Juneau elections

Seventeen candidates are running in Juneau’s Oct. 3 municipal election.

To help sort through the choices, the League of Women Voters of Juneau, KTOO, KINY and the Juneau Empire joined forces to host two candidate forums.

On Sept. 12, candidates for Juneau Assembly answered questions about local issues.

Then on Sept. 13, two of the three candidates for school board discussed education issues and David Ignell and City Manager Rorie Watt represented opposing sides for a discussion on the ballot proposition concerning funding for a new city hall.

The forums are both available to watch on YouTube and in KTOO’s Juneau election guide.

Watch the Juneau Assembly forum here: 

Watch the Juneau School Board and ballot measure forum here: 

At a forum hosted Thursday by the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, candidates for the school board and Assembly shared their views on education funding, staff retention and whether to build a new city hall.

Three candidates are vying for two open school board seats: Britteny Cioni-Haywood, David Noon and Paige Sipniewski. They discussed state funding, student enrollment and teacher retention.

For the last several years, district leaders throughout the state have called for an increase to the base student allocation, part of a formula that determines how much money per student districts get from the state. It hasn’t increased substantially since 2017, and inflation has driven costs up. This year, the Alaska Legislature approved a one-time funding increase, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed half of it. And most recently, the state education department went after the school district for the supplemental funding it received from the city.

School board candidate Paige Sipniewski said a funding increase should be tied to academic improvement.

“If we have decreased enrollment, we can’t just keep throwing money at the problem,” she said. “We can’t advocate for a $1,000 increase to the BSA with no improvement to our kids’ test scores and education.”

But candidate David Noon said improving academic performance requires hiring and keeping teachers so class sizes can stay small, which can’t improve without more funding. 

“Without increased school funding, we’re going to continue having problems recruiting and retaining teachers,” Noon said.

When asked how the district should decide which books should be available in libraries, Noon and Britteny Cioni-Haywood said they were happy with the board’s current policies.

“I think that there should be a vast range of options for children,” Cioni-Haywood said. “One of the things about reading is you really need to connect with it, so having those options for all children is important.” 

Sipniewski said she thinks parents should be able to have a say in what books are available in school libraries.

“I am completely against anything regarding gender, sex, religion, profanity, drug use, race — as far as literature for kids in school,” she said. “We have public libraries. They can go check out books there or their parents can if they want their children reading that.”

Candidates for Assembly Districts 1 and 2 were also at the forum.

Two candidates are running for each district Assembly seat. Joe Geldhof is running against incumbent Alicia Hughes-Skandijs for District 1, and David Morris is running against incumbent Christine Woll for District 2. Juneau voters can vote in all races on the ballot – the districts depend on where the candidates live.

The city is asking voters to fund a new city hall through a $27 million bond. Voters rejected a $35 million bond proposal for the project last year. This time, the city put $10 million toward the project to bring the size of the bond down. They’re also spending $50,000 to advocate for the project.

District 1 candidate Joe Geldhof said building a new city hall would be a misuse of public funds.

“There’s a lot of talk here among the Assembly and in the community about housing, housing, housing – so what are we going to do? We’re going to build a new city hall,” he said.

But incumbent Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said repairing a building that doesn’t fit all city workers and continuing to rent other office space doesn’t make financial sense.

“And speaking of housing, some of the space we’re renting could be returned to residential apartments,” she said. “We’re going to spend public money either way.”

Assembly candidates also discussed turnover among Bartlett Regional Hospital leadership. Last month, Bartlett CEO David Keith announced his retirement and CFO Sam Wise announced his resignation.

Incumbent Christine Woll said the Assembly needs to support the city-owned hospital’s board.

“We’re lucky to have a strong and stable board for Bartlett right now, but we always have challenges recruiting members to serve on public boards in the city,” she said. “We need to keep making sure that we have engaged citizens willing to serve on that board.”

Woll’s opponent, David Morris, agreed that the Assembly should work closely with the hospital’s board. But more broadly, he said, he doesn’t think the city should be running a hospital. 

“I think the city should not have a hospital,” he said. “I think it should be privatized.”

Other communities in Southeast Alaska have debated whether to continue running city-owned hospitals or allow the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium to build and operate one instead. 

Thursday’s forum was the latest in a series of public events featuring municipal candidates. The Juneau League of Women Voters, KTOO, the Juneau Empire and KINY will co-host forums on Sept. 12 and 13. The Chamber will host candidates for the areawide Assembly seat at a forum on Sept. 14.

Juneau Assembly candidates discussed the need for affordable housing, more child care and competitive wages for public safety employees at a forum hosted by local police and firefighters Thursday.

Staff shortages, wages and child care were common themes in the questions, which were submitted by public safety employees and first responders. The Juneau Police Department has 14 unfilled jobs – a 23% vacancy rate.

“Increasing wages is probably the fastest way to deal with some of those vacancies,” said District 1 incumbent Christine Woll.

Last year, Juneau police received the same 5.5% wage increase as all other city employees and a 5% increase to their employer health contribution.

Areawide candidate JoAnn Wallace said more recruitment within the local community could also help.

“If you could recruit them right out of high school and send them through scholarship programs to get trained, as an alternative to college, I think it would be a great way to keep kids that are already in our community in our town and into these great jobs,” Wallace said.

Some candidates said the police and fire departments need more city funding.

“We need to find a way to make sure the fire department is funded appropriately, without an increase in property taxes or sales taxes,” said areawide candidate Jeff Jones. “We need more transparency within the city. We need to know where the money is going.”

Public safety employees also asked the candidates what they would do about the child care shortage. Areawide candidate Nano Brooks said the city can help the industry through subsidies and grants to help providers expand their facilities. 

“Also, supporting local programs like RALLY, which made a huge difference in my life,” Brooks said, referring to the Juneau School District’s child care program.

Burnout, depression and other mental health challenges were also concerns for firefighters and police. Areawide candidate Ella Adkison said diverting some of the workload to other kinds of workers, such as mental health providers, could help.

“If we can have a new program where non-police people take calls that are non-violent, such as mental health and addiction crises, that way we can save our police officers for the truly violent calls that they need to be on, such as domestic violence and assault calls,” she said.

Thirteen out of 14 assembly candidates attended the forum. Ten candidates are running for two areawide seats, two are running for a District 1 seat and two are running for District 2. District 2 candidate David Morris did not attend.

Thursday’s forum was the first of several opportunities for the public to hear from municipal candidates. The Juneau Chamber of Commerce will host a forum for school board and District 1 and 2 candidates on Thursday, Sept. 7. The Juneau League of Women Voters, KTOO, the Juneau Empire and KINY will co-host forums on Sept. 12 and 13. The Chamber will host an areawide candidate forum on Sept. 14.

Juneau residents can register to vote or update their addresses through Sunday, Sept. 3. Election day is Oct. 3.

Seventeen candidates are running for local office in Juneau this year after one dropped out.

Candidates had until 4:30 p.m. Monday to file to run for four open Assembly seats and two open school board seats in the Oct. 3 election. 

This year’s pool is far more crowded than last year’s, when five incumbents were the only candidates running and automatically won reelection. 

Juneau Assembly areawide seats

As of Monday’s deadline, candidates running for the two open areawide Assembly seats are Paul Kelly, Ivan Nance, Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks, JoAnn Wallace, Ella Adkison, Michele Stuart-Morgan, Emily Mesch, Dorene Lorenz, Laura Martinson McDonnell and Jeff Jones. 

The candidate with the most votes in that race will win a three-year term. The runner-up will finish the remaining two years of the seat that was occupied by Carole Triem until she resigned earlier this month. 

Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski holds the other areawide seat. Since she has served three terms on the Assembly, she is not allowed to run again. 

Assembly Districts 1 and 2

In District 1, incumbent Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is running for reelection against Joe Geldhof. In District 2, incumbent Christine Woll is running against David L. Morris. Dorene Lorenz originally filed to run in District 2 but withdrew and refiled to run for an areawide seat on Monday. 

Both of those seats are full three-year terms. Juneau residents can vote for any and all candidates regardless of where they live, but candidates must live in the district they’re running for. 

Juneau School Board races

Three candidates are running for two open seats on the school board. Incumbent Brian Holst originally filed to run, but later withdrew from the race. That leaves Paige Sipniewski, Britteny Cioni-Haywood and David Noon vying for seats. The top two candidates will win three-year terms. 

Once certified to run, candidates have until Friday to withdraw from the race. Write-in candidates have until Sept. 26 to file to run. Their names do not appear on the ballot, but can be written in by voters.

Voting in Juneau’s by-mail local election begins in mid-September. The deadline for Juneau residents to register to vote is Sept. 3. 

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Monday, July 31 to reflect that Brian Holst withdrew from the school board race. 

The candidate filing period for Juneau’s Oct. 3 municipal election opened Friday, and four candidates are certified to run for office so far. 

Prospective candidates for Juneau’s four open Assembly seats and two open school board seats have until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, July 24 to file their paperwork with the city clerk’s office. 

According to the city’s website, former school board member Paul Kelly and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Ivan Nance have filed to run for the two open areawide Assembly seats. 

One of the areawide seats is currently occupied by Maria Gladziszewski. She has served for three terms and is not allowed to run for a fourth. Carole Triem recently resigned from her areawide seat. Former Assembly member Loren Jones will fill her seat until the election. The areawide candidate with the most votes will win the full three-year term, and the runner-up will finish the remaining year of Triem’s term. 

Current Assembly members Christine Woll and Alicia Hughs-Skandijs have both filed for reelection in districts 1 and 2. No one had been certified to run for school board as of Friday afternoon. 

Areawide candidates can live anywhere in town, but candidates running in districts 1 or 2 must live in those districts. Candidates need to submit a declaration of candidacy form, a nominating petition with at least 25 signatures, a candidate statement and an Alaska Public Offices Commission financial disclosure form to run for office. 

If people have been thinking about running but aren’t completely decided, Andi Hirsh from the city clerk’s office says there’s still time to make up your mind. 

“I would say, if you’re on the fence, go ahead and get this paperwork in,” she said on Juneau Afternoon Friday. “And then you have until July 28 to withdraw your name from the ballot.”

Hirsch says the main mistakes she sees would-be candidates make when filing for office are having illegible handwriting on the candidate support forms, or not fully writing out supporters’ addresses on the nominating petition. 

Juneau’s local election takes place by mail. Ballots will be mailed out to registered voters in mid-September. Two vote centers will open Monday, Sept. 18 for in-person voting through Election Day, and secure dropboxes will be placed around town for completed ballots.

Correction: A previous version of this story identified Paul Kelly as a current school board member. His term ended in 2021. 

Juneau’s 2022 municipal election has been certified. The final results were posted Wednesday evening.

More than 9,000 people cast ballots in this year’s election, representing about a third of Juneau’s registered voters.

There were four propositions on the ballot, and two of them were too close to call on election night. The gaps widened for both as more ballots came in. In the end, Juneau voters decided not to borrow money for a new City Hall, but they did vote to repeal the city’s mandatory real estate disclosure.

Proposition 1, which asked voters to authorize the city to borrow up to $35 million to help pay for a new City Hall, failed by 246 votes.

Proposition 2, which asked voters to approve funding measures for city parks and infrastructure improvements, passed by a wide margin — as did Proposition 3, which authorized the extension of a 1% additional sales tax. 

Proposition 4, a citizen initiative to repeal the mandatory disclosure of real estate sales prices, passed by more than 360 votes. The Juneau Assembly passed the measure in 2020 with the hopes that the information would improve the accuracy of property assessments. The referendum supporters who wanted it repealed called the requirement an invasion of privacy and claimed that requiring disclosures could lead to higher taxes. 

The repeal became effective on Wednesday when the election was certified. 

The Juneau Assembly will learn more about the election results at its next regular meeting on Monday. There are no new assembly members to swear in. Carole Triem, Greg Smith and Wade Bryson all ran unopposed to keep their seats.

Juneau School Board members Emil Mackey and Deedie Sorensen were also re-elected to their positions without facing challengers.