4 Special Coverage

Andi Story and Phyllis Carlson have been re-elected to the Juneau Board of Education. And after a two-year break, Destiny Sargeant will return to the board.

Five people ran for three seats on the school board. Story was the top vote getter with 3,740. Carlson received 2,990 votes, and Sargeant had 2,639. Will Muldoon and Michelle Johnston trailed with 2,094 and 1,660 votes, respectively.

Story is beginning her fourth term on the board. She says stable funding for Alaska’s school districts is her priority. Most of that comes from the state, so she will be lobbying the legislature again next year.

“There have been job losses in the state’s five largest school districts so I think we’ll have more support statewide,” she says. “And that’s the key. Really, its parents, the community realizing that flat funding the budget means cuts to programs and services. It was hypothetical when we were doing the budget cuts in April. Now it’s the fall and people are experiencing what that means and in order to get more revenue, we need to be conveying that to the capital.”

Sargeant served on the school board for one term, but didn’t run for re-election so she would have more time to spend with her children. Now they’re through high school and she’s says she’s ready for the challenge, and it won’t take long to get up to speed.

“I do think there’s a fine balance between the right programs, the right curriculum. And I know we can still have an excellent school system in spite of the budget. I won’t let budgets get us down,” she says.

School board members will be sworn into office on Oct. 16. The board then will be asking for school site council representatives and community members to volunteer for a committee to begin working on the budget.

Newly elected Assembly member Jerry Nankervis says funding for deferred maintenance of city facilities should be in the CBJ budget.

The retired Juneau Police captain received 3,661 votes in yesterday’s (Tuesday) election. He says he heard from a lot of voters during the campaign who don’t like the idea of bonding to maintain city property.

“If the bonding issue stays the way it is right not, that it’s defeated, I believe the city really has to look at incorporating money for maintenance into the budgets for the certain departments so we don’t have to go to a bonding issue. If you’ve got a building you should be maintaining that building,” he says, “before you go out and build more buildings…You’re just digging the hole deeper.”

Deferred maintenance was one of several projects in the bond proposition, which is failing by just 57 votes, but there are about 1,400 absentee and question ballots yet to be counted.

Nankervis will take over Ruth Danner’s Assembly seat. Danner decided not to run for re-election.

Until last Thursday, he was unopposed in the race. Then longtime community activist Dixie Hood filed to run as a write-in candidate. She received 738 votes yesterday, though her name was not on the ballot.

Hood has run for Assembly before and lost, but has served on various city boards and is now a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. She says reading a news story last week about the history of write-in candidates spurred her to run.

“That inspired me to go for it,” she says.

Loren Jones has been elected to the Juneau Assembly.

Jones will take over the District One seat being vacated by David Stone, who could not run for re-election due to term limits.

Jones closely watched the two ballot measures during the campaign and says he heard a lot of concerns about bonding to pay for deferred maintenance of city facilities. If proposition one fails after absentee and question ballots are counted, he says that will be one of the first challenges the new Assembly will have to face.

“If it’s not funded than we still have that deferred maintenance to try to figure out how to pay for and how to get it done,” he says.

Jones’ personal issue is voter turnout, which was just over 25 percent on Election Day. He says the capital city should do better.

“This is the second year in a row when I’ve left on election night to have less than 30 percent voter turnout, so I want to try to look at what we can do as an Assembly to get a higher voter turnout,” he says. “That may take a couple of years, because you can’t change an election system in one year, but in a couple of years, hopefully we can do something.”

Jones is retired from the state of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, where he worked in the behavioral health field for about 30 years.

This is his second run for Assembly. Last fall, he lost to Carlton Smith by 73 votes then set his sights on another run, while working on the coastal management initiative that failed in the statewide primary.

“About the last 13 to 14 months, I’ve been in some sort of campaign mode. It just feels really good to have it over,” he says.

Even with absentee and question ballots to be counted, he can now settle into a three-year term.

Jones received 3,223 votes on Election Day. His opponent Paul Nowlin had 1,934 votes.

“I thought it went very well. I was surprised to have so many votes to be honest. And I was thinking if I got a thousand votes and I saw that kind of support that I’d give it a go next year,” he says.

Nowlin says he ran for Assembly because he wanted to give back to his community.

“Really that is all I started out to do and then when I started talking to people and hearing their issues, affordable housing, jobs and education really became important to me,” he says. “I’m just very happy with the whole process. It’s been a fun learning experience.”

Nowlin says in the campaign he learned “way more” about Juneau “than he even knew he didn’t know.”

The number of early voters for tomorrow’s municipal election is high.  City Clerk Laurie Sica said it surpassed last year’s several days ago.

Elections officials had already reviewed 660 absentee and early ballots by Thursday, and more were cast over the weekend.

Sica said early and absentee voting is often considered a predictor of voter turnout, which can vary greatly in Juneau from one year to the next.

“It ranges probably between 25 percent and 45 percent. Definitely depends on the issues on the ballot, and the types of races on the ballot, like if there is a highly contested assembly or mayor race.  And just the whole hype about elections nationally probably has people thinking about elections,” Sica said. 

Cheryl Jebe and Merrill Sanford are running for Mayor.

Loren Jones and Paul Nowlin are competing for the Assembly District One seat, being vacated by David Stone, who has served three terms.

Jerry Nankervis and write-in candidate Dixie Hood are running for Assembly District Two seat, currently held by Ruth Danner, who decided not to seek re-election.

While Assembly candidates represent districts within the city and borough, they are elected borough-wide.

Two propositions are also on the ballot. One would extend the 1 percent temporary sales tax for five years to pay for various capital improvement projects.  The other would bond for a variety of projects.

Polls are open tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.  City Clerk Laurie Sica said Election Central will be in City Hall Assembly Chambers, beginning at 8 p.m. tomorrow, when the polls close.  The first results will come in just a few minutes later, but will not be posted on the city website until all results are in.

She says the deadline for by-mail absentees is October 9, the same day the election will be certified.

KTOO News will bring you live results from Election Central tomorrow.

Click here to see a sample ballot and the information pamphlet.

Candidates for the Juneau School District Board of Education recently fielded questions on the major issues.

Incumbent Phyllis Carlson, Michelle Johnston, Will Muldoon, Destiny Sargent, and incumbent Andi Story, are running for three open seats that each have three-year terms.

The following audio files include relevant excerpts of forums organized by the League of Women Voters on September 19th and the Juneau Chamber of Commerce on September 20th. During both forums, candidates addressed a variety of issues such as the pupil-to-teacher ratio, busing, delayed start time, and nurses in the schools.

iFriendly Audio of LWV forum moderated by Barbara Belknap.

iFriendly Audio of Chamber forum moderated by Lance Stephens.

Candidate Will Muldoon did not participate in both forums and candidate Destiny Sargent did not participate in the Chamber forum.

The municipal election is October 2nd.

Long-time political activist Dixie Hood will run as a write-in candidate for the District Two Assembly seat.

Hood filed her paperwork Thursday just before the deadline.

She says she’s been asked by others to run, and since candidate Jerry Nankervis was unopposed, she believes voters should have a choice.

But she has only four days to campaign before Tuesday’s election, and as a write-in candidate, her name will not be on the ballot.

“Because of my time in Juneau since 1975 and involvement in a lot of community issues I thought that my experience and name recognition might help me and be an advantage, and it was worth a try,” she says.

Hood says she will vote for the two ballot measures – one to extend the temporary 1 percent sales tax over five years, the other to sell bonds to pay for various capital improvement projects. She bases her decision on a conversation with CBJ Treasurer Bob Bartholomew.

Hood was in Juneau during the years that Echo Bay Mines was looking at redeveloping the AJ Mine near downtown and recalls the controversy it created. The Assembly may again consider reopening the city asset.

Hood has run unsuccessfully for Juneau Assembly twice. Over the years she has served on various CBJ boards, and is currently on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. She’s also worked on the waterfront development plan, Collaboration Juneau, and transportation issues.