Local Government

Andi Story will seek a fourth term on the Juneau School Board.

The current board vice president filed a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission today (Monday), signaling her intent to seek reelection.

Story has served on the board since 2003 and is the first candidate to file for one of three open seats that will be on the October municipal election ballot.

She’ll have to wait until August 3rd to make it official. That’s the first day candidates can file nominating petitions with the City Clerk’s office. The petitions are due no later than August 13th.

Three candidates have announced for Juneau Assembly – Loren Jones, Jerry Nankervis and Paul Nowlin. Former Assemblyman Merrill Sanford is running for mayor.

A consolidated recycling center at the Juneau landfill will not be built.

CBJ Public Works Director Kirk Duncan says city officials have decided not to pursue the project with landfill operator Waste Management. The facility would have combined drop-off recycling, household hazardous waste and junk vehicle disposal under one roof. The city would have paid Waste Management a million dollars a year to operate the programs. It also would’ve contributed some of the up-front costs for the new center.

Duncan says the new curbside recycling service offered by Arrow Refuse was a major factor in the decision not to do the project.

“We were just leery of doing that given the uncertainty of what’s going to happen when you consider Arrow’s curbside recycling program,” Duncan says. “Because it would be pretty bad to go ahead and enter into a ten-year contract and then see the volume of source-separated recycling fall off enough that it wasn’t a good investment on our part.”

To allow for Arrow’s landfill deliveries, the city and Waste Management previously agreed to reduce the number of days the recycling center is open to the public from five to three per week. Duncan says that arrangement will continue through the end of the year. In the meantime, the city plans to solicit proposals for separate contracts covering drop off recycling and hazardous waste disposal.

Even with Arrow’s curbside program, Duncan says the recycling center at the landfill remains as busy as ever, with about 13-hundred customers per week.

“We don’t see a falloff in our volume at this point in time,” he says. “So, initially it looks good for our source-separated program. But being conservative we want to give it some time to see if that trend holds true or if it’s just an anomaly because of summer or whatever it might be.”

Juneau residents pay for the recycling center at the landfill and the household hazardous waste program through a surcharge on their utility bills. Channel Construction currently offers free junk vehicle disposal to residents willing to have their clunkers towed to the company’s lot.

Waste Management officials did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.

CBJ Assembly Meeting
July 16, 2012
Agenda

The Juneau Assembly is set to move forward with “housekeeping” changes to the city’s Marine Passenger Fee code.

The five-dollar per head fee for cruise ship travelers was enacted by Juneau voters in 1999, before Congress passed the most recent federal law governing how such money can be spent — the Maritime Security Act of 2002.

City Attorney John Hartle last night (Monday) told the Assembly Committee of the Whole that the city has always been careful to comply with the law, but it doesn’t hurt to tweak the code to make sure there’s no doubt.

“It’s hard for me to say what the risk of litigation is,” Hartle said. “I hear rumblings every year about the cruise industry is ready to litigate over our expenditures of these fees. But my view is, based on the latest case law, we strictly follow the law.”

That means spending the fee revenue on services and infrastructure used by the cruise industry and its passengers. The current code specifically identifies “emergency services, transportation impacts and recreation infrastructure.” It also says the fee is to be used to “mitigate” impacts by cruise ship passengers.

Since none of that language is in the Maritime Security Act, Hartle recommends that it be removed and replaced with the more general statement that the fee is to be used “for services and infrastructure rendered to cruise ships and cruise ship passengers.” He says the city would still be able to argue that the fee can be used to mitigate impacts if the industry ever decided to sue.

“We will say to the court, ‘When you bring a million passengers and I don’t know how many crew to a town of 30,000 in a three-month period, you’re going to have impacts and they’re going to need to be mitigated and they’re going to be expensive,'” Hartle said.

Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker questioned Hartle about the most substantive proposed change. Currently, boats with accommodations for 40 or fewer passengers are exempt from the fee. Hartle recommends making it 20 or fewer passengers to provide more protection from lawsuits charging that the city is singling out large operators. Wanamaker said he’d need more information to support such a change.

“I wonder about the cost of us collecting the extra funds from vessels down to twenty, whether it’s more of an administrative burden than it’s worth,” said Wanamaker. “And a disincentive for smaller vessels to come to the community.”

Hartle called on Port Director Carl Uchytil, who said only a handful of vessels would be affected and the administrative costs would not increase.

“Because they [the smaller vessels] come only every other week. It’s not a great deal of money, but I hear what the city attorney is trying to do to be consistent throughout the cruise industry and the reason to make these changes,” Uchytil said.

The committee voted unanimously to forward the proposed changes to the full assembly.

After the meeting Princess Cruises Director of Shore Operations Kirby Day said the measure passes muster with the industry.

“They’ll probably hear from some of the smaller cruise lines, just because nobody likes to see their costs go up regardless of what you’re spending,” Day said. “But my view is that it’s probably a minimal issue and most of this was just to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.”

The ordinance will be scheduled for a public hearing at the Assembly’s August 13th regular meeting.

Another candidate is entering the municipal election fray in Juneau.

Paul Nowlin said Monday that he’s collecting signatures and intends to file for Juneau Assembly once the filing period opens on August 3rd.

The 35-year-old Petro Marine office manager says he wants to give back to the community where he grew up. He says he’s not pushing any agenda or platform, besides doing the people’s business.

“What I really want to do is set up a website and get a feel for what everyone in Juneau what their opinions are, rather than go in with my own intentions,” Nowlin says. “My only intention is to spend efficiently, look for ways to save money and try and get the taxes down, if that’s an option.”

This will be Nowlin’s first run for elected office. On Monday he filed a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, allowing him to begin raising campaign funds.

As a resident of the Lemon Creek neighborhood, Nowlin will be vying for the District 1 Assembly seat currently held by Deputy Mayor David Stone, who can’t run again due to term limits. Loren Jones, who lost a bid for Assembly last year, previously announced plans to run for the same seat. District 1 includes downtown Juneau out to the airport area, and Douglas Island.

On Saturday, Retired Juneau Police Captain Jerry Nankervis announced his candidacy for the District 2 seat on this year’s ballot. Incumbent Ruth Danner announced last week that she would not be seeking reelection after one term representing the district, which includes the Mendenhall Valley and out the road.

Besides Nowlin, Jones and Nankervis, former assembly member Merrill Sanford has announced that he’s running for mayor.

There also will be three school board seats on this fall’s ballot.

The filing period for the municipal election is August 3-13th. Election Day is October 2nd.

Now that the only incumbent eligible for this fall’s municipal election has signaled that she’s out, another candidate is getting into the race.

As KTOO reported Friday, Assembly member Ruth Danner says she’s not seeking reelection to the Juneau Assembly.

A day later, former Juneau Police Officer Jerry Nankervis announced that he’ll run for the District 2 seat being vacated by Danner.

Nankervis was not available to comment, but said in a written statement that he’s excited about possibly re-entering public service. He retired from the Juneau Police Department last year after 24 years on the force, rising to the rank of Captain.

Other Juneau residents who’ve signaled their intentions to run in the October 2nd election include Loren Jones for Assembly and Merrill Sanford for Mayor.

The filing period opens August 3rd and closes ten days later.