4 Special Coverage

Drivers honked their horns as a crowd of people wearing raincoats and holding coffee waved campaign signs at the corner of a downtown intersection early Tuesday morning. 

Assembly candidate Neil Steininger said he wanted to get out during the morning rush hour traffic to make sure people remembered to vote. 

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I feel like we’re reminding folks that today’s the last day and I’m feeling like there’s gonna be a good turnout.”

Steininger is running for the open District 1 seat against another candidate, Connor Ulmer. There are also five candidates running for an open District 2 seat this election. 

Alongside Steininger on the corner of the intersection was incumbent Mayor Beth Weldon. She’s running for her third term against challenger Angela Rodell.

“Well, I’m pretty hopeful that we have a pretty good voter turnout,” Weldon said. “We had a lot of early votes in, so I’m hoping today we’ll have a lot more votes in and I’m hopeful that I’m the winner.”

Weldon said she thinks voter turnout is going to be higher this year because of the Ship Free Saturdays proposition on the ballot. It asks voters whether to ban large cruise ships from visiting on Saturdays and on the Fourth of July starting next summer. 

There are also two other less contentious propositions on the ballot. One is a public safety bond that asks voters whether the city to borrow $12.7 million to replace the radio system used by first responders, and the other is a wastewater bond that asks to borrow $10 million to replace critical infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Randy Bates is a commercial and recreational fisherman in Juneau. He cast his vote at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library early Tuesday morning. He said the Ship Free Saturday proposition was top of mind for him. 

“I’m not going to tell you how I voted, but as a recreational fisherman, I’ve got a partner who wants to go out on the weekends, on Saturdays, and these charter boats and these whale watchers are just overwhelming the waters out there,” he said.

On the other side of town, Heather Ramseth was dropping off her ballot in a drop box outside City Hall. She said she was happy to see such a robust ballot this year with new and returning candidates on it. 

“I’m pleased that people are running,” she said. “I think it’s a really scary time to put yourself out there.”

Ramseth said her ballot included a mix of new and incumbent candidates, and she said she would not be voting in favor of the Ship Free Saturday proposition. 

“It’s too hard a line just to say no ships on Saturdays,” she said. “I think trying to be more nuanced about our approach is important, and continuing to have conversations, even though it’s hard.”

The ballot also has two recall questions asking whether to oust Board of Education President Deedie Sorensen and another asking whether to recall board Vice President Emil Mackey. 

Sally and Frank Rue were also at City Hall to drop their ballots in the drop box. Sally is a former member of the school board. 

“I voted against the recalls because I do not think that’s a constructive way to go forward,” she said. “I understand how difficult the situation was, and I’m really happy I wasn’t on the school board then.”

The preliminary results of the election released Tuesday night only include ballots that were mailed in or dropped off before Election Day. Official results won’t be certified by election officials until Oct. 15.

Tuesday is Election Day here in Juneau. 

That means it’s the last day to cast your ballot in the by-mail municipal election. But don’t worry — there are a few ways to do that. 

The ballot includes three propositions, two recall questions, nine Assembly candidates — including mayor — and six school board candidates. 

The city has vote centers at City Hall and the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. Doors open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Ballot drop boxes across town are open until 8 p.m. as well. They’re located at City Hall, the AEL&P office in Lemon Creek, Douglas Public Library, the Valley Library and Statter Harbor boat launch. 

Voters can also mail their ballots back, but ballots sent in by mail need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and a first-class stamp is required. Don’t forget: just because you drop off your ballot by 8 p.m. on Tuesday doesn’t mean it will be postmarked for that day. 

Preliminary results will be shared Tuesday night. The final election results will be certified on Oct. 15.

Find the latest election news and candidate profiles at ktoo.org/elections. 

All six candidates running for the Juneau School District Board of Education say finding fiscal stability after last year’s whirlwind budget crisis and school consolidation process is a top concern for them. 

But, as they campaign in this year’s municipal election, some differ in what they think is the best way to approach it. 

There are three open seats on the board in this municipal election. All incumbents are running again, but they face off against three challengers. The incumbents are Will Muldoon, Elizabeth Siddon and Amber Frommherz. Their challengers are Michele Stuart Morgan, Jeff Redmond and Jenny Thomas.

Rebuilding after consolidation 

Last year, the district faced an abrupt multimillion-dollar deficit, which had to be solved in a matter of months. That led to the consolidation of Juneau’s middle and high schools. 

Incumbent candidate Siddon said the aftermath of that continues to be the biggest challenge the district faces right now.

“There are certainly going to be sort of pressure points we find as the dust settles around that, and we’ll continue to find solutions to those,” she said in an interview. “But at the bigger level, I think it’s rebuilding the trust and the communication with the community.”

Challenger Stuart Morgan said it’s important that board members have an adequate understanding of how the district does its finances moving forward. 

“I think one would be understanding how the calculations are done,” she said. “The first thing I would like to do is get trained on that as if I was a person working there, understanding how that works, understanding how we receive our funding.”

Thomas agreed and said there should also be more transparency and communication in how the board makes big decisions like the consolidation process. Along with being a candidate for the school board, Thomas is also one of the leaders of a recall effort on the ballot this year to oust the board’s current president and vice president. 

“The school board members need to be direct and communicate with the public about what’s going on,” she said. “They need to let the public know that they’re hearing them rather than it falling on deaf ears, and you just think they’re doing whatever they want.”

Tackling declining enrollment, state funding uncertainties 

With continued uncertainty about education funding in the state, paired with the district’s declining enrollment, incumbent Frommherz said she thinks more difficult conversations are likely ahead.

“I foresee that the school district will have to consolidate some more if it’s continued flat funding; all the expenses are increasing every year,” she said in an interview. “I believe it’ll be at the other end of the spectrum, which would be at the elementary level. And we’re looking for areas where there are multiple geographic consolidations, so it’d most likely be in the Valley area is what I would predict.”

But incumbent Muldoon thinks there still is time to figure out if the district will need to turn to more school consolidation. 

“I would say in the immediate term, hopefully not,” he said in an interview. “We are doing our best, but as far as the best way to tackle that, I think it’s fully bringing our budget software online and having a relational database model for all finances and dollars in and dollars out, and then modeling that data for timely and accurate reports and a public-facing dashboard.”

And Redmond said he thinks the district will have to play a balancing act when it comes to how closing schools might affect future funding.

“It’s kind of a self-fulfilling issue. So if it does need to continue, then again, just looking ahead more than 30 days would be like a kind of a basic first step. However, seeking alternate funding is a big one for me,” he said. “I understand that there are some constraints on that, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no way to explore that.”

Find more election coverage at ktoo.org/elections.  

Juneau’s municipal Election Day is right around the corner — voters have until Tuesday night to cast their ballots in this year’s local election. 

There are a few ways to do that. The city has ballot drop boxes in different locations all across town. Voters can also mail their ballots back, or go to a vote center.

The year’s ballot features three propositions, two recall questions, nine Assembly candidates — including mayor — and six school board candidates. According to City Clerk Beth McEwen, they’re already seeing a lot of ballots come through the city’s processing center. 

“It’s definitely up from last year’s returns … we’re definitely busier than we were last year,” she said. 

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 4,200 ballots had been returned. That’s about 27% higher than this time last year. McEwen said they’re also seeing fewer cure letters that need to be sent to voters to correct mistakes on returned ballots. If voters do receive a cure letter, she encourages them to respond as soon as possible to make sure their vote can be counted. 

The ballot drop boxes are open now until 8 p.m. Tuesday. They are located at City Hall, the AEL&P office in Lemon Creek, Douglas Library, the Mendenhall Valley Public Library and Statter Harbor boat launch. 

Ballots sent in by mail need to be postmarked on or before Election Day and a first-class stamp is required. Remember: just because you drop off your ballot by 8 p.m. on Tuesday doesn’t mean it will be postmarked for that day. 

The city’s vote centers at City Hall and the Valley Library will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

McEwen said it can get a bit busy at the vote centers on Election Day, and she encouraged people to cast their ballots before then if they can.

“It’s the same process, whether you show up between now and Election Day or Election Day itself, it’s just on Election Day you may have to wait in line,” she said. 

Ballots turned in on Election Day aren’t counted in the unofficial results released that night. They’ll be added to later unofficial result updates. The final results will be certified on Oct. 15.

In last year’s municipal election, 10 candidates ran for two areawide seats. This year, five are running for a single District 2 seat. 

The winner will replace outgoing member Michelle Hale, who is retiring from her role after serving six years on the Assembly. 

As Election Day nears, candidates share their views on the propositions on the ballot, the local economy and how they think the city should better spend its time and resources. 

Split views on Ship Free Saturdays 

One of the hottest topics on this year’s ballot is Proposition 2. It asks voters whether to ban all cruise ships that carry 250 or more passengers from visiting on Saturdays and on the Fourth of July as soon as next summer.

According to a poll by KTOO, District 2 candidate Mary Marks is the only candidate running for Assembly this election who is voting in favor of the proposition.

“The free-ship Saturday ballot, I believe would be beneficial. And I come from my perspective as a tribal citizen, as a community citizen,” she said in an interview. “I like to hunt and gather my foods, and it would be really nice to be able to have that open freely, whether I’m heading out on Thane Road or out in the Valley gathering or fishing.”

Other candidates like Dorene Lorenz disagreed. She said she would be a “no” vote because of the negative economic impact it could have on some residents and local businesses. 

“I think that the Ship-Free Saturday ballot initiative is a bit shortsighted and that we already have seven months that are ship-free, and we have a bunch of people who really rely on that income and can only get it when the ships are here, and we need to allow them to take advantage of the investment they have made in that industry,” she said. 

Maureen Hall said she thinks the proposition could tarnish the positive steps the city has taken with the cruise industry in recent years. 

“I feel like this is not quite the right approach. I feel like the partnership between the cruise industry and our city, as well as concerned citizens, is working,” she said. “I think it would be very detrimental to the economy of our community.”

Nano Brooks and Emily Mesch also said they plan to vote “no.”

Support for public safety and wastewater bonds

In a survey conducted by KTOO, all five candidates for District 2 said they would vote ‘yes’ on the $12.7 million public safety radio bond on the ballot this year, but Brooks was the only candidate in the District 2 pool to say he wouldn’t be voting in favor of the $10 million Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant bond.

In an interview, Brooks said that while he thinks both are important things for the community, he doesn’t support the way the city wants to pay for them.

“We have a lot of savings for projects that either haven’t been approved or haven’t had much forward progress,” he said. “So before placing a greater burden on the people of the community, I would have liked to have seen the consideration to maybe use funds that are already available.”

Meanwhile, candidates who supported both like Mesch said they think the bonds are critical projects to ensure the community’s health and safety needs are met. 

“I think they’re important. I think there are certain things that we need for a functioning city, and I hope the voters approve it,” she said. “I think both of the initiatives will go a long way toward making lives of people in Juneau better.”

Mesch ran for one of the two open Areawide Assembly seats in last year’s election, but lost to Ella Adkison and Paul Kelly. 

Glacial outburst flooding preparation takes the forefront 

All District 2 candidates expressed concern about the record-breaking glacial outburst flooding event that happened in Juneau this past August, which damaged hundreds of homes in the Mendenhall Valley. But, they differed on what types of actions the Assembly and city should — or should’ve already taken — to mitigate its impacts on residents. 

In an interview, Mesch said she thinks the city needs to hit the ground running on getting mitigation efforts and a plan in place for residents before next year’s anticipated flood breaks.   

“Any mitigation we can do that’s on city land should be done. Any effort to push the federal government and state government where it’s relevant to. As long as there is a plan in place by June of next year, physically to stop a flood,” she said. “Whether that is drilling through the mountain, whether it’s putting a giant dam around Mendenhall Lake – whatever the people above my pay grade decide is the right thing to do.”

While others agreed, some candidates like Brooks were more pointed about what actions they wanted to see the city take.

“This issue now being a reoccurring disaster that’s affecting hundreds of homes and people needs to be one of the highest, if not the highest, priority of the Assembly right now,” he said. “The easiest thing to do right now is a basic alert system and evacuation program. The second thing to do is that you can build levees or dams to divert the water when we do have the next potential overflow or outburst.”

Marks criticized the Assembly for not taking action after the flood in 2023. 

“I really believe that this should be a lesson to our Assembly, as well as the administration that we need to act here and really pay close attention if we don’t know what we’re up against,” she said. “It’s important to ask those questions and not be afraid to ask the questions and allow the community to be a part of that solution, working together.”

Who’s donating to their campaigns?

Hall leads the group in the amount of money raised for her campaign. According to campaign finance records, she has raised just under $7,100. Some of her donors include Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon, former Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski, former school board member Brian Holst and Sealaska Heritage Institute President Kaaháni Rosita Worl.

She’s followed by Lorenz, who has reportedly raised $1,250 this election. According to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, neither Brooks, Mesch or Marks have raised more than $5,000 toward their respective campaigns. That means they’re exempt from filing campaign finance disclosures.

Find more election coverage at ktoo.org/elections. 

Neil Steininger and Connor Ulmer are making their debut in Juneau’s local political arena in hopes to secure the open District 1 seat on the Juneau Assembly this municipal election.

The two new candidates are going head to head to replace outgoing Assembly member ‘Waahlaal Gidaag Barbara Blake, who is not seeking re-election. Come October, she will have served one, three-year term in the seat. 

Steininger is a consultant who has extensive experience with Alaska’s state government. He spent 11 years working for the state, including eight at the Office of Management and Budget, and he has a Bachelors in economics.

In an interview with KTOO, Steininger said his previous experience with government affairs will be an asset for the Assembly.

“I have a lot of experience in the public sector, finance and budgeting and administration,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot about what policy decisions are effective in functional government. And I think I can bring that viewpoint to the Assembly, and work with the other Assembly members to kind of bring in some of those ideas and concepts and knowledge that would help as we try and move the city forward.”

When it comes to priorities, Steininger said his biggest priority if elected on the Assembly will be to tackle the demographic changes happening in Juneau — which he thinks is intertwined with a lot of issues the Assembly is already trying to take action on. 

“We really need to be thinking about how can we attract young families to town. And I think that really comes down to things like figuring out our housing issue, figuring out our child care issue, and also protecting the jobs that bring in young families,” he said. “We need to figure out how to enhance that and really try to make sure that 20 years from now, Juneau doesn’t continue to have these demographic issues.”

Ulmer is an executive assistant for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s Office of the President.

He has served in various roles roles related to local tribal government and entities, including as a member of the Tlingit and Haida Community Council, a trustee with the Goldbelt Ancestral Trust and a youth advisor for Sealaska Corporation’s board of directors.

“I believe my experience working at Tlingit and Haida with our executive council, which is our governing body outside of our tribal assembly, and my time at Sealaska as the board youth advisor and on the Tlingit and Haida Juneau Community Council has all kind of helped push me forward to run and bring in another Native voice to the Assembly and also just a younger perspective to everything,” he said in an interview. 

Ulmer said he thinks housing is one of the most important issues facing Juneau right now. 

“I think that is kind of the biggest thing that the city needs to look at, is how we can open up additional land and make sure that it is affordable – not just for a small group of people, but for everybody across all different lines of work and everything,” he said. 

The pair agree on a lot of issues up for debate this election. They both support the $10 million Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant bond and the $12.7 million public safety radio bond. And, they both oppose the Ship-Free-Saturdays ballot proposition and a recall of school board members. Both have also been actively campaigning by attending forums and community events. 

According to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, neither Steininger or Ulmer have raised more than $5,000 toward their respective campaigns. That means they’re exempt from filing campaign finance disclosures.

Election Day is Oct. 1, but the final outcome of all candidate races won’t be known until all of the mail-in ballots are received and the city certifies final results on Oct. 15. 

Find more election coverage at ktoo.org/elections.