CBJ can change and gain

Juneau Assembly members and city administrators discuss the proposed municipal budget for next year during a Finance Committee meeting at City Hall on May 13, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Bob Varness

In the aftermath of a national health crisis, housing inflation, aggressive property tax increases and several controversial decisions by the Juneau Assembly, two initiatives to reduce our sales and property taxes succeeded last fall.

Last spring our Assembly, city manager and mayor held public meetings to invite comment on what services the citizens needed to cut, or go without. As a result, citizens were fearing the loss of services, neighbors were bickering about what to go without, and today there are new propositions to raise property mill cap rates and sales tax. Why? With inflation the CBJ’s forecasted loss was softened from about $9 million to $3 million, but the community was hit hard with every dollar spent to gain those unexpected revenues. To get that extra $6 million in 5% sales tax revenue, consumers had to spend a lot more, and that’s probably the new normal.

Why raise taxes again when we already have the revenue we need?

What sustainable measures have been taken to offset the loss of tax revenue? With inflation up the last thing we need is more taxes. As a citizen, I would expect our city leadership to implement continual efficiency measures and cultural change (kaizen) before the loss of services or increased taxes.

We can have our existing services and we can have budget reductions — we just need to get better at what we do. It won’t be as quick and easy as slashing services and/or facilities, but it’s possible. By reducing waste within our city government through its existing operating procedures, we can close the budget gap by gaining margin from CBJ waste reductions.

 Think of it as “waste management.” The opportunity and gain to be realized within CBJ departments that are not using a formal process improvement program such as LEAN or Six Sigma is huge. Most organizations that adopt these programs can achieve 20%-30% reductions in waste within the first two years. Some claim $4.50 in waste reduction value for every $1 invested.

Our city manager’s office and CBJ human resources are the perfect designees to implement LEAN and/or Six Sigma process improvement programs. Process improvement is actually in our CBJ HR mission statement — where is the data? Our Assembly should be asking that question and demanding results.

Every department within our city government and their partners should be continually improving processes — value stream mapping, tracking, measuring, adjusting, dollarizing and communicating progress quarterly, based on data. This action with transparent information will increase public trust. Once LEAN or Six Sigma PI has been successfully implemented, I will be less likely to question the need for a tax increase, how about you? 

Process improvement programs are only as good as the leaders that drive them. Incentive compensation for management tied to SMART goals are the other two legs to this stool. 

• Bob Varness is a retired telecom executive. He’s experienced acquisitions, mergers, and consolidations throughout his 39-year career. He participated in the successful implementations of LEAN and Six Sigma process improvement programs with Alaska Communications.