Local Government

The Juneau Parks and Recreation Department is re-creating a dog task force to address increasing complaints about dog poop and the behavior of some off-leash dogs.

The group meets Wednesday at the request of the city manager, after citizens took their complaints to the Juneau Assembly last week.

Rosemarie Alexander has more:

Ah, spring in Juneau – the snow is gone, crocuses are up, the grass is beginning to green – and it’s covered with a winter’s worth of litter.

If you head to a local trail or park, you’re sure to find other dregs of winter:

“I counted 108 piles of dog poop,” Julie Coghill told the Assembly about an hour after her walk on the Airport Dike Trail. Coghill and others came with complaints about unleashed dogs that harass people and wildlife, and their owners who don’t pick up after them.

“Dog waste is raw sewage,” said Carla Hart, a member of the 2003 Dog Task Force formed then to address growing concerns about off-leash dogs and mounds of fecal matter.

“Voluntary compliance was to be the answer,” she reminded the Assembly. “I think the proof is voluntary compliance hasn’t been enough.”

Complaints about dog poop always increase this time of year, says CBJ Director of Animal Control and Protection Matthew Musslewhite. He says dog waste is a problem for people, wildlife, and the Mendenhall wetlands.

“That whole watershed is a very, very complex ecosystem,” he said. “All that rain water comes off those trails carrying all that fecal matter with it and down into that system and it’s quite a bit of raw sewage that has definite impacts.”

Musslewhite is one of three officers charged with enforcing all CBJ dog laws, including licensing. He estimates that only about 25 percent of Juneau dogs, or about 4,000, are licensed each year. City code requires dogs over the age of 6 months be licensed by January 1st.

Dog Task Force Recreated
At the direction of City Manager Kim Kiefer, Parks and Landscape Superintendent George Schaaf is bringing together the same groups that were part of the 2003 dog task force, including federal and state land managers and enforcement officers as well as the Humane Society, Animal Control, Trail Mix, Juneau Audubon, and Grateful Dogs of Juneau.

For example, the U.S. Forest Service manages the Mendenhall Campground, and the Forest Service has enforcement officers, but do they cover canine behavior?

“That’s actually one of the reasons I’m looking forward to having both (CBJ) Animal Control and the Forest Service in the room together, so they can talk to one another and see where their worlds overlap,” Schaaf said.

He said the re-constituted dog task force will review current laws and enforcement problems, and some of the confusion surrounding those laws as well as off and on-leash areas.

Physical leashes are required in several places.

“The Auke Lake trail, the paved portions of the Twin Lakes pathway, and also the paved portions of the Brotherhood Bridge trail,” Schaaf said. “And then there are also seasonal leash regulations for Sandy Beach and Savviko Park.”

Nine years ago, Kiefer – then director of CBJ Parks and Recreation – was head of the dog task force. She says the main work has been done and new group doesn’t need to rewrite Juneau’s dog laws.

But some may need tweaking, she said, including “competent voice control.” City code requires dogs in parks be on leash or under their handler’s voice control. Kiefer said CBJ Animal Control officers tell her competent voice control is hard to enforce.

“So we need to look at that piece and figure out is there a way to make a check list that works for them, so that if a dog is off leash and somebody says it’s under competent voice control, there’s some sort of test they can do to see if it is,” she said.

Grateful Dogs of Juneau spends a lot of time in the spring cleaning up after others’ canines. The group also helps restock bag dispensers in parks and at trail heads, and encourages Parks and Rec to install trash cans where they’re needed.

Grateful Dogs’ George Utermohle believes Juneau is a great place to be a dog and a dog owner. He said most people are responsible, but those who don’t train their dogs or clean up after them create problems for responsible dog owners.

“We’d hate to see the community come down hard on dog owners in general because of what this small portion of citizens in the community are doing,” he said.

Utermohle said education is the solution, whether that comes in the form of peer pressure, advertising campaigns, or a ticket from an animal control officer.

Schaaf said the task force will develop a public outreach campaign to educate dog owners about regulations in parks and on trails.

On-leash only areas (Source: CBJ Animal control)
Downtown business district (Franklin Street to Main Street; Fifth Street to Mill Way)
Grounds of the State Office Building, Centennial Hall, State Museum, Governor’s Mansion, Juneau Airport.
All public school grounds
All docks, harbors, and wharfs
Twin Lakes paved pathway, shelter, playground, and grassy knoll
Auke Lake trail, Brotherhood Bridge trail (Kaxdigoowu heen dei) and Rainforest trail. (Rainforest is on leash only from May through September)
Savikko Park shelters, playground, and parking areas
Most Juneau parks are on-leash only, but parks with ball fields have signs indicating times the ball fields are open for canine exercise.

Areas closed to dogs at all times
Cemeteries, Salmon Creek watershed, Juneau Police station pond, Jensen/Olson Arboretum, East Pond trail at Fish creek, all artificial turf fields, all highways.

In all other areas, canines are required to restrained by means of physical restraint (a leash 10 feet in length or less), or by means of competent voice control.
Competent voice control requirements are met when:
1. The person exhibiting the voice control is present with the animal and monitors all of its activities.
2. The person exhibiting the voice control is capable of directing all of the animal’s movements and activities by voice commands.
3. The animal under voice control follows all of the vocal commands quickly and accurately.

The Juneau Assembly Committee of the Whole last night (Monday) asked the city attorney to draft a resolution conveying its interest in building a filtration system for Salmon Creek – the city’s secondary water supply.

The issue of how Juneau residents get their water has been raised by the Assembly’s ongoing investigation of whether to pursue reopening the old AJ Mine near downtown. The AJ ore body is partly owned by the city, and located in Last Chance Basin – Juneau’s primary source of drinking water.

A Salmon Creek filtration system could open the door to mine development. But Assembly members say it’s too soon to go down that road.

Casey Kelly has more.

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Right now Salmon Creek supplies about a third of Juneau’s water, while most comes from Gold Creek in Last Chance Basin. CBJ Engineering Director Rorie Watt told the Assembly that’s partly because Salmon Creek is not available year round.

“Since Salmon Creek is a surface water source, and is subject to seasonal turbidity, at times we have to take it offline because of the murkiness in the water,” Watt explained. “We could keep it online all the time if we filtered it.”

Watt recently completed a draft report on Juneau’s water system, requested by the Assembly as part of its review of the AJ Mine. The report outlines several scenarios for future development of the system, with and without a gold mine operating in Last Chance Basin.

Watt said one of the more attainable scenarios would involve converting Salmon Creek into a year round supply, while diverting water from the AJ Mine drainage tunnel away from Gold Creek.

“It’s the most neat and tidy,” he said. “It identifies the solution to potential contamination at Gold Creek and it identifies a volume supply increase for losses at Gold Creek.”

Watt said he would expect a mining company to pay for the cost of diverting the AJ drainage tunnel. But the city would have to pursue the Salmon Creek filtration system on its own. He said a facility capable of filtering four million gallons of water per day would meet the city’s current peak usage. Watt estimated a plant that size would cost about $6-million. But a larger facility would allow for growth in water consumption.

“If we were to go down the road of pursuing a filtration plant, there would be a lot of further investigation about which type of filtration plant would be best for Juneau, and there would be a lot of discussion about sizing that plant, and what size would be most appropriate,” said Watt.

Mayor Bruce Botelho suggested a resolution expressing conceptual support for a Salmon Creek filtration system, without identifying a funding source. If the Assembly wishes to pursue it, Botelho said the plant could eventually be added to the city’s long term Capital Improvements Projects list or put to voters as part of a one-percent sales tax measure.

But at this point, the mayor said the resolution would be a way to gauge public support.

“The reason I suggest the resolution is it would create an avenue for the public to specifically comment to us on that proposed course of action,” he said.

Assembly member Karen Crane said sorting out the city’s water supply issues should come before any decision on whether to reopen the AJ.

“We heard, even from many pro-mine people who spoke and gave testimony, that water was also an issue for them,” Crane said. “And I just am not prepared to go any further with anything until we come up with a plan for water.”

Mine or no mine, Botelho said the city should look to improve its water system. He said continuing to have two sources of drinking water – Salmon Creek and Gold Creek – would best serve the public.

“I see it as a confluence of interests, both in terms of community sentiment about having redundancy in our water supply, and it also, I think, coincides with the interests of advancing mining were that to come. But it is in its own way stand alone,” said Botelho.

The draft resolution will come back to the Committee of the Whole and be refined before possibly being moved to the full Assembly.

Juneau Assembly dives back into the AJ Mine issue tonight (Monday).

Members have had more than a month to review a draft study of the city’s water system, compiled by Engineering Director Rorie Watt. At tonight’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Watt says he’ll be seeking direction on what to do next.

“The Assembly has asked for this investigation,” Watt says. “And we’ll find out if they feel like it answers their questions, or if they need more information about water, or if they want to continue to consider mine development, or if they want to debate the topic. I’m not going to predict what they’re ready to do.”

Over the past year, the Assembly has been considering whether to pursue re-opening the old AJ Mine near downtown. The city owns part of the ore body, located in Last Chance Basin – Juneau’s main water supply.

A mine advisory task force last year urged the Assembly to request the water study. The draft report gives an overview of city’s water system, and identifies several scenarios and management concepts, with and without a gold mine operating nearby. The scenarios range from no action to leasing the AJ property to a mining company.

Watt has been gathering public input on the draft study. He says most people have had questions about the city’s water system, though a few categorically oppose mine development. Some of the written comments are included in the latest version of the study.

Watt says ultimately the Assembly will need to decide if the drinking water issue is a fatal flaw to any proposal to re-open the mine.

“That’s, at a policy level, what they need to decide,” says Watt. “And then once they are comfortable in having enough information to make that decision, we’ll see what happens.”

The Assembly last year appropriated $250,000 dollars for the water study. So far, Watt says $68,000 has been spent – about $33,000 to consultants Juneau Watershed Partnership, TetraTech and Carson Dorn. The rest has been spent on CBJ Engineering staff time.

Watt says he hasn’t made any major changes to the draft report, since bringing it to the Assembly at the end of February. At members’ request, he did add a better explanation of water flow rates to a technical section of the report.

Tonight’s Committee of the Whole meeting starts at 6 p.m. in Assembly chambers.

Link:
AJ Mine Water Study Draft Report
Water study public comments [PDF]

The Juneau Assembly formally introduced the city’s biennial budget proposal at a special meeting last night (Wednesday), kicking off a two-month process of hearings and department presentations before the spending plan is officially adopted.

KTOO’s Casey Kelly has more.

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The budget proposal is the first submitted by new City Manager Kim Kiefer, previously the deputy city manager. It covers the next two fiscal years – FY 2013 starting in July and FY14 starting one year later.

In her presentation to the Assembly Finance Committee, Kiefer said the spending plan is balanced – meaning expenditures match projected revenue. For FY13 it totals roughly $319-million – about a two percent drop in spending from this year.

Six months ago, the city was facing a projected shortfall of more than $7-million over the next two years. Kiefer and former City Manager Rod Swope identified about $4-million in cuts, but were still left with a shortfall of about $4.4-million.

Last month, the Assembly directed the Manager’s office not to use layoffs or new cuts to services to close the gap. Kiefer says city departments have already started cutting operating expenses.

“A number of the directors took furlough over this year, varying from a few days to a couple of weeks, including the past city manager and the current city manager,” said Kiefer. “There were reductions in hours of service for the libraries; for the pools, we’ll be closing earlier during the weeks. There were reductions in advertising, in office supplies, those kinds of things.”

She says the proposed budget also calls for open positions to be left vacant across a variety of city departments.

“In addition to that we had some positions that we already had kept open from the prior two years,” Kiefer said. “So, we probably are looking at more like 25 people, bodies that are being impacted by this budget.”

Kiefer says she’ll ask the Assembly to increase fees for city services, such as Capital Transit. She says the Parks and Recreation Department has already increased some facility rental rates.

“Treadwell Arena, Centennial Hall had increases,” She said. “They (parks and rec) adjusted their revenue projections for the parking structures.”

The budget plan calls for a .4 mill increase to the property tax mill levy during the upcoming fiscal year, to 10.95 total mills. The Auke Bay School bond measure approved by voters last fall will increase the levy by .06 mills. But the additional .34 mill increase will go toward city operations.

Looking ahead to FY 14, Kiefer said she hopes for more flexibility with the mill rate, which is approved by the Assembly annually.

“We believe that when we get to ’14 we’ll be able to be lower than that from an operational standpoint, because we will continue to have savings,” Kiefer said. “And we’re hopeful that we really, truly are on the upswing of where we’ve been.”

The final piece of the puzzle that allowed Kiefer to balance the budget was the Assembly’s authorization of using $1-million in one-time money from the city’s water and sewer expansion fund.

“The Switzer area municipal land development CIP and the West Juneau-North Douglas connection were both reduced by a half a million dollars each,” she said. “So, that’s what makes up that million dollars that you authorized us to use.”

Following Kiefer’s presentation to the Finance Committee, the Assembly held a special meeting where the city and school district budget ordinances were introduced, along with an ordinance setting the FY13 mill levy.

The Finance Committee will be taking a closer look at individual pieces of the budget during meetings throughout April and May. That starts next week with presentations on the school district budget, capital projects, and marine passenger fee recommendations.

The Assembly must adopt the budget no later than June 15th.

Juneau City Manager Kim Kiefer is proposing a biennial budget that calls for spending about $320-million per year over the next two years.

That includes the Juneau School District and Bartlett Regional Hospital budgets, both expected to be about $90-million per year.

CBJ Finance Director Craig Duncan says the spending plan actually cuts more than $10-million from the current year’s budget.

“For FY13 the actual number we’re looking at is about $318-million. And last year our total was $330-million,” says Duncan. “So, you can see that we actually have made some significant reductions in the budget.”

Duncan says Kiefer and former City Manager Rod Swope made most of the reductions by finding efficiencies in city departments. Certain positions were eliminated after employees retired or quit; others have been held vacant.

But as of a month ago the city was still facing a projected shortfall of more than $4-million over the next two years.

The Assembly directed the Manager’s Office not to use layoffs or cuts to services to balance the budget. Instead, they authorized the use of one time funds, not to exceed a million dollars; additional cuts to operations; and a small increase in the property tax mill levy, not to exceed 11 total mills.

Duncan says the one time money will come out of the city’s water and sewer expansion fund, which currently has more than $4-million in it, but no projects on the horizon.

The manager’s budget proposal calls for a mill rate increase of 0.4 mills next year, to 10.95 total mills. Duncan says property taxes need to go up anyway, due to the Auke Bay School bond proposition voters approved last fall.

“There’s two components of the mill levy. There’s the operational piece and there’s the debt service piece. The debt service being voter approved general obligation bonds,” Duncan says. “So, for FY13 – that’s the year starting this July 1st – that increase consists of .34 mills for operations and .06 mills for debt.”

If approved by the Assembly, it would be the first mill rate increase in about ten years. In recent years, the rate has been going down.

Duncan and Kiefer will present a budget overview to the Assembly Finance Committee tonight (Wednesday). The Assembly will then hold a special meeting to introduce the city and school district budgets, along with the mill levy ordinance.

Over the next month and a half, city department heads will present their budget proposals to the Finance Committee. The Assembly will then hold public hearings on the budget, which must be adopted by June 15th.

CBJ Assembly Meeting
April 2, 2012
Agenda