Casey Kelly

City and Borough of Juneau officials are scrambling to apply for a state grant that could pay for at least half of a new library in the Mendenhall Valley.

The original deadline to apply was in January, but the Division of Community and Regional Affairs moved it up to November 4th.

Ten Alaska communities had projects funded in the first two years of the library construction grant program. City Library Director Barbara Berg says Juneau is in line to get money this year. She says a new branch in the valley won’t happen without it.

“If we can’t get the grant, then we’re not going to move ahead with anything. That’s integral to making this work,” Berg says.

The plan is to build a new 13- to 15-million dollar library on city property at Dimond Park. With the state grant picking up half the cost, Berg says the city’s contribution would be less than 7.5 million. That can include the value of the land, local fundraising, and other grants. She says the nonprofit Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries has already raised about a million dollars for the project.

“This is an opportunity to do something that has been planned for many years, and we will get something that can serve as the civic heart in the valley,” says Berg. “Improved access to meeting spaces for people, and above all better service to the people in the valley.”

The valley branch is currently located in the Mendenhall Mall, which was supposed to be a temporary site when it moved in there in 1983. Berg says the city pays about 192-thousand dollars a year in rent for the space, and special events are limited to times when the mall is open.

The branch is the busiest of Juneau’s three public libraries. Berg says it gets 53 percent of all visits system-wide and 46 percent of all checkouts.

Library officials will meet with the CBJ Assembly Public Works and Facilities Committee on Monday. They’re hoping to get assembly approval of the grant application on Monday October 17th.

Link: Juneau Public Libraries

A Juneau-based nonprofit that aims to curb the use of plastic shopping bags in the Capital City won’t be deterred by voters’ rejection this week of a citizen’s initiative to tax those bags at certain retailers.

The group’s director says the measure raised awareness of the pollution and environmental damage caused by plastic bags, and members will look for ways to keep the conversation going.

Turning the Tides Director Dixie Belcher wasn’t surprised that voters rejected the group’s plastic bag tax initiative by more than two to one.

“Plastic bags are either banned or taxed in two-thirds of the world, but that has never come from a vote,” Belcher says. “It has always come from a city council, or from a legislature, or from the country. When it goes out to a vote, it’s always voted down.”

Opposition came from people who disagreed with the structure of the tax, levied only on large stores like Fred Meyer, WalMart and Safeway with average annual gross sales of 15-million dollars or more over the last five years. Most people thought the tax would be passed on to consumers.

“There’s a lot of people that just plain don’t want a tax,” says Belcher. “And I think that they didn’t like that it would just apply to four stores – which really wasn’t our idea – that came from the business community.”

Belcher says just having the measure on the ballot raised awareness of the pollution and environmental harm caused by plastic bags, especially on oceans. Turning the Tides regularly sponsors movies and speakers on the issue, and gives away free reusable bags at events around town. Belcher hopes they can build on the momentum of the campaign.

“I think we’re going to be talking to teachers, to school teachers, with the possibility that some children could make bags in the schools that they could take home and their families would use,” she says. “We’re just going to continue to do that sort of thing and also try to reach people that we haven’t reached.”

That includes public officials and the business community.

“There are definitely people in the business community who are 100 percent behind it, and there are definitely public officials who are interested, and I think we have more now,” says Belcher.

Randy Wanamaker, who was re-elected to the assembly on Tuesday after a year-long absence, says he met a lot of people during the campaign who opposed the bag tax. But he says the same people were concerned about the city’s ever expanding landfill.

“This is something that helped people talk about solid waste in the broad, strategic sense,” Wanamaker says.

Belcher thinks some voters who opposed the tax would have supported a ban on plastic bags. While Turning the Tides probably won’t attempt another citizen’s initiative, she says it will continue to push for change on the grassroots level.

“It’s a huge problem, and I think plastic bags’ days are numbered,” she says.

A controversial proposal to allow CBJ officials to opt out of state financial reporting requirements resoundingly failed on a vote of 4,288 to 1,511.

Under Proposition 1, Juneau Assembly, School Board, and Planning Commission members as well as the city manager would have disclosed their income to the city instead of the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

State law requires municipal officials annually report all sources of income over one-thousand dollars; all gifts over 250 dollars; capital gains, real property, loans, contracts and leases. Disclosure also applies to each official’s spouse, domestic partner or dependent children.

The state allows municipalities and boroughs to opt out, as long as they craft a local financial reporting law and voters approve. More than 116 communities across the state have done that.

But Assembly members couldn’t convince Juneau voters to allow it.

Randy Wanamaker – who ran unopposed for a District 2 seat – says he’s not surprised.

“It was clear to me the public believed in the APOC process and thought that city step might be a weakening of disclosure,” says Wanamaker, who has served nine years on the assembly and filled out the forms every year.

“I can work with the APOC process and believe the public has a right to be able to trust in the integrity of their elected officials,” he says.

But a number of Assembly members, including Mayor Bruce Botelho, believe the more rigorous regulations have a chilling effect on potential candidates for city offices.

It’s a complicated issue and Botelho says he expected a decisive defeat.

“I’m disappointed because of my concern about losing good people who might otherwise run for office,” Botelho says. “But I think that’s the price one pays for requirements we have in place. People put a premium on disclosure and making sure there are not conflicts of interest.”

Under the proposed CBJ ordinance, officials would not have to report the amount and source of income over one-thousand dollars.

After three terms on the Assembly, outgoing member Merrill Sanford says he’s had no trouble with the state requirements, but also believes they deter good candidates.

“For me, it’s not a big thing because I don’t have a bunch of money and I’ve lived here all my life. But for a business man I would think that it would be a real pain in the rear end to do that every single year and disclose all those accounts that you have over a thousand dollars,” Sanford says. “That bothers me that we may be disenfranchising people who may want to run to not run.”

The Alaska Municipal League supported Juneau’s effort to opt out of the state disclosure law. AML says more individuals would run for local official or serve on boards, especially in small, rural Alaska communities.

Meanwhile, Juneau shoppers will not have to pay for the plastic bags they get at the store.

By more than two to one, voters yesterday rejected Proposition 5, which would have levied a 15-cent tax on plastic grocery bags at certain retailers.

The measure failed with 4,193 no votes, and just 1,850 votes in favor.

Organizers of the citizen’s initiative described it as a way to encourage people to bring reusable shopping bags, and pointed to pollution caused by plastics.

Opponents argued the fee unfairly targeted larger stores – those with annual average gross sales of 15-million dollars or more in the last five years. And most of the tax would be passed on to customers.

Though it failed, the proposed tax raised awareness of the problem of plastic pollution, says Assembly member-elect Jesse Kiehl.

“I think there’s a chance to work with some of the stores here in town and hopefully to try and change some of the culture, so that perhaps we can encourage people more to use reusable bags, and just cut down on the amount of plastic trash that we’re generating,” says Kiehl.

Assembly member Merrill Sanford wasn’t surprised the plastic bag tax failed. But he says the conversation should continue, because the public needs to be educated on the issue.

“I know you won’t get everybody that way and it’ll take a longer time,” Sanford says. “But I think that’s the way to do it, instead of making more regulations or more laws.”

Only 25 percent of Juneau’s registered voters cast ballots in yesterday’s municipal election. They elected three Assembly and two school board members, and clearly rejected two controversial measures.

Of the three Assembly seats, one result was never in doubt, one was in the bag almost as soon as ballots were counted, and the third is still up in the air.

With all precincts reporting, Carlton Smith unofficially leads Loren Jones by a slim margin – 2,282 votes to 2,229 – for an area wide seat. Geny Del Rosario is a distant third with 761 votes. But with nearly 14-hundred absentee and questioned ballots to be counted on Friday, either Smith or Jones could come out on top.

Smith expressed confidence that the final tally would break his way.

“Just gratified that this has been a clean campaign,” Smith says. “It’s about Juneau’s future, it’s about being optimistic, we’ve got a team going forward, and I’m going to be a productive part of it.”

Jones said he’d wait until all ballots are counted before conceding the race. He said he knew it would be close going into Election Day.

“As it went on, and as Carlton and I and Geny did the various forums, I could tell it was pretty close all the way around. And Juneau always has at least one close race, and I’m sorry it’s mine, but it is,” says Jones.

City Clerk Laurie Sica says there are 1,020 absentee ballots and about 370 questioned ballots.

“So we’ll be reviewing those Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then we’ll cast those through the machine Friday afternoon for unofficial results, and then on Tuesday next week we’ll be certifying the election,” Sica says.

Even with those outstanding ballots, the race for Assembly District 1 appears to have gone to Jesse Kiehl, who unofficially finished with 3,535 votes – more than twice the number of his opponent, Brad Fluetsch, who had 1,630. A first-time candidate, Kiehl won every precinct.

“I did not expect as strong a showing as I made, so that was both humbling and heartening,” he says.

Kiehl says he’s anxious to get to work on the assembly, and if humanly possible would serve on every committee. But with a number of big projects on the horizon, and a looming budget deficit, he says he’ll consult with other assembly members to see where he can best fit in.

“I’m going to need to narrow it down a little bit, and talk with some of the folks who are on the assembly now, and start setting those priorities,” he says.

Joining Kiehl on the assembly will be Randy Wanamaker, who’s no stranger to city politics. He previously served three consecutive terms on the assembly, which is the limit. He sat out a year, as required by city law, before deciding to run again this fall. Wanamaker was unopposed for a District 2 Assembly seat. He received 3,510 votes.

It was no problem to convince Juneau voters to approve the 3 percent sales tax extension.

Proposition 2 passed on a vote of 4,286 to 1,722. The sales tax funds essential services – police, fire, ambulance service, street maintenance and snow removal as well as road and sidewalk improvements, sewer and water, and youth activities.

Some of it is also saved in the Budget Reserve as a rainy day fund for emergencies.

The 3 percent tax would have expired in July of next year. Now it will be collected until the middle of 2017. The year before it is set to expire, the city will put an extension on the ballot again.

CBJ sales taxes are made of a permanent 1 percent tax, a temporary 1 percent, and the temporary 3 percent.

Juneau voters continue to be strong supporters of education and youth activities, passing two school bond propositions on Tuesday’s municipal election ballot.

Proposition 3 authorizes the sale of one-point-four million dollars in general obligation bonds for a new ground-source heat pump at Auke Bay Elementary School. Proposition 4 authorizes nearly one-point-two million dollars in bonds to replace the 11-year-old artificial turf field at Adair Kennedy Park in the Mendenhall Valley.

Juneau School District Superintendent Glen Gelbrich says both projects are investments in the community’s future.

“One is an investment in a lower cost heating system for our schools, which lowers our costs over time, which is a good investment for us to make as citizens and taxpayers,” Gelbrich says. “The other one is just so typical Juneau, to support facilities that host student activities and to keep kids engaged.”

The annual property tax impact of the school bond measure is about one-dollar and 21-cents per one-hundred-thousand dollars of assessed value. For the turf field, it’s approximately one-dollar and four-cents per one-hundred-thousand dollars.

Both projects qualify for 70 percent reimbursement through the state education department’s debt reimbursement program. In addition, Gelbrich says interest revenue from current projects will be used to pay down part of their cost.

“Just seemed like good fiscal management to make sure that we put the funds that we had to use immediately, and it could mean a bit of break for our taxpayers, and that’s a great thing,” he says.

The unofficial results show Proposition 3 passed with 4,432 yes votes to 1,585 no votes. Proposition 4 had 3,642 yes votes to 2,348 votes against.

Juneau School Board President Sally Saddler was the only candidate to appear on the ballot for two open seats.

She says there are plenty of ongoing issues to tackle, and she’s happy to come back to take them on.

“None of this happens quickly, and I think if there’s anything it’s having the fortitude and the patience and the persistence to keep at it,” says Saddler.

She noted that the board recently held a retreat, where it developed a set of student performance indicators to track how well their policies are working. Those include student achievement and progress in the classroom, attendance, and graduation rate.

Besides Saddler, voters cast 1,280 write-in votes for school board. Former member Sean O’Brien registered as a write in candidate after nobody filed to run for the second open seat. As City Clerk Laurie Sica explains, that guarantees O’Brien will win the seat.

“The only ones that are going to count are Sean O’Brien’s, because he’s the only one who submitted papers to become a declared write-in candidate,” says Sica. “So, although other people probably got write-in votes, they won’t be counted, because they haven’t said they’re willing to run and will serve if elected. That’s a big part of it.”

O’Brien served on the school board from 2005 to 2008. He decided to step down to spend more time with family, and had planned on running for the board again next year. When only one person filed, he moved it up a year, but not in time to get his name on the ballot.