Local Government

Three Assembly members stepped down and three newly elected members took their place Monday night.

“One of the hallmarks of the American system,” Mayor Bruce Botelho said, “is the peaceful and orderly transition of government.”

It was the last meeting for Peter Freer, Malcolm Menzies, and Deputy Mayor Merrill Sanford. Freer and Menzies each served a few months, having been appointed to fill seats left vacant when Bob Doll moved to Washington State and Jonathon Anderson took a new job in California.

Sanford has served three consecutive three-year terms – the limit for Assembly members.

Jesse Kiehl, Carlton Smith and Randy Wanamaker were sworn in to replace the outgoing members.

Freer, who served on the Assembly 28 years ago, thanked the panel for appointing him.

“When I took the seat here in July of this year, after many years of not being on the Assembly, it felt as though I never left,” Freer said. “I felt very comfortable in the chair and in doing the work of the community. “

Menzies said he enjoyed the few months he was on the Assembly.

“I very much thank you for selecting me – not electing – but selecting me to fill another’s term,” he said.

After nine years on the Assembly, Sanford had a lot to say to his colleagues, which was a bit out of character for him.

“You know I’m a man of few words, but my wife typed up a few things for me,” he said, to the laughter of the panel.

Sanford proceeded to talk for ten minutes. He gave members three recommendations: Don’t lock up city lands from development, be prepared to vote against some of your friends and neighbors, and work as a team.

He said serving on the Assembly has been a humbling experience.

“When I first started my little saying was ‘a lifetime of commitment.’ You know that was just a little slogan picked out of the air by four or five of us,” Sanford said. “And I guess when I look back on my career as a Marine, as a builder of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, as a fireperson for 30 years, on the Planning Commission for four years, on the Assembly for nine years, I can say now that I truly have had a lifetime of commitment to our city.”

City Attorney John Hartle administered the oath of office to Kiehl, Smith and Wanamaker. Then the panel elected David Stone as deputy mayor.

The Assembly accepted Mayor Botelho’s recommendations for committees.

Karen Crane takes over for Stone as chairman of the Finance Committee, while Stone becomes chairman of the Committee of the Whole. The entire Assembly sits as a Finance Committee and COW.

Wanamaker is chairman of the Public Works and Facilities Committee, Mary Becker retains Lands, and Ruth Danner will continue as Human Resources chair.

Juneau City Manager Rod Swope has made it official – he’s retiring for good on March 31, 2012.

Swope already retired from the city once, more than two years ago. At the time, the CBJ Assembly unsuccessfully went through the process of trying to find a replacement. Swope took six months off, and agreed to come back and work on a two year contract. Now he says he’ll stay on a little longer than that.

“That two year time would have been up at the end of this month, at the end of October. But I’ve agreed to stay on through the end of March,” says Swope.

That means he’ll be stepping down in the middle of the city’s biennial budget process. Swope generally puts the budget together early in the calendar year. The assembly then holds hearings on it during March and April, and approves it – with changes – in May or June.

The assembly is scheduled to hold its annual retreat tomorrow (Tuesday), where the topic of recruiting a new city manager will be on the agenda.

Sealaska Regional Native Corporation owns about 25-thousand acres of subsurface mining rights in an area being contested by the City and Borough of Juneau and Petersburg.

The area includes Hobart Bay, where Juneau’s Native Corporation Goldbelt owns 30-thousand surface acres.

Sealaska Vice President Rick Harris says the company will follow Goldbelt’s lead in commenting on the dispute.

“We’ll support them in whatever way is necessary to achieve a result that’s best for Goldbelt’s shareholders and also our shareholders,” says Harris.

Juneau plans to file a competing petition to Petersburg’s proposed borough boundaries, which includes land previously slated for annexation to the CBJ.

So far, Goldbelt hasn’t expressed a preference for which borough, if any, the corporation’s land should be in. Earlier this month, Goldbelt Vice President Derek Duncan sent a letter to the state’s Local Boundary Commission saying it would make a statement in the near future.

Harris says sand rock and gravel are quite prevalent in Hobart Bay, and that some precious metals are nearby.

“We don’t believe that it’s on our property,” Harris says. “We think that if there’s any precious metals, they’re actually to the north of our property.”

October 26th is the deadline to submit competing petitions and opposing briefs to the state’s Local Boundary Commission on Petersburg’s proposed borough.

The CBJ Assembly plans to introduce an ordinance Monday to make its petition official.

The City and Borough of Juneau is finalizing an annexation petition to be filed with the state’s Local Boundary Commission for lands that Petersburg wants to include in a proposed borough.

Last night, the CBJ Assembly approved several maps to be included in the petition. They show 92.6 percent of the contested area is in the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s Juneau Game Management Unit; 93.7 percent is in the U.S. Forest Service’s Juneau Ranger District; and 71.4 percent in the Juneau Recording District.

The area was previously identified for annexation to Juneau. It includes all the territory from the southern CBJ boundary and east to the Canadian border; the Tracy Arm / Ford’s Terror Wilderness and Endicott Arm as well as Holkam, Windham and Hobart bays.

Before now, the CBJ hadn’t filed for the area in deference to Juneau Native Corporation Goldbelt, which owns 30-thousand acres at Hobart Bay. Goldbelt hasn’t expressed a preference for which borough it wants to be in, now that there will be competing claims for the land.

Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho says the Local Boundary Commission may still decide not to include it in either Petersburg or Juneau.

“But absent our intervention there will be only one petition asserting a claim over that land,” says Botelho.

October 26th is the deadline for submitting competing petitions and opposing briefs to the Local Boundary Commission. The assembly will introduce an ordinance to approve its petition at its regular meeting next Monday.

A resolution authorizing City Manager Rod Swope to apply for state funds to pay for half of a new Mendenhall Valley library is on its way to the Juneau Assembly.

On Monday, the assembly’s Public Works and Facilities Committee sent the resolution to the full panel for approval.

The nonprofit group Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries has committed one-million dollars to the project, which is estimated to cost at total of 14-million. Friends president Jeff Vogt says it’s important to get it done now, while state funding is available.

“If we let this slip by our fear is that instead of looking at a 7-million dollar project to the city – of which the Friends have already committed a million at least – if we let this slip by at this point in time it could slip by for a long, long time,” Vogt says.

In addition to the Friends money, the city could count the value of the land at Dimond Park, where the new library would be built, toward its half of the project. Juneau Library Director Barbara Berg says other funds could come from an extension of the city’s one-percent temporary sales tax, private foundations, and fundraising.

“There’s potential for Rasmussen [Foundation money]. The Library Endowment Board has approximately 300-thousand dollars available at this time in its major project fund to put toward this, and the Friends are intending to run a capital campaign and other fundraising to support this project,” says Berg.

Applying for the grant now doesn’t commit the city to the project. The assembly will vote on the resolution next Monday.

The CBJ Assembly meets tonight as Committee of the Whole.

It’ll be the last meeting chaired by Deputy Mayor Merrill Sanford, who is nearing the end of his third consecutive term on the assembly. Due to term limits, Sanford will leave the panel next week when new members are sworn in.

On the agenda for tonight’s meeting is a presentation from the Alaska Department of Transportation on the new Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan. City Engineering Director Rorie Watt will also be on hand for ongoing discussion of the AJ Mine issue. Watt will give an update on the public outreach he’s doing as part of a study of the city’s water supply. The old mine, which the city and borough partially owns, is located in Last Chance Basin, Juneau’s main source of drinking water.

The Committee of the Whole meets tonight at 6 p.m. in City Hall Assembly Chambers.