund 461-800 for mobile restroom facility. Office of the Chief Administrative Officer. Is there a motion to lay on the table? Move to introduce. Second.

Moved by Brawley, seconded by Silvers. Is there a third? I, I think I heard 2 seconds. Third by Miss Baldoné. Perfect.

So first moved by Miss Brawley, second by Miss Solvers, third by Miss Baldoné. That item will be before us at our next meeting. Then we have item 10G.11, Ordinance Number AO-2026, unnumbered, an ordinance to Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 3.30, Personnel Rules, Part 2, and Chapter 6.10 to require the number of full-time equivalent positions for each municipal department, office, and agency to be included and approved in the annual general government operating budget and establish as an upper limit requiring approval procedure and reporting for exceeding that limit throughout the fiscal year to authorize the Assembly Chair designee oversight of employee position changes and allocations in the legislative branch and waiving Personnel Rules Committee review. Um, this item also will require a first, second, and a third. I think the intent is to set this actually out to the next meeting, the first meeting in April.

Is that correct? Yeah, so that's April— what day? 14Th. April 14th. Okay, so, um, I would like to ask for a motion to introduce, lay on the table, and a second and third.

I move to introduce this, lay this on the table for, and have public hearing on the 14th of April. Second. Third. Move by Mr. Gerker, second by Miss Brawley, third by Miss Sol Ruiz. And then we come to the last one to be laid on the table tonight so far, 10G12 AO 2026 unnumbered, an ordinance of Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Section 3.30.142 and 3.30.144 regarding holiday pay.

Is there a motion? Move to introduce. Second. Moved by Brawley, second by Voland, third by Silvers. Which takes care of those items.

All right, so that brings us back to Motion to incorporate the addendum as printed and distributed in the laid on the table items. I'd like to ask for that motion. So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Voland, seconded by Ms. Baldwin-Day.

Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to adopting the motion? Seeing, hearing no objection, the motion is adopted. So that then takes us to appearance requests, which tonight we have none.

So we'll move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda items are numbered 10A through 10G and are typically routine items such as bid awards, new business information, and reports. Under assembly rules, items in 10A through 10F are not required are not required for public hearing unless— let me say that again. Under the assembly rules, items 10A through 10F are not required to be set for public hearing, but some resolutions may by the body. Um, before we go down the dais, there was some question from the administration on— I think it was 10E1, or I'm sorry, 10E6.

6. Are we prepared to proceed with that one as drafted?

We can come back, you can get an answer to that question while we go through the dais and figure out what items to pull. Um, Mr. Gerker, we're going to go through and pull items, so do you have any items to pull? No items, thank you, Chair. Thank you. Mr. Rivera.

No items, Mr. Chair. All right, thank you. Miss Silvers, 10A1.

10A1, Miss Silvers. Mr. Walland, 10A2. 10A2, Mr. Walland. All right, um, Miss Spraulley, my items have been pulled. All right, um, Mr. Johnson, 10B2.

10B2, Mr. Johnson. Ms. Baldwin-Day. 10 Delta 16, 10 Delta 17, 10 Echo 2, 10 Echo 4.

So that's, uh, 10D 16 and 17, 10E 2 and 4. All right, thank you. Mr. Martinez. My item's pulled. Thank you.

Mr. McCormick. No items, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Myers. No additional items next year.

So back to the administration on the question of 10E6. Through the chair, we're ready for it to be introduced as, uh, as it stands on the agenda. Okay, thank you. We'll let it— it's good to go. Okay, then to go through the list, we have 10A.1, Ms. Solvers.

10A.2, Mr. Wallin. 10B.2, Mr. Johnson. 10D.16 and 17, Ms. Baldwin-Day. 10E.2 and 4, Ms. Baldwin-Day. Any other items?

I am not hearing or seeing any other items. I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus the pulled items. So moved. Second. Motion to approve by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Voland.

Any discussion on those items?

Seeing and hearing none, I'd like to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the adoption of the motion to approve the consent agenda? Seeing and hearing no objection, therefore the consent agenda minus the pulled items has now been approved. Approved, which will take us now to item 10A1.

10A1 is Resolution AR 2026-48, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing March 2026 as National Women's History Month. This item was pulled by Miss Silvers. You have a motion? Um, move to approve. Second.

Move to approve by Miss Silvers, seconded by Ms. Brawley, is there any discussion? Um, I'll read the resolution. Hold on, we gotta pass the resolution first. Seeing, hearing no discussion, like to ask unanimous consent. Any objection to the adoption of the motion?

Seeing, hearing no objection, the motion is adopted. Now I'll have Ms. Silvers, you have the floor. Um, who is presenting and is someone here to receive it? Come, please come forward.

A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing March 2026 as National Women's History Month. Whereas, growing out of a small-town school event in California, Women's History Month is a celebration of women's contributions to history, culture, and society, and the United States has observed it annually since 1987. Whereas, the 2026 theme, Leading the Change, Women Shaping a Sustainable Future honors the women reimagining and rebuilding systems to ensure long-term sustainability and recognizing the powerful leadership of women in creating a future rooted in equity, justice, and opportunity for all. And whereas women have been at the forefront of advancing change, building on the American tradition of inclusive and democratic action to promote promote the common good, give voice to the underrepresented, and pave the way for a more just society. And whereas in 2025, the Anchorage League of Women Voters celebrated 75 years, making it one of the oldest and strongest civic organizations in the state, founded by local women and still going strong.

Now therefore, the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizes March 2026 as National Women's History Month and encourages our community to participate locally in programs, ceremonies, and activities celebrating the contributions of women to our rich history. Passed and approved by the Anchorage Assembly this third day of March 2026. [APPLAUSE] Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, sorry, I'm done.

Brief point of personal privilege. Could I ask the 3 women assembly members and the mayor and our muni manager to come down for a quick photo? And the clerk. And the clerk. Yes, thank you.

And then, and then we can continue on. Yep. And turn the microphone on before you talk. But yeah, might as well bring the health department director down and the chief of staff. And all the ladies in the house and the HR director.

Yeah, Thea as well. I, I regret that the municipal attorney is off tonight, but I don't All right, welcome. Uh, the microphone is off though, so you got to hit the green button. There you go. Good.

Please state your name. All right, my name is Christy Traver, and I'm a resident of Anchorage and currently the chair chair of the Municipal Women's Commission. And as I mentioned briefly to Assemblyperson Brawley, last year I came for Women's History Month. I had been on the commission about a month. I filled in at the last minute for someone else.

I had no idea what I was doing. I was unprepared. This time I came with prepared remarks, so— and I timed them, so I should be fine. Um, but throughout the history of Anchorage, women have made significant contributions to every discipline and all other areas of life. Women have influenced our culture and the progression of literature, photography, music, math, science, research, and so much more.

Women's History Month provides us with space to highlight women's achievements across these fields of work work, race, class, and nationality, and to inspire conversations about representation and inclusion. As important as it is to educate ourselves about the important contributions of the women who have shaped our community, it is also important that Women's History Month raise up the other half of the story. For every woman that is recognized, there are hundreds of others who never get the chance to develop develop, achieve, contribute, or to shine. Despite significant progress, disparities persist that impede the ability of women in our community to achieve their full potential. Gender wage gaps, underrepresentation in leadership positions, and violence against women are just a few of these issues.

This march is a call to acknowledge the past, affirm the present, and commit to a future where these disparities no longer exist and where women are equal in every sense of the word. It is a time to reflect on the sacrifices made by the women before us and acknowledge the responsibility we all share to continue their work to achieve that goal of true equality.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, so that takes us now to item 10A2. 10A2 is Resolution AR 2026-51, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing March 2026 as Brain Injury Awareness Month. This item was pulled by you, Mr. Walland. Yes, move to approve. Second.

Moved by Mr. Walland, seconded by Mr. Johnson. Is there any discussion on the item? Um, just that Member Johnson will be reading, and I— if there's someone to receive it, I will be presenting. There's someone to receive it. So, um, I'd like to ask unanimous consent.

Is there any objection to the adoption of this motion? Seeing and hearing no objection, the item is adopted. Um, please proceed.

There is someone. A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing March 2026 as Brain Injury Awareness month. Whereas, March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month, a time to recognize the prevalence of brain injuries and help make lives better for individuals who have sustained this kind of trauma. And whereas, traumatic and acquired brain injuries, T-A-B-I, can happen to anyone and can bring a lifetime of co-occurring conditions, including persistent concussion symptoms, PTSD, physical impairment, developmental delays, paralysis, cognitive or behavioral problems, suicidal thoughts, greater risk for dementia and Alzheimer's, and lifelong challenges for individuals and families. And whereas these injuries are often preventable and the incidence of identified traumatic and acquired brain injuries in Alaska is significantly higher than the national rate, policymakers have a responsibility to promote community safety and brain injury prevention through person-centered policies.

And whereas brain injury may contribute to homelessness, substance and alcohol misuse, criminal behavior, domestic violence, and mental and behavioral health disorders, but with access to updated education, assessment, support, care, and treatment regarding the brain's neuroplasticity, overall quality of life can greatly increase, and individuals may may be able to return to their community of choice, decreasing overall costs for care. And whereas global projections such as— excuse me— global projects such as Unmasking Brain Injury seek to give survivors a voice, promote brain injury awareness and education, and eliminate stigma by showing that persons living with brain injuries are deserving of dignity, respect, respect, compassion, and full integration into their communities. Now therefore be it resolved by the Anchorage Assembly that March 2026 is recognized in the Municipality of Anchorage as Brain Injury Awareness Month, and the people of Anchorage are encouraged to further public awareness of the effects of brain injuries, the importance of preventing brain injuries, and to observe Brain Injury Awareness month with appropriate programs and activities. Passed and approved by the Anchorage Assembly this third day of March 2026.

Welcome, Miss Alfonsi. I'm going to start a timer. Go ahead, you have the floor. Thank you very much. My name is Annette, and I am the executive director of a new nonprofit called Empowering Education.

And thank you for this resolution today. I've been told the current assembly and mayoral administration doesn't have any disability experts, so I apologize if that is incorrect, but, um, just with the information I've been told, since disability and brain injury are so prevalent in Anchorage, I wanted to share some education with you that can hopefully help you, your constituents, and future policies you create to make life better for people in the city. Healthcare experts have months-long wait lists here in Anchorage, and we have the biggest healthcare costs in the country. So it's important we have ideas about how to help ourselves heal after a brain injury. After experiencing a concussion or other traumatic brain injury, or TBI— oh no, I lost my notes.

Here it is. The body's threshold of tolerance for exercise can go down. There's something called the Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test, which uses a pulse oximeter that shows you your heart rate and your oxygen level. When you use the pulse oximeter on the Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test guidelines, you can find your threshold of tolerance for exertion and exercise and then slowly increase your capacity as you heal and return to play or return to exercise. For return to work or return to school, getschooledonconcussions.com is meant for educators and people who want their children to succeed in school with individualized accommodations and differences in teaching teaching styles.

DesignsForStrongMinds.com has options for individual appointments with an internationally known cognitive rehab expert and brain games that are dynamic. So that means they don't replay the same level and turn into a memory game over time. But every time you play the same level, it's a different experience. So it continues to be a cognitive rehab game. And it can support regrowing neural pathways.

And it's an app on your phone, so you can do it anywhere with a connection. When experiencing a head injury, two systems often affected are the vision system and the upper cervical spine. So the vision system is integrated with about 80% of the brain. So when that's affected, it can impact headaches, concentration, emotional response, balance, a.k.a. Vertigo, and more.

And a neuro-optometrist is different from a regular optometrist or ophthalmologist in that they look at how the vision system is working with the brain. When the neck gets hurt, if the atlas is affected, which is the bone that connects your head to the rest of your spine, ignoring that can also be detrimental to healing. And in one study, after years, 40% of participants attributed the remaining vision and neck symptoms to concussions. So in other words, once they knew what was causing the symptoms, they could work on healing, and once they healed, they could get their life back. So why am I sharing this?

First, so that we can all know what kinds of things to start with to support healing, and second, because recognizing symptoms you're seeing can mean the difference in supporting healing. Feeling or not. So as we pour resources and energy into homeless services, shelter services, domestic violence and advocacy services— I'll finish my sentence and be done— child safety services and people doing this work aren't learning about this because they think it's separate. It is separate. It is connected.

And I do encourage us to continue the conversation since this is a very small amount of time, and I hope that there was something to get the conversation going today. Thank you. You.

Thank you.

Miss Brawley. Yeah, thank you. Um, I wasn't going to mention this, um, but it does feel sort of appropriate. Um, I am not a disability expert, but I actually am a survivor of an acquired brain injury. About 5 years ago, I had a mini stroke, um, and so So it doesn't look like it now because I have luckily fully recovered, but I can say it is quite a journey.

And I was very humbled to see another member of our community at the same time I was recovering who had had a much more major stroke at the time, and happy to see that that person has also been recovering the last few years. So just to say, I do think, you know, we talk about TBIs, we talk about these major issues, but also just to say that it can be invisible. And so thank you, Ms. Alfonsi, for the reminder and the education. And I'm glad to see that this is being recognized on, I guess, a rather personal anniversary for me. Thank you.

All right, next up we have Item 10B2, Resolution R2026-52, Resolution of the Anchorage Assembly declaring the intent to evaluate a wildfire interface service area, WISA, to support long-term risk management and fiscal sustainability in high-risk wildland urban interface zones, requesting administration and several departments coordinate to evaluate Geographic Boundary Service Levels, Costs and Finance Options. Mr. Johnson, you pulled this item. Yes, I would move to postpone to the meeting of April 14th. Second.

Motion to postpone to April 14th by Mr. Johnson. Who is the second? Mr. Martinez.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you, briefly I'll say I'm excited to be part of this project. Certainly I think you all know that that wildfire safety is, is a priority of mine, as it is for other members in this body. I think giving this a little extra time for some more engagement with the community and stakeholders will allow us to hopefully bring it back for a more fulsome conversation here in the near future.

All right, so the motion is to postpone the item to April 14th. Any further discussion? Is there any objection to that motion? Like to ask unanimous consent. Seeing, hearing no objection, the motion passes.

We'll have this item back for us April 14th, which takes us to item 10D16. 10D16 is Assembly Memorandum AM142-2026, Sole Source Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity, IDIQ, Contract with 120 Peaks Consulting LLC to provide enterprise Enterprise Software Implementation Consulting Services to the Municipality of Anchorage. Ms. Baldwin-Day. Move to approve. Second.

Motion to approve by Ms. Baldwin-Day, seconded by Ms. Brawley. Ms. Baldwin-Day. Yes, thank you, Chair. Um, I have a few questions about the substance and expectations of this contract, if there is someone available to answer those.

Welcome, Mr. Soule. The microphone is off. So, Miss Baldonde, thank you, Mr. Soule. Um, I'm curious if this contract coincides with what we expect to be the implementation timeline for the new permitting software. Through the chair, Miss Baldonde, yes, we hope to have it fully implemented by December of 2026.

So by December, okay. Um, and, and what will be the sort of the deliverables or the intermediate expectations for this contract? Mr. Chair, Ms. Baldwin-Day, the deliverables will be the fully functioning software, fully live with, you know, all modules functioning, particularly the online permitting, online payment. But in addition to that, specifically development services.

So we hope to have the planning department also piggyback on this. They have every intention of doing so. So, but 2026 will be focused on getting Development Services up and running. Excellent.

How much of this process do you expect will include critical evaluation of sort of existing systems and processes within Development Services as you're moving through the implementation process?

To the Chair, Member Baldendale. Thanks for the question. I think that's a really good question actually, because the primary reason for switching, for upgrading our software is to correct a lot of deficiencies in the existing software. And one of the reasons for this sole source is because this consultant, this particular consultant has extensive knowledge of the shortfalls in our current software. So, you know, one of our goals, our primary goal honestly Primary goal being, uh, online permitting and payment, user-friendly online permitting payment.

But secondarily will be to, um, really identify all the pain points, all the— all the shortfalls of current software that we currently have multiple workarounds, and have that integrated into the new software so that it has— so it corrects the issues that that we face daily.

Is, um, is 120 Peaks familiar with the, the new software or the, the two new systems that you're moving towards? Through the chair, Ms. Member Albright, um, to some extent. Um, he was not involved in any of the demonstrations, but, um, he's basically read in, and he was actually involved. He's been been involved in the prior implementations, and so he actually was on staff when we were going through the software vendors and, and whatnot.

So he knows the functionality of the software that's available today. It's basically a no-code software. So once we're able to— once we're live, you know, basically instead of relying on rely on our IT department to do a lot of the corrections. We'll be able to do a lot of those in-house, and he'll be critical to that. Yeah, and I think that was, that was part of my question was, you know, utilizing an outside contractor as opposed to an in-house project manager.

It sounds like this individual's familiarity with sort of the inner workings of development services was the impetus for making this move as opposed to using one of our our IT project managers. Is that an accurate assessment? Through the chair, Member Baldonado, yes, that's correct. In fact, in speaking to the vendors, you know, we really asked, you know, what is the critical thing that we could do to ensure a successful implementation, you know, on time, on budget? And, you know, they actually said that even more important than IT support, which is going to be important for certain aspects like the data transfer and whatnot, but more important than IT support is having having someone who can serve as a point of contact who is intimately familiar with all development services, permitting, inspection, enforcement processes.

Ross, as you guys might know, Ross Nofsinger, previous building official, had 28 years experience with the department, and he is actually responsible for implementing a lot of the protocols that we operate with daily now. So, um, It was very fortunate that he was available. He's, you know, started his own consultancy, and he's excited for the project. He's willing to devote 100% of his professional time to it. So it's— I think it's going to be very beneficial to the implementation.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of enthusiasm for sure in the community about moving to a digital system. And I think at the same time, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I have heard some concern about the fact that an individual who has served for a long time inside of Development Services might not have the ability to objectively evaluate whether processes are actually serving us well and make adjustments as we are implementing a new system. So I, I wanted to be on record that I have heard some concerns surfaced that that while there is a lot of excitement about moving to a digital system, that to calcify or codify some of the parts of our processes that are the status quo as we are implementing this new system feels like a missed opportunity. So I hope that there is a critical evaluation of how we are sequencing this. Work.

Through the chair, Member Baldrian, if I can just respond to that. I appreciate the concern, I do, um, and it's not misplaced, uh, because he was entrenched in the old system, so I can totally see where that's coming from. Um, we will have several other staff members that'll be contributing to this process that are, you know, more— well, they're looking forward to, um, processes, and the messaging has been established, but essentially I think what partially went wrong with the previous implementations was that we tried to require the software to tailor to our processes. In this case, we are going to do the opposite. You know, the, the approach will be if we need to modify our processes, because we know this software is functional for hundreds of other jurisdictions, so it should work off the shelf with minor modifications here and there.

There, but essentially off the shelf. So our intention is to, you know, work with the, with the vendors and modify where we need to modify to fit the software, as opposed to the other way around. And I think everyone who was involved in the SAP implementation just breathed a huge sigh of relief to hear you say that. So, um, thank you. I—.

That's all my questions and comments, and I really appreciate you being willing to, to, um, speak to this. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks very much. All right, any further discussion?

Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 11 to 0, and the youth member votes yes, yes, AM142-2026 passed the body, which takes us next to item 10D17, assembly memorandum Item AM145-2026, recommendation of award of grant to Anchorage School District for early childhood education services for the municipality of Anchorage. This item was pulled by you, Miss Baldwin-Day. Yes, thank you, Chair. Move to approve. Second.

Motion to approve by Miss Baldwin-Day, second by Miss Spradlin. Miss Baldwin-Day. Yeah, just one question for the administration regarding, uh, the intention to fund this project in the future and how those funds might be sourced.

Through the chair to Member Baldwin-Day, I think at this point we're talking about the early childhood education, $2 million, which has sometimes been in the alcohol funding and sometimes in the marijuana funding. Uh, yes, um, I was curious if the intention is to, uh, to continue to fund that from our marijuana tax dollars, or if we intend to return to an A tax funding. I don't foresee a change in the first quarter budget revision process to the budget that we just adopted last go-round, but it remains an open question as we crash into the 2027 budget. Excellent, thank you. That is my only question.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Constantine. Thank you. So, um, that brings up a more procedural and philosophical question. Um, for the future, I think that there's kind of a tendency, and it's natural for entities who receive funding from the municipality to find themselves feeling like they're owed that money.

And separate from the school district in this conversation, which is part of the budget process, I'm hopeful that somewhere within the materials that we circulate for grants and other processes where we are acting as a funder, that we start to communicate that funding is either one-time or short-term, or in some ways that entities don't find us to become their foundation for permanent operations. I had somebody reach out to me kind of in the public sphere complaining about how their entity didn't get a grant this year, but they have always gotten the grant, and they felt very offended by it. And so I'm hopeful that on the front end we can start to communicate that we're, you know, you know, if we do this, it's a year, it might be 3 years, but, you know, please don't put this on your stack of permanent funding sources. So just a thought. Thank you.

Okay, so anyone else on this item? Seeing, hearing none, then members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera? Yes.

On a vote of 11 to 0, and the youth member votes yes, yes, AM145-2026 is passed the body, which takes us now to item 10E1— or excuse me, 10E2. 10E2 is Resolution R2026-44, resolution of the municipality Anchorage appropriating when tendered $358,678 as a reimbursable grant from the US Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention and appropriating $7,888 as a transfer from the Anchorage Metropolitan Police Service Area Fund 151000-2025 Anchorage Police Department Operating Budget all to the Federal Grants Fund 241 1 Anchorage Police Department for continuation of the Alaska Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. This item was pulled by you, Miss Baldwin-Day. Yes, Chair, move to approve. Second.

Motion to approve by Miss Baldwin-Day, seconded by Mr. Johnson. Miss Baldwin-Day. Thank you. Um, just a few background questions on, um, this particular task force, uh, which was new to me and to a couple of constituents who reached out, reached out with questions. So would love of just a couple of brief answers.

I understand that Chief Case is not with us in person but might be on the phone. Through the Chair, Member Baldwin-Day, yes, we can— I can answer general questions, and the Chief is also available on the phone for specific questions as well. Sure. I think these are, these are pretty, pretty broad. I'm curious to know how long this task force has been in effect, who participates.

It wasn't clear from the who the participants are. It sounds like it's a statewide group, but unclear if it's civilian, law enforcement, some combination thereof. What future funding we expect beyond this particular grant program, and if there are any outcomes that we've seen from this that we ought to know about. Thank you. I think, well, I can give you the broad perspective is for years this is a standing appropriation that we get every year for this.

It's part of task force that's part of a national network of these same ICAC task forces. They involve federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies agencies as part of the task force, and we anticipate continuing to receive the Department of Justice funding to support this task force moving forward. More specifics than that, I will defer to the Chief of Police, who I believe is on the phone. Chief Case, uh, do you have more specifics to provide?

Are you there, Chief Case?

If not, I think that's sufficient for my purposes, and I can connect with the chief. We're happy to provide additional updates. Yeah, I think that— I apologize for not having more personnel here in person to answer more specific questions. I'll admit we took this one somewhat for granted because this is something that the, that the department has been part of for years, and it is part of, again, a national structure that supports these types of task forces in every varies state and include again that federal, state, and local partnership. And we do anticipate that it will continue in its current structure.

So, but again, happy to have the chief follow up with you with more specifics offline. I know I'm delighted to know that this task force exists, and, um, chalk it up to a newbie question. Thank you. Are you there, Chief Case? Are you there?

I am. All right, now's your chance, Ms. Baldwin-Day. Hi, Chief. Just, uh, thank you for making time. Curious about the work that the task force is doing and what impacts we can point to here locally from the work of this body.

Yeah, through the Chair, Member Baldwin-Day, I heard the original question. So specifically, the task force has been around since 2007, and we have 34 agencies around the state that participate in the task force. Roughly between $300,000 and $350,000 annually is what this grant is awarded. APD is the, the agency responsible for this grant statewide. So approximately $115,000 each year of this grant goes out to other agencies to fund their programs.

And then the rest of the money is for equipment, overtime throughout the state, travel when travel has to take place, This also funds our digital forensics lab that we have at APD. So looking at digital devices, phones, over the course of time we've, we have used that lab to look at over 645 devices, over 160,000 gigabytes of data. We followed up on 1,300 cyber tips that we get in. And a lot of times when we get these cyber tips in, which is really kind of how this unit runs. We do pretty extensive work on those cyber tips, and a lot of times those cyber tips lead us to assist outside agencies, whether it's throughout the state or even out of the state.

We figure out that the tip is not actually occurring in Alaska. So last year, for example, APD made 14 arrests. That doesn't include all the arrests that happen throughout the state, as well as cybertips that we investigated that we pushed outside of the state. So this is considered a pretty extreme— a pretty stable funding source. We don't anticipate this going away anytime in the near future.

If it does, Internet Crimes Investigations throughout the entire state would, with the exception of probably APD figuring out how to do it and the troopers figuring out how to do it, would kind of cease to exist because this funds it throughout the state. All right, thank you very much, Chief. I appreciate that information. Absolutely. I have myself in the queue.

Mr. Constant. Thank you, Chief. Um, so without getting specific to any recent news, there have been many questions about this work that, um, people ask, why did that alleged to have happened 2 years ago and we just heard about it in the news today? So can you kind of walk folks through a little bit on why things take time time in this work, kind of what processes you guys engage in.

Uh, yeah, Mr. Chair, so from, from a lot of these investigations, as I mentioned, start with a cyber tip. So we have very little information to go on. And so we start these investigations from, uh, IP addresses is kind of our starting point. And so from there, we expand out to determine where these IP addresses are from, who's, you know, who owns the location or the device.

We end up going through, you know, search warrant processes to get some of that information. And we go through search warrant processes to conduct searches of residents and devices that we are specifically looking for. A lot of times when we have devices that we get, then we have to break break security codes to get into those things, which even with all the electronics we have right now doesn't happen immediately. Uh, so that takes time. So the investigative process takes a considerable amount of time.

And when you're talking about as many cyber tips as we get, um, you know, it's not like one tip comes in and then we have the opportunity to sit down and spend 40, 80 straight hours on one single tip. We're getting a lot of these tips in. Uh, we utilize our professional staff, staff, as our analysts on the computer data that we, that we're looking at, as well as detectives that staff it. We frequently are traveling outside of Anchorage to other agencies to assist with them as well. So there's just a lot of steps to go through to, to, to get back to the source, if you will, or back to the individual that we're going to consider a suspect and then move forward with, um, um, developing charges that we can, uh, that are solid enough that we can prosecute these cases.

So it takes, it takes a long time. Summarized, it's due diligence and due process. Thank you. Um, Miss Brawley. Thank you.

I just have a, a question, uh, not for the chief really, more for the budget perspective. Just, um, and not, um, I support this item My question is really, it looks like it's amending the 2025 budget, which I know obviously we're in 2026, so just curious what the mechanism is there. Is this related to the year-end closeout? Is this just we didn't get the grant as soon as we thought, or kind of, you know, why are we amending a prior year budget?

I think I can take a first crack at that one, which is that the year— the grant year starts in 2025, and you'll notice that from the description in the item, the funds— I believe it's like an October 1st start for the grant year, and the money was received at the end of the— of December. It's being appropriated now, but it will impact both fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026 because the grant year straddles two municipal fiscal years. Thanks. Yeah, and I know from other experience, you know, it takes a while to kind of close out the prior year, so that makes sense to get it in for accounting purposes. That's correct.

Thank you. And that federal fiscal year, October 1st. Okay, any further discussion on this Seeing, hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera.

Member Rivera.

Yes. Thank you.

On a vote of 11 to 0 on the youth member vote, Yes. Yes. AO 20 AR 2026-44 has passed the body. That takes us next to item 10E4, Resolution AR 2026-46, a resolution of the Municipality of Anchorage appropriating reimbursable grant from the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services in the amount of $130,331.31 to the state grant fund 231900 Anchorage Health Department for the provision of Medicaid counseling services. Miss Baldwin, you to pull this item.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Move to approve. Second. Move to approve by Miss Baldwin-Day, second by Mr. Wallin. Miss Baldwin-Day.

Yes, thank you. I was hoping to ask a couple of questions about the reduction in State of Alaska base grant funding for the ADRC and wondering if anyone can share a little bit more about that.

Through the chair. So, excuse me, you were asking about the ADRC's grant, or are you asking about this Medicaid reimbursement that we receive? Yes, and, and thank you for being willing to answer questions. So in the, in the memorandum, it says that the state of Alaska has reduced base grant funding for the ADRC over the last 3 years. And that this MAC funding is, is in some ways sort of supplemental, it's filling in the gaps.

I'm curious how much that base grant funding has decreased. Do we have any base grant funding left from the state of Alaska for this really, really critical local service? And is this particular provider agreement, the MAC provider agreement, sufficient to sort of COVID that gap? Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

So through the chair, The funding has been flat funded for several years, but the cost that we have, that we incur internally increases. So that is employee pay. And so what we do is we really look to these funds to help offset us. As at this point, we have not received the '27 funding. It will be a continuation from '26 funding, our ADRC funding.

And so it will be the same amount that we received in '26. Um, we also use operating funds, so we use 3 sets of funds, uh, to fund the entire program that we have. Um, what this means is that there's not necessarily an expansion of the program. Um, it is just the base of the services that we currently offer. Um, and again, we are one of 6 ADRCs in the state of Alaska, so it is critical, uh, that we continue to maintain these funds.

Thank you, that's, that's helpful. Flat funding seems to be a theme. Yes, thank you very much, Director Rash.

Any further discussion? Seeing, hearing none, the members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera?

Yes.

On a vote of 11 to 0 in the youth member Yes. Yes. AR 2026-46 has now passed the body, which concludes our consent agenda, which means we'll now take our regularly scheduled evening break, and we'll be back in 20 to 30 minutes. Thank you, everybody.

All right everybody, I think we have everybody. We'll go ahead and come back on the record.

All right, we're back. We have item 11A, Ordinance AO-2025-144, an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code AMC 4.60.200, Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission to require 2 members that reside in the Girdwood area and further define both the Girdwood area and Eagle River Zugack area. Public hearing was held, action postponed from 1/13/26. Motion to approve on the floor by Member Johnson, second by Baldwin-Day. So, um, we don't have— oh, we're missing Miss Brawley.

Actually, um, we don't have— all right, Mr. Johnson. Senator. Yeah, thank you, Chair. So this ordinance, this, this is really about how do we apportion representation. And there's an argument that it should always and only be based on population, and then there's another argument, and frankly I think it is one that I believe I've heard almost every person on this body make at some point, that it might also be determined based on impact.

Approximately half Half of the HLB land and their total inventory is in Girdwood. Throughout the valley, if you look at a piece of land that is not currently occupied by structure, it is almost certainly HLB land. It is also safe to say that almost any new development in Girdwood will take place on HLB land. No other district can make a claim like that. No other community within the bowl or in Anchorage generally.

And we've seen how this plays out. Most of the large and impactful moves HLB has made in recent years, and moves they're planning for years to come, are in Girdwood. Some of these have been very controversial and some of them less so. I will say I am proud to have seen the community step up in a very meaningful way to play an active role in identifying new areas for housing to be built, including the Orca Mountain View and Girdwood Industrial Park that are included in this year's HLB program. In fact, I think the only significant projects in the 2026 plan to build new housing are in Gerdwood.

But the community, the Gerdwood community, deserves a say in their future. And then please keep in mind that this is an advisory role only. If we were to strictly apportion representation on HLBAC based on acreage, 3 out of the 4 seats, 3 or 4 of the seats, would go to Gerdwood. This ordinance is asking for 2. I say this is a reasonable balance between spreading representation across the community and also considering where the decisions have the most effect.

This is fair. It gives the community the voice they deserve in how the largest landowner by far in the valley makes decisions. I believe strongly that this will lead to more informed decisions by HLVAC and will help create buy-in in the community community. When people feel like they have a voice and are being heard, they tend to support decisions. We know much, maybe most of HLBAC's efforts are going to be focused on Girdwood in the years ahead.

Let's, let's let the community play a meaningful role in that work. And I would like to invite the mayor, since they are also involved in this ordinance, to, to offer some comments.

Thank you, Member Johnson. If I may, Mr. Chair, um, and thank you, Member Johnson, for representing Girdwood and for bringing this item forward. You know, we just celebrated the 50th anniversary of munification, the uniting of our community of communities, and I think that it's very important in these seats that we continue to consider geography in decision-making. Where we live is part of what makes us diverse as a community, and after representing Girdwood for 6 years on the body, I really appreciate the desire for the more rural municipal communities outside of the bowl to be able to enhance their sense of place and have reasonable local control.

As you all know, Girdwood voted to tax themselves to build their own library. They wanted to do the same with their childcare center, but needed the approval of municipal voters, which they didn't get. And there are ways in which the municipality acknowledges the uniqueness of Girdwood and Eagle River, like with different chapters of Title 21 and service areas. However, I do believe that being unified as a municipality means that we need to be open to new ways of supporting our outlying communities. As briefed at the HLB work session, and as Member Johnson noted, the remaining acreage in the Heritage Land Bank supports having two Girdwood members on the HLB Advisory Commission.

And given that there are already two members from Girdwood on the commission, no reshuffling is needed. Thank you for considering this code change. This is something in the grand scheme that's not real big that we can do. It doesn't cost any additional funds to make this change, and I respectfully urge members to support this ordinance. Thank you.

Mr. Johnson? Nothing. All right, Miss Solis.

So as we learned in the Heritage Land Bank work session, Heritage Land Bank holdings are more complicated than just total land holdings, particularly when you look at the ability to develop or use those holdings. In fact, the Heritage Land Bank study showed that Girdwood has just 3.79% of the total land with developable zoning, with huge swaths of land unusable for development due to avalanche or flood hazard. Heritage Land Bank currently has over 70 parcels leased to government and private organizations across the municipality. It contains parcels that are zoned residential, industrial, and commercial. This change would give 400 people nearly one-third of the decision-making power over this huge variety of land across the municipality, much of what is revenue-producing and much of it which looks very different different from the avalanche slopes and floodplains that this policy proposal is based on.

HLB holdings and the developments it oversees change over time, and flexible— flexibility and equitable representation should be maintained. If Girdwood or any other community has a deep interest in HLB land use, they can pursue appointment on the board. In fact, this current flexibility has enabled Girdwood to have 2 members right now. The system is working. What this policy proposal does is it gives that additional seat on the HLB board to Girdwood and only Girdwood as an entitlement into perpetuity until another district gives up— unless another district decides to give up their seat at the table altogether.

Who will be asked to give up their seat? Case? The diverse, hardworking communities of downtown and East Anchorage? Midtown's business community? Quite frankly, codifying entitlement and special consideration which results in an inequity like this is embarrassing.

This policy seeks to bake in an inequality that removes flexibility and requires that nearly one-third of the representation on this board, which, let me remind argue, is tasked with managing lands for the benefit of all Anchorage residents to be held within the hands of 400 people because of a simplistic statistic that does not tell the whole story. It guarantees that no other district would be able to hold these two seats, even as their area may in the future become the main target of Heritage Land Bank acquisitions and disposals over time. I would like to refocus this policy discussion on flexibility equity, and an honest discussion that considers all the variables related to Heritage Land Bank holdings, including revenue-generating holdings and developable land. So I would move to amend by substituting the S version. Second.

Motion to substitute by Member Silver, seconded by Mr. Gerker.

Anything further? So what this S version does is it refocuses the policy on equity and representation. The Heritage Land Bank is tasked with managing municipal landholdings for the benefit of all residents of Anchorage. Its inventory spans multiple assembly districts and includes lands with varying present and future developmental potential. The complexity of these landholdings and the fact that their management priorities and development opportunities will evolve over time requires flexibility in appointments to the Commission.

This S version, rather than designating additional seats as an entitlement to a specific geographic area, it maintains the existing requirement that at least one member reside in Girdwood and at least one member reside in Eagle River/Chugiak area. Area while establishing a clear guardrail that no more than 2 members may reside within any one assembly district. This approach ensures equitable representation across all 6 assembly districts without overconcentrating representation from any single district. And I request your support for these reasons and all the ones that I spoke about previously. Thank you.

Mr. Johnson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple comments. One, I remember Silver's mentioned a couple times 400 people.

I, I don't think I've ever heard 400 people being cited as the population of Girdwood. Um, I think at least 2,000 is probably more accurate or closer. But I, I think it's— 400 is not a realistic number, and I, I think sort of speaks to perhaps the hyperbole that feels necessary to justify this, this S version here. I say when this is about flexibility, to say that we can have no more than 2 members in any one assembly district is actually fairly restrictive. And I would think when we already have other criteria that we require for membership on the HLBAC, that implementation-wise, this version, this S version here that we just got here today, I think would potentially add some complications that I think are fully hard to anticipate right now.

And I, I do appreciate the fact that this conversation does seem to be focused, though, around this idea of equity, right? Equitable representation. And yes, it's fair to say that not all the HLB land in Girdwood is developable. But again, as I stated before, any new development in Girdwood will in all likelihood have to take place on HLB land because they owned almost all the unbuilt-on land in Girdwood. And that is something that is an issue that has come up time and again in the community and one that I engage with this community quite regularly.

And so I, I kind of ask my colleagues here, perhaps rhetorically, when you look at the work HLB is doing in your districts, how much of it is that significant? How much of it is that controversial? How often are you hearing members of the community coming to you trying to bring forward projects to get more housing built? This is a conversation that has been happening time and again in Girdwood because there's no alternative but for the community to be that engaged in it because that that is their only path forward here. So as we talk about equity, I say, I say not entirely, but to a reasonable degree, we should consider not just the, the people there, because let's be honest, most people in the Bull are not overly concerned with what HLB is doing, but the people in Girdwood very much are.

And so I think that is the fair approach, to, to give them just these 2 out of 7 seats. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, you know, I think I share some of Member Silver's concerns. Um, you know, it seems that we— there has been, um, a recent push to give Girdwood more and more special consideration. You know, we just recently approved an item to make GBAS advisory on land use matters in Girdwood.

Which, you know, I still kind of hold the perspective that they already were advisory. They advise us frequently.

And, you know, and now this, and I am compelled by the rationale that, yes, there may be a lot of HLB land proximal to Girdwood, but that is not necessarily the developable land. And I think, you know, ideally all parts of Anchorage would have an equal say in this land that is supposed to be to the benefit of all of Anchorage. And so I appreciate this S version that has been brought forward, and I will likely support this amendment. You know, in terms of what the permanent population of Girdwood is, it seems when we have conversations centered around housing, we hear a contrasting message that the actual population is very small and in no mostly dark homes that are going to be built. So, you know, I think, you know, the amendment, I could take it or leave it.

The underlying item I'm unlikely to support just because I think to Member Silvers, one of the points that she raised, I think the system is working. We already have two members from Girdwood who are on this commission, and I don't necessarily feel the need to memorialize that as an entitlement.

Yeah, and so I, I will support the amendment. If it doesn't pass, I will probably be unlikely to support the, the underlying item. Thanks. Mr. Martinez. Thank you, Chair.

Question to the sponsor.

You've described what you're moving toward, like the you used to utilize values, equity, and what are you trying to fix with this?

What is the fix that this attempts to fix today that you identified as the problem today? Are you asking the sponsor, the original, or the S? The original. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

One, I think there is just an underlying base fundamental question about what is, what is fair. And I think I've kind of articulated those points. I would say in terms of how do I see this potentially solving problems in the future, when we allow the people who are most affected by these decisions to have more participation in that, I do think we tend to achieve better outcomes and we tend to achieve better buy-ins. I mean, we often hear the rhetoric, or at least I hear it all the time, that the assembly does things to Girdwood as opposed to doing things with Girdwood or for Girdwood. Girdwood.

And I think that just this basic advisory role of having a voice, just 2 seats dedicated to them on the HLBAC, which frankly exists in the status quo and seems to be working fine, in which case I say why not memorialize it so that hopefully that continues to operate in the way it is. By giving them more of an active voice in participation, I think that we will in fact find hopefully HLB land use decisions in Girdwood become less contentious. And as I mentioned earlier, I mean, I have been impressed by the community communities stepping up and participating. I think probably the two, two of the most significant projects in the 2026 plan to build new housing, and maybe the only ones, are in Girdwood. And it's because the community came forward and brought these ideas, um, brought these ideas to us.

So I would say they are playing an active role. I say we should respect that role. And I would say that simply dedicating two seats to them is a very reasonable step which I don't think frankly is going to harm representation of the other districts in the municipality and given what I think is the relative lack of engagement on HLB matters, I don't see this in any way necessarily disadvantaging anyone else. Thank you. You've answered my question.

And so just to follow up, one point of just clarity. In the amount of new housing starts from last year, year over year, they're not all in East— in Third Wood. So there are new developments coming online. We just voted and approved one for senior housing in the North District as well. So there are other projects happening, and I want people to recognize that across the rhetoric that we use tonight.

But you essentially said something that kind of locks me into— I don't think this is a project for this evening. You described that it is working today, why not memorialize memorialize those— the seats that you have today from Gerdwood, there are two on the HLB board. Why not memorialize that? And I guess the answer would be because development ebbs and flows. The reason that there's not a lot of HLB land in the core of the bowl or in East Anchorage, because it's been developed already to some extent.

And so the development patterns are are extending outward and continues to be that way because that's where the lack of development is versus the infill that many of our policies seek to address. So I just don't even see necessarily, to your point, where the problem is today. I do appreciate the attempt to memorialize, and I think that you are a champion of your district and, and righteously So I just don't necessarily see that as an actionable item today. And subsequently, the S version is an attempt to kind of bring it back from where I don't think it needs to move from. So I would just rather leave it alone today and see where this goes in the long run.

But that would be my position. Thank you for answering the question, Mr. Johnson. Ms. Wimpierson. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just wanted to raise a question for Process question, or maybe not a process question, a logistical question about the S version, which maybe the sponsor has addressed. I was just conferring with the real estate director. I don't believe we track the current membership of the HLB by district, by like street address of commissioner, because that hasn't been a required condition so far. And so logistically speaking, I think the administration might request time if the S version is to proceed forward to determine whether that requires us to substantially revamp the commission. I don't know if there are— unless someone on the— if you list that information— has that research has been done to determine if there are potentially more?

Because this concerns— this is by assembly district, so we know there are 2 Girdwood representatives on the commission right now, but I don't know— I can't tell you whether there are more than 2 District 6 representatives on the commission right now and whether this would require us to terminate the membership of a member of HR of HLBC and then how that would impact going forward the interest of other commissioners because as has been noted, the interest in serving on certain municipal commissions is connected to whether people see an impact on their, you know, directly in the interest, like the issues that are of interest to them. So we just don't know enough. We don't have enough information right now to assess whether are we going to— is this going to present challenges for filling seats going forward or for the current current seats. So unless that information is available in sources other than our own sources right now, I think we, we just raised that question as something that might want— we might seek to solve before a vote on this if the assembly were willing to take that time. So I think that I'm going to jump in, and I guess maybe this is a question for Council Dean.

Um, it's— it would be my appraisal that it's not retroactive active. It's going forward. And the reality is that it would only subject to future appointments to that question and not those that are currently existent. There are very limited means by which we remove individuals from boards. We could eliminate a board and that would make them gone.

But I think anyhow, so I would appreciate an input from Council Dean.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I think that implementing this is subject to sort of a reasonable interpretation, and what you've suggested is it's just going forward. I would also say that I think removal of board members is a due process question. They have a process in our code for removal, and this doesn't address that at all.

So I don't think it would be like we're getting rid of the whole board. It doesn't say that explicitly here anywhere. So I think it would just be over time time as positions become— I guess terms expire and appointments are made, that you should try to aspire to comply with that new sentence. And I guess in retrospect, it could have been worded differently rather than a mandate, to be more of an aspiration, like they should not be more than, rather than there shall be no more than one per district—. Two per district, excuse me.

So, Ms. Swinton-Pearson, though, did I hear what you were basically asking is for a little bit more time to think this through, And to the chair, I think this is a—. If the body were to move forward with this, I think we would request time if possible to consider whether we have— if the input is desired on whether this is something that is technically feasible. Because again, I think the only practical concerns I have about this is the ability to fill boards and commissions is already something that is relatively challenging. And I don't know enough to know right now whether we whether we have historically had more interest in this board and commission from any— if it's been geographically diverse all along or not, and if there's any kind of impact on the current composition of the board, etc. I just don't know.

This is something that was very new to us. So certainly, again, this is— I have no impact on— I have no say on how this proceeds. I just flag the issue as something that I— we don't have resolved on our end at this point. Thanks. Ms. Silvers.

I would entertain a change that would make this, no more than 2 members may reside within any one assembly district, if the applicants exist, that that's possible. I'm not sure exactly how to word that, but I do understand that you might not have an applicant from every assembly district, and I wouldn't want to have an empty seat because of that.

I am going to suggest that maybe this isn't ready for prime time. This conversation could use a little sausage making on the side as opposed to up here. We could do this here, um, or we could wait another meeting. And so it's really up to the body, but it's— we're verging into like, let's make kind of word choices on the dais, and rarely good. So I think I would like to just dispatch with this item tonight.

Okay, I mean, it's up to the body. Go ahead. Anyone else in the queue? Not seeing anyone else. Oh, Miss Baldende.

Thank you, Chair. Um, I, um, I think if half of the developable land in my district was held by a single entity, I would probably feel much the same member Johnson— over half of the developable land, I should say. So I think looking at an aerial map of Girdwood, the majority of the landholdings that are possible for development are held by HLB.

I don't particularly want to limit how, how many individuals from a particular assembly district can serve on the HLB especially since we don't necessarily know the makeup of that body at this moment. And I also don't think that apportioning 2 seats to Gerdwood in the interest of their own investment in how HLB holdings might be disposed of in their community actually precludes those same people from being pretty circumspect in how they address HLB land holdings in the Anchorage Bowl. I do—. I am sensitive to the the reality that the challenges that Girdwood faces in terms of housing development are different than what we face in the rest of Anchorage. And to include Chugiak/Eagle River, the challenges in Girdwood are fundamentally different.

And I, for one, am completely fine with the idea that that fundamental difference requires a different kind of representation. So that future disposal of HLB parcels in Gerdwood are considered very specifically by at least 2 people who reside in that community. So I'm, I'm inclined to support the original version and not the S version for all of those reasons, and I hope that other members consider those thoughts. Thank you.

Mrs. Rivers, did you want to get back in the queue? Yeah. I just want to clarify, developable land, it's 3 point— I think 7 point— 3.79%. So it's a very small percentage. We learned that in the work session on HLB lands.

So what you're talking about is overall lands, much of which is not developable because it's floodplain or avalanche. Slope.

Okay, so Miss Wind Pearson, um, I know that this may be more sausage making and perhaps this means more about the conversation. I just want to make sure that that number is being quoted correctly because that's not a total percentage of all of the HLB lands. That number is the percentage in general. Most of HLB lands are not developable, or they don't have— currently have developable zoning. That statistic is about percentage of lands that have currently developable zoning.

So across HLB holdings, that percentage is very low. That's low. That percentage is low in the northern communities. It's low in Anchorage, and it's low in Girdwood. It's not that 3% of all HLB lands in Girdwood are— or 3% of all developable HLB land is located in Girdwood.

Girdwood is that that 3-point-something percent of all of the, that the many acres of HLB lands that are in Girdwood are currently possessed developable zoning. So I just want to make sure that that's clear what that is. It is correct that there is a small percentage of the lands within the Girdwood Bowl that are currently, currently possessed developable zoning, but it's not that. It's just, again, I want to— there were many statistics presented and they're all parsed in very specific ways, but I just want to make sure that that number is correct. The number is correctly represented for what it is.

I think the point is it's complicated and it's more than just they have this much land and it's a certain percentage. The whole thing is it's— there's a lot of complicated variables.

Okay, we have the motion before us. The motion is to amend. Any further questions? I don't see them. House members may proceed to vote.

This is a motion to amend by substitution to amend, amend by substitution. Yeah. Member Rivera, no.

On a vote of 3 to 8, the motion to amend— and the youth member votes no.

No, the motion to amend by substitution has failed. We are back on the main motion. Any further discussion?

Miss Brawley, Vice Chair Brawley. Thanks. Yeah, and I was— well, one, I was trying to remember the last discussion we had about this before this meeting, and now— and this has been a helpful discussion. I think two things I just want to add to the discussion. One is in terms of representation on this board.

This ordinance doesn't— the underlying ordinance does not change it, but it's also worth noting that there's a requirement that no more than 3 individuals of the 7 members have a professional, basically, background, or I think it says background, but really professional interest in the real estate industry or development industry. And I think that's important. And that also speaks to kind of a risk of this board. You know, we've been talking a lot about the risk of does it become too focused on one region or not focused enough, Right? That's the discussion.

But also I think— and just a question that occurred to me really is, well, what about this requirement of no more than 3? And so could you have a situation where both of the Gerdwood members also have real estate interests, right? And so they may be driving, you know, from one perspective. Or you could have one where none of the real estate folks are the Gerdwood folks. And this ordinance doesn't contemplate that.

Neither does the current code. It just says you have to have one from Eagle River, one one from Girdwood and no more than 3 in that representation. So I don't know historically if those have been different folks or the same folks sitting in those seats. But I think it's really speaking to just, you know, when we're making decisions about public land and what happens, you know, what representation is there. And I guess one— I'm still kind of torn about how I feel about this one, but one thing to note also is I would hope that we we don't get into a situation where we start having, I think, regional seats on, for example, Planning and Zoning Commission.

You know, I think that that's not, again, on the table right now, but the implication of making changes like this could say, well, what about certain neighborhoods should have representation on Planning and Zoning, or we should have, right, you know, I mean, or we should have an overrepresentation on the on-site water and wastewater review of a certain region, right? So I think those are just risks that I want to put out there, you know, if we contemplate this beyond what's already in our code. And then lastly, I'll just note as well, I was digging back in the code to look at what the Advisory Commission does and, and what HLB does in terms of its formal functions. And of course it is advisory, but they have a lot of influence on the work plan and on the work the staff do in those discussions. But also I will note that this is a board that is subject to sunset.

So it looks like in 2027, 7. I, I obviously it's not never been sunset because it's still here, but it is one of those in the regular cycle. And so I think one option is that we make whatever action we take today, and then maybe that stands. But I think also there's a built-in opportunity by the next year, basically, for at least the folks who will be here to dig into that and say, is this working? You know, are we seeing issues?

Are we having trouble finding members to serve? Are we seeing that there is this kind of parochialism of interest that's growing showing on that body. And so anyway, just to say, I think there's another kind of built-in opportunity to have this discussion, not because the entire section of code is back before us with a sunset ordinance, but we get an internal audit and then we get an opportunity really to dig in further on issues potentially beyond what was in the original audit. So just to say, I think regardless of what happens today, I think this is— we know that this commission will be before the body again in a year, at least in terms of should it continue continue in its current form. Myself.

Thank you, Mr. Constant. Yeah, you know, it's interesting you raise the two commissions, Planning and Zoning Commission and the Onsite Water. I think those are two different universes of commissions. And one, your, your, your commentary, the commentary you spoke about that it wouldn't make sense to have pro quo seats because the Planning and Zoning Commission deals with issues all over.

The on-site water one is very interesting. It's almost the inverse because I would say Eagle River and Chugiak small and, and Girdwood and everything on that way and Hillside, it's limited, right? So there they do exist in, in kind of the bowl as a whole, but for the most part, like a vast majority of them are definitely on the hillside. And so, or or Eagle River or Girdwood. And so it— there might make some sense, there might be some sense to contemplating having kind of a more use-specific argument for seats.

And I don't know where that lands in the conversation about HLB, but it's interesting because those two things are almost in opposition to each other in my mind about who I would want. I would want people who who have to live with the consequences of on-site water, you know, people who are in a little tiny water utility that has well service, people who have to deal with septic systems, right? It just doesn't matter to the people of South Edition, Fairview, Mountain View. We don't have any expertise, you know, except for the lady who lives on my block who is a water engineer, right? Anyhow, I don't know where that leads me.

So just thinking out loud. Anyone else? We have the main motion before us.

Seeing, hearing none, then I guess members may proceed to vote.

Member Rivera.

No.

On a vote of 4 to 7, the item has— and the youth member votes yes. Yes, the item has failed to pass. All right, that now takes us to Item 14A. Um, the intent of the sponsor is to continue this to the next meeting. Mr. Rivera has just checked out.

Item 14A is AO 2026-22, an omnibus ordinance, the Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Sections 1.15.150 in Title II to update provisions regarding legislative branch organization, rules of procedure, and functions, and amending AMC Section 3.30.172 to update position classifications accordingly. Also, we have item that is listed as 10— Oh, that's— I'm gonna— 10G9 AO 2026-22S, an omnibus ordinance to the Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Section 1.15.150 and Title II to update provisions regarding legislative branch organization rules of procedure and functions, amending AMC Section 3.30.172 to update position classification accordingly, amending AMC Section 6.10.070 7.15.050 and 7.20.105 to clarify the Assembly's fiscal authorities to fulfill its legislative function, waiving personnel rules committee review. And so I'm going to ask for the motion to continue this public hearing to the meeting of April— March 24th. So moved. Second.

Motion to continue— yeah, continue the item to both items to March 24th. This moved by Mr. Myers and seconded by— who's second? Mr. Folland. Is there any discussion? Miss Brawley?

Yeah, I'll just note, obviously this is continuing the hearing. Um, the reason for the new item being introduced in the notice section is simply because it requires public notice because it's a change to the title. So those two items are actually associated, just to be very clear. And I think we could have done it the other way, but this is the way it's done. So, um, any further discussion on the motion to continue this item?

Seeing and hearing none, I'm going to ask unanimous consent. Is there any objection to the motion? I'm seeing and hearing no objection, so the motion has been adopted. Oh yeah, Mr. Rivera's gone.

Okay, that takes us to Item 14B. 14B is AO 2026-23, Ordinance to the Anchorage Municipal Assembly, amending Anchorage Municipal Code Section 3.70.090 regarding the process for public comment assembly approval on labor agreements. 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 is now closed. Would someone move to roll the body? Move to Approve. Move by Miss Brawley, second by Mr. Volland. Go ahead and move the amendment.

Miss Brawley. Thank you, I will move Constant Amendment 1. Second. Motion to amend by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Volland. Miss Brawley.

I will turn it to the sponsor, Mr. Constant.

So, um, This ordinance attempts to clarify and provide a little bit more guardrails around how members and bargaining units and labor agreements communicate with the assembly and the administration communicates with the assembly relative to the bargaining process. Uh, historically there has been, um, moderate compliance with the code requirement that we get a monthly update on the progress of bargaining agreements that are slow in process and might be facing some challenges. The amendment is a compromise between the administration, the HR department, the chief administrative officer, and myself, which the first version was, you know, as often happens when an assembly member drafts an ordinance, seen through the lens of an assembly member in the legislative branch, but not really holistically. So after some review, the holistic conversation that came about was it's better to ensure that there's a mechanism to update the progress and to provide the opportunity to hear from either party if an impasse is showing up, which that's what the monthly conversations are supposed to do, and that they can either come confidentially, confidentially through the municipal attorney and council, but that all parties must be notified when such communications occur, which I think that piece right there is what makes it, in my opinion, really a positive and effective change from the original draft version, is it just ensures notice. And so, um, that's what the amendment does.

Anyone else?

Mr. Johnson, just, uh, to clarify, from my understanding, so if I read this, if the amendment's adopted, then is it to say that, um, no reports may be made in executive session? Are we essentially, essentially taking executive sessions off the table? No, I don't think that that's what that says. It actually, if you read the section above where this section goes in, it says the assembly may establish the procedures and I think that what this does is it just creates a really clear communication of how we anticipate it. But I think that the parties could agree to meet in an executive session if such an argument was salient to the conversation.

Much of this should be seen in the perspective of the guidance resolutions that we produce before negotiations under— get underway. And maybe the possibility is we set guidance that doesn't work work relative to whatever is being negotiated in the moment because we were thinking about it one way but reality was a different way. Could be an opportunity for them to jointly communicate to us, but not wanting to do it in public because it, it is in reference to matters under negotiation with labor, that we get briefed on the items in a way that doesn't create any harm. But it could provide us the opportunity either to amend our guidance or give attorneys' advice and ask for action in the executive session. So I don't think it eliminates that possibility.

It just makes it clear that the intent to communicate is through these channels in writing, makes it clear, makes it easy. But I don't believe it would strip away that right. Okay, thanks. I appreciate that clarification.

I don't see anyone shaking their head, so I think that my comments are generally in line with understanding of my friends on the other side of the dais. Okay, anyone else on the amendment? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

On a vote of 10 to 0 on the youth member votes— yes, yes, the amendment has passed. We're back on the main motion as amended. Um, just this is This was really intending to correct kind of some impasses that we've seen in the past and recently where certain things that were supposed to be moving forward weren't, and there was no way for our friends in the bargaining units to meaningfully communicate that to us except for a once a month or less often communication that came co-signed by the administration. And so this just gives them a little bit more authority to push on the process to get items before us and um, keep the process moving. That's the intent, and I urge your support.

Anyone else? Seeing and hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

On a vote of 10 to 0, and the youth member votes yes, yes, AO 2026-23 as amended has passed the body. That brings us to Item 14C, AO 2026-25, an ordinance authorizing authorizing the extension of a ground lease between the Municipality of Anchorage, Lester and Anchorage Permit Development Center LLC, lessee for the land underneath the Municipal Permit Center located at 4700 Elmwood Road in Anchorage, PID 008-052-13. 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 is now closed. Would so hold the body? Move to approve. Second. Moved by Miss Brawley, seconded by Mr. Leland.

Any discussion? Seeing, hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

On a vote of 10 to 0, and the youth member votes yes, yes, AO 2026-25 has passed the body. Um, Mr. LaVarious, it is 7:30. If you feel like it's time to go No, now is the time. All right, thank you. So next we have Item 14D, AO 2026-26, an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 8.55 to clarify conduct that qualifies as animal neglect and when officers may intervene on behalf of a neglected animal, and to establish a new Class A misdemeanor based on repeat violations of Title 17, Animals, amending Title 17 by updating definitions and adding a new section making it unlawful to leave an animal unattended inside a vehicle for 8 consecutive hours or more, adding a new section to Title 17 establishing cost of care bonds for animals taken into protective custody and providing for forfeiture of ownership interest in such animals upon failure to post cost of care bond, and amending Section 17.70.020, civil penalties for animal care and control violations.

Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item, please come forward. Welcome. Please state your name, what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes.

The microphone is off There you go. I'm William Baxter, I'm Fairview. But I think we're at a good point right now because I remember back, back when I was going to assembly and, uh, we— you had 4 horses that were— you were paying, paying for it. And I think we're at a better point right now because we've We got FFA in some of the schools now. We got a full-time 4-H person at the UAF.

And, uh, and, uh, you know, there's a— you know, we're just at a good place right now. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard on this ordinance?

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

All right, uh, Jamie Lopez, formerly Coalition for the Homeless. So, um, yeah, it's into the work session obviously on Friday, watch that play out. Um, and if I missed something here, I apologize. Uh, so in general, I take pet food to people outside all the time and come across any number of people that literally have nothing, and the animals are pretty much all they have. And what I've seen play out over the past pretty much year and a half is you had the wildfire ban.

It really wasn't about wildfires. It was about preventing people from staying warm or cooking food, starting a fire for that. And then you had the 2025-74 S2 debate where you say you can't camp in X, Y, and Z, and really leaves nowhere left to go. And then the places that are left, they more or less put no camping signs there, so they have nothing. And then obviously, you know, another one that was just passed with the threatening, menacing behavior, where if you look the wrong way, maybe they can go at you for that.

And then now there's this. And so obviously it's semi-targeted towards people in RVs that are there for, you know, longer than 8 hours. And then how do you enforce it? Uh, you basically put a camera on them and maybe you catch them in 8 hours. But there's something beyond that.

So, um, as took place over the past 2 weeks, essentially what happened was something completely separate. You had illegally walking on the roadway, uh, where police basically went into a section of Mountain View in a residential neighborhood and were targeting people that were just walking up and down the road. And it was very, very ridiculous and shameful. And if you look at the sidewalk maintenance for the rest of the town— we'll cover this later—. Basically, to this ordinance, please.

Yes, yes. So the point that I'm getting at is This sort of semi-aligns, um, the— it sort of semi-aligns and says that police will have the authority to make decisions regarding animals. And I have absolutely no concerns about animal control. The people that work there, they're consummate professionals. They, uh, like animals themselves.

They understand other pet owners who also have attachments to animals, and they generally do not want to take animals away from the owners. And they try to work towards, you know, solutions that happen that way. But my interactions with law enforcement in general over a year and a half is there are good law enforcement officers and then there are bad ones. And so the bad ones typically, they have no shame and remorse and they will strip people of things. And if they are in charge of making these decisions, it says 2 violations within 10 years.

I think it was 3 and 5 before. And so now, uh, if that's the case, uh, I think that some of them may abuse this to take what's left from people that— and then they have nothing. And, uh, I hope that doesn't happen, but that is my concern. So thank you very much.

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

Second. Moved by Ms. Baldwin-Deh, second by Mr. Walland. Ms. Baldwin-Deh, anything? Um, I actually was hoping to just take a moment to express my gratitude to the Animal Control Advisory Board and others in the department, the Department of Health and Department of Law, for the deep dive that they did to, I think, construct something that's really important, and also for a really outstanding work session to walk all of us through that. So I just wanted to say Thank you for work well done.

Thank you, Ms. Baldwin-Day. Mr. Voland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to, um, similarly state my appreciation for the Animal Control Advisory Board, um, and also just to say I know this project has sort of been a long time coming, um, and in fact, Mr.

Chair, I know that this is a cause that, uh, you have been very close to and have worked on and have brought forward a draft, um, code amendment in the past. I know at that time we had some conversation around you know, how cold is too cold, how hot is too hot. And I think it shows when you get into a project like this, you know, how do you balance specificity with, um, the fact that, you know, different animals are different. You know, I, I have a very fluffy dog, um, who can handle cold. I take her ice skating with me all the time, and But some dogs can't handle that same amount of cold.

However, I think it's pretty universally applicable here that, that no animal should be left unattended in a vehicle for more than 8 hours. So I know this has been something that's been iterative, and I like the product that is before us tonight, and I hope all my colleagues will support it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll just add a final note, if there's no one else in the queue, that it's testament to the work that's been done that there's not a line of people here shouting at us.

So, um, the fact that all of the burrs have been brushed off, the thorns have been pulled, it is ready for prime time. With that, I'll— anyone else? Seeing here none, members may proceed to vote.

On a vote of 10 to 0, AO 2026-26 unamended has passed the body. Next is item 14E, which is AR 2026-40, resolution of the municipality of Anchorage appropriating an amount not to exceed $1,932,000 of Convention Center Capital Reserve Fund 202030 fund balance within the Convention Center Capital Reserve Fund 202030 as a transfer and appropriating the said transfer to the Areawide General Capital Improvement Projects Fund 401800, all within the office of the chief administrative officer, for addition of multiple capital improvements at the Denaina and William A. Egan Convention Centers and amending the Denaina China and Egan Convention Center's 2026 capital improvement budgets and the 2026 to 2031 capital improvement programs. Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard on this item? Anyone at all?

Seeing hearing none, public hearing is now closed. What say all the body? Move to approve. Second. Second by Ms. Brawley, second by Ms. Baldwin-Tay.

Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

On a vote of 10 to 0, AR 2026-40 has passed the body. Next we have item 14F, which is AO 2026-27, an ordinance, the Anchorage Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 21.05, 21.40 Old Code, and 21.50 Old Code, and sections 21.09, 050, 21.10.050 and 21.35.020 old code to clarify the land use review process for data centers and similar energy-intensive facilities and requesting the Planning and Zoning Department develop— excuse me— requesting the Planning Department develop use-specific criteria for energy-intensive uses and waiving Planning and Zoning Commission review. Public hearing on this item is now open. Anyone wish to be heard tonight?

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

All right, uh, Jamie Lipinski, Anchorage. So, um, again, went to the work session on Friday. Uh, it was a nice presentation, it was pretty well put together. Um, there were a couple things that I noticed, uh, just something there pertaining to 2,000 servers, as you know, sort of definition between, you know, a larger data center and smaller data center. And then, uh, basically, you know, you're trying to hope that they're telling you the number of servers that they have.

Because if you have large servers, you know, 4U cabinet servers with, say, a couple petabytes, does it use the same energy requirements as a 1U blade server? Um, you really can't tell. And so when you start to work these things, it's better just look at the power consumption requirements the water requirements and wastewater requirements, and, you know, there are some other things along it— along that route. Let's see what else is going on with this thing. So colocation in general, you know, typically you have these large organizations that create data exchanges and then you have any number of network service providers that provide connectivity, Tier 1 ISPs, and you can sort of define data centers based on that because you have to lay fiber optics in the ground ground and then light them, and then, you know, they're maintained for a while.

So you can go on with that. I didn't really see that in there. But yeah, I'd say it's a good start. But if you're using, you know, enough energy for 100,000 households, I think it was, that should be a large concern. Do you have space here within Anchorage to host these things?

And obviously, with, uh, what's happening with AI and artificial general intelligence and superintelligence, um, any number of industries are going to be displaced very shortly. And the question is then, what happens? And, and, uh, I'm going way too far into the weeds on this one. I could for a very long time. So what I will say is, uh, excellent job, Ms. Brawley.

Uh, I, I was impressed. But, um, yeah, I would be concerned about about, uh, your utility bills and if this is something you really want in this city, because obviously it's expensive to live here. So thank you very much for your time.

Anyone else wish to be heard on this item? Mr. Brawley? Oh, sorry, Mr. Chair, actually I'm gonna move to postpone the— or excuse me, move to continue the public hearing till the meeting of 3/24. All right, so motion to continue to 3/24 Motion is moved by Mr. Walland, seconded by Ms. Brawley.

Mr. Walland. Yeah, I will just say, um, we are likely going to be bringing forward an S version. We heard a lot of great questions at the work session from our colleagues, which caused ensuing typical Member Brawley emails to many of our community— very detailed is what I mean by that— to many of our community partners, and we're, we're looking to get feedback from the utilities that we can also incorporate. Um, so we, yeah, we hope to have a more finished product for you by 3/24. Thank you.

All right, anyone else? Is there any objection to the motion to continue the public hearing? Seeing, hearing no objection, the motion carries. We will now move on to item 15A, quasi-judicial hearing, Resolution R2026-42, 2, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly stating its conditional protest regarding the renewal of a beverage dispensary license number 4109 with a restaurant endorsement for BK LLC DBA Cinco de Mayo located at 111 West 38th Avenue, Anchorage 99503. Public hearing on this item is now open.

Anyone wish to be heard? Anyone at all? Seeing hearing none, the public hearing is now closed. Let's swell the body. Move to approve.

Second. Moved by Mr. Mullin, second by Ms. Baldwin-Day. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, members may proceed to vote.

Member Gerker.

On a vote of 10 to 0, AR 2026-42 has passed the body, which takes us to audience participation. Please come forward if you'd like to be heard.

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

I'm 70 years old now, but when I came to God when I was 23 years old, and the other good thing I did when I became— when I started believing God is I got an Amway. And Amway at the time was— there was a lady out there in the valley called Silly Wolf. She She was the pioneer of Amway in Alaska. And I was sponsored by her sister. And Sylvia used to push tapes to me and books to me back in Wasilla.

Then later on, I got in Amway again, went to Anchorage. And I was in Amway. In Anchorage and Sylvia would come to Anchorage all the time. This lady was at the time, at the first time, she was the biggest Amway distributor. Then when I went to Anchorage, she was the second largest Amway distributor in Alaska.

And she pushed me tapes again, pushed me tapes and books in there. And then I got in another multi-level called Nikken. It's a magnetic healthcare company. Company, and I had 27 people under me. My biggest mistake was I didn't sell the books.

I didn't sell the tapes. And my distributorship went down. And I get emails from Nik now. And the other thing is when I see FFA kids, and I see 4-H kids, and I see the kid— uh, there's a high school and junior high, uh, organization out there for, for high school kids, and they, they have a lot of leaderships. And Amway— I mean, uh, FFA has good leaderships.

I, I saw a picture of them, uh, the FFA kids down, uh, in, uh, uh, uh, in that. And there was like, uh, 5 of them in the, in the picture. And thank you. All right, anyone else wish to be heard, please come forward.

While we're waiting, I'm going to read an item for introduction into the agenda. It's AIM unnumbered, um, from, uh, 2026, from the chair of the assembly at the request of the school board, subject AO 2026 -21, school board direction regarding use of the revenue from Proposition 9, the ASD operational costs, special property tax levy 2026 only, if it should pass. And so, uh, it's been handed out and distributed, will be incorporated into the package going forward through the public notice process. And it— I am just directing the clerk to subordinate this item to AO 2026-21. And for members' notice, we will be, um, probably coming forward with either an S version or amendment to the budget that will authorize if the voters pass the item that the levy is just appropriated, so we won't have to come back and try to do it again depending on how that goes.

So that'll be that. Mr., um, please welcome, please state your name, a part of town you're from, and have 3 minutes. Can I hand you something? Your time started, so go ahead. So I'll hand it to you after.

All right, uh, Jamie Lopez, East Anchorage, formerly Kolosh, formerly Homer. So the court of public opinion. It's not the same as the actual court, but, um, it does seem like that's the one that, you know, politicians and public officials pay attention to more. So where am I going with this? So last meeting, 2 weeks ago more or less, I described something that I witnessed basically over in Mountain View where, uh, there were APD officers basically going in the middle of Mountain View at night and randomly, uh, basically stopping people and citing them for illegally walking on the roadway when the sidewalks were full of snow.

And it just seemed a bit ridiculous. And so anyways, I tried to sort of bring this to the public attention the next day, Transportation Committee meeting. Then I tried going to the ombudsman and more or less talked to him. And then the result of that was they cannot basically dismiss citations. You have to go through the process until it fully completes, and then you fill out a complaint form, and then, you you know, you call Internal Affairs.

And so talked to the prosecutor's office. They could quickly tell that this was not right, and they said, "Go down to Budzman, or maybe go to the 8th floor." And so I talked to somebody, and then apparently the chief of police thought everything was on the up and up, and yeah, that's sad. So anyways, I just happened to look into this a little bit further. I know at least 5 people that got cited. And so there's an RTIS map, which you cannot see right here, which basically shows shows the streets in Mountain View.

Now if you look at the RTIS map of these streets that are maintained, you know, or sidewalks that are maintained in the middle of winter, almost no residential areas are covered in the city of Anchorage outside of downtown. Well, there happen to be, you know, like these 2 out of 10 in Mountain View that are north-south, and then they have 2 right off Mountain View Drive, and these are not arterials. And so if you're a pedestrian and you're walking in the middle of a neighborhood, do you expect to get sighted In the south side of town, this would not fly. But apparently, you know, they were running an operation here, and it just seems wrong. The goal of a Terry stop is essentially to stop somebody under the pretext of something.

You get their information, you cite them, they know they can't pay the fine, so then, you know, $70 is like a million dollars to somebody that doesn't have it. And then it basically makes it so that it gives— it justifies increased police presence within an area. Crime statistics go up within that area, and then becomes a vicious cycle. And so I don't see why these charges shouldn't be dismissed— excuse me, citations. But the interesting thing is there is a municipality of Anchorage snow and ice control plan, and if you read this thing on neighborhood sidewalks, on page 7, it says historically the municipality has not cleared most neighborhood sidewalks due to the cost of hauling, design of our roads.

We must use sidewalks to store snow. So if you're using the sidewalks to store No, why would you cite them, the pedestrians that are walking on the roads? Because clearly they're not able to get where they need to go. So anyways, uh, thank you very much for your time. Thank you.

All right, anyone else? Now's your chance. We're going to move on soon, sir, if you wanted to speak to us.

Nope. Okay, then we're going to go ahead and move on.

Now is your chance. Yeah, it's any— anything. You can speak on any item right now, and we're just— this is the last opportunity. Yeah, welcome. Please come forward, state your name, what part of town you're from.

You'll have 3 minutes. You can speak on any topic.

These are, uh, this is a vicinity map and it's, uh—. Please state your name and what part of town you're from. You'll have 3 minutes. Can I get time to start after the maps have been distributed? Nope, we're going to have you get started and the maps will be here and you'll tell us and we'll get them.

My name is Steve Rydell. I'm Spinard.

I'm—. There's two maps that I passed out. One's a vicinity map of my lot in Spinard right off Fish Creek, and I really like people to be following along when I'm talking about it. It makes a lot more sense to be looking But if you know where, uh, 30th and, uh, where Fish Creek comes through, there's a 28,000 square foot lot zoned R2M. And if you orient yourself, you can get to the second map.

And what I, what I'm bringing to the assembly is basically an environmental concern. If you look at the the big map, and you'll see on Lot 15 in red, that, that is a permissible sewer pipe. AWU will let me do it. The Corps of Engineers will let me do it. State Fish and Game will let me do it.

And it runs through 100 feet of real wetlands— get your boots wet wetlands. It crosses the creek, and then it plugs into the AWU manhole, which is not good practice, but the pipe is so corroded in that vicinity, is 65 years old, and AWU doesn't want me to normally plug into the pipe. Okay, so if you look in blue on parkland, the parkland is in green, and then the proposed sewer on high ground is in parkland. Okay, this goes through 90 feet of high ground. There's no environmental damage.

It's 7 feet above mean high water, normal high water of the creek. There's 14-inch birch trees on it. This is parkland, so politically legally, it's very difficult to build under parkland. However, the choice is environmentally damaged. The permission that I have is environmentally damaging.

I don't want to do it. I want to do it where the non-environmental damage happens under parkland. And I would like you people in the Assembly to consider this and speak to Parks in that regard and say, look, I mean, it's real environmental damage. Damage versus under parkland. Thank you.

I have a question for you. Um, you said that there is proposed sewer in the parkland. Is that proposal by you? No, no. Yeah, yeah, there's two proposals here.

One is, is on my land where I have permission from everybody, all the agencies including the Corps of Engineers. The other, in this map in blue, is proposed to go in parkland, under parkland. So you're asking for— if I'm just— I don't know what the distances are, maybe 50 feet of your sewer line to go through parkland as opposed to your sewer line to go through your lot, right, because of the environmental concerns? Yeah. And and it's 20-foot easement, 20 by 100 is what I'm looking for.

And there— it connects to an existing sewer that already crosses the creek there. That's in black. It's existing. So I wouldn't have to cross the creek. I wouldn't have to go in high-value wetlands.

It would be high and dry and an existing crossing. So everything seems to line up in favor of the park. Um, if—. All right, thank you. That's—.

I just—. Any other questions? Yeah, I think there's Miss Brawley. Go ahead. Um, yeah, just a brief question.

Have you, um, spoken with, um, staff about this already? Well, I've—. Muni staff specifically. Have you spoken with anyone at the municipality staff, you know, planning department, parks department? Yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, I dealt with parks, uh, uh, parks originally, uh I think 3 years ago told me that I would have to have a vote of the people. So I worked getting a petition to petition, which is part of the process, and to get a vote of the people. And then you people, I think, rescinded that requirement for the vote of the people. You understand that? In order to get work— in order for me to use Parkland, I had to have a whole vote vote of all 300,000 of us to use Parkland, but that's gone, obviously rescinded.

So I'm just going to ask the park— again, ask the Parkland to, uh, to do this for me. Thanks for the information. Okay, I would ask you send an email to the assembly, [email protected].

Of. I've mass emailed, uh, everybody on this. It's probably better to send it again now that you've been here, so it's top of mind. Just—. I will, I'll resend these maps too.

All right, thank you. All right, thank you guys. All right, anyone else wish to be heard tonight? Anyone at all? Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to the last part of our agenda, member comments.

We'll start with you, Mr. Gerker. No additional items, thank you. All right, thank you, Mr. Solvers? No comments, thank you. Mr. Voland?

No comments, thank you. Vice Chair Raleigh? No comments. Mr. Johnson? No comments.

Ms. Baldwin-Day? I will see you all in 3 weeks. Mr. Martinez? Just a comment to the mayor. Mayor, thank you for keeping your word, for helping us get our coordinated response back on track, and for the doubling of the Healthy Spaces team.

Um, It's going to make a difference this summer. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McCormick. No comments. Thank you, Mr. Myers.

Thanks, Chair. No additional comments. And I just say thank you, everybody. We got out here at a very decent hour, and we'll be back in 3 weeks. Talk to you soon.

We are adjourned.