Candidate profile: Brad Sapp, Juneau Assembly Areawide challenger

Juneau Areawide Assembly candidate Brad Sapp. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Brad Sapp: Juneau Assembly Areawide candidate

Age: 61

Occupation: FAA Flight Standards district manager – Juneau District

Length of residency in Juneau: 36 years (1974-1978 and 1980-1985, and again from

2000–present)

The following questions and responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: A glacial flooding solution is first on your "top reasons" for running in your official candidate profile. The Assembly is now considering who pays for it — residents in the affected area and/or the city as a whole. What do you favor?

A: "I believe it's a community problem and it should be community-shouldered, and not just on one neighborhood that happens to face the impact. We're all neighbors, friends and family, and we're a community. We should shoulder the burden collectively."

Q: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using what it calls an "innovative" process for a long-term flood solution project that will be faster and cheaper than a traditional approach, but also involves unknown risks. Do you consider that an acceptable tradeoff?

A: "I am in favor of that. I think that the benefits would outweigh the risks. Not having a crystal ball and not actually seeing what those risks may be, I would say that any action's better than no action on behalf of the residents that face this flooding every year. I'm outside the flood risk area, so that should be noted as well, bu with anything and everything we do in life there's going to be a risk element…It's going to continue to be an ongoing process. Managing risk is is is an auditing circle. — you see if your fix works, you audit it, you determine if it's meeting the requirements, you identify the hazards, you mitigate those hazards as you see them and as they become apparent."

"We got some dumb luck this year with the flood — low tide, low lake. The release was relatively slow, so I think we dodged a bullet this year. But that doesn't mean every year. So if we accept the status quo and have no action then I think that's more risky than not taking any action."

Q: Do you think the city has been responsible with its budget in recent years? Why or why not?

A: "I think they've actually missed the reasoning behind the vote last time that capped our mill rate. I think what the message the voters were trying to send was ‘Stop misusing our money.’ I don't think people have a propensity to just oppose taxes. I think that it's when they see that they're being wasted on projects like the gondola and Peterson Hill, and the (City Hall) move and the way the building was sold, and that we're missing opportunities and just misusing the taxpayers' money."

Q: The Assembly since last year’s election made a number of budget cuts and fee/tax increases, canceled the Eaglecrest gondola project, paused the redevelopment of Telephone Hill and scaled down the extent of its remodeling plans for the Burns building where City Hall is being relocated. Does that indicate they were responsive to what voters passed last year?

A: "I think that some of their responses were appropriate and some of them I think were not well thought out. Telephone Hill, I think the pause there was appropriate. I do agree that Telephone Hill needs to be developed, but I think it needs to be privately developed. I think it needs to be developed in a way that retains the flavor of downtown and the historical value of the buildings that are there that have the historical value. But I believe that the right private developer could come in and make it a sweetheart place for Juneau to enjoy. But high-density housing, I'm really not for that.…Once they became aware that the gondola was going to be a bottomless pit of revenue loss, then I think they made the right decision to cut it off."

Q: Eaglecrest leaders are working on a new strategic plan. What do you believe it should include?

A: "One thing that comes to mind as a user of Eaglecrest is if you want to increase your revenue, you have to take care of your infrastructure. One of their lifts is broken and they're not really sure how they're going to get it back into place, if they're ever going to get it back into place. That creates long lines and people getting frustrated and stuff like that."

Q: Fixing the ski area’s infrastructure would cost tens of millions of dollars. Where is it coming from?

A: "If you come to the city for the money and there's no money at the city to be used for that purpose, then the city is not going to be your source for that money. So partnerships with private investors, partnerships with donors. There are avenues to explore as far as finding funding."

Q: What are your thoughts about proposals to have Goldbelt Inc. operate Eaglecrest year-round and where would you draw the line on what the city should offer the company for that arrangement?

A: "I haven't negotiated directly with Goldbelt on this subject, but think in any negotiation there's give and take, and so the city's going to have to be willing to give as well as take and Goldbelt as well."

Q: If a private company said Eaglecrest’s lift ticket prices need to double to make the ski area financially worthwhile what would be your response?

A: "If lift tickets doubled in price and that was what it took to keep the operation open, then that would have to be borne by the people, by the users. They would still have a place to ski. It might be twice as expensive, but at least it wouldn't be shut down."

Q: What are your thoughts about making Juneau’s five cruise ship a day limit mandatory rather than voluntary?

A: "Limiting what gives us 25% of our revenue and employs 20% of our workforce in a time when we need revenue and we need jobs is counterproductive to progress." Q: Are you saying you don’t favor the five-ship limit at all?

A: "No, I don’t. I don’t think we should limit commerce."

Q: How would you respond to a critic saying more ships also means more impacts such as crowding, medical calls, cleanup costs and so on?

A: "For every growth in any commerce industry you're going to have side effects. Side effects have to be dealt with as they arrive."

Q: Is there any point government should step in — say, if there were nine cruise ships downtown and there were public safety concerns such as crime or a high number of medical incidents?

A: With respect to commerce, I’m just not seeing what Karla Hart sees. These people that are employed by the tour industry in Juneau, they're our neighbors. They pay their rent. They pay their mortgage. They pay property taxes. They shop with us. They dine with us. They're our neighbors. You're asking them to essentially cap what level of business they can conduct and you're not really giving viable reasons why not. Crime is a societal problem that happens everywhere with people. It's not just germane to Juneau, and if you have five ships or six ships in the dock the assertion that one extra ship is going to cause some sort of massive increase in crime and healthcare, and I just don't I don't see it."

Q: What are your thoughts about Juneau’s quality-of-life and the fact that the city is experiencing a long-term population decline expected to continue for another couple of decades?

A: "I don't see a lack of quality of life in Juneau. We have a beautiful city full of wonderful people and I've traveled the whole world…there is no place that matches the beauty and quality of life that we have in Juneau." Q: So why does the city have outmigration and workforce shortages?

A: "I lived in Juneau from 1974 through the mid ’80s when we had double growth. I think we can have that again. We need to promote growth and development. Housing prices are high, affordability is high, those things make it difficult to live here. We don't have the dynamics that large metropolises have in the Lower 48, where you really have hugely high crime rates, really awful traffic problems. We often just to drive downtown it takes 10 minutes. People down south drive 10 minutes and a 10-minute drive is nothing to them. Up here we make kind of a big ordeal out of it. So I believe our quality of life is great. What I think we've done is become complacent and comfortable with the size that we grew to, and then our growth just stopped at that comfort level."

Q: The region of Alaska growing fastest right now is the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Are things happening there Juneau should be trying to replicate?

A: "I don't know what they're doing in government there to make it more attractive, but they have road access and because of that they have lower cost of products. My whole career has been in transportation, and we're essentially somewhat isolated geographically because you either get on a plane or a boat to get in and out of here, and our goods come up on a barge. We're completely eliminating one form of transportation in order to get our goods and services and compete with those other forms of transportation for the business in Juneau. And I personally feel that highly impacts our affordability here in Juneau."

Q: Would you favor a road out of Juneau?

A: "Absolutely."

Q: What about the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal?

A: "It's a move in the right direction, but it falls short of what we need. We need a road that connects us to the other road systems without having to get on a vessel."

Q: What are your thoughts about third-party management of city recreation facilities to cut down on the city’s costs?

A: "I'm not opposed to that. — forming partnerships for the betterment of the community. I would not oppose that. However, my complete answer is do we really have a budget shortfall? What also came out in the (Sept. 7) Committee of the Whole meeting was that we had a $6 million increase in our sales tax revenue. So we have an additional $6 million that we weren't counting on at this point and we have further to go in this year's budget. So I think we need to clearly define what our actual shortfall is, and then I believe that no one part of city government should bear the burden of the shortfall. Every aspect of government at the city level should be looked at ways that we can collectively share the burden of the shortfall."

Q: Can you think of something that you think would be locally unpopular among most people that you would vote for because you think it's necessary?

A: "I would vote in favor of an incinerator for the landfill because I think that it would extend the life of the current landfill, which I think we need to do while we determine where we're going to put our waste in the future. And I'm sure that would have some opposition."

Q: What other issues do you feel are worth emphasizing to voters?

A: "I do think that for growth and development the city needs to make available public property for private development, and I think that would help with our affordability, cost of housing, supply and demand thing. Also, one thing that really rubbed me, whether they meant to or not, the Assembly came across in a way that was almost using a political fear tactic with recreation, which I think is what spawned the 1% proposition even though it was somewhat misguided because 1% goes into revenue, and whether it gets spent on recreation or not is questionable. It was the tactic that really bothered me because I don't think we should use our children and our families as political leverage for a tax shortfall."

Q: Any final thoughts?

A: "I don't look for everybody to agree with me. I didn't grow up thinking I would ever run for political office. I'm not going to be a career politician. I'm going to do what I can on behalf of the citizens of Juneau to try to make Juneau a better place. I've spent my whole professional life, 46 years of professional life now, in service to others in air transportation, in military service, in my government service — but even in my private experience of flying aircraft, through hospitals and taking care of people, oftentimes in their biggest need. It's a theme in my life and running for office on behalf of the citizens of this city is an honor, and if they decide to put me there I'll do the best job I can, as I've done in the past 46 years of my life, to help them come to love Juneau the way I love Juneau, and hopefully we can make it a better place."