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The Juneau Assembly has some big financial decisions to make in the coming months. That’s because the city faces a multimillion-dollar budget hole that could result in cutting some city services in order to stay afloat. 

Along with figuring out how to balance the city’s budget, the Juneau Assembly will need to decide in the coming months whether a temporary tax and two bond debt proposals will appear on October’s municipal ballot. 

“I think at the end of the day why we put things on ballots are to give voters the choice. If they don’t want to fund these things then they won’t. We don’t lose anything because of that,” said Christine Woll, an Assembly member and finance committee chair. 

At a finance committee meeting Wednesday night, the Assembly discussed whether to ask voters to renew a 3% temporary sales tax currently in place, along with putting two bond packages on the ballot to fund critical repairs and upgrades to Juneau schools and the city’s water and sewer systems, which proponents say are sorely needed.

Juneau currently charges 5% in local sales taxes. That’s made up of both permanent and temporary taxes. 

Of that 5%, 3% is a temporary tax, which Juneau has had in place for decades. Voters approved extending it for five years in 2021. It expires in mid-2027. The money collected from that 3% tax currently goes toward numerous city services, like police and fire, street maintenance and snow removal, and general government operations. 

City Finance Director Angie Flick said the money is fairly flexible. 

“Really your roads, drainage, retaining walls, sidewalks, stairs, and we’ve been doing some utility work in that realm as well,” she said. 

At the meeting on Wednesday, some Assembly members were hesitant about whether to put the questions on the ballot. That’s because tax questions dominated last fall’s election and because the city is in a time of budget uncertainty. 

When it comes to bonds, Juneau voters approved adding nearly $23 million to the city’s debt in 2024 for public health and safety improvements. But last year, the Assembly narrowly voted against putting school and water and sewer systems bonds on the 2025 ballot because of how crowded the ballot was already. 

Assembly member Paul Kelly said he is still undecided on whether he wants to put them both on this year’s ballot, but he’s interested in approving at least one. 

“I’m interested, for sure, in the general obligation bond for schools,” he said Wednesday. 

Despite the initial discussion, the temporary tax and bond packages still need to go through a few committees before the Assembly votes on whether to put them on the ballot. This year’s municipal election is on Oct. 6.

A Juneau jazz musician canceled a show that was meant to be a part of a festival in town this week. The show was advertised as a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska, but the organization who planned the festival said it didn’t agree to that.

Spencer Edgers plays the saxophone with other local musicians in the Dream Band. Local nonprofit Juneau Jazz and Classics tapped his band to play a show during its annual Jazz Fest in town.

But recent national events — like immigration enforcement ramping up efforts and shooting civilians — led him to decide to approach this show differently.

“Knowing I had this show coming up, I personally felt uncomfortable promoting a show taking up bandwidth on the internet during a time where people are sharing resources and looking out for each other,” Edgers said. 

So Edgers decided to make the show a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska. The rest of his band were on board, and he cleared it with the venue — the Alaskan Hotel & bar — which was paying the band.

“The plan was to have our tip jar, pass it around to people,” he said. “The tip jar was going to go to the organization.”

He also planned to pass around flyers with links to report immigration enforcement activity, and resources for forming safety plans. But Edgers didn’t clear it with Juneau Jazz and Classics. He said the organization hadn’t really been communicating about the event. 

“I assumed that they would not have a problem with it,” he said. “And did not seek the consent for that collaboration.”

Edgers said festival leadership called him and expressed concerns about bringing politics into the festival. But Interim Director Alex Serio said fear of political pushback was not part of their concerns. 

“This went to the board,” he said. “And the board decided that we’ve never had any outside fundraisers before.”

Serio said the board also expressed frustration at not being informed of the fundraising aspect. But if Edgers chose to ask for donations for the ACLU on stage, and not in advertising, that would have been his right. 

“Everybody has freedom of speech,” Serio said. “Everybody can voice what they believe in, and we respect that.”

But the organization’s board didn’t want their branding on the same poster that advertised an ACLU fundraiser, Serio said. 

“We just didn’t want the two of them together saying that we formally endorse an outside fundraiser,” he said. 

So the board asked Edgers to remove its logo from the poster, but said he could carry on with the show. 

“I think the board hoped that there would be a compromise, that he would still be able to ask people, and he would still play,” Serio said. “We could still include community members, but he decided to do it independently, and we totally support that.”

But Edgers said continuing without the organization’s support didn’t feel right and he canceled the performance. 

“I would have not felt good about compromising my values in this way,” he said. “I would not have felt good with going through with it.”

Edgers posted about the cancellation on his personal Facebook account, and the post garnered dozens of comments, some from local musicians and artists in support of his decision and admonishing the organization’s decision. 

Edgers said he understands he sprung the change on Juneau Jazz and Classics at the last minute, and said he plans to communicate earlier in any future shows. 

But he also wants the board to consider the organization’s role in the Juneau community — and that protest is inherent to jazz. 

“One of the things I encouraged them to do is to reflect on the history of the music and the nature of it,” Edgers said. “And how it was born out of adversity and originated basically as protest music.”

Serio says Juneau Jazz and Classics plans to have conversations about that history more in the coming months. 

The Dream Band still plans to hold a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska sometime in March. 

Disclosure: KTOO Morning Host Mike Lane sits on the Juneau Jazz and Classics board and was not involved in producing this story.

Two of Alaska’s largest news organizations and two top reporters did not commit defamation when they described a former state employee’s statements about rape, a state judge ruled on Tuesday in Anchorage.

Jeremy Cubas, a former aide to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, sued Alaska Public Media, the Anchorage Daily News, Nat Herz and Curtis Gilbert last year. American Public Media, a national organization, was also named in the suit.

Cubas resigned in 2023, shortly before the publication of an article that described comments he made in two podcast episodes. He filed suit almost two years later, seeking more than $5 million in damages and lost wages.

Cubas specifically challenged two parts of the article — a paraphrase that said Cubas “said it’s fine for a man to force himself on his wife” and the statement that Cubas “made comments about rape.”

In a 22-page order, Judge Christina Rankin said the second statement “is an accurate quote of Cubas’ own statement” in the podcast.

“Defendants used accurate, direct quotes from Cubas in the article. Therefore, Cubas can prove no set of facts that Statement Two is unfairly abridged, mischaracterized, distorted, or littered with slight inaccuracies,” Rankin said.

For the first statement, which was a paraphrase rather than a direct quote, Rankin concluded that it is “a fair abridgement” of Cubas’ words.

Cubas had argued that his belief that it is impossible to rape one’s wife — something he said during the two podcast episodes — is not the same as saying it is fine to “force yourself” on one’s wife.

Cubas’ core argument, Rankin concluded, was that the wording of the paraphrase was such that it implied Cubas believed it was OK for a spouse to “violently rape one’s own wife.”

“However, it is the alleged defamatory statement itself that the Court needs to review for truth, not the plaintiff’s inflamed version of the statements,” Rankin wrote.

She concluded that given the context given in the article, a reasonable reader would not share Cubas’ perceived implication but would instead “believe what defendants assert he said.”

Cubas did not return a voicemail message seeking comment on Wednesday.

Because Rankin concluded that the article is accurate, she did not take up Cubas’ other arguments, which included the idea that Cubas was not a public figure and that the reporters had malice against him.

“The court recognizes that this was good, solid journalism,” said Ed Ulman, president and CEO of Alaska Public Media. “The opinion lays things out thoroughly, but in the end it was simple. Truth is a defense in a libel case.”

Representatives from the mining industry gathered in Vancouver, British Columbia last week for an annual conference.

But opponents of a mineral exploration project outside Haines seized on the opportunity for their own purpose. They wanted to send the industry one key message: “Leave our valley.”

In 2024, the Chilkat Indian Village launched an effort, dubbed Chilkat Forever, to lead public opposition to the Palmer Project, a zinc, copper, gold, silver and barite exploration site upstream of the Native Village of Klukwan.

The project has changed hands a number of times since then. That included in November, when Vancouver-based mineral exploration company Vizsla Copper acquired the project and declared its intent to earn community approval.

In response, Chilkat Forever has ramped up its messaging.

“We just want to make it very clear that there isn’t social licensing here in the Chilkat Indian Village,” said Kimberley Strong, the president of the Chilkat Indian Village.

The effort entailed placing ads on large digital screens around the conference, which was put on by the British Columbia Association for Mineral Exploration. That included a billboard fastened to Canada Place, a convention center in Vancouver. They also placed print and digital ads in newspapers including the Vancouver Sun, the Seattle Times and the Anchorage Daily News.

In bold, all-caps text, the ad read: “No means go.” Below that, in orange, it said “leave our valley.” The group communicated the same message in a video released in January.

The campaign came the same week that Vizsla announced plans for the project for this year – and touted a formal letter of support from Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Dunleavy pledged his “full support” for the project in a letter dated Jan. 22, according to a copy obtained by KHNS. He added that the project stands to “strengthen Alaska’s role” in meeting federal mining objectives while also benefiting the state.

During a public speech in Vancouver last week, Vizsla CEO Craig Parry said Dunleavy had requested a meeting with him in Juneau.

“I’ve never seen such great access to government and to the permitting authorities. So the fact that we’ve been on the ground here a month now, and the governor in Alaska has asked for a meeting in Juneau is an extraordinary outcome to my mind.”

A Dunleavy spokesperson said in an email that the governor “supports responsible resource development in Alaska.”

The company is still finalizing the details of its plans for the summer, but it has brought on several contractors, Vizsla said in a release last week. That includes a $600,000 contract with a marketing company it says will carry out a “comprehensive media marketing campaign.”

As to this summer’s exploration efforts, the company plans to conduct up to 10,000 meters of diamond drilling focused on copper, zinc, silver and gold. The company also plans to focus more on barite and for the first time will include the mineral in the project’s overall value estimate.

Those who knew and loved Marlene Johnson say she was in constant motion — either behind the scenes, or on the forefront of the major issues that have shaped life for Alaska Natives for more than 60 years.

The Lingít leader died on Jan. 25 at the age of 90.

“People don’t realize how different Alaska would be without her, certainly Alaska Native lives,” said Vera Starbard, Johnson’s granddaughter, known for her poetry and as a screenwriter for national programs like the PBS hit series Molly of Denali and the TV drama, Alaska Daily.

Starbard says her grandmother sent her a steady stream of job leads, a sign that she found her chosen career to be too quiet and sedentary. Yet it has given Starbard plenty of time to reflect on her grandmother, enough to begin work on a play about how she became a voice for change.

Advocacy for ANCSA

Johnson’s role in the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is one of her biggest legacies. Today, ANCSA remains the nation’s largest land claims settlement in history – legislation she helped to steer through Congress during the 1960s, legislation that changed Alaska forever.

It wasn’t an easy time to be a Native in politics, or a woman.

“The men had the voice. They were out front, and they were the speakers,” Irene Rowan said. “But somehow, Marlene became a voice among all those men. I often wondered, how did she do it?”

Back then, Rowan worked for the federal government and became part of an ANCSA support group called “Alaskans on the Potomac.”

As a woman trying to navigate a male-dominated world, Johnson was an inspiration, said Rowan. “She was royalty. People looked up to her. She was rich. She was rich with knowledge and with enthusiasm,” she said.

Rosita Worl, another up-and-coming Lingít leader in those days, also learned from Johnson.

“She exemplified what we know and recognize as a leader, and they don’t come along very often,” Worl said, maybe once in a lifetime.

“I don’t think people thought of her as a woman or a man. They just admired her leadership capabilities,” Worl said.

Breaking barriers

Vera Starbard says she marvels at how her grandmother was able to break through gender and race barriers.

“She always insisted on being taken seriously,” Starbard said, “but at the same time, she had to figure out how to maneuver in that world, let her voice be heard, when literally some people would not hear it.”

Starbard says people forget that Johnson was a single mom, who not only raised six kids, but was also a businesswoman. She co-owned a regional air taxi service in her home village of Hoonah and became one of the first women to lead a Native corporation. For more than a decade, she served on the Sealaska board. Johnson also helped to found many of the educational organizations and non-profits that make up today’s social service safety net.

A 2009 interview with Dr. Thomas Thornton, an ethnologist at Sealaska Heritage Institute, offers clues about the source of Johnson’s passion for public service. Johnson told him about the racism she encountered in Juneau, where her family moved in the late 1940’s so she could attend high school.

“I shouldn’t confess doing anything wrong in my life,” Johnson laughed, as she described an ongoing late-night mission that she and her girlfriends carried out.

“A few of us that were considered “Breeds” would go down the street and rip the signs off the bars, and there were bars all up and down South Franklin Street that aren’t there now, that said ‘No Coasties. No Indians. No dogs allowed.'”

She said Coasties was slang for Coast Guard members, who had a reputation for getting into fights—and like Natives and dogs, were unwelcome.

The path to power

Somewhere along the line, Johnson evolved from an activist into a statesman, and Native corporations, with their growing wealth and resources, became a vehicle for change.

“Without ANCSA, we would be back where we were in the early ’60s, where discrimination would still be here? I am a firm believer of that,” Johnson said.

Emil Notti, the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives, the main group which led the land claims fight, said Johnson overcame the chauvinism of the day through her hard work and understanding of the issues.

“She stood on her own, her qualifications,” Notti said. “She wasn’t put there because she was a woman. She was put there because she was an effective advocate.”

Notti says Johnson worked well with different factions of Alaska Natives, who resisted compromise, a role pivotal to the passage of ANCSA. Notti believes her experience with the Alaska Native Brotherhood honed her skills as trusted and persuasive negotiator.

Tireless advocacy

Over the years, Notti said, he watched her sphere of influence continue to grow.

In a 2011 interview with the late journalist Nellie Moore, Johnson mapped out how Alaska Natives could become agents of change.

“Alaska Natives, I don’t care where you’re from, need to be involved. They need to sit on boards. They need to sit on commissions,” she said. “The Alaska Native perspective needs to be heard, that we aren’t sitting on a stump doing nothing — that we are just like everybody else,” Johnson said. “We have a brain, and we use it. We have muscles and we use it. And we have respect for each other, and we don’t call other people names like they sometimes call us.”

Not long before Johnson died, Notti and Willie Hensley, another leader in the claims fight, visited Johnson in Juneau. Notti said, when he realized her time was almost over, he felt a wave of loneliness — because there are only about a dozen people still alive who really know the story of ANCSA.

“There are 500 stories. Everybody who was involved has a story. You look at the same event, see it different. You get all kinds of stories. But in there, somewhere, is what really happened,” Notti said. Now there is one less voice in the ANCSA band of warriors.

Notti says every momentous historical event spawns a “greatest generation,” and ANCSA was one of those that brought out the best in Alaska Natives, who accomplished what many believed was impossible.

As the Northern Lights danced, Marlene Johnson departed

And for Rosita Worl, Marlene Johnson was one of those who rose to the occasion and became a force to be reckoned with.

“The night before she left us, we had just spectacular Northern Lights. That said to me, those are our warriors, ready to embrace this leader in the spirit world.”

But for her family, Johnson’s exit was more down-to-earth. Vera Starbard says her grandmother, in her last days, was telling jokes — bad ones at that. “And she said, ‘Boy I better talk more. Those will be my last words,” Starbard said. “She was very aware of what was happening and still going to make a joke out of it.”

When everybody laughed, Starbard was reminded that it was Johnson’s keen sense of humor that was her secret weapon in life. It disarmed her opponents and endeared her supporters.

“It was a mass of privilege being Marlene Johnson’s granddaughter,” she said, “but I miss the woman who made wild strawberry jam really well.” “

More than 90% of the comments submitted to the state reject the Cascade Point ferry terminal proposed in Juneau. Many of the comments opposing the project suggest the purported benefits to ferry passengers are disingenuous, and the project looks instead like a fast-tracked subsidy for mining companies.

Dozens of commenters said that the public process to approve this project is lacking, with the comment period and a highly criticized economic analysis coming after the state already signed a $28 million contract for the first phase of construction, set to begin this summer.

The plan includes developing an access road from the end of Glacier Highway north to the site — roughly 30 miles north of the existing Auke Bay Ferry Terminal — and a staging area for future construction.

Leaders in Skagway and Haines oppose the project. Members of the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board have also questioned the motives behind it and said it doesn’t fit into their long-range plan for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

Public funds for private industry

The Juneau Assembly hasn’t taken an official stance on the state’s plan, but Assembly Member Maureen Hall wrote a comment objecting to it. 

“I oppose the use of public funds to construct a remote State of Alaska ferry terminal when the facility’s apparent primary purpose is to function as an ore dock for private industry,” Hall wrote. “This represents a blatant misuse of public resources and raises serious concerns about the appropriateness and legality of such expenditures.”

Of the more than 500 comments opposing the project, a majority said the project would mainly benefit mining companies with holdings nearby and Goldbelt Native Corporation, which owns the land where the terminal would be built. Thirty-three commenters called the project a “boondoggle” outright, including Juneau resident Bjorn Wolter. 

“There is just no reason at all to build a new terminal,” Wolter wrote. “This project has all the potential to be another South Mitkof or Coffman Cove boondoggle.” 

Those ferry terminals on Mitkof Island and Prince of Wales Island cost millions of dollars. They were built far from the population centers they were meant to serve and close to logging sites 20 years ago. Two years after they were built, the Inter-Island Ferry Authority stopped running routes to them, and both have since sat unused. 

The Cascade Point ferry terminal stands to benefit the New Amalga gold mine proposed near the face of Herbert Glacier by Grande Portage Resources Ltd., a Canadian company. In December, Grande Portage announced that it is working with Goldbelt to design an ore barge dock alongside Cascade Point.

Ian Klassen, president and CEO of the company, was one of the 49 people who commented in favor of Cascade Point. He wrote that the plan will “create possibilities that currently do not exist north of Juneau for the reliable movement of cargo and commerce.”

Steve Ball, general manager of Coeur Alaska’s Kensington Mine, located across Berners Bay from the proposed site, also wrote in favor. 

“The twice-daily boat trips to the Kensington Mine would depart from the new Cascade Point Ferry Terminal, resulting in reduced risk for our workforce, contractors, and visitors by shortening the distance of the boat run and exposure to the Upper Lynn Canal,” Ball wrote. 

Coeur Alaska contracts with Goldbelt to transport miners to Kensington, mainly from Yankee Cove and from Echo Cove during inclement weather. 

Ferry users weigh-in

The state has been pushing for the new terminal for several years and has said it would benefit travelers in Southeast by reducing operating costs and travel time between Juneau, Haines and Skagway. 

But hundreds of commenters said building a second terminal in Juneau doesn’t solve the problems that the Alaska Marine Highway Service faces, including an aging fleet, crew shortages, reduced sailings and a lack of funding to address those issues. 

Robin Ross is treasurer for the Organized Village of Kake, the tribal government for the village, and secretary for the Kake City School District. She commented that the project fails to address ongoing transportation needs in Southeast. She said a ferry cancellation disrupted a mammogram van service that provides cancer screenings for women there, and while flights were arranged for some women, not all were able to travel. 

“The unfortunate reality is that a recent breast cancer diagnosis in October may have been

detected sooner had the ferry service not been canceled in May,” Ross wrote. “The ferry service serves as a critical lifeline.”

DOT’s FAQ page says, “terminal projects like Cascade Point are a critical step toward a stronger, more resilient system while new vessels are planned and funded through separate processes.”

But members of the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board told the Anchorage Daily News that the project has been foisted upon AMHS and will create operational challenges they have to deal with. Last year, Gov. Dunleavy vetoed state legislators’ plan to divert funding from Cascade Point. 

Southeast residents said that while a ferry ride from Juneau to Haines might be shorter, the burden will be placed on drivers and walkers to get to and from the new terminal, which is much farther from the city center. The city bus system already does not extend to the Auke Bay ferry terminal — it’s about a two-mile walk along the highway shoulder from the last stop. 

Sean Powell, a current AMHS crew member, commented that commuting to Cascade Point would be much more difficult. “The increased distance, combined with weather conditions and other unforeseen disruptions, would add unnecessary challenges for crew members,” he wrote. “I believe funding would be better spent improving our existing infrastructure.”

Emily Mesch drives for rideshare services in Juneau during the summer and commented that it’s already difficult to make money driving people to the Auke Bay ferry terminal since it’s not centrally located. “I would never pick up a passenger there,” she wrote of the Cascade Point location, “unless the fares were about as high as a ferry ride, itself.” 

According to the Alaska Department of Transportation, Goldbelt has committed to running a shuttle service from Cascade Point to Auke Bay and the Mendenhall Valley, but hasn’t set a ticket price yet. 

DOT said that increasing snow plow service along Glacier Highway would cost about $30,000 if ferries operate out of Cascade Point in the winter. But after back-to-back snowstorms slammed Juneau this winter, some commenters said they’re not confident that plow service would be reliable. 

“DOT and the city are both overwhelmed when we get snow, let alone the storms that have hit at the end of December and into January,” wrote Morgan Ramseth. “Placing necessary services at the end of a poorly maintained road seems completely out of touch with reality.”

Others said increasing traffic farther out the road would stretch the city’s emergency services thin. 

The comment period for the first phase of the project ended on Jan. 9. The Alaska House Transportation Committee will hold a hearing with the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board and DOT on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 1:30 p.m.