CBJ Assembly Meetings

Juneau City Manager Kim Kiefer has officially been on the job for a year, meaning it’s time for her annual evaluation by the CBJ Assembly.

Mayor Merrill Sanford on Monday appointed a three-member committee made up of himself, Assemblywoman Karen Crane, and Assemblyman Carlton Smith to come up with evaluation criteria and a timeline. He also asked other members for their suggestions.

Without offering specifics, Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker said he thought the Assembly should set the goals and objectives upon which Kiefer would be rated, then choose the time period for which members would judge her performance.

“The city manager started before all of the members on this Assembly were part of the Assembly,” Wanamaker said. “So, perhaps we would want to start the measurement period from last October, instead of from April when she began.”

Wanamaker also suggested the evaluation be completed by August, two months before the October municipal election when two Assembly seats will be on the ballot.

“It’s before the election and its plenty of time for us to have an objective management evaluation period,” he said.

Wanamaker was the only Assembly member to vote against Kiefer’s appointment as City Manager when she was selected from a pool of 25 applicants in January 2012. He’s not up for reelection until October 2014.

Assemblywoman Crane – who is up for reelection this year – took issue with Wanamaker’s suggestion that the goals and objectives be set retroactively.

“It seems to me grossly unfair to be setting evaluation goals now for performance for the year past,” Crane said. “I think it would be a fine process to do, so that the city manager knows that a year from now, or a year from whatever date is selected, these are the specific things on which she is going to be evaluated.”

Assemblyman Smith suggested the Assembly hire an outside firm or expert to help with the evaluation process.

“I feel, given the responsibility of the manager, that it’s time for us to utilize a third party in this process to guide us,” Smith said.

Mayor Sanford said all options would be considered by the committee before a recommendation is made to the full Assembly.

The only two positions the Assembly hires and has oversight for are City Manager and City Attorney.

Kiefer has worked various jobs for the city since 1984. Before taking over as City Manager, she served seven years as Deputy Manager. She also was Acting Manager for six months in 2009 when then-Manager Rod Swope took a sabbatical.

City Attorney John Hartle’s evaluation is due as well. Sanford said the committee would come up with the criteria for his review.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given the City and Borough of Juneau an August 19th deadline to adopt new flood zone maps.

The city and FEMA have been involved in a nearly two-year dispute over the accuracy of the maps, which are required for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. Last year, FEMA removed several properties in the Mendenhall Valley from flood plains after the city hired a consultant to analyze the federal agency’s work and provide additional data and information.

CBJ Community Development Director Hal Hart told the Juneau Assembly on Monday that FEMA officials acknowledge continued errors in the maps, but are not accepting additional changes at this time.

“They’re saying ‘Save those changes that you come up with, and you can use the map amendment process.'” said Hart. “But they need to have these adopted, and the federal process is a longer process than we’re attuned or used to, I guess.”

It’s not clear how long it would take to amend the maps. Hart says about 160 properties will be placed in newly created flood zones under the FEMA proposal, while about 180 will be removed.

The city could choose not to adopt the maps. But Hart says that would increase insurance rates for about 700 property owners, because the federally backed National Flood Insurance Program is cheaper than private insurance.

Assembly members were not happy about the idea of adopting maps that may be inaccurate.

“It doesn’t sound like a very good deal for our citizens at all,” said Mayor Merrill Sanford.

Juneau’s FEMA flood plain maps have not been updated in nearly 20 years. The Community Development Department will host a series of public meetings this week and next to discuss the changes.

Draft Flood Maps Public Meeting Schedule:

Downtown Juneau
Tuesday April 2, 2013
Juneau-Douglas HS library, 6-8 p.m.

Douglas
Wednesday April 3, 2013
Douglas Library, 6-8 p.m.

Mendenhall Valley
Wednesday April 10, 2013
Riverbend Elementary library, 6-8 p.m.

Auke Bay
Thursday April 11, 2013
UAS lecture hall, lower level Egan Library, 6-8 p.m.

2013 Draft Flood Maps (PDFs):
North of Auke Bay
Auke Bay
Mendenhall Valley 1
Mendenhall Valley 2 (Revised December 2012)
Lemon Creek
Downtown Juneau
Douglas
North Douglas & Salmon Creek
North Douglas
(Note: Areas in blue on these maps represent areas that would be flooded during a 100 year flood event. These areas also are flood zones where flood insurance is required to be purchased. Maps courtesy City and Borough of Juneau).

Construction of a gun store and indoor shooting range remains on hold as the Juneau Assembly determines whether the Planning Commission properly issued a conditional use permit for the facility.

Juneau Veterans for Peace Monday argued the Planning Commission did not consider public health and safety, or the CBJ comprehensive plan, before  approving the Juneau Mercantile and Armory permit.

Veterans for Peace has appealed the permit, which was granted in December just before a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school made gun control a national issue.

But the group’s  president Phil Smith said the appeal is not about gun rights.

“We are not at all into taking apart the Second Amendment,” Smith said.

Planning Commissioner Dan Miller is a co-owner of Juneau Mercantile and Armory, a limited liability company.  Miller recused himself during the December vote on the conditional use permit.

Smith said the Planning Commission’s record of decision leaves safety plans unanswered, including the opinion of public safety professionals.  The record shows the CBJ Community Development Department staff had only a conversation with someone from the Juneau Police Department.

“Perhaps with a policeman, perhaps with a clerk, perhaps with a dispatcher, I don’t know, maybe they called 911.  But there was no indication with whom they spoke.  The police said they had no concerns about the facility, or we’re told the police said that.  But there’s nothing in the record that has anything in writing from the authority of the Juneau Police Department,” Smith told the Assembly. “There is no indication in the record that they contacted any other law enforcement entity.  They didn’t contact anyone with particularized expertise in the handling and control of these types of weapons.”

Juneau Mercantile and Armory’s 13,000 square foot facility at Crest Street and Yandukin Drive will house retail sales on the top floor as well as rentals of firearms to be used in the underground firing range, including machine guns and other automatic weapons.

Smith, a Vietnam-era veteran, called them “weapons of war.”

The Assembly plays a quasi-judicial role in the case, but can only consider whether the Planning Commission – which looks at land use – properly considered outside impacts of the facility.  Community Development Planner Greg Chaney told Assembly members he believes the gun range will be one of the most carefully supervised shooting facilities in Juneau.

“What are the outside impacts in this case? The noise is going to be contained. The bullets are going to be contained, that’s always big one, with shooting ranges.  The main concerns end up being traffic and that sort of thing; the normal things you would look at with a building that’s fully enclosed,” Chaney said.  “So I believe after listening to the appellants that they really wanted the Planning Commission to act in a legislative capacity and to pass a conditional use permit with conditions that would have the effect of changing the law of firearm use.”

After Monday’s hearing the Assembly went into executive session with the city attorney to discuss the arguments.  Assembly member Loren Jones is the hearing officer for the appeal.  He said it will be the end of April before the decision is made public.

 

 

A Juneau man with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is featured prominently in a new anti-smoking campaign from the Centers for Disease Control.

Fifty-seven year old Michael Patterson started smoking cigarettes at the age of nine after running away from an abusive home and living on the street. At age 44 he was diagnosed with COPD, but ignored the symptoms for eight more years, until one day he woke up gasping for breath.

“The terror that I felt for them four hours was unspeakable. It just was mind numbing, heart-gripping terror. And it did something to me,” Patterson said. “It burned the desire to ever smoke a cigarette out of my life. But it also burned a desire into my heart, because I couldn’t imagine another living person ever having to experience that.”

Patterson became an advocate, speaking to high school students and whoever would listen about the health risks associated with smoking. He says he initially wanted to reach everyone in Juneau. Then last year somebody sent him a link to the CDC website, where the agency was looking for former smokers to share their tips about quitting.

Patterson says it was “a million to one” chance that he would be chosen for the campaign. But he decided to apply anyway. A 30-second television ad featuring him debuted this week.

On Monday, Patterson was introduced to the Juneau Assembly by former member Ruth Danner, who he got to know through his advocacy efforts. He told the Assembly that it’s humbling to think about his message now reaching millions of people.

“I can’t say how much of a blessing that is to reach out and affect somebody’s life like that,” he said. “And have the opportunity to do it again and again and again.”

Patterson said he plans to bring anti-smoking causes to the Assembly in the future, and he hoped for the city’s support.

When he was done with this speech Assembly members gave him a standing ovation and shook his hand.

Links:
CDC Tips from Former Smokers
Patterson’s ad: COPD and smoking

April 1, 2013
Agenda

The Juneau Assembly Monday takes up the appeal of a permit for an indoor shooting range and gun store under construction near the Juneau International Airport.

The Assembly plays a quasi-judicial role in the case brought by Juneau Veterans for Peace against the Planning Commission’s permit for Juneau Mercantile and Armory.

The Planning Commission in December approved a conditional use permit for a 13-thousand square foot building that would sell guns as well as rent guns to be used in an underground shooting range – including automatic weapons.

The Juneau Veterans for Peace chapter appealed the permit, saying the CBJ development staff did not thoroughly review the effect of the operation on “public health or safety.”

Assembly member Loren Jones has been liaison to the parties.  He had been hopeful a settlement could be reached, but those negotiations failed. He admits he was overly optimistic.

“I think the parties just have a different view of what should have taken place.  And it’s nothing the Assembly can sort of broker.  We expressed our desire to them if they could reach a settlement, but it’s basically between those two parties,” Jones says.

At Monday evening’s meeting, Veterans for Peace and Juneau Mercantile and Armory – represented by the CBJ Community Development Department — will each have 30 minutes to make a presentation.  Both have briefed the issue and Assembly members have those documents.  Jones says the Assembly will listen and ask questions then discuss the issue in a closed door session after Monday’s regular Assembly meeting.

“The decision’s not really public until after we’ve reviewed what the (city) attorney’s written up based on our conversation. Then if we want to revise it, we can do that. Then it will come back to a full Assembly meeting. And the Assembly will make that decision public once we reach agreement amongst all of our members,” he says.

Jones expects the Assembly’s final decision on the permit would be release later this month.  Monday’s meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in Assembly chambers at city hall, followed by the regular meeting of the Assembly at 7 p.m.  The regular meeting will be carried live on KTOO Radio.