Local Government

The City and Borough of Juneau will hold its annual How to Run for Local Office workshop this Saturday at City Hall.

It’s a chance for anyone interested in running for a seat on the Juneau Assembly or School Board to ask questions and learn about what it takes to campaign and serve. The workshop is put on annually by the city, the League of Women Voters and Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries. 

Peggy Cowan with the League of Women Voters spoke about the workshop in an interview on Juneau Afternoon last week.

“This workshop will hopefully encourage people who might not know that much about running for office or haven’t been involved in a campaign before,” she said. “It’s hopefully helped take a little bit of the mystery out of like, ‘How do you get started?’”

Six local seats are open for the Oct. 7 municipal election — three on the Juneau Assembly and three on the Juneau School District Board of Education. There is no mayoral race this election. 

The Assembly seats currently filled by members Ella Adkison, Greg Smith and Wade Bryson will be up for grabs. Both Smith and Bryson are nearing the end of their second full, three-year terms. Adkison is finishing her first partial term after she was elected in 2023 to serve the remaining two years of a member who resigned. 

School board seats filled by Deedie Sorensen and Emil Mackey will be open this election. There will also be an opportunity to serve a partial term following former member Will Muldoon’s abrupt resignation from the board last week. 

Muldoon was reelected to serve a second three-year term last fall. He did not give a reason for his departure. The district will soon appoint a temporary member to fill the role until the election.

Cowan recommended that people sign up before attending the workshop, but it’s not required. 

“If you get inspired and it’s a rainy morning on Saturday the third and you want to come on in, then you are more than welcome to drop in,” she said. 

There’s also a handful of citizen ballot initiatives that residents may be asked to vote on in this election, depending on whether advocates gather enough signatures in support. The filing period to run for local office will open in mid-July.

Wednesday marked Juneau International Airport Manager Patty Wahto’s final day on the job after a nearly three-decade-long career.

During her tenure as both deputy manager and manager, Wahto helped the airport navigate major industry changes like travel and security reforms after the 9/11 attacks. 

She said her retirement is bittersweet. Managing a small airport meant she never knew what she might have to do each day to ensure planes got on and off the runway safely. She recalled a particularly memorable day back in 2006. 

“It was snowing so hard that our airfield crew couldn’t keep up with the lights. So we had some of our management crew — including myself — out there clearing the lights out on the runway,” she said. “So, you never know from day to day whether it’s going to be all hands on deck out on the airfield or assisting with everything here in the office.”

She announced her plans to retire late last year. The city is already searching for her permanent replacement. Former Airport Manager Dave Palmer will serve as interim manager. Palmer was also Juneau’s city manager at one point.

Wahto said she is optimistic for the future of the airport. City leadership and the airport’s board are currently updating its master plan. 

But she said she is curious to see how the recent federal funding cuts and workforce reductions may impact Juneau’s airport directly. While federal revenue is only projected to make up about 2% of the airport’s overall budget this fiscal year, millions in federal grants help pay for infrastructure and safety projects.

“As far as we know, I think the telltale is going to be next year – next federal fiscal year – to see what happens,” she said. 

Wahto said she is not aware of any significant changes to the airport’s federal grant funding or its workforce as she departs. But nationally, former Federal Aviation Administration employees and their union say hundreds of workers have been let go from their positions, including roles related to aircraft safety. 

The city closed the window to apply for Wahto’s position earlier this week. The airport board will make the final decision. Wahto said she’s not sure how she wants to enjoy her retirement yet, but she plans to stay in Juneau. 

A cruise line representative dodged questions from the Juneau Assembly Thursday afternoon about the company’s plans to develop a new cruise ship port on the backside of Douglas Island. 

The interaction took place during a public meeting between the Juneau Assembly and cruise line representatives at City Hall. 

Last fall, Royal Caribbean Group announced a partnership with Goldbelt Incorporated — a local Alaska Native corporation — to develop a new cruise ship dock on the backside of Douglas Island. 

Despite obvious activity going on in the area, Mayor Beth Weldon told a Royal Caribbean Group representative that no one at the city has been informed about their plans for development.

“We see clearing of land on the tip of North Douglas, which has freaked everybody out,” she said. “We’re hearing surveys of docks are done, and so far, we’ve heard nothing from you guys.”

When Goldbelt and Royal Caribbean first announced their plans, the mayor and other city officials said they felt blindsided by the news. And since then, neither company has shared any additional information publicly about the proposed project. 

Goldbelt owns about 1,800 acres of land along the north coastline of Douglas, roughly between False Outer Point and Point Hilda on the island’s west side. In recent weeks, the corporation began putting up no trespassing signs in the area and gated off a trail regularly used by recreational hikers for years, despite being on private land. Satellite imagery over the past month shows portions of land have been cleared of trees. 

Deputy Mayor Greg Smith asked if either company plans to communicate with the city about what’s going on. 

Royal Caribbean Group’s Vice President of Government Relations Russell Benford suggested at the meeting that it is up to Goldbelt to communicate with the city.

“I don’t want to speak for, I’m not able to speak for the developer,” he said. “But, I can tell you that would be my response to you — I don’t know it’s really on us to speak for them.”

Representatives for Goldbelt were not present at the meeting. But, in a text message to KTOO, Goldbelt President and CEO McHugh Pierre said the company was “inspecting the ground to see what can be built and where it might be built.” He did not disclose if the clearing was related to the dock project. 

During the initial announcement, Goldbelt and the cruise line shared that they hope to develop employee housing, floatplane and whale watching docks, helicopter pads and recreate a Lingít village for passengers to visit, among other business opportunities to go along with the port.

The fate of that proposed dock is in question after the Juneau Assembly approved a tidelands lease for Huna Totem Corporation to build a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau earlier this month. 

Last year, major cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, entered into an agreement with the city to observe a five-ship daily limit. If approved, Goldbelt and Royal Caribbean’s dock would be a sixth dock. 

The joint meeting on Thursday also covered topics with the cruise lines like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, supporting local businesses and communicating with city officials.  

There was no opportunity for public testimony during the meeting and the Assembly did not take any action.

The Juneau Assembly and cruise line agencies will hold a joint meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the cruise ship tourism season ahead. 

The hour-long meeting will begin at noon on Thursday at City Hall in the Assembly Chambers. It will include leaders from Cruise Lines International Association Alaska and other industry representatives.

Both Assembly members and industry leaders can ask and answer questions about the cruise season, which kicked off last week. 

The meeting tomorrow is open for the public to attend in person or online, but there won’t be an opportunity to testify. Juneau’s visitor industry director, Alix Pierce, says it’s a chance for residents to hear from the industry directly. 

Juneau residents who want to suggest specific topics for discussion can email the Assembly prior to the meeting. The meeting is informational only and the Assembly will not be voting on anything. 

Industry leaders also met with Ketchikan’s City Council for a joint public discussion on Wednesday. 

The City and Borough of Juneau is starting the three-year-long process of updating its comprehensive plan. It took the first step Tuesday, with two community listening sessions at Centennial Hall and Thunder Mountain Middle School. 

A comprehensive plan is a document designed to help the city determine how the community wants to see Juneau change and grow over the next two decades. 

Not only does a comprehensive plan inform policy, it also provides a baseline understanding of where the community stands on certain topics like housing, economic development, child care and the growth of cruise ship tourism. The last time the plan was updated was in 2013. 

Sachi Arakawa, the lead consultant on the project, said a lot has changed over the last decade, and even more will change in the next 20 years. At a listening session Tuesday afternoon, she said this new plan will help prepare for that. 

“This is about growth — so how do we want to grow?” she said. “We know Juneau has a lot of constraints around growth, but we still want to think about what we can do about things like transportation and housing and recreation planning and economic development.”

Over the next three years, Arakawa and a team of consultants will work with the city to develop the plan using feedback they get from residents at community events and public meetings. The plan will eventually go to the Juneau Assembly for adoption.

In 2013, priorities like loosening zoning restrictions and developing more affordable housing emerged as hot-button issues for residents. Juneau resident Chrissy McNally, who attended the afternoon session, said those same issues persist today. She worries they keep people from staying in Juneau long-term. 

“We need to sustain our community and grow and be a place where people can live at all stages of their lives,” she said. “I own my own home, and even though I earn more than I’ve ever earned, it still feels like life is a bit unsustainable here. It’s always in the back of my mind that I should always consider moving to see if there are more affordable options.”

In addition to the listening sessions on Tuesday, the city will hold two more on Wednesday at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé from 6 to 8 p.m. 

Residents can also suggest ideas or share comments for the plan on the city’s website.

The steel door slammed behind Benjamin Stepetin as he stepped outside Juneau’s city-run emergency warming center early Wednesday morning. He slung a garbage bag with an extra pair of jeans and a few blankets over his shoulder. 

The warming center, meant to be a last resort for unhoused people to survive the cold winter nights when temperatures drop below freezing, closed for the season Wednesday morning.

For the next five months, Stepetin doesn’t know where he will sleep every night. 

“I have nowhere to go, and so I’ll be camping out somewhere tonight,” he said. “Because I can’t come back here, so I’m gonna have to sleep outside somewhere.”

Stepetin is one of 36 people who stayed at the shelter on Tuesday night. It’s the second year it’s been located in an industrial warehouse in Thane, about a mile from downtown. Staff from St. Vincent de Paul, a local nonprofit that works to help people affected by homelessness, operate it.

Like many of their clients, Stepetin stayed at the shelter almost every night since it opened in October. While some patrons secured temporary housing at Juneauʼs year-round shelters ahead of the closure, staff say most patrons did not. 

The shelter saw an average of 45 people a night throughout the season. 

Though spring has technically come, it’s still cold out. The shelter only had some blankets and a bit of extra clothing to give to patrons before they headed out. Last year, some patrons were given camping gear. But this time, staff didn’t have tents to offer. 

“The best I can do right now is get some cardboard and I can put that down and lay on that,” Stepetin said. “That just helps a little bit.”

Another patron, Marvin Holmes, sipped coffee this morning, worrying about his next move. He’s new to Juneau and it’s his first time experiencing homelessness without access to a shelter. 

“This place is not going to be here, at which point I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “All these guys were built for this. They know how to get a tent to go somewhere, get out of the elements. I’m going to be finished tonight — and I’m really scared.”

Whitney Gannon knows what that’s like. She said she became homeless in Juneau after she escaped a domestic violence situation two years ago. Now, she’s the shelter’s manager and it’s her mission to help people like herself get into housing and feel safe. 

“There are so many different reasons why these people come here, but this is literally their last stop before it’s actually the street,” she said. 

When she lost access to housing, she was able to stay at the nearby Mill Campground, a city-run campground that used to be available for people experiencing homelessness. However, the Juneau Assembly decided to close it down last summer after an increase in illegal activity. 

Instead, Juneau Assembly members opted for what’s called dispersed camping, essentially allowing people to sleep on public land that isn’t technically a campground. 

Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. Deputy City Manager Robert Bar said that has affected Juneau’s enforcement of homeless encampments. 

“If a group of folks are camping … on public land, we are unlikely to take much enforcement action if we’re not seeing uncontrolled garbage, the presence of drugs, illegal drugs, if we’re not getting a lot of public complaints,”  he said. “We’re probably not going to do much right?”

But it’s up to the discretion of the city and police to decide when a campground crosses the threshold to require enforcement or dismantling. Barr said that’s the hard part. 

“I think it’s something that we’re going to have … to continue to struggle through as a community for years,” he said. 

Back at the shelter Wednesday morning, patrons funneled into a city bus to be dropped off downtown or in the Mendenhall Valley. 

Where they end up tonight is up to them.