Juneau elections

The City and Borough of Juneau will hold its annual How to Run for Local Office workshop this Saturday at City Hall.

It’s a chance for anyone interested in running for a seat on the Juneau Assembly or School Board to ask questions and learn about what it takes to campaign and serve. The workshop is put on annually by the city, the League of Women Voters and Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries. 

Peggy Cowan with the League of Women Voters spoke about the workshop in an interview on Juneau Afternoon last week.

“This workshop will hopefully encourage people who might not know that much about running for office or haven’t been involved in a campaign before,” she said. “It’s hopefully helped take a little bit of the mystery out of like, ‘How do you get started?’”

Six local seats are open for the Oct. 7 municipal election — three on the Juneau Assembly and three on the Juneau School District Board of Education. There is no mayoral race this election. 

The Assembly seats currently filled by members Ella Adkison, Greg Smith and Wade Bryson will be up for grabs. Both Smith and Bryson are nearing the end of their second full, three-year terms. Adkison is finishing her first partial term after she was elected in 2023 to serve the remaining two years of a member who resigned. 

School board seats filled by Deedie Sorensen and Emil Mackey will be open this election. There will also be an opportunity to serve a partial term following former member Will Muldoon’s abrupt resignation from the board last week. 

Muldoon was reelected to serve a second three-year term last fall. He did not give a reason for his departure. The district will soon appoint a temporary member to fill the role until the election.

Cowan recommended that people sign up before attending the workshop, but it’s not required. 

“If you get inspired and it’s a rainy morning on Saturday the third and you want to come on in, then you are more than welcome to drop in,” she said. 

There’s also a handful of citizen ballot initiatives that residents may be asked to vote on in this election, depending on whether advocates gather enough signatures in support. The filing period to run for local office will open in mid-July.

The Juneau Assembly moved forward with a plan on Wednesday that would add up to $10 million to the city’s debt if approved by voters in this fall’s election. It would fund critical repairs and upgrades to Juneau’s schools after years of deferred maintenance.  

The Assembly decided to prioritize funding repairs to schools over the city’s water and sewer systems, which are also in need of some TLC. That means utility rate hikes are likely on the way. 

Superintendent Frank Hauser spoke about the need for school repairs and upgrades at a meeting last month. 

“The impact that facilities, well-functioning facilities — not only having roofs that are not leaking, but also HVAC systems that are consistent and sustained at a comfortable level — the importance of that is for the learning environment of our students,” he said. 

The repairs would include partially reroofing Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School, upgrading heating and ventilation systems and adding new security and safety measures district-wide. 

The decision last night wasn’t final. The Assembly still needs to take public comment before deciding whether the bond measure will go to voters. During the same meeting, the Assembly shot down a different bond package that would have asked voters to fund repairs to the city’s water and sewer systems, as much of its infrastructure reaches the end of its lifespan. 

Assembly member Maureen Hall said she worried that putting two bond questions on the ballot would overwhelm voters. It also comes after last fall’s election, when Juneau voters approved a different $10 million wastewater bond to replace infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“I think there’s going to be an awful lot on the ballot this fall, and so I am a little hesitant to charge forward,” she said. 

Instead, members voted to push forward with a plan that would increase residential water and sewer rates by 5% annually over the next five years, and pair it with a bond package or other payment options later down the line.

City Manager Katie Koester said she believes the proposed 5% increases are the “least painful option” for residents that still addresses the need to pay for repairs. 

“I worked with the utility and we really, like, sharpened our pencils and scoured budgets to try to come to you with the recommendation that we feel like has the lowest impact on our ratepayers and the lowest current year pain on our budget,” she said. 

But the proposed increases would only begin to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance or replacement needs. In December, Juneau’s Water Utilities Division originally proposed increasing residents’ rates by more than 60% over the next five years to address those urgent repairs. 

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said she thinks the 5% increases are too low given the significance of the problem. 

“I don’t want us to be a body that kicks problems forward to future Assemblies and only continues to put us in a worse situation financially, at a time where our equipment is super old,” she said. 

But, Assembly member Ella Adkison said the proposed increase won’t go unnoticed.

“We talk about affordability in Juneau, utility rates are one of the biggest factors in affordability, because it affects everyone, including some of our lowest-income families,” she said. “It can really hit them hard.”

The Assembly will still need to take public comment at a future meeting before passing any rate hikes. If approved, those would go into effect in July. 

The City and Borough of Juneau clerk’s office certified three ballot petitions aimed at lowering local taxes in Juneau on Monday. 

That means advocates can soon start collecting signatures of support in hopes of getting the proposals on the municipal ballot this fall. 

The three petitions seek to cap the local property tax rate, remove sales tax on food and utilities, and make in-person voting the default again in Juneau’s local elections. 

A Juneau advocacy group called the Affordable Juneau Coalition is leading the effort for all three petitions. 

Joe Geldhof is a local attorney and member of the group. He also unsuccessfully ran for the Juneau Assembly two years ago. He said the purpose of the petitions is to make Juneau more affordable.

“There’s been a lot of discussion for a long period of time about how to do that, and the City and Borough Assembly and the city manager never seemed to accomplish anything on that,” Geldhof said.

The Assembly already considered removing sales tax on food a few years ago, but ultimately decided against it. The city currently taxes food and utilities at 5%. Geldhof said removing that tax would directly lower people’s bills.

“Because it impacts every resident, and especially lower and moderate-income,” he said. 

But, on the flip side, those taxes bring in a combined $10 to $12 million in revenue to the city each year. If voters pass the initiative, City Finance Director Angie Flick said it likely means the city would have to cut back on spending or reduce services to make up for the lost revenue. 

“That would be a sizable chunk of the city’s budget and would definitely require the Assembly to make some hard decisions,” Flick said. 

The same goes for the petition to lower the mill rate. The city uses the mill rate to calculate how much property tax residents pay each year. Those taxes are expected to bring in about $63 million this fiscal year, which makes up roughly 40% of general fund revenue.

“While today, those limits might be manageable, it really does handcuff the city moving forward,” she said. “As the cost of services likely increases, it certainly could put the Assembly in a place where they’re having to make unpopular decisions.”

Right now, the city caps the mill rate at 12 mills, but the petition would drop the ceiling down to nine mills. While that could lower property taxes in the future for property owners, it again would likely come at a cost to the city. Geldhof said that’s the point. 

“They need to start taking a hard look at all the expenses they do, and get back to funding essentials,” he said. “How that plays out, of course, is going to be up to the Assembly.”

That leaves the petition to make in-person voting the default again in Juneau. While that doesn’t address affordability outright, Geldhof said he thinks the change will make elections cheaper. 

The Juneau Assembly approved an ordinance two years ago that made by-mail voting the default for local elections. But, residents can still vote in-person at city vote centers. Last year, a group of residents tried to repeal the ordinance but failed to gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot. 

This time around, the petition would instead amend language in that same ordinance to make elections poll-based again, instead of by-mail. 

The group will have until May 30 to gather just over 2,700 signatures for each petition to secure a spot on the ballot this October.

Two new Juneau Assembly members were sworn in at City Hall Monday night. 

Voters selected Neil Steininger to represent Assembly District 1 and Maureen Hall to represent District 2 in this year’s municipal election. 

They will each serve a three-year term. They replace outgoing members ‘Waahlaal Gidaag Barbara Blake and Michelle Hale, who did not run for reelection. 

At the meeting, Assembly members congratulated and thanked both outgoing members for their dedication to the community. Christine Woll applauded Blake’s commitment to the Assembly, while also juggling other leadership roles in the community and state. 

“I’m just in awe of you every day. Everything that you do for your, our community, for your community, it’s so inspiring,” she said. “Your impact is large already in Alaska, and I’m really excited to see what you do next.”

Alicia Hughes-Skandijs thanked Hale for her leadership and kindness.

“I always will feel appreciative of how welcome you made me feel as a newbie who was in over her head, and your faith in me and we’re going to miss you around here,” she said. 

Blake served one term and Hale served two, with the latter as deputy mayor. At the meeting, the Assembly unanimously voted to appoint member Greg Smith to fill the position. 

Mayor Beth Weldon was sworn in last week for her third, three-year term as mayor. Before that, she also served two years as an Assembly member before resigning to run for mayor. 

On Tuesday night the Juneau School Board will swear in three incumbent members to serve another term. This election incumbents Elizabeth Siddon, Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz all successfully defended their seats.  

Final results in Juneau’s municipal election show two new faces will join the Juneau Assembly while Juneau’s incumbent mayor and school board members were reelected for another term. 

Meanwhile, voters overwhelmingly shot down a proposal to ban all large cruise ships on Saturdays and the Fourth of July starting next year. 

Turnout was also significantly up this year. This year’s election yielded one of the highest voter turnouts of the last decade. 

Steininger and Hall win Assembly Districts 1 and 2

Two seats were up for grabs on the Juneau Assembly this year — a District 1 and a District 2 seat. From the get-go, District 1 candidate Neil Steininger and District 2 candidate Maureen Hall led in their respective races, according to preliminary results. 

And, on Tuesday both held their leads through the final count to secure spots on the Assembly. Steininger said he’s grateful to get support from voters and is now eager to start his new role. 

“I’m just really looking forward to getting my hands in there, and working with the rest of the group and figuring out what problems it is that we need to address and things we need to work together to solve here over the next year,” he said.

Hall said she is already eager to begin working with other members on how best to tackle the issues she campaigned on. 

“Definitely doing my research on what has worked for other communities, for homelessness and obviously the flood mitigation, and making sure that the homeowners that have been impacted are being heard and have what they need,” she said. 

The pair will each serve a three-year term. They will replace current Assembly members ‘Waahlaal Gidaag Barbara Blake and  Michelle Hale who did not run for reelection. 

Weldon wins another term as mayor

Incumbent Beth Weldon won the mayoral race against challenger Angela Rodell. 

While both shared similar views on topics like glacial outburst flood preparation, Rodell led her campaign on a fiscally conservative platform while Weldon applauded the work the Assembly has done to give breaks to taxpayers. 

Weldon said she’s eager to continue her work on flood preparation, housing and child care. 

“I am honored to be re-elected as mayor to this great city, and I’m very proud that I get to continue to do this job,” she said. 

Incumbents reelected to school board 

The three incumbents running for reelection on the Juneau School Board held strong leads from the first vote count. And in the end, Elizabeth Siddon, Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz all successfully defended their seats.  

All incumbents shared a similar goal of keeping the district on firm financial footing following last year’s whirlwind budget crisis and school consolidation process.

Muldoon said having all incumbents back will mean all board members will be up to speed on current issues, and ready to tackle any difficult decisions ahead. 

“We’ve got a tough road ahead, so I think having that institutional knowledge and experience will make things easier,” he said. 

They will remain on the school board along with School Board President Deedie Sorensen and Vice President Emil Mackey, who were the subjects of petitions attempting to recall them in this year’s election. 

Recall initiative fails

The final results showed that most voters were against removing the pair on the board. The effort was led by a group of residents who wanted to remove them in part due to their votes in favor of the consolidation of Juneau’s high schools and middle schools earlier this year. 

Sorensen said she thinks it shows that most voters understood the complexity of the consolidation process and the need for difficult decisions by the board. 

“I’m not surprised that the recall didn’t prevail,” she said. “I felt that the people that were most unhappy with the decisions that we were making were a fairly select group of people.”

Mackey agreed.

“It speaks well of our community that they were willing to accept the hard choices that nobody wanted to do, and also recognize that a recall could have a chilling effect on future boards trying to find members to run for the school board,” he said. 

Jenny Thomas was one of the leaders of the recall effort. She also unsuccessfully ran for school board this year. She said she had no comment on the results of the recalls. 

Ship Free Saturdays fails, public safety and infrastructure bonds pass

There were three propositions on the ballot this year. One was a public safety bond that asked to borrow $12.7 million to replace the radio system used by first responders, and the other was a wastewater bond that asked to borrow $10 million to replace critical infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both passed in the final vote with wide margins.

But, the third — and most contentious — proposition called “Ship Free Saturdays” asked voters whether or not Juneau should ban all large cruise ships on Saturdays starting next year. And the answer from voters was an overwhelming “no.” 

Final results showed 4,196 people voted yes on the proposition, while 6,575 people voted no — a 2,379 vote difference. 

And, in total, 10,880 registered voters had their ballots counted in this year’s municipal election – that’s 38%. It’s the highest voter turnout in the recent decade.

Amber Frommherz is a member of KTOO’s board of directors. The board has no editorial control over content. 

Correction: A previous version of this story reversed the yes and no votes on the Ship Free Saturdays proposition. 

Preliminary results for Juneau’s local election haven’t budged much since the city last released an update a week ago. 

On Thursday another update showed that Juneau voters continue to reject the Ship Free Saturday ballot initiative, but the two bond propositions related to public safety and infrastructure are soundly passing. 

Incumbent Mayor Beth Weldon continues to hold her lead with a growing margin, as does candidate Neil Steininger for the District 1 Juneau Assembly seat and Maureen Hall for District 2. 

Juneau School Board incumbents Elizabeth Siddon, Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz are also successfully defending their seats for reelection. Voters continue to reject the recall petitions for School Board President Deedie Sorensen and Vice President Emil Mackey.

Thursday’s count included 10,780 ballots, bringing voter turnout to roughly 38%. That’s more than last year’s turnout. But, there’s still more to be reviewed and processed before the Canvass Review Board meets to certify the final results next week.

Cure letters have been sent to voters who may need to provide more information before their ballots are counted. Election officials encourage voters to check their mail and respond by Monday to ensure their votes are counted.