Local Government

The state’s Local Boundary Commission will not consolidate Petersburg’s borough petition with a competing annexation proposal from Juneau. Nor will it postpone action on the Petersburg proposal. The commission unanimously denied the City and Borough of Juneau’s request in a teleconferenced meeting Wednesday morning. Matt Lichtenstein reports.

Juneau submitted its annexation petition in early November, about seven months after Petersburg had filed its borough petition in early April. Juneau is trying to annex over 19-hundred square miles of the territory that Petersburg included in its proposed borough boundaries. Petersburg’s proposal is well ahead of Juneau’s in the local boundary commission review process.

If the petitions were consolidated, the Commision and its staff would review, take comments, hold hearings and decide on the two conflicting proposals in the same process, rather than separately. If the commissioners chose not to go that route, then the City and Borough of Juneau Law Department’s Amy Mead encouraged them to consider holding off for a while on the Petersburg review.

“We are asking at the very least that the Petersburg petition be postponed to allow the CBJ petition to kind of catch up,” said Mead. “So the two petitions can proceed simultaneously, thereby ensuring that any decision made on one that affects the other is afforded a full and complete opportunity for public participation.”

Both Juneau and Petersburg claim historic and contemporary ties to the disputed lands, which are relatively undeveloped and unpopulated. The territory in question extends south from the Juneau Borough Boundary at Holkum bay down to Cape Fanshaw and east to the Canadian boarder. Juneau officials have considered annexing the area in the past, but the Assembly did not move forward until Petersburg had petitioned for the territory. Petersburg City Attorney Jim Brennan emphasized that point as he addressed the commission.

“The basic underlying fact here is that Juneau has filed their annexation petition in a purely reactionary mode,” Brennan said. “They waited and waited and waited until the last possible day.”

After more staff and public review, the boundary commission is tentatively planning to hold a public hearing and make a decision on the Petersburg petition in late May or early June. Brennan argued that consolidation would mean a significant delay for Petersburg, which has been working on the highly publicized Borough plan for several years.

“This process on the Petersburg end has taken a substantial effort. It has been underway for a long time,” said Brennan. “Juneau will have full opportunity for input. There is no unfairness here, there’s no conflict with the regulations, and there’s no danger of inconsistent decisions.”

The Boundary Commission staff recommended against consolidation or postponement and Commission Chair Lynn Chrystal agreed:

“We’re not going to be operating in a vacuum. We’ll have lots of information, and I feel confident that without consolidation, we can render a fair decision for both parties,” Chrystal said.

The Five commissioners voted unanimously against the Juneau requests. The Juneau petition is still under its initial technical review according to Commission staff, who are currently working on the more detailed, preliminary report for the Petersburg petition. That report considers the public comments that have come in so far and whether the plan meets state standards for borough formation. It’s expected to come out in late February, followed by another round of public review and comment.

A Juneau Assembly subcommittee will meet with a researcher tomorrow (Wednesday) to discuss a proposed League of Women Voters survey of residents’ city budget priorities.

With the city facing a projected 7.5-million dollar shortfall over the next two years, the Assembly is looking for some community guidance as it prepares to make difficult spending decisions.

In the past, the League of Women Voters survey was done telephonically. But this year – citing the inability to reach people on cell phones – the organization is proposing a mail-out survey to roughly 17-thousand addresses in the Capital City. The League is asking the city to cover the cost of the mailer – about 10-thousand dollars.

At last night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl questioned Deputy City Manager Kim Kiefer on the survey’s methodology. Kiefer said from her discussions with the League, they would not be able to prevent people from filling out more than one.

“We won’t be able to keep people from stuffing the ballot box with their comments,” Kiefer admitted.

Kiehl said, “That’s one of my great concerns. The other would be that mail-out surveys tend to have a significant selection bias in who returns them.”

But the League’s Marianne Mills says a mail-out survey might make it easier to get a more accurate picture of residents’ priorities.

“We’ll have a much larger sample. And perhaps more representative,” said Mills. “Because the phone has gotten so skewed over the years in terms of we used to do it by prefix. Like, we knew every 364 was in Douglas. Well that’s changed, because when people move now they can take their phone prefix with them to the valley.”

Mills invited assembly members to meet with Steve Hamilton – a retired University of Alaska Southeast professor who’s volunteered to help the League with the survey. A subcommittee made up of Kiehl, Karen Crane, and Carlton Smith will meet with Hamilton tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11 a.m. at the Juneau Airport’s Juneau Room.

The Committee of the Whole voted to recommend the full Assembly approve the survey at its regular meeting next Monday. Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker was the only no vote. He cited concerns that the League’s survey results wouldn’t be available until April. He also wanted staff to give the assembly an estimate of what it would cost to have the research firm McDowell Group do the survey.

In 2009, when the city was facing a similar budget shortfall, the Assembly opted not to do the League of Women Voters survey.

The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly has decided on the finalists for the city manager job, but the public will have to wait to find out who’s on the list.

After deliberating in closed door executive session for more than an hour and a half last night (Monday), the Assembly Committee of the Whole pared down the 25 applicants for the position to a shortlist.

Deputy Mayor David Stone says the assembly will announce who is on the list once all the applicants have been notified.

“We’ve got to talk to the candidates that we have basically decided are not on the shortlist. Then we’ve got to talk to the ones on the shortlist and see if they’re still interested, and then we’ll know and we will then make an announcement,” Stone said. “So, we’re being a little bit vague at this point, because if we say something publicly, then it turns out, well, somebody has withdrawn, it makes it more difficult.”

Stone did say there was some mild disappointment amongst assembly members at the lack of in-state candidates. In fact, Stone said there were two qualities that set the short list finalists apart from the rest.

“Very capable and Alaskan experience,” he said.

Current City Manager Rod Swope is retiring at the end of March. The assembly hopes to hire his replacement by the end of January.

Members did discuss in open session the interview process for the city manager finalists.

Mayor Bruce Botelho said it should include visits with department heads, interviews with the assembly, and meetings with the public.

“I think we need to create the opportunity for the candidates to meet the public, for the public to be able to ask questions in a specific setting, and a chance for the public to be able to give us feedback,” Botelho said.

The candidates will also be asked to perform in a hypothetical situation or assignment they might face as manager. However, the process is likely to be less intense than the last city manager search three years ago, when Swope first tried to resign.

During those interviews, the finalists went through what’s called a full “assessment center,” which lasted two-and-a-half days.

“So, I think three or four exercises, an interview, and I think that gave them a lot of information,” said CBJ Human Resources Director Mila Cosgrove

For this search a three-member committee made up of assembly members Carlton Smith, Randy Wanamaker and Mary Becker will design one assignment for each candidate to perform.

Wanamaker says he’s less interested in how the finalists do in hypothetical situations, and more interested how they relate to the assembly, staff and public.

“When we used it the last time, I found it to be more time consuming than helpful. And that the better read from things came from the assembly itself speaking with the candidates, interviewing them, and then the public forum, where the public talked with them – all you had to do was listen,” Wanamaker said.

The interviews will likely take place in mid-January. The finalists will be announced via press release.

City Manager and City Attorney are the only two positions hired by the Assembly.

The City and Borough of Juneau has received 25 applications from people interested in replacing outgoing City Manager Rod Swope, who’s retiring at the end of March.

CBJ Human Resources Director Mila Cosgrove wasn’t surprised by the number of applicants. But the number from out-of-state was a little surprising, given that advertising for the position was limited to Alaska.

“I think that people are interested in the opportunity of coming to Juneau and the job market is still pretty soft down south,” says Cosgrove.

In late October, the Assembly decided on an expedited search for Swope’s replacement. The application deadline closed on December 1st, and the assembly’s self-imposed timeline calls for offering the job to someone by January 30th.

City Manager and City Attorney are the only positions hired by the assembly. But Cosgrove says she’s there to provide support if members request it.

“As a general rule, my office will collect the applications and do some level of screening for qualifications and checking references and that type of thing,” Cosgrove says. “The assembly, at least with the last city manager process we did was very hands on in terms of wanting to interview and select the candidates. I would imagine that will be the case this time as well.”

Deputy Mayor David Stone says the Assembly is looking for a person who has good management experience with a municipal budget as large, or larger than Juneau’s.

“And of course we’re unique in that we have some enterprise boards – hospital, the airport; we’re unusual even for the state of Alaska. We’re one of the very few that owns an airport,” Stone says. “I think we’re looking for strong leadership skills. Because this is a strong manager form of government, the manager’s really the CEO.”

Stone says it’s likely that the list will be pared down significantly at tonight’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

“I think we want to make it manageable. So I’m assuming we’re going to whittle it down to four or five, maybe a few more than that. But I doubt that we’d go much higher than that,” he says.

Stone says the finalists will be invited to come to Juneau for a series of in-person interviews. Those will likely take place in mid-January.

Among the applicants is current Deputy City Manager Kim Kiefer, who served as interim manager in 2009 when Swope took a six-month sabbatical.

Below is the list of all the applicants.

Bill Allen
Ginger Blaisdell
Bruce Carlile
Todd Crossett
Buddy Custard
William Durham
Scott Hahn
Jay Henry
Tecumshea Holmes
Mustafa Iflazoglu
Gail Jones
Kim Kiefer
Alan Lanning
William Lee
Christine Pomeroy
Eugene Rehfeld
John Schempf
Ronald Schmucker
George Shirk
Harry Staven
Thomas Steele
Eric Strahl
Jeffery Tubb
Stephen Vincent
Ron Wild

City officials are frustrated by stalled changes to Juneau’s solid waste system. City Manager Rod Swope says Juneau can’t make any improvements until two private companies work out their issues over the collection and disposal of garbage.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska recently rejected an Alaska Pacific Environmental Services proposal to barge Juneau’s trash to the Lower 48 instead of putting it in the landfill. The company also wanted to implement a curbside recycling program. APES operates Juneau’s garbage collection company Arrow Refuse.

When APES announced the plan in September, it caught city officials and landfill operator Waste Management by surprise. With news of the regulatory commission’s rejection of the APES application, Swope hopes Waste Management will be able to rekindle a city-backed effort to expand recycling services at the dump.

“I’m very hopeful they’ll be able to work things out at least to the point where they’re willing to extend the contract at least for another year to give everybody more time to try to figure some of this stuff out. The city’s pretty much caught in the middle right now,” says Swope.

Arrow’s contract with Waste Management expires in December 2012. Landfill Manager Eric Vance says the two companies are talking, but declined comment since he’s not involved in the negotiations.

In denying Alaska Pacific Environmental Services’ application to barge trash and provide curbside recycling, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s staff wrote that the “proposed revisions collectively… represent a rate redesign,” which requires a cost of service study. No such study was included in the company’s application.

Officials from APES did not return calls seeking comment.

The CBJ Assembly made appointments to the Planning Commission and Bartlett Regional Hospital Board of Directors at a special meeting last night (Wednesday).

Dr. Nathan Peimann was reappointed to a physician seat on the hospital board, while Bob Storer was reappointed to one public seat, and Nancy Davis was appointed another public seat. All three will serve three-year terms starting in January.

Jerry Medina was appointed to a vacant seat on the Planning Commission starting immediately and ending December 31, 2013. Incumbents Nicole Grewe and Marsha Bennett, and newcomer Karen Lawfer were appointed to three more seats. They’ll serve three-year terms beginning in January.