Britteny Cioni-Haywood, David Noon and Paige Sipniewski are running for two Juneau school board seats. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
All of the candidates running for Juneau School Board this year cite state education funding as a top concern.
Budget cuts and stagnant funding at the state level have burdened school districts in Alaska for years. This year, the Juneau School District found itself with a $758,000 shortfall when Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of an expected one-year funding boost.
Meanwhile, the state education department notified the district that it could not use supplemental “outside the cap” funding from the city to fill budget holes — a practice it’s relied on for years.
Two seats with three-year terms are open on the school board. Two of the candidates are educators, and all three have children attending Juneau schools.
Britteny Cioni-Haywood is an administrative operations manager for the state and an adjunct professor of economics for the University of Alaska Southeast. She said the district’s struggles with teacher recruitment and retention all tie back to state funding, which is becoming a “critical mass issue.”
“It is also somewhat outside of the school board’s power, per se, but given our proximity to the state capitol, I think it will be important for us to advocate and encourage all of our friends and family to advocate as well for that funding,” Cioni-Haywood said in an interview.
David Noon is a history professor at UAS and served as faculty senate president two years ago. In that role, he responded to budget cuts to the state’s university system. He said inadequate funding for public education has brought teachers and staff to a breaking point.
“We’ve endured a lot of cuts beyond the point at which the district can successfully fulfill its mission to our students, which is the most important job our community has before it,” Noon said in an interview. “So addressing the funding crisis, resolving the budget deficit is obviously going to be a top priority.”
Paige Sipniewski also works for the state and is a lifelong Juneau resident. She said while the district needs to address issues like lower enrollment and rising costs, she also wants to focus on improving student achievement in math, reading and writing. And she says any increase in state funding needs to be tied to that.
“An increase also needs to increase our children’s test scores, and we need to see an improvement along with any funding that’s going to be increased in the test scores,” she said in an interview.
One area where this year’s candidates differ is in allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and play on sports teams that match their gender identity. In interviews, Cioni-Haywood and Noon both said they believe students should be able to express themselves as they wish, while Sipniewski said she believes in “protecting girls’ innocence” by not allowing transgender children to use the same bathrooms or locker rooms as them.
“Little girls should not have a transgender girl in the bathroom or on their sports teams because there is a biological difference, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for kids to be changing in locker rooms or using bathrooms with girls,” Sipniewski said.
During a Juneau Chamber of Commerce candidate forum earlier this month, the school board candidates also differed on the district’s policy regarding which books should be available in school libraries. Cioni-Haywood and Noon said they support the current policy. Sipniewski said she opposes “anything regarding gender, sex, religion, profanity, drug use, race — as far as literature for kids in school.”
Longtime school board member Brian Holst originally filed to run for reelection this year, but later withdrew his candidacy. He told the Juneau Empire he wanted to give other people a chance to serve on the board. Board member Martin Stepetin Sr. did not file to run for reelection.
Paul Kelly, Ella Adkison, Nano Brooks, Laura Martinson McDonnell, Jeff Jones, Dorene Lorenz, Michele Stuart-Morgan, Emily Mesch, Ivan Nance and JoAnn Wallace are running for two areawide seats on the Juneau Assembly. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
The areawide candidate who gets the most votes will serve a three-year term, and the one with the second-most votes will serve the remaining two years of former member Carole Triem’s term.
As Election Day approaches, the candidates have been sharing their views on the city hall ballot measure, the economy and transparency in city government.
Split views on new city hall
The areawide candidates are split on whether to build a new city hall. Six are in favor of the ballot measure — which asks voters to fund a new city hall with a $27 million bond — and four oppose it.
Paul Kelly started campaigning early. He had a booth at the Maritime Festival in early May, and he says he’s knocked on more than 1,400 doors this summer. He said concerns about the measure came up early in his conversations with voters.
“So I went and toured the current city hall,” Kelly said. “I have pictures of bags hanging from the roof to contain leaks, carpet that is in disrepair — and it can’t be repaired because there would need to be asbestos remediation, which would have both financial and workflow consequences to the city.”
Kelly is an analyst and programmer for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development who served on the Juneau school board from 2018 to 2021.
Ella Adkison, a staffer for Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl, also supports the city hall ballot measure.
“We have city employees in places that aren’t ideal for them to work and are taking up potential housing spaces for our community,” she said. “We either need to invest a lot of money in a city hall that’s old and really not working for us, or we spend that money on a better city hall that will be there forever and suit Juneauites’ needs.”
“I feel like no should be no for now,” said Wallace, a realtor who’s concerned about the high cost of living in Juneau. “We’re going to have a lot of commercial space opening up in our town in the next year or two that could also be good options.”
Jones is an account executive for a construction company. He’s also on the executive board of the Plumbers & Pipefitters Union. In an interview, he said the city should prioritize funding other construction projects instead of a new city hall.
“We know what kind of shape the school district and the hospital are in,” he said. “They need to be fixed before we build a new city hall.”
Brooks, an HVAC and plumbing technician and small business owner, agrees that there are other projects the city could focus on instead. If a new city hall does get built, he said in an interview, keeping up with repairs will be important.
“I’m not a fan of any position where the city is losing money, but before any new building goes up, we need to address the processes and systems that got the current facility into $15 million in deferred maintenance,” he said.
Juneau Assembly candidates Laura Martinson McDonnell and Nano Brooks at a forum hosted by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Support for education and economy
Martinson McDonnell, a small business owner and president-elect of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, is focusing on the local economy. In an interview, Martinson McDonnell said she would bring a new perspective to the Assembly.
“I’m a small business owner, and I’ve been born and raised in Juneau. I’ve got a small child here,” she said. “I think it’s important to mix up the perspectives and bring a little bit of a different view on board.”
Kelly and Adkison say child care availability and a strong education system can foster a strong economy by attracting business owners and employees. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development has challenged some of the city’s financial support of the school district.
“We’ve had some attacks on our ability to fund our education system by the current administration, and it’s really important that we educate our kids,” Adkison said. “People aren’t going to start up new businesses in a place that doesn’t have a good education system.”
Lorenz, a communications consultant, said growing the local workforce could help reduce the burden of tourism on residents.
“We need more excursions, but we can’t have more excursions unless we have people to work to make those excursions go,” she said.
In interviews and at forums, Brooks has said the city could raffle off one-acre plots to generate revenue and get more land in the hands of residents who might want to build their own homes.
Michele Stuart-Morgan, a medical assistant who started Juneau Stop Heroin Start Talking, said homeowners, landlords and tenants are all dealing with higher costs.
“I own a home and I also own a rental, and I know on both sides of that that our taxes have gone up,” she said in an interview. “I know what it costs to maintain a rental – the utilities and all those things. I also have my two sons who don’t own a home yet, and I see their struggles.”
Emily Mesch, president of Southeast Alaska LGBTQ+ Alliance, said building more housing could help address staff shortages for Juneau employers. She’s worked for the state, the city and the Shéiyi X̱aat Hít Youth Shelter.
“We have, across the board, staffing issues, both within the city and in private industry,” Mesch said. “We need to have more, better-trained people living in Juneau in our workforce.”
Calls for transparency and efficiency
Some candidates say they would work to make the Assembly more transparent and efficient.
“I think a lot of discussion that should be going on in public isn’t,” Lorenz said in an interview. “If you don’t have faith and confidence in the process, you’re not going to have faith and confidence in your government.”
Lorenz is a member of the city’s Historic Resources Advisory Committee and a former member of the Seward City Council.
In 2018, Alaska Public Media reported that the state stopped funding a nonprofit Lorenz chaired because of “reporting issues and accountability issues.” The nonprofit, Friends of the Jesse Lee Home, had plans to restore the former children’s home where Benny Benson designed the state flag and turn it into a residential charter school. The City of Seward used the remaining $1 million of the nonprofit’s state funding to demolish the building in 2021.
In an interview, Lorenz said Gov. Bill Walker’s administration questioned expenses that had already been approved by officials from prior administrations. She said the group’s federal funding required the school to be up and running as soon as construction was complete, and that many of the expenses state officials questioned had been part of developing the curriculum.
Juneau Assembly candidate Dorene Lorenz at a forum hosted by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Ivan Nance is a retired member of the U.S. Coast Guard and was mayor of Prairie City, Oregon, from 1998 to 2000. In an interview, he said he wants to make the Assembly “as productive and efficient city government as it can be.”
Nance is on the city’s Systemic Racism Review Committee. At a forum hosted by Tlingit and Haida, he spoke about opportunities for Alaska Native people to get involved in Juneau’s city government.
In 1996, Nance pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge. In an interview, he said it was a mistake that happened a long time ago.
Who is contributing to their campaigns?
City leaders, labor unions, business owners and other Juneau residents have donated to several of the areawide candidates.
Martinson McDonnell has raised more money than any municipal candidate this year. She’s reported raising more than $41,000 and spent more than $33,000. Several local business owners have donated to her, along with Mayor Beth Weldon, Bartlett Regional Hospital Board President Kenny Solomon-Gross, Huna Totem President and CEO Russell Dick and Goldbelt President and CEO McHugh Pierre.
Pierre has also donated to Save Juneau. Save Juneau has reported raising more than $13,000 and spending more than $8,000 on radio ads, yard signs and mailers.
Kelly has reported raising more than $18,000 and spending more than $17,000. Donors include school board president Deedie Sorensen, Juneau Economic Development Council Executive Director and former school board member Brian Holst, Juneau Rep. Sara Hannan and Sen. Jesse Kiehl, Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar and former Anchorage Rep. Les Gara.
Adkison has raised more than $15,000 and spent nearly $13,000. Her donors include Kiehl, Assembly member Greg Smith, AWARE Executive Director Saralyn Tabachnick and several fellow legislative aides.
Lorenz has raised more than $11,000 and spent more than $9,000. Donors include Acting Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development Cathy Muñoz, Juneau Hydropower CEO Keith Comstock and Irene Gallion, a senior planner for the city.
Wallace has raised more than $5,000. Her donors include Mayor Beth Weldon, local business owners and Maria Uchytil, executive director of the Bartlett Regional Hospital Foundation.
Jones has reported raising $1,000 from the Juneau Central Labor Council and the Plumbers and Pipefitters union.
Unions have also donated to Martinson McDonnell, Kelly and Lorenz.
The Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition reported $100 donations to Adkison, Kelly, Martinson McDonnell, Mesch, Nance and Stuart-Morgan.
Municipal candidates only have to disclose campaign finances through the Alaska Public Offices Commission if they intend to raise or spend more than $5,000. Brooks, Mesch, Nance and Stuart-Morgan have not reported any campaign fundraising or spending.
Juneau Assembly member Christine Woll is running against David Morris for the District 2 seat. (Photo by Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Two Juneau Assembly members are running for reelection this year, each against a single challenger. For the District 2 seat, member Christine Woll faces David Morris.
Woll has served on the Assembly for the last three years. In an interview, she said her highest priority is housing, and she thinks her experience would serve her well in a second term.
“It definitely takes a long time to get up to speed on how the city works, what are the big priorities that we need to be focused on,” she said.
Meanwhile, Morris says he’s running because he sees a need for greater transparency in city government.
“They have spent a lot of their time behind closed doors and in executive session,” Morris said in an interview.
Woll is an executive transition guide at The Foraker Group, where she helps nonprofits recruit and select their next executives, board members and other leaders. She has a master’s in fisheries from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a bachelor’s in biology from Bates College in Maine.
While she says the city has already incentivized developers to build higher density housing, she thinks the city could do more to open up its land for development.
“I think our codes and our zoning are really not serving us when it comes to building higher-density housing,” she said. “I know people who want to put a tiny home on their property to rent out, and they can’t right now. We need to clean up our code and our zoning to make sure that we can have a diversity of housing options.”
Morris is a retired swim coach, former Alaska Marine Highway System employee and member of the Family Promise of Juneau’s board of directors. He agrees that Juneau needs more housing. To get there, he said in an interview, he supports areawide candidate Nano Brooks’ idea of raffling off one-acre plots to residents.
“If you built high-end housing here, the people that are in middle housing that are ready to move up would go take those houses,” he said. “And with those vacancies, people that are in low-income housing that are ready to move up would move into those spaces.”
Another of Morris’ top priorities is the landfill. Juneau’s landfill has about 20 years left at its current level of use. Morris thinks using an incinerator again could help.
He said he’s also heard from many voters about property taxes. This year’s mill rate was the lowest it’s been in decades, but because property values also went up, many Juneau residents are paying higher property taxes.
“The thing that hits everybody that I talk to is taxes,” Morris said. “Everybody is really upset about the taxes.”
At a forum co-hosted by KTOO, Woll said she would prioritize basic community needs like building maintenance while also making sure the city has enough revenue to afford them.
“I know people are feeling strapped right now. My monthly house payment went up this year, like most people in Juneau, and that’s not easy,” she said. “The good news is that Juneau’s economy continues to grow, which has allowed us to lower the mill rate, even when personnel and materials go up. Ideally, if other revenue sources grow, we can keep property taxes stable.”
Woll and Morris have different views on the future of Bartlett Regional Hospital, which the city owns. At a forum hosted by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, candidates discussed turnover among the hospital’s leadership. Woll said supporting the hospital board was important, while Morris said the hospital should be privatized.
But Morris says he’s running to increase transparency in local government. As an example, he says the Assembly’s city manager selection process – through a committee Woll chaired – happened mostly in executive session.
Woll has raised more than $6,500, including $1,200 of her own money. Her donors include Sen. Jesse Kiehl, former Assembly member Carole Triem, former Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho, school board president Deedie Sorensen and Juneau Career Firefighters.
Morris has not reported any campaign fundraising.
Woll and Morris both live in the Mendenhall Valley – a requirement to run for a District 2 seat – but Juneau voters can vote in all races on the ballot. Election Day is Oct. 3.
Correction: A previous version of this story said Christine Woll earned her master’s from the University of Alaska Southeast. She received the degree from University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Juneau Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is running against attorney Joe Geldhof for the District 1 seat. (Photos by Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Juneau Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is running for reelection against attorney Joe Geldhof. It’s one of two races on this year’s ballot featuring an incumbent and a single challenger.
In an interview, Hughes-Skandijs said housing is her top priority. She’s been glad to see programs like the city’s accessory dwelling unit grants expand.
“We need to continue really aggressive subsidization until we can kind of catch up with the state of the crisis that we’re at,” she said.
When it comes to hazard maps and development restrictions in landslide and avalanche zones, Hughes-Skandijs said it’s important to balance educating residents about risks with ensuring people can still build more housing.
“I think you do have a responsibility to notify people and let people be aware of the fact that they are taking some personal risk by what kind of hazard they’re living near,” she said.
In 1995, the Juneau Empire reported that Geldhof, then 44, allegedly struck an 8-year-old girl with a hockey stick and swung it at her 14-year-old brother because he felt they had gotten in the way of his roller hockey game. He did not know the children.
Geldhof was charged with two felony assault counts, but they were reduced to one charge of misdemeanor assault in the plea bargain.
In 1996, the Juneau Empire reported that Geldhof pleaded no contest to two assault charges – one for the hockey incident and another that was related to disciplining one of his children, according to the Empire. Geldhof was sentenced to 15 days in jail, three years of probation, 200 hours of community service and a $500 fine. He was also ordered to pay for the girl’s hospital costs.
In an interview, Geldhof said he “learned a tremendous amount” and that voters would have to decide whether the events were relevant.
“I deeply regret what I did,” he said. “I went through court-ordered anger management, which I found very useful. It allowed me to put my life together and my family’s life back together, and we’ve had a great deal of success in my personal life and family. At this point, it’s up to the electorate to decide whether my mistakes from 30 years ago are relevant to the contemporary political issues in this election cycle.”
At candidate forums, Geldhof has billed himself as a candidate who will change Juneau’s city government. He’s been endorsed by Save Juneau, a local advocacy group that opposes property tax increases.
“If you want increased taxes, you should keep the people who are in place,” Geldhof said at a forum hosted by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce. “If you want change and relief, you better vote for change.”
Geldhof opposes the $27 million bond proposal to fund a new city hall, saying city leaders should have listened to voters when they rejected a similar ballot measure last year.
“The City and Borough staff and the Assembly have not made a compelling case,” he said in an interview.
Hughes-Skandijs voted to put the bond proposal back on this year’s ballot. She said repairing the existing city hall, which fits fewer than half of city employees, wouldn’t be a good use of public funds.
“It feels like it’s going to be a waste of city money if we remodel rather than building something that’ll serve us for the next bunch of years,” she said.
As of Sept. 5, donors to Hughes-Skandijs include Kiehl, Mayor Beth Weldon, former Mayor Bruce Botelho, Assembly member Michelle Hale and former member Carole Triem. She’s raised more than $4,400 and spent about $900 on yard signs, brochures, stickers and mailing materials. Geldhof has not reported any campaign fundraising or spending.
Hughes-Skandijs and Geldhof both live on Douglas Island and are running for the District 1 seat, but Juneau voters can vote in all races on the ballot. Election Day is Oct. 3.
People enter and exit Juneau’s city hall on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Fourteen people are running for four Juneau Assembly seats this year. Three are running for two school board seats. But perhaps the most contentious race in Juneau’s Oct. 3 municipal election is between city leaders and skeptics of the need for a new city hall.
The only proposition on the ballot this year asks voters whether or not to fund a new city hall through a $27 million bond. Last year, voters narrowly rejected a $35 million bond proposal for the project. This time around, the city is ramping up messaging about the benefits of a new building.
Supporters of the ballot measure say the city should be spending its money on a building the city owns rather than renting aging facilities and making expensive renovations. Opponents say now isn’t the time to bond for a new city hall — and they say the city should have listened to voters last time.
At a forum co-hosted by KTOO, outgoing City Manager Rorie Watt said building a new city hall was about being “better with the public dollar.”
“We have to do something, and the question is: What’s the best use of our money?” he said. “A new city hall is something we would own together, and we as a community would build equity and own that facility. Continuing to rent means that other people get those profits.”
How much would it cost?
The city’s preferred location for a new city hall is on Whittier Street, next to the Zach Gordon Youth Center and across the street from the state museum.
City leaders say building a new city hall with underground parking would cost $43.3 million, and that it would break even after 32 years. Part of that calculation includes rent the city won’t be paying at other spaces and revenue from the sale of the old city hall building.
The existing city hall isn’t included in property valuation assessments because it’s owned by the city. But similarly sized nearby buildings are worth about $3.5 million, according to Rain Coast Data.
The break-even year depends on the size of the city’s down payment and how much rent for office space is expected to go up each year. A 2022 analysis by Rain Coast Data estimated that a $38.2 million project – the estimate at the time for the Whittier Street project – would break even after 52 years if rent went up 2% per year and 35 years if rent went up 5% per year.
Critics have said that in Alaska’s expensive construction market, it’s hard to guarantee it won’t cost more than $43.3 million to build a new building. The city’s chief architect said in May that when the city used its usual procurement method, some recent bids had been “significantly over the professional estimate” – up to 1.8 times the estimate.
But Watt said the city is proposing a design-build procurement method for a new city hall instead. That means they’d work with a designer and contractor from the beginning to figure out what amenities, building materials and schedule would work at a $43.3 million price.
Chipped paint on the outside of City Hall on Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Would property taxes go up?
Many critics link their opposition to the ballot measure with their frustration over higher property taxes. Both are core issues for several of this year’s Assembly candidates. According to the city, property values increased by 13% this year across the borough.
In June, the city approved a budget with a 10.16 mill rate, the lowest it’s been in decades. Setting it that low required the city to put less money into savings and draw $2 million from reserves for recurring costs. They also put $10 million toward “renovating the current City Hall or building a new City Hall.”
Local advocacy group Save Juneau, which opposes building a new City Hall, wrote on their website that the Assembly put $10 million toward city hall “rather than return those funds to citizens in the form of property tax relief.” Last week, the group endorsed District 1 candidate Joe Geldhof, District 2 candidate David Morris and areawide candidates Nano Brooks and JoAnn Wallace, who all oppose the ballot proposition.
According to the proposition, the mill rate isn’t expected to go up if the bond passes because the city has enough debt capacity. A portion of the mill rate is set aside for debt service. That money goes toward paying off bonds the city has taken on over the years, like the one that paid for the recently completed Centennial Hall renovations.
The city paid off multiple bonds during the last fiscal year. Angie Flick, the city’s finance director, said that will free up space for new debt.
“If the voters approve this item, we could issue a bond and take the place of the debt that’s retiring with new debt,” she said. “We could structure the bond for a new city hall such that it fits within the mill rate, taking into account the debt that we have coming off our books.”
People walk by Juneau’s City Hall on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Where else could city employees work?
Fewer than half of city employees work at city hall. The rest work in four other buildings downtown, in office space the city rents. The city’s lease of two floors in the Municipal Way building ends in June 2028. Another space – the Marine View Building – has frequent plumbing issues.
“We just got notified that they’re going to shut down the water again for a couple of days, so we either have to send everybody home, or get hand sanitizer stations and port-a-potties on the sidewalk,” Watt said at the forum.
Getting out of the Marine View Building could also free up apartments in the building and parking in the garage underneath.
Tracey Ricker, a real estate consultant hired by the Assembly, found that there are no existing commercial properties that could fit all city staff without displacing other tenants. U-Haul now uses the former Walmart building, so that’s no longer an option.
At the forum, Watt acknowledged renting space in the Michael J. Burns Building could be an option for some of the employees.
“But that would just be delaying the consolidation and delaying the benefits of a centralized workforce,” Watt said. “It would be delaying the benefits of the public being able to go to one place. It would be delaying the benefits of the public eventually saving money by building a new city hall.”
The city would also still have to maintain and renovate the current city hall, which has cracking walls, leaking ceilings and asbestos in the carpet. City leaders say renovating it would be an expensive, disruptive project.
“City Hall maintenance has been limited, because quite frankly how much good money do you want us to throw at the bad?” asked Assembly member Wade Bryson in an opinion piece in the Juneau Empire. “It is difficult to justify spending $14 million to renovate a building worth $3.5 million that will still only hold a third of the city’s downtown employees.”
Why is it back on the ballot?
Opponents to this year’s ballot measure say city leaders won’t take no for an answer. Juneau resident David Ignell said the $10 million allocation showed the city wasn’t listening.
“You didn’t want this $35 million bond, so we’re not going to take money out of your left pocket, we’re going to take money out of your right pocket,” Ignell said at the KTOO forum.
Watt said he and the Assembly knew some Juneau residents would disagree with their decision to put it back on the ballot.
“But we can’t really stomach the thought of wasting the public’s money,” Watt said.
The city has brought bond proposals back to voters before after they failed. Ballot measures to fund projects like the downtown parking garage, the Treadwell Ice Arena and the Marine Park expansion succeeded after the city changed how they were funded or the scope of the project.
This year, the city is spending $50,000 to advocate for the project. The Alaska Public Offices Commission requires the Assembly to appropriate funds through an ordinance if it wants city staff to share information that could influence the outcome of an election.
In a Juneau Empire opinion piece, former Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho compared the existing city hall to a family’s old Toyota.
“It’s long since lost its warranty, and the estimate for repairs of the suspension and a transmission rebuild easily exceed the value of the car,” he wrote. “Is it time to look at purchasing a new vehicle? If not now, when?”
Last year, just 246 more people voted against the $35 million bond proposal than for it. In a few weeks, city leaders will find out whether their outreach campaign has changed enough minds.
Juneau Assembly candidates attend a forum hosted by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Katie Anastas/KTOO)
Juneau Assembly candidates pledged greater collaboration with the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska at a forum on Friday.
“In some of the activities you do, there should be cooperative and shared power with the City and Borough, particularly in the areas of delivering housing,” said District 1 candidate Joe Geldhof.
Ten of the 14 Assembly candidates attended the forum in person at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, and Geldhof joined on Zoom. Areawide candidates JoAnn Wallace, Emily Mesch and Jeff Jones did not attend.
Areawide candidate Ella Adkison, a Curyung tribal member, noted that Tlingit and Haida is working to address a lot of the same issues as the city. The tribe offers services for elders, child care, Head Start and other education programs.
“I think there’s a lot more room to connect those efforts and work together to maximize these for these shared constituents that we have,” Adkison said.
Areawide candidate Laura Martinson McDonnell said Tlingit and Haida’s job training programs are important for Juneau’s workforce.
“We have a really huge problem with skilled labor shortages,” she said. “If we can provide that kind of training to our own local people here, that’s going to be a huge problem solver for housing and development.”
Areawide candidate Ivan Nance spoke about opportunities for Alaska Native people in Juneau to get involved in city government. He’s a member of the city’s systemic racism review committee, which the Assembly created in 2020.
“We’re looking into how to get more people involved in the committees and the processes that the city has,” Nance said. “How can we reach out and get people from every community involved?”
District 2 incumbent Christine Woll said strengthening the relationship between the two governments is an important part of building trust.
“I think CBJ has done work to improve relations with the Native community here in Juneau, but I think we have a lot of work to do still,” Woll said. “If I’m reelected, my promise is that I’ll have an open door for ideas on how we can be better partners to the tribes, to the corporations, to the other Native organizations and community at large.”
