Rosemarie Alexander

Thirty-five states have banned texting while driving – and Alaska thought it had, too.

But some judges say the law passed in 2008 is not clear, so legislation is on the move that specifically prohibits drivers from reading or typing a text, email or other message while their vehicle is in motion.

A Fairbanks judge has advised magistrates to refuse texting cases and a Kenai judge has thrown out a case against a driver for texting.

That case is on appeal. Anchorage Democrat Les Gara told the House Transportation Committee Thursday that lawmakers should not wait for a court ruling before fixing the statute.

“I think you only really need one fact and that is, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures, drivers who text while they drive are 20 times more likely to have an accident than people who don’t text,” Gara said.

Calling it “the new drunk driving,” he says texting while driving has been taken up by the national organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

House Bill 255 moved out of the transportation committee Thursday, heading for judiciary.

The legislation states that texting is illegal while the vehicle is underway. Gara said reading or sending a text while parked should not be a crime.

The CBJ Assembly expects to hire a new city manager by the end of the month. The two finalists took questions from the public Wednesday, followed by an informal reception.

Public feedback is part of the city and borough’s Assessment Center process, used for hiring managers. Far more than interviews, job candidates respond to daily situations and problems they’ll encounter in the job they seek. They face written reports, oral presentations, power points as well as questions from city staff, the Assembly, and Juneau taxpayers.

Just before yesterday’s public presentation, Kim Kiefer and Norman “Buddy” Custard were handed a question: What is your vision to improve and expand the relationship between the general public and city government, and what is the city manager’s role in that?

Kiefer seemed at ease as she entered Assembly chambers with some notes penciled on a yellow pad. She has worked for the city and borough of Juneau for 28 years, managing the Zach Gordon Youth Center, directing the Parks and Recreation Department, serving as deputy city manager since 2005, and as interim manager for six months in 2009 when City Manager Rod Swope took a sabbatical.

She likens the city manager to the chief executive officer of an organization comprised of groups that serve the public. But the list of CBJ services is longer than most cities of 30-thousand people, ranging from fire and police, streets, water and sewer to ownership and operation of several docks and harbors, an airport, a hospital, a ski area, two swimming pools, an ice rink, a football field and track, libraries, a museum…

“We have all of these services that make Juneau function and my job that I see as city manager is to have an umbrella over that so we’re all functioning with the same understanding and same direction of where we’re going to go with that organization,” Kiefer said.

She presented first then left the Assembly Chambers, where the event was held. A visibly nervous Custard was next. He is retiring soon from a 30-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. This is his second tour in Juneau. He told the audience that he asked the Coast Guard to move him here, because it’s a place he wants to put down roots.

Custard has been commander of four Coast Guard cutters. He said whether it’s running a ship or a city, everything is about relationships, beginning with the department heads who work under the city manager.

“So it’s taking that energy that they have and then harnessing it and partnering up with the energy of the community and the passion that they have because they’re living in this community and they love this community so how do we merge those two together,” he said. “And I say that’s what the city manager’s job is about.”

If they were hired as city manager both Custard and Kiefer say they if they would reach out to the Juneau community in a variety of ways. Kiefer would start with improving the city website, and put the city calendar on the front page.

“City government is doing so much,” she said.

She would hold neighborhood meetings, reach out to Juneau’s aging population, and find out “what’s the vision for the school district, what’s the vision for JEDC, for the university, chamber of commerce. All those groups are made up of the public,” she said

Custard told his audience that “people are our most important resource. It’s the people that drive the innovation, it’s the people that drive the work, the relationships,” he said. “It’s not about a hierarchal chain of command. It’s about who you know and how well you know them and how you’ve built that trust.”

Custard said if he’s hired as city manager, his first big challenge would be to “reach out and just start to make those connections and to get to where people learn who I am and can trust me.”

Kiefer said her biggest challenge would be “people’s expectations that I know everything when I walk through the door, because I’ve worked for the city for such a long time; and to understand that I’m walking into a job that I haven’t done before.”

Though Kiefer was interim manager for six months, she knew Swope was returning.

“So that’s a different scenario than saying ‘OK, where do you want to take the organization?’ ” she said.

After the public presentation, those listening were asked to rate each candidate on such qualities as professional competence, oral communications, and interaction with the public. Assembly members will consider the public comments as they make their decision.

The Assembly will interview Kiefer and Custard in separate closed-door sessions on Saturday. The goal is to have the new manager hired and working with Swope before he retires at the end of March.

Alaska Airlines had canceled six flights into and out of the capital city by 3 p.m. today (Friday), due to the wind.

The airline is still backed up due to Thursday’s snow and freezing rain in Seattle. But company spokesman Paul McElroy says schedules should be back to normal by tomorrow. By the end of the weekend, everybody who was booked on a flight that was canceled should be where they had planned to go.

Thursday’s weather forced the cancellation of 387 Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights in and out of Seattle, affecting 32,500 passengers.

“For the most part we operated a normal schedule as long as you weren’t touching Seattle,” he says.

Alaska operates about 120 flights a day out of Seattle Tacoma International Airport, 30 percent of its schedule.

McElroy says only 30 flights departed Seattle yesterday, but there were some arrivals.

“Once the airport was really open and we could have arrivals again, those airplanes were warm and we could more easily de-ice them and get them back out again,” he says.

De-icing was one of the biggest problems. McElroy says it took about an hour to de-ice each jet, four times longer than usual. It also required quadruple the amount of deicing fluid.

“Oh my gosh, all those icicles dripping off the sides of our aircraft,” he says. “For a while yesterday we were even legally prohibited from flying just because the icing was so bad.

All airlines were prohibited from flying into and out of Seattle until 10 a.m. Thursday, due to the freezing rain.

If you’re one of the thousands of passengers trying to get on a flight, the airlines will rebook or refund the cost of the ticket. McElroy says change fees are also being waived until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Juneau’s high wind warning remains in effect until tomorrow morning.

National Weather Service meteorologist Joel Curtis says winds reached 77 mph early this morning at the Douglas Boat Harbor.

“Eldred Rock has just been screaming as usual. Skagway has gusts to 60 miles per hours and it’s just windy wherever you can pick up a channel facing the north,” Curtis says.

Tonight’s Juneau-Douglas hockey games have been postponed until Saturday and Sunday, due to a flight cancellation.

The JDHS varsity will play West Valley at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, with the junior varsity game at 7 p.m. The varsity teams play again Sunday at 7:30 a.m. at Treadwell Ice Arena.

Tonight’s University of Alaska Southeast presentation on whale songs has also been cancelled. Backed up flights out of Seattle prevented whale researcher Jim Darling from flying to Juneau.

Alaska’s Gross State Product reached an all-time high last year, thanks to high oil prices.

“You may not feel like it, but you are sitting in the most prosperous economy Alaska has ever had,” Northern Economics Senior Economist, Jonathan King, told Juneau Chamber of Commerce members Thursday. He described 2011 as “most pleasant,” which sounds like an understatement:

“The fact of the matter is we hit 108 dollars a barrel average last year, thanks to the Arab Spring and issues with Iran. That allowed us to reach a new record for Alaska’s economy: 52 billion dollars,” he said.

King was one of three economists speaking at the World Trade Center Alaska Statewide Economic Forum held in Juneau.

The gross state product is the economic output of a state. Oil is Alaska’s greatest economic driver and funds about 90 percent of state government. But like state leaders, King warned that Alaska’s prosperity cannot be sustained due to declining oil production.

King said predictions for 2011 rang true, and show Alaska again had the strongest economy of any state. Alaska added 5,200 jobs and unemployment remained lower than the national rate.

Northern Economics is an Anchorage-based reserach firm. King said the company’s annual confidence index is also up among Alaska households.

The survey asks Alaskans how confident they are about their household, local community and the state’s economy.

The 2011 results show 51 percent feel good or very good about their personal household finances; 38 percent feel good about the economy in their community, and 36 percent feel confident about the state’s economy.

“We see this consistently that the farther the economy that we’re asking about is from the person the less confident they are in it,” he said.

The overwhelming negative news on the national recession and slow recovery may have something to do with people’s perception of Alaska’s economy.

The survey also shows less confidence among Alaskans that the economy is improving.

“The important thing is the people who think things are getting better are greater than the people who think things are getting worse,” King said. “But maybe the most important thing is things are staying the same. And I think that’s very reflective of our economy right now. We’re in a very slow growth, stable economy and that’s been reflected over the last couple of years.”

As for 2012, King expects Alaska will experience mild growth; he sees another good year for oil, mining and fisheries, but says the state will see a major decline in federal funding.

For the fifth year, Wells Fargo has sponsored the economic forum in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau, always held in January.

Global economist Aryan Vasquez the strongest economic growth is in Asia, particularly China, but he said Latin America is a close second.

World Trade Center Alaska Director Greg Wolf said China is not only becoming Alaska’s best customer, but is also investing in the state.

Gov. Sean Parnell Wednesday night set out a “road map” for getting access to North Slope gas.

In his annual State of the State address to the Alaska Legislature, Parnell said he talked with the CEOs of Alaska’s major oil producers within the previous 24 hours and it was clear they have not reached agreement on key issues. So he delivered what he calls a “road map” for an Alaska natural gas pipeline.

“First, these companies need to agree to resolve the Point Thomson litigation,” he said. “If no settlement in the state’s interest can be reached with all parties, the state will fight for Alaska’s interest at the Alaska Supreme Court hearing on February 8th in Anchorage.”

Parnell said he also expects the companies to align under the framework of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) and consolidate all gasline projects. By the third quarter of the year, he wants financial estimates and work schedules for a large-diameter Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline through Alaska to tidewater.

“If these milestones are surpassed, the 2013 legislature can take up gas tax legislation designed to move the project forward,” he said. “The path ahead is better defined, and benchmarks for progress are in place. And while a lot more work remains, Alaska is closer to the day when our gas can move from the ground to Alaskans and to markets beyond.”

Parnell also took time during the speech to promote the budget he made public last month, saying it holds the line on government spending while adding nearly $4 billion to the state’s savings accounts. He also repeated his call for reducing oil taxes in an attempt to increase North Slope oil production.

“For many years, the TransAlaska Pipeline has provided a pathway to prosperity for Alaskans. But where more than 2-million barrels of oil per day once flowed through the pipeline, less than 600,000 barrels now inch through. And unless we act to reverse this decline, we will pay a stiff price in lost jobs, lost state revenues and lost opportunities,” Parnell told legislators.

Oil taxes promise to be one of the most controversial issues during this year’s session. After the speech, Senate President Gary Stevens said the governor’s tax plan table is flawed and he would like the Senate to introduce its own plan.

Minority Response

House Democrats pledge to fight the governor’s plan to reduce oil taxes.

In the House Minority response to the governor’s State of the State address, Minority Leader Beth Kerttula called Parnell’s plan a “give-away.”

“Alaskans are already investing hundreds of millions of dollars every year in the oil industry in tax credits – three billion dollars in the last four years. Through these credits, actually, we are the biggest investor on the North Slope,” she said.

Kerttula said Alaskans should know where their money is going.

House Democrats voted against Parnell’s bill last session when it passed the House. The caucus this year supports legislation that would increase reporting requirements for oil companies claiming tax credits, including the number of jobs created and the number of Alaskans employed in those jobs.

Democrats also advocate legislation that would invest $10-billion of Alaska’s nearly $13-billion surplus into the state’s Permanent Fund.

“We’ve got to save some of our surplus in the Permanent Fund. That’s what that fund does. It turns a resource that’s not renewable into a future resource for future generations of Alaskans,” she said.

Kerttula also called for investment in education and job training. She criticized Parnell’s education budget, which includes money for rural school construction and college scholarships, but the amount districts receive for operations is the same as last year. Districts across the state stand to lose revenue.

House Democrats are calling for legislation that would require the state to annually adjust the base student allocation for inflation.

State education funding for local districts won’t be known until the end of the legislative session in April. While the governor’s proposed education budget includes money for rural school construction and college scholarships, the amount districts receive for operations is the same as last year. And that translates to a loss of revenue.

Combined with a reduction in other revenues and increased energy and personnel costs, the Juneau School District is projecting a 5 point 8 million dollar shortfall next year. Sixty-nine positions could be cut.

The goal is to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. But
Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich (Gel-brick) says the deficit is so severe it could impact students.

“When we’re talking about the kinds of reductions, even though we’re trying to keep them as far away from the classroom as we can, it still impacts how many kids are in a class, it still impacts the degree of support they have, it has the potential to severely impact how many different electives kids have, so (it impacts) the breadth of their learning,” he says. “All of those things that matter to us as parents and us as citizens of Juneau.”

Gelbrich says the largest number of layoffs would come from administration, where six positions could be lost. And when Assistant Superintendent Laury Scandling retires next December, her job would not be filled.

The number of assistant principals at each high school could go down by one. Eleven percent of the support staff could be cut and 7 percent of teachers.
The so called pupil / teacher ratio, or P-T-R, could go up by two.

The district will be working on the budget until March, when it’s due to the city and borough Assembly. School board member Barbara Thurston chairs the budget committee. She says the board’s goal is to keep as many teachers in the classroom as possible.

Thurston says input from the public is very important at this point in the process.

“We’re particularly interested in constructive suggestions,” she says. “All the cuts hurt in some way and we’re aware of that. And if people want to suggest not cutting something that’s been proposed, it’d be really helpful to suggest an alternative. You know, if we don’t cut a couple hundred-thousand dollars here, where can we cut that couple hundred-thousand dollars, or how can we accomplish the goals while spending less money?”

Thurston says Juneau will be among districts across the state planning to lobby the legislature for more funding.

“It’s certainly not our district that’s the only one facing this. It’s a pretty widespread issue this year,” she says.

While the school board will hold public hearings on the budget, members are encouraging written comments. Those comments can be emailed to budgetinput@jsd.k12.ak.us.