Assembly Issues
City responsibilities
Candidate Responses
What is the city doing that it shouldn’t?
Merrill Sanford
Candidate for Mayor
I don’t think that there’s anything that we shouldn’t be doing. There are things that we do that are priorities as far as the charter goes and everything, police and fire, some water, public health and safety. Those are issues that are required of us to do something about to a certain level. And I think that’s a good place to go to when we get budget shortfalls. And to look at what we’re required to do, and what we’re doing as extra things and then evaluate those and see if we can keep the extra things that we’re doing or not.
Greg Fisk
Candidate for Mayor
If the (state) budget crunch becomes very severe, the assembly may have to look at what kind of services we can’t afford to do in the future. The assembly had that conversation a year ago and nobody came up with a class of services that we should eliminate.
Loren Jones
Candidate for District 1 Assembly
In my mind, nothing. I think the city over time has added services, decreased services based on either revenues or perception of who could do it better.
When I first moved to Juneau, I worked for the city. I was an alcohol counselor in the city-run alcohol program. The city had a social service department. The city decided not to do that anymore. So, JAMHI formed, and you have Rainforest Recovery (providing transportation) to the hospital. Gastineau Human Services took over many of the (remaining) services.
We have added services. We have decreased services based on those things. Not to say that we can’t be more efficient. Not to say that there aren’t some areas for reduction. But just overall, I don’t think that there’s anything within the city that we shouldn’t be doing.
Dixie Hood
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I would say something that could definitely be improved and supported, that hasn’t been to the degree I think is needed, is public bus transportation out to the Lemon Creek area so that employees who work at Costco or Home Depot or out in that direction would have a way of getting to work on Sundays. And I’ve talked to bus drivers in the past, and they are totally supportive of working on holidays, but both Care-A-Van and Capital Transit don’t provide enough transportation as meet the needs.
There was recently a decision by the property owner of the Nugget Mall to have people parking their cars and catching the bus from there, and there was such an outcry from the public that the assembly pressed for that and went back to the original decision. And I think that sort of thing and a circulator downtown to provide transportation and relieve congestion and pollution would be a big thing.
And keeping the sidewalks and approaches to bus stops clear of ice so that seniors that depend on public transportation would be safe.
Jerry Nankervis
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
My role is to make sure we are doing what we should be doing properly. And are we doing stuff that will place us in the best position in the future. I put my role on the assembly and view things through that lens. It’s not always what Jerry wants. It’s what I think is good for the city.
Jason Puckett
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I wouldn’t really say what they’re doing, what they shouldn’t. But there’s stuff that they’re doing that they should shift. Like for example, the whole thing with the whale statue: Building the $12 million dollar park to house that whale for the tourists. I think that head tax money could be used in a lot of different ways that would not only help the tourist, but it could also help the people that live here, like work on the downtown congestion.
You know, work on making sure we’re keeping business in year-round because we don’t only have tourists for a certain amount of time. We have tourists that come in year-round. So make sure we keep downtown vibrant for year-round. Use some of that money to tear down the Gastineau Apartments because that’s a tourist eyesore. That’s one of the first things you see and smell when you come into downtown by Pocket Park. They’re not doing it wrong but they could shift the focus–not to building new but revamping what we have.
What is the city not doing that it should?
Merrill Sanford
Candidate for Mayor
We do a whole lot, and I don’t know off the top of my head anything that we’re not doing. I mean there’s a lot of great ideas out there right now for us to do if we had the dollars to do them. Increasing the bus routes would be a great thing to do and I would be completely in favor of doing that. But the bus routes we have recommended [changing] increases the dollar amount that we would have to put forward to the bus system by over $1 million. If we did a shuttle bus system downtown, that would increase the system’s dollar intake by a couple million dollars.
So everything comes at a cost and a price to pay and we have to know exactly what that is up front and then balance that with what we’re doing right now, and balance it with what we want to do into the future.
Greg Fisk
Candidate for Mayor
I think there’s a number of things the city should be doing. The biggest issue we’re facing when it comes to economic development is housing. Every economic development idea that you have, it always circles back to housing. And there is a number of things that we are not doing that municipalities all around the country are doing — that is putting our economic clout behind housing projects.
(We could use) private purpose bonds to lower the cost of housing financing. We don’t use our land base as an actual equity tool. An example: if a developer is looking at a $10 million project and needs to come up with $3 million in private equity, a lot of that is usually tied up in land. The city, if they have a piece of land that they want to develop could actually hold that as part of an equity interest in the project and not get paid until the project sells and that would really make things easier for developers.
I think we can move the development needle with that kind of activity; we haven’t done that kind of thing and we really need to.
Loren Jones
Candidate for District 1 Assembly
I think we should try to find some way to help the social service providers in town, to help out the nonprofits in town that provide shelter, food and care for the most vulnerable of our population — children, adults, seniors, homeless.
But those services are funded with state and federal funds in many ways. That’s going to be difficult to be maintained. I think the city may have to step up and add a few more dollars to the pot if the state and federal governments cut back too severely. I think that we need to help with assisted living for seniors. And I think we need to divest a little bit more of our land to developers for housing.
Dixie Hood
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I think development and redevelopment of downtown Juneau, particularly the historic district, so there would be more housing, mixed business and housing. And there wouldn’t be so many closed up buildings in such a large portion of the year. And the Willoughby District also. And higher density property zoned in Douglas.
All of those things could be developed or redeveloped to a larger extent because there’s such valuable properties and the taxes would be really high that would be a very significant contribution to revenue for the CBJ budget.
Jerry Nankervis
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
It is an easier question for people that aren’t on the assembly because there’s a tendency to think the city isn’t doing things and I had that belief as well before I got on the assembly. And it isn’t a self-serving belief now that I’m on the assembly because it’s not. I think we are.
But if you’re not aware of what someone is doing, the tendency is to believe they’re not doing anything. And we are doing things. Could we do more? Hopefully the economic development plan will demonstrate we are doing the things we should be doing.
Jason Puckett
Candidate for District 2 Assembly
I think the city right now is doing a decent job on ensuring that the basic needs are taken care of. One thing that I would’ve really liked to see, and I would like to facilitate if I became an assembly member is make it easier for business to get started and get going. When I started my small business, it was a pain to even get a sink installed. I mean, the permitting process took almost two months. And I think cutting some of that red tape would make it easier for the small business owner and more feasible from them to start up and I think that would help grow business in town.
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