David Morris

What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau Assembly?

I’d be a good candidate for the Juneau Assembly because I’ve lived in Juneau for 43 years. I’ve been involved in many things in the community, I’m presently on the board for Family Promise and I do service work for the elderly. I know a lot of the people that work here in all aspects of business and they’ve been coming to me and asking if I’d run, because they don’t like how things are going now.

The city is asking voters to fund a new city hall through a $27 million bond. What are your thoughts?

I haven’t completely made my decision on that yet. Originally it was no, but the Chamber of Commerce had a nice speech and Rorie did a nice thing laying out why. The positive part of it is all the city offices would be in one place instead of running all over town. We just need to look at how it’s going to be built. I believe they should use a local contractor, because there’s plenty here that could do it that live right here in Juneau. It’s a big price tag, but everything has gone up. And they’re paying $300,000 rent for each floor per year I believe in the Marine building, and that money could go to paying down the debt, because they wouldn’t have to pay rent in five or six different places*, which they are now. I still haven’t decided, but I’m leaning more to yes.

*Editor’s note: The city rents four spaces for employees who work outside of city hall: Sealaska Plaza, the Municipal Way Building, the Seadrome Building and the Marine View Building.

Do you think the city should limit cruise ship tourism? Why or why not? If so, how?

I think it comes down to the quality of life of the people that live here year round. The ships are going – but there’s only five ships. I say, yeah, but the ships that are coming in now, it’s the people that get off, it’s the amount of people that get off the boats, because they’re twice as large as the ones that used to come here. So you’re looking at probably 30,000 people in town where it used to be 15,000*, and that’s a big impact. So I believe in tourism, but I believe there’s a point when that’s enough. And I think it ought to be put out in a vote to the people, because it’s their city, it’s their decision, and the Assembly works for the people.

*Editor’s note: Based on Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska’s 2023 schedule and cruise lines’ ship capacities reported by the Juneau Empire, the maximum number of cruise ship passengers in town during a week ranges from roughly 6,000 to nearly 17,500 per day.

What do you intend to do about Juneau’s housing crisis?

Nano Brooks is a friend of mine. He came up with a really good idea. It’s in our charter to let that land go and put it out for bid to individuals. And we shouldn’t make bids based on who wants it, it should be open to everybody. And there’s no special deals. And if they did that, no matter what housing they built, it would change. If you built high-end housing here, the people that are middle housing that are ready to move up would go take those houses. And with those vacancies, people that are in low-income housing that are ready to move up would move into those spaces. Then that would leave open low-income housing, and you could also build that, also. So it’s always a shift, depending on whatever you’re building.

City-hired experts produced hazard maps for avalanches and landslides — how should the city balance responsible development with the needs of community members already living here?

The zones that they redid in 2020, I believe, I’ve had a lot of people when I’ve been talking to people say that these zones aren’t fair. And if you look at some of them, the zone covers this area but the avalanche chute is over here on one side and over on the other side, but the middle section has no danger of an avalanche zone. And it’s red, so people can’t build or put subdivisions there. I think we need to relook at the maps and how they’re drawn.

What do you think is the most important issue facing Juneau right now?

The thing that hits everybody that I talk to is taxes. Everybody is really upset about the taxes. If we build more houses and opened up that avenue, we would be able to lower the mill rate because there would be more, and it would also lower your taxes.

The landfill is a problem, and there’s been lots of advancements in that. I think we need to go back to a furnace, a clean-burning furnace.

And transparency. I think the Assembly – that’s kind of what prompted me to run – is they have spent a lot of their time behind closed doors and in executive session. You can’t talk to anybody if you’re in executive session about what went on. There’s only a couple of reasons to go into executive session, and that’s if you’re going to harm somebody or it’s extremely sensitive information, and all these things are not that when they’re going into session. They’ve made deals, they say, ‘Ok, you can talk,’ and they go, ‘Time’s up,’ because they’ve already made their decision. They’re not letting the people voice their opinions, I think. So that’s part of the reason why I’m running.