Local Government

Chief of Police Derek Bos says the Juneau Police Department is taking action to reform its policies after an officer was filmed slamming a man to the ground during an arrest in July. 

Bos presented the findings of an internal review of the department to the Juneau Assembly at a committee meeting Monday night. Overall, he said he believes the officer’s actions don’t reflect his character or the department as a whole. 

“I firmly believe he’s a good officer who made a very bad mistake on that day,” he said. 

The presentation comes nearly two months after former JPD Officer Brandon LeBlanc’s arrest of the man circulated widely online and prompted a public outcry. 

The video showed LeBlanc attempting to handcuff the man before slamming him to the ground. The man, whose family has publicly identified him as Christopher Williams, Jr., appeared to lie unconscious for the remainder of the video. He was later medevacked out of town. 

Following the arrest, Leblanc was placed on paid administrative leave and the department requested an independent investigation by an external agency to review Leblanc’s use of force, which is still ongoing.

The police department released the body-worn camera footage of the arrest late last month. LeBlanc resigned from his position just a day before it was released.

Chief Bos said that following the incident, the department has updated its policies for requesting medical assistance when someone loses consciousness. Additionally, he said officers learn tactics at the state’s Basic Training Academy that do not align with JPD’s expectations and policies. He said the department is now developing plans to address that disparity in its training. 

Bos went on to defend the department’s hiring standards. That’s despite Assembly members’ concerns about LeBlanc’s background. A man previously sued LeBlanc for excessive force and battery while he served as an officer in Louisiana. A jury found LeBlanc not guilty.

“Our standards are very high, and we — and me specifically — are not going to accept a warm body, just to accept a warm body,” he said.

Bos said the department is committed to working with the community and other entities to be transparent and build trust following the incident. Once the external investigation of LeBlanc’s use of force is completed, the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions will review the case to determine if his response was justified.

The City and Borough of Juneau has pushed back the eviction deadline for renters living in the historic Telephone Hill neighborhood in downtown Juneau. 

Residents now have until Nov. 1 to move out. 

City Attorney Emily Wright told the Juneau Assembly during an executive session Monday night. Mayor Beth Weldon announced the change to the public during an Assembly committee meeting that followed.

It comes just two days before residents were supposed to vacate the neighborhood. 

According to Wright, the city received two notices in the past week from attorneys indicating that it did not properly and legally serve residents with eviction notices.

Upon review, the city discovered the property management company in charge of alerting residents on the hill that their rental agreement was ending did so, but did not properly document it.

The City and Borough of Juneau sent out an Oct. 1 eviction notice in late May. The city plans to demolish the houses on the hill this December in hopes of making way for newer, denser housing in response to the city’s housing crunch. The city does not yet have a developer signed on to the project. 

Last week, dozens of residents attended the Juneau Assembly meeting to protest the plan to evict residents. Assembly members could have chosen to rescind the eviction notices sent to residents at the meeting, but they declined. 

The city plans to put out new notices to vacate on the hill on Tuesday. 

The Juneau Assembly approved funding to get started on a new playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus in Lemon Creek. But the decision brought up budget concerns as voters consider reducing taxes in the upcoming municipal election. 

The $735,000 project is the next step in what’s turned into a yearslong process to build a new playground for the campus that houses Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi High School, Montessori Borealis and Juneau Community Charter School. 

The building used to be a middle school before the district consolidated middle and high schools, so no playground was necessary until elementary-aged students moved in. The money will go toward installing safety surfacing and fencing. But the school district will be on the hook to fundraise for playground equipment.

The final decision hit a brief bump in the road when one Assembly member asked the body to consider potential reductions to the city’s tax revenue. There are three ballot propositions in this year’s election that could change how much money the city brings in annually. Assembly member Neil Steininger moved to table the decision until October. Steininger said he wants to wait until after the election to see what the city’s budget looks like.

“I think it’d be prudent when we’re talking about a dollar value this large to wait until we have a better understanding of the revenue available to the city before we make this commitment,” he said.

Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said a delay in the decision could make it harder for the district to get that equipment. He said the district needs to order it in December or January to get things installed in time for next school year.

“It just makes it really tight to do the fundraising, not sure if we’re going to be able to move forward with this until the October 27 [meeting] and then trying to put all that together and get pieces in place for installation hopefully for the next school year,” Hauser said.

The district received a donation from the Juneau Rotary Club to put some musical play equipment and Gaga ball pits at the school in the meantime.

Other Assembly members agreed with Steininger’s point but said they should still move forward with the site preparations. Member Wade Bryson said the neighborhood as a whole has access to far fewer playgrounds than other parts of the city.

“So we’re not doing this just to make sure that a school has a playground,” Bryson said. “We’re doing this for social equality to one of the most socioeconomic depressed parts of our community.”

Steininger ultimately backtracked after the Assembly members opposed him. He said he wanted to make a point.

“This is the kind of thing that is at stake at the ballot box here in October, and these are the types of considerations and questions we have to ask,” Steininger said. “And the comments before me about equity in Lemon Creek and the count of playgrounds is very apt.”

The Assembly unanimously approved the funding. In a Finance Committee presentation Wednesday, Juneau School District Director of Operations Kristy Germain said the district plans to begin work on the playground next summer.

Renters living on Juneau’s historic Telephone Hill have a week to pack up their belongings and vacate their homes before the city’s Oct. 1 eviction date. 

In the basement of a red-trimmed house with cedar siding on Telephone Hill, John Ingalls played a carbon fiber bass flute on Tuesday afternoon. He’s rented this space for decades. 

For the last 15 or so years, he’s been making flutes on the hill in his well-loved shop. There’s hardly an inch of open space on the tables and walls in there, all filled with tools, varnishes or half-finished flutes. 

“It’s amazing the things that have happened in this little shop here — all the things we’ve built,” he said, looking around. 

But before next Wednesday, all of it will need to be packed up and taken off the hill. In December, the city plans to demolish the homes there in hopes of making way for newer, denser housing. The city does not yet have a developer signed on to the project. 

Juneau is facing a housing crisis — there are simply not enough homes to keep up with demand. Alarms of a crisis date back more than a decade. The Telephone Hill redevelopment would add more than 100 new housing units to downtown.

Sitting in his dining room alongside some of his neighbors on Tuesday evening, Ingalls said this isn’t the first time he’s had an eviction scare on the hill. 

“When I was younger, I sort of had a plan if I got evicted, that I would build a platform and scaffolding up on the roof, and hang up on the roof with a squirt gun,” he said, laughing. 

All the people living on Telephone Hill are renters, and have been since the state took ownership of the neighborhood in the 1980s. It was originally intended to be redeveloped to build a new Capitol complex there. But that didn’t happen.  

The state transferred the land to the city two years ago. Last year, the Assembly voted to redevelop the neighborhood. 

Joe Karson just turned 80 years old. He rents an apartment on the hill. 

“My history on the hill goes back quite a length, but I’ve actually been in this particular unit for 20 years,” he said. “That’s enough to make it a home.”

Karson said he’s been struggling to find new housing since the Oct. 1 eviction notices went out almost four months ago. 

He said he’s applied for a spot in senior living facilities, but was told the waitlists are at least a year long. He said he’s looking for other options, but is still holding out hope that the Juneau Assembly will reverse course. 

“That’s my home,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense. As far as affordable housing goes, to tear it down, it’s totally counterproductive to what they say that they want to do.”

Karson isn’t alone. Other Telephone Hill residents find themselves without a plan.

On Monday, dozens of residents attended the Juneau Assembly meeting to protest the city’s plans to evict residents. The Assembly could have chosen to rescind the eviction notices sent to residents at the meeting, but it did not do that. 

Instead, multiple members, like Alicia Hughes-Skandijs, shared why they stood behind their decision. 

“I love that neighborhood too, but I truly believe in my heart that to take a property that has a smaller number of houses on it and trade that for more dense housing is a right move for us, for where we are in our housing crisis,” she said.

As far back as 2010, a study by the Juneau Economic Development Council pointed to a lack of housing in town as a barrier for low-income and homeless populations to find and afford apartments. 

Juneau’s city attorney, Emily Wright, said the city is prepared to take legal action against residents who do not vacate by the eviction deadline. 

“Everybody on the Hill received an eviction notice for October 1,” she said. “If they don’t leave their homes by October 1, the city would initiate a legal action against them, the same as any landlord-tenant situation in Alaska.”

Back on the hill, Ingalls’ partner, Rachel Beck, said she and Ingalls own a home they’ll move into after the eviction notice. But, she said, they’d rather stay. She said Juneau is losing much more than just a couple of old houses — it’s losing history. 

“To me, it’s like throwing away your grandmother’s jewels,” she said. “This is a really special place.”

The neighborhood is one of the oldest continuously occupied areas in Juneau. It has a history for Beck; she gave birth to her children there. It has statewide significance, too. Alaska’s first commercial telephone service started out of a house in the neighborhood. 

“I think for Juneau, it’s important to have reminders of our past,” she said. 

But she fears that once the demolition begins, the memory of the neighborhood will fade, dwindling to just words on a plaque – the only reminder of what once was.

Dozens of residents attended the Juneau Assembly meeting on Monday night to protest the city’s plans to evict all residents of the historic downtown Telephone Hill neighborhood in less than two weeks.

The topic wasn’t on the Assembly agenda, but more than 20 residents testified at the meeting and held disapproving signs in the audience. Many people were also there to criticize the Juneau Assembly’s general spending in recent years. 

Mendenhall Valley resident Dawn Hammond called the city’s redevelopment plan for the neighborhood unacceptable. 

“I think this is a ridiculous proposal,” she said. “I think it’s offensive. I think it’s a terrible thing to do to people that have lived in this community for a very long time.”

All the people living on Telephone Hill are renters, and have been since the state took ownership of the neighborhood in the 1980s. It was originally intended to be redeveloped to build a new Capitol complex there. That didn’t pan out. 

The state transferred the land to the city in 2023. In 2024, the Assembly voted to redevelop the neighborhood and add more than 100 new housing units there in response to Juneau’s ongoing housing crunch. 

This June, the Assembly approved spending roughly $5.5 million in city dollars — pulled from a few different sources — to fund the first phase of demolition and site preparation for the area.

The total project cost is estimated at $9 million. They gave residents living there an Oct. 1 deadline to move out. That’s despite the city not having secured a developer to construct new housing there. Telephone Hill resident Paul Burke said there’s still time for the Assembly to reverse course. 

“It’s just a shame that people don’t listen to what the people have to say — the history in this town is just precious,” he said. 

The Assembly could have chosen to rescind the eviction notices sent to residents at the meeting. It requires a two-thirds vote of approval. But Assembly members did not do that. Instead, multiple members like Alicia Hughes-Skandijs shared why they stand behind their decision to evict Telephone Hill residents. 

“I love that neighborhood too, but I truly believe in my heart that to take a property that has a smaller number of houses on it and trade that for more dense housing is a right move for us, for where we are in our housing crisis,” she said.

Demolition is slated to begin in December. City officials say they hope that a developer will begin construction as soon as next summer. 

Juneau is getting a new City Hall location after all. 

On Monday, the Juneau Assembly greenlit the purchase of two floors of the Michael J. Burns building, which houses the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation downtown. It will become Juneau’s new City Hall location after renovations. 

The Assembly’s vote comes after multiple years of push and pull between city administration and Juneau voters. The city asked voters twice during recent municipal elections to approve bond debt to help pay for the construction of a brand new City Hall building. Voters said no both times. 

Since then, the city put enough money aside to purchase the floors in the Burns building outright, which meant it didn’t need to ask voters to approve any bond debt. The decision instead went to the Assembly. 

Juneau’s current City Hall near Marine Park fits less than half of the city’s employees and it needs millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs. City administrators have long advocated for a new space that can house all its staff and city functions. 

Juneau resident Dave Hanna testified at the meeting last night ahead of the vote. He argues that there are other options that aren’t being considered. 

“I really want you to do the math,” he said. “The situation has changed a lot in Juneau, so there are other opportunities lurking out there also.” 

The cost to purchase the floors is $10.2 million. Renovation costs could add more than $7.5 million. Assembly Members Ella Adkison and Neil Steininger were the only two members to vote against the purchase. Assembly member Wade Bryson championed the plan.

“CBJ owning our City Hall is the most fiscally responsible action that we can do,” he said. 

The renovations and move to the new location are expected to take at least a year, according to city leaders. The final cost of renovations will be determined in the coming months. It’s unclear what will happen to the current City Hall building.