Local Government

Engineers from the City and Borough of Juneau are taking a close look at damage the temporary levee sustained during the record-breaking glacial outburst flood on the Mendenhall River last week. 

Some sections of the levee leaked, flooding a couple dozen homes. But it protected hundreds of others. 

Nick Druyvestein, an engineering associate at the city, has spent the week inspecting each HESCO block that makes up the levee built along 2.5 miles of the river. 

“I’m looking for tears in the fabric, any damage to the wire mesh, popped welds — really just looking to see if they’re they’re still standing up straight and if there is any damage,” he said. 

Some parts of the levee seeped, sank into the soil or lost sand through the bottom.

A tree punched a hole through one section near Dimond Park Field House, but the water didn’t rise high enough to flood through there. 

City staff are reaching out to homeowners to find out how they saw the levee perform during and immediately after the flood. Once they gather all of that information, they’ll create a damage assessment report. The report will help the city plan repairs and improvements to the levee before the next flood. 

“Our basis of design last year was to try and put everything four feet above what we saw the year before, but obviously, this year we saw higher levels in some areas,” Druyvestein said.

Water surged just inches from the levee’s top in some spots. 

Nate Rumsey, the city’s deputy director of engineering and public works, said he didn’t expect it to get that close since the peak flood height was less than 17 feet.

“There was water higher on the face of the barriers in certain sections than we anticipated based on the modeling that we did,” Rumsey said.  

So, city engineers say they’ll account for a potentially bigger flood as they prepare for the next major flood. They don’t have a timeline yet for when repairs will begin.  

In some years, Suicide Basin has released floodwaters more than once. But subsequent releases have historically been minor. Last year that happened in October.

The union representing most Juneau Police Department staff has declared an impasse in its negotiations for a new contract with the City and Borough of Juneau.

Juneau Police Sergeant Sterling Salisbury is the chapter president for the Public Safety Employees Association. He said low pay and staffing shortages are stretching the department beyond its limits — and it’s putting the public at risk. 

“They need to make it a place where people want to come to Juneau and to recruit and retain officers and dispatchers and under their current proposals to us, it’s not even coming close,” he said. 

The union and city have been negotiating a new contract since February. The previous contract expired in June. The union declared an impasse earlier this month.

Salisbury said Juneau’s wages aren’t competitive with other departments and agencies in the state. He said that, paired with severe understaffing, is driving people away from the department. 

Right now, the department has 11 vacant positions, which is fewer than last year. 

But Salisbury said it’s not enough, since many officers are still in training. He said the lack of officers has led to delayed response times, strained investigations and mandatory overtime. He said better pay and benefits are needed to attract and retain staff. 

The department came under public scrutiny recently after a video posted online showed a Juneau police officer slamming a man to the ground during an arrest in July. In the days following the incident, the department placed the officer on paid administrative leave and requested an independent investigation into the incident.

Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos agreed with Salisbury that understaffing is a challenge, but said that the department is making strides to address it. He said JPD currently has eight officers in training. 

“We are definitely doing a robust effort with recruiting and hiring, and that is making a difference,” he said. “We are making headway — beyond just breaking even between attrition — we’re now in a forward number. So I think that is helping.”

Juneau’s firefighters union is also in the midst of wage negotiations with the city. Union representatives said that low staffing rates could also impact Capital City Fire Rescue’s response times. 

Cruise ship passengers who arrive at Juneau’s farthest dock may not have to trek as far to get to downtown in the coming years.

On Monday, the Juneau Assembly approved leasing a downtown waterfront property and tidelands near where the seawalk currently ends by the port. Petro Marine Services owns the property. City Manager Katie Koester says the lease is needed to finally connect all of Juneau’s cruise ship docks. 

“This ordinance is a really important piece in extending the sea walk all the way to the AJ dock,” she said.  

Right now, the AJ dock is isolated from the rest of the other cruise ships. So, visitors who get dropped off there have to shuttle into town or walk roughly 10 minutes through an industrial area to get there. The proposed seawalk extension would allow them to walk directly to downtown along the waterfront.

The city has long planned to develop a continuous, mile-and-a-half-long path from the Douglas Bridge to the AJ dock. The city has extended the seawalk in sections over the years, and this new section will stretch a quarter mile south towards Thane. 

Plans are underway to eventually build a fifth cruise ship dock next to the U.S. Coast Guard station on Egan Drive. The Assembly approved a tidelands lease for that development in April, but a few more hurdles need to be cleared before construction can begin. 

The city will pay $75,000 annually to lease the property, which will be paid for using marine passenger fees  – the tax the city collects from cruise ship passengers who arrive in port. The lease was approved for 35 years. 

At the meeting, some residents testified in support, but not everyone was on board with the plan. Auke Bay resident Heather Marlow questioned whether the extension was needed, given the high cost. She suggested widening the sidewalks that visitors currently use instead. 

“Keep the long-term vision of extending the seawalk to the rock dump as a long-term vision. We’re not there yet,” she said. “If you get another cruise ship and you have true demand at the Rock dump, we can fulfill the vision later. We do not need that expense now.”

City officials estimate the total price tag of the extension project will likely cost $20 to $25 million and construction is still likely a few years out. The city already has more than $7 million set aside for the project from marine passenger fees, but the Assembly will need to decide how to pay for the rest. It’s likely passenger fees will pay for most of it.

The Juneau Assembly voted to kill a proposed ordinance on Monday that would have made it easier for police officers to arrest people who are camping in public spaces. 

The Assembly made the decision unanimously. It came at the recommendation of City Manager Katie Koester, who asked members to table the ordinance, which means the proposal is dead and they can’t reconsider it. A similar ordinance could still arise in the future under a new Assembly. 

“I think that the ordinance in itself, both from an internal perspective, can really use some improvement,” she said. “From management’s perspective, we really would like to not take this up at this time or in the near future.”

Assembly members originally considered the change earlier this summer after escalating complaints from residents and businesses in town about the problems caused by homeless people who camp in neighborhoods. 

Recently Juneau’s homeless shelter announced it would reduce its services later this month due to what staff say is a deteriorating and unsafe environment in the neighborhood. 

Right now, city code allows Juneau police officers to arrest people for trespassing if they’re obstructing public spaces by camping — but that requires several steps. The proposed code change would have allowed officers to skip those steps by expanding what could be considered disorderly conduct. Therefore, it would make it easier to arrest people for obstructing public spaces by camping.

The city’s Systemic Racism Review Committee considered the ordinance earlier this month and formally asked the Assembly to reject it. They cited concerns that the change would disproportionately impact marginalized communities — and could be discriminatory.

Ephraim Froehlich chairs the board. He testified at the meeting on his own behalf. 

“The fact that it’s even being considered this far and up to this point is extremely concerning to me,” he said. “I think the proposed ordinance and the code changes therein demonstrate a lack of constitutional legal understanding, a lack of interest in real solutions for the issues that it’s attempting to address, and a clear lack of compassion for our neighbors.”

Martin Stepetin, Sr. is a former school board member and the brother of a man who has been missing since late June. At the meeting, Stepetin commended the Assembly for tabling the ordinance and encouraged them to focus on solutions that help people out of homelessness and into stable housing. His brother Benjamin was homeless when he went missing. 

“Those are the most vulnerable people in the community, my brother would have been one of them,” he said. “I think that you have heard from a community that in my language it means Wax̂talix. It means we hold something of high value or love. We Wax̂talix our homeless people. We hold them high and Juneau has shown up to defend those people.”

In an interview on Tuesday, Police Chief Derek Bos said he thinks the Assembly made the right call. He said he will continue to work with the city to find other solutions. 

“Our goal is not to make it easier to arrest people. Our goal is to make it easier to address specific problems as they relate to homelessness,” he said. “Making an arrest is our last resort solution in these circumstances.”

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. Juneau city policy allows for dispersed camping but prohibits it on places like sidewalks or roads. In general, the city allows people to camp on unimproved public land as long as they keep their impact low on the surrounding community. 

 

Juneau city and tribal officials announced a preemptive disaster declaration Friday in anticipation of the glacial outburst flood expected to hit the Mendenhall Valley soon. 

Ku.seen Jacqueline Pata is the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s first Vice President. At a press briefing, she said declaring a disaster before the flood could expedite recovery efforts, such as financial aid applications with the state. 

“Being ahead of the curve really makes a big difference,” she said. 

The tribe has already ratified the declaration and the Juneau Assembly will hold a special meeting next Friday at noon to do the same.

The city and tribe have ramped up their communication with the public ahead of this year’s flood, compared to previous years. Ashley Heimbigner, the city’s communications and engagement director, said that’s a response to feedback from the public.

“For better or worse, we’ve had folks that lived through this last year, and they knew what information our residents were looking for, where we were lacking in terms of quick response with that information, and so it gave us sort of a workbook of how to do better this year,” she said.

Nicole Ferrin is the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Juneau. She says that Suicide Basin — the glacial lake that will soon release the flood — is nearly full. 

“Based on recent mapping by [University of Alaska Southeast] that were up there just a couple days ago, it has about 15 feet before it will be actually overtopping the ice dam,” Ferrin said at the briefing. 

She says that in the past, it has taken between one and six days for the flood to release out of Suicide Basin after water flows out over the top of Mendenhall Glacier. 

All agencies are on high alert because the basin can release at any time, no matter how full it is.

The Juneau Assembly decided on Monday to delay voting on whether to adopt a ranked choice voting system for municipal elections beginning in 2026. 

Instead of voting on the ordinance at the Assembly’s next regular meeting later this month, members decided to push back the vote until November — after this fall’s Oct. 7 municipal election. They’ll still hold public testimony on the topic on Aug. 18.

Ranked choice allows voters to rank candidates by preference, instead of just choosing one. Alaska has used it for statewide elections since 2022, though there have been attempts to repeal it. 

Assembly member Ella Adkison proposed the local ordinance earlier this summer and advocated for its adoption at the meeting. She said the system aligns with Juneau’s values and it will encourage more people to run for local office.

“It really is good for races where there are lots of candidates in one seat,” she said, “I think Juneau, in general, likes having lots of candidates in races, because it means that the person that they feel represents them the most is the person who actually gets onto the Assembly.”

The topic received some pushback from residents at a meeting last week, as well as some support. A few testifiers questioned the need for the change, and argued that the decision on whether to adopt it should be up to voters — not the Assembly. 

It’s already too late for the system to be implemented for this October’s municipal election, but Assembly members worried that adopting it now might confuse voters anyway. Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said she supports ranked choice voting, but wants to wait until there’s less going on. 

“My spidey senses feel like there is just a lot in motion, and there’s a lot on the ballot, and this just feels like too much change and is going to get lost in the noise — I wouldn’t want that,” she said. 

If the system is approved, Juneau would become the first major city in Alaska to adopt ranked choice voting for municipal elections.