4 Special Coverage

Randy Wanamaker says he served in the Alaska and Washington National Guard — briefly activated, but never deployed during the Cuban Missile Crisis and start of Vietnam — followed by a stint in the Army Reserve. During World War II, Wanamaker’s father was an infantryman.

“My a dad was a professional soldier,” says Wanamaker. “He survived it all from the very first day of the invasion of North Africa to the last days in Czechoslovakia.”

And then, there was his uncle in the Coast Guard in the Pacific.

“He was one of the guys who survived the invasion of Tarawa. He went ahead of the first wave.”

Because of that connection, he says he’s continued volunteering for activities or taken to heart issues important to veterans and Southeast Alaska natives.

“My grandfather was Kiksadi from Sitka, of the Frog clan, and my grandmother was Killer Whale, Kaagwaantaan of Sitka.” Wanamaker says they moved to Juneau in 1922 to help set up ANB Camp 2 in Juneau.

Wanamaker calls himself a grandchild of Angoon; tracing his family to Killisnoo as well as through two lines to civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratovich. Born in Juneau, Wanamaker grew up in Seattle and eventually returned to Juneau after the National Guard and college studying physical geology. One of his first jobs as a young geologist included monitoring Mt. St. Helens before and during the big explosive eruption of 1980. He later worked as a subsurface resource manager for Sealaska corporation. Today, he runs a vocational training and outreach service that prepares potential employees for work at the Kensington Mine, and he serves as vice-chairman of the Goldbelt corporation board of directors.

His wife is a teacher and he has four children either in college or recently graduated.

After three consecutive terms on the CBJ Assembly, Wanamaker was required to step aside a year ago.

“I enjoy public service. I enjoyed my time on the school board, and I enjoyed my time on the various city and state committees that I’ve served on.”

Wanamaker says others have encouraged him to run again because of issues like the CBJ budget and solid waste management, even so far as possibly reclaiming the landfill and turning waste into energy.

“We need an amendment to the regulatory act to allow us to have (regulatory) responsibility.”

Wanamaker also says residents are worried about a potential collapse of property values, to the point that they could be underwater on the mortgage.

“We can work to diversify our economy and employment base so that any downtown in any particular area isn’t very damaging to our community.”

That includes holding NOAA to an earlier commitment about employing new researchers at the Point Lena fisheries laboratory, and foster more cooperation with regional health organizations.

Wanamaker says the AJ Mine should be allowed to open if it’s determined that it would be economically and environmentally viable.

“If there’s a need to protect, move or supplement our water supply system,” says Wanamaker, “the city can do that because it will have the funds to do it.”

Wanamaker will vote for the extension of the 3-percent sales tax, but he would like to see an exemption for food and doesn’t want to make the temporary taxes permanent.

“I think we need to find other ways of raising revenue or increasing revenues,” says Wanamaker, who wants to focus on starter home development to increase the property tax base.

And he won’t vote for the plastic bag tax.

“I applaud them for bringing this issue to the surface so that we can discuss it.” But Wanamaker says it’s going to hurt most those with the least amount of money.

He favors the city alternative to state financial disclosure rules. Wanamaker believes there’s too much potential for fraud and abuse for publically-posted information, and state requirements would discourage good, competent candidates.

“This seems to single out a category of people and – say – we will take away your right to privacy here,” says Wanamaker. “I think that’s wrong.”

Randy Wanamaker is the only candidate running for the assembly representing District 2. That includes the Mendenhall Valley and all of Juneau north of the airport.

Sean O’Brien is running for the Juneau School Board in the October 4th municipal election, but his name doesn’t appear on the ballot.

Get out a pen, pencil, lipstick, whatever you have handy. Grab some paper, a cereal box, or your iPhone. This is the information you need:

“S-E-A-N, for Sean, and O’Brien is spelled O-apostrophe-B-R-I-E-N.”

Sean O’Brien is running for one of the two open school board seats. He served on the board from 2005 to 2008. He’d planned to run again next year, when there may be up to three vacancies. But when only one candidate filed, O’Brien re-evaluated his timing. He was too late to get on the printed ballot, but not too late to file as a write-in candidate.

For a tune up, O’Brien attended September’s school board meeting.

“It was energizing, it was positive, it was invigorating” he says. “It made me feel even better about jumping back in.”

O’Brien’s experience with Juneau’s education system extends beyond his previous term on the school board. He is the parent of three graduates of the public school system as well as a current junior high school student and a high schooler.

O’Brien himself is a graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School, and his father was a teacher. His family moved to Juneau when O’Brien was six months old.

In 1983, he graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where he focused on environmental studies and psychology, and came right back to Juneau.

He’s been working for the state of Alaska since 1988, beginning in the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Now he works for the Department of Education, where he can focus exclusively on people with physical and mental disabilities. It’s an area he’s always been interested in, and it overlaps with his interest in youth and the school system.

“We also deal with Youth Transition, which is individuals in schools ages 16 to 24 who have disabilities and are trying to go to work. I supervise the statewide coordinator for our Youth Transition program,” he says.

If elected, O’Brien says the school budget will be his primary concern. Teachers, he says, and the administration, are already working really hard.

“It’s difficult to look at limited resources and try to work smart,” he says.

One of the examples he gives for working smart:

“Looking at data and evidence-based practices and creating reasonable standards, so we’re not re-inventing the wheel.”

Another item on his agenda is retaining students in the school system.

“The single most important issue I’ve always thought about for kids’ success is engagement in the school. Engagement with the teacher, engagement with the curriculum, being interested, and following through. If things start to slip have early intervention with the kids,” he says.

Juneau has a high dropout rate. O’Brien says only half the kids who enter ninth grade will actually graduate. He believes one of the main reasons is that students don’t see much relevancy in the curriculum. He references a study that looked at 100 students who dropped out of the school system.

“The assumption that they were already flunking out, that they were D and F students, wasn’t the case. It wasn’t poor academic performance. It was disengagement, it was their perception that it wasn’t that valuable for them to continue,” he says.

But how does one deal with a limited budget and the need for extra resources to address a high dropout rate? One example O’Brien gives is the creation of a district-wide Professional Learning Community, or PLC. Teachers share among themselves what works and what doesn’t, and time is set aside for the program.

“We have some amazingly talented teachers that are doing some amazing things and sometimes what is missing is that linkage that is understood by their peers,” he says. “This is really an opportunity to build within our own framework and our own expertise and resources in a really cost effective way.”

O’Brien says he also supports alternative education systems, like homeschooling, or Montessori programs.

“Getting a kid to fit into the right engagement environment means you’ve got to have a different variety of environments for that kid, because kids are so different,” he says.

O’Brien and Sally Saddler are running for the two open school board seats. Saddler’s name appears on the ballot and O’Brien’s needs to be written in…

“S-E-A-N O-apostrophe-B-R-I-E-N.”

CBJ Assembly District One candidate Jesse Kiehl is a home-grown Alaskan. He was born and raised in Anchorage and after college he moved to Juneau.

Kiehl likes to say he “finally got it right.”

He is bullish on Juneau and its environs. He moved to the capital city 13 years ago and decided this is the place to raise his family. He and his wife Karen have two daughters, ages 9 and 7, and a pug dog.

“We love to go camping and hiking around Juneau,” he says. “Not everybody in the family likes ridge tops as much as I do so my solo time I often get to hike up high.”

Kiehl adds fishing and hunting to his list of favorite things about the Juneau area.

At work, he’s steeped in state of Alaska budgets and policy. For the past ten years he’s worked for Juneau’s state senators: first Kim Elton and now Dennis Egan.

“I have really enjoyed getting to know and digging into public policy issues, government issues and government budgets, and working with people of every point of view I had ever imagined,” he says, “and quite a few I just learned about when I started dealing with the folks who held them!”

On his way to the state capital, he interned as a college student in the nation’s capital for the late Senator Ted Stevens and then in the Alaska governor’s office. After graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, he worked in the Knowles Administration then became a staff member to the Alaska Board of Education.

“I learned a lot there about how some of the ins and out and intricacies of government can really help connect people better to government, or separate people from their government. And obviously I always think that connecting people to government is the better way to go,” he says.

The initiative process is one way Alaskans connect with their government – and this year’s municipal ballot carries a measure brought by Juneau citizens. Proposition 5 would impose a 15-cent tax on plastic bags.

Kiehl agrees with the concept of reducing the use of plastic bags.

“I never go duck hunting on the wetlands without bringing back pockets, or a sack full, of plastic garbage.”

But he’s voting no on the initiative. He says it’s poorly structured, applying only to Juneau’s largest retailers. He also believes the tax is too high and, of course, would have the biggest impact on groceries – the stuff people shop for the most.

Kiehl is also voting no on another high-profile ballot measure – Proposition 1. It would exempt CBJ officials, including Assembly members, from state financial disclosure requirements, to be replaced by a local reporting system.

“I understand the desire to make the financial disclosure a little easier on candidates and elected officials,” he admits. “They’re a pain!”

But Kiehl says the ballot measure would loosen the disclosure rules too much. For example, it eliminates the requirement to reveal the amount and source of income over $1,000 as well as declaring an official’s close economic associations with persons who do business with the city and borough.

“As Alaska’s capital I think we should lead by example in a number of things and one of those is we need to use more comprehensive disclosure not less,” Kiehl says. “We need to use the stricter standard.”

Kiehl has been hitting a lot of doors in Assembly District One, which encompasses downtown to the airport, and Douglas Island. He says he hears a lot about the landfill.

“Someone called it ‘Mount Trashmore’ the other day,” he says.

He believes the first step is to stop putting sludge in the landfill. That was billed as a temporary answer to a decrepit sewage incinerator, but the city has continued it for months. While the city needs to expand recycling, he says, that’s not a long-term solution.

“We need as an Assembly to buckle down, bore in and find solutions to Mount Garbage.”

He calls the Assembly’s work low-profile, unglamorous subjects like garbage, pot holes and sewers.

“It’s an everyday slog through a giant packet of backup material and talking to people on every side of an issue and trying to find the best decisions to move Juneau forward,” he says.

Jesse Kiehl says it’s that every day work for the community that he wants to do.

He is opposed for the Assembly District One seat by Brad Fluetsch.

Loren Jones is one of three candidates for the Assembly areawide seat. The first question he hears campaigning is “WHY ARE YOU RUNNING”?

“And before I can answer they often answer for me: ‘Are you crazy, what kind of insanity are you bringing, are you really tired of retirement, are you willing to put up with…’ ”

Long meetings, lots of meetings and lots of homework. While the most visible work of the Assembly is at regular Monday night meetings, the real work in done in committees.

“I sort of perceive the Assembly like graduate school,” Jones says. “If you’re going to be doing three hours every two weeks, you’re going to be doing 20 to 25 hours a week, getting ready for those three hours or the committee meetings leading up to it.”

For the last few months Jones has attended most of those meetings.

“And sometimes the public doesn’t realize that they’ve done 30 hours of work. They see the 10-minute discussion at the Assembly meeting and think it’s been railroaded through or nobody’s given it any thought.” He says the Assembly should present its work to the public better than it does.

Jones is used to all that work. He came to Juneau in 1975 as an alcohol counselor for the city and borough. He had just completed a master’s degree in sociology at Washington State University, with an emphasis on substance abuse studies.

He soon discovered he was a better administrator than counselor and in 1976 he went to work for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services — at a time when the state was beginning to use computer systems.

“I could understand what the computer people were telling the social workers but the social workers couldn’t. The computer guys couldn’t understand what the social workers were saying and I could, so I became translator in a way,” he says.

Jones found his niche in the behavioral health field and spent the rest of his career working on mental health and substance abuse issues. He was director of the state Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for 10 years. He retired from state service in 2003.

Over the years, Jones has served on the CBJ Social Services Advisory Board, and the boards of directors for Bartlett Regional Hospital, Hospice and Homecare, and Catholic Community Services. He’s currently on the Juneau World Affairs Council.

He and his wife LaRae have raised two sons in Juneau, who now live outside the state. In recent years the Jones’s have traveled around the world, with stops on both ends to see children and grandchildren. That would be curtailed if he’s elected, but Jones says he’s ready for all the tough issues that come before the Assembly.

One of those is the AJ Mine. He believes the panel is taking an honest look at the feasibility of re-opening the AJ, but says the town needs a new water supply before even considering it.

The AJ Mine is one of many issues that divide Juneau.

“Even if we split 50-50, we know exactly why some people are on one side of that 50 and some people are on the other side. Juneau has never been shy, so in that sense it takes someone who is willing to listen and find the common ground.”

He says that’s his strength.

“So I think if there’s a distinguishing characteristic that I bring to the Assembly it would be somebody who has a real desire to hear all that out,” he says.

Jones has listened to all the arguments for and against the measures on the municipal election ballot. He says he’s torn on the 15-cent plastic bag tax, and probably will vote against it.

“But I support elimination of plastic bags, I support people taking in reusable bags,” but he doesn’t support the details of the tax, which would only be collected at the four largest businesses in Juneau.

Whatever the outcome, Jones says Proposition 5 has raised awareness of the plastic bag problem and begun an important community dialogue.

Jones is a definite NO vote on Proposition 1, which exempts city and borough officials from state financial disclosure laws, to be replaced with a local ordinance. When he worked as a director on the state level, he had to fill out the forms and says he never saw it as a problem.

“The people of Alaska have made it very clear in lots of different ways that they want some disclosure about who does what, when and where,” he says.

Jones listened to the debate before the Assembly and says he heard nothing to convince voters the change in law would enhance public trust of Juneau officials.

“I think what I heard from the public was you’re trying to hide something,” he says. “I don’t think they (Assembly) are, but that’s the message the public heard and that’s not the message that we should be sending.”

Loren Jones says he’s ready to go to work on Juneau’s landfill problem, affordable housing, improving health care services and increasing quality jobs as well as social service problems, such as the chronic inebriates that hang out downtown.

This is his first run for political office. His opponents for the areawide seat are Geny Del Rosario and Carlton Smith.

Jones is a gourmet cook and his meals are often sought after for local raffles and auctions. If he’s elected he says he’ll still take time for his epicurean hobby. Five hours in the kitchen his way to relax.

At next Tuesday’s municipal election, Sally Saddler’s name will be the only one on the ballot for School Board. First elected three years ago, Saddler is the current board president and chair of the budget committee. She’d like to think that running unopposed shows the community is happy with the education system, but says there’s more work to do to create a world-class school district in Juneau.

Saddler isn’t the type to lack energy. A couple years ago, after a lifetime of playing basketball and soccer, she quit both sports and picked up another one.

“Gave it all up for hockey,” she says.

Yep. Juneau’s school board president is a fast skatin’, stick totin’, hip checkin’ hockey player.

“I was a hockey widow for many years, and now I’ve decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” she says.

Saddler worked for the state for more than 30 years with three departments – Labor, Education, and Commerce – and raised two kids who graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School. Now retired, she has ample opportunity to pursue hockey and her many other interests. But a portion of her life is dedicated to the school board.

“Tongue in cheek my husband said I was going to quit working for money and go to work for free, and it seems that he’s actually been proven correct in that respect,” Saddler says.

And in a way, being on the board is an extension of Saddler’s career, much of which focused on helping students transition to the workforce and training adults for new opportunities. She gives high marks to the Juneau School District’s “career pathways” program, which encourages students to follow their passions – both in the classroom, and outside it.

“Jocks and docs is kind of a colloquial expression, but it’s for those students who may be interested in health care opportunities,” she explains. “So, we have many connections with the hospital, with the university here in Juneau that enable our students to learn in the context of perhaps some occupational interests they may have.”

Juneau’s on-time graduation rate was 71.5 percent last school year. Saddler says that leaves plenty of room for improvement, and the board recently raised the number of credits that will be required for graduation, starting with this year’s freshman class.

“We kept a balance so that those students who may be engaged through the more career tech, hands on kinds of programs didn’t feel disenfranchised,” Saddler says.

In addition to being board president, Saddler chaired the budget committee this past year, when revenue decreases forced the district to cut 4.1-million from the nearly 90-million dollar budget. She says the cuts were balanced in a variety of ways.

“We raised the classroom size from grades three on up, holding the kindergarten through second grade harmless, thinking that it’s important for those teachers to have smaller class sizes to work with those students,” says Saddler. “There were some cuts in the arts, there were cuts to science, nobody was singled out.”

Looking ahead to her next three-year term, Saddler believes the district is moving in the right direction. She points to the strategic plan, developed during her first term, and its goal of making Juneau a world-class school district by focusing on four areas.

“First of those is improving student achievement; second is investing in our faculty and our staff, making sure we have strong professional development; third is, making those connections with the community, getting out and helping our students build those bridges and connections; and then last, and certainly not least, is learning to operate our administration in an efficient and economic manner,” she says.

Saddler is running unopposed for one of two open seats on the school board. Nobody filed to run for the other seat, but Sean O’Brien is running a write-in campaign.

Geny Del Rosario is one of the three candidates vying for the CBJ’s district-wide assembly seat. A recent interview with KTOO’s Amanda Compton was just one stop in her busy schedule.

“Started the day early, sun was out, and it was a good day, and as usual we have work to do and appointments to go to.”

Del Rosario grew up in the Philippines. Her bachelor’s degree is from the University of Santa Tomas, where she majored in Economics with a minor in Business Administration.

“I worked in Philippines for many years with a lot of corporations, that’s where I got my experience in business,” she said.

Through a Rotary International exchange program, Del Rosario traveled to the United States, settling in California.

“I had my real estate license there and worked my way through in the business sector there and found that CA too busy for me and moved to Las Vegas – what a place to go!”

She established a travel agency in Las Vegas, and was appointed tourism coordinator by the Philippine Government.

“Well, things happened, and when you go on a cruise as a travel agent we come to Juneau, and I loved Juneau and I said, ‘someday, if I come back, I’ll stay’ and that’s why I’m here,” she said.

That “someday” was in 2005. Del Rosario quickly rolled up her sleeves, and started a cruise shuttle bus business. Now she operates a food kiosk, just behind the downtown public library.

Del Rosario says she enjoys serving customers. That’s why she’s running for Assembly – she likes helping people. Her top three priorities, if elected?

“Services of parents, children, and seniors.”

She stresses the importance of better support for senior citizens, early childhood education, and after- school programs.

“When you start early childhood, that is what the children would learn as they grow old and they will not be a burden to society,” Del Rosario said. “I’m into prevention. Are we building more schools or are we building more prisons? Education doesn’t end after school, that’s why Afterschool Programs are important.“

Del Rosario says she will bring the attributes of flexibility and adaptability to the Assembly. Those characteristics define her position on the reopening of the AJ Mine, currently under study by the Assembly.

“The AJ Mine is location – it is too close for comfort to the citizen of Juneau,” Del Roasrio said. “Eventuality (sic) comes and this mine opens, I would be very resilient to make sure that environmentally it is safe, that it will not contaminate our water, soil and air, and that the city complies even if we are the landlord.”

Del Rosario is against extending the road north of Juneau, but explains that she understands the feeling of claustrophobia some citizens say they experience, and would respond accordingly.

“Now? I would say no, but in the near future? Yes. There’s a need for it? Then we can build the road,” she said.

Those issues are not questions in the upcoming municipal election, but renewing Juneau’s 3 percent sales tax and imposing a plastic bag tax are on the ballot. She supports both.

“Are plastic bags worth the price of your health or the health of the Ocean or the environment? It is for convenience, I know, I use it, I will not deny it, but if we can learn to change our lifestyle and use reusable I would. The time to start is now,” she said.

Whether it’s selling school bonds or opting out of state financial disclosure rules, Del Rosario says CBJ officials must make sure the public is aware of every program they want to implement. Del Rosario states she supports adopting Proposition 1, exempting city officials from the state financial disclosure law and replacing it with a local ordinance.

“A public person, you have to be open and be transparent,” she said. “When you are in the city, issues are dealt in the city. What happens in the city, stays in the city.”

Del Rosario says Juneau needs more subsidized housing and a better solution to Juneau’s growing landfill.

“The CBJ should examine other resources like the green waste recycling, or the plasma burner, or an oven incinerator,” she suggested. “The best thing we have to the think about is what is cost effective that would have the best result?”

Though Del Rosario has only been living in Juneau since 2005, she’s firm that community involvement and exposure should outweigh experience in this election.

“I have the energy to do this! I’ve been on the street morning, noon and night and I meet all the folks and they said we need someone new.”

She also says Juneau’s approximately 5,000 Filipino residents need representation on the Assembly.

“They said to me ‘we have not any representation or voice for us.’ I said to them, ‘I will help you as a community, but I have other constituents to serve too’.”

She says diversity also plays a large role in her platform.

“I believe that diversity is the key to unity, and diversification is essential to growth and prosperity,” Del Rosario said.

Geny Del Rosario is running against Loren Jones and Carlton Smith for the areawide seat of the Juneau Assembly. The municipal election is October 4th.