Candidate profile: Joyce Niven, Juneau Assembly District 2 challenger

Juneau Assembly District 2 challenger Joyce Niven. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Joyce Niven: Juneau Assembly District 2 candidate

Age: Not specified

Occupation: Consultant, retired housing developer

Length of residency in Juneau: 35 years

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

Q: Assembly members were asked at a recent meeting to provide the city manager with their opinions for how to pay the city’s share of a long-term flood solution. What suggestions would you have offered?

A: "I do agree with her that when you're going to a grantor or the federal government, it's helpful if you can say, ‘I already have the match.’ When you tell them, ‘I can get the match’ then they kind of pause a little bit. It is preferable to go and say, ‘I have the match. My people are behind me. We have the match. We're ready to go.’"

Q: A key issue raised is if the money should come from residents in the affected area and/or citywide. What do you favor?

A: "(The city manager) didn't do the pros and cons of each one, and come up with ‘This is the best option as far as the city manager's office is concerned.’ I feel like that it was kind of laid out for the Assembly to research and figure out what's the best solution, and I think if it's more streamlined before it gets to the Assembly it's easier for the Assembly to make a decision."

"I feel like the people who have been impacted by the flood, many of them have already put out a lot of their own money to fortify their homes. Some of them have raised them. Some of them have built moats. Some of them have put up their own HECSO barriers, brought in rock. They've put in a lot of money already. So is it fair to ask them to put in more money? I don't know that that's unfair, but at the same time it is a communitywide problem. If they didn't put up some of those barriers where would the water have gone? It would have affected somebody else, so I feel like it's more of a community issue than just those people that live there on View Drive."

Q: What about addressing the costs of year-to-year flood mitigation at a time when the city has a budget deficit?

A: "I know they already have set aside some money — I don't know how much they have set aside, so I'm not sure how much the shortfall is related directly to the flood. The sales tax (ballot measures) will certainly help if they all pass. If they don't all pass, it's a whole different conversation. If one of them passes, not the other, then there's a lot of unknowns."

Q: A common perception of last year’s election was voters approved tax cuts because they wanted the city to get its spending under control. You favor propositions on this year’s ballot that will raise and maintain taxes. How come?

A: "I don't believe the right answer is to punish the Assembly by taking away the money, because then the community actually bears the impact of that by reduced services, as we saw. I do support the 3% (sales tax renewal) because that's key core services that it pays for and I'm not sure where we would come up with the funds to cover the fire (department), roads maintenance, snow removal and all that if that doesn't pass. The seasonal 1% (sales tax) I like that one because it's seasonal and a big chunk of that will be paid for by the tourists, and so it's kind of like increasing the passenger fee, but we have the flexibility of doing whatever we want with it. We don't have to negotiate with the cruise lines on how we use our 1% seasonal tax. It's supposed to go towards recreation, which I would hope would then mean some of the other revenue we have that's going to recreation could be redirected to something else. The mill rate, I just don't like having a cap on the mill rate. I like the city having flexibility — I mean, what happens if the 3% and the 1% don't pass, and we have to pay for the maintenance of the flood barriers? Where are we going to get that money if we can't increase the mill rate?"

Q: What are your thoughts about the sentiment that voters approved last year’s tax cuts because they felt the Assembly was making poor spending decisions, such as moving to a new City Hall location and redeveloping Telephone Hill?

A: "I don't know that they've thought it all the way through and looked at the picture. — like, what's this supposed to look like in 20 years, 50 years? It seems like we're making decisions for the now and not taking into account the impact that will have down the road. We have all these plans that we've paid consultants to draw up, and some of them have some really great ideas in it. But it seems like we're not really paying attention to those and we're just looking at every little opportunity like Telephone Hill. It comes up and I don't recall hearing us talk about how that would fit into the plan."

Q: What do you think should be done with Telephone Hill?

A: "It's a complicated opportunity, I think, and I do like the idea of increasing housing there. I don't know that the current plan the Assembly was pursuing for the number of units is the correct one. I think we should look at all of the options. I think developers should get a chance to say ‘This is what we think would be the best option for that property.’ I also would like to find a way to keep the Webster House. It does have some historical significance. The city, with the current budget situation, they can't really roll that into anything, I don't think, but there might be a nonprofit that could take it over. We could find a grant to take care of it. But it has some interesting historical significance."

Q: What do you think the city should do with Eaglecrest Ski Area?

A: Eaglecrest is a complicated situation…I’ve talked to people in the community about Eaglecrest and I've kind of come around 180. Maybe a year or so ago. I was all for ‘We just need to sell Eaglecrest. We're not doing it right and a private person would be able to do it much better. But the more I've talked to people and actually given it a lot more thought, I think we should give them another shot to make it work. It sounds like they have a plan. The strategic plan is a good idea…What I would want to see is what their projection on how quickly they can turn things around, how much money they're going to need. They have a bunch of deferred maintenance up there. How are they going to get it back? How they're going to supplement the winter with summer activities? And one of the biggest things to me with Eaglecrest is you're trying to run an enterprise operation by a government organization and that's really hard. I've worked for a nonprofit who's run enterprise operations through the nonprofit. But it's hard because you have people who know how to run a nonprofit, and they know how to do that and the rules and what you need to do to be in compliance. When you're a private organization you don't have all those rules."

Q: What are your thoughts about making the daily limit of five cruise ships mandatory rather than voluntary?

A: "Both sides had had really made really good points. I think if I had been on the Assembly I would have also voted to not do that yet. Not necessarily because I'd want to wait to hear what the Visitor Industry Task Force has to say, but I think their input should be definitely be considered because having five ships downtown are, I think, the max our community can deal with and we're not dealing with it in the most effective manner. There's a lot of improvements that could be made…(Also) if we go with the five ships, does then that mean Goldbelt will get two more ships (at its West Douglas dock), so now we have seven ships? Does it mean downtown has three ships and Goldbelt has two ships? I know the downtown businesses are not happy with that option. They really count on the five ships in order to be profitable."

Q: If it comes to a vote of five or seven ships, which do you select?

A: "Right now I would want to keep it at five. We're not ready for seven. Because it's an impact not just on downtown. The tourists have an impact everywhere I talk to people. In the Valley they are impacted by helicopter noise. The glacier (with) people on the buses, (residents) can't take the bus because everybody's going to the glacier. People out in North Douglas have this little two-lane road, and now we've got tourist shuttles and busses and all kinds of activity happening out there. I don't see that we have a long-term plan to address those people. So I think we need to get ready. We need the infrastructure to handle more tourists than we currently handle."

Q: How would you respond to downtown businesses concerned about losing two of five ships per day?

A: "I think either way downtown has the risk of losing ships to Goldbelt, based on the way (the limit) is currently written."

Q: How do you feel Juneau is handling its homeless situation? A: "I think this summer is a lot better than last summer. Last summer it was a terrible situation out on Teal Street. This summer I have not heard the same number of complaints or the severity of the complaints. I do know that there's a few more people downtown than there used to be. Some of them are a little loud…We've built housing for the most vulnerable population. Different kinds of housing. So some of them have moved to Forget Me Not Matter. Some of them are out at the Glory Hall. The Glory Hall is looking at building another building where they'll have different rules to try to accommodate the homeless population."

"There's also a program locally that if we can find somebody's family we send them back to their family. So we're not just encouraging them to stay here, we actually do try to get them back where their family can take care of them and they can be with their family. So I think we're trying everything we can do and a lot of it is mental health. We need to have those services available to people."

Q: Housing has been raised as a local issue for years. If this is an issue for the Assembly to solve, why haven’t they been able to so far?

A: "I think they're working towards it. They created the Affordable Housing Fund and I think that it's great. It's building housing, but it isn't necessarily building housing that's affordable for people. I think we should expand the programs available under the Affordable Housing Program, like down payment assistance. Why can't we have a down payment assistance program? There are nonprofits in this town who would apply to the Juneau Affordable Housing Fund just like a developer does, and get money, and then use that to help people afford these houses that are getting built. And it would get paid back, so it's a revolving source of funds, it's not just money out the door."

Q: What other issues are on your priority list?

A: "Definitely looking at the budget, creating efficiencies. I'd like to work with my co-Assembly members if I'm elected, and the city manager's office just to look at things to create efficiencies."

Q: The city manager says that was already done to an extensive degree during this year’s budget process.

A: "In my experience you can always find more efficiencies. The first time you go through — I won't say it's easy — but it's easier than the second pass.…(If) you get to a point where you go, ‘OK, well that wasn't enough,’ and so you have to go through it again, you can. I know there's still more efficiency. There has to be just my with my experience working with organizations."

Q: You’re running in the most competitive race on the ballot, with four people seeking the same seat? What distinguishes you from the other three?

A: "When I look at the candidates I feel like I have the most relevant experience out of all four of us. I've worked for a large, complicated organization. I've also worked for the private sector. I've worked in accounting, finance. I've managed people, programs, budgets. I've made tough decisions about all those people, programs, budgets. When you take all those personality tests, I'm always an analytical thinker and I can solve problems. I've had to do that throughout my entire career. It always seems every day there's a problem that needs to be solved and I'm good at it. And I just feel like all of those skills are what the Assembly needs right now."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.